If asked to name a World War I novel most Americans would almost certainly say "All Quiet on the Western Front". Thanks to our rather uniform public education system, Remarque's novel has earned a place in American culture as the quintessential novel of The Great War. It deserves its reputation as a landmark of 20th century literature, but unfortunately its success contributed to the disapearance from memory of Thomas Boyd's "Through the Wheat". Without moralizing about the cost of war, Boyd brilliantly depicts its horrors and their effects on the psyche of a young American Marine. If you want to understand the Combat experience -- the noise, dirt, distraction, sweat, blood, stench of war -- this is a novel you must read. It is a tragedy that it is no longer in print.

Thomas Boyd's "Through the Wheat" was written by a former newpaperman and the book is fairly easy to read. The writing style was such that you though that it was a true story being told to a friend. He was better known when he was alive for his historical novels. But I think this novel was his best.

Thomas Boyd was an interesting man who died from a brain tumor thought to have been caused by his being gassed during the WWI. He came back the war disillusioned and ran for public office in New Hampshire or Vermont as a communist. Mr. Boyd died suddenly in his early thirties and left behind a wife and a daughter. One of his collections of short stories Points of Honor(light) was made in a successful silent movie.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin," the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is one of the most important literary works ever to deal with the disturbing issue of African-American slavery. First published in serial form in 1851 and 1852, UTC is, to a large degree, a book of its time. But it has a compelling power that makes it, in my opinion, an authentic classic that deserves the attention of today's readers, and of future generations.

Yes, there are many valid criticisms that can be leveled against Stowe and her book. Is it sentimental? Emotionally manipulative? Is Uncle Tom a problematic character? "Yes" to all these questions. But Stowe also achieves a remarkable sense of balance in the book as a whole. The too-good-to-be-true, long-suffering Tom is complemented by the more militant George. And Stowe achieves some truly incisive cultural criticism. Particularly resonant is her analysis (often through the dialogue of her characters) of the use of both Christianity and the law as tools by which the oppressive slave system was supported.

Stowe is up front with her anti-slavery beliefs. UTC is notable for Stowe's many asides to her readers; her omniscient narrator seems to be maintaining a continual "conversation" with the reader. Despite the book's flaws, I found it to be a gripping read, filled with some truly memorable characters. Despite its length, the novel is a very fluid read.

I fear that UTC is regarded by many as more of a cultural monument -- a literary "museum piece," if you will -- then as living literature that one would actually read. That's a pity; I think that Stowe's compassion, keen intelligence, and remarkable writerly skill make UTC a classic that is actually worth reading.

Like James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans," UTC is a flawed but monumental novel that represents a serious and thoughtful attempt to portray non-white American characters. And as with Cooper's book, I think that UTC should be read in connection with 18th and 19th century books by ethnic Americans themselves: as companion texts to UTC, I particularly recommend "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" and Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

One other note: a number of authors adapted UTC for the stage in the 19th century. One such adaptation, by George L. Aiken, can be found in the excellent anthology "Early American Drama," edited by Jeffrey H. Richards. My final comment: If you haven't read this novel, toss away any preconceptions you may have, and read it with an open mind. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is an extraordinary achievement.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the best American novels written to date. It is a wonderful fictional tale about two slaves, Eliza and Tom, who follow two very different paths during their lives as slaves. They both live in Kentucky under the same master. As their master goes in to debt, he is forced to sell them to a slave trader. Fearful of loosing her child, Eliza takes the very dangerous path and runs away with fellow slaves leading to a bloody skirmish with a group of drunken bounty hunters. Tom on the other hand, chooses to follow his master's orders and get sold into the Deep South. By following his faith in God he believes God will guide hi through his life as a slave. Harriet Beecher Stowe uses her descriptive style of writing to capture the reader's imagination, and show them the horrors of slavery. One interesting topic the author brings up all throughout the novel is the idea of how can a southern slave holder feel right even after they have read the bible and how their slaves know passages that describe their right to freedom. Another great thing the author does in this novel is give a great ending by telling what happened to each of the different characters after they have ended their lives as slaves. I think this book is a classic American novel, however I believe its message is shallow and cannot compare to that of the Jungle's or even or some of Jack London's or John Steinbeck's works. For these reasons I giving Uncle Tom's Cabin a 4.5, but it still deserves five stars. This book is a must buy for every American.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is about the evils of slavery from many different sides of the issue. The main character (Uncle Tom) is a good, always obedient, Christian slave that's master has to sell to pay off a debt. He has several masters, one very kind, one just normal, and one very brutal. It reallly shows how horrible slavery was. After reading it, it became obvious to me why there was a war to put an end to this terrible atrocity. Uncle Tom shows us how it is possible to do the right thing, face horrible punishments (being beaten almost to death), and still love everyone, including his evil master which he also forgave. It was one of the most memorable books I have read. I recommend it to everyone and I think it should be required reading for all schools. I think this book definitely deserves five out of five stars.

