Dr. Arlen Fowler has done an excellent job in writing about the little known and researched "Buffalo Soldier" who was vital in establishing and maintaining law and order in the west during the 1860s-1890s. Drawing on resources, Dr. Fowler has writtemng in an excelelnt and easy to read prose.

Dr Fowler researched extensively for this book from little known and altogether scares resources of material. However, all the resources that were available about the Buffalo Soldiers were used and cited accurately in this book. But, the MOST important plus about this book is the interesting stories about the Buffalo Soldiers daily life is told. From the dreary and wretched living conditions the soldier had to endure on a daily basis, to the evident discrimination that the African-American Buffalo Soldier had to endure, to the loyalty and bravery that the Buffalo soldier displayed from guarding a stagecoach run, laying miles of telegraph line, fighting fierce Indians, all these accounts and more are in this book.

I highly recommend this book to all who enjoy a great story and documentation about the little known Buffalo Soldier, the American West and fighting the Native Americans. A Great Read!

Although admittedly pricey, this is an excellent source of recent information on Early Formative cultures of Mesoamerica and southern Central America. Contributors are: Michael Blake, Marilyn Beaudry, John Clark, Arthur Demarest, Bill Fowler, John Hoopes, Gloria Lara Pinto, Mike Love, Skip Messenger, Mary Pye, Ed Schortman, Pat Urban, David Whitley, and Tony Wonderley.

I rated this book 5 stars because it is 'right up my alley', as someone who has an interest in US History and especially the stock market.

If you aren't knowledgable about the stock market, you probably wouldn't understand a lot of it.

But if you are interested in the History of the Stock market, 5 stars isn't enough for this historical gem.

The Fowlers of Sweet Valley, is, no doubt, the best book I have ever read---and that is a lot of books! I think it was even better than the Wakefield saga, which was good also. The book is truly a sweeping romance. Sensitive readers will surely cry reading this book. AMAZING WORK!

When I picked up this book I honestly thought that I was going to end up reading about snobs just like Lila-but I was wrong. The story starts with Lili de Beautemps, who narrowly misses the guillotine during the French Revolution, and ends up poor. From there, it eventually goes to George Fowler, Lila's father, and goes into what happened between Lila's parents. A nice read, even though I am not one for sappy romance novels normally. I think I'll pick up a copy of "The Patmans of Sweet Valley" as well.

As a college student, I need some mental cotton candy every once in awhile. I found a few of my old Sweet Valley High books and I've gotten hooked on them like never before-- buying them at secondhand bookstores, etc. I have to say that I really love The Fowlers of Sweet Valley-- although-- it seems like in every single "Saga" book the generations-- in this case Beautemps vs. Oiseilluer/Fowler-- that preceed the SV characters we know and love come THIS CLOSE to falling in love and then die, move away, lose touch, etc. Every single generation-- in every book-- it starts to get just a little bit old. However, the only case where this is actually interesting and almost a little heartbreaking is when Isabelle marries Jacques' (oisiellur, who later changes name to Jack Fowler)friend when she thinks he is killed. I have studied the first world war in depth and there are cases like that where they think beyond a doubt the soldier has died and then he turns up somewhere. But with that-- and the background of Lila's parent's falling apart-- make this a wonderful read. Loved it when Celeste found out about her mother Lili!

This is a terrific book that shows you how---with discipline and care, but without magic---you can improve the internals of existing programs. We've all come to believe over the years that software inevitably becomes more complex and brittle as it evolves and is maintained, but refactoring shows that it doesn't have to be that way. We're very lucky that the first book to cover refactoring in detail is such a gem.

The organization of this book is similar to that of "Design Patterns": introductory material that explains what refactoring is, how it works, and why it's important, followed by a catalog of refactorings that you can use in your programs. Fortunately, Fowler is a very entertaining writer, and "Refactoring" is much easier to read than "Design Patterns". Furthermore, many people, especially beginners, find it easier to see how to apply refactorings than patterns, and the book contains first-rate tips for identifying code that needs to be refactored.

If you write code, buy this book. Read it. Apply it. Your employers and your fellow programmers will thank you, and you will enjoy programming more.

