I have read most of the books to spawned from the Vietnam war and all are compelling. However, There are really two major forums of conflict during this war, and they are the "air" and The "ground." Mason has captured in the air what John Ketwig (And a Hard Rain Fell) has captured on the ground. For some reason perople think that its safer in the air. Mason will dispell any notion that you may harbor about that fallacy. I have read the book at least seven times and have found something new in each reading. I'm going to order several copies so that I can put them aside for furture reading since I'v already worn out two copies. If you want to condense the entire war into two books, purchase "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason along with "and a Hard Rain Fell" By John Ketwig READ THESE BOOKS!

With no disparagement to more current personal accounts of Huey/Cobra helicopter pilot books on the market today, you need go no further than the original Chickenhawk if combat helicopter flying in Vietnam is of serious interest.

Robert Mason, although later after Vietnam service succumbed for a number of years to personal demons by choice, nevertheless portrays a shattering exciting picture of the smell, feel, madness and futility of of his Huey unit in the central highlands of Vietnam unsupported by a corrupt, incompetent US Democratic Party government back in Washington.

Having recently(May97) been in SE Asia on business and visited the "Golf Course"(Mason's old army helipad) near An khe VN, it's clear his accurate and riveting portrayal of the Air Cav are geniune and even more impressive.

I've read this book at least 5 times over the years and it is never dull without a doubt giving much satisfaction and entertainment. The author's true gift to us is to describe his hellish piloting experience and bravery in combat in a very readable way. He is a true inspiration to people of all walks of life.

As a former combat arms US Army officer(1970's Korea DMZ), my premonition is that the likes of Warrant Officer Bob Mason and his Huey compadres would be few and far between in today's politically correct, powder puff, his or her Clinton army.

Sit back and invest in yourself. Read Chickenhawk (more than once).

Back in the late 80's, Robert Mason's "Chickenhawk" appeared on bookshelves. Mason's personal story of a helicopter pilot in Vietnam was the first of it's kind and has since spawned a number of personal helicopter stories, and they all owe the market being opened by Robert Mason. I was still in high-school when the book out and I wanted very much to fly helicopters for the US Army at the time. After reading this book I was not sure what to do, I was scared at the thought of being shot down in battle, but also saw the pride in what the helicopters pilots had done in Vietnam. This was also the first book I recommended to my father to read, a two tour veteran of Vietnam himself. I have gone back and reread "Chickenhawk" at least 4 times over the years and it still holds up so well, and I still feel like someone hit me in the stomach everytime I get to the end and read those last few lines.

Until I read The Power Broker, I really had no idea who Robert Moses was. I knew very little about urban planning, New York City politics, or public works. Caro handles the subjects so thoroughly that the lack of familiarity mattered not at all. Moses was obviously a giant of a man. He accomplished great things and made colossal blunders; he was a man of great vision who was blind to the effects his policies had on the less fortunate. The contradictions are laid out in full detail in this monster of a book. It is hard to comprehend the work that Caro must have put into this book; it stands as the definitive biography of Moses and the textbook of urban policy in America.

This is quite simply the best book I have ever read. Moses is a towering subject, and Caro responds with a towering biography. The breadth of detail he brings to his subject is astonishing, while the narrative arc of Moses' rise and fall makes the book un-put-downable. Not a single word is wasted.

There is much to learn here: the political landscape of New York over a large part of the last century is brought vividly to life; the role of behind-the-scenes patronage in shaping, literally, the city we see today is illuminated in absorbing detail; the extent to which democracy fails, completely, to provide accountability should and does shock.

But beyond this, it is Moses himself who holds us in thrall. The confounding contradictions of the man---that he could achieve so much to such contemporary acclaim, yet do such profound damage to the city; that he could become, by dint of plain hard work, one of the most effective political agents the world has ever seen, yet wield this power to increasingly repellent ends---these are the questions on which Caro delicately balances his work. Balance he does, and it is a supreme achievement.

I will never again cross the Tri-Borough Bridge without looking down to see Moses' secret lair. One cannot read "The Power Broker" and look at New York in the same way ever again.

