Having a background that touches on Alexandria - during those years - and Cairo for that matter, I could not help thinking that what is described and used as scenic material in this quite well written but essentially vapid, prosaic and ill informed book is an affront to Alexandria, Cairo and possibly even Farouk. Considering everything I could only deduce that Mr Freeman got his information about both cities by following a guide book, reading a couple of best-selling pulp novels (his sex scenes are in themselves unbelievable) Did this man ever visit Egypt???I wonder? As for the characters - at least with Durrell and Forester and Cavafy one wanted (and did in fact know) some of them and they had dimension, moved and fornicated and carried on in a world that has vanished - I agree, but it was not the shoddy little papier mache escapade that Mr Freeman exposes us to -

One Of Us is both a fascinating read and a disappointing story. The British Colonial world that is long gone has been evocatively and lovingly recreated. The author was able to bring the reader back to pre-WWII Egypt with all its sights, sounds and smells. The story is an intriguing love quadrangle, played out against the decline of England's hold on its colonies. And while there are some very funning and rich passages, the story feels slight and the characters thinly drawn. A deeper delving into the characters motivations (other than patriotism, ego and lust) would have been enough to make this a great novel. Instead it's only a good one.

Set in Alexandria and Cairo just prior to and during World War II, One of Us depicts the efforts Britain made to control Egypt, Suez, and the destiny of the region. As its protectorate was ending, plenipot Malcolm Cheyne believed that the best way to control Egypt was through young prince Farouk--to make him "one of us" by sending him to school in England, providing tutoring by a young Briton, James Peel, and even trying to provide for him a British bride. As representatives of Britain enjoyed the sensuous pleasures of Alexandria, manipulated events in Cairo and at the palace, and even attempted, eventually, to influence the by-now King Farouk by forcing his abdication, feeling quite justified all the while, Farouk showed how "one-of-us" he really was. Playing the Nazis against the British, ignoring the terms under which Egypt became "independent," attempting to seduce Ambassador Cheyne's wife, and leading a sensuous life the British ironically considered debauched, Farouk showed himself to be student who learned his lessons well. A fascinating look at a Egypt in the forties and at Farouk before he became a caricature of himself.

Principles of Modern Chemistry's strength is that it is well illustrated with very useful graphs, and provided a good overview of basic chemistry throughout most of its contents. The narrative generally followed logically and clearly, if not always in-depth enough. However, when it came to quantum mechanics, the explanations were quite lacking and the structure was rather muddled. Around chapter 15, the book really ceased to be satisfactory, and it would be more efficient to simply skim the illustrations.

I never actually used this book; I TAed for a class that used it. I ended up reading alot of it and thought that it was pretty good, but didn't cover all the math and derivations that were used in the course. Its a good book for basic general chemistry, but it does not explain the math very well. I also wouldn't reccommend it for students who have never taken chemistry at all because its probably too advanced. Take home message: its a more advanced general chem book, but fails miserably in explaining the math.

I have read the other reviews, but I think this is an excellent text for general chemistry (or introductory courses). The fundamentals are well-explained, and the core itself is easily comprehensible and detailed... a wonderful read.

When I first saw this book in hardcover, I jumped on it. After seeing the hardcover price, however, and what was "inside" I found I could leave it on the shelf.

This book is basically the aircraft history of every single B-17 ever built. Now, if that's what you're looking for - then this book is for you. If, however, you're looking for the comprehensive narrative history of the B-17 Flying Fortress that you "thought" this book was going to give you -- keep looking. That's not what this is.

Now that it's in paperback, I MIGHT consider purchasing it. As someone has said, this is like the "B-17 telephone book". It's an awesome reference work on each individual aircraft just like they maintain at the USAF Historical Research Agency in Montgomery, Alabama. For many, this book is ideal. For most of us, that's probably way too much detailed airframe information than we care for.

I was rather disappointed with the content of the book. Over 70% of it has little to do with "story" as the title promises. The majority of the book is more like a telephone book, with a 250-page (out of the total 319 pages) listing of 12,731 B-17s. Each of the entries starts with a US Army serial number assinged to the aircraft, followed by a series of dates and proper names (i.e., the aircraft's base assignments while in the U.S.). The length of the entries can be anywhere between 2 to 10 lines. The book is a valuable companion for B-17 experts or for people who has a passion for certain recorded facts about those 12,731 B-17s listed. And the 250-page listing is obviously an admirable outcome of strenuous work. But I would not recommend this book to people who want to read touching and exciting stories of or about the Flying Fortress. I have a feeling that I was misled by the book's title.

