If you like a cook book to read, and not just to get recipes from, then this book is for you. It shows all the different aspects of a restauranteur's life right down to the way the ducks are killed - it's not for the squeamish, but deals with it very matter-of-factly. If you happen to be a Lancashire ex-patriot deprived of dishes such as Black Pudding, or Pig's Trotter (foot) stuffed with Ham-hock and Sage then you'll be drooling.

Consider this. A Gateau of Black Pudding, Onions and Cabbage. If that gets the juices going, then buy this book without hesitation!

This is not my first Chesnutt book. Over the years I read the Marrow of Tradition, House Behind the Cedars and several of Chesnutt's short stories. PAUL MARCHAND FMS is truly a lost treasure. The introduction is extremely well done and gives an excellent explanation to new readers of this genre. All readers will get a true sense of the racial lines that exsisted in early 19th century New Orleans and how some of these same feelings exist today. If you have not been a reader of Chesnutt, this is a good place to start. I'm sure that you will come to love his writings just as I have. As a native of Cleveland, Ohio, I'm proud to remind all readers that Chesnutt spent most of his live in Cleveland and is buried in Cleveland's historic Lakeview Cemetery.

Foss and Brennan go much in thevein of books by Eric Hammel, but what I find better in this book is the length of the excerpts. Covering four wars, they let each pilot describe a longer sequence of events than what is found in Hammel's books, for example Jeff De Blanc gives an account of his miraculous rescue after being shot down over Kolombangara. In Hammel's Aces Part 1, the reader is left wondering about that bit.

First-hand accounts can be boring, but not one of this book's accounts is.

This book is very clear, but is mostly a collection of work with very little explanation. This is good when you understand the concepts; there is less to lead you astray. However, if you don't grasp an idea from what is provided, there is little recourse. I used this book in conjunction with the (ubiquitous) Stewart multivariate calculus book. It's not very expensive so I reccomend it.

This book is very useful as long as you know better than to expect to use it alone. The only way I ever used this book is as an adjunct to my textbook (Stewart's multivariable). Where my big text by Stewart is far, far more rigorous on any given topic, this book by Matthews just punches through to the core concepts. When the big book is making you crazy just relax, take a deep breath and pick up this one. Once you understand the most basic fundamentals of what is happening, go back to your big textbook and get to work figuring out the more subtle mathematical nuances of gradient or curl or whatever. There are also some really useful example problems. Given the low price this book is a definite winner.

Someone has said in a review that
Its mathmathical rigor is about 80%
but as a student majoring in math I
cannot agree with that. I can't give
it more than 60%.
It's the kind of the book which will
never be met in the math class.
but that does not mean this book is not
good.

it lacks in mathmatical rigor but that's
not problem. it's quite clearly written,
easy to read, and most of all It explains
you the 'meaning' of the equation.
lots of math book you should try youself
very hard to understand its meaning.
they give you the proofs of theorems
definitions of mathmatical objects
but not the meaning nor its context.
that's something you should find out.

but this book gives you that. It explains
you what is the meaning of it.

If you are majoring in math. this can be
a gread secondary text. If you are not.
then this should be your first choice.

A master work which starts off slowly and then fizzes into unexpected space. Pregnant with insight.

The Critical Edition of Q : A Synopsis Including the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mark and Thomas.

This is an exceptionally clear and easy to use book.

The section on the history of "Q" research is a splendidly clear and concise review of the work done today and would bring you up to speed very quickly.

The layout of the synopsis in 8 columns is actually a great deal easier to understand than at first glance and quickly becomes user friendly.

The Synoptic Gospels, Q and other canonical texts are paralleled in Greek with the gospel of Thomas being paralleled in Coptic. Q is translated into French, German and English with the parallels of Thomas being translated into Greek, French, German and English.

I would not hesitate to recommend this work to anyone who is studying in this field or has an interest in it.

This newest updated version of Q is a MUST read for all!

Informative and thought provoking;for all serious thinkers..... this book clearly settles the case....once and for all.

Mike in Melbourne,Fla.

Masque has a strong storyline. The book kept moving till the very last page. The ideas portrayed in the book are among the most original I've read in a long time. I'd rate this book as a must read for all Sci-Fi fans.

Tristan, YOU ARE THE MAN (oops...I meant to say MIME). From the first time I read "The Keep" to the last word in "Masque", Paul Wilson continues to scare me, amaze me, and impress me with his ability to weave a story line as well as his unpredictabilty. Whenever I'm book browsing, I start in the "W" section to see if there's something new from the good Doctor. When I find a new work by my favorite author, I snatch it up and leave the store, because there's no need to shop further, for I know that for the next few days I'll be hooked on Wilson. Keep up the good work, Doc.

