Nicholas Nickleby is a marvelous novel. It is the young Dickens at his best. I almost feel guilty for giving it four stars, but giving it five would be unfair, I think, because his later works, such as Great Expectations, are bettter. The novel is written enthusiastically and contains some of Dickens' best humor. I especially found funny the character Mr.Lillyvick, the revered and dignified water clerk. And I will never forget Ralph Nickleby. Mr.Squeers and Arthur Gride were detestable and colorful villains, but they pale before Ralph Nickleby. He is such a cold and heartless character that he steals nearly every scene he is in. He has a certain magnetism that most of Dickens' good characters lack. And his suicide at the novel's end is so perfectly written that I read over it several times before I finished the novel. My only problem with the book was Nicholas's lack of psychology, but let us remember that this was written by a young man, not the mature artist of Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend. The novel's strengths easily make up for its weaknesses. Nicholas Nickleby will be enjoyed by fans of Dickens and all other readers for centuries to come.

I had never read one of Dickens book before Nicholas Nickleby, though I had always wanted to. I particularly enjoyed this book because of Dicken's subtle sense of humor and colorful characters. It was easy to hate the villains such as Squeers or Ralph Nickleby, and laugh at the amusing chracters of Mr. Mantalini and John Brody(whom I found to be the funniest) Authenticity of personality and speech allows you to connect with the various chracters. Although he was probably the least complex, my favorite was Smike, the pitiful victim of the Yorkshire schools of the 1800s.
The one drawback was the size of this book. Dickens spent much time giving detail of many places and people (and did a good job of it), but we must draw the line somewhere. Just when one thinks enough words have been spent on one topic, it diverges into yet another irrevelant matter.
I'd recommend this book to almost anyone, unless you have a great fear of commitment. But the book has plenty of plot and satire to hold you to the end. I certainly was, but I don't think my librarian would believe me.

I would say this is "David Copperfield"'s B-side. It is a typical Dickensian book: the life of the Nickleby family from the death of the father until they are rich and happy. One of the most important parts of the book is the study of the horrible boarding schools of Yorkshire, where Nicholas is sent. We can read the dirty intrigues of Uncle Ralph, the adventures of Nicholas and Smikes as travelling actors (a world Dickens came to know very well), the kindness of the brethren Cheeryble.

Definitely, this is not one of Dickens's best novels, but nevertheless it is fun to read. The characters are good to sanctity or bad to abjection. The managing of the plot is masterful and the dramatic effects wonderful. It includes, as usual with Dickens, an acute criticism of social vices of his time (and ours): greed, corruption, the bad state of education. In spite of everything, this is a novel very much worth reading, since it leaves the reader a good aftertaste: to humanism, to goodness.

Written as a great guide to world funerary practices for undergraduates and the curious layperson, Parker Pearson's, "The Archaeology of Death and Burial" presents excellent traditionalist, processualist, and post-processualist theories and empiracal evidence of death archaeology worldwide.

The Berbers occupy a huge area of North Africa from Morocco to western Egypt and as far south as Timbuktu and the Niger River. Historically, their influence extended to Sicily, southern Italy, and Spain and now enriches emigrant culture in contemporary France. They are not a single "people" but can be defined by their prehistoric Mediterranean origins, by a common language (or language-group) and by their historical tendency to seek refuge from a long succession of conquerors (Punic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, French) in remote mountain or desert communities, where they could preserve their independence and way of life. This book, by an archaeologist and a historian, provides an excellent summary of Berber history and culture. It casts a critical eye on the traditional historical sources (almost all written by the conquerors, not by the Berbers themselves) and re-examines them in the light of contemporary archaeological and anthropological evidence. It is especially good in two areas: the Berbers' relationship to Islam, their adopted religion, and the relative freedom of women in Berber society. The black-and-white illustrations and maps are of uneven quality but nevertheless helpful in visualizing this complex and little-known culture

Introduction to world of microorganisms. And it is a whole world with more marvels and revelations than the macro world. The book contains a lot of illustrations, but many of the color photographs are artificially colored and certainly not the newest. They had a lot of work to change the book from two to four colors and one can still see this. Maybe, their newest version: "Brock's Biology of Microorganisms", also available at amazon.com, corrects this. Besides it beeing a propper text book, the main highlights come from nature itself which offers such a vast morphological and functional diversity in the micro world. The chapters range from general cell biology through viruses, genetics, industrial microbiology, immunology, medical topics (diagnostics, epidemics, diseaes) to bacteria and archaea. It's nearly too many topics to have them all statisfactorly presented. But since I knew nothing of those topics at all, the book proofed to be quite benifactory to me.

I loved this book. It has the descriptivness of Tom Robbins with the subtlety of Kurt Vonnogut, Jr. Parker's descriptions are flowing and easy to get sucked into. The plot has a sadness that is masked by laugh-out-loud humor, until I really stopped and considered what Parker was saying (my favorite attribute of Vonnogut). It was one of those books that I couldn't put down, then had regretted consuming so quickly once I reached the end.

What to do if you're trying to make something as stupid and boring as the bible into something that a poor gullible child will accept? This is the problem faced by the authors, and they do a half-way decent job of presenting bible idiocy as something partly entertaining as a comic book. Should be useful for gullible, brainwashed parents attempting to produce gullible, brainwashed children. Start them with Santa, and if they believe that, move on to the bible in comic book form.

Great idea with uneven results. Some superb art in places, but not always as an appropriate counterpoint to the accompanying Scriptures. The parts that do succeed are worth the cover price alone.

This book was well received by me and my teenagers. There needs to be more artistic interpretations like this that tackle scripture. Not every translation done in this book is accurate to the Word of God but every piece is brilliant in its own right. Bravo! Encore!

