I have been a fan of Mr Howard for nearly 12 years now, which in my opinion, makes me a bit of a connoisseur, and frankly this book was a bit of a disappointment. Undoubtedly the contributing writers are well-respected and immensely able but their writing lacked the Howardian flavour I have come to love. Ghor's sudden personality shifts are hard to follow and the various ideas in the story lack sufficient depth. This book is not the way Mr Howard would have written it. Nevertheless, this should be read because the original idea belonged to the great REH.

Ghor is a nice blend of Conan and the Cthulhu Mythos together. Abandoned as a child because of a deformity, Ghor is adopted by a pack of wolves. Raised by them, he adopts the ways of the wolf, yet when he meets up with humanity joins them. Constantly struggling with his wolf upbringing and his human surroundings, Ghor becomes a mighty war hero wherever he goes.

This is an excellent adventure book that takes a Conan like hero and plots him against all sorts of evil (and good), including some Cthulhu creations as well.

Originally Ghor was an unfinished story by Conan creator Robert Howard. Upon finding this unfinished story, a magazine decided to finish it. What they did was have a different chapter every month written by a different top fantasy writer. It made the reading interesting.

While most of the chapters were great. Some were excellent. Unfortunately there were a couple chapters that I just wanted to get through to reach the next writers' chapter. Overall a really good read.

I WAS VERY SUPRISED ABOUT HOW WELL THIS STORY CAME OFF. THE VARIUOS WRITERS DID AN EXCELLENT JOB IN WRITING AN EXCITING BOOK THAT FLOWED SMOOTHLY. IT DID NOT COME OFF AS A SERIES OF SHORT STORIES. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD FANS, AND FANS OF FANTASY IN GENERAL.

I own both Shigley's books on Machine Design, Mechanical Engineering Design (which I would rate 5/5) and this handbook. I find this handbook is very extensive in the topics it covers, just about everything pertaining to Machine Design, but fails to elaborate in many of the key areas. Furthermore, many formulas are presented, but there are not enough examples on their use. My greatest complaint though, has to do with the print, it seems as if I had in my hand a book written out in the 60s. Drawing are dirty and unclear in many situations, tables seem as if they were cutout from another book and pasted here, then photocopied (the first drawing in the book, a man, seems as if it was photocopied on a lousy photocopier from an old newspaper), and the typeface in the graphs is plainly outdated. I understand late J. Shigley is no longer among us, but Mischke should modernize the quality of presentation when deciding to launch new editions. Overall, I recommend Rothbart's handbook over this one.

This text is an excellent reference for any design engineer working in the machinery field. It fills in where the Machinery's Handbook falls short. The text is basically (I am oversimplifying) an expanded version of the Shigley McGraw-Hill Machine Design Textbook. My only complaint is that the discussion on the strength of welded joints is missing.

I read the book when it was first released and actually I just "happened" upon it. I was and am still the BIGGEST Charles Haley fan and I was just looking to get any memorablia that I could. I thought the book was great because it explained why he played so hard and why he felt the way he did about things going on in the NFL. I think that he is a great player and he is just misunderstood by players, coaches and fans alike. If you read the book then you would gain more insight on him and his thinking. And being one of his biggest fans, I guess that I am a bit biased on this review. But he was very frank and candid in his portrayal of the NFL. He didn't sugarcoat anything. Also it showed how committed he was to playing the sport and committed to his personal life as well. The only thing that could have changed was some of the foul language but again I think that that was just him being Charles Haley. Anyone knowing anything about him knows that he does not hold his tongue, not even on live television. So you would have to expect that from his writing. I would love for him to read this so he will know that he has one devoted fan in me!

Haley expresses his views (openly) on everything from racism in the NFL to the physical and emotional toll the game takes on its players. He doesn't hold anything back and just tells it how it is. Not many players get to play for two great teams (like the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers) and win Super Bowls with each. He's a legendary player and that explains why he's the only man to earn five Super Bowl rings. This is a very well-written book and a great one for the true Dallas fans!

I enjoyed Charles Haley's book very much. He talks VERY openly about the NFL and the pressures put on every player. Pressure from the coaches, the media, and the players themselves. Not to mention the disregard many players show for their own health to keep playing, and the drugs they take to do so. I enjoyed Charles' style very much. Some may find it offensive, but if you expected anything different from him what were you thinking when you bought the book?

This book is good at first glance, being accessible and reasonably well indexed. The problem is that it lacks the thoroughness required of a good reference. There is only limited information on the most basic methods and means. It lacks simple things like how to design pinions which mesh with multiple gears, or gears that run under a variety of conditions in normal operations. This fault runs throughout the book, making it almost useless for the slightly obscure applications seen in anything innovative.

