"The Southern Heirloom Garden" is a rich and instructive work.

At the start of the book, William C. Welch and Greg Grant tell us that "gardening is one of the oldest, and richest, of our Southern folk arts."

The authors divide the book into two sections. The first section refreshingly explores French, German, Spanish, Native American, and African-American contributions to Southern gardening.

The Spanish, for instance, intensely developed and utilized small garden spaces, while African-Americans used brightly-colored flowers in the front yard as a sign of welcome.

This section also has a commendable essay on historic garden restoration in the South.

The second section addresses the plants "our ancestors used to build and enrich their gardens."

There are nearly 200 full-color photographs here, along with dozens of rare vintage engravings. While some of the pictures are a bit small, they are still informative.

Southern gardeners and historians will particularly enjoy this fine volume.

This is a really great book. I loved the essays on each plant. Greg Grant is very humorous. This is not just a coffee table book, although the pictures are beautiful. It offers advise and inspiration to those of us who will never have the "Southern Living Landscape" look.

In these days of trying the "Western grass garden" or the "English perennial border" it's particularly refreshing to study a book devoted to plants that happily grow in the Southern humidity and heat. While the opening chapters on historical gardens in the new world (French, Spanish, etc.) were interesting, the later chapters on plants were the most informative. When reading I could hear my Grandmother using the same commonplace names, like "paw-paw" and how to make jelly from the fruit. The challenge will now be to find some of these plants. (The authors admit some plants are only available from old gardens in the South). It remains one of my favorite garden books for its affectionate commentary on one of the oldest southern pastimes - our gardens and the talking and sharing of plants with loved ones.

We used this case book in our MBA course for corporate finance. The real cases are exciting. The topics are very broad and ranging from cash budgeting to financial risk management. Most of the cases are supported with good background material like charts and income statements. The book is excellent for class discussions, but not for the ambituous reader who wants to teach himself corporate finance. There are simply no right or wrong answers why there's no solution provided. It's a great book to work with, but deadly boring if you want to read it page by page.

As a student utilizing this text for class, I found it extremely insightful, as well as challenging in content. The book is subdivided in to various topib headings related to corporate finance, everything from debt and equity offerings to derivative risk management. After a chapter introduction outlining and reviewing pertinent academic information, there are several case studies on real companies. The book closes with three case studies which incorporate multiple topics highlighted in the book.

Book was very factual. I do not recall the road to the "On Time" ferry having a 90 degree turn to the dock. It was more like an arc. The bridge road was at 100-115 degree right turn. The DA, my next door neighbor, needs further examination. The author should not assume she drowned. An autopsy would have painted a far different picture. Money buys many things.

Since the only other review of this book doesn't make any sense, I thought it necessary to write a coherent one. This book is truly incredible. It proves Ted Kennedy's guilt with clarity and integrity. The facts are simply undeniable - if it weren't for Ted, Mary Jo would be alive today. The Kennedy family has long been America's sweethearts. It is high time that they are revealed as murders, philanderers, cheaters, liars and losers. Sorry, but this is coming from an Irish Catholic who is ashamed to admit that the Kennedys claim some ties to the land of her origin! They are all bad but Ted Kennedy is the worst. He should be behind bars- this book will tell you why. Read it - it's a well done piece of detective work and it will hold your interest. It may also make your blood boil - but that's not the authors' fault! DOWN WITH THE KENNEDYS!

For those that are NOT familiar with the idea, WOTC has offered an 'Open Game License' to any publisher that would like to contribute to the further growth of the d20 system that has been implemented with D&D3Ed.

Sword and Sorcery Studios is one of the leaders in the race to see who will dominate the d20 market (outside of WOTC). With White Wolf Games as Publisher/Printer of their materials they stand a good chance.

Of all of the campaign settings to date, The Scarred Lands is easily the most imaginative, without journeying so far afield that they lose site of the core d20 rules.

The Scarred Lands takes the classical concept of a war in heaven and turns it on its ear. This blasted landscape of a continent and the surrounding waters is a direct result of a war between the Gods and the Titans. Gorges carved by a Titan's sword, a sea of Blood born of a wounded Titan at the bottom of the Ocean's depths... it goes on from there.

