I have heard of Richard Paul Evans, but have never read his books until now. I recieved The Locket in a fed ex package from my step-daughter. I read it in one night. Start to finnish. The Locket is a story of a longing heart and a yearn for love. It is a story of valuing every moment of your every day life. Is about the enduring qualities of hope and forgiveness. When I read the last page I was left in awe. The book has changed me. For anyone who has experienced the redemption of love, you will identify with this book. The Locket is the best book I've read in years, and since reading it, I have put all of Evans' books I've missed at the top of my Christmas list.

This is the only book I've read by this writer, but I will definitely read more of his books. It is a very well written and beautiful story. I couldn't stop reading it once I started. It is also a very quick read because of the brief chapters and the way that it is organized. Although it was a quick book to read and a fairly simple story, I still felt I had been challenged in thought by the time I finished the book. I also had a good cry in the end. Can't wait to pick up another of his books.

My daughter volunters at a Public Library. She has given me some beautiful books. The "Locket" was a l998 Christmas Present. Prior to this she had given me The Christmas Box, The Letter, and Time Piece. It's difficult to say which I liked the best; they are all beautiful. I like the "size" easy to hold when you read lying down! Have given them for Christmas and birthday presents. I have enjoyed his writings so much would love to be able to meet him and his family. Lost my husband just a year ago; I thank the Lord that I have good eye sight there are so many wonderful books; computeers, TV, or movies can never take their place.

I have read every book I could locate about Richard III. I even wrote my Englih paper in college about him. But I have never owned so many copies of the same book. This book is so enthralling, I have gone through four paperback copies. Once read, you can not help but read it again and again,finding some thing new each time.You can't help but feel the emotions of the characters in this book. MS Penman writes so that you are there,eating,drinking,fighting and living life during this incredible time in English hitory.Her explanations for the disapperance of the Princes is more beleivable then any Tudor historian, it makes sense.And ,for her explanations of Richards "character flaws",it shows a man too sensitive for his loves, lossess, and Kingship.It is that sensitivity that makes it impossible to believe he would put two innocent boys to death. I was so glad to read a possitive perspective on Richard's life. This book is as interesting as it addictive. Right on the level with Ms.Penman's Trilogy,Here Be Dragons.

This is the best of the historic fiction genre. I cannot recall the last time I enjoyed a 900+ page novel so much. The Sunne in Splendour is an historic novel about the War of the Roses and its players; its about Warwick, Edward, Richard, Henry the last, Lancastrian king, Marguerite d’Anjou, the Woodvilles, the Nevilles, and the Tudors. Having read Allison Weir’s history, The War of the Roses, and having seen Shakespeare’s Richard III, I thought I knew a bit about both the story and the players. But I never quite saw them the story in this light.

One reviewer described this book as daring. I agree. Unlike Shakespeare, and the histories written by Tudor sycophants, Penman (through historic fiction) portrays Richard sympathetically, and heroically. She represents his claim to the throne as legitimate and creates a plausible alternative to disappearance of the princes in the tower, one in which Richard is quite innocent.

This is a story full of power struggles, warfare, greed, and avarice. It is a story full of malice, politics betrayal, murder, and yes love.

Is should be hard to care about people who lived in the 15th century, but it is not. Sharon Kay Penman brings all of the characters and their many faces to life. She tells the story to the 30+ years of warfare. We all know that history is written by the victorious. Five centuries after the events, Penman brilliantly gives Richard III a voice.

I highly recommend this book.

Found this book in a clearance rack. It was thick and had a pretty cover! Little did I know how wonderful it would be. In fact, when the hurricane blew it away after I'd only read half of it, I was frantic to find it again. My mother found a copy for my birthday but read it first. Now she, too, is one of Sharon's fans. It truly lets you live the days of Richard of York in a most realistic way. I had to look again at the author's name when I read a battle scene that was written so well that the sounds and smells were real! Sharon Kay Penman is one of the world's finest historical writers and it is a surprise to me as well that she isn't on the bestseller list (yet!) You must also read her books on Llewellyn the Great, and Llewellyn, the Last True Prince of Wales.

