It is true that overall Bedau presents an argument in opposition to capital punishment. However, this argument is very well researched and documented. One may disagree with the conclusion, but it would be difficult to refute the evidence presented in the book. Furthermore, the very fact that the book is a collection of research may be the reason it appears one-sided. Having attempted objective research on the issue of capital punishment myself, it is often difficult to find solid research in support of capital punishment. More often support comes in the form of statements of belief or opinion. If you are looking for an equal collection of arguments for and against the death penalty in America, then this book is not for you. However, if you are looking for very solid research on the topic, presented in a logical, easy to understand format, then this is an excellent resource.

If you want an indepth analysis of the death penalty, this is the book for you! Jam-packed with history, statistics, trends, and lots of vital information, this book is a must-have for any serious anti-death penalty activist.

Those three words, "Compassion", "Love", and "Mercy", need to be practiced more often in our country of America. The author of this book, who I have had the honor of meeting and have also heard him speak, has compassion, love, and mercy. His courage to fight against the death penalty, an unpopular stand in our country, shows him to be a wonderful human being. He is not only a wonderful author, he also gets personally involved with ordinary citizens to help those who are trying to rid our country of an unfair and different kind of homicide called execution. This book is a great book to read, and as one other person who reviewed this book mentioned, probably only death penalty opponents will read it. I challenge those who believe in killing those who kill and sometimes killing those who are innocent of the crime of which they have been convicted, read this book even if, or especially if, you are afraid you might be converted to knowing the death penalty is wrong. If you do not have that fear, you won't have a problem reading this book. Please do! Everyone who reads this book will learn something. I've not only have purchased this book for myself, I also buy it as a gift for others. Buy it, read it, and share it! jskaggs@flash.net

This book is a one-stop book about everything you need to know about Oracle Networking. For a very long time there was not a decent book out there on Oracle networking and it is a very wide topic. The authors have done a great job giving intricate details. This book is the most marked up book of all Oracle books I have. My only complaint is about LDAP. The authors could have covered deeper in this subject.

Oreilly knows how to make a difference when they get a book out on a topic.

This book really stands out on certain day to day practical topics. For Eg: It has been specially metioned that the trace file name while configuring through Net8 is to be given as "Tracefilename" on Windows platform. Net 8 will add the extension of ".trc" while creating the file, where as on Unix it's "filename.trc". Else it would result in "filename.trc.trc" on windows. I have tested this and it really is the same way. Such simple things are also were not left out.

Net 8 is one topic on which little number of books are found. You can just count the number of books written on this topic. And Oreilly has done a good job by bringing out a book long waited for.

If one were to get a good understading about Oracle's Networking technologies One must read this book.

Sure I'm going to buy some more from Oreilly.

Oracle Net8 is very thorough in my opinion. Not only is the book set up in a concise and easy to understand manner, it also presents examples, walk-throughs and illustrations. I am by no means a seasoned DBA, however, the explanations are worded so thateven the beginner is able to understand.

I have many courses . I found this one the eaziest and unboaring to follow ,when I studied an older print. However, one cannot do with a language like Chinese without accompanied cassettes and a Chinese Girl Friend.

Grammar explanations are brief, but they get the point across better than other books I've seen with more wordy explanations. The vocabulary and dialogue examples are quite relevant for everyday traveling experiences. This book won't teach you the characters.

Chinese in three months presents pronunciation and grammar in a much simplified manner so the beginner will have a great understanding of the language. It explains the four tones in the language thoroughly. The only problem is that it doesn't teach you how to write Chinese at all. You will speak chinese well but be totally illiterate.

I tried to use this software. It has one of the most cumbersome registration processes, without which you cannot access the software contents. If you try to register through the Medtech.com website, you are redirected to another website called .... I do not know what is the purpose of making things so difficult. The intended users are professional people, who do not have lot of time to waste to go through this type of hassle. I guess the utility of this software is to help in medical management, but reviewing the demo part, it looks like waste of time and money. ... would be better spent in 11th September Help fund.

This is an amazing program, with unbeliveble
ease of use. It is very fast, comprehensive and
helped me a lot with tough complicated cases.
The disease review and disease compare features
provide you with a complete outline of the disease
and can compare two diseases side by side.
It is a must for any clinician.

Easily generates differential diagnosis based on signs and symptoms. Most of the time it bring up diseases that you don't think about on your own. Fast and easy to use.

This book is rife with mistakes. For example, incorrect vocabulary is provided in the lessons. Also there are errors in the answer section. I'd consider returning this book if were possible. I'm concerned that I'll be learning inaccurate vocabulary along the way. The worst of it is that there aren't very many of such books out there. Build the cost of a dictionary into the price of this book. You'll need it.