The book is a choppy read. There are instances where the read flows like water from a Florida spring. However, it can be dry as Texas during a drought. To give it justice you must be a persistant reader.

I had to read this book for school and it was pretty good. The only reason it is popular in Brooklyn is that you can't find this book anywhere else and since over 75 people had to read it for school, and our teacher suggested getting it here, everyone bought it.

Citizen Tom Paine was written by Howard Fast in 1943, at a time when we were fighting World War II, and badly needed to remember who we were, and what our values were. It did the job splendidly, and with great eloquence! We can use that sort of reminder once again - and that sort of integrity!

Tom Paine grew up in eighteenth century England as a member of the poorest class in London during a time when the poor were treated like throw-away items, to be killed, imprisoned or deported for very small infractions like stealing a loaf of bread. He was a tall, ugly man with a hook nose and crooked eyes.

Paine managed to scrape together fare for a boat trip to the new world, arriving at a time when the country was in great turmoil over whether or not to secede from England. Tom wrote a small book he called "Common Sense," which caught the imagination of the entire country and ended by selling hundreds of thousands of copies. In a very real sense, Paine's words made the revolution possible.

Friend of all the governmental leaders of the time, including Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and both Sam and John Adams, Paine never lost touch with the poorest of the common people, fought with the ragged Union army during the early, hopeless struggle of its beginnings, helped Washington finally to get food and supplies for his men at Valley Forge.

After the war Paine wrote a small book he called The Rights of Man, which became popular all over Europe as well as America, and helped to win supporters for the new American republic, and later, for the French Revolution.

Finally, he wrote a book called The Age of Reason, denouncing organized religions of all kinds as tyranny over the minds of men, saying that there should be no intermediaries between God and each man. In thus expressing his deeply-felt beliefs by the writing of this book, Paine suffered almost universal wrath and violent rejection by churchgoers everywhere, and died in illness, poverty and total obscurity.

Fast's account of Paine's life is in my mind his best book, and deserves to be read by all Americans who are lovers of freedom and who may have (or need) the courage to maintain individual beliefs not necessarily those of most people!

Howard Meyer is to be commended for his efforts at rescuing T. W. Higginson from the dustbin of history. All Americans, and especially African Americans, should know something of him. Clergyman, historian, author, early women's rights supporter, abolitionist, Colonel in the Union Army, T.W.H is a man worth knowing about - a true intellectual man of action. I have read Meyer's earlier works on T.W.H and benefited from them.

While browsing at a brick & mortar bookstore yesterday evening I came across Mr. Meyer's new book and casually fanned through it. I was horrified to see that the only (I think) photograph published within the book is that of a young college-age Wentworth, with unattractively long hair, and the look of an idle popinjay: imagine, if you will, a combination of Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf (and actually more of the latter). Howard, what in God's name were you thinking of?

To potential readers: purchase the book and learn about a man of high caliber who not only talked the talk but walked the walk. If you agree with me about the photograph, excise it and mail it back to the publisher. Mr. Meyer's editor may thereby profit from the experience.

This is a handy if somewhat eclectic little collection, with works by some poets who are hard to find elsewhere, such as Henry Howard. If you don't have a copy of the long-out-of-print Hebel and Hudson anthology of English Renaissance Poetry, pick up this.