Perhaps the best way for me to recommend this book is to say that I had bought this 1100+-page book thinking that it would be my reading project for the next 6 months, and yet I finished it in about a month. The pages fly by due to how interesting Caro's subject is, Caro's obviously thorough research and his great writing style--the combination of a journalist's ability to make one see events and a suspense writer's flare for the dramatic. I was born and bred in Manhattan and Brooklyn, so it is possible that it's not be as easy a read for a non-native New Yorker, but I suspect that it would be.

The Power Broker is Robert Caro's opus about Robert Moses, New York City and its eastern suburbs on Long Island and, to a lesser degree, about New York State. To call it a biography would not fully capture it. One should pay attention to the second half subtitle explaining that the book is also about New York. Caro diverges from his subject to spend chapters or parts thereof on other important figures to New York and Robert Moses, such as former New York governor and presidential candidate Al Smith or to the workings of New York City and State's government before Moses came to power.

Caro gives the reader an amazing sense of what life was like in New York throughout the first two-thirds of the Twentieth Century and how Robert Moses changed and shaped the life of New Yorkers. You will picture great public works such as parks, bridges, beaches and highways spring into being, you will feel the pain of people kicked out of their homes to make way for these edifices. You will peek into legislatures and governor's mansions to see how they were delayed or speeded up, you will imagine the smoke-filled rooms of Tammany Hall where taxpayer money was passed between corrupt politicians with Robert Moses' help to make these works come to life. And, of course, most of all, you will picture Moses striving to make all this happen and grasping for power.

I wish that this review could be completely positive. I believe that Caro's writing style, research and his ability to translate the research into words deserves the 5 stars I gave this book, but I must say that I found some flaws in this book.

First, Caro paints Moses as a caricature. That is not to say that Caro paints Moses as all evil or all good. He explains several times that Moses did many great things for New York and many terrible things to it. He also says that it is impossible to know whether New York would be better or worse without Moses.

However, the picture of Moses Caro gives us is one-dimensional. He gives him three motivations for all his actions: a love to build, a love of power and an arrogant intelligence. With all due respect to Caro's thorough research, I can't believe that this is true. Moses, like all of us, must have been motivated by many different things. And yet, Caro hits us over the head with the same motivations over and over again in every chapter.

My second complaint is that, it seems to me that he ascribes much too much effect to Moses' causes. In one of Caro's greatest chapters, he describes Moses' tearing the heart out of East Tremont in the Bronx, NY to build the Cross-Bronx Expressway. He explains how Moses ruined the neighborhood without thought to its residents even though he could have built the highway in a much better location with almost no dislocation.

However, Caro goes too far and says that the neighborhood would have remained stable for the foreseeable future without Moses. Caro tries to explain why he believes that East Tremont would have survived. But his explanation is weak. It is probably impossible for him to explain how East Tremont, unlike its surrounding neighborhoods in the Bronx and unlike every other urban neighborhood of all ethnicities and all political stripes would not have succumbed to "white flight" as more Latinos and Blacks moved in. Caro could have said, as he did, that Moses destroyed a neighborhood and left people homeless without trying to argue, unsuccessfully, that the neighborhood would have been fine without Robert Moses.

Everything said though, this is a great book that will give you insight into a man, a city, public works and the actions of powerful people.

The first time I read this book, I remember thinking "If only I could remember all these good ideas and what to say and what questions to ask." On rereading it, I can say "Yes, I can do these things naturally." That is why the book is so powerful. It describes what effective people in business do naturally, and encourages us to begin acting that way with minimal effort. Why then should so many people share this book with their colleagues, friends and family? The answer is simple - with today's daily pressures, people take too many short cuts and those short cuts along the bumpy road get us stalled (stuck in a run). "The 2,000 Percent Solution" talks about these "stalls" that keep us from succeeding, and makes them easier to spot and overcome. These "stalls" are usually caused by poor communications (the message is not understood), disbelief (we can't do it), tradition (we've always done it this way), bureaucracy (too many unproductive policies and procedures), misconceptions (based on poor assumptions), unattractiveness (not wanting to wade in murky waters) and procrastination (we can do it tomorrow, and maybe it will get better before then). A good related book is "The One Minute Manager" because it takes us back to the basics of being a good manager and a good human being. "The 2,000 Percent Solution" shows "The One Minute Manager" how to grow her or his business by 20 times the normal rate. Both are needed in your organization, no matter what size business you work in. I also recommend "The Balanced Scorecard" for pursuing your new directions and "Smart Choices" for personal decision making.

