I am still in high school, but I plan to use this book very extensively during my application process. I checked this book out from the library and it had so much good information I had to buy it. It's a little more expensive than most books on the admissions process but well worth it! What I did to make the best use of this book: In a notebook, I made a page for about 15 or so colleges that I'm considering. This books contains a TON of quotes from admissions officers about what they're looking for, so I took notes on each university. When I apply to these colleges, I will have a great reference of EXACTLY what their admissions departments are looking for in applicants. I can't testify to it yet, but I'm sure it will give me an extra edge! I feel I am a good but not breathtaking candidate for college, so I am worried about getting into the colleges that I have set my sights on. This book assured me that, through my application (which this book helps you out with), I could possibly gain acceptance to an Ivy. YOU MUST GET IT!

In How To Get Into The Top Colleges College admission specialists Richard Montauk and Krista Klein successfully collaborate to share the secrets of mastering the rigorous and highly competitive application process for admission to elite colleges. They show the reader what leading schools are looking for in applicants and what the aspiring applicant can do to upgrade his or her credentials and present themselves effectively. How To Get Into The Top Colleges is a highly recommended addition to high school and community library collections, and a "must" for any student needing an edge to securing their placement into the school of their choice.

Having recently graduated from one of the colleges mentioned numerous times in this book, I decided to check it out to see if I could have done anything more to ensure admittance into the school of my choice. In hindsight, this book would have been a tremendously useful resource, and probably given me more choices in my college selection process. Students who use the advice of Montauk and Klein will definitely have an advantage in getting admitted to the schools of their choice. I also see that these two have also worked on a similar book on getting into an MBA program called, How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs. As I look to continue my education, I will definitely use their book to help me get into the MBA program of my choice.

Being a French speaker, I didn't have any problem understand it and reading it. The subject is really well covered and written by many scientists. Many causes are explained.

This is the best, most comprehensive treatment of available data (which has grown some) and theories (which have grown but not multiplied) on land vertebrate extinctions of the last 100,000 years. If you are a mammoth/sabertooth extinction hound, this book will feed you better than any other. It does require some specialized knowledge in a few chapters, but the gist is accessible for the educated layperson. It's worth hunting for or buying used.

A more recent offering, though briefer, is "Extinctions in Near Time," Ross MacPhee, ed.

I appreciate the candor in labeling two of the major sections, entitled 'the theoretical marketplace: geologic-climactic models' and 'the theoretical marketplace: cultural models' which encompass variations on each of the two main theories for the extinction.

In addition to theories, the book describes the various mammals as well as their pattern of disappearance region by region worldwide. At 867 pages, it will keep you going for a while, but it's worth every page.

There is only one chapter on birds, only passing references to a tortise, lizard, or fish, and nothing on plants. I would love to find similar treatments for changes in characteristic flora for the same time period.

This is THE reference on Quaternary extinctions. The beauty of this book is that it isn't just one person's opinion, but a collection of well-researched articles on Quaternary topics by some of the top minds in the field. College students, especially in the biosciences and geography disciplines, BUY THIS BOOK AND KEEP IT HANDY!

The other reviews didn't say this, but this book employs almost a comic book approach to Melanie Klein's life and ideas. Every page has incredible graphics with captions by the people in the book describing their views. I read it in two sittings, and feel I now know something about object relations and child psychiatry that I hadn't known. There is a whole series of "introducing" books that I plan to investigate.

Dr. Hinshelwood, one of the world's leading proponents of Kleinian psychoanalysis, has produced an interesting and readable synopsis of the work of the noted psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein.

Often difficult to understand, Mrs. Klein's work is centred on the intrapsychic aspects of human development. This slim volume allows the reader an opportunity to appreciate some of the more complex aspects of Kleinian thought.

Having digested Dr. Hinshelwood's excellent text entitled "Clinical Klein", I found the visual depictions in "Introducing Melanie Klein" of some of the same cases described in his other work to be helpful and clarifying.

I would recommend any interested reader pick up both volumes and use the "Introducing..." book as a quick reference guide to the "Clinical..." text.

Klein and Lederman have provided serious students of the small cap investing universe with a valuble reference guide. The book examines the small cap segment of the market from a variety of perspectives, including trading, stock selection and international investments. Each of the chapters is written by a practioner in the industry which makes it readable to investors lacking the training (or patience) to wade through more academically orientated tomes. I would strongly reccomend this book to anyone who wants to go beyond the "hype" that underpins most books on small caps.

