As a group of 8 year olds, my classmates and I had the attention span of a swirling cloud of gnats. This book, however, managed to capture our attention as we wondered whether or not the unlikely heroic figure of a fallen fruit would survive until the next day. We hung on our teacher's every word as she told tales of muskrats and magpies in a world where the impossible became real. Now, eleven years later, I still credit my love for the realm of reading to the jumpstart that Prune gave to my imagination--and certainly to many others. To the author, and to my teacher (who read this book aloud to a group of antsy eight year olds), I give my thanks for the doors they opened with a little book simply known as Prune.

Ramon Sender fuses symbolism and realism in this account of the effect of the Spanish Civil War on a small Aragonese population. He reclaims the image of Christ crucified for the Republican side. This image had been used by Nationalists to symbolise the fate of Spain. It is here won forever for Republican historians as a metaphor for the suffering of ordinary Spanish people. Easy to read in the beautiful Spanish original but excellently translated. You now have good reason to read this book twice!

This is the fourth edition of this primer on linear models by Littell and Freund. As with the previous editions it gives a thorough treatment of the models and their application through the use of SAS procedures. In the fourth edition, Walter Stroup has been added and Phil Spector dropped as coauthor. Also this edition drops the word "System" in the title after "SAS". The main addition to this edition is the inclusion of a lot of detailed information on the application of mixed effects models through use of the MIXED procedure. There is a great deal of comparison of the differences between PROC MIXED and PROC GLM in the analysis of these models. Many interesting examples are presented and care is taken to show the user how to specify the models so as to get the appropriate analysis. They also teach you enough to aid in interpreting the output.

Littell, Milliken, Stoup and Wofinger have also written a very nice book titled "The SAS System for Mixed Models" and my only question would be to ask "which book offers more?" This fourth edition seems to now cover many of the same topics that highlight that book.

Readers should be aware of the two books and should investigate for themselves the differences and overlap before deciding to purchase either one. One clear difference is the date of publication. This book, published in 2002, is more current and has several references from 1997 and after whereas the mixed models book was published in 1996.

For the ones who don't like Statistics it's a good book to start with something apparently confusing. Actually, Statistics is dismistified in this book. In the first part of the book it's given a introduction about the basic things that SAS can do as a statistical program. The second part of the book is dedicated to the Statistics accompanied with the SAS language, once given in the first part. Good real examples give exactly the notion what SAS can do about a Statistical Analysis. It's also a very good book for the ones who aren't good in English, as myself (i'm brazillian). If you are planning to study Statistics with some computational help try to start with this book.

Gustavo Tavares If you want this review translated to Portuguese send me a request.

I have found this book to be very easy to read. It really help me to refresh some of the basic concepts and understand how to do arithmetic in bases different than the decimal. I really liked the fact that it used what I already knew about arithmetic to teach me the new concepts. I highly recommend thls book. Plenty of exercises and nice introduction to statistics.

This book is ideal for those of us who need to refresh knowledge and skills of relational databases that may have been unused for a few years, or for people who need to understand relational database concepts in a hurry.

It starts with concepts that are essential to understanding relational databases, then introduces you to SQL. If you are working with Oracle you will find that standard SQL and Oracle's SQL*Plus are quite different in that SQL*Plus has a richer set of verbs. Regardless, the intro to SQL is valuable and it provides you with the ability to write queries for real world needs. The examples will work with DB2, Oracle of any other database that will understand standard SQL, making this book product-independent and invaluable.

The sections that I especially liked covered normalization and entity-relationship models. These are basic knowledge factors that are essential to understanding relational databases, and are the heart and soul of the book.

This book's value is that it's straightforward and presents a lot of material in a short number of pages. It is not for non-technical people in my opinion because the writing is sparse and terse. However, if you have an understanding of data or want a fast refresh this book will save you time by cutting through the fluff.

An excellent collection of short stories. Ribeyro is the finest story teller in Latin America over the past 50 years. Once you have read one of his books you are hooked for life. The language is simple yet the stories are full of depth and irony.

SPADA is a journal that contains some of most current ideas on historical swordsmanship by a number of the field's leading researchers. As a student of historical swordsmanship myself, I think it is an excellent step in the right direction for the progression of this school of study.

As far as the contents of the book are concerned, my hat goes off to the editor, Stephen Hand, for distilling such a diverse, and yet interesting range of papers from the vast array of excellent treatises available.

The book also features some interesting reports on some of the most recent activities undertaken in the WMA community. This provides the reader with a very good 'big picture' perspective into what advances are being made in what fields, and an appreciation for the vast range of people who are now interested in historical swordsmanship.

With regards to it's practicality, the book caters for many different tastes - whether you are interested in the finesse of renaissance fencing, or simply a medieval re-enactor using the trusty 'sword and shield' method. SPADA provides useful insights and a greater understanding of historical methods of fighting.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining a greater appreciation of historical swordsmanship, and anyone who is curious to know what the swordmanship community out there is doing. I rate it as a 'must have' item, and I look forward to more SPADA releases in the future.

cheers

Matt Partridge
Secretary
Order of the White Stag

The economy of Spain has many particularities, as a bridge among the mediterranean region and the strong european union. In this book, Mr Tamames explain and analyze the interiorities of the economy which has change and develop reaching the top economies of the world, in a way is an example for many developing countries in the world. But is not a book for erudites in economy, the readers could approach to it as if they were reading a novel, that makes the economy understandable for everybody. Finally, i hope the publishers to realize the value of this important european economist and i hope to find more books of this outstanding spanish professor.

This book has the quality of Platero and I but without Platero.
Juan Ramon comes out naked and hurt by the inhumanity of the people around him. The English translation shares the power of the original. The book is alive. Equally appealing to the young and not so young.