Tristan, the perfect spy, has no family, no friends and no identity. He is an artificial being whose metamorphic DNA can be programmed to transform himself into another identity, or "masque". And Tristan is a pawn in a game between warring corporate city-states, with his only goal being "Selfhood" which would allow him citizenship and a permanent form.

The storyline comes off as a "Blade Runner" for the new millenium, filled with lawless, surreal cults and underground organizations standing out against the corporate city states that war for the ultimate monopoly of governing all of the planet. Plots are interwoven with counterplots creating espionage and conspiracies galore; A mythic figure named Okasan transforms from saviour to "mother" to evil and back; Tristan becomes both pawn and player in a game that keeps expanding with every page.

Well written, fast paced and filled with moral issues that confront us with issues about humanity. There is more depth here than first meets the eye, and yet the issues don't bog down the pace of this future thriller. Highly Recommended.

From 1961 to 1963, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman delivered a set of lectures to classes in basic physics. By design, the contents of the lectures were transcribed, with the goal being the creation of a set of materials that could be used worldwide in the teaching of physics. Unlike so many abstract scientists, Feynman was an excellent teacher, able to explain the principles by using everyday analogies and without appeal to advanced mathematics. This book is a collection of six of those lectures, chosen for their appeal to the general reader.
The titles and topics of the lectures are:

i) Atoms In Motion - an examination of the atomic theory of matter and how atoms react with each other.
ii) Basic physics - the history of physics before and after the discovery of quantum mechanics.
iii) The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences - how physics can be used to explain chemical, biological, geological and astronomical phenomena.
iv) Conservation of energy - the fundamental principle of conservation of energy, and how energy can change form.
v) The Theory of Gravitation - the development of the theory of gravity from Kepler to Einstein.
vi) Quantum behavior - an explanation of some simple thought experiments demonstrating the weirdness of quantum behavior.

Feynman is also honest with his audience in saying that in many cases, the mechanism is not known.
Since the lectures were delivered forty years ago, many advances have been made. However, they still remain an excellent introduction to the basic principles of physics and can be read and understood by anyone interested in how the universe functions. They can also still be used as primer material in a basic physics course.

Six Easy Pieces is an excellent introduction to one of today's most intriguing scientific fields. Feynman presents physics in a series of easily understandable lectures that are appealing to the layman, in that it presents theories and concepts through simple example. Despite the age of his work, much of what is taught and discussed in the book is still relevant and accepted in physics today.

The book centers on the basic principles and operations of the following topics:
1 - Atoms In Motion
2 - Basic Physics
3 - The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences
4 - Conservation of Energy
5 - The Theory of Gravitation
6 - Quantum Behavior

Within each topic lesser subtopics are addressed, more specifically subtopics that are rooted to or based in one of the overall topics. The teaching style exhibited by Feynman is well thought out and should appeal to the majority of readers. However, Six Easy Pieces is meant as an introduction for the layman and is not suggested for those already experienced in the field.

In closing, Six Easy Pieces is an excellent introduction to the topic of physics, however it is just that - an introduction. Therefore, it is highly recommended for the layman, but not for the physicist.

This book consists of what the editors consider to be six of the easier lessons from Richard Feynman's Lectures on Physics, a three volume work adapted from a series of freshman and sophomore level lectures given at Caltech in the 1960s. Each piece elegantly explains its intended topic without complicated or in depth mathematics. The reader will obtain the gist of the principles behind theses physical phenomena. Feynman whole heartedly admits to the limits of scientific knowledge of his time and in doing so very much dates his lectures. They nonetheless contain rich morsels of the knowledge of physics which will benefit the modern reader. This book is not intended to be an overview of physics. It assumes the reader has some basic education in some subjects, and a previous knowledge of elementary physics greatly helps to understand the pieces. More than anything, it is Feynman's style of teaching that is conveyed through the work's pages. The greatest joy in reading Six East Pieces is to experience Feynman's intuitive knowledge of physics and his subtly elegant conveyance of this topic.

Founded in late 1960 in France, at a colloquium on the work of Raymond Queneau, in order to research new writing by combining mathematics and literature (and also to just horse around) the Oulipo (The Ouvrior de LittÈrature Potentielle or Oulipo (The Workshop of Potential Literature)) expanded to include all writing using self-imposed restrictive systems.

Potential Literature, to me, seems an extension of Surrealism, which used the methods of literary production to critique modernism's obsession with the literary artifact; instead of the myth of the artist alone in some garret painstakingly crafting a Work of Art, literature is automatically generated by timed writing, or mechanically generated by multiple authors with games like the Exquisite Corpse or pieced together in a collage of found text. The Oulipo extends this the critique of modernism by exploring ways that literature can be produced as a result of mathematical formulas, or by building complex rules that limit writer's potential choices, or by the construction of new literary forms.

