The Last enemy is a contemporary account written by an RAF fighter pilot who flew Spitfires during the Battle of Britain. Prior to the war, the author led a comfortable upper class lifestyle; he was attending Oxford, had numerous friends, rowed and fancied becoming a writer. Moreover, he had an interest in flying and was a member of the University Air Squadron. When the Germans invaded Poland, he and his friends in the Air Squadron were, after a short delay, sent to training units, and after Dunkirk, were hurriedly sent to operational squadrons. Hillary, given the choice, chose No. 603, a Spitfire squadron in Scotland. During the Battle of Britian, the squadron was sent south into the thick of battle; shortly afterwards, Hillary was shot down and severely burned. Divided into two sections, the second half of the book details his ordeals as he recovers and undergoes reconstructive surgery. The Last Enemy is by no means propagandistic tripe; it is a sincere and timeless account of life disrupted by war, and therefore a very rewarding read.

This Battle of Britain pilot has left us with a real gem; a classically engaging description of his experience of training, being shot down, and his amazing recovery.

One thing that makes this work great, and enables it to stand above other similar books, is Hillary's ability to describe his emotions; to explain his thoughts at the time, and those of his colleagues.

This book puts things into perspective - it is the memoir of a true hero.

This is a beautifully written account of one pilot's participation in a crucial WW2 battle. The book does not fall flat because the author spent only a relatively brief period in action; his description of his privileged period at Oxford, and of fighter training at the beginning of the time, are worth reading in their own right.

However, the real subject of this book is the recovery (sadly incomplete) he made from the horrific burns suffered after being shot down on the War's first anniversary. Burns treatment was crude before the outbreak of WW2, and shot-down pilots were the guinea pigs who enabled huge advances in this field to be made. (Hillary's plastic surgeon was the great Sir Archibald McIndoe.) Hillary's courage in fighting his way to this recovery, and the candour with which he describes it, make this book the best memoir I have read of the War.

I've long been enamored with apocalyptic literature; something about a world slowly dying simply captivates my interest. So I was excited to hear of the Left Behind series.

The problem, however, is that the series gradually turns into more of an evangelizing text than a quality novel. Long, boring religious asides take up pages at a time while major apocalyptic events are expressed in merely a few paragraphs. Three trumpet judgements seemed to breeze through in mere pages.

While I enjoyed the first three books of the series, Soul Harvest seems to be sending it down a slippery slope, degenerating into a long religious tract. At the moment, I am reading Apollyon (book #5), and find it just as slow paced. However, I continue to read in hopes that it will pick up.

A Review by Jessica

As prophesized events continue to be hurtled toward the Tribulation Force and the rest of the world, Buck Williams and Rayford Steele are on a search for their lost wives. Just as they had expected, they are now becoming the main target of the Anti- Christ. The Tribulation Force will have to out smart the Anti- Christ's powerful guards, have secrecy among fellow believers, and go into hiding all in order to protect or even save their own lives.

I loved the amount of action in this book. The authors keep you on the edge of your seat the time. An example of this is of the first seven or eight chapters while Buck and Rayford are continually looking for wives, Chloe and Amanda. Only problem with this is that they are wanted be every Global Community guard and cannot get caught. I also enjoyed reading about each character. Even though they are the same characters as in the first three books, the authors continue to add attributes to each character that keep you hooked on them. The relevance of this book is another thing that influenced me to give this book five stars. Everything that happens in this book is an interpretation of anything that could happen during the actual Tribulation. Although only a fiction story, everything that happens in this book gives you a piece of mind of what Hell on earth might be like.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an action-packed book with non-stop suspense or to readers who are looking for a good Christian story.

Warning: This is not an easy book to read. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins do not pull any punches.

"Soul Harvest" begins in the aftermath of the sixth seal judgment, the worldwide earthquake. With the exception of Israel, no place on earth is untouched. Death and destruction are everywhere. And many of those that are still living want nothing more than to die. New Hope Village Church is gone. Loretta's house is gone. Global Community Weekly is gone. Just about everyone the Tribulation Force has come to know and love is gone. And yet it gets worse.

