While the Nutshell book is more of a reference guide, Aho's shows how to really use the language with practical examples.

From basic examples to flatfile reports and using Awk to try out language issues in compiler design.

For those who know Awk there are some great ideas in here. For those who are just starting out it's an excellent way to ease yourself into writing Awk scripts.

A script writers must have.

This is THE bible for awk users. If you refuse to use perl, which incorporated most of awk, or have to maintain old awk scripts then this is the text. I like the O'Reilly text for learning the basics, but after that you need this guide. For some tasks awk is the premier solution, for others, use awk as part of the solution along with perl and a shell script. Still a cool language. And this book is very helpful for both beginning intermediate programmers of awk and advanced users.

The AWK Programming Language was written very well. The first couple of chapters describe the language and the rest are full of real-world examples. The exercises at the end of each section are very helpful and expand on the examples given. Any one who works with flat data files should be familiar with awk, and this is the book to get the job done.

INTO THE TIGER'S JAW has been an inspiration to my students and to me. In Lt. General Petersen we met a courageous man who was not afraid to stand up for what he felt was just and honorable---a man of integrity who overcame obstacles that would have defeated a lesser man. We felt shame at the injustices that he often endured and pride in his accomplishments. Thank you General Petersen and J. Alfred Phelps for this magnificent book and for introducing us to another American hero and role model.

It's one thing to hear about how great someone is; it's something totally different to have met that person and to KNOW how great that person is. Lt. Gen. Petersen was my Wing Commander while I was stationed in Okinawa (Headquarters, G-3) during my '83-'84 tour of "The Rock." Though we chatted briefly on a few occasions after his afternoon workouts (yes, he ran daily with that bad hip), he helped me forge an extremely strong sense of duty and honor, and he has been a very positive influence in my life that carries on even today. What's great about the book is that it grabs you and dives right in, taking you on a spellbinding trip that explores the heart and soul of a true battle-hardened, no-nonsense warrior. It could also serve as a seminal work on the history of race relations in the military over the past 50 years. Readers will be thrilled, fascinated, and even brought to tears as they become one with the words which flow so well that it's almost as if General Petersen has a direct link to your brain. There is high drama on all fronts, whether it's in the cockpit of an F-4 Phantom sustaining 37mm anti-aircraft fire, or in the military courtroom showcasing some of the world's most notorious people. The story of Lt. Gen. Petersen's personal life and his career in the Corps will be very inspirational and highly motivating for anyone who reads it. What else would you expect from a Marine?

Semper Fidelis.

It was truly wonderful to find such a book into day's market place...As a person of color it was absolutely amazing to find such an American Hero. Thanks General Petersen and Joseph A. Phelps for the insight!!!

If you've never been introduced to the 3 Investigators, you have no idea what you're missing. They make Nancy, Frank, and Joe look as exciting as an unbuttered piece of stale white bread. And parents, don't overlook these books for your daughters! I loved them as a child and I'm delighted to find my children are as enthralled today as I was then. I recommend starting here, with #1, to introduce readers to the 3 Investigators' start. As an added bonus, main character Jupiter Jones uses a vocabulary most English professors would be delighted with. It's nice to have a series of books that doesn't downplay its wording. Your kids can have a grand time reading, and actually learn at the same time! Most especially, I recommend Terror Castle and all the 3 Investigators books for any parent trying to find something to motivate their children to read more. These are genuine page turners. Exciting, thrilling, puzzling- everything a good mystery should be!

At one time I used to own the first 23 titles of AH & The Three Investigators. As I've grown older, I've lost titles until I recently realized I only had two left. I've lamented to my wife, after searching used book stores high and low for the other titles and not finding them, that this was a great blow against childhood reading. I was so glad that they are still being printed and read! The format may be different and Alfred Hitchcock is lamentably missing, but they are still as readable and enjoyable as they were when I was a child!

I highly recommend this series for young readers who dream of adventure and suspense. They invigorated my youth and helped interest me in reading and writing. I hope to God that there are more coming out!

And for those of us who remember Alfred Hitchcock, maybe Random House could put out a collectors series of the books as they were originally released - covers, illustrations and all. I would certainly snap them up!