Like a lot of people, I was initially attracted to all the books about reengineering. Also like a lot of people, I found the results from that approach to business improvement to be disappointing. The 2,000 Percent Solution turns out to be the answer I was really looking for. In the second half of the book, you'll find a series of steps that will allow you to improve any process you have (for developing new products, reducing costs, providing customer service, or whatever you have. These steps are really helpful. I found the so-called 'theoretical best practice' to be a useful way for me to think about starting with a clean sheet of paper to come up with something better. I also liked the idea of continually repeating what is done to improve upon what has just been developed. If you are serious about improving your organization, this is a helpful book for you.

As editor of a monthly newsletter focusing on communications and the capital markets, I frequently review books. This book compares very favorably with all of the books that have been written in the last decade about how to improve business management and process and how to improve personal skills. It offers high practical value in helping managers overcome very real and serious obstacles to achieving greater success. These lessons apply not only in the business of managing the business, but also, importantly, in dealing with the various stakeholder groups that impact a business, namely employees, customers, and investors. I especially like and appreciate the maturity and common sense value of the book. Common sense that gets beyond the superficial and provides real insight that adds true value is hard to come by these days, even in books that make the best seller lists. Often, these books organize what we all know and seek to encourage us to organize and practice these ideas. This book goes much further. It documents obstacles that stand in the way of each of us, enabling us to relate ourselves to them. It shows us a new path to liberate ourselves. It gives us numerous real-life corporate examples and problems and solutions to guide us. It's not a book to read, become inspired for an hour, then put it on the shelf and let it drift from our consciousness. We become convinced of the seriousness of the issue, readily apply it to ourselves, become determined to deal with it, and find we have the ability to do so right in the book's contents. This book should encourage every reader to actually achieve a level of "best practice," incorporating best practices into our lives rather than just having another buzz phrase be part of our lexicon.

I loved Rilla of Ingleside best of all the Anne books. It is a down to earth sort of book, in which Rilla, Anne's last child learns that life is not just a whirl of parties and fun, but that there is a time to be serious and a time to be happy. Rilla goes to her first party were Kenneth Ford first really notices her. They have a wonderful time together, but then comes the horrible news. England has declared war on Germany! This takes Kens attention from her and thus to Rilla, ruins her first party. Then Jem enlists, then Ken, then Walter, and yet Rilla lives through it all, and after 4 years of war, Rilla has changed from a vain young girl to a woman. Follow her through times of tragedy and romance, in Rilla of Ingleside. I really enjoyed this wonderfull book!

Rilla of Ingleside, the 8th and last book of the Anne of Green Gables series, was delightful, charming, superb, enchanting, romantic, exciting, heartwarming. It made me laugh and cry at the same time. I recieved the first book from my grandmother when I was about ten, and since then I have read it a dozen times or so. I loved every minute of it, and when I read it, it felt like I was coming home. In their own ways, each book of the series was the best. Anne's House of Dreams stands out the most. I recomend each of them to everyone no matter how old or young they are. I love Anne, Gilbert, Marilla, Matthew, Diana, Anne and Gilbert's six children, Miss Cornelia, Captain Jim, and all of the other characters of the eight books that I haven't mentioned, and will never forget them.

Rilla of Ingleside is without contest the best book I've ever read. LM Montgomery's talents include being able to describe emotions so vividly that the reader *feels* it. In this case, she shows us how Rilla, a frivolous, vain girl, transforms, through many hardships, into a patient, kind, humourous young woman. Also woven in are little details about the war that you will never find in a history textbook - mostly how the people back home felt about it.
Although she isn't one of the main characters, Faith Meredith is one of my favourites. She is brave enough to go off as a nurse, and stays strong even when her finacee is captured by the Germans. I'd love to actually BE Faith.
Another of the best characters are Susan and her cousin Sophia. Susan is so optimistic and Sophia is so pessimistic that their clashes are just plain funny.
Gertrude Oliver is the most intriguing. Her dreams tell the future and she has lots of superstitions.
The most lovable of the characters is Jims. He is a really sweet little baby and his role in Kenneth Ford's farewell call is cute.
From all points of view, Rilla of Ingleside is an engaging novel, a must-read for LM Montgomery fans, historical romance freaks, and WWI nuts alike. Also for those who enjoy a good story.

