Through the prism of 10 selected seasons Gilbert hits many of the touchstone moments of the game: Greenberg's grand slam in 1945, Spahn and Sain in 48 ,Thompson's shot heard round the world in 51 , Mantle and Maris's homerun chase in 1961, 1969's Amazing Mets, Fisk's dramatic homer in the 75 Series, Mcqwire and Sosa's homer duel, Barry Bonds 73 homer season, and the emotional Yankees and Diamondbacks World Series in the shadow of Sept. 11.
He ties these special seasons together tightly and seamlessly with the fabric of the surrounding daily life and the profound historical times that provided the settings for them, moving effortlessly through a half century of American History. In "Nine Innings" filmaker Ken Burns made a comprehensive if overlong case for the historical and social importance of baseball. Seasons is more confortable, coherent, and concise. An affectionate and patriotic reminiscence. There are enough new factual nuggets, anecdotes, and insights to reward the more than avid longtime fan who will be familiar much of the material. But the story of these ten seasons deserves to be retold. Especially by a good story teller.

I've been a Dodger fan my whole, but I never got to see Duke Snider play. But seeing old interviews and photos he always looked like a pretty sunny guy. In "Duke of Flatbush", sunny is pretty much how Snider comes across.

Throughout the book, which is written in a breezy, not always chronological way, Snider talks about what great friends and teammates he had. How they hated the Giants and Yankees, but always in a congenial sportsmanlike manner. How fairly treated he was by Dodger management. How the Depression was tough but made him stronger.

At first, I resented this a little. I wanted to know how tough his childhood was, whether his father pushed him too hard. I wanted to know if he and his teammates drank and caroused like Mickey and Whitey over in the Bronx. But Snider never abandons his rosy demeanor. He follows the golden rule of not saying anything unless it's something nice. He only allows himself to say that Roger Kahn in his Dodger book "The Boys of Summer" was mistaken in a lot of the things written about his teammates - but he was nice about it.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking for sensationalistic muckracking. I just wanted to know what was going on in the Duke's mind. What made him such a great hitter, how did he overcome his youthful penchant for striking out so often? What did he think of the men he played against? How was life on the road in those days? None of that is in here. By the end of the book, I felt like I'd been listening to the Duke speaking to a school group. I wanted to feel as though I were sitting on a barstool a few feet away overhearing the Duke swapping stories with other oldtimers. But all in all I thought, "Wow what a great guy even after all these years."

And then my friend sees the book and says, "Isn't that the guy who was convicted of felony tax evasion a few years ago?" Say it ain't so, Duke.

Duke Snider has filled this autobiography with wonderful stories and anecdotes and made it a thoroughly enjoyable read for baseball fans. No muckraking, no scandals, just the good stuff that we're really interested in as fans. He does state, as I've always asserted, that Roger Kahn made a lot of mistakes in "Boys of Summer" which is a totally disappointing book. Duke gives us insights into those great days of Brooklyn, the move to L.A., and his own struggles and triumphs as a ballplayer. The only thing missing was an appendix with his career statistics - that would have capped it off nicely. Thanks Duke !

Duke Snider recalls the days of his baseball career and his associations with the "Boys of Summer". His recollections of Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Reese, Campanella, etc. is a must-read! It not only talks about the ballplayers in their prime, but how they stayed close after they retired. Their friendships and how they cope with life's ups and downs shows us how they are human as well

I really enjoyed this book. I am an AS/400 programmer with 11 years experience and want to become more familiar with Windows programming. I started off with a Sam's Teach Yourself Visual C++ in 21 days (which I also liked) and followed up with this one. The authors presented the material in an easy to read and follow format. I only had two issues with the book. One, the authors would occasionally pull a function out of nowhere and use it with little or no explanation as to why. And two, I thought they dragged out the examples on drawing too long. I would have preferred more time spent on the database chapter rather than the drawing examples. But, overall an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

I recently decided to learn Visual C++ 6, after finding that there are some limitations to what can be done in Visual Basic. I have been trying to learn from tutorials etc. on the web but they always seem to be unfinished or not cover all of the important stuff. I am only 15 so I thought it was quite a challenge for me to try and learn this so called complex and confusing language. I had taken the foresight before reading this of learning the C++ language and think that that is a must before attempting this book, or Visual C++ at all.