This setting is exactly the opposite of campaigns like the Forgotten Realms or even the venerable Greyhawk campaign. The Scarred Lands is a dangerous and dealy place, full of strange and wonderous people and things... a city of Necromancer (each and every one of them striving to be a lich), a city whose very walls are the arms of a giant mithral golem... this is NOT low fantasy...

So, give The Scarred Lands a try, if you are familiar with the D&D Third Edition Gazetteer or the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, the formatting will be easy for you to follow.

Finally, SSS has stated their manifesto to be "3rd Edition D&D with a 1st Edition feel"... with that goal in mind... I'd say they are succeeding.

This book gives brief descriptions of the continent of Ghelspad and all of its kingdoms and countries and with this, it is the first publication by White Wolf that gives deeper insight into the upcoming Scarred Lands Campaign Setting.

Be prepared everyone! The Scarred Lands really rock!

If you already own the D&D Third Edition Gazetteer or the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, you will have no problems with this book. It is made up the very same way the other two mentioned books are and seemlessly fits into the 3E-rules. This is a D20-System Open Gaming License product.

In an alternative ending to Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, we find that Brian is still in the middle of the northern woods, with summer nearly over. The first signs of the approaching winter, a different something in the air, eludes Brian until he finds that he is ill-prepared for the coming changes. However, true to his character, Brian figures out how to sustain himself during the winter months. He makes warmer clothing and boots from animal skins, he winterizes his shelter and learns how to keep the fire inside, and he makes stronger weapons, enabling him to hunt bigger animals. I appreciate the fact that although Brian kills animals so that he can live, hunting never becomes a sport to him. For example, when Brian kills the deer, he silently thanks the animal for what it provides him.
I think the only thing I didn't really like in Brian's Winter was the ending. The entire story was so full of challenge, suspense, and danger, and the ending just left me feeling flat.
I give Brian's Winter 4 out of 5 stars!

BRIAN'S WINTER
This book was the sequel to Hatchet and Gary wrote both of these books
Paulsen. This paper will tell you about a brief summary of the book along with some other things like how the main character developed along the book and what survival skills he had learned. I think the authors message was to make sure if you were ever in the wilderness that you had the survival skills that bran had learned or it could be that when your on a camping trip to make sure that you don't eat the wrong berries, don't mess with bears and other kinds of things like that.
Now to start out with is a brief summary of this book. First off this kid named Brian was going to see his dad in Canada and was taking a plane over there. So everything started out fine until they were flying over this lake and the guy that was flying him he all of a sudden he had a heart attack and croaked in the middle of the flight and was dead. So Brian took over the plane and crashed into the lake down below. And Brian had all of these things like a hatchet, matches and other important things like that. So he had all these things to do and live on his own until he was rescued. Sorry I cannot tell you the rest of it you will have to go and find out by yourself.
The second thing in how the main character developed in this story. So how he developed in this story is in the beginning he was all soft and didn't know much about the wilderness but since he was in the wilderness he found out a lot of things like how to hunt eat berries that yoyo could an could not eat. Then he built his own cabin and fires so I think now you can say he got stronger from this experience.
Finally I would have to give this book a rating of a 7 out of 10 because I think the ending could have been a little better then it was. But overall I think this book would have to be the best next to Romeo and Juliet. But like I said I gave you a brief summary, the character developed, and a rating.

Have you ever been stranded in the middle of nowhere, in the winter? Brains was stranded for more than 54 days, and no one had found him yet, so Brian knew now that he is going to be there for a while. Brian is worried, he has only some food and he knows that it will only last for some of the time. Well Brian didn't want that to happen, so he got out his hunting tools and went hunting. He got some more food for the winter, and then he was all set. He had a sleeping bag, pots, pans, silverware, matches to start fires, and of course food. I wonder if Brian will survive. Ladies and gentlemen I invite and encourage you to read the book "Brian's Winter, By: Gary Paulsen".
One thing I dislike about the book was when; he found out in the beginning that he wasn't going to be found for a while. Then he thought on how it was going to be winter very soon! If I was he I would be worried too just like him. Something I liked about the book was at the end when he was found. A lot of times when I read books I am always anxious to see what is going to happen in the book, how it is going to end up. When I was reading "Brian's Winter" I was so anxious to see what was going to happen. All of these events were happening and it was really exciting for me to read this book.
I would describe Brian, different than other people. Brian is determined, courageous, and smart. He is determined because he has a goal to live through this winter and he is determined to meet his goal. Also Brian is courageous. He has lived this long out there, and hasn't given up by being scared or any thing. Finally he is also smart. In the book "Hatchet" (the book before "Brian's Winter") he was smart when he was stranded there he didn't know how to start a fire. He tried rubbing sticks together; rocks together, and it wouldn't work. He got so mad he threw the rocks at the tree and they made some sparks. He hit them on the tree again and they made sparks, then Brian got an idea. When he hit the rocks again and put some wood where the sparks were going to land. He was hoping so much that it would work, but it didn't work. Then Brian thought and he remembered that he has a twenty-dollar bill in his pocket and it was his last hope. So as you can see Brian is very smart. I thought this book "Brian's Winter By: Gary Paulsen", was excellent. I hope you read it and enjoy it.