Met Sharon at a reading for her new mystery, The Queen's Man, in November 1996. She is a lovely, gracious lady.

We, her Miami fans, look forward to her next great book, Cruel As the Grave: A Medieval Mystery. Justin is fantastic!

I must admit that I love Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. The characters are always memorable, the story interesting(and based partly on fact), and the battle scenes very exciting. This isn't the first Sharpe book I've read, but it's the first in chronological order, and that made it even more of a pleasure to read. Richard Sharpe is only a private in his early 20's in this one, and his tough but likable personality and incredible bravery are fully intact, so you'll be cheering for Sharpe in no time. Obadiah Hakeswill, Sharpe's nastiest enemy, and one of Cornwell's best characters, plays a significant role in this book which makes it even more interesting. Just like the other Sharpe novels, as soon as you finish it you'll immediately want to read the next one. So be warned: Sharpe becomes an addiction very quickly. But hey, and addiction like this is a good thing, right?

It is commonly believed that Cornwell has never been behind a bad book. The Sharpe series was universally excellent, even his contemporary thrillers were good, and A.Mack is not known as a lover of contemporary thrillers. The writing is excellent on this work. The charachters and the action is portrayed superbly. When I first bought this book I had read most of the Sharpe series and had also read the Warlord Chronicles. Cornwell wrote the books set in India after most of the books which were set later, when Sharpe-watchers had given up on new Sharpe material, and it did not disappoint. It needed to be written because Sharpe often described Hakeswill and Captain Morris in the Peninsula, and readers wanted to hear about Sharpe's days in India, about which he was reticent in the Peninsula. Indeed the only objection which I have is to the cover. A different edition has a picture of an elaborately carved rifle on the front, and I believe this to be superior to the one displayed.

PS- This book gave me two of my greatest ambitions- to visit India, which I have subsequently done with my latest girlfriend, and to drink three bottles of wine at one sitting, as Morris did, which I have just embarked on the process of achieving....

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After having read the Starbuck serie (Civil War) from B. Cornwell, i had great expectations. To my great delight, the same feeling of plunging in the middle of an historical battlefield seized me after a few pages, making me forget about (every bloody thing I had to do in) my new house for a few hours.

SHARPE'S TIGER is the first in the serie (of about 12) in chronological order. Even though Mr. Cornwell does'nt write them this way, if you want to appreciate the historical flavor and Sharpe's career in Her Majesty's army, you want to read them chronologically.

The reader looking for nice fancy figures of speech will be left unsatisfied. Political correctness is also left in the closet. It is blunt, direct cannon-fodder daily life we are looking at and it is written that way

You may disrespect these incompetent officiers, having bought their grade, you will probably hate Sgt. Hakeswill, the potence saved maniac. you will feel pity for Mary and the destiny traced for her.

One thing is sure, we will all finish that book with the smell of gunpowder floating around us and a smile in the historical note about general Wellington

All rights reserved to The Reviewer Provided by courtesy to Amazon.com

I will echo the other reviewers: this is one of the best, if not the best book I have read.

The book covers the subect on a number of levels. First is the factual story of the events leading up to the making of the bomb, which in themselves would be fascinating. For example, the fact that in two years the Manhattan Project built an industrial plant larger than the US automobile manufacturing base. That only in December of 1938 was the fission of Uranium first discovered, but the course of events were so rapid as to lead to the Trinity test in July of 1945. As a sometime program manager, but no General Groves, it was a fascinating account of the world's most significant projecct.