It's not a complete guide but relatively comprehensive. I used this book in my undergrad studies and continue to use it on a monthly basis ten years later. My first copy suffered from binding failure (as noted by another reviewer) and was replaced by my employer.

It may not be a good text for self-teaching but it is a fine reference later in your engineering career. Both the authors are well respected and the methods are classical yet readily accepted as "good engineering practice."

This book continues to be the best on covering mechanical engineering components design. It has a good mix of theoretical and practical coverage of the material for and an introductory book. The book covers both factor-of-safety and stochastic approaches to design. I used it in my undergraduate schooling and it continues to be a reference for every day practical designed problems. Recommended for people with good background in Static and Mechanics of Material.

Tooth and Nail, Charles Ester and Joseph Elliot. New York: Harcourt, 1994. 283.

The book Tooth and Nail, written by Charles Ester and Joseph Elliot, is a mystery novel which is designed to enhance the reader's SAT vocabulary, with high level words written in bold print and included in a glossary in the back of the book.

Tooth and Nail is a mystery set in fictitious Holyfield College where a benefactor who recently died (Edward Prospero) has willed the college library a collection of rare and priceless books. It follows three students, one of whom had interned for Prospero before his death, and a professor as they pursue the rarest of all the books through a literary puzzle that prospero left behind. The team also has to work against a mysterious attacker who the protagonists believe to be prospero's grandson Teddy. This mystery man is willing to go as far as to kill for the priceless book.

Reading Tooth and Nail proves to be a much more interesting way to augment one's vocabulary than memorizing endless lists of words as done in the past. The book is written in third person and gives detailed descriptions of settings and characters, but does sometimes sound bombastic. It seems as though some of the descriptions were written only to use more vocabulary words. The book achieves its goal of teaching vocabulary to the reader, but does not have an extremely interesting plot.

Overall, tooth and nail is an interesting way to learn SAT vocabulary without having to read and memorize lists of words. However, if one read the book for entertainment purposes only, they would most likely become bored by the long descriptions and would probably find the plot to be predictable.

I was required to read Tooth and Nail for my etymology class. The whole purpose of this class is to learn vocabulary for the SAT. While my verbal score did increase, it wasn't because of reading the book. The idea is a good one: using words in context is one of the best ways to learn words, in my opinion. But, as many reviews have already stated, it was extremely tedious having to flip through the back of the book just to see what the word means. I noticed that the longer I read, the less I flipped through the back.

The authors call Tooth & Nail a mystery novel, yet the "mystery" part only compromises the last 40% or so of the book. The preceding stuff is just garbage -- extremely slow exposition. There is even a chapter (the "radio chat" for those of you that have read this book) that serves ABSOLUTELY no purpose, other than to cram in words. That's fine and dandy, except one thing: the less interesting a book gets, the less likely you'll finish it. You can tell that the authors haven't visited a college campus for a while (yet, I think they put forth valiant effort trying to make it seem real.)

Indeed, I augmented my lexicon from taking etymology, but most of it was from a wordlist book. Contrary to what many people say, word-books are a good way to learn lists of words, so long as they provide exercises---this is what I recommend instead of (or at LEAST in addition to) this book.

Tooth and Nail. Charles Herrington Elster and Joseph Elliot. New York: Harcott, 1994. 283.

The book, Tooth and Nail, was written by Charles Elster and Joseph Elliot to prepare the reader for the verbal part of the SAT by expanding the reader's vocabulary. This book was about three college students trying to solve a mysery that had a big reward at the end which was coveted by an unknown adversary. After reading the book, I found it to be great for learning new words and improving reading comprehension.
In the form of a mystery novel, Tooth and Nail is actually a guide to many challenging SAT vocabulary words. Each bold word in the novel is defined in the back of the book in the glossary, some of which have synonyms. By reading a word in context and then looking up its definition in the back, the reader will learn new words faster and more efficiently than he would studying a list of endless words. More than twelve hundred upper-level words show up in the book that have popped up on numerous SATs, and will strengthen vocabulary based on the level of enthusiasm put forth to study them.
On recieving a letter from the deceased, Propero, Phil, Caitlin and Leo go on a treasure hunt to search for a priceless, truth-revealing item. Although they are excited and eager to get started, nothing could have prepared them for what they are about to encounter. While searching for each clue, Phil and Caitlin were followed by a creepy fellow who tried assaulting them. This angered the group because they knew someone was hot on their trail that knew what they were searching for and the value of it. With this new information, they realized finding the treasure wouldn't be a piece of cake.
By reading the book, I believe I have increased my vocabulary tremendously and think it has prepared me for the verbal part of the SAT very well. By taking this into consideration, I think the book has fully achieved its goal. Compared to other books that have preparation for the SAT, I believe Tooth and Nail is right up there with the rest of them. For increasing vocabulary and reading comprehension, it is one of the best books out there. I like that there are bold words that are defined in the back and how the author switches the characters' thoughts back and forth simultaneously. The author describes the setting so vividly with every minute detail, that it feels like I have actually been to the campus before. The character's body and facial expressiones and stature are so clear that I can picture them in my mind exactly how they look.
All in all, Tooth and Nail is a solid, tenacious book that provides the reader with a promising vocabulary, improved reading comprehension and an interesting mystery that is fun to read, all combined into one. After reading this book, I believe I am now prepared for the verbal part of the SAT in both aspects of vocabulary and reading comprehension.