Wow. I'm 33 years old and thought I am probably the only adult who would pick up a Three Investigator's book and read it. I am here looking for some of The Three Investigator's books for my girlfriend's son. I saved a few of the books I had as a child, a couple of them in hardback, with the intent of saving them for my children. Most of the books I read in the series I checked out at the library. Reading these books provided some of my fondest childhood memories. The young man I am buying these books for has just discovered a love for reading and I believe that these stories will hook them just like they did me. Amazon, please act upon the suggestions of others and release the entire series if possible.

'Ecological imperialism: The biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900', by A. W. Crosby, is a cogently argued and well written book. The main thesis of the book is that the expansion by Europeans to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other enclaves (what Crosby calls the Neo-Europes) wouldn't have succeded if the biota the Europeans brought with them had not suceeded. This biota included not only humans, of course, but pathogens, weeds and grasses, and horses, cattle, goats, and pigs, among the most important. Crosby addresses the reasons why this biota was so succesful in the new territories, and concludes that, in general, the climatic regimes there were sufficiently similar to those of its European origins and the indigenous biota was so 'naive' that 'victory' was almost assured to the invaders. To be sure, this is not an original conclusion, but the wealth of data Crosby uses, along with his synthetic power and sense of humor, makes of this book an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. People interested in searching for the biological causes of the successes (and failures!) of Europeans in the world should read this engaging book.

Alfred Crosby's "Ecological Imperialism" is a provocative, well-written and definitely fascinating book. Crosby examines the reason Europeans were able to defeat the Indigenous people in American, Australia and New Zealand. Crosby argues that the biology and ecology factors played tremendous roles in their win. Crosy argues that the weeds, animals and the Europeans best allies, the germs or diseases that they brought with them to the New World dominated the Indigenous people. The Europeans sought to make the New World as similiar to that of the Old World. It was interesting for me because we were taught that the military superiority of the Europeans was the main factor. In addition, Crosy also examines the unsuccessful attempts of the Europeans at dominating Asia and Africa.

"Ecological Imperialism" definitely is a groundbreaking book in the field of environmental history.

The Europeans' displacement and replacement of native peoples in the temperate zones were more a result of "superior" biology than military conquest, according to Crosby in this book.

Europe held an unassailable biotic mix that some native peoples and ecosystems could not withstand. This biota fucntioned as a team wherever Europeans took it. European germs swept aside native peoples. Europe's cattle, pigs and horses filled native biotic niches. European weeds and agriculture squeezed out native plants. This biological expansion of Europe created "Neo-Europes" which still function today in North America, Australia, New Zealand and southern South America.

European imperialism often failed or was considerably delayed in areas where Europe's biota could not prevail. In China much the same biota was already present. Africa, the Amazon and southeast Asia were too hot, too fecund and too disease-ridden for Europe's animals, plants and humans. These areas were among the last to be dominated as a result, and then only briefly, when Europe's technology gave temporary edge to its armies.

The Big Sky, by A.B Guthrie,tells the too-real-to-be-fiction story of Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers. The great description of the area, Northwestern Montana, is 100% accuate, from the indian tribes found in the region, to the local dialects of the men. Guthrie wrote this story as if he were actually in the place of the men, and if everything actually took place in the story. Boone is the stereotypical "mountain man" of the story, the rough, rugged, hard nosed hero. His best friend, Jim Deakins, is the anti-Boone character. Jim can also be considered a mountain man, but his personality is completly different then Boone's. Throughout the book, the characters come to life, where the reader becomes concerned and scared for Boone, Jim, and Dick through their trials. The tone almost throughout the entire story is Paranoia. Thsi is true, because Boone and Jim start to realize their paradise in Montana is becoming new stomping ground for people coming west to settle. Boone then becomes paranoid of people around him, where he finally isolates himself in the woods, with no human contact beside a few blackfeet indians. Boone also becomes weary of staying inside a house, or any space where he is not outside in the free land. He becomes depresed if he is taken out of his habitat for a great period of time, perhaps because he is paranoid that he won't be able to stay in nature any longer if he is stuck outside it. This becomes clear when his father dies, and he travels back to Kentucky. He describes his feelings of Kentucky as follows "He had felt at home outdoors. It was as if the land and sky and wind were friendly, and no need for a pack of people about to make him easy. The wind had a voice to it, and the land lay ready for him, and the sky gave room for his eye and mind. But now he felt different, cramped by the forest that rose thick as grass over him, shutting out the sun and letting him see only a piece of sky now and then, and it faded and closed down like a roof. THe wind was dead here, not even the leaves of the grat poplars, rising high over all the rest, so much as trembled. It was a still, closed-in, broody world, and a man in it went empty and lost inside, as if all that he had counted on was taken away, and he without a friend or an aim or a proper place anywhere."(page 357) Overall, this book is a great book if you love reading a passionate story about a man and his one true love, nature. Boone represents the man with the call of the wild in his soul, and his struggle to keep what he has while he can. Living in Montana, this book is also an interesting story that depicts the lives of people living where I now call home in the 1830's.

