Agatha Christie A to Z is a pretty thorough and comprehensive guide to the works and life of the world's greatest and most enduring mystery writer ever. Everything is here from Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple to the most obscure characters. This is a must for Christie fans and for all mystery lovers.

Many books have been written concerning the life and writing of Agatha Christie, but, so far, this book must take the prize for being the most comprehensive, well-informed and accurate guide to the work of this remarkable author. This is not a critical appraisal of Christie's works, but rather the sort of book you need at hand when reading a Christie title. Dawn B. Sova has compiled an outstanding array of knowledge on Agatha Christie's books, with all sorts of information which should further any devoted reader's enjoyment of Mrs Christie's work. An excellent achievement.

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Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools?: What Early Communities Have To Tell Us by David Mathews (former President of the University of Alabama, former Secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and current Trustee and President of the Kettering Foundation) is a close and analytical look at how frontier communities such as those in Alabama came together to build their schools, extracting lessons from history that can be applicable to the present and the future conditions of education. From scrutinizing past attitudes, to the profound impact of the Free Public School Act of 1854, to unintended consequences of the state system of public schools, and more, Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools? is a thoughtful, highly recommended historical survey of the groundwork from which our current system originated -- with all its flaws and achievements.

Chris Barton has been through a horrific time. His yonger sister Molly had supposedly drowned. Their family phycologist told them to watch any videos of that fateful day to rid themselves of demons. Chris went to bed with a funny feeling. During the night he awoke to watch the video again. Suddenly he saw the ice cream truck drive by without music, acting strangely. Sparked by just a feeling, he began a journey to the riverside town. The truck's owner skipped town! Just how far will Chris and his friend Pat go to justify this funny feeling? David Patneaude describes their adventure in amazing detail. A must read for any age.

I found this book both sad and suspenseful. It is probly the best book I have read to date. Chris still torn from the death of his sister finds hope when he discovers she could still be alive, but pat his best friend is the only person who will believe him. With doubt at the back of there minds they head out on a thrilling adventure thats a real page turner. i found this book heart-warming with out the usual viloince comenly in these type of books. I have read it several times and would recamend it for anyone.

The family believes Molly drowned. Her brother Chris comes to suspect something else has happened to his sister. So begins the journey filled with action, fear, and much suspense!! Well written - A must read!! Readers won't be able to put it down!!!

Perec's literary output was as varied as anyone's, comprising everything from encyclopedic novels to comic couplets, but he was consistent in one way--the quality of his writing was always excellent. Each of his works revelled in the myriad delights of language, whatever its subject. In this novel, published posthumously in an unfinished form, he uses the generic elements of the mystery novel, confounding and fulfilling them at the same time. A writer disappears from a fictional French African colony, and an unwilling acquaintance is drafted to study the vanished man's final manuscript for clues. The usual dangerous woman makes an appearance, and there are plenty of veiled warnings that the search should be dropped, but at each turn the narrator, well-versed in fictive custom, recognizes the conventions and turns them on their heads. The chapters abound with references to other works, classics and potboilers alike, and the plot in fact begins to hinge on them. Perec scholars or fans will additionally note a host of allusions to his own oeuvre and coded biographical details. Mystery aficionados will be disappointed that "53 Days" was never completed, but its editors have included the outlines and notes that wrap the story up; anyone with an interest in the writing process should find that these appendices more than make up for what's missing.

this book was very usefull.

When Ike left office, he warned of the emmergence of a military industrial complex. A union forged between high ranking officers in the military, defense contractors, and legislators. Each member of this triangle has a different goal, but a common road that leads to that goal. In this book, Hack documents the toll that the "triangle" is taking, on the soldiers of this country and on its' economy. Hack presents disturbing example after another of how neglected our troops are, from that "gem" of a weapon called the m-16 that cursed our boys in Vietnam, to the cavalier attitude u.n. commanders displayed in mis-using OUR troops in Somalia. When someone tells you that the sky is purple, you don't need to read the detailed report they put together explaining their conclusion, just look out the window and see for yourself. Hack has reported from the front by giving us a first hand look at what no "triangle" spin-doctor can justify, willfull neglect and mis-use of our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. This behaviour does not border on criminal, it goes way beyond that.