There are three books every Java programmer should have on his or her desk -- "The Elements of Java Style," "Design Patterns," and this book. Of the three, this is my favorite. "Elements" is excellent so far as it goes. It provides eminently sensible coding standards. There is a deeper sense of style that is addressed by the second pair of books. This has to do with the conceptual organization (or re-organization) of code. My only complaint against "Patterns" is that many of the examples are in Smalltalk, a language of more interest to academics than programmers. All of the examples in "Refactoring" are in Java.

The book falls into three parts -- introductory material, a catalog of refactorings, and guest chapters by refactoring reseachers. The first part sets the stage for the catalog. So, what is refactoring? It is "a change made to the internal structure of software to make it easier to understand and cheaper to modify without changing its observable behavior." How do you know when to refactor? When the code smells bad. There is list of bad smells. These include duplicated code and long method.

The catalog itself constitues the bulk of the book. Each refactoring is named, described with a short summary, motivated (why should/shouldn't it be done), described with step-by-step mechanics for carrying it out, and illustrated with a simple example. An example is "Extract Method." This is appropriate where a segment of code requires a comment to understand what it's doing. Extract the segment as a method and give it an appropriate name. An appropriate name makes the comment superfluous.

A fundamental underpinning of this process is having good tests. Changes are made incrementally with tests at each significant step along the way. Tests must be automatic. As the author notes, JUnit (at www.junit.org) provides a suitable testing framework.

The last part of the book is largely guest material. Some is helpful, like Kent Beck's chapter "Putting It All Together" and some not so. That there is refactoring tool for Smalltalk is not terribly interesting if the chances of your programming in Smalltalk are nil.

On the whole, this is an excellent book. Knowing the techniques involved in refactoring can vastly improve the quality of existing code. Indeed, good programmers instinctively employ some refactorings as they code. Access to a fuller catalog than those instinctive refactorings is a boon.

It's rare that I find a technical book as immediately useful and fun to read as _Refactoring_. The cleverest thing about refactoring as a technique is that it provides a well-articulated, structured framework for doing something that every experienced developer does already (more or less unconsciously) -- constantly restructuring their code to make it easier to understand and maintain. This alone makes refactoring a useful contribution to software engineering.

However, Fowler doesn't stop there. He presents rationales for refactoring (with an eye towards making a case to management) and much detailed, practical insight that comes from experience, but is rarely expressed so concisely and elegantly. I also appreciated the importance Fowler placed on unit testing; in fact, using unit testing makes refactoring happen much more quickly, and leaves you with a lot more peace of mind besides.

I read the book cover to cover and enjoyed nearly every page. The book has added a lot to my value as a developer, and was a lot of fun in the bargain. I don't think a whole lot more needs to be said. Just buy it, you can thank everyone who told you to later.

For a novice like myself,interested in real estate the review I read made sence in that it gave commom sence information to the layman,about the dos and dont's .

Good info! Easy to understand.

It's a good book to get information about the Falklands Campaign, orders of battle, detailed equipment, forces involved and good pictures and plates. It is an excellent research. The only problem is that it is almost completely focused on British Forces and their point of view (event about statistics), but you must consider that both forces always shows different views of the events, so it's such a great book. I think you must have if you are interested in the last war fought between two countries for an "old fashion" cause...

This is an incredibly useful book. I liked the layout and the use of tables, that are quick and easy to review for interpretations of different subtests. The review of profile types is well planned and easy to follow, the descriptors are very down to earth, the adjectives used are "user friendly." I would recommend this to anyone interpreting MMPI profiles.

i believe this book shows us how we use our natural resources in a good way.

The Music! Words! Opera! series published by OPERA America, the national service organization for all professional opera companies in North America, is a true treasure for teachers who wish to introduce students to the wonders of opera. This complete curriculum provides easy-to-use lesson plans breaking down the complexities of the art form into fun, student-centered activities. Also included are copy-ready materials, musical excerpts from the operas being studied, list of participatory drama games, and teaching tips on creating and presenting an original student work. The Music! Words! Opera! methodology can be applied to any classroom and includes every discipline in its approach.