I have read The Big Sky three times, and scanned it many more. Having grown up in Browning, MT, this book really takes me home. What sets Guthrie's work apart from other writers of the mountain man genre, is character development. The way characters like Jim Deakins, and Boone Caudill, and Dick Summers, become complete people, is uncanny. The internal dialogues each carry on is fascinating. Jim's thoughts about god are succinct, and( I feel) right on the money. Boone Caudill is a misfit in any society, and the only way he could possibly live and let live, is utterly on his own. He becomes "broody" when in the company of others, and is nowhere near likable. His demeanor is completely opposed to that of Jim Deakins, who is carefree, and refuses to take anything too seriously. Boone's words, upon their meeting, "A man would have to be willing to stand by his partner, come whatever" (a paraphrase), turn out to be very ironic. Dick Summers is really the main character, as his saga continues through "The Way West", and "Fair Land, Fair Land". He is the balance between the two, and the glue that holds the partnership together. This book chronicles the heyday of the fur trade, and signals the end of that era, and the open west. I'd highly recommend it to anyone, be it for it's accurate descriptions of the time, or it's sociological implications. It is not just another mountain man story.

The Big Sky is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. In my opinion it is better-written than its sequel, The Way West, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Both books are really great! The characters in the Big Sky are well-developed. The descriptions of both the people and the country in which they live are very well done. Guthrie has a real knack for pulling the reader into the story. This book was extremely hard to put down. Boone Caudill, Dick Summers, and Jim Deakins are the stuff of which legends are made. I am so glad there are 6 Big Sky novels. I am currently reading the 3rd one, Fair Land, Fair Land, and so far it is every bit as good as the first two. If you enjoy reading about the early West you will definitely go for The Big Sky and its sequels. Enjoy!!

"If i think, it all seems absurd to me; if i feel, it all seems strange; if i desire, he who desires is something inside of me."
Sums up the book perfectly. Pessoa explores one of his many personalities. "The Book of Disquiet" explains, in complete depth and faith, the beauty of a lonely, existential, moment by moment life. He explains the beauty that people forget. He explains the world, his perception, as if every moment were the last.
"The book of disquiet" is one of the most insightful books a person can read, but only if one has imagination and an ability to let go. Bernardo Soars, Pessoa's personality who wrote the book, is extreme and eccentric. It isn't easy reading, and it won't affect you if you can't overlook the fact that life doesn't go on like Soars'; that there is more in thinking, dreaming, and desiring than Soars admits. What makes the book so special is how Soars can forget everything but the thought and the moment, and how he can analyze and critique and put into words something that most of us forget to remember. "The book of disquiet" reminds me, at least, of how to appreciate my own mind. It is the only philosophy-like book that i enjoy (as yet) because it is the real thing and encompasses a forgotten part of real life.

Pessoa was a true acrobat of the imagination. The Book of Disquiet is a collection of epiphanic journal or diary prose kept by Pessoa and found decades after his death. The prose is truly some of the most gorgeous musings about everyday life and existence that any reader could ever find. The poet's world is laid out exquisitly and paradoxically for the entire benefit of those who read.I can't say I've ever found such beauty in the pages of a book before. If you like literature albeit simple or complex this book is something that you will immediately cherish for a very long time.