After reading that book, I have a solid understanding of the Windows APIs and can use the MFCs reasonably confidently. I would still class myself as a beginner, but at least now I have a starting point and hopefully can pick-up the rest as I go along. Even after the first 10 pages, I could see that this book was well written and the information inside of it would be easy to take in and understand.

If for some reason you wish to contact me, then you may do so at r_hayden@breathemail.net.

This was by far the best.

Its relevent to Version 6.0, many of the others were talking about subjects that were related to Windows 3x etc.. eg they were the same old books with just the covers changed and really just repeating the Scribble Tutorial. The Authors really do act as guides throught the book and provide useful information for any beginner programmer such as myself. Also the book is set out in an easy to follow style that makes following the Author's instructions exceptionally easy, with a wide variety of samples to follow. The only downfall is a few typos in the printed sample codes. However with the CD on board they are easy to rectify .

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Visual C++.

(( I'm off to write 5 real bad reviews now ))

I really enjoyed this book a lot. A page turner! It is hard to believe someone could have done so much, seen so much, and accomplished so much in a lifetime. Totally amazing! Mountain man, explorer, trail blazer, and much, much more, from the early 1800's thru the 1870's. A true American icon. I would have given it five stars but, I didn't much care how others in the book such as Jed Smith, Jim Bridger, etc. were belittled by the author. We all have our heroes but cutting down others when it is not really necessary or deserving is, I believe, crude.

This my my favorite book--period. If you love history and western american, and great biography, if you love cowboys, wideopen spaces and GREAT books, then this is IT.

I came across Westering Man while browsing at the library. It's one of the best books I've ever read. Mr. Gilbert unearthed the life of Joseph R. Walker and what he writes about him rings true. If you are an enthusiast for the American West - and not for the phony glory stuff but for the history of the exploration of The West - don't miss this book. Since it was published in 1983 I've wondered if others who have read it have further information to offer-up about Joseph R. Waker and if so if Mr. Gilbert will write another book. It's been two years since I read it, I've missed it and now I'd like to buy my own copy. It's a gem.

The book is pretty well structured and written for somebody having a little exposure to design. I personally felt I lost my time reading it since I already have some experience in design in another OO language. The book is definitely too much like a school text book. In particular, the chapter on database access with Java concentrates on relational db concepts instead of providing useful design and architectural hints on how to develop a multi tiers application using JDBC !

This is a witty, well-organized, thorougly researched and informative work. Not only do the authors do an excellent job of presenting the concepts of software design using solid OO techniques, their introduction to Java (in a chapter only somewhat facetiously titled "Teach Yourself Java in 21 Minutes") is almost certainly the most concise and understandable introduction to the language that I've seen.

Every chapter is focused and the flow of material is really excellent. I found myself, as someone who has had years of OO design and development experience, nodding my head repeatedly. And the end of each chapter contains a quiz, some suggested exercises, and a section on where to go for more depth on the subjects covered. As a result, this book would be outstanding for a college-level course or an informal workshop of Java developers who want to learn serious OO design and analysis.

I've been involved with OO Design for over 10 years, and thought I knew it all. This book is more than an excellent introduction to methodology for novice programmers - it's also an excellent reference for how to apply patterns in the real world using Java. This book packs an amazing amount of clear and concise material into a surprisingly cheap package. I'm sorry to say, I paid full price for it - and it was still a bargain. Everything from UML to Beans to RMI to Web development. Great book.

The book is not bad, easy to use for beginners. Some significant errors noted. The online part is if you want more problems or exercises. But the site is always down. I haven't been able to access it for sometime and no one responds when I email any possible SAMS contacts. So discount the web part if you want this book.

Programmers new to Java will develop a foundation to build on by reading this book and doing the exercises. Not as high brow as other "beginner" Java books (Just Java 2, Beginning Java 2). My only complaints are the numerous errors in the code examples, the written code in the book sometimes does not match the code on the CD. If you're like me you will consider debugging the compile errors as educational. Another note, don't use the JavaMatic IDE on the CD, it's quite poor but it is free. Downloading the KAWA demo is not a bad alternative.