At least until the group of books he wrote very late in his career, Heinlein tackled the theme of time travel very rarely, but when he did, most notably in "By His Bootstraps" and "...All You Zombies", the results were exemplary. With this book, Heinlein not only deals with time travel in a logically consistent manner, he manages to foresee CAD (computer aided drafting), the equivalent of Velcro for clothing, cryogenics applied as a method people might use to freeze themselves hoping for later medical advances to cure their ills, and the proliferation of robotics down to the household level. This last prediction hasn't come true yet, but it's at least on the horizon. In all, a remarkable set of technological predictions. But these are just side points to an excellent story of love and betrayal, told in first person from the viewpoint of one Daniel Boone Davis, inventor, engineer, and totally naive in the ways of women.

It's this last trait that leads to all the troubles Davis faces, as he falls head-over-heels for the secretary he and his partner hire to help run their new business of making and marketing his Hired Girl robot. Naturally, the 'secretary' is a sharpie out to take the company for all she can get, and she and Davis' partner eventually manage to screw Davis royally, leaving him bitter and willing to take the 'Cold Sleep' treatment for 30 years to get away from the mess. Before going to sleep, however, he decides to talk to his partner one last time. The ensuing scene, with his partner and secretary being attacked by his cat Pete while he is drugged into immobility, is one of the most amusing and endearing 'fights' in all of SF. The 'fight', however valiant, is lost, and Davis ends up taking the cold sleep, to awake in the year 2000.

His impressions and problems for the that year, and how he eventually finds a way to travel back to the year 1970 in order to straighten out the problems with his former partner and secretary, form the balance of this fine adventure. Through all of this, Heinlein, most unusually for him, paints an extremely optimistic viewpoint, both for scientific advances and for human nature. Lacking in the heavy philosophy that so often characterizes his later works, it never the less has something important to say about the human condition, best exemplified by this quote: "I had taken a partner once before -- but, damnation, no matter how many times you get your fingers burned, you have to trust people. Otherwise you are a hermit in a cave, sleeping with one eye open. There wasn't any way to be safe; just being alive was deadly dangerous...fatal. In the end."

A fun, fast read, and the characterization of Davis is excellent, a person you get to know and admire for all his block-headed stubbornness. The ending will probably bring tears to your eyes -- hopefully, yes, one of the doors of your house will be a Door into Summer, if you just keep trying doors.

This book probably missed out on a Hugo due to an accident of timing, as the 1957 World Science Fiction Convention was held in London and decided not to give out any Hugos for fiction. Perhaps it will be awarded a 'Retro' Hugo in 2007 - it deserves it.

Actually I would rate this book a 10... I found this book to be one of Heinlein's best... This story uses time travel which is a concept I find personally interesting and intriguing.. This book also had strongly developed characters which you either loved or hated.. Heinlein tells this story so well I was surprised it did not win a Hugo award unlike his story "A moon is a harsh mistress" which I found not as enjoyable as this book.. If you like science fiction then you are going to love this book.. This book is interesting as it was written in 1957 and time travel was not a concept that was thought of much. The story takes place in the 70's where you meet our main character Daniel Boon Davis, Creator of Hired girl Inc. Daniel is a great inventor but a lousy business man who unfortunately partners up with a man named Miles who you think is Daniel's friend.. Little does Daniel know that Miles is teaming up with Daniel's fiance Belle and together they ruin him financially, spiritually and mentally... They also trick him to go into deep sleep where he will be out of their hair.. Little does Miles and Betty know that Daniel is awakened in the distant future of 2001 where time travel is invented and now possible.. So Daniel goes back to the 1970's and fixes the errors that Belle and Miles have caused him... If you like cats I shouldn't forget to mention Daniel's feline companion Petronius... He was Daniel's cat, partner and co-conspirator that had a helping hand with Daniel vindicating the life that his so called friends ruined..

This brilliantly realized tale is Heinlein's third-best novel (after THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and STARSHIP TROOPERS, and ahead of DOUBLE STAR). And it's one of VERY few early Heinlein novels that stands the test of time.

