This is a great book. It illustrates the fundamental theories of health and excercise in a rational straight foward way. Also all the scientific proof is written in the book for the cynics. The point system may not be a favourite for everyone but once you get the gist of the program and start analysing food labels for yourself it is really easy to add in a few more exotic foods. It is very simple to keep track of what you have eaten and how much energy you have expended without having to anlalyse everything you do during the day. One point that may be relevant to note is the ratio that foods should be consumed in. Like all books, it is biased towards the authors background. Body builders like weider and bill phillips recommend far larger meat intakes than this book. This book also focusses on having a greater complex carbohydrate intake than some newer books.

The biggest benefit this book gave me was a reasonable, sensible goal. Without some kind of measurable goal (in this case, meeting the minimum number of exercise points per week), you have nothing to measure yourself against and I always felt I wasn't doing enough! Now, when I've done my exercise for the week and I don't feel like getting up on Saturday morning, I just crawl back into bed! And it's working! Without changing my diet I've lost 10 pounds over the last month, just by using my stationary bicycle, hiking, and exercise videos.

This is the closest thing to an idiot-proof fitness plan out there; trust me, I should know. Before I started using this book, I was overweight and not very fit. In school I was the kid who hated gym class and faked doctor's notes to get out of it. Over the years I had tried and failed at lots of fitness regimens. Then a friend gave me this book, saying it had worked for her. A year later I have slimmed down and I feel a lot stronger and more energetic. This may sound like a cheesy testimonial, but it's true. What's great is that the author, Dr. Richard Brown, uses the same plan with the Olympic athletes he coaches -- it is entirely customized to your level of fitness and your goals.

Under this plan, any exercise counts -- from scrubbing floors to Tae-Bo to sailing -- because you rate the effort yourself according to an easy-to-use scale (no heart-rate monitoring). The main point is to choose something you enjoy, the reasoning being that you'll be more likely to stick with it that way. I get my points mostly from walking, stationary cycling, and a strength-training video workout, but I can just as easily figure out my effort for the occasional day of hiking or swimming in the ocean. Even if you don't keep track of your points, you can still use the general principles to pace yourself. The result for me was that I didn't burn out the way I had on other plans, because I was doing exactly the right amount of exercise, and I started noticing the benefits right away. I'd like to thank the author: L.E.A.P. is quite an achievement.

I have used this book in my Geometry classes for the past 2 years plus my student teaching. It gives a fairly thorough explaination of ideas and the resources that go with it along with the practice problems in the book give you enough problems to decide how in depth you want to get with each topic. My only complaint is that the way the book is set up, it encourages memorizing the theorems and ideas more by number than just by the idea, which is really important. Most of the topics are presented in a manner that is easy to follow when students go back to use the book as a resource. My school will continue using this book for a few more years.

I am using this book for the first time and I am loving it. No topics are left out. There is a logical flow from one chapter to the next. But, more importantly, I have not found a single mistake so far after having gone through chapters 1,2,3,4,5,&7 with a fine tooth comb.

I have been using Geometry as the primary text in both my Geometry and Honors Geometry classes for several years. The book is very well organized and has a logical flow of topics. I have been able to teach from this book without changing the topic order. Geometry is a very traditional book, giving a substantial amount of time to the art of writing a two column proof. To me that is one of the objectives of my course; to help students to think logically. If I were to cite any objection to the book it is that I have to work hard to integrate technology into the course since the book does not readily lend itself to that. All in all however, I highly recommend the book.

Imagine your divorced parents are starting to date new people. Would it bother you so much that it would affect your grades?That's exactly what happens to Amber Brown.I enjoy all of the Amber Brown books. Her life is interesting and her problems are believable. I can't wait to read more about Amber and her family.
I recommend this book to kids that like funny, true to life stories. I think this book would be enjoyed by ages 8 to 80.

I have read alot of Amber Brown books and this is my favorite so far. She a normal girl and learns to handle things-I really like to read about her!