The Looking Glass is a welcomed addition to the literary works of Richard Paul Evans, a typically touching and emotion filled volume from this wonderful author. I was especially pleased to discover an album of piano music by the same name, The Looking Glass, which I found contributes immensely to one's feelings as the book is read. The music helps the memory and lessons of the book linger, well beyond the hours spent reading.

I have read every one of Mr. Evans' books, and find that he only gets better! The Looking Glass, as well as The Locket and the Christmas Box trilogy have helped me to heal differences between myself and my children and mother. I know that each book will require at least 3 hankies or 1 box of tissues, but that is okay, because tears heal. I believe that part of the message he is trying to send is that "it is okay to cry", and cry I do, when I read his books.

This is the first book I have read by Richard Paul Evans and can not wait to get my hands on his other books. You can feel deep down in your heart the agony and then love between Quaye and Hunter as described by R.P.Evans. I would love to see this come out as a movie and plan on buying the audio version of this book!

As a social critique of Enlgish and European society, this book is very effective. It is also beautifully written. But it should not be read as the depiction of what society should be like. Thomas More, a wise and brave man executed by orders of Henry VIII, knew that Utopia shouldn't be taken very seriously, and that is exactly why he used the word Utopia to name his famous island. Utopia, in latin, means "in no place", that what can not exist. The problem is that this simple fact was not understood by many. And so, "utopianism" was born. The preposterous belief that there is a universal and definitive form of organization for human societies led to disasters like Nazism and Communism. By organizing everything perfectly (according to who?), these systems become the negation of the very essence of the human being: its innate imperfection and its need to be constantly changing, always on the move. It is simply impossible that some political, economic and social system resolves once and for all the troubles of humanity. Problems are exactly what make humans progress and reform constantly. Besides, the State has proven indispensable for survival, but also limited in what it can accomplish (in Utopia, the State provides everything for everybody). Stagnant societies degenerate and disappear, or remain to live from the charity of dynamic societies. Closed, perennial social systems, simply don't work: there is abundant proof in history, ancient or recent. "Utopia" is an excellent account of human shortcomings and a good tale, but it is not, nor was intended to be, a recipe with solutions for the world. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell have shown us what might happen in a supposed Utopia. The Communist world was worse. And Anthony Burgess clearly shows us in "A Clockwork Orange", that in "perfect" societies, the only way to practice freedom is violence. Let's not be perfect.

Utopia is a classic masterpiece that conveys More's vivid imagination of the Island of Utopia. Although most of the characters are fictional, it is intriguing to learn about the true values of European societies during the 16th century, when More actually wrote the book (although many scholars believe that the exact year was 1515). Truthfully, the book is quite easy to understand. All More tries to do is convey his own views of how society should be through Raphael. Moreover, the use of imagery in Book I is quite fascinating, including the constant references to Roman and Greek myths and beliefs. It is also quite remarkable to see that the story begins to be more and more interesting after More and Giles come back from dinner. To make a long story short, I think it is a great book because of the actual time it was written in since most pieces of literature written at that time were either lost or destroyed.

It's unfortunate that it seems as if most of these reviews were written by people whose only knowledge of More has come from the (mostly incorrect) opinions they have formed after reading this book. I don't think one can truly understand its import until he or she understands where Moore is at this point in his life and what he previously wrote ("Life of Pico", for example) and what he wrote later (while in prison, perhaps). No, he wasn't expressing his views through Raphael. In fact, it's clear that Raphael is an opinionated fibber (i.e., he discovered Utopia after Vespucci's fourth voyage? There were only three and Morus knows it...) and his account is purposefully filled with contradictions. There's more to it! More is raising issues, trying to make the careful reader think (and shame on some of the other reviewers for not being careful readers). And once you've read this book, read enough More (ha!) to understand what was going on in the bigger scheme of things, such as More's relationship with the other Renaissance humanists of his time and Henry VIII.