This books announces itself on its back cover as the "ultimate illustrated history of the B-17." But it certainly doesn't qualify as that, and even the title is rather deceptive. The book really is devoted to giving a very short, condensed history (about four lines, in three columns) of every single B-17 ever built. It is a work of reference, and an impressive one, rather than a story. This compilation fills 249 of the 319 pages of the book, leaving just 60 pages devoted to telling the story of the B-17. And that is too short, of course, to contain a complete, thorough treatment of the B-17's service life: Better accounts of that have been published elsewhere. This part still contains contain some quite interesting information, nevertheless. To conclude, this is a very valuable book to have if you are deeply interested in the story of the B-17, but it isn't what it pretends to be. Therefore, it rather disappointed me; but for some readers this will be exactly what they want.

This book reveals more about its insolent author than about Hitchcock. I do not take issue with the notion that Hitchcock was suffering and struggling in his final days, but I do take issue in this largely disrespectful account. There is enough of historical value here to make the book worth reading, but barely. The first hand accounts make for some interesting reading, but it seems as if the author is stretching to increase his page count. As a result, he pads with uninspired analysis of Hitchcock's previous films including sections on such commonplace information as Hitchcock's cameo appearances. The bulk of the book is the script for "The Short Night" which is underdeveloped, having been cancelled as a project before a final draft was completed. The author describes what some of the changes may have been for the next draft.

After having years ago started and abandoned Donald Spoto's dry, psychologizing biography of Alfred Hitchcock, I found this book by Hitch's last collaborator a welcome surprise. It offers a far more tangible and intimate portrayal of the actual, day-to-day functioning of Hitchcock's genius, thrown into sharp--and often comic--relief by the old man's inexorable decline. This often poignant, always clear-eyed memoir examines Hitchcock's working methods in illuminating detail: his exploratory process of developing the screenplay, his focus on the minutiae of his characters and the topography of their environment, his views on editing and image size, shock vs suspense, "horizontal cinema" vs "pure cinema," and his use of rhythm and tempo to elicit detailed performances that help audiences identify with his characters. The author's penetrating analyses of Hitchcock's films, and his insightful behind-the-scenes commentary on the included screenplay made me want to go back to view again films I've watched a dozen times. This book is a treasure for Hitchcock fans, and required reading for working or aspiring writers and directors.

I've read "The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock" with pleasure. Before saying why, I want to comment on a review posted by another reader. It's a misguided attack that cries out for a response. The objection seems to be that the Hitchcock that emerges isn't the one the reader wanted him to be. So? The book is a balanced and nuanced portrait of a great artist at the end of his life. Hitchcock was in bad shape. The pleasure of this book and the reason that people should read it is that we can see his struggle from day to day. Far from being "tabloid commentary" it's an immensely moving story. There's sadness in Hitchcock's deterioration, but there's inspiration in his refusal to quit. This book is about Hitchcock's humanity.

As one reviewer said, the book is trying to be simple. Some of the examples are so simple that they don't even test you're learning. And the more challenging examples seem to come out of nowhere. Also the organization is slightly convoluted and a little hard to follow with a full understanding. I recommend attaining another chem book to supplement this one if you must get this for a class. I personally found this book to be so confusing.

A book that tries to be simple and at the same time rigorous. In my opinion, not succeeding to well in any of these attempts.

The book was written by one of my teachers here at Georgia Tech. The book went into depth on many things, but some of their explanations were confusing to me. Their organization was very weird in the way they taught the subject. I would recommend another text to go along with it if you find this one a little confusing.

I read this book, from our school library, to a class of third-graders. We are located near Plymouth and I read this as a prelude to our class trip to Plimoth Plantation.

It was interesting and gave some good insights into life in Plymouth in 1626. However, there were a couple of glaring errors. The boy in the story spoke of a visit from Squanto. This would have been impossible since Squanto died in 1622. Also, the author refers to the Pilgrims as Puritans in two or three different places in the story. The Pilgrims who came here for religious reasons refered to themselves as "Saints." The Puritans came to Massachusetts in 1630. The author should also explain, in the story, why March 25th was considered to be "New Year's Day." On March 25th, the date in the journal changed from 1626 to 1627.

The artwork was very interesting, presented in the form of woodcuts. This was tied into the story as the boy telling the story was making these woodcuts.

It's an interesting story and very informative. I would recommend this book to anyoe who would like to see what life was like in "Olde Plimoth."