What, in all sincerity, can be said of Fernando Pessoa's Book of Disquiet? The book presents us, as with any superb literary work, with a problem of translation. That is, of translating into value (good, bad, average) an expressive incoherence (the aphoristic style) that is manifested in the heteronyms that Pessoa was, in the dispersed identities, and in the fragmentary incursions into the absurd(real) that pervade the book and brings forth the 'disquiet-ness'. 'Conventional' writers need a 'plot'(could be a subject-person, an event etc) as an anchor in which to secure coherence and from which meaning is derived. Pessoa's genius (like Kafka, Beckett, Lawrence, Blanchot) lies in his deliberate abandonment of (monotonous)anchors and his intrepid embrace of diversity(in the most general sense imaginable) and immanence(one feels 'floating' within life). This author will, I am certain, be recognised as one of the greatest European literary genius.

As an I-Ching author myself (Oracle of Changes I-Ching 1997), I have an exhaustive library of I-Ching books. Alfred Huang's is the latest addition to my collection, and by far the best. In fact, I believe it is the best I-Ching ever compiled.

It is translated from the original Chinese, but is much easier to understand than Wilhelm-Baynes and the other literal translations. The writing is poetic and conveys a personal warmth that makes the whole work engaging and easy to use. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Master Huang uses the ancient style of ideographs and proceeds to explicate the literal meaning of the graphical elements contained within each character.

This makes it possible even for a Westerner to see how the original Chinese character meant what it did, and how that relates to the text of the hexagram as a whole. This is only one outstanding feature that makes this version a must-have for anyone interested in an authentic I Ching experience.

ALL of the English translations available have failed to achieve the open-endedness of this work. In the beginning of one's study of I Ching, one does not notice so much that the translation is actually muddying the waters. After many many years and digesting many situations, one comes to feel by intuition that the translations, especially Wilhelm, go completely off track at many points. For one thing, it is difficult to live in a world as delineated into "Superior Men" and "Inferior Men" as the Wilhelm translation has it. The terms are so absolute that thinking of one's fellows in them can actually CAUSE errors in action or perception when one is using the book as an oracle. Master Huang uses much less severe terms, which do not carry the harshness of many translations. He himself commented that his own experience with English translations used for oracles could depress him so badly he didn't want to try again! I agree completely from my own experience. This is just something one has to experience through many years to appreciate. The translation is EVERYTHING.

Master Huang's is the cleanest, clearest, least "contaminated" version available I think. "Neutral" might be a way to state this.

I have had this book for two and a half years, and it was the first version of the I Ching I ever read. I am writing this review now, after reviewing and comparing quite a few other versions, to tell every person who loves the I Ching to get Master Alfred Huang's, which is by far the best of all, and to all newcomers to the I Ching to save money by buying this version, which is all they'll ever need.

To quote Master Huang, "Many Westerners know the I Ching, but they do not know the Tao of I". I means change; this book is about Changes, a master template to understand change and our place in it. There is no other I Ching I've read which so clearly expounds the Tao of I, the central yet difficult to discern theme of the I Ching. Many versions are limited to defining the meaning of each Hexagram in isolation, or dwell at length on the Yao (Line) texts, neglecting a thorough treatment of the situation expounded by the complete hexagram. Master Huang's Complete I Ching presents the text as a coherent, interrelated whole. The names of the hexagrams are carefully chosen to reflect this connection. The moving lines present the hexagram that will appear after the line changes from yin to yang or viceversa, making it easy to see what the progression of the situation will be. The text presents lots of additional reference information for each hexagram, useful for intermediate to advanced students. The Author also presents fascinating interpretations of the hexagrams based on references to the historical period when the I Ching is said to have been written. All this, compounded with a lucid, terse prose, make this book fascinating and easy to read (so you can keep going back to it time and again).

Master Huang mentions in his preface: "Sometimes when I have used English translations [of the I Ching] to divine, I have felt so depressed....When I use the Chinese text... there is always hope", and comments on his intention to recover this spirit in his translation. I believe he has attained this objective, and surpassed all other translators in presenting this greatest of Chinese classics for the western reader. Bravo, Master Huang! I Ching enthusiasts and newcomers, BUY THIS BOOK!