This is a girl named Amber. Her mom and dad are divorced. The BIG problem is that Amber's mom gets a new boyfriend! The new boyfriend's name is Max. Amber is afraid that Max is going to take her dad's place.

It was Amber's moms BIRTHDAY! Amber spent all her money. She didn't even have a cent. So she gave her mom Amberion certificates, five of them. Amberion certificates are paper with Amberion on them and the person that it's written to. Amberion certificates makes Amber do things that she does not want to. Example when she does not want to clean her room. Another example, she does not want to go out to dinner.

In the end, Amber's dad gets a new girlfriend.

The fourteenth of Patrick O'Brian's brilliant twenty-volume nautical series finds Captain Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in the south seas. After we get off the deserted island where O'Brian left us shipwrecked in "The Thirteen Gun Salute", we get a new ship, fight the French, find the Suprise, and finally end up visiting the penal colony that is today Australia. O'Brian, of course, has done his homework. The brutality, violence, corruption, and degradation of Australia make for some harrowing reading. Maturin occupies himself with his nature studies, surrounded by wholly new species, including the platypus that provides us with another cliffhanger ending. Because while "Nutmeg" is a sequel to the previous volume, it is also left unfinished. O'Brian's dry wit, intelligent prose, and nautical research are as powerful as ever. On to the next one.

This fourteenth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series begins where the last one left off, with Jack, Stephen, and 157 crew members cast away on a not-quite-desert island in the South China Sea, attempting to build a schooner from the remains of the wrecked DIANE. After time out for a game of sand-lot cricket (these are Brits, after all), they find themselves holding off a concerted attack by predatory Malays. O'Brian certainly knows how to start his story off with a bang! With a little fortuitous assistance, they make their way back to Batavia, and Gov. Raffles supplies them with a recently raised Dutch ship -- which Jack renames NUTMEG. They set off to rendezvous with the SURPRISE, with adventures and single-ship action along the way, and eventually make it to the penal colony at Botany Bay. O'Brian has some pointed and highly critical observations to make on the British governance of early Australia, and he also maintains his high standards of character development, wit in describing the relationship between the captain and the doctor -- their personalities are extremely differenent in many ways -- and beautifully painted pictures of life and weather at sea. This is one of the best so far of the latter part of the series.

Let's face it, all of Patrick O'Brian's novels in this series are wonderful. The Nutmeg of Consolation is no exception. If you have gotten this far in the series, there is absolutely no reason to stop now. This one takes place primarily in the South Pacific and Australia, and therefore does not have much in the domestic life of Aubrey and Maturin. The novel opens when they are stranded on an island in the South Pacific. Adventures naturally ensue, and ultimately, they find themselves in Australia, clashing to a certain extent with the locals. All in all, a completely enjoyable novel, filled with the humor, the action, the human drama that we come to expect in the Aubrey-Maturin series. Enjoy.

"The Wine Dark Sea" is a slightly misleading title for this exciting continuation of the Aubrey/Maturin books. Much of it takes place on land, in Peru and the Andes to be exact, and those parts are wonderfully written as well as exciting. The nautical sections of this novel, while also thrilling, are really a continuation of the previous book "The Truelove" to such an extent that they could almost function as one novel! Characters are aboard whose motivations and actions will be mysteries to those who haven't read the previous installment in this series.

To those familiar with Patrick O'Brian's previous stories, "The Wine Dark Sea" will not disappoint! Just don't start here if you're not...

The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian

There are few prose stylists writing today who can compare with Patrick O'Brian for the smooth, evocative and fluid stories which come from his pen. This book, a particularly fine example of O'Brian's craft, is part of his Aubrey/Maturin series of sea-faring novels. Sailor Jack Aubrey, while a typically crusty man of the blue briny, is also a well-read and witty contrast and companion to Doctor Stephen Maturin, an erudite physician with a huge love of the sea. Together, the two have had many adventures, but in The Wine-Dark Sea, they face some of their greatest challenges ever with remarkable spirit and aplomb. The story here is great entertainment with lots of page-turning action, but the lush writing is simply seductive and so easy to become lost and quite "at sea" within. While these are often consider "men's books," I strongly suspect that many women would be attracted to the strong plots, grand characterization, and fine writing; there is never the least hint of the crude or the coarse in these highly literate, but so readable novels. I have often suggested the works of Patrick O'Brian to writing students as a model for crisp, fresh, lively prose and most highly recommend this series to anyone who loves a great read.