The title of this book is misleading for two reasons. First, only the agents responsible for chronic hepatitis (i.e. HBV, HCV and a token mention of HDV) are considered, and second, the scope is far wider than just therapy. The 48 contributions cover a range of topics from epidemiology and pathogenesis to drug design and animal models. However, the Editors have skillfully blended the contributions so that their relevance to the overall theme of the development and application of therapeutic regimes for the control of chronic viral hepatitis is well maintained. The authorship includes amny major figures in the field and the individual chapters are generally succinct and very readable. In conclusion, the book is a compilation of authoritative articles and presents a useful snapshot of the problems and prospects in chronic viral hepatitis in the late 1990s.

How do you write a Book about "Value" Investing and give just a fleeting(one paragraph) mention to the Founding Father of Value Investing,Ben Graham-Consequently there is no reference to essential "Value" Indicating Tools such the Bargain Ratio and the Earnings Yield criteria. Not easy but, despite the Book's rather obvious shortcomings, Mr Howard does a surprisingly good job.

As an experienced Professional Stock Market (Value)Investor,aside from the useful short precis in each chapter, I feel the real strengths of this Book is the use of Fundamental data to establish a Stock's range of intrinsic value and quite simply to answer the question"Is the Stock under consideration overvalued,undervalued or fairly priced" on the basis of available evidence.Although involved, the mathematical manipulation is not complicated and should not be beyond the ordinary investor.
In conclusion a good and well written Book that should be of real practical use to beginners who feel that there is a better approach to Stockmarket Investment than just tips and rumours.Would suggest a good companion Book to Janet Lowe's "Value Investing Made Easy" as the fortes of both Books perfectly compliment one another. Well worth the price.

Wyatt and Surrey are the twin towers of the early English sonneteers. This book is an indispensable resource as it brings their works together. Those who would study Spenser and Shakespeare's sonnets will benefit from the reading of these wonderful authors. I particularly recommend "They flee from me" by Wyatt. There be giants here... and Shakespeare stands upon their shoulders.

This book, by the editors of the Washington Post, does a good job of describing the events which led to the deadlocked 2000 Presidential election. In addition to detailing the paths which led to the deadlock, the book discusses all the post-election issues in a very readable format. Surprisingly, the books editors seem only slightly tilted towards Gore (especially considering it is the Washington Post, which is noted for its liberal bias), so no matter who you voted for, there is much to be found here for anyone with an interest in contemporary politics.

Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election is a workmanlike and emotionless recollection of the events surrounding the most controversial election of the past 100 years. It is a well organized, easy to follow and not visibly biased view of the relevant events leading up to and following the November 7 Presidential election. Seemingly accurate and double checked to a fault, reading this book left me with the impression that I had just read an excellent 275 page newspaper article and not much more. With almost no humor, lacking any sidebar comments, it is a book Joe Friday would be proud to call his own. While I am a Texan and Bush supporter, I much preferred Jake Tapper's Down & Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency. I guess this means that like most people, when push comes to shove, I'd rather be entertained than informed. I do regret this intellectual weakness and like some of the votes in Florida I may change. But probably not in the next 36 days.

Two things struck me while reading this book, the first is that I doubt there is a book out there that is truly balanced and not somewhat biased. The second thing was that Gore really got the shaft, not so much by the recount wars, but by the election official that came up with the Butterfly Ballot. In the history of the USA this decision ranks up there with new Coke and the XFL, what a mistake. As far as the reporting in the book it was not bad for a review of all the articles they had in the paper, but it did not really dig into the particular issues very deeply. I wanted more detail and behind the scenes with both the candidates. I also wanted more details on the court cases; I felt like the sky-high overview of the issues of the cases did not do such an important issue justice.

In reading the book I think a little bit of a democratic bias comes out, just a little, but enough to notice. I also thought it interesting that they had far more details of the Gore group then the Bush camp, it follows the perception that the Post is somewhat liberal in its views. The book is an overview that came out almost 10 minutes after Gore hung up the phone on the second concession call so there are a few more details out now that they did not get in the book. Overall it is a good effort and a readable book, but not the end all be all on the subject.

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.