I bought this book hoping to learn about matrix analyis. I did not. This book is simply a reference manual with plenty of theorems, axioms etc. with little explanation. They give it to you rough and row. NOT A SINGLE SOLVED EXAMPLE, and not even solutions for the exercises given in the book are provided. If you intend to learn about matrix analysis, as I did, let not the 5 stars review mislead you. Don't make the same mistake, this book is not for you.

Horn and Johnson's MATRIX ANALYSIS is simply a masterpiece. You can find each and every result in matrix analysis along with it's proof in this book. Look at their companion volume "Topics in Matrix Analysis" too. Some of these results cannot be found elsewhere.

Horn and Johnson has written an excellent reference book on somewhat-advanced linear algebra (from the point of view of an engineer). There's a lot of treasures in this book, but this book is NOT for beginning linear algebra. Rather, it is written as a handy reference to review and learn certain topics in linear algebra.

Nonetheless, I really like their take on linear algebra. They motivate you in every subject and problem (for example, the relations between eigenvectors, eigenvalues, and optimization problems). These insights are invaluable and definitely worth the admission price.

Together with Golub and Van Loan's "Matrix Computations", this is THE linear algebra book to get, although only if you're sufficiently initiated.

Most people have heard about Hanford and Los Alamos, yet Oak Ridge also played an important part in the atomic energy program. This book gives insight into a town that was created by the government during WW2.

The book is filled with great archive pictures of the town during the war years. A lot of the places described in the book are still standing in the town.

I may be somewhat biased as I grew up in the 70's and 80's in this interesting town.

My husband always told me his Mom and Dad met and married in Oak Ridge, TN and he has always been after them to write - or tape - the story of their lives in Oak Ridge. His Mom always says "Oh, nobody wants to hear about that!" We attended a family reunion there and as part of the trip, visited the Museum of Atomic Energy in Oak Ridge. In the bookshop, I spotted this book, and couldn't leave without it. It was so interesting! I believe the people of Oak Ridge were in shock the days that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, and they were so used to not talking about what they did there, the silence just continued. My inlaws confirmed that they truly did not know what they were building. When they saw news footage of the devastation, many Oak Ridgers didn't want anyone else to ever know. My inlaws say that a family member who worked there suffered such emotional trauma upon finding out, she was never normal again. No one knows what a unique place - in all the world and perhaps for all time - Oak Ridge, TN was - and is. If you believe that truth is often stranger than fiction, you'll enjoy this history lesson.

I was born in the Atomic City during the 60's, and grew up hearing the stories of my parents life 'behind the fences'. The book provided a glimpse of the way in which people endured hardship and sacrifice in the name of national security and for an often misunderstood (and rarely discussed) science. Many of the places mentioned in the story still exist today. This story may have meant more to me as a native to the area than to those simply looking for a story about the Manhattan Project, as it focused more on the daily lives of the people than the scientific matter.

As a contributor to this book, I strongly disagree with the assessment from Kirkus Reviews. Yes, there is much here we've heard before (but that doesn't mean it isn't worth saying--and hearing--again.) Then, too, there is a range of perspectives in this book--from the conservative to the liberal--that is greater than Kirkus acknowledges. Some writers see racism as black men's greatest enemy; others call for us to take more responsibility for our own lives. "Black Men Speaking" is a worthy companion to Don Belton's "Speak My Name," and essential reading for anyone who cares about black America.

While I personally don't like ALL of Moore's work (the Piazza Del Italia's too gaudy for me), this book presents a strong case for his elevation to Master. A very comprehensive survey of his works, it relies mostly on photos & illustrations, with some text. From Sea Ranch to Kresge College, everything's here. Pick it up in conjunction with his memoirs (often available on remainder tables) & you have a really good set!

This book gives a good introduction to argumentation theory and its twists and turns over the course of its existence. I found it helpful to get started, especially coming from a completely different field. It gives the essence of Toulmin and Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca but I would have liked to see a bit more on Austin and Searle.But then again the references mentioned are very extensive and can be followed up. All in all a good book if a bit pricey for students (whatever happened to the paperback cover?)

This novel moves African-American literature beyond African American, and ironically by way of it's oldest from, the slave narrative. Using his strong philosophical background in eastern religions and texts, Johnson appies Bhuddist and Taoist ideas of the self to deal with the concept of race in America. This book operates on many levels, some we've seen before in African American texts, which he uses as a backdrop for his transcendence of the slave narrrative's limitations. Incorporating these eastern influences into the novel sheds new light on the search for racial identity, and gender identity of the biracial chimera that narrates the tale. Johnson keeps the many ideas and happenings of the novel from being overbearing with a wonderful humor. The combinations of texts, and cultures make the reader reevaluate the very concept of race, and its history in America. An enlightening and very entertaining read, I highly reccommend it. (I save 5 stars for classics)

Charles Perrault was a French civil servant in the late 1600s. He had a little son, and decided to write down to old French folk tales that he heard the servants telling and retelling. These include Cinderella, Blue Beard and even Sleeping Beauty.