I once had a creative writing instructor who insisted all ofhis students read one of O'Brian's novels to learn what truly superiorwriting was all about. I chose The Wine-Dark Sea and am I glad I did. O'Brian is truly a master! The Wine-Dark Sea opens with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in pursuit of an American privateer sailing the South Sea. The British, already engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, have made the mistake of also blundering into war with a young upstart, the United States. Maturin, in the Wine-Dark Sea, desires to relieve the pressure on the British government by inciting the revolutionaries of South America, more specifically, Peru. O'Brian, a master storyteller, also has a sharp eye for detail. His descriptions of the landscape, the sea, life on board the midgit man-of-war and even the Andes are no doubt the best in all of literature. The spine-tingling barbarity and bloody battle scenes are so real, they'll make you glad you're only reading a book (although the writing is so good you may forget that at times)! I really can't praise O'Brian highly enough. He is both artist and perfect craftsman and beside him, most authors rapidly pale. If you love the sea, if you love adventure, if you just love a good book, you absolutely can't go wrong with The Wine-Dark Sea or any of O'Brian's other novels. All of them are just perfect. END

During my practice whenever I needed to consult it, it gave me information about the symptoms and diseases. The contents are so tightly packed to reduce its volume that one feels it might not be having the required details but it does. Sometime one feels short of some diagrams or illustrations but even then it is very good.

Compact & concisely informative, this is one of my best purchases. The book lives in the car for ready reference & gets so much use, the cover edges are wearing down

I feel that this book is one of my best purchases. For any busy doctor, it is going to be one of the reliable sources of information for a diagnosis and hence the effective treatment plan. I am a homoeopath but use it before consulting my repertory and materia medica.

In 1933, using the alias Richard Meeker, Forman Brown published his novel "Better Angel."

A bitterly frank coming of age story, "Better Angel" has become a classic of gay literature, and deservedly so. Like E.M. Forster's "Maurice" (which was written in 1914 but not published until 1971), this novel is a candid examination of a young man's coming to terms with his homosexuality. The kinship between the two extends to the basic optimism inherent in the works, which is both surprising and refreshing. Unlike so many early works which used allusion and insinuation when it came to the sexuality of their characters, these two novels have been rendered openly and without shame. To think that this novel was published decades prior to Gore Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" and James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room" is truly remarkable.

Beautifully written, with a prose style which equals Forster's, this novel should be read for generations to come.

BETTER ANGEL takes place in the 1930s, but its themes and its style are timeless. Richard Meeker's semi-autobiographical novel is not just one of those 'interesting' early works, that pale beside later masterpieces. This is a mature, intelligent narrative of a gay man's youthful years. It is told with confidence and a persuasive, occasionally poetic style.

Most gratifying about Meeker's novel is its completely positive view of homosexuality. The author gives equal weight to the physical and the emotional aspects of being gay. His protagonist is initially driven by his erotic impulses, but behind the impulses there is always the emotional core. After some questioning and experimentation, Meeker's hero is never in real doubt about the possibility of same-sex love. There is no trace of shame or guilt in the novel's depictions of male-to-male relations: the reader is convinced along with him, that this love,too, is valid.

There is plenty of humor in the novel, as well as some interesting non-technical musical discussion. And Meeker is careful to characterize each player with subtle and convincing traits. Neither dated, nor only academically important, BETTER ANGEL is a novel that should be read by everyone.

Excellent book.