Both Amanda Steele and Chloe Williams are missing. It is a race against time as Rayford Steele and Buck Williams each try to save their beloved wives. Both of their lives will forever be changed by what they find.

The worldwide earthquake is just the beginning. Tsion Ben-Judah, despite being a marked man by the Global Community, wants to return to Israel to rally together the 144,000 Jewish witnesses. The pressure is on around the world to force Nicolae Carpathia into providing protection for Tsion's return. Will Carpathia give in to the pressure and let Tsion return? Better yet, will the first, second, and third Trumpet Judgments prevent the gathering from taking place?

If you are able to tolerate the images that this book will bring up in your mind, you will no doubt find yourself very captivated and will quickly finish reading the book. So far, this is the best of the series.

I agree with many of the reviewers below that this book was helpful and often interesting. It gives a readable orientation to one of the most important movements in the software industry today, and the editors have been fortunate to gather together so many contributors who obviously know whereof they speak. In particular, the editors' Introduction, Eric Raymond's "Brief History of Hackerdom," Richard Stallman's account of GNU and FSF, Bruce Perens's discussion of Open Source, and Tim O'Reilly's essay on "Infoware" were informative and thought-provoking.

That said, it should be noted that the Amazon reviewer above gets it wrong when she writes that the book gives a "fascinating look at the raging debate." In fact, *nothing* about Open Source is debated in this book, which is a major disappointment. As the reviewer from Princeton below notes, the goodness of everything Open Source and the badness of everything Microsoft seems to be a given for many of the writers. At the risk of criticizing the book for not being something its creators didn't intend, I think it would be greatly improved with the addition of a wider range of viewpoints and even a dissenting voice or two. (There are a number of essays that could give place to some alternate content: Eric Raymond's second essay, "The Revenge of the Hackers," leans heavily toward the self-congratulatory, as does the Netscape cheerleaders' "Story of Mozilla." And Larry Wall's "Diligence, Patience, and Humility" seems to have been included not on its own merits but on the author's reputation as the Perl Deity.)

A final wish is for the book to address a broader range of readers. As a longtime computer user but a relatively new programmer, with no formal business training, I found many of the essays to rely heavily on the jargon of hackers and MBAs. More editorial control here, in addition to a broader range of content, would make this book seem less like preaching to the choir and more effective at spreading the Open Source gospel.

This is a good idea on O'Reilly's part to try to document the history and goals of the Open Source movement, which had roots in several college campuses and research labs in the '70s and '80s, and became news in the late '90s with the popularity of Linux, Apache, and the decision of Netscape to open its browser source. The best introductory piece, however, is probably Eric Raymond's "Cathedral and the Bazaar" which is not in this book(O'Reilly publishes it separately, but it's available free on the Web and short enough to be read in one sitting). As for this collection, I liked Robert Young's business case for distributing open source - his story of how Red Hat was launched reminds me of the Compaq tale of "three guys in a restaurant". The Apache article is also quite good, and Linus Torvalds offers a brief but interesting (and characteristically opinionated) article about how Linux evolved technically. There's also a good article discussing the various open source licenses (BSD, GPL, Netscape, etc) and what they do and don't restrict.

Others I was less impressed with. Stallman's article is predictable and self-serving. He explains how he evolved his software-as-gift philosophy but doesn't come close to terms with how the software industry can support substantial employment if all source is given away. There's yet another history of the different branches of BSD Unix. There's a breathtaking inside account of the launch of Mozilla which ends with the fancy Silicon Valley party when development has finally gotten underway. The low point is Larry Wall's "essay", which is a frankly ridiculous waste of time and print.

Although this is a mixed bag, there's enough reference material and interesting points of view to keep the book around.