Reminiscent of the Hardy Boys books in feel and style. The reading level is suitable for pre-teens. The story was entertaining and should prove interesting to young boys (it has it all - a ghost, old house to explore, pirates and a dog, what more could you ask).

The historical elements provide a moderate overview of pirate life along the American coast in the early eighteenth century and seem fairly accurate without introducing some of the more unsavory elements of pirate reality. The historical figures involved, Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Isreal Hands, are fairly true to life; Blackbeard may even be more realistic than the demonic depiction in Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates.

Included in the book are various elements like a short biography of Edward Teach, a guide to ship's rigging, and a timeline. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to children with an interest in pirates.
P-)

This is yet another knock-off from Captain Charles Johnson's volumes on pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy. It contains narratives on all the old favorites: Blackbeard, Kidd, Roberts, Bonny to name a few.

The things that set this text slightly above the others of its ilk are the coverage of more pirates than just the usual favorites, less 'constructive' deletion of the original text, and the inclusion of an index. I could go on and on about how useful an adequate index is when attempting to hunt down information on a particular ship or pirate, but I won't. P-)

Set in 1830, Middle Passage is the story about an educated, freed slave named Rutherford Calhoun. Wishing to escape his debts and a marriage proposal, Calhoun boards the Republic, a ship bound for Africa to illegally pick up slaves. In his capacity, Calhoun is incapable of understanding or relating to the conditions and future life that the slaves, a group of magicians from the heart of Africa, will and do endure. The phrase "middle passage" refers not only to the journey the slaves take from their homeland in the bowels of the ship to America, but also Calhoun's transformation from a self-admitted thief, lier, and womanizer to a humble, broken man, willing to accept home and family as his future. Unfortunately, the transformation, while convincing, falls short with a clumsy attempt at romance in the final chapter of the text. Clocking in at a lean two hundred pages as a combination slave narrative and sea story and the winner of the National Book Award, most of the book was enjoyable, despite extremely graphic representations of bodily illnesses and decay from the long journey, until the end. There, I was left unsatisfied and disappointed.

Middle Passage is an excellent choice for a novel if you truly want to get lost in the story. It is written by Charles Johnson, and it takes place in the 1830's. It is about a recently freed slave named Rutherford Calhoun, and his problems in life, and in his home of New Orleans. He needs to get away from a woman, and his debt collectors, so he decides to hop on a ship that will be away for a quarter of a year. Little does he know that getting on that ship would turn out to give him more trouble than he had back home, for it is a slave clipper headed to Africa to pick up slaves. Now, read the book to find out what happens!

I read Middle Passage over the course of a weekend. This is significant for two reasons: 1)I was to meet Charles Johnson that following Monday and 2) I have a three-year-old and an infant who slowed my reading to a crawl and cut my opportunites to sit down with the book to a minimum. Had I not been so distracted, I would easily have digested Middle Passage in a matter of hours. It is an excellent read. Its protagonist, Rutherford Calhoun, comes off as a latter day Huck Finn, only this time black and educated. The wit and wisdom is very nearly the same.

Despite what other reviewers may have felt, and despite what one may construe as anachronisms within the book, I can attest that such is not the case. I had similar concerns about the novel's historical accuracy and when I finally did have an opportunity to speak with the author, I voiced those concerns. Mr. Johnson assured me of the veracity of virtually every aspect of every detail; he cited the genesis of the scene in which the dead slave is thrown overboard as an example. As an avid (dare I say slavish?) note-taker, Mr. Johnson had apparently done some research for a project having nothing to do with this novel. Indeed, the research notes to which he refers were taken in the early seventies! They came from a police detective friend of his and detailed the effect water had on the human body after death--unusable for the article for which he had originally been researching, but quite useful for the graphic turning point of Middle Passage.

Other evidence, anecdotal and otherwise, proved that Mr. Johnson did indeed have an extensive and authoritative command of American History, the History of the slave trade (made so believable and accurate by the inclusion of the Arabian slave trader in Africa, and by the rounding up of slaves from the African interior--two very historically accurate details),as well as of the ship and her voyage. Thus the exhaustive historical detail is quite effective in the telling of the tale.

One point in which the author and the novel falter lies in the books inability to follow through on its Magical Realist ambitions. Perhaps Mr. Johnson might have included in the dedication an apology to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, most notable and accomplished writer of magical realism. The African god of the Allmuseri is well developed and effectively presented. Its potential for malevolence is a quality keenly felt by this reader and should be noted as an accomplishment on the part of the author. However, the supernatural quality of the unnamed entity deteriorated too quickly into an ineffectual stasis nearly forgotten by author and reader alike; it is only brought back to life to function as a bridge between Rutherford's life at sea and Rutherford's life on land. The problem is that the maneuver is at once clever and contrived and therefore weakened. Mr. Johnson is a clever enough writer. He may simply have gotten too clever for his own good.

Middle Passage is an accomplishment that well represents the National Book Award. It is a well written and finely crafted book worhty of becoming literature. Its foray into the realm of the magical realists is entertaining if only somewhat distracting and should not be considered as a detriment as it does not "undo" anything the author "does". I highly recommend your purchase of Middle Passage.