This book has a fantastic beginning! For me, there is nothing than a good novel from the American south, and this book starts out just that way! The characters are astounding! Juliet has it all! The things that drive us and the characters in the book to her and the same things that drive us away. What a powerful start! About midway, the book takes a turn towards a mundane murder mystery. As a police mystery, the book was not nearly as interesting as it was as a Southern novel. The ending was even weaker. I enjoyed it, but wished that Bradley had continued his write to his strengths to the end.

Normally, I am not really a fan of mysteries. I am however, a New Orleanean who loves to read books pertaining to the area and in that regard, this is one of the best I have ever come across. The story itself is more than decent, but the rich descriptions of the city are what more than held me captive. You want to feel sorry for the main character, Sonny due to his undying love for a crazed woman who keeps breaking his heart over and over again, but mid-way through the novel you want to scream at him "WAKE UP!!!" This is book I would highly recommend to other readers.

i read this one because i haven't been down south in three years and lately i've been reading southern books, just out of sentimentality....this story is ruthless. it's a bout a man's obsession with a woman who has him pegged; he knows she is bad for him, but he loves her anyway. every man has had at least one woman in his life who was that way( and probably yearns for another ) sonny is one of those artists who probably knows he bad, but he does it because he doesn't know how to do any thing else...he makes for an interesting psychological profile.

but the book is all about juliet....

man, this woman is the epitome of the psychowoman from hell...the things she says and does freaked me out totally...if the story was just about the realtionship between sonny and juliet, i would have given it five stars...but mr bradley, had to do a james m. cain, and give us a crime story... i wasn't that impressed...

still the book was cool, just to " see " new orleans again...sometimes, i do miss it......

Anyone who is thinking about reading this book should
know that VDP was a major BS artist. Very good at it too,
was a friend of royalty and also Jung. If you can find it,
read J.D.F. Jones "Storyteller: The Lives of Laurens Van
Der Post". VDP was constantly reinventing himself. Many
of his stories about everything from his war record to
his Bushman connections were exaggerated or just plain
invented. People loved to hear this stuff about the great
white hunter, the ancient heart of Africa, blah blah blah.
To his credit, he did oppose apartheid.

If you want an readable book on the Bushmen, try Elizabeth
Marshall Thomas' "The Harmless People". At least she actually
knew them!

BTW The film is called "The Lost World of the Kalahari",
BBC 1958. Don't know if you can get it on video. A better bet
would be "Kalahari Desert People", by John Marshall.

Laurens Van der Post is one of those writers -- at least on the evidence of this book -- for whom it is not enough simply to master his material; he also has to dominate it. His descriptions and accounts of the bush of Southern Africa are indeed compelling. Unfortunately, they are far too often buried under considerably less interesting material. I wanted to see and hear a whole lot more of the Kalahari and the Bushmen and a whole lot less of Van der Post's incessant insistence on his relation to the desert, his relation to the Bushman, his troubles with the cinematographer he hired to photograph his search. Also, this book was written in 1959, in the United States a time well before the Civil Rights movement and in Southern Africa a time of apartheid and white colonialism. Van Der Post is very much a man of his era and the book is replete with paternalism and grousings about the black porters in his expedition. Finally, his leadership is abysmal. He takes his party to a huge swamp in the Okavango where to any casual observer the elusive Bushman (Bushman, Laurens, not Waterman) would be least likely to be found. This gross miscalculation takes up well over a third of the book and must have sorely tried the patience of those in his expedition even more than it tried the patience of this reader. In fairness, for those unfamiliar with the Bushman and the Kalahari and Okavango of Southern Africa, this book does serve, despite Van der Post's flawed, and heavy-handed writing.

I stayed up until three AM reading this book. It's both gripping, informative and inspiring. Van Der Post starts out telling us about the wild Bushman, untamed or corrupted by civilization, almost extinct in his time, certainly gone by now. Then he regales us with a wonderful story about his expedition into the deepest dessert areas of the Kalahari to find the last living indigenous Bushmen. There is magic in this book, in the panoramic, images he paints of nature scenes and spiritual moments of insight and mystic wonder. Part of the goal of the expedition was to create a documentary for BBC. I'd love to find a copy of that to view. The mixture of the gritty reality of mounting and carrying out a real safari expedition, blended with the wonder and surprise the author shares makes this a very special book. We have so much to learn from history's lost indigenous cultures. Books like these help remind us of the different, incredible ways one can be human. If you like this, you will most certainly also like Original Wisdom, by Robert Wolff.