Open Sources is a collection of essays by people who have been involved in a prominent way in what is being called "the open source revolution." The authors are all very bright people with good intentions and diverse viewpoints; this makes for interesting reading. However, I had a problem with the introduction. In fact, I hated it. It attempts to couch the issue of free vs. non-free software in religious terms: in the bad old days, free software only came from universities or other government-funded research. Then, a few companies saw the light and began to open-source their software; currently the industry is divided between these companies (the saved) and the rest of the companies (the damned) who will spiral into oblivion due to their proprietary selfishness. I thought the presence of this sort of rhetoric in the introduction, which sets the tone for the rest of the book, was particularly unfortunate.

The essays in Open Sources are a mixed bag. Kirk McKusick's history of Berkeley UNIX is great, as is Michael Tiemann's history of Cygnus Solutions, RMS's article about the GNU project, and Bruce Perens' article about licensing issues. Also, I really enjoyed the transcript of the infamous 1992 flame war between Linus and Andy Tanenbaum about the merits of Linux vs. Minix. On the other hand, Paul Vixie's article about software engineering is pretty random, Larry Wall's article does not seem to have a point at all, and Eric Raymond's

second article and Tom Paquin's account of the open-sourcing of Netscape are too self-serving to be useful.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. However, the year that has passed since its publication has exposed some of the more outlandish predictions made by its contributors (Eric Raymond said that Windows 2000 would either be canceled or be a complete disaster). My guess is that Open Sources is not destined to become a classic. Rather, in a few years it will be viewed as an interesting but somewhat naive period piece.

Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum' is a book that inspires strong emotions. Readers either love it or loathe it. Count me in the latter category. Nothing against the author. I'm sure he achieved his objectives with flying colors. And the subject matter is, at times, pretty darn interesting. But Eco's style -- fraught with arcane references and interminable diatribes -- is not my cup of tea. To boot, the explanation of the causes of the holocaust, albeit fictionalized, is disturbing, to put it mildly. Here's a snippet of what I'm talking about: 'Hitler was searching the Jews for the clue that would allow him to determine, with the Pendulum, the exact point under the earth's concave vault where the telluric currents converged.' (See pp. 422-3, et al.)

I regret that I plowed through the whole book, but I have an irrational habit of always finishing the books that I begin reading. To the more rational reader, I suggest the following: read the first six pages. If it tickles your shorts, keep reading. There's plenty more where that came from. If not, cut bait and find something else to read. Granted, there are many people for whom 'Foucault's Pendulum' is a brilliant piece of literature. But for others, the book will only disappoint for many, many hours.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of reading this book, particularly getting sucked in to the unfolding connections between secret societies, history, and religion. I wish, however, that I would have read about the book's esoteric content without having to put up with the boring, one-dimensional characters' personal relationships and political interests. A nonfiction version of this (for the portions that actually are nonfiction -- by the end you don't know what's based on fact and what's a creation of the author's imagnation) would be a more worthwhile read. The message or "moral" of the ending, at least the way I interpretted it, was a kind of an interesting and unexpected one from a refreshing outsider perspective. But in the end, unless you're a particularly avid reader, or don't mind skimming some really dull parts, I would recommend the point of this novel, but not the novel itself.

I first read Foucoult's Pendulum back in college when it was first published. It was recommended by my bofriend, and I spent half of Spring Break plowing through it. Hard work. One of the few books that absolutely necessitates having a dictionary at hand to really absorb it, and it better be the OED because Webster's doesn't have all the words. Seriously. And in the end, I was floored, absorbed, and used the remaining days of vacation to read it again. I had found a new "Favorite Book Ever!"

I guess I understand why so many are so full of vitriolic loathing when they discuss "Foucault's Pendulum". It isn't really a thriller, nor a consipiracy theory text, nor a philosophical treatise, nor an easy read. If you really want some brain candy (and I certainly do a lot of the time--PG Wodehouse forever!) this is not the book to pick up.

It was, however, probably the first work of fiction I had ever read that made me think about the nature of reality... what is real, what is knowledge, how do we know and who decides. I loved the historical mind games, the twisted conspiracy plots, the flights of fanciful speculation. I found the language dense, yes, but dense like the best kind of rich, dark, brownies--intense and flavorful. For me the climax of the novel had nothing to do with the plot, it was the moment when I went "ah-ha!" and actually "Got It!" An intellectual pleasure in the extreme, but a genuine joy nonetheless.