I have been using this book for an Intermediate Accounting class that I have to take as a pre requisite for a Master's degree. Even though the book is quite complete in explaining accounting principles it is unecessarily wordy and extremely heavy.

The first five chapters (220 pages) provide a review of what accounting is, the accounting information system, the income statement and the balance sheet. Most of the what is written here is either too basic or will be later found in the remaining chapters of the book. These pages could be easily removed without sacrificing the remaining contents and the understanding of accounting.

Later chapters, however, are also wordy and take too much time explaining concepts that could readily be understood in a couple of lines. You end up getting tired of reading the same thing again and again.

In the end, we have to pay the price for so many pages. With 1300 + pages this book is the heaviest one I have ever carried around. Many people in my class have to use a wheeled backpack. I sometimes can't understand the fascination of editors in the US for such heavy books. If you go to Europe, Asia, and South America, books are usually thinner and much, much lighter.

I would recommend the book to be offered in a CD Rom (or e text) format. Carriyng my laptop around makes more sense than carrying the book.

This book for undergraduate accounting classes at the junior level was more confusing to me than the comparable book by Kieso et al. The sequence of the chapters is not entirely logical. More advanced concepts seem to be covered towards the beginning whereas some basic chapters are discussed towards the end of the book. It was especially confusing when not covering the chapter in chronological order - too bad that my class's syllabus was not outlined according to this book's chapter sequence. In a different class - when we used Intermediate Accounting by Kieso - jumping back and forth was not a big problem. This book by Spiceland also seemed to be very wordy. Studying by solving problems at the end of the book seemed to work. However, it is more important to know how your teacher designs the quizzes and exams and then study accordingly. On the CD that comes with it, there is a lot of ballast. The quizzes are the only valuable thing, I felt. There is not really a lot of use complaining about its weight - accounting books always seem to be extremely heavy and pricy. But this certainly holds true for this one as well!!! When I tried to resell the book at the university bookstore, they would not take it back because it was selling badly on a national scale. Very frustrating when you paid [$$$] just a couple of months earlier...

This book put me to sleep. It is a very bland book. This is based on the volume one edition chapters 1-14.

The Cranes present a revealing examination of the life of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose members are best known as Mormons. They document the deemphasis of Joseph Smith in the public presentations of the church. This shift in focus is not surprising when you consider that his doctrines include the outrageous statement that dark skin is a curse from God. They also illustrate many of the events of Joseph Smith's life, as well as examine a number of his unfulfilled prophecies. The truth could hardly be topped by any work of fiction. Many of the Cranes' references come straight from the Latter-Day Saints' own publications. Particularly compelling was the comparison between the humble and meek life of Christ and the violent and proud life of Joseph Smith. This book will not reveal much that is new to those who are familiar with the history of the Mormon church(es), but it is a good introduction for those who think that the LDS church is a group that is not too different than other denominations. I have also heard good things about Charles Crane's book comparing the Bible with Mormon scriptures, and Jerald and Sandra Tanner's exhaustive works on the LDS church have also been recommended.

What is absolutely amazing to me is the blatant lies that the church tells it's members. This book explains how realistically the church is crumbling. When the false prophet includes members that are dead, ie. baptism of the dead. Members that have been inactive for many years, the membership numbers are highly exagerated. The long list of members also includes people who have requested their names be removed, but the church hesitantly resists this due to accurate disclosure and fear of fallout. The book also explains why the missionaries are going to third world countries, out of desperation. Most Americans are knowledgable in this new religion that proselytizing here is almost non-existant. This book should be required to all members of mormonism along with the BoM. If they could accept this reality, they wouldn't need the other book. I applaud the Cranes for telling the truth and allowing the false church membership lies to be revealed. It's the moral thing to do.