The second level is a very enjoyable history of nuclear physics as the reader is lead through the discovery process from the turn of the century to thermonuclear fusion. That discovery process is the vehicle for the third and fourth levels of the book. The stories and personalities of the scientists, around the world, who added to that knowledge, what shaped and motivated their lives and how they indiviually gained insight, brilliant insight, into the riddle that was physics. I felt I got to know people like Rutherford, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Szilard, and Teller. The fourth level was that the insight was not really individual but collaborative. This book is one of the finest descriptions of the scientific process and how this open, collaborative and communicative process works across boundaries.

The last level, the biggest surprise and the most profoundly unsettling, was the realization of how this event, inevitable, has "changed everything" about human history - an appreciation, I believe 55 years later, we who did not participate in the Manhattan Project, have yet to fully realize. Niels Bohr realized it in an instant.

The book is superbly written. The personalies came alive, I felt I knew Niels Bohr. It was absolutely suspenseful even though you know the ending (you don't really). I was caught up in the story as though it were a novel. After reading late the night before, one evening I came home and declared to my wife "They dropped the bomb!". Such was the intensity of my participation in the book that my voice had excitement to it. She was horrified. I had to explain, "No, no. In the book. On Hiroshima". When history is that exciting it is hard to beat.

This is one of only a few books about which I can say that I will never quite view the world the same again.

A masterpiece and a must read.

When I was an undergraduate in physics at Harvard, a professor once told us that this book should be required reading for all budding physicists. Having read the book now, I agree absolutely. The individuals involved in the distinguished beginnings of 20th century physics and their stories are as engrossing as the consequences mortifying. I am a reader who believes in the counterfactual argument that the bomb prevented a horrific invasion of Japan. However, the idea of one smallish weapon killing tens of thousands (millions, if you count later bombs) must continue to terrify us and all of humanity forever. During the war, events were as terrifying as the bombmakers could imagine. At Los Alamos, the physicists were working for one purpose -- to get the bomb before Germany. That they were mostly Jews makes the quest that much more sobering. This is an account of events with a complicated reality, a very troubling legacy and a cast of truly fascinating individuals. Rhodes has done a service by telling us this story so elegantly.

I have almost completed Rhodes' book on the making of the atom bomb. It is truly amazing in the wealth of detail and also the broad scope in contains. I am not a scientist or knowledgeable about physics so this content was very difficult for me to understand. I suspect readers without such knowledge will have a struggle trying to understand the description of the various experiments that led to the bomb's development. But in all it is fascinating to read about the battle between the military and the scientists as to whose authority should be paramount. How much secrecy was needed as the bomb developed is another theme of the book, as is the race against time and the Germans who were also on the brink of making the bomb. You will also see that scientists like Niels Bohr were very concerned early on about the complimentarity of nuclear energy and the bomb--their potential for good as well as evil. Mr. Rhodes has done a great service to America and humanity in writing this story. Read it and, like me, you will be mesmerized. Don't let the 780 pages intimidate you, reader, from perusing this epic book.

I read this book in a Book Club with three kids ages 8 and 9. We shared confusing parts and our questions. We met 4 times a week in the Book Club. We discussed word work and our thoughts and ideas. It was our second time reading the book and we understand it better because we read it in our Book Club. We were able to discuss questions and ideas that helped us understand the book better. If you have not read this book in a Book Club you may want to try it. It will help you understand it better. It is about a man that has 12 penguins and he is running out of money. Admiral Drake sent Mr. Popper a penguin. Mr. Popper named it Captain Cook. Then Admiral Drake sent Mr. Popper another penguin he named it Greta. Greta had ten baby penguins. This was a really awesome book.

I think that Mr. Poppers penguins is an awesome book. It is always having something bad happen when it's funny. This book will catch the attention of a lot of kids, because when they start reading they won't want to stop. Kids 9-12 year should read it because there are a couple words that I don't know or know what they mean.
The book reminds me of "The Alaskan Pig",because the animal came as a surprise. Its like it just appeared in a box that came to your door by mistake. Both books are alike in another way because your not going to even expect to get a penguin in the mail or an alaskan pig.
I recommend this book because it is funny and exciting (to me anyway.)