Great book for the beginners. If you want to get hands-on experience, this is the one. You'll get some help with the problems by posting them in the discussions online, and other students will reply if they want, or you can look at the past discussions and responses that are helpful to you. One thing that needs authors' attention is that they should compile and create a Frequenly Asked Questions file and put its icon in in a corner of discussion panel, so the students don't have ask the similar questions over and over again.

Joe Eszterhas certainly suffers from what the hippy/baby boomer generation are accused of suffering from: self-absorption. Good God, does he love his own opinions! He reminds me of Geraldo Rivera here: they both talk about all the women they used to sleep with, pretending to be ashamed and repentant, when the subtext the whole time screams, "Ain't I a stud!" They are pretending to be "confessing," when all they're doing is bragging. He takes Clinton to task, but he also accuses Americans of being too puritannical. (The French think we are too puritannical about Clinton. But then the French said, "In France, Watergate would have been forgotten in three days.") And read NO ONE LEFT TO LIE TO by Christopher Hitchens. You'll see that Linda Tripp saved Monica Lewinsky by taping her and urging her to save the blue dress. The Clinton White House was just starting on a smear campaign accusing Lewinsky of fantasizing it all, and stalking Clinton...when that blue dress appeared, that made the campaign stop before it started. It's absolute sacrilege to say so, But Linda Tripp saved Lewinsky's butt. Not the opinion in this book. Eszterhas reminds me of Norman Mailer. He's a dirty old man who pretends to be preoccupied with sex for intellectual reasons...when in fact he's just a lech. Read Harry Stein's HOW I ACCIDENTALLY JOINED THE RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY AND FOUND INNER PEACE before you read this one. It gives the best take on Clinton I've read yet.

For all the hype surrounding the celebrity revelations in "American Rhapsody", its biggest shock is the excellence of its writing. This book will not languish on a shelf; the pages turn themselves as the narrative gains its thrilling, roller-coaster momentum. Form follows function: Joe Eszterhas has produced a deleriously self-indulgent read about the most self-indulgent public figures of our time.

Eszterhas's language is more than bawdy, but thanks to characters like Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and even Sharon Stone, so are the events it narrates. The minutiae of the Lewinsky scandal is made surprisingly fresh when written over with Eszterhas's super-snide commentary, as he parses the contents of the "Starr Report" to produce vivid character studies of all the players. It is soon difficult not to regard the actual historical players as mere sock-puppets, only capable of speaking freely through the mouth of Eszterhas.

Eszterhas has an extraordinary gift for appearing to voice the cynical subtext behind the most famous political utterances of the 1990s. Bill Clinton is Eszterhas's alter-ego, he believes, a fellow rock-n-roller who concealed just enough of his nature to make it to the White House. Nicknaming Linda Tripp and Lucienne Goldberg "The Ratwoman" and "The Bag Lady of Sleaze", Eszterhas plumbs the Clinton years for a whole new depth of black comedy. (Indeed, given Goldberg's wealth, I'm not even sure what "The Bag Lady of Sleaze" means, strictly speaking, but this new appelation locks in with the permanence of a well-chosen middle name.)

Reaching into Election 2000, Eszterhas's outrageous portrait of George W. Bush as a rattlesnake, Alpo-male version of his father is unforgettable. You will never see W. Bush the same, once you have seen "com-pay-ssionate conservative" printed as it is spoken, which is an act of startling subversiveness that none of the zillions of Campaign 2000 journalists dared to perform. A single, Texan-accented word becomes the keyhole through which we peer into W.'s "philosophy". As W. is fond of saying, perhaps we should "take him at his word".

Fact or fiction, in the final analysis? Who cares, when the reading is so diverting. Eszterhas taps into some deep poetic truths yielded from his close study of the American political scene. These poetic truths are larger than those yielded from any single historical text, hewn of majestic, marble fact. In a solitary volume, Eszterhas brings us all the essentials of the politics of our time.