Once you have a grounding in matrix analysis and linear algebra this book makes a good reference. His explanations tend to be terse (even exceptionally so)- more suited for reminding someone who already knows how the algorithm works or was derived and simply can't remember the details. It lost a star as I've found some annoying typos (for example, in the pseudocode for the GMRES algorithm).

A few years ago this book permitted me to go reliably from
theoretical linear algebra to practical large-scale numerical
computations, using also LAPACK. I think this is its place:
from the university course level to the practical side.
On the other hand, one cannot really say it is as readable
as, say, Numerical Recipes: it has a quite terse style.

This book should be placed alongside "Principles of Mathematical Analysis" by Walter Rudin and "Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces" by Paul Halmos as a classic text, one which students/professionals of mathematics will use for years to come. A solid book covering computational matrix theory. I myself used it as a tool to bridge the gap between my formal training in Mathematics and my serious interest in computers. Reader should have some knowledge of basic linear algebra(ie understanding of vector spaces, L2 norms, etc..) before attempting this book. Excercises could be better. A good purchase for those with a more than passing interest.

Don't let "2.1" influence you; the linux version really doesn't make a difference. This book covers a wide range of topics from scripting to C to Java to python to file sharing to internet services and the like. The strength of this book is the wide range of things it covers. Another strength is that is generally very easy reading and easy to follow for a beginner. You don't have to know what you are doing to learn a lot. The Samba chapter is topnotch with sections on troubleshooting and everything. The shell scripting chapter is nice too.

The downside of this book is that nothing is really done in detail. For instance the chapter on shells lists some differences between C shells and bash shells, which was good. But it has nothing really about commands themselves. In some ways this book can't decide if it's for beginners or more advanced people. The chapters on internet services (httpd, nfs etc) are really simple. But the chapters on stuff like tcl python java are more for advanced people.

I think the book works best for beginners. There is a lot of information clearly written, all in one book. It is a very good book, with limitations.

I came into this as a Unix user, never having administered anything a day in my life. I thought it was an execllent introduction for a new user - one book can't be all things to all people. But the installation guide was great for someone who has never touched a Linux install before. I'll agree with one of the above reviewers... it could stand to be a little more in-depth with core Linux daemons like apache and sendmail. I did think the section on Samba was outstanding, but was a little confused when it came the entire section on networking and BIND. A little less on programming with TCL and Python, and a little more on the common tasks the administrator takes on every day.

Still, I think it's a great primer, and it was certainly enough that I got a box up and running without too much of a headache.

The book is excelent for beginners to intermediate users, but more oriented to the sysadmins. It covers all importante aspects of installing, configuring and maintaining Debian. If it were a little bit more broader it would cover everything needed.
The only disapointing aspect it's the ortographic errors and the mislabeled pictures.

not gonna do back flips for a math book

I am a college student and the math book that was at the bookstore was $100.00. I went onto amazon.com and found the same book in new condition (looked like)for $56.00. I was kind of weary about ordering on-line for the first time but was pleasently surprised. This was a great first experience and plan on ording all my books through amazon.com.

"Ideas" is the key here as we have calculators, computers, and what not to do any real number crunching or comparing. This book carries you from zero to the edges of most any mathematical discipline. The information in the margins ties the theories back to reality. At the appropriate locations in the margin are postage stamps from around the works are shown commemorating the individual mathematicians and scientists relating to the subject being studied. There is a section in the book with the answers to all the odd questions.

If you're looking for detailed biographies of George III's children, this isn't the book, but it's excellent as a resource for basic information regarding the lives. It gets very, very complicated, trying to remember which child is the Duke of whatever, so I had to keep referencing the family tree, but that's not the fault of the author, it's simply a result of the king and queen's fertility.

It was interesting to read about King George and Queen Charlotte's fifteen children. The author tells us about all fifteen, and portrays some of them, for instance King William, in a more positive way than in the case of other books. Van der Kiste claims that King William was positive for British politics. At the same time, we are told that he was a very good father to his ten children born out of wedlock. And van der Kiste claims that his younger brother, the Duke of Cumberland, was not a murderer. This also contradicts versions I have read before. The author tells us that most of King George's fifteen children had their flaws, but at the same time they had their good sides. In this way I do believe that van der Kiste gives us a more balanced view than many other authors.