It's not hard to see why. The plot itself is ingenious (I won't spoil it; read the other reviews if you want more information) and the characters are well-drawn (including and especially the cat, Petronius the Arbiter). And Heinlein isn't riding any of his hobby-horses; he's simply telling a story - which, Lord knows, he could do when he tried, even if he didn't try often enough.

Skip his later novels unless you want to watch a bunch of red-headed geniuses having sex with all their relatives. As of FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD and STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, something very odd and disturbing began to creep into Heinlein's work - something that eventually took over his novels at the expense of what had once been good storytelling.

But in DOOR, you'll meet Heinlein at his finest. Or close to it, anyway; read the four books I've listed and you'll have read the best he has to offer.

"The Ultimate Competitive Advantage" provides business leaders with real-life examples and the rudder necessary to shift the course in a stormy, ever changing environment and find the most direct way to new opportunities. This is a useful toolset necessary to develop a winning business model in a globally competitive environment. The authors of this foremost book understand business models and how to make them a source of adequate competitive advantage. The primary idea of Don Mitchell and Carol Coles is simple and rather practical at the same time: improve the effectiveness of everything you do. The authors show how strategic innovation can emphasize your business from the stack and deliver stronger.

The book is well organized and the writing is clear and concise, all making for an informative and enjoyable read. It is an excellent book for a strategic planning point of view. It is an absolute necessity for the 21st century business owners and CEOs. The book is teaching you about Business Model Innovation and the ideas might become useful as your business direction changes. The book offers help to anyone looking to improve theirs chances for success. And it is quite readable. I highly recommend it for senior and mid-level managers, entrepreneurs, consultants, and business students.

Alexander Petrochenkov

Gadzooks man! When I first started this book and read the business models of the featured companies, I thought "What?! These people are literally gambling at the way they do business!" But the more I read, the more convincing it was to understand that to have the competitive edge in today's business world, you've got to think outside of the box.

Using real world business models, author's Mitchell & Coles explain how you can cause your company to have the competitive advantage by simply changing your company's business model. No matter what the size of your company, this book is a definite tool in creating your business model. Most companies restructure and reorganize, hoping to attain business effectiveness & success. Yet the "Ultimate Competitors Advantage" will help you discover ways to reinvent your business model that will not only meet the needs of your customers, but bring strong profitability back into the company and spread from the employees to the shareholders. All around success!

So put an end to the business model that says "We've always done it this way." Buy this book, and allow it to help mold and guide your imaginations into 21st century business model innovation!

THE ULTIMATE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE is a unique book that offers the reader, in a balanced blend of theory, example and anecdote, a comprehensive analysis of the importance of continual business model for all types of organizations. In today's rapidly changing world, the need for constant innovation in the many small things that make up an organization is key if a business is to remain fresh and creative. Whether the organization is a major global corporate force, a regional or local business, or even a not-for-profit religious, social service or community organization, the book offers the principles and ideas that can lead to greater competitive success.

Building upon the 25+ years of successful consulting experience with their own strategic consulting firm, Mitchell and Company, Donald Mitchell and Carol Coles present a tightly focused examination of the various elements of business model innovation. The book is very well organized and I found "Part Two - Provide Sustained Benefits for All Stakeholders" to be most valuable. Too many managers view the development of the business model as a one-time achievement where the finished product is bronzed, tied up neatly in a little bow, then placed on a shelf where it remains unchallenged for all eternity. In contrast, the authors emphasize the need for continual innovation - to refine and renew the business model, often in numerous small ways, as a means to uplift all of those who have a stake in the ultimate success of the organization. This occurs when a person, as a leader, grows beyond his narrow-minded functional approach to business and views his role and organization with passion, dedication, and purpose.

The story of Michael Cogliandro, Harvard's longtime barber-philosopher, offers a shining example of innovation not only just within the business model, but also within the totality of everyday life. Mr. Cogliandro's business model has moved beyond the functional to the sublime. He is seen as a communicator, a facilitator, and a philosopher; in turn he approaches what for many would be a mundane occupation - barber - with a holistic sense of mission and grace. This is a lesson repeated in countless quiet corners of the world, and yet is one that is consistently missed by those who equate competitive advantage with endeavors of global proportion.