Shackleton's Voyage by Donald Barr Chidsey is the most dramatic tale of survival against all odds that I have read since Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. The thing that fascinated me most in this book was the fact that after Shackleton had failed on his first attempt to discover the South Pole, he proceeded to try again, some six years later, with a crew of 26, aboard the greatest ship of the time, the Endurance. It fascinated me because I couldn't understand why, after seeing the devastation and hardships that could, and would be faced, he would do it again. The best part of the story occurs in the last 30 pages or so, when Shackleton decides the only way they will ever make it out alive is by walking out of their own icy tomb. There's a quote in this section that I especially liked, where things finally turn around. It is the last paragraph, on page 161. "Why not? Somebody had to go and get help. The men might survive a winter on this highly inhospitable island, but with the coming of spring in September, they could not reasonably hope to be spotted and rescued by some stray whaler. So they would have to go and get their own help; and the person to do that, obviously, was Earnest Henry Shackleton. They were his boys weren't they?" I was mesmerized by this quote, because it shows that these explorers were finally taking things into their own hands.

The theme of this story is that no matter how bad things are, you should never give up hope. The commitment to hope, to overcoming what seems impossible, is something that I feel very strongly about because it is a decision to always push forward, to go on with life, to not surrender. The only thing that these stranded men had left was hope, and with no safe shelter, inadequate clothing, nothing but pemmican to eat day after day, and sheer, unbearable boredom, hope was the only thing they had left. With things going so horribly, if they gave up hope, they might as well have given up their lives. This theme relates to me, being the eternal optimist that I am, because I hold hope close to my heart. As an optimist, and also an athlete and a person with a learning disability, I have found over and over again, that it is the belief that things can always be better that keeps you in the game of life. Without hope that belief would be gone.

This is a book well worth the read. It is an exciting and intriguing adventure that introduces you to the early exploration of the Antarctic. It is an awesome adventure where 26 ordinary men battle the elements and themselves . I recommend this book so strongly because it's one that even if you're not an explorer you would like to imagine yourself as one.

I first became interested in Shackleton's incredible story after seeing photos and a short version of Caroline Alexander's book in the National Geographic a couple of years ago. Since then, I've read and reread Lansing's account, as well as Alexander's, and twice seen the new Butler documentary which incorporates the photos and early film of the expedition's photographer, Frank Hurley.

This is quite simply one of the most amazing stories I've ever read. Survival in the face of incredible hardship. Astonishing bravery, persistence, and resourcefulness, all in the face of unimaginable bad luck. This story should have ended in death at least five times. Instead, after 16 (or 20, depending on who you're counting for) months marooned in the antarctic circle, not a single member of Shackleton's crew was lost.

Lansing's account is creditable and more interesting than Alexander's, though her book has the better pictures. I'd suggest buying both.

...because I would still be thawing out from Shackleton's wild romp in the Antarctic. And a few years have passed since their adventure and those fateful seventeen months in 1914-16 when Shackleton and his men encountered the worst Murphy's Law could throw their way. The book is a testament to human endurance, to Lansing's writing, and the leadership of a man like Ernest Shackleton. It is an enjoyable read from front to back, from launch to recovery, from freezing to thawing.

As far as adventure/disaster books go, I would rank it behind Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." Though the author Lansing does an incredible job placing the reader "there" with Shackleton's men as they get their ship stuck in the ice pack in the Weddell Sea, float on ice floes, launch across treacherous seas in lifeboats, and go where no man has gone before on a last ditch desperate land jaunt, the fact doesn't change that Lansing, himself, wasn't there. I think no matter how hard an author can apply his trade to a story, it is difficult to relay to the reader the immediacy of impending doom and the cold and dread and the spirit that drives men to survival. Don't get me wrong, Lansing does a fine job bringing off this task, but it is short of the immediacy Krakauer gives the reader of putting you "there" in the desperate situation and knowing what it is like to survive from the worst nature and man has to offer.

If you want to read the best in adventure/disaster writing start skip by Junger's somewhat thrill-lacking "The Perfect Storm," and head straight for "Into Thin Air," followed by Lansing's "Endurance." Be warned though, you will be losing out on some sleep in the process since these books absolutely prove impossible to put down. Stoke the fire, turn the thermostat up, because you will be chilled to the bone and will probably have nightmares of Sea Lions chasing you across ice floes once you finish the book and finally get some sleep.