As for the King's many daughters, I must say that I really feel sorry for them. They had to stay with their possessive parents, and none of them were allowed to marry until they were old. They were expected to obey their parents, and seemed to have had rather boring and restricted lives.

I agree with some of the the critics that it is often confusing to keep track of who is who, as the author keeps switching between their christian names and their titles. When there were so many of them, it is hard to remember what son or daughter had which title. But, all in all, this is quite a good book.

Writer John Van der Kiste not only knows his history, but also knows how to present it in a fascinating manner. I was prepared to be bored by the large brood of mad King George, but I couldn't put it down. It was wonderful!

Hell, is this the way to begin a review?

Pearl Harbor is a ball, a square, a city, a village, a fool and a loop. Whatever it was, it wasn't this. The Camera doesn't lie -no, but you lie with your own eyes . You do it all the time ,you all deny what you're seeing.So how is a film like this going to make any difference? How is one to make sense of history? -To realize that the British pioneered the technique of aerial destruction of a navy in southern Italy, to feel only empathetic emotion without compassion, a sort of thrill, and feel vicariously English-speaking without the boon of truth and conscience to back it up with?
Live without fleeting flag-wavers; America folds its thoughts upon itself, and is blind. It shocks itself ,nightly, and expects sympathy, like the most selfish old man that ever lived.It cries out in the night, and is impressed with the volume.How desperately low America has become. There is scarcely one iota of sympathy or even coherence to which it appeals; why? because they can't even tell the truth.Hysteria is inflation.

When the Japanese military machine launched an unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 they proved to the world that they were indeed the flesh and blood manifestation of cowardice. Up till then Japan had never met the manifestation of undaunted determination of another nation to seek not only retribution for a large scale cowardly act but also face the consequences for an unspeakable reign of terror imposed upon their neighbors motivated by an insatiable imperialistic appetite. This is a great book and tries to define the spirit, will and actions of what the American psyche was and to what lengths Americans rise to the occasion. Modern America was never tested. Complacency was not in America's vocabulary as the Axis powers found out. This is one of the best books ever published encompassing events, actions and emotions initiated by a single cowardly and catastrophic military event.

Excellent! So much more than a coffee table book. The art work, photographs and narrative are all packaged in this handsome and infromative volume. Everyone from WWII enthusiasts to history students will treasure this great book.

For everyone who is interested in this book, let it first be said that I think many people interested and involved in the deaf community would find it appaling that deafness is being treated as a "sin" or and "error" in humans. While not all people may agree with me on this point, I think it is very important to watch your comments when referring to these books. While Van Cleve uses historical analysis in his work, it fails to account for any positive deaf cultured view of the situation. Those involved in this culture will tell you that deafness is not a disease or a problem, but part of a human being, and Van Cleve fails to recognize this point, and therefore fails in any attempt to empower the Deaf Community. Whether or not this was his attempt is not as important. We all must be aware of the fact that some people are happy how they are. They dont want their deafness "treated" or "cured" becuase it can't be - it is as much a part of them as your eye color.

For a long time I have been searching for such book like this! It is excellent resources for the people, who are interested to learn American Sign Language, to become aware of richly deaf cultural/social history. The authors know where to find such wealthy of information, yet their writings are brevity along with several examples of where the deaf people have been interacted in order to preserve their cultural-linguistic connections. I highly recommended this book to the education and medical personnel to see how the deaf people are evidently happy with their livings without being heavily corrected on their hearing loss.

A Place of Their Own is quite a good book, really, and the authors are qualified to write on their subject matter. In regards to other reviews of this book: Sorry, but the ones accusing God of schizophrenia are not the authors, but trinitarian Christians. After all, it is trinitarian Christianity which insists that God has three distinct personalities. One of them died and was resurrected by the other. One of them prays to the other and begs the other to be saved. One of them sends another to people, one walks around on earth while the other stays in heaven. The third, I suppose, just kind of flies around being misty and mysterious. Then of course, they will insist that they really don't worship three gods, but one. They further insult the mercy of God by implying that he sent someone else (his son/his self) to die for our sins, and as long as we accept that we are saved. Tell me, why would god require a blood sacrifice as the price of salvation? We can't just repent to God and be forgiven? Someone else has to die for something I did? And let's not even get into the fact that all of humanity is supposed to be stained for something done by someone else eons ago, ...or that accepting that someone else has already paid for my sins means PARTY TIME! I can do whatever I want. A Place of Their Own is a highly readable, accessible work that presents its topic in a clear format. It isn't too long and is a good introduction to the topic. VanCleve and Crouch did a great job.