I really, really enjoyed this book! As a former enlisted US Army soldier myself, this book added extraordinary insight to the confounding, herky-jerky decision making that came from every headquarters higher than Battalion level, regardless of unit.

Col. Hackworth's brilliant revelations on the self-serving motivations of O-5 and higher officers were invaluable and revealing of the top-heavy, job-preserving nature of not only the military, but of the federal government itself.

I must say that a few of Hackworth's "Perfumed Princes" seem to have read the book and given it a sour-grapes 1 star rating. Mainly because of the blunt writing style. God forbid that we should read the truth about self-serving flag officers in plain language!

Hackworth cuts through today's political doublespeak with a chainsaw. Part of what's wrong with America today is an unwillingness of high-level decision makers to speak plainly, in layman's terms.

Dissertation-dry military books are as full of misdirection and obfuscation as a US congressman. Truth and plain speaking are as rare as hen's teeth in the litigation-cowed tortocracy that is America today.

If you want hoity-toity, quasi-intellectual pabulum, read someone else. If you want the truth, from a warrior who's been there and is willing to stand up the slings and arrows of the entrenched status quo elite, then Col. Hackworth delivers in spades.

Col Hackworth does it again in giving the combat soldier's front line experiences, problems, and on site management of same. Combine this book with his book "About Face" and the Korean/Vietnam tragedies are seen in a much different light than that portrayed in and by the media and many politicians before, during, and after US military involvement in Korea and/or Vietnam.These books by Hackworth are not solely for the military student or professional. They are equally for the civilian politician and taxpaying public that provides for and/or pays the bills for the US (and many foreign) military establishments and similar activities. (Read also Amazon Book Review of "About Face" by Robert W Sheehy)

It bothers me to no end to read the negative reviews of this book. Maybe it's because the book is labeled from "casual" to "expert" user. I knew absolutely nothing about web publishing and HTML coding and found this extremely easy to read and follow. Unfortunately there were probably a few people in the "advanced" bracket who needed to slam this book because it did not cover what they expected. It gave me a solid basis for HTML and Dynamic HTML coding and was a great introduction to Java and CGI. When an author has to cover so many subjects related to HTML he's bound to skim over the more advanced applications. Being almost 1000 pages, it does a sterling job. By the way, the CD has a great HTML editor on it!

As a beginner I found the book a tremendous resource into HTML and Web page authoring. I do not believe the book is intended to be an exhaustive reference on every topic but wants to focus on normal day to day concerns. After reading the book I now feel extremely comfortable on all Web issues and recommend the text highly.

Easy and fun to read and learn basics of HTML and well beyond. Logically organized so it works well both for self-instruction and as a reference.

Considering that most of the Oracle DBA books on the market are simply horrible, filling hundreds of pages with unneeded info, this book is the first attempt to make a purely technical, no nonesense reference guide for DBAs to use. Those new to Oracle 8 will get a good introduction to new features. However, do not look for a recipe to install Oracle on Unix, do backup and recovery, set up the OS environment, etc. For these critical and complex tasks the book follows the old industry tradition: it gently touches upon these topics... and moves on.

Granted...I am a junior DBA but this book is very good at presenting the basics with enough detail that I would definitely recommend it over many other general Oracle DBA books (including the Handbook by Oracle Press). It really helped in spelling out the exact steps to creating a database as well as installing Oracle (which for some reason many books neglect). With that said, whether you use this book or another book, it is a good idea to also purchase topic specific books (eg. Backup and Recovery, Tuning, etc.) when more detail is needed.

As a Solaris admin I have little knowledge of Oracle. I really did not want to know much either. However, I must know something of it's design and layout. I also need to know what services/daemons do what. However, all the books I found covered Oracle on NT/2000. Who in their right mind would do such a thing! Anyway, this book as sufficient coverage of Oracle on Solaris that it helped get me up to speed on Oracle enough to understand an Oracle DBA when they speak!