This textbook covers the environmental and engineering aspects involved in the drainage of rainwater and wastewater from areas of human development, providing a descriptive overview of the complex issues involved, basic engineering principles, and analysis for each topic. Extensive examples are used to support and demonstrate the key issues explained in the text. Urban drainage deals comprehensively not only with the design of new systems, but also the analysis and upgrading of existing infrastructure, and the environmental issues involved. Urban Drainage is an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate students, lecturers and researchers in the civil engineering fields of water engineering, environmental engineering, public health engineering, engineering hydrology, and related non-engineering disciplines. It will also be a useful reference for drainage design and drainage operation engineers in local authorities and the water utilities, and for consulting engineers.

The only drawback is that as it is so up-to-date and practice based out will become outdated soon... but then there will be the 2nd Edition!

As an Active (voting) member of the Science Fiction Writers of America I have the privilege of receiving word of new books on the market I might otherwise miss. A postcard announcing the publication of ELIXIR by Gary Braver arrived in my mailbox about a month ago. Intrigued with the idea of a drug for eternal youth (who isn't! ) I decided to order a copy. What a wonderful surprise to escape the mundane world of editorial deadlines and publishing meetings within my own life and fall into such an exciting world created by author Gary Braver. When I discovered that Gary Braver is a pseudonym for Gary Goshgarian, I was not surprised at all. I have loved Mr. Goshgarian's other books as well, especially THE STONE CIRCLE and the out-of-print ATLANTIS FIRE (which I was able to get hold of through a rare-book search). I wish the publisher would allow Mr. Goshgarian to use his real name from now on so I become aware of his new works a little sooner!

Elixir is one of those books you just can't put down, literally or figuratively. It's not only great fun to read, but it also contains just the right amount of thought-provoking issues to keep your gray matter cooking.
This fast-paced, well-written tale takes unexpected turns and really does keep you on the edge of your seat (or bed, as I do much of my reading late at night). It plays into one of our most intimate realities -- the fact that we won't live forever, the fact that we will all die, and probably sooner than we'd like to.
I want to live for a long, long time, and I want to be healthy while I'm alive. But, what if it really is possible? What if I'm the only one? What if I'm one of a select few? Who chooses who lives? What happens to everyone else? What happens when the secret's out?
In these times of genetic engineering and medical advances, we're all facing increasingly difficult moral and practical issues. Elixir takes some of these issues and puts the reader in the driver's seat. Gary Braver is a great find -- I can't wait for his next work, and I'll snatch it up as soon as I can!
p.s. I've just started reading Rough Beast, written before Elixir by Gary Goshgarian (aka Gary Braver), and so far it's every bit as gripping as Elixir, although a bit more scary.

I loved Braver's Elixir! Hadn't been possessed by such a gripping read since I picked up my first Grisham novel. Elixir kept me up at night too late [sometimes with white knuckles] reading yet another chapter. I didn't want to finish it too soon - what would hold my interest after this? Braver gives us a new twist while one is still pondering the previous one.

I'm a huge Elmore Leonard fan, and Elixir has similar intrigue with great pacing, intricately interwoven sub-plots, and fast repositioning of the story line. The distinctive difference is that Elixir is more intelligently written. Braver did his homework before writing this one. It's strong on science, and has more depth of character development of the lead players - Christopher Bacon and his family. Braver brings us inside their heads, and we understand what motivates them.

Underlying the story are very real issues of aging, family values, greed, and genetic manipulation. One can't help but examine one's own attitudes. If eternal life and youthful appearance were options -what price would we be willing to pay? Braver makes us comprehend potential sacrifices - the effect on our relationships and the world at large. I appreciated the humanity and sensitivity expressed and the moral challenge to embrace life as it is - not as it might be!

Elixir will make a great flick - but be sure to read the book first - you'll be glad you did!

Set in 13th century Wales, this book reads like an legend of King Arthur packed with tales of chivalry, gallant heroes, ladies imprisoned in castles, characters with "the sight", kindly monks and many, many battle scenes. This is the fictional account of Llewelyn, last Welsh prince of Wales, told through the eyes of Samson, Llewelyn's chronicler and closest friend, and Samson's own personal history of mysterious parentage and his love for the enigmatic yet evasive Cristin.

The stories of Llewelyn's struggles with his own brothers, especially dark and wild David, his battles with the English (Norman) kings, Henry III then later his son Edward, & the alliance with Simon de Montfort in the English civil war were all familiar to me through the works of Sharon Kay Penman, but I enjoyed "The Brothers of Gwynedd" considerably more. Penman's style, to use an expression several other reviewers have alluded to, is too much like a Harlequin romance, gushing with characters that belong more in the 20th century than in medieval times. "The Brothers of Gwynedd" was pure enjoyment to read with great attention to detail and physical descriptions, it seemed to me to have a more authentic medieval feel to it and was as beautiful to read as a fairy tale.