I'd always heard that "Apocalypse Now" drew plot elements from "Heart of Darkness", but didn't realize just how closely it was based. After HOD, it will be fun to watch that movie again.

Sentence by sentence, this book resonates with the sound of classic literature. I'm a fan of eloquent wordsmithery, and Conrad was a master. Having read this independently, I probably didn't pick up on all of the symbolism or social commentary about European colonialism. However, the essential themes are clear and persuasively shown: the corruption of power and the potential in humankind for regression to savagery when social inhibitions are absent - much like "Lord of the Flies", which another reviewer astutely noted. Beyond the meanings, I think it works very well as a dark adventure narrative, building premonitions of disaster as Marlow journeys deeper into the continent and closer to the mythical Kurtz. My only criticism echoes many previous reviews: the encounter with a weakened Kurtz is anticlimactic and leaves the reader hungry for demonstrations of the great man's warped charisma.

I'm not sure how to feel about this book. While reading it, I really could not become absorbed by Conrad's dense prose, though, while occasionaly eloquent, is very thick, and, well, British. But now that I am finished with it, I can not get the images the novella invokes out of my head. The conquest of Africa by the Imperialist on the surface, and the corruption of man's very morality underneath. The story is deceptively simple, merely a man working for an Ivory trading company, ominously called "The Company", going up the Congo river to meet up with Kurtz, the archetype of Western Imperialism. During this trip, we are shown the inner workings of man and his heart of darkness. The novella is not perfect though. Conrad's condemnation of Imperialism is uneven. Yes, the only discernable cause of Kurtz's descent into evil and madness is the imperialist ethic of master-slave, and it is fairly clear that Marlowe (conrad) is condemning that ethic, but at the same time, he doesn't work very hard to elevate the view of the African natives any higher in the esteem of his western readers. Anyway, as the novella is only about 100 pages, it is something that can be read in a day. Invest an afternoon in it, and decide for yourself.

Heart of Darkness is a novella that really needs to be read more than just once to fully appreciate Conrad's style of writing. The story is an account of one man's simultaneous journey into the darkness of a river as well as into the shadows of a madman's mind. There is a very brilliant flow of foreshadowing that Conrad brings to his writing that provides the reader with accounts of the time period and the horrible events to come. Through Conrad's illuminating writing style we slowly see how the narrator begins to understand the madness or darkness that surrounds him.

I recommend this particular version of the novella because it contains a variety of essays, which discusses some of the main issues in the reading and historical information. Issues like racism and colonialism are discussed throughout many essays. It also contains essays on the movie inspired by the book Apocalypse Now, which is set against the background of the Vietnam War. I recommend reading Heart of Darkness and then viewing Apocalypse Now, especially in DVD format which contains an interesting directors commentary.

Cold Sassy Tree, a novel written by Olive Ann Burns, is a very realistic and easy to read book. The characters are very real and entertaining in their everyday life. I liked this book because you feel like you are right there listing to the author tell you about the life of the main character. Also this story is easy to read and follow. There is never a dull moment and every chapter is filled with excitement and adventure. The story takes place on a farm where a young boy is forced to deal with his grandfather who does not follow the normal way of life that the other people in Cold Sassy do. As he grows older the boy learns that he is more like his grandfather than he thought. This boy now must make the decision to follow in the family business, or like his grandfather, follow a different path of life from those people in Cold Sassy. This book is filled with laughs and good times. The ending has an exciting unexpected twist that will leave the reader wanting to read the sequel, Leaving Cold Sassy.