I love the book Mr. Popper's Penguins! I thought that it was a very cool book. It is about this man named Mr. Popper, his wife and two kids. Mr. Popper gets a boy penguin. Then Admiral Drake sends them a girl penguin. Then they get a surprise. You will have to read the book to find out. Then Mr. Popper and his family go on a theater buisness with the penguins. They get paid a lot of money in a week and that is exciting because the Popper's were poor. The penguins get into a lot of trouble. So if you like getting into trouble you should read this book. I hope that you read this book because it is very exciting and wonderful. The penguins love to play in snow and you will never guess were they play in it at the Popper's house. This book is also very funny!

I love physics, but I used to think that it was difficult. Most authors of physics books are too smart to explain it to other people. Feynman is one of the few who realized that not every student is brilliant and that some of us never paid attention during calculus classes - my observation is that people who really like physics don't like mathematics. He takes his time explaining calculus and he pays attention to the smaller steps that in other books are neglected since the author seems to think that readers can do these steps by themselves. We don't, we are stupid!

Feynman's famous three-volume set is an edited set based on his lectures to the introductory physics classes at Caltech, which are widely considered to be among the best lecture series ever published. Feynman takes a different approach from the typical introductory physics textbook. His point of departure perhaps assumes a higher level of mathematical sophistication than most introductory or survey texts. Also, his choice of topics is not as broad and comprehensive as many modern surveys of introductory physics. What makes Feynman's work remarkable is the his manner of explaining physical principles underlying a topic, instead of simply presenting the traditional expression of a rule and its formal mathematical expression. When one completes reading a section of Feynman's lecture, if one has the mathematical sophistication one will obtain a "feel" for how the topic fits in the broad context of physics as a whole. As a note of caution: most introductory physics surveys do not present material with use of matrix mathematics. Feynman assumes familiarity with the basics of matrix algebra, and this fact makes his presentation challenging to many students. In various sources I have read that his lectures were well attended by students in the upper division portion of their education and many graduate students and faculty, while the freshman audience intended may have been poor. That reflects the series as being a high-level conceptual overview reflecting the unified structure of physics. Perhaps not suitable for introductory physics instruction to any but the most advanced students.

Unlike my fellow reviewer above (below?) I *have* a PhD in physics, yet these books taught me more basic physics than I ever learnt in 4 years of undergrad. The quantum mechanics book is especially clear...I honestly wish my first 1st year phyics lecturer had of simply said 'read Feymnam'..I would have learnt so much more than I ever did in lectures/other texts. Give these books to a child starting science/maths and let them grow up using it and learning from it...there could be no better gift.

I enjoyed reading about the life of George Dawson, a man whose life has spanned three centuries. However, the mere fact that he has lived so long does not necessarily a feature book make. Aside from Mr. Dawson's rail travels and working on the Mississippi, Mr. Dawson had not done much else until he took up reading at 98. He can't comment much on events of the 20th century because he couldn't read, and what he could remember was scant. The reader is presented with a view of a genuinely kind man whose outlook on life is basically positive and warm. Yet, I often could not distinguish if I was listening to Mr. Dawson, or his "co-author", Richard Glaubman. It would have been far more interesting to detail Mr. Dawson's years since he began to read. The book speaks of the large numbers of letters written to Mr. Dawson, congratulating him on his beginning his literacy venture so late in life. Why not write more about his classroom experience and how that must have transformed him recently?... or the interaction with those who now wish him well? Perhaps a second book should be in order because that is where the REAL interest in Mr. Dawson lies.