This is a long book but a real page turner, one of those you'll wish could keep going forever. The way the English appropriated the lands of the Welsh, through legal trickery, divide & conquer tactics and outright aggression made me think this was practice for treatment of aboriginal peoples in the newly "discovered" worlds to come. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys medieval fiction or is interested particularly in stories about Wales and it's princes, Simon de Montfort or the Plantagenets.

This book moved me very much. It's been one of those books that I hate to finish. I am going to miss going to medieval Wales every night. I truly feel a sense of loss. I read this book slowly over three or four months, and by the time I got to around halfway, I was so intrigued I could hardly put it down. I had read SK Penman's The Reckoning and found it not nearly so fascinating. To me Penman's way of writing is not so deep, nor so profound, as well as smooth, flowing, and knowledgeable as Edith Pargeter's. She manages to transport you, through the trust she inspires with her quiet, inobtrusive knowledge of the medieval world, and by her authenticity and honesty, into a dream-history world. And, as another reviewer said, it is refreshing to read a historical novel with no harlequin-romance characteristics. It drew me in, gradually, until I was spending much too much time reading, staying up late at night, and now that I am done with it, I find I can't quit mourning for David, and for Llewelyn. I keep thinking about them, in their castles, up in the mountains, trying so hard to maintain their culture and their independence, striving to do what is right, and I feel so drawn to this sad, proud story. . I never even knew ANYTHING about this story of Wales until now, and I am 37 years old. This tale of Edward taking over Wales reminds me in a way of the Americans' treatment of the natives (Irndians) in the history of America. This author did a GREAT job of telling this story. I want to write a letter to her but have heard that she died recently? A very moving, informing, fascinating story, the kind I love to find. I will never forget it, I feel like I knew and loved these characters. Her portrayal of David is particularly moving to me, he is so very loveable, with his faults and his up and down emotions, his jealousy and love of his older brother, and his heartbreakingly true love for his wife and their children. I want to know more about these people!!! I really loved this book. I know I will read it again sometime. It's got to be one of the best books I've ever read, and I've read MANY books. I prefer this book by Edith Pargeter, as well as her Heaven Tree Trilogy, to her popular Brother Cadfael mysteries, but all of them are excellent.
I wish I could meet her. She must be a fascinating person. After reading this book, I am more determined than ever to get a chance to see Wales.

I have read, no, I have lived, this book.It is a story and book to love for life and read and reread every few years.

It is a big fat book and has to be to tell properly the long, exciting and ultimately tragic story of the Prince of Wales, Llewelyn ap Griffith and his attempt to unify Wales in the 1200's.

Since I finished it (sniff, sniff) I have been searching everywhere for other sources to see if Miss Pargeter's view of this part of Welch history coincides with others' views and my belief, so far, is that she is probably close-although there is one camp that insinuates that Llewlyn imprisoned his brothers for more sinister reasons that Miss Pargeter (and I, loyal-lover-of-his that I have become) believes.

One thing I am confounded by is that there isn't more about this part of Welch history on the web and that the Welch sites appear to be strangely silent about their LLewlyn -a bigger-than-life hero of theirs.

If you are looking for Cadfael-well this is history and not mystery so keep that in mind.

If you love beautifully-writen historical novels-the sort in which you can immerse yourself and really feel intimately involved with a differnt time, an exciting place and people you will forever feel you know through and through then please do yourself a favor and join Llewlyn at his place-and please give my love to Samson, too!!

This book, written in the height of the Crockett hysteria in the 1950's, attempts to present an objective view of the real David Crockett. Most of the book deals with Crockett the senator, not Crockett the backwoodsman or Crockett of the Alamo. In this, at least, the book is valuable, because it portrays a David Crockett far different from the Davy Crockett of Walt Disney or John Wayne.

The book is valuable in this respect, but it is poorly written. The author skips from one subject to another, making obscure references to events which are never explained and about which the reader is apparently supposed to be familiar. The argument is not well organized, and bounces around so much it is very difficult to follow, and the narrative is just as fragmentary. Inappropriate euphemisms and ill-fitting metaphors further clot this work and inhibit the flow of the narrative. Shackford, who was a professor of English and should have been a more capable writer, makes this account of Crockett's life very, very difficult to read.

This book has a few nice pictures, but gives a very limited background on the breed. It feels like a general dog book which has probably been copied to every breed so that they could increase sales. I didn't get the impression that the author really knew much about the breed. Some of her comments about types of appropriate exercise, living conditions, etc. were contradictory to what I've heard from breeders and others in the know. Basically, don't bother with this one...