This is one of the most unfulfilling books I have ever read. It has plot holes big enough to drive a truck through and the author is so impressed with his own writing that he forgot to develop the characters or plot beyond a simple and highly unlikely outline.

I kept reading in hopes that the ending would bring everything together and create some sort of emotional resonance but it was an even bigger disappointment that the rest of the book. Don't waste your time on this book unless you enjoy reading about a couple of self-centered, whining kids who never get beyond their own skin.

I was a great admirer of Hello Down There, Parker's previous novel, and I enjoy a few of his stories as well. This new novel, however, leaves much to be desired. I read the first 250 pages or so before I finally got too bored to continue. Parker clearly knows how to put words and sentences together, but his talent stops there. Plot and character development are almost entirely absent from this book.

Parker should write poetry. His love for language is that of a poet's. He lacks what it takes to be an interesting novelist on the scale of John Gardner, John Updike, or Gore Vidal. That is to say, he lacks the ability to infuse his fiction with engaging concepts and an interesting story.

If you want to read Parker's work, pick up Hello Down There, though you might be better advised to read Fred Chappell, Jay Parini, or David Slavitt, all of whom are fantastic novelists.

This book has great characters and a intricate plot.Michael Parker promises great things in the future. A writer that accurately presents his subjects in a beautiful manner.

This book is roughly 800 pages ostensibly about the installation and configuration of Windows NT 4.0. Well, it isn't. The publisher -- QUE -- true to form, has pumped it up with useless verbage about unrelated topics so that of the 800 pages only 160 are even dedicated to installing Windows NT. I was hoping to find information useful to multi-OS installations. This sub-topic was given about 2 pages which just indicated that the boot manager should solve all of your problems.

So what you have here is a fat book which is mostly filler. The brief collection of pages that were on-topic were hopelessly weak and over-simplified. Also, this book was published in 1996 and is now hopelessly outdated as regards developments in networking and distributed computing environments.

Do not buy this book unless you need kindling. I threw mine out. Forty bucks down the drain.

Very light weight. No new information, simply defines terms and offers little advise

When Microsoft launched Windows 95 they set in train a massive hardware upgrade as users discovered that run in the MS lexicon does not mean the same thing as the definition in Webster or Oxford. Those with a penchant for conspiracy theories will, no doubt, have made up their respective minds that it was all a plot to make Windows users NT-ready. Ready availability of affordable Pentium processors and the falling cost of memory have made NT attractive to PC users who have networked older equipment with modern Pentium-equipped systems to share peripherals within the home or office.

NT is a powerful system with many features and options. One cannot simply load it in the same, casual way as DOS. Planning is needed to determine the best configuration for a particular setup. Fine tuning is not just an optional activity for enthusiasts; it is mandatory if the system is to work effectively (or at all).

This book is about installation and configuration and is, as the title says, a handbook. It is written for experienced users who want to appreciate the issues involved in the installation and configuration of NT as a server or on a workstation. It is divided into logical parts; installation, administration, adding hardware, managing and tuning sub-systems, networking and communications, configuring Internet services, and customising a system.

Even though twelve authors have each written separate chapters, the style and language is consistent throughout. They have managed to write in a way that avoids technical jargon, but does not give the impression of talking down to their readers. Anyone wanting to put NT to serious use for a local network or comms server (BBS or Internet) may want more specific resources, but this is a good launching place.

For some the Handbook may be all they need, but those who require more technical information will (unless already expert) benefit from the good foundation Jim Boyce and his team have provided.

None of the authors is employed by MS, so there is no hesitation in mentioning OS/2 or using other dirty words. Configuring NT to live with other operating systems is explained along with installation over a previous version of NT or other existing operating system.

Adding and modifying hardware is an ongoing task with most server setups; the authors deal specifically with multimedia devices (sound cards etc.), modems, and printers and fonts.

Readers who have no experience of network or system administration will find the discussion of administration issues clear and helpful. An introductory chapter describes the fundamentals of system administration. Following chapters talk about how servers are administered and resources shared, controlling users, and the all-important registry maintenance.

A section on networking and communications has chapters on optimising NT in various environments, including Novell and UNIX, and the use of remote access services. For those who intend using NT to run Internet services there are chapters on using Internet programs, setting up an Internet server, installing Windows messaging, TCP/IP, and implementing a firewall.

Sub-systems such as memory, file systems, data security, and hardware configuration have to be managed and require fine tuning. A section covers what the authors call "critical sub-systems." I found the discussion well presented and easy to follow.

Some companion CDs are best employed as coasters for the ubiquitous coffee mug. In this case the publishers have provided a very useful collection that can save hours of on-line time. The CD contains a formidable array of drivers, system tuning tools, Internet client/server tools, 32-bit graphics, e-mail enhancers, and other utilities.

A well-designed and well-written handbook, this title is well worth looking at by anyone with a serious interest in NT, either by way of assessing its suitability for a particular task, or as a manual for new installers. It does what the title says, provides the information needed for installation and configuration. It does that well and comprehensively, and comes with a library of utilities and system tools.

Reviewed by Major Keary

(We bought books #1 and #2 but returned them both after reading book #1) O.K., I was prepared for the continuous advertisement for the Clue Jr. board game, but I was apalled by the behavior of the kids in this "club". The mysteries they solve are mostly catching each other lying, cheating, and framing the other members of the club! I really don't want my daughter to perceive that I condone or accept that kind of behavior. I sure don't want her to think that membership in a club is worth putting up with lying, cheating club members. I was hoping for an updated Nancy Drew kind of story, with "good guys" who really are good. On the other hand, these books may help improve the quality of your child's fabrications...