This book is about the life of George Dawson, a remarkable 101-year-old man who is the grandson of slaves. Born in 1898, he tells of what life was like in Texas before integration. He turned away racial hatred by his gentle manner and kept his dignity during the most trying circumstances. He did manual labor from the time he was 4 until he was 90, and at age 98 he began to look for new challenges and so decided to go to Adult Education classes and learn to read. When he was growing up, he was always working,and as the oldest son he was depended upon to contribute financially to his family. His younger brothers and sisters went to school, but he never had a chance until someone knocked on his door and offered him the chance to learn to read. His quiet dignity shines through the pages as his story is told to co-author, Richard Glaubman. Glaubman is an elementary school teacher from Washington who became fascinated with a newspaper article he read about Dawson in a Seattle paper. The two became good friends over the course of the writing of this book and it is told in a narrative style of two friends chatting about the past. Some of the most interesting stories involve Dawson's early years and the times in his 20's when he traveled around the country just to satisfy his wanderlust. This is a wonderful book and in the course of reading it I felt as if I'd gotten to know a very special person

and if you don't believe it, then you need to read this book!

Mr. Dawson has led an amazing life. Born in 1898, he has seen it all. The grandson of freed slaves, he was taught to be a good man, a man of integrity and he learned it well. He married (4 times! and outlived them all!), had 7 children and put them all through school, all graduated college even though he never learned how to read.

Then one day, at the age of 98, he was offered the chance to learn and he seized it. A hard worker all his life, he attacked his new goal with the same attitude. He's now a full time student.

This book is the incredible story of his rich, not in money, but in more important things like love, pride in one's self, and life. The reason for Mr. Dawson's long life? I don't think it was anything as special as eating a certain way, or exercise per say, but it was love. Mr. Dawson loves life and it shines through every part of his life. There are wonderful life lessons are here for everyone; young, old, black, white, man or woman. A must read!

Even though this book was published in 1994, it still serves as a useful reference and learning tool for the TCP/IP protocol. There are of course changes and additions that have been made to TCP/IP over the last 7 years such as IPv6, but one can still refer to this book as a good source of information about the dynamics of TCP/IP. There are exercises at the end of each chapter, so it can, and has been used as an effective textbook.

In chapter 1, the author gives a brief overview of protocol layering, Internet addressing, and the domain name system. The encapsulation mechanisms for TCP and UDP are outlined as well as a discussion of the different implementations of TCP/IP. The Vegas implementation is not discussed since it was invented long after the date of publication of this book. Ethernet and the encapsulation provided by IEEE, SLIP, and PPP is discussed in the next chapter on the link layer, along with the loopback interface and MTU. Estimates are given of serial line throughput, setting the stage for later timing calculations.

The IP protocol is the subject of chapter 3, the author stressing first the connectionless and unreliable nature of IP packet transfer. The IP datagram format is given in discussed, along with a detailed discussion of subnet addressing and subnet masks. The discussion of IP given here is of course very out of date with the advent of IPv6.

Chapter 4 is an overview of ARP, and the author illustrates it effectively using an example of an FTP transfer and Telnet. This is followed by a treatment of RARP in the next chapter, with the limitations of this protocol briefly discussed. Although ARP is incorporated in all current implementations of TCP/IP (with the exception of IPv6), not all of these include RARP.

The ICMP error handling protocol is discussed in the next chapter, with all the message types listed, and brief discussions given of timestamp and address mask requests. This is followed naturally by a discussion of the Ping program in chapter 7, which uses ICMP echo request and reply messages.

The traceroute program, which finds which path IP packets follow from one to the other, is discussed in Chapter 8. An explicit example is given of how to use traceroute. Then in the next chapter, IP routing is discussed, along with an explicit example of a routing table. Again, the discussion is out-of-date, since in IPv6, the router discovery is replaced by a mandatory router solicitation and advertisement mechanism.

Dynamic routing protocols are the subject of the next chapter, wherein the author discusses RIP, OSPF, BGP, and CIDR. The newer ones, such as IGRP, EIGRP, and MPLS, are of course not treated.