Unlike many contemporary coming out stories, the gay protagonist here does not get drunk, take drugs, or become suicidal. He just tries to understand his feelings and tries to do the right things. This was set in the Great Depression in 1933, in a religious Mid-Western family setting (initially), with entrapping police, and almost universal hostility. The narrator is able to grow and develop with dignity, while building long-term sexual and other relationships.

Every time I want to try something somewhat obscure and don't want to dig through the Oracle on-line manuals, I have found a quick, easy-to-read piece of sample code in this book. Excellent choice for the experienced Oracle developer's reference book.

One of the best books I have bought for Oracle PL/SQL. Well worth the money. I have been a developer for 5 years now. Thank you for the insightful and examples that actually make sense AND work.

Very well drafted for a beginner/intermediate level PL/SQL developer.

Highly recommend it.

The book is easily worth the price and is an excellent reference volume. It provides standards for best practices for developers of PL/SQL applications, from naming conventions to commenting the source code. This is something that every Oracle developer and DBA should read and try to apply to their environments. The book covers many of the new features of Oracle8i and provides ample examples. The one complaint I have, and it was echoed by some of my associates, was that their was no disk or CD accompanying the book. The authors refer to the examples by file name but there is no disk or CD to get the files from. Presumedly, the examples are available from the Oracle Press Osborne web site. But a disk should have been included for those users who may not have access to the internet.

Aside from this, the book is excellent reading for DBAs and developers and is crammed with information. It includes a history of Oracle and PL/SQL that some may not be aware of, as well as the major features of each version of PL/SQL, from version 1.0 through 8.1. For me it was a brief trip down memory lane, for I cut my teeth on version 1.0 of PL/SQL. The index could be improved a little for better cross referencing, but the coverage of Oracle topics is first rate.

As a DBA and developer, I found the book invaluable and it is one of the books that I recommend to clients and associates. (Here's a tip: Tell your associates to get their own copy.) The book is written in a near conversational tone and far from the dry, antiseptic tone of Oracle's own manuals. Maybe Oracle should get the TUSC guys to write their manuals. The books is nothing less than what I have come to expect from the people at TUSC.

This is a good supplement to "AI - A Modern Approach by Russell and Norvig". The students and myself found the examples and illustration to be of great value in the understanding of the concepts. Would be great if authors could links references on the web for more information. Good book for the delivery of AI at foundation level.

Suppose you are, like me, a software engineer who never actually studied CS beyond junior level undergraduate 'data structures'... and now you have to work on something involving complicated pattern matching... this is how to do it: buy this book and Sipser's on the Theory of Computation. After digesting them (which is easy if you're as good with logical mathematics as the typical software engineer), you should be able to read current literature in either field, and will have a deep, fundamental understanding of how to best solve whatever problem you're working on. That's what worked for me, anyway. An excellent book, as is Sipser's.

Having purchased this book as a supplement to Winston's course at MIT, I can very highly recommend it as a very comprehensive, up-to-date, well written text summarizing the field. The book covers essentially all of the topics pertenant in modern AI with enough detail for a complete implementation without being overly technical. I strongly recommend it to anybody looking to build intelligent systems or to anybody simply perusing the field for abstract ideas.

When I got this book I thought it would be exiting, but it wasn`t.It was too BORING!I can't believe that I actually read this book.Maybe other kids would like this book, but I shure wont want to read this book again.

I read this book as part of an application project for Honors 9 Geography. This book talked about the culture and customs of theses people, the way they lived, and what the land around them looked like. I enjoyed the way that the author wrote the book from a fourteen year old girls point of view. This made it easier for me to understand where she was coming from. I thought that it was interesting how the Irish do not care for the English or how the English do not care for the Irish. The authors presentation of the subject makes me feel angry that the Irish and the English could not get along, they should at least try. I feel that this book was written at my reading level. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to read a touching and an emotional story.

This book tells about a girl who who grew up in another country from her grandparents. She hated her mother, but by the end of teh book, she connected with her mother. I would recomend this book to anyone at it's reading level! This is a great book!