Twelve years later I own three copies of this book (my tattered original paperback, a hardcover I've read once because I felt this was a book I wanted to own in hardcover, and another paperback for lending out). I've read "Foucault" three additional times... it would be more, but, as I said, it's a tough read and you have to be in the right mood. Every time I've experienced again that first wonderful "Ah-ha!" moment, though perhaps a little less intense since I know it is coming. The boyfriend who recommended it is now my husband. And hundreds of books later, it's still my favorite book.

This is a huge book (just short of a thousand pages) and it's packed full of really useful information. It covers all the important parts of the .NET Framework Class Library - Win Forms, Web Forms, ADO.NET, XML, Web Services and more - as well as the syntax and new features of Visual Basic .NET.

With so much to cover the book has to keep up a decent pace, which means that the authors assume that you've got experience of working with Visual Basic 6. If you're new to programming then you'll want to look elsewhere.

For VB6 programmers this book is great value.

This book is for experienced developers who need to make the transition to VB.NET. It will also help programmers with previous knowledge of VB.NET who want to move up to the professional level.

The book begins with an introduction to the .NET Framework and common language RunTime(CLR). The CLR is responsible for managing the execution of code compiled for the .NET platform. The next few chapters focus on object oriented programming and how to derive classes from base classes using inheritance. Chapter 9 gives a detailed discussion on how error handling works in VB.NET by discussing the CLR exception handler in detail and the new Try...Catch...Finally structure. An entire chapter is devoted to multi-threading. You will learn how threads can be created, and the differences between multitasking and multi-threading. Chapter 16 discusses COM and .NET component interoperability, and the tools provided to help link the two technologies together. Chapter 18 gives detailed coverage of the ADO.NET data access technology. You will learn how to build flexible, fast, and scalable data access objects and applications.

The final chapters discuss building web applications with web forms, creating custom controls for Windows Forms and Web Forms, and finally, creating and consuming Web Services.

If you're an experienced VB developer and would like to make the transition to VB.NET, then this book is a must.

As someone who has spent over five years as a professional Visual Basic programmer I don't want to throw away all my knowledge when I move to VB.NET. Fortunately, this (big) book doesn't bother teaching you programming from scratch (you should definitely look elsewhere if you're a complete beginner) but will help you make sense of not only what's changed in the move from VB6 to VB.NET (a lot!) but also what you can take with you from VB6 (a surprisingly large amount actually). This means that you don't have to spend your time working through stuff like "this is a variable", "this is an if statement". Instead the book gets stuck into what makes the .NET Framework and Common Language Runtime tick - and explains how you can relate all of it to VB6.

The first third of the book serves as a reference to the VB.NET language - syntax, error handling, objects, inheritance, interfaces, and the differences between variables and types. While this means that you don't get to create many exciting applications early on it does mean that you have a thorough grounding in the essentials of the language.

Then the rest of the book takes a look at the most important features of .NET in turn: ADO.NET, XML, Windows Forms, Web Services, Data Binding, Remoting, Networking, Threading, Security, Web Forms, etc. You won't be an expert in any of these areas after you've read the book but you will have a much better idea of what VB.NET is capable of and how to get started using the advanced features of the .NET Framework Class Library.

Although there are a lot of authors that wrote on this book, which can spell trouble in my experience, the editors have managed to maintain a consistent voice throughout and there's surprisingly little overlap between chapters. Well worth the money.

Richard Petty is a backwards thinking racist who refers to African Americans as "colored folk". For this reason and for the additional reason that I would never buy anything recommended by NASCAR hack commentator Michael Daly, this book should be avoided at all costs.

If you ever wondered what kind of car Richard drove in which Season, this is the ultimate Book for you. Or if you are into building the Kings Cars in Scale Models, this is the only Book where you can get all the information you need, the rest (Model, Decals, etc.) is up to you

Very interesting