UDP is then discussed in the next chapter, with examples given and IP fragmentation discussed, along with a brief overview of how UDP and ARP interact. This is followed in Chapter 12 by a discussion of broadcasting and multicasting, and the author outlines briefly the problems that rise when attempting to broadcast through routers. Then in the next chapter, the ICMP mechanism for multicasting is discussed. Here again the treatment is dated, since in IPv6 IGMP is replaced by multicast listener discovery messages and there are no broadcast addressing in IPv6.

The DNS database is discussed in the next chapter, with emphasis on how resolvers communicate with name servers using TCP/IP. The discussion is limited to A resource records, which is replaced in IPv6 with AAAA or A6 resource records. I did not read the next two chapters on TFTP and BOOTP so I will omit any commentary.

It is in the next chapter that the basics of TCP begin to be discussed, with the details of the TCP header given. The dynamics of the TCP connection is then treated in chapter 18, with a complete TCP state transition diagram given. The discussion is very helpful to those who need a thorough understanding of the connection steps in TCP. This is followed by a treatment of the Nagle algorithm and delayed ACKs in chapter 19. The exercises in this chapter need to be worked to appreciate the discussion.

The following chapter overviews how TCP sliding windows work, and how window sizing is done. Slow start, the bandwidth-delay product, and the urgent mode are all treated in great detail. The mathematical considerations behind TCP timeout and retransmission are given in chapter 21, along with a discussion of the congestion avoidance algorithm and the fast retransmit and fast recovery algorithms. Then in chapter 22, the TCP persist timer, used to prevent transmission deadlock and the silly window syndrome, is discussed in detail. The ability of TCP to implement a keepalive timer is discussed in the next chapter. Since it is out of date, I did not read the next chapter on the future of TCP.

The SNMP network management protocol is outlined in Chapter 25, with definitions of MIB and an overview of SNMP traps. These are very important concepts given the enormous importance of network management currently. There are currently several vendors that supply packages for polling, reporting, and forecasting network behavior that are based partially on SNMP and MIBs.

Telnet and Rlogin, which are still used extensively in modern networks, are discussed in the next chapter. After reading this chapter, the reader will have a thorough understanding of how these protocols work, which is also true of the next chapter that covers the FTP protocol, and the SMTP protocol, which is covered in chapter 28. I did not read the last two chapters of the book so I will omit any commentary.

The author has done a good job here of relating to the reader the structure and dynamics of TCP/IP based on what was known at the time. In view of the fact that IPv4 is still alive and well, and given that TCP implementations have only been slightly modified since 1994, one can still read this book profitably.

TCP/IP is the most fundamental protocol that drives the whole of the internet. A deep understanding of them is necessary for any wannabe network administrator/programmer/analyst etc.

Richard Stevens TCP/IP illustrated is one of the best books you can ever buy to understand not only TCP/IP but also other fundamental protocols like ARP, DHCP, SMTP etc. The word 'Illustrated' is significant, you actually see the protocols in action throughout this book. There are more pages devoted to examples rather than concepts, which is actually an excellent way to relate to the concepts.

Richard Stevens doesnt just write something, and assume you understood him and believed him in blind faith. He actually shows you what you write and helps you become more analytical in the workings of the internet.

This book is a bit old though, and with Richard Stevens dead, we might not see a revival of this book. It only covers TCP modification till Tahoe and Reno but chapter 24 gives you a more or less good idea about what the future will be like (in which we actually are, by the timeline of this book.)

Overall, if you want to not only learn networks, but feel them, then buy this book.

If you're into learning the underlying concepts of some of the most used protocols (ip, icmp, udp, and all those encapsulated in the aforementioned ones), there's no way around it! I've bought this book as soon as a friend of mine told me the following, which I'll quote "If you want to become a ninja in TCP/IP, you'll likely need to have this book at hand."; I found the book quite annoying in the beginning, due to the simple fact that I had recently read the book "O'reilly: TCP/IP Network Administration". I've dropped reading this one for like 2 months, and when I've started reading it back, It all went so utterly better. The book covers a lot of protocols, one of which I found very useful was DNS, because the available RFC's were generally not-so-easy(tm) to follow and understand; and after reading the chapter on DNS, It all turned to be much more simple than I found it be when reading the relevant RFC's. The book is a definitive guide for anyone, and should be used as such, for coverage and implementation you should read the book entitled "UNIX Network Programming" by the same author, Mr. W. Stevens (which unfortunately has passed away)