Have yet to find a really thoughtful, well organized book on the Unabomber. I read a fair number of true-crime books; generally I rate Robert Graysmith, who has written excellent books about the Zodiac killer and the Trailside Killer. Those books were well written, full of fascinating facts and research. But Graysmith's Unabomber book "A Desire to Kill" was obviously rushed into print, trying to beat the competition -- an effort to have a title before the public before the trial, while interest in the case was high.

Much the same can be said of Mad Genius. It was also published before the trial. It isn't quite as confusing as Graysmith's book, but then it doesn't strive to be more than a quick summary of what the investigation was like and who the victims were. To make up for lack of depth and/or detail, there is an extremely long list of the evidence seized at the Montana cabin -- with no explanation for what the coded notations the FBI used stand for. And then there's the complete manifesto, appended at the end. My favorite part was the photocopy of the Kazynski's hand-written note about seeds at the very end. At least it had a personal touch.

The definitive Unabomer book has yet to be written; it would take someone like Vincent Bugliosi or Ann Rule to do it justice -- or else the Robert Graysmith of old.

It's clear right from the start that Mad Genius was written in a hurry. The writing is uneven in places, there are stylistic rough edges, but this is no novel, and if Kaczynski would like a nicer biography he'll just have to write one himself. Still, the book is timely, and important, and sufficiently well written to make for easy reading.

The book helps answer many questions about the Unabomber:

- What are the facts of the case? [ not a trivial question for such a protracted case ]

- What is the Ted Kaczynski's background? Who is he, where did he come from, could anyone have guessed that this is what he was up to?

- Why he did it -- motives, frustrations, ideas.

And that's basically all that most people will ever want to know about the unabomber and his story. The book will also give you plenty of minutia to relish over, such as his the inventory of his cabin at the time of the arrest, what "technology" (or lack thereof) did he use to assemble his bombs, and it lists his manifesto in full. The book is not expensive and read quickly -- get it, read it, satisfy your morbid curiosity! :)

Has anybody ever seen a complete list of the contents of Ted's cabin? I need to know the books he had. I've heard he had hundreds of books. What were they? Can anyone tell me what books Ted was reading? Have you noticed how the press squashed that aspect of this man's life?

I don't believe I've seen more than two of Mazursky's films but I enjoyed his book, especially the juicy chapter on his adventures with the increasingly more bizarre Peter Sellers. This is not a biography, but rather a series of essays about his involvement with different Hollywood people and some chapters about his current life and childhood. Recommended.

An interesting, light and witty Summer read that gives you insight into Mazursky's career and tales of movie production. Mazursky, born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn started out as an actor (Blackboard Jungle), moved on to be a comedy writer (Danny Kaye, I Love You Alice B Toklas) when acting parts were infrequent, and made his directorial debut with Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. My favorite scenes in the book? When a young Mazursky catches his zade eating his bubbe's herring on the afternoon of Yom Kippur; when Eisner and Katzenberg ask Mazursky if he thinks that the I.B. Singer story (Enemies, A Love Story) is too Jewish... maybe it can be about the Cambodian Holocaust instead of the WWII one; when Richard Dreyfus pulls out of the Enemies project; and the creation of Down&Out in Beverly Hills.

I loved reading this book, both from the standpoint of appreciating Paul Mazursky the director of many of my favorite films and reveling in Paul Mazursky the no-holds-barred storyteller. But--and, I'm sorry, there is a 'but'---why devote one sentence to the great Art Carney, who Mazursky calls the most pure actor he'd ever worked with, and then not tell the reader WHY he feels that way about Carney? There are no anecdotes to share about Jill Clayburgh or Robin Williams? Come on, Paul, give! This lapse is mostly compensated for by Mazursky's tales of traveling in the "then" Soviet Union and South America, his memories of working for Danny Kaye and his sharing the bitter and the sweet about his family, his friends and the ups and downs of his life. The chapter about Mazursky's relationship with his mother is especially powerful and a reminder that much of the pathos within even his funniest films came honestly to him. So, five stars for what's here---just would've liked to have seen more!