I knew we had a great book on our hands when my son called me into his room and begged me to read the last two pages of this book because they "brought tears to his eyes." I knew then that Finding Buck McHenry was the book that had turned by son from a person who reads,into a person who enters the heart of a book and is transformed by it. Hurrah! Not only does this book have a compelling story, but it teaches a good deal about the old Negro Leagues and the heroes of those long forgotten times. This touching story inspires all who read it

Finding Buck McHenry

By Danny

Imagine that you were on a baseball team with no coach and the worst team then you'll love Finding Buck McHenry by Alfred Slote.
Jason has a decision to make is worrying about baseball cards or about Little League. Jason is a normal character not looking for much but a coach for his Little League team. About a couple of later he finds a coach named Buck McHenry and a sponsor and a couple of good key players. Now there team is unstoppable. A hit here and there puts the team in the championship. In the championship Jason needs on more hit to drive in the runner at third for the winning run but dose he get it you will have to read it to find out what happens to Jason and the miracle team of Little League.
This book is a fictional book and an excellent choice to read for a book. So if you like baseball and some adventure (when finding coach and championship) then pick up a copy of Finding Buck McHenry by Alfred Slote.

I can feel it in my bones, this old Negro League book touched me like a jagged bolt of lightning! This heart- wrenching novel is a dramatic masterpiece. It made me feel good because I can really relate to Buck. I know that when I was being chased down the street by someone who thought I was Mickey Mantle, I was just as upset as Buck. In fact, it brought me to tears because Buck was not a real person and I could not talk to him about our similarities. The closest I could get to Buck McHenry was talking to the picture of him on this extraordinary novel. Watching the movie, starring Ossie Davis as Buck, is the highlight of every day. I watch it religously at 12:24pm and 7:02pm, and sometimes at 3:46am when I've got Buck on the mind. He is truly the biggest inspiration in my life. Jason (hottie) Ross believes the school janitor is an old negro league player with a scar like a jagged bolt of lighting, from a scrape with the law, on his leg. I could feel it in my bones that Jason would find the scar shaped like a jagged bolt of lightning on the old Negro Leauge player. Jason, Kim and Aaron alone make up the team "Sluggers", coached by who is thought to ba an Old Negro League player. However, we will not ruin the ending of this story, like Bridget (you know who you are) did for me. Thanks a lot! :( One thing I can tell you about the end of the movie is there is an exciting cheer from a crowd screaming: BUCK! MACK! BUCK! MACK! This gets my heart racing, causing me to take my medication, every time. There are also humorous supporting characters such as the baseball card shop man who says: "Since when did I become an adult! " This line gets me reaching for my medication every time! I am so crazy about this movie! In fact, all my clothes have the 4 which the newscasters wear embroidered onto them! I recently visited the town in which they filmed this movie and took the sign welcoming me to the city. It is now hanging above my bed where I can view it every night. I would recommend this book and the movie to anyone because it is wonderful, inspirational and a joy to read or watch again and again and again. It has made me believe in myself, that yes, I can be just like Buck! Buck McHenry is my hero, and the hero of anyone who will take the time to read this book.

For anyone interested in why computers and the net are the way they are today, this entertaining and well-written account is essential. Using Licklider as the fulcrum, it covers the origins of computer science, interactive computing, and the internetworked PC world we live with today in a very personal way. It provides an insight into how these ideas evolved and how the personalities behind them animated that evolution. It is admittedly a very MIT/ARPA centric history, but given that's where many of these ideas had their genesis, it does a good job of covering a large amount of the territory of modern computing history. The one question the book leaves unanswered is why the field has not evolved further in the last twenty years. After all, as Waldrop demonstrates, the seeds of what we take for granted today were demonstrably in place 20-25 years ago.

Everyone has heard about the amazing ideas and systems from Xerox PARC, but few realize that this lab was was the culmination of JCR Licklider's vision of personal, interactive computing, not its birthplace. Licklider provided the vision and impetus to form the ARPA-funded core of computer science research, which lead to Douglas Englebart's windows and mice, Xerox PARC's innovations, and the Internet. The next time that you hear someone saying that government can't do anything well, give them a copy of this book.

This book is a fascinating, well-written exposition of Licklider's life and work, and even more interestingly, the birth of computer science in the United States. I've never before seen this story as a continuous whole, as opposed to a collection of independent breakthroughs. It is a fascinating narrative, and this is a great book.

If The Dream Machine were a novel, you might conclude the author used every writer's technique to make it a thriller. Even though you know the outcome, you wonder how the many "miracles" and lucky breaks it took for the dream to become reality.