This book covers all aspects (in-depth) of small-cap stocks for the investment professional. I used the book as the basis for my MBA thesis on a quantitative small-cap stock model

Although over 15 years old, this book is the best, most comprehensive treatment of available data (which has grown some) and theories (which have grown but not multiplied) on land vertebrate extinctions of the last 100,000 years. If you are a mammoth/sabertooth extinction hound, this book will feed you better than any other. It does require some specialized knowledge in a few chapters, but the gist is accessible for the educated layperson. It's worth hunting for or buying used.

A more recent offering still in print (though briefer) is "Extinctions in Near Time," Ross MacPhee, ed.

I appreciate the candor in labeling two of the major sections, entitled 'the theoretical marketplace: geologic-climactic models' and 'the theoretical marketplace: cultural models' which encompass variations on each of the two main theories for the extinction.

In addition to theories, the book describes the various mammals as well as their pattern of disappearance region by region worldwide. At 867 pages, it will keep you going for a while, but it's worth every page.

There is only one chapter on birds, only passing references to a tortise, lizard, or fish, and nothing on plants. I would love to find similar treatments for changes in characteristic flora for the same time period.

Looks like I will be the minority voice in these ratings. While _The Dawn of Human Culture_ does cover many aspects of human evolution clearly and well, explaining theories and pitfalls, and including a lot of clear sketches, most of the book is just that, a rehash of evolutionary theory. The authors don't get to the subject at hand until very late in the book (in fact, I haven't finished reading yet, and only the knowledge that they do eventually make some sort of a point is keeping me reading it). I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I had been better prepared going in, because I kept expecting to read something really new and interesting.

The Dawn of Human Culture is an excellent summary and sythensis of archeological evidence concerning the anatomical and behavioral development of that last 5 million years that led to the emergence of fully modern homo sapiens. The authors explain the theory of punctuated equilibrium and very convincingly describe the evidence and scientific analysis behind the identification of extraordinary punctuated events such as those that lead to bi-pedalism and tool making.

The strength of the book lies in its logical presentation, clarity of writing, explanation of key issues such as dating techniques and limitations, and behavioral inferences drawn from archaeological remains. Competing theories and evidence are given and, where rebutted, done so in a scholarly and postive way.

In addition to the excellent summation of archaeological and anthropogical knowledge and theory to date, the authors postulate their theory, without avoiding discussion of its limitations, that modern human behavior, dated to have begun 50,000 years ago was due to a "genetic mutation that promoted the fully modern human brain". More could have been written in the final chapter to argue the theory; this is not a criticism, however, but rather a request for more from these two very accomplished authors.

I can highly recommend this book as a comprehensive and balanced summary and synthesis on the subject of human evolution.

This is hands down the best introduction to human origins out there. Don't be fooled by the title: only a fraction of the text is devoted to explaining the dawn of human culture that occurred around 50 kya. The rest of the book superbly traces human evolution, from the earliest known hominids (including the recently discovered Sahelanthropus and Orrorin fossils) to fully modern Homo. Very clear explanations of modern dating techniques are interspersed throughout the text, and gathered together in an appendix for easy reference. The final chapters present a powerful argument for the authors' theory of what sparked the cultural transformation leading to behaviorally modern humans. Non-subscribers to this theory will be pleased with the coverage Klein gives to competing ones.

This is an excellent and very up-to-date introduction to human origins. Highly recommended.

The only review was a downer. Whoever "reader" was, didn't really know anything about literature and philosophy. Some basic philosophy knowledge is needed to read this book. Kant (with the sublime theory), Nietzsche and quoted throughtout the book. Great reading. Specially if you smoke.

This book helped me quit... it has a persuasive approach... instead of telling you why smoking is bad for you, it explores why it is such an alluring habit, tries to unravel its mystique, by looking at the portrayal of cigarettes and smokers in the movies, literature, popular culture, etc. Paraphrasing an extract: "Smoking is perceived as a macho activity of tempting death, which is an equivalent act to taking small doses of poison". This is the thinking person's How To Quit book.

I can not remember the last time I read such a well written book. Klein is an amazing wordsmith & this book is a treasure in understanding the lure, beauty, and sublime charms which keep 1.4 billion people in the world smoking every day.

One of the definitive texts on the evolution of the hominidae. This text presents some very complex material in a very straightforward way with plenty of diagrams, charts, and maps. Many of the controversies found in the field of paleoanthropology are glossed over or skipped altogether, but this volume is still one of the best for an introduction to human evolution both biologically and culturally. A must for anthropology students especially with all the new discoveries in the past few years.

about geology, anthropology and paleantology. This book gives minutely detailed information about everything from history to bones. It should really be used as a reference. There is probably no better book on the subject, it was recommended to me by an anthropologist

By far the most complete and up-to-date treatment of hominid evolution I have encountered. Covers every aspect of paleoanthropology, including climatic changes and dating techniques, in great detail and precision, but with language that even a non-scientist such as myself can understand. An outstanding reference book.