It is a wise thing to question anything and everything that can affect the difference between life and death. Religion, above all else, should especially be subjected to intense scrutiny. I completely enjoyed this work of literature, and found it to be accurate, thorough, and straight-forward. I think it is so sad that the only bad reviews were obviously from Mormons who are hurt by truth. I became interested in Mormonism when two very young gentlemen approached me on my doorstep to convert me, and after several lengthy discussions, I found that these boys could not agree on the "official beliefs" and their views regarding heaven and hell were completely different. At that point, I went to do some intense research. I searched not only books such as this one, but the Book of Mormon, Pearls of Great Price, and Doctrines and Covenants. I was fortunate to find several different copies of each of these, published over a span of about 70 years. These works could not even agree with themselves. To those who idolize Joseph Smith, I pity their ignorance, but more than that, I pity their souls. I have only one thing to say to those--read these works with an open mind--it could save your eternal life.

Harrington and Burger waste a lot of time, and my money, in this book without an end. When detailing the crimes, they become rather coy and worried about being overly sensational. I appreciate that many books become lurid in their description of crimes, but Harrington and Burger are almost shy in their description.

The real mass of the book is an endless litany about how long it takes to get Ng to trial, and in fact, the trial hasn't even begun when this book ends. The authors endlessly quote sources, to the point that the reader just wants to cry.

I am still trying to figure-out the reason for this book. It basically tells the reader nothing, and doesn't inform in any way.

Don't waste your money.

The trial was only half over when the book ends. Yes, Ng was found guilty but the penalty phase of the trial remained. After 14 years, couldn't the authors (and publishers) waited a few more months? I found the account and analysis of the legal wrangling simplistic and shallow.

Among true life crime stories, this one gets high ratings for effort and its choice of the most sensational subject matter. The perpetrators of the hideous crimes described in these pages make Ted Bundy look like a boy scout. The two villains of the case stalk and capture their victims, force some of them into sexual slavery, torture them in a variety of ways. These miscreants have no moral limits, taunting a mother with the threat of killing her baby (which turns out to be no idle threat) while they force her to perform sexual acts on film. Men, women, and children (even whole families) disappear from various California locales and end up savaged by the brutal world of Leonard Lake and Charlie Ng. Aside from sexual perversion, robbery and theft of identity are the other motives of these crazed killers. The gruesome stuff occupies the first half of the book and includes descriptions and narratives of the various law enforcement agencies involved in the case.

A key ingredient of this book is the very size of the case, which presents giant hurdles for the police and prosecutors who must bring the case against Charlie Ng. Fortunately for law enforcement and victims, one of these murderers commits suicide when first apprehended. But the remaining killer, Charlie Ng, flees to Canada to escape the possible death penalty in the U.S. Charlie Ng is a master of gaming with the legal system, firing his lawyers, stalling, engaging in other delaying tactics at the expense of the victims and the legal system. The legal manipulations get so bad that an appeal goes beyond the Canadian high courts to the United Nations committee on Human Rights. Although the murders were committed in 1984, it's not until 1998 that Ng actually goes to trial. The sheer size of the case is staggering, and the legal system is in danger of collapse from its crushing weight and the tremendous financial burdens imposed upon the authorities.

The last section of the book is devoted to ideas and commentary on reform of the judicial system. On the whole, this is an ambitious book, but it chokes on the same bones that the legal system uncovers during its investigations. There's too much of everything to consider: too many murders, too many people, too many clues and crime scenes. Another reason for what occasionally seems a disjointed approach may be that it was written by two authors. Though some readers might need to bypass the nauseating details of the crimes, this is worthwhile news reporting of a case that occupied the public attention for more than a decade and resulted in several network television documentaries. The book's commentary and critcism of the legal system have an appeal and relevance to crime victims and their families, as well as to officers of the courts.

This book aspires to mediocrity, and generally succeeds. It isn't actually bad (or I would have given it one star) but it isn't really any good either. The amazing thing is that in 300 pages, Gross manages to produce no significant new insights whatsoever. He relies entirely on secondary sources, but there is no "value added" in his synthesis of these works. You're better off just reading his sources for themselves! Even some trenchant criticism of the existing sources would have been welcome, but Gross simply regurgitates them uncritically. Gross is a retired USAF pilot, so you think he would have a lot to say about airpower, but that is regrettably not the case. I already know what a lot of other historians think about the use of airpower in history, but what does Gross think? I still don't know after reading this book.

I suppose one could recommend this book for undergraduate military history courses (if any even exist, given the sorry state of academia today), or perhaps for Air Force ROTC cadets. Anyone who already knows any military history will find little that is new in this book.

With over 15 years of experience and up to date on all of the new product lines as well as the upper level machines, I must say that this book isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Most if not all of the information contained is readily available from the manufacturer of the appliance. If you have a more serious problem with your machine then you do in fact need a technician to inspect it and give you the options to repair it CORRECTLY or to purchase a new machine. Put your dollar to use and hire a real professional, with real, in the field experience.

Being an appliance repair tech with over 15 years of REAL field experience, I can say the info in this book is at best common sense and at worst just plain wrong. Save your money to spend on a service call to have a real professional service and maintain your appliance.