As a reader of numerous books of business, religion, philosophy and other diverse areas, I have found THE ULTIMATE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE to be one of the most integrative and imaginative books in the area of business, looking at business model innovation as the journey, as well as the destination of an organization. To that end, it offers lessons in human behavior rarely covered in business texts. The reader will find many life lessons as well as business lessons in this book, and will find it well worth their investment of time and reflection.

My introduction to Robert Massie came when I first picked up a copy of Nicholas and Alexandra last Spring. Frankly I was expecting a serious history book-- In other words I expected it to be dry, dry, dry! What a great surprise to find I could not put it down. Having that great experience made it a no-brainer to read Peter the Great as well-- it was even better.

Massie's gift is in his ability to write history in a narrative style, identifying the nuances of each setting and character as well as the heros and antagonists, all while maintaining historical accuracy. No wonder we find that Massie's works have been converted into both film and mini-series.

His account of the succession of Peter to Regent Sophia's intrigues is heart stopping. You see directly into the private and public life of this unique Tsar who attempted to drag Russia into the modern era- The good the bad and the ugly. It is simply great stuff!

If you are interested in Russia, start out with Peter the Great and go on to Nicholas and Alexandra. These are both excellent books!

I was ridiculed by my friends when I exited a bookstore with a copy of Peter the Great in my hands. Ridicule all they want but after reading this gargantuan book I was certain this was the best book I had ever read. Massie's description of Peter's life and of Russian society in the early 1700 bring to life ghosts long since gone. Massie brings history to life, the friendships, the deceits, love affairs, diplomacy etc. Massie's Peter the Great is much more than the biography of one man, it tells the story of a country's transformation from one of the most backward states of Europe to one of it's forerunners. It also explains in great length the going ons all over Europe in the time of Peter. Peter the Great, always interesting, always fun to read, reads more like a novel than a biography. That's one reason why I always recommend it to people regardless of wether the person likes or loathes history.

I bought this book at the Anglia Bookstore on the Fontanka Canal last month while visiting St. Petersburg and quickly realized you don't find many books better, or near as good as this one. It captivates you from the moment you start. Massie gives details that make the history literally come to life. One thing I enjoyed about it was that Massie took the time, and had the talent, to describe in detail the actions and traits of many of Peter's antagonists and allies such as Charles of Sweden and Augustus of Poland, along with the Duke of Marlborough and the 'Sun King'. The dissolution and execution of the Streltsy was quite well depicted; enough to form a picture but not bog down in gory details. It amazes me how much a man such as Peter the Great is still loved by the Russians, at least the people of St. Petersburg. My Russian friends have always called their city simply 'Peter', even when it was Leningrad. A first rate book that entertains completely and shows the history of a place and time that have been somewhat shrouded for many years in the West.

"Bloody Nicholas". "Alexandra the German". These and other epithets were used to descibe Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra, the last Tsar and Tsarina of Imperial Russia. However, Massie brings to light and to life, the personal, human side of both Nicholas and Alexandra and their families.

With unusual and fascinating insight, the lives of Nicholas and Alexandra are explored in the context of their backgrounds, upbringings, experiences, and the very public role which birth had conferred upon them. The impact these influences had upon them personally and the resulting impact upon Russian and world history is laid out in a poignant, tragic tale which will leave only the most jaded reader unmoved.

Massie's writing style makes you feel as if you were actually there listening to and observing the Imperial family. His sources include the letters between Nicholas and Alexandra, letters from them to members of their families, and the memoirs of people who knew them personally and/or worked with them closely, such as tutors, close friends, ambassadors, and government officials.

The insights gleened from these sources portray not vicious, callous rulers concerned only with their selfish ends, but rather two well-meaning and personally kind people whose personalities, education and limited perspectives ill-suited them for the roles into which they were born. Add to this the impact of the then untreatable disease of hemophilia which afflicted their youngest child, their only son and heir to the Russian throne. This does not excuse them from the disastrous role they played in the fall of the Romanov dynasty, but rather helps us to understand why they acted as they did.

One cannot read this work and come away without a profound feeling of sadness. The "what if's" string on endlessly, most tragically in the contemplation of their five innocent, young children who were brutally murdered along with their parents by the Bolsheviks because of hatred for their parents, and a merciless political desire to ensure the monarchy never returned.

This work will appeal to many: to students of Russia, history, royalty, political science, public relations, and of course, those interested in a story of romance in a privileged, elite world.