"The Godfather" is one of the VERY rare examples of a movie (and sequel) that are actually better than the book they are based on. Upon first release, the book was a massive bestseller, more because it is an easy read than because it is great literature. What it is primarily useful for now is as a means of filling in details that the first two Godfather films didn't have time to cover even with their considerable length. Such detail includes the background story of Johnny Fontaine, the Frank Sinatra-esque entertainer who is a loyal Godson. Also fleshed out are the characters of the loyal hitman Luca Brazzi and of Sonny's mistress, who would become the mother of Michael's eventual successor as Don in "Godfather Part 3." There is also more information about Moe Green and the feud over the Corleone move to Nevada.

Puzo is an effective storyteller and he keeps things moving along at a snappy pace. The Don of the book doesn't seem larger than life the way Marlon Brando does in the movie. "The Godfather" is often described as a "trash" novel, but reading would be a lot more fun if all such novels were as good as this one.

In Mario Puzo's The Godfather, he uses the crimes of a family and their Italian heritage to show how it affects a large loving family. I thought this was an excellent book, because the plot sequence was amazing with constant twists and suspense. The irony of this book comes through the crime boss Vito Corleone who is a kind-hearted and loyal friend of all who come to him with a request. However, he makes his living off of corruption and death which really doesn't affect the reader's attitude towards this loving character. The vicious side of the mafia comes through Vito's son Sonny. Sonny's rage leads to the death of many mob-related characters as well as to the his own death which is another irony evident in this novel. The Godfather uses masterful description of each member's life and how mob-life affected them. Another example of irony in The Godfather is the youngest son Michael's situation. At the beginning of the novel, Michael is returning from World War II and has no part in the family business. However, when his father nears death after gunshot wounds, Michael is drawn into the family business and chooses to pay back the antagonist Solozzo by spilling his blood for the sake of the family. Michael becomes the leader of the family after his father and Sonny die and he returns from Italy after things die down about his assasination of Solozzo. This transformation from an upstanding servant of the country to a crime boss looking out for the wellbeing of his family alone is the ulimate irony in this novel. Women and children are not major characters in the novel, because Puzo uses them to show how the mobs goal was to keep the innocent free from encountering their violent troubles. Puzo incorporates the lives of everyone involved in this crime family to show how much love and loyalty lead to their success and rage and deceit lead to their downfall. After reading the novel, I gained a greater appreciation for the movie which I had seen earlier and an understanding of how loyalty leads to power in the world.

The 1970's novel and hit motion picture The Godfather by Mario Puzo was quite possibly the best piece of literature in America as of today. It's thorough description of how a Sicilian mafia operates leads one to realize just how organized "organized crime" is. Puzo showed ohw much family is worth through his book an movie by his skillful use of the third person objective point of view. In every paragraph Puzo gives the reader a chance to feel like they are a, Don Corleone, Luca Brasi or a Tom Hagen. The plot was exceptionally good because after every page turn the plot thickens. One page could be describing a wedding reception and the next would portray two adulturers in lust. Puzo modeled the book to have a series of climaxes before the major plot line climax. This was done to pump the reader up and stretch one's mind so one could comprehend the situtaion. The conflicts also were many. Michael Corleone's internal conflict with himself was the biggest in the book. When he went off to college and then to World War II it was planted by society that his family's business was the most immoral work one could do. Besides Michael's internal conflict there is a big conflict with the Corleones and the Tatalias. After the Corleone's Don was shot the plots conflict thickened from water to syrup. Overall Mario Puzo worte an American Classic, which was true in the 1970's and will remain true always and forever.