This book offers practical advise for the ecologist or biological data manager. Although some of the principles of data management in this book should be review for those in the field, this book brings together this advise in one place. Most useful to me were the sections on data archiving and metadata, which go hand in hand. Throughout the book are references to data standards, and examples (such as online web sites) of implementing the principles. I would have appreciated more mention of XML, which has the potential to promote data exchange. I would have enjoyed more discussion of warehousing and mining, but you have to have the basic data management first! I would whole heartedly agree with the basic premise of the book of the need for treating data as a resource and the need for stewardship to increase understanding, data value, and understand long term problems.

For the serious James scholar, this book is indispensible. For those of you who are not too familiar with Jame's ideas and their background, this book is probably too much - and too boring at that. Even for scholars of epistemology, this book can be rather frustrating. Originally written for his grad students at Harvard, the book lacks much in the way of context, and it is completely theoretical. Furthermore, it is filled with many untranslated passages, from German to Latin. I gave the book four stars because it could use some editing. This is the modern era: Latin is dead - even for the most serious philosopher - and German is no longer the language of Philosophy. The passages should be translated, and some of the more abstract essays should come with introductions. That said, the book is still a valuable contribution to empirical epistemology, laying out James of view of "radical empiricism" - where subjects and objects collide. Indeed, the book itself is a pure experience!

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.

An excellent review of flap (local and regional) surgery.

Good for the senior resident and junior attending level.

A nice book featuring the detailed account from human zygote formation to the full term foetus. It also gives concise and clear to understand descriptions on the possibilities of malformations due to various conditions.

Russell F. Weigley writes that "anyone seriously interested in U.S. military history should benefit from this small but encyclopedic book. General readers, buffs, reenacters, students and professionals should all be able to make use of it. In every way the authors deserve commendation for making an apparently modest little book into a volume of exceptional usefulness."

I've never really thought of myself as a fan of the 'Western' genre, but soon found that this was not required in order to thoroughly enjoy "Hell On The Draw:Best Western stories by Loren D. Estleman". While each story is indeed rooted in the West, they are by no means your run of the mill 'shoot-em-ups.' Each one is completely different in mood and style, from lighthearted humor to dark twists of fate, from romance to a touch of the supernatural. The author fills each tale with people you'll find yourself wishing that you had known or vey glad that you didn't. The vividly described settings along with fine attention to historical details of events, people, equipment and weapons, pull you inside and make you feel as if you are there. Aside from the complete enjoyment of the stories themselves, this audio version features a variety of gifted voice talents well suited to the telling of these tales of the West.

As a native of North Carolina, I can still vividly recall the bitter and dramatic 1984 Senate campaign between two of the greatest - and most controversial - political leaders this state has ever produced. On one side was Senator Jesse Helms, then running for his third term. Even in North Carolina Helms has always been an extremely divisive figure, and his victory margins have always been narrow. To Democrats in North Carolina and around the nation, Helms is the political version of JR Ewing on the old "Dallas" TV show - he's the "man you love to hate". An old-fashioned right-wing Republican, Helms refuses to compromise with his opponents, and he is a master of the politics of "divide and conquer". However you feel about him, Helms has never been afraid to be as outspoken as possible about his beliefs (adamantly anti-gay rights, anti-abortion, and pro-school prayer and pro-fundamentalist Christian), and he's also one of the few major politicians in America who doesn't care what his poll numbers are, or what his critics think of him. He is also a master of fundraising - his 1984 campaign was the most expensive up to that time in American history, as he raised an astonishing $14 million, much of it from out-of-state admirers. Helms is also a living symbol of the transformation of the white South from mostly conservative Democrat to hard-right Republican, a process which began in the 1960's with the Civil Rights movement. However, in 1984 Helms appeared to have met his match in James Hunt, the state's first two-term governor. Although not as well known nationally as Helms, Hunt is also a political legend in North Carolina - he has been elected governor four times, each time by a landslide - and, were it not for his narrow loss to Helms in 1984, he might well have become President in 1992 instead of Bill Clinton. Like Helms, Hunt grew up in a small, rural North Carolina town and was raised as a Baptist. But the similarities end there - Hunt went to North Carolina State University and became a leader in student government, became a leader in the Grange (a once-powerful national organization of farmers), spent some time in the Himalayas of Nepal as an agricultural advisor for the Henry Ford Foundation, and finally returned home in the late sixties and became the state leader of the "Young Democrats". In 1972 he was elected lieutenant governor, and in 1976 - at the tender age of 39 - he was elected governor by a record margin. He cleaned up and modernized the state's government, easily won reelection in 1980, and formed a powerful political machine with "contacts" in each of the state's 100 counties. In early 1984 he led Helms by double digits in the polls, and many experts predicted that he would be an easy winner in what was already a much-anticipated showdown with Helms. The race received more media attention than any other campaign in 1984, with the sole exception of the presidential race, and even international reporters came to cover the event. But Helms, relying upon a series of clever yet negative TV commercials, portrayed Hunt not as an honest and effective governor, but as a "wishy-washy" political opportunist who only wanted a Senate seat so he could run for President in a few years. Helms also successfully portrayed Hunt as being "in bed" with liberal national Democrats who were too "far-left" for North Carolina voters. As the election approached Hunt's big early lead vanished and Helms, who tied himself to President Reagan's reelection bid (Reagan carried NC with 62% of the vote), gradually pulled ahead for a narrow victory. As this book by William Snider, the retired editor of the Greensboro "News and Record" newspaper, attests, the 1984 Helms-Hunt matchup had everything - mudslinging and personal attacks, vast sums of money raised by both camps, personal feuds and grudges (especially within the state Democratic Party, which hurt Hunt badly), and a series of combative debates which were televised statewide. Although detailed, this book could have used a better editor - there are numerous spelling errors and run-on sentences. However, Snider nonetheless gives what is still the best in-depth account of a classic "Southern-fried" Senate race. Recommended!

This book has five complete novels for one comparatively low price! "Watch and Ward," is a novel that James himself preferred to ignore as a youthful indiscretion, but I found it a vastly entertaining and suspenseful love story. Roderick Hudson is a compelling cautionary tale. The American is a gripping story that cries out for a movie version (in my fantasy Peter Weir would direct, and it might star Tom Cruise and Winona Ryder, although I'm sure many others would do just as well). This novel has love, a duel, a frightful skeleton in the closet, blackmail, Carmelite nuns, etc. The ending should be adjusted along the lines of the play version that James later wrote. The Europeans did not grab me, but Confidence is a delightful novel with something James later tended to avoid--a happy ending. This collection provides a lot of great novelistic entertainment for the buck. The way the Library of America does it is that for one they are non-profit, and second they use top quality thin acid-free paper, which allows them to fit five books into the space of something slightly larger than one thick paperback. The book even has a silky little bookmark to hold your place. Classy!

I enjoyed "Washington Square" thoroughly. I believe any highschool student should read this if they are looking for a "book" report. I found it captivating and I couldn't put the book down. However I was a little disappointed in how the ending turned out, but what can I do?