American Rhapsody is an intimate and comprehensive survey and history of contemporary American political culture, the personalities, conflicts, compromises, and events that held the popular (as well as political) attention of the American public over the past decade. Here are Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Al Gore, John McCain, Ken Starr, Monica Lewinsky, Warren Beatty, James Carville, Sharon Stone, Larry Flynt, Vernon Jordan, Linda Tripp, Matt Drudge, and a host of others who are viewed through the lens of fact, fiction and speculation. American Rhapsody is a superbly produced, unabridged, highly recommended, multi-cast audiobook featuring the talents of Ed Asner, David Dukes, Nina Foch, Melissa Gilbert, Arte Johnson, Bill Maher, Deborah Raffin, Susan Ruttan, Will Sasso, and Joe Eszterhas.

I realized that readers form their personal opinion about a book based on how well it met their expectation. That is quite unfair to the book itself because it may never start out to meet everybody's needs.

OOP in Java certainly did not set out to do that. It claims to be a book for those without any prior programming experience and teaches OOP from the ground up. If we solely rate this book based on what it promises, then it not only lives up to it, but far surpasses its claims. It teaches you Java programming not by dumping a lot of facts, figures and explanation but in using generous amount of examples.

Before you see another keyword or concept, you would have already mastered the necessary ones to get you ahead. Unlike the other programming books, this goes down to your level (occasionally, it goes too low). But the BEST is that it follows the maxim that programmers are first human and second programmers. Thus teaching you programming not in a vacuum, but relating the whole learning experience to a simulated business company wishing to set up a store. Therefore, you'll not only understand how a concept is, but WHY it is being used in this manner.

The only short-coming of this book is that it contains many "real-world" situation that you need to read through before being introduced to the programming, something which I find a little irritating.

But if you are new to programming and want to get stated with Java. THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU.

Funny, intuitive and certainly clear! I went from being confused about Java to having a clear as day understanding of the language. Simply put this book teaches java using the english language, using methaphors we all know and understand, all while keeping a lighter side to things. I've bought about 3 or 4 books on java before thinking they were good and I could use them, but as I delved into the "teaching" I later found that the more complicated the chapter got the more confused I got. I have also finally found a book which does not isolate me from the java classes by building their own intermediary classes which handle the final code. Here, you deal with the code itself, not some bundled java classes which you are required to import in order to compile the example. Mitchell Waite did it again!

Let's set the stage: I have read "Java in 21 Days". Results: shouldn't have spent 21 minutes. And: "Java and Object-Orientation, (John Hunt); Results, It's nothing but Jargon, "another worthless Academic. It reminds me of the time that Ben Barber (The Whalt Whitman Chair at Rutgers University in New Jersey) said to me on day after class that he was too busy to talk to me because he had a call from the (Clinton) White House. Yea, right Ben You Liar. I Have read Eckels Stuff, too, it's Junk. BUT......This book is the book that will allow you to throw those bloated academics in the trash and get to understanding and writting some great Java code. I suggest that you buy any book that has the names Stephen Gilbert and Bill McCarty in the Author'e credits. Actually, I think I will form a foundation that demands that these two authors write for us--future programmers-- the next instalment of "Advanced Java" by Gilbert and McCarty

I agree with some of the reviewers below that Larry has talked much (perhaps too much) about himself in his little book. Yet, it's still good to learn from the life of a guy who is famous for his way to talk, right? Sure there are better books in this area, but Larry was still worth his salt in this little book

I liked this book. It gave helpful advice on how to start conversations and keep them going. Larry does talk alot about himself but, people learn by example. I like his examples and his experiences are interesting. I would recommend this book to anybody who is shy and wants to gain a little more confidence by talking to people.

Every mintutes we are communicate with other,i am finding some ways to improve this skill,
especially the talking skill.Larry King ,who on the TV and radio boradcasting can share
his successful screct on talking with us.His special experience is so intresting and
practical,that why i try to finish the book.But some of the skill he mentioned is
not easy to follow.And it cover so many differnt occasions,this is useful for different person,
don't miss the chance to upgrade your communiation skill.TRY IT NOW!~