I spent about 1 hour per day for three months and started from scractch ven though my mother is norwegian. But even my norwegian relatives were impressed with my pronunciation. Be aware that there are several dialects (not to mention the two competing versions of Norsk: Bokmaal and Nynorsk), but the tapes provided give you a sense of two of the major ones. By the way, contrary to the other review, "uff da!" is considered by many Norwegians to be a Swedish phrase; when a tourist next to me said that phrase he received many looks of sad embarrasment.

This book makes learning Norsk fun; the exercises make you think, but not too hard. The course has an excellent overall design.

Hugo's "In Three Months" series is by far the best and fastest way to learn a language. After buying this book, I understood and spoke norwegian in a snap. I was amazed at how quick I learned to speak it. Buy this book if you want to say more than "Uff Da"...............FAST!!!!

I love disaster books, and have since I was old enough to read chapter books. Early in my relationship with Amazon, I did a subject search on different disasters, and was suprised by the meager selection. There really are very few readable first-person/journalistic book-length disaster accounts available. We are indeed fortunate to have first-rate books like "The Perfect Storm," and "Isaac's Storm" come out so close together.

It is also the reason I must be kind in this review. These books remind you that you read books like this for two reasons. One is to participate vicariously in an intense experience. The second is to further our understanding of science--both social and physical. How does a disaster develop? How do we react to it? Were the right decisions made? This book, written before the others I mentioned, does not fufill any of these purposes very well.

"Lunatic Wind" is essentially a first-person account of the passage of Hurricane Hugo through South Carolina and how it affected a man, his two teen-aged sons and their grandmother. The account is very parochial and not very insightful.

Perhaps the most memorable passages are the descriptions of the two young men, doggedly ignoring and resourcefully dodging all attempts to keep them from surfing in a hurricane off a barrier island. If anything proves the late development of judgement skills in the adolescent this is it!

One hungers for comprehensive journalistic accounts of important disaster events like Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew: "How did the storms develop?" "Were they predicted accurately?" "How did people (and institutions) survive?" "What was the long-term impact?" But they are apparently rarely attempted. Which makes books like "Lunatic Wind" valuable.

"Lunatic Wind," should be seen as a primary source, a building block, to an eagerly anticipated comprehensive treatment of Hurricane Hugo.

Hello....what book is this? Is it about hurricane Hugo? I need lots of info about hurricane Hugo! Now!

This incredible book is the novelization on actual incidents that occurred during Hurricane Hugo. You will be unable to put this book down, in fact, you may very well fall off the edge of your seat!

Synopsis: A fine book ruined by the worst language tapes I've ever heard!

I really wish that I had only bought the book. The book is well-written, & suprisingly easy to read even though there are many technical & grammatical terms used. THe authors have done a fine job writing it.

The only real criticism that I havbe of the text is that instead of spelling with the proper Gaelic names for letters & accent marks, this is entirely anglicized. In practice, I find that learning to recite the alphabet & to spell words in the new language is an important psychological adjunct to acquiring a new language. Also, I believe that learning the grammatical terms in Gaelic would also bolster the confidence of the learner. I have had to supplement this with material from another course. I would hope that a later edition of this book might correct what I regard as its only serious oversight.

However, the tapes are another matter. In my opinion, they desperately need to be re-done. First, too much is crammed into too short a time span on the tape. Adequate time is not allowed for the learner to repeat the audio lessons that are so necessary. The recommendation given is to constantly pause & rewind the tape. This will result in you patience, if not also your tapes & cassette player, wearing out rather quickly.

As an excuse for this, the learner is cautioned that speaking too slowly will create poor language habits. Yet compared to other taped Gaelic courses & radio broadcasts that I've heard, the vocal intonation of the presumably native speakers seem so exaggerated as to engender its own bad habits! The effect of this to my ears is to create a shameful caricature of spoken Scots Gaelic for which I can accept no excuse.

The instructor on the tape seems pedantic & condescending, reinforcing the most negative stereotype of the educated Briton imaginable, at least to American ears. Especially during the Pronunciation phase of the course, I found listening to this instructor nearly unbearable! This is a shame because the text had been so well-written.

Do yourself a favor: buy the book but find some native Gaelic speakers to redo the tapes for you!

To Whom it May Concern: We are using this book in our Gaelic class, here in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. We have used other books, but have found this one to be the best. It is clearly written, easy to understand, and we are making progress quickly, more quickly than we hoped. We like to make up short stories, conversations, and translate very easy stories and songs. I would like to recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn very basic Gaelic quickly.

That's me, when it comes to learning a new language. I could never really understand what was necessary, nor make the connections needed to learn new languages with any skill. This course made it very easy and I am amazed that I was able to pick up the very daunting (at first) Scottish Gaelic language. I highly recommend both the book and the tapes. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't do one without the other. This is a very good program!

The Author makes many factual errors in his attempt to portray the North Koreans as the wounded party. It's too bad. He has a talent for writing that is undeniable.

However, as the author of an historical book about a recent tragedy, he should have been careful to make certain he was telling the truth.