This book serves as a short introduction to the methods of potential literature several reprints from the groups pamphlet series, including François Le Lionnais's Manifestos and Italo Calvino's essay "How I Wrote One of My Books," which served as the blue print for If On a Winter's Nigh a Traveler.

Oulipo is a body of generative ideas rather than a critical or analytical method. It does away with philosophical underpinning in favor of just generating writing. Raymond Queneau regretted that writer's didn't use tools like other craftsmen. With word-processors, they do and this text supplies a range of techniques for extending mechanical writing beyond spell check. The muse has had her hard drive reformatted.

This book is a riot! I highly recommend it. All of the texts are funny but Fornel's Suburbia is the funniest produced yet by the Oulipians. In addition, this book is a good introduction to the aesthetics of Oulipo, a group of writers who are underappreciated by the American audience.

This is one book that combined it well! "Professional ADO.NET with VB.NET" is the text to grab, if you are a .NET programmer who wants to learn more about .NET data access technology.
The book has a consistent practical approach to issues. It is full of grounded information, which would ensure that programmers execute their tasks with unflinching confidence.
This book has a result-oriented outlook. Its authoritative analyses of cross-platform programming issues are flawless. All the important classes, (DataSets, DataAdapters, e.t.c.), which constitute ADO.NET received generous attention. However, all these expanded ADO.NET tutorials came at the expense of VB.NET, whose underlying parameters received little attention. Still, this is a valuable book to have.

This book is typical Wrox: it offers a comprehensive coverage of the subject in a very easy to follow fashion. It starts with several chapters covering the core ADO.NET classes - DataReaders, DataAdapters, DataSets. As the ADO.NET DataSet is a class with very rich features, this book discusses each facet of it - from the ADO Recordset-like generic disconnected in-memory data presentation with constraints, relationships to strongly typed DataSet, and finally to the built-in support of XML. The later chapters then introduces advanced features such as web services, SQL Server XML support, Performance, Security, etc.

A minor inconsistency is that some examples in the book use Console Application interface, while most others use Windows Application, perhaps reflecting the fact of this being a multi-author book. But as far as learning ADO.NET is concerned, this is really not a issue.

Oh, if you already owns its predecessor - Professional ADO.NET, which is written with C#, you might want to keep it and skip this one because it's mostly the same contents in different language (VB.NET). But if you haven't got either, it's definitely worth a very close look at this title.

As a Java Developer I was looking more for a reference and minimal set of abstract examples on how to use the syntax of jsp directives, jsp structures, and servlet practices. EJB and XML coverage was very minimal and despite my previous WROX book Professional ASP 2.0 (which was excellent) this book fails in regards to teaching the foundational practices of JSP and Servlets. It is indeed loaded with lots of examples including a good case study called, El Weeds of Limon. The explanations were very surfacy and didn't have enough of the technical details. The type of detail missed should be assumed from books that try to cover too many topics which spread the "meat" of the matter very thin.

Rather than getting you started on the right track it gets you started by making you copy examples which IMHO is a poor way to learn especially if the examples are not very generic.

I recently picked up a better book which includes all the jsp and servlet best practices, perfect amount of HTML mixture in handling forms, etc. and also a broad coverage of the currently available JSP/Servlet Containers like the Jakarta group's Tomcat 3.1 Container.

I would recommend this book if you're looking for examples, period. However if you want to learn JSP and Servlet technology the proper way pick up Core Servlets and JSP by Sun Press. It's also more up to date with the JSP 1.1/Servlet 2.2 spec.

Pro:

*) Covers a lot of ground on up to date (01/2000) server side tech, Servlets, JSP, RMI, XML, EJB, JINI, CORBA, JNDI, LDAP, JDBC, Mime, cookies, Internationalization.

*) Lots of hands-on details with many examples.

*) Very fluent and usually clear.

Con:

*) Very little on theory, concepts, server architecture using these technologies or trends, goes straight to the details.

*) Many exercises don't work without some hacking (they could still fix it, the code is on their site).

*) So much is about Java Servlets you would think Sun published it.

*) Not all the chapters are in the same level, you can feel many people wrote the book.

This book is outstanding! It covers the new features of JSDK2.1 wonderfully. It introduces JSP and other J2EE features. I recommend this book to all current Java Server programmers and to all who want to learn about Java Server Programming. The depth is wonderful and the examples are very good. The only knock is that it is expensive and you don't get a CD. However, there is a web site to download the source code, nice touch Wrox Press! Even though the book is expensive it is well worth the money! Knowing what I know now, I still would buy it again. But this time I would by it through Amazon so I get a discount. :-) Note, I paid full price and still think I got a great deal.