I read this book for school over the summer. Now that I've finished, I am so happy it was assigned. This was one of those books that you miss when your done reading.
It takes place in the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia in the early 1900s. The story is told by a 14 year old boy who has recently lost his best friend and his grandmother. Three weeks after his grandma's death his Grandfather announces that he is going to marry a young woman who is half his age. The family is embarrassed and the town is shocked. After almost a year the town and family starts to accept her the way she accepted them.
I wrote this review as a response to other reviews that I read on the site. Frankly, I was outraged by what some people had to say about this book. Someone claimed that the Grandfather raped his granddaughter and one of the boys friends raped his own sister. I don't know what version he read but that was not at all a part of the story!!! The woman the grandfather married tells that she was raped as a child but that was the only raping that went on in the book, and it was needed to explain why she was so afraid of marring and men. Another person said that a child getting whipped is "HORRIFYING" but that was part of the culture back then. People do not agree with it now but back then it happened all the time. There was also a touch of racism in the plot but again it was needed so that Olive Burns could accurately portray southern life in the early 20th. century.
This book was a joy to read and I cannot wait to get the 2nd. part Leaving Cold Sassy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Cold Sassy Tree is about a boy, his family, and a town growing out of the narrow-mindedness prevolent in society in the early 1900's. The talent of this writer to describe characters and their feelings is unparalleled. You can picture Grandpa's ranting and raving, as well as Will's mischevious face. I would not recommend this book to everyone. If you have never lost someone close to you, don't read it. You just won't understand. There is racism in this book, but it serves a purpose. The people of that time period felt that way. It was necessary for Burns to portray people in that manner to present a believable story. The odd thing is small towns today still have the same basic hierarchy and people's reactions to scandal aren't different from those of people who lived century ago. For Southerners who have strong family ties, or wish they did, this book is a must read. It is filled with tragedy, love, wisdom, and acceptance. Don't miss out.

The benefit of this book is that it provides an intelligently structured approach to reviewing the material needed to pass the VB exams for the MCSD certification.

On the other hand, the text itself is rife with errors of fact, which is not acceptable in a technical manual and especially not in a book that purports to help you review for technical exams that may be worth thousands of dollars to you. For example, chapter 9, exam question 7 has no right answer because none of the T-SQL code samples actually work!

In a backward sort of way, this book will prepare you for exams 70-175 and 176 because you'll reference Microsoft's documentation so often to correct errors in the text that you'll know your subject by the time you've worked your way through the book.

Two stars for the review outline, but there's probably something better on the market.

This book will help you pass the exam if you are diligent and already fairly VB-savvy. On the bright side, it does cover all of the exam material. However, many topics are covered at a VERY shallow level or are discussed in confusing terms. Worse still, other areas seem to have been written by someone who had read Microsoft documentation but hadn't actually taken the time to understand what they had read or to test out the stated concepts thoroughly. Particularly obnoxious is Chapter 12. The author is clearly way out of his/her depth when it comes to designing and implementing COM components. The lab exercise to implement a callback procedure for asynchronous processing is laughable, as the steps it leads you through never kick off an asynchronous process (clearly showing that the author doesn't really understand what asynchronous processing is). The author thinks that because the windows message queue remains responsive, it proves that asynchronous processing is being used. Oops, sorry, wrong answer.

If it's important to you to really explore these concepts and learn something useful, supplement your use of this book. If there is anything that you read here that seems contradictory, or unclear, or is just plain new to you -- pull up keywords in the MSDN library and go to town. Get hands on to try things out in VB if something in the Hawhee sounds fishy or if you've never had real-world experience with a particular concept. Get the Appleman book for a reference on the Win32 API(you should have it anyway). Take a look at the Pattison book (Programming Distributed Applications with COM and VB6) for information on COM and how VB fits in. These two books will serve you well as references for a long time.

If you just want to pass the exam, and don't care about actually understanding and being able to apply the information that you're being tested on, just buy this book. You'll probably slide by, even if you have to give it a couple of tries. Just please don't ever come work for my company -- I'm positive I wouldn't enjoy working with you.

Now that I have completed the MDSD certification, I feel qualified to render judgment on the ton of books that I read. This one was simply the best. Many of the books out on the market are of very poor quality - including many that carry the Microsoft "Approved Study Guide" logo and many published by Microsoft itself. This one stands out from the crowd as being comprehensive, on point, well-written and relatively error-free. I was particularly impressed by the fact that the publisher had a web site where error corrections are available. I was initially skeptical about the idea of covering two exams in one book, but it turns out that there is a great deal of overlap between the two exams and it makes a lot of sense to cover all the material in one book. The practice exam software on the CD was realistic, although I wish it had a larger inventory of questions. Supplementing the book with Transcender software is a good strategy. Also, since this book is a bit ponderous, I would recommend the Exam Cram series for a final review.