I do agree with him about the characterizations of some US leaders. But, there is enough of the patently false propoganda from Pyongyang in his accounts to make me wonder if I may have been mistaken in those beliefs.

Don't buy this book. Don't waste your time reading it.

It is my pleasure to emphatically claim
that Mr Cummings have done an outstanding
research job regarding what really
happened before the Korean War. This
monumental work sheds light into a covered
part of history that many people are
unaware of. Having read this book,
I'm really doubtfull about all the conservative
claims that N. Korea was the sole
culprit of the War.

No Korean history is complete without this book.

This is simply the quintessential text on Korea in the 20th century. Both Volume I and Volume II are necessary additions to ANY university library. It is THE book to read for any and all people whose personal or professional lives deal with Korea or Koreans. Reading both volumes is a task, but there is something for everyone in this work, even if you just skip around. It is supported by heavy use of primary documentation and the sources are well cited. There are simply no sources on Korean history, society and politcs that do better (and more) than this work. Highly recommended!

I never understood why 'The Sorrow of Belgium/Het verdriet van België' created such a fuzz in the Dutch language community (Flanders + The Netherlands). Possibly, the fact that it was a 'must reed' in school, makes that I'm not that overwhelmed by it.
Mind you, it certainly isn't a bad novel, but (from my point of view) it isn't the highlight of twentieth-century Dutch literature that some people say it is. It does help to understand the Flemish feelings towards 'higher authorities' (like Belgium, like the (catholic) church), and maybe (given the correct interpretation of the whole background regarding the German occupation of Belgium during WWII) it can give this novell an universal angle.

I would like to point out that Hugo Claus is a much better poet than he is a novellist. If he'll ever get the Nobel Prize (for the last ten years his name is mentionned), it should be for his poetry, which is (without any exeption) extraordinary and amazing. Obvious problem: it's easier to translate a novell than a poem...

I review this book reluctantly because I read it over 11 years ago. Frankly there is little that I remember about except two things. The first is that there is an hilarious part on pre-pubescent boys sharing their misconceptions about girls. The second thing I remember about it is my disappointment that the book lacked what I was looking for. I had fairly close relatives in The Netherlands during WWII and some of the stories I heard from them (and others) gave me a totally different picture from what I found in Claus's book. From them I got a sense of being occupied by a sinister enemy. Clandestine meetings, people being hauled off to forced labor, and a sense of fear were among the impressions that I was left with. From "The Sorrow of Belgium" I got a sense of life somewhat altered but still pretty much like normal. Perhaps that was the point. Perhaps the residents of Belgium experienced a different life than my relatives. Perhaps my relatives embellished their tales of woe. Perhaps I only heard what was interesting to me when my great aunts and uncles shared their experiences with me. All I can say is, this comfortable life style caught me by surprise and left me disappointed. I have read a number of books by European authors trying to get a sense of life in Hitler's Europe. Maybe I have already found it in "The Sorrow of Belgium" but just don't realize it. If so, I'm disappointed in Belgium.

The sorrow of Belgium is a long, rich and stunning novel, poetic and at times heart-rending. The book is obviously the masters (this is how they call Hugo Claus in the newspapers and reviews here in Belgium and Holland) most impressive and most beautiful novel and has everything in it to become (if it isn't it already) a classic, also outside Belgium. Anyone who likes 20th century literature should read this book, it has everything in it from Proust, Joyce, and Faulkner to Garcia Marquez and ... Claus. Just read the book and make your own opinion.

The book is fine .
The course design is quite good .
But the audio quality of the cassettes is really bad .
The set I got had loads of distortion and an irritating clicking sound all the way through in the background .
I would look at it again , only if they would take more care over the audio and do it on CD .

This is a pretty good intoduction to the language. It gives you a pretty good summary of all the grammar (although sometimes an explanation of how the grammar works in English might help) and a basic working vocabulary.

If you are travelling to a Spainish speaking country you will be able to make yourself understood and you will be able to understand some very basic conversation. Do not expect to be fluent - you need way more vocabulary than this book supplies ... but it does give you the building blocks from which to work on.

I also got the tapes that you can buy with the book, although found them very disappointing - the person pretty much just reads the lists of words/sentences in the book. A more imaginative/useful and better quality audio program could be produced to supplement what is a very useful book.

I knew quite a large amount of Spanish before reading this book, but now that I have done, I am almost fluent. This book explains the fundamental basics of the language right up to quite complicated grammar. I find languages easy, but even if it were more of a struggle for you, I think that this course would be incredibly useful. This book explains almost all you could want to know about the language and if you finish it and want to know more, it does have a sequel, 'Advanced Spanish Course' which is also very good although it doesn't focus so much on the essential grammar but more on Spanish culture. Even a complete beginner would find this course helpful and I am proof of that as I taught myself Dutch from the book from the same series. Solamente puedo decir compradlo compradlo para que me entendáis si nada más.