First of all, it should be clarified that John F. Hoffecker's version of what constitutes "Eastern Europe" is the land between the Carpathian Mountains on the west and the Ural Mountains on the east. (Compare this with my review of "The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe"). The imprecise title may cause disappointment to some readers expecting a wider geographical scope for the book.

While this book can be seen a follow-up to his mentor Richard G. Klein's 1973 work "Ice-Age Hunters of the Ukraine", Mr. Hoffecker brings to the subject his own unique expertise in the general study of the archeology of people living in cold environments and applies it to the specific case of these people who amazingly managed to survive in this highly inhospitiable environment during the height of the Ice Age.

The book is divided into seven chapters. The first discusses general anthropological principles and theories pertaining to human adaptation and development in cold environments. The second outlines the environmental conditions of the specific area under study in the book.

The next two chapters focus on Neanderthal finds in the area. The following two chapters discuss the replacement of the local Neanderthal population by the Cro-magnons, and the development of their way of life in the cold Loess Steppe environment. The final chapter summarizes the discussion and is followed by an extremely valuable and extensive bibliography, more than half of which consists of non-English (primarily Russian) sources.

In reading this work I was struck by the ingenuity of these people in the ways they adapted to survive (such as cutting "meat freezers" into the permafrost ground to preserve food for leaner months ahead), and felt that they were much more intelligent than we generally credit prehistoric people as having been. Given the same materials and conditions to survive under, I doubt that I could do half as well as they did.

In summary, this book makes an extremely worthy contribution to the dire lack of knowledge about this subject available in English. The author makes extensive use of the work of Russian and Ukrainian archeologists, as well as knowledge gained from his own participation in digs in the area and access to collections of finds previously closed to Western scholars during the Soviet era.

My only reason for giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is due to some disappointment with the illustrations in the book. All of them are merely reproductions of drawings of artifacts from earlier Soviet-era publications. With his access to the jealously-guarded collections Mr. Hoffecker has written of, it would seem to have been desirable to include new photographs of at least some of these artifacts which have never been seen by Western eyes.

It is hoped that this oversight can be remedied in the future by some sort of companion volume which focuses more on providing a visual record of the artifacts and sites in question to supplement the excellent information the author has provided in the present work.

John F. Hoffecker gives us a book about Ice-Age settlement in Eastern Europe. Starting with the Neanderthals and moving on to modern humans, he writes about how both adapted to the cold climates with technology, social organization, language and even the use of, or lack of, symbols.
'Desolate Landscapes' is one of the most detailed, most complete record of archaeological information I have ever found in any book. Primary sources from Russian literature added greatly to the knowledge we already have about Neanderthals and early modern man. Not light reading, but it can be delightful reading if you enjoy books on early humans or history.

I found this book to be very poorly written and unsatisfactory. It contained lots of bad algorithms and poor coding. Much of the code was unusable and the methods explained were very simple. I could have done without it to be honest. Avoid this book if you want to learn how to program properly

Im not an advaced programmer, but reading some parts... I learned a lot of good things. I couldnt describe them here, but i will implement them on the future projects ahead. Things that I think are essential to the industry grade programmer and to becoming one.
The material was delivered clearly, not necessarily simple... but it is clear. The book is worth all my hard saved money... and im glad to have it, and its fun to read too...

When seeking a reference, most experienced programmers will rather buy a reference that focuses more on the advanced issues than the language concepts itself. Mainly because almost all decent compilers come with extensive help files that cover most of what the programmers might need regarding the language itself. This book doesn't explain much about C, but instead uses C as a tool to explain some very useful issues that are crucial to almost all advanced programmers.

The book wastes no space on trivial stuff like how to open your compiler or use a non-standard C function. Instead, it goes directly into what's important, explaining the concepts and giving concrete examples where appropriate, all using ANSI C.

Since most of the issues aren't dependant on the implementation schemes, almost any advanced programmer would benefit from this book, even if he/she is not programming in C (assuming advanced knowledge of C, of course). The only exceptions are the topics that talk about the ANSI C rules and code organization and optimization. The only disadvantage here is that this book doesn't cover object oriented concepts, but that's not a surprise of course as the book is titled "C Unleashed." But still for anything else other than that, this could be a great help even to C++ programmers.

The book chapters have been written by more than 10 experienced programmers, 6 of them are really good, which makes each chapter standalone as a small tutorial on some issue. The writing style of Richard Heathfield and many of the co-authors is very nice to read and clear to understand. Some parts, of course, do not have that nice writing style, but throughout the book, the technical information is very clear and easy to comprehend.

I wouldn't recommend this book to any new programmers. But for the more advanced ones, this is something they would want to check.

-Mokhtar M. Khorshid