The story of Nicholas and Alexandra has all the elements of a great novel: complex characters, plot twists, and an exciting conclusion. But, it's all true. Robert Massie wrote this history in 1967, but it is still relevant to today. In these days of democracy, it is enlightening to learn about the times when monarchy and autocracy were the words of the day. Robert Massie's book is excellently written. It is consistently clear, and at all times a pleasure to read. The biography has a wide scope, it covers just about everything relating to the Tsar and the Tsaritsa from the time of their marriage to the time of their death. You don't often see biographies of two people in one book. But to understand Nicholas, you must understand Alexandra. And, by the end of this book, you will have a better undserstanding of why events played out the way they did.

Massie certainly deserved the author of the month in the
winter 2000 page on the romanov website.
This book is a remarkable study of the last Tsar, his
family and the Russia they ruled. It is the definite
work in that it portrays Nicholas not only as Tsar of
all the Russias , but as the father, the husband, and
the family man.All these aspects are crucial if we are
to understand the man himself and the steps he took
to command his great empire. It is an extremely fair
work, showing the Tsar's shortcomings as a ruler, but yet
at the same time his humaness, his vulnerability from
his own position.
Massie has excelled himself with this book, and I highly
recommend it to any reader seeking an introduction to
this most fascinating period of Russian history.
There have been criticisms of this book stating that Nicholas
and his reign should have been studied in the context of say, other rulers of the time. This is a granted point, but one I feel
Massie achieves in his commentary of the world spectrum on the
whole particularly in the years 1905 through to the first World
War.To isolate the "family man" from the ruler is impossible -
they were part of each other.
So congratulations to Robert Massie, this book is a very
great achievement!

This book is really invaluable, it has lots of information, on every aspect of SQL7, it covers from the basic things to OLAP, English query and replication, also has an entire chapter on relational tables design (normalization, etc).

The book is very helpfull if you are a SQL7 developer, let's say for a beginner or intermediate user. It wil give you very detailed and technical info, but be carefull, this book isn't a reference of commands, of course it shows how to use the most common commands, but doesn't have a T-SQL reference section (why not Rob?), so you'll need to have at hand the SQL "Books Online" for this job. Also doesn't covers things to make it for advanced programmers (extended stored procedures for example), but it is plenty of tips and tricks and the explanations are very good. For a beginner is excellent, because it will show you how SQL7 works from the back, you'll learn how SQL7 structures the data an such things to make you a great SQL7 programmer.

This is absolutely the best SQL Server 7.0 development book on the market. I had done a reasonable amount of SQL Server 6.x development in the past, but then spent almost two years working on other things. When a client asked me to do a 7.0 project I went rushing out for a book to get me back up to speed. I bought this one based on the previous reviews and it was some of the best money I've ever spent on a programming book.

Robert is obviously a professional SQL Server programmer who clearly understands exactly what's important and what's not. He's also an excellent writer, which makes the book a very enjoyable read. This book is not for beginners or academics, but for working programmers. Robert wastes no time on unnecessary introductory-level material or obscure technical details that you're unlikely to ever need. He gets right to the point and stays there.

I'd usually indicate which parts of a book I thought were particularly noteworthy, but after flipping back through the chapters I have to say this book is just uniformly excellent. My only complaint, which unfortunately applies to almost every programming book I've bought over the past few years, is that the book contained numerous minor typographical errors. This was a failure on the part of the editors, however, and none of the typos interfered with the technical quality of the material.

This book is somewhat of a rarity to me. Many of the other SQL books are, as you can well imagine, very boring. Rob Vieira does a great job making this book flow from subject to subject in such a way that it's almost a page turner. If you have any interest in SQL design (or admin), I'm sure you will find yourself reading this book much longer than originally intended. It is an excellent job.

Rob Vieira obviously has real world experience with SQL Server, and it shows between the covers of SQL Server 7 Programming. I'd suggest you read the book from cover to cover, all along the way picking up little tips and suggestions, remembering what you may have forgotten, and learning a whole lot of new tips and tricks that you never knew (or at least I didn't know about).

The book's title doesn't fairly represent the content in my opinion. This book covers almost everything about SQL 7 Server, from T-SQL basics through OLAP, tuning, replication (a great chapter), etc. If there is a "bible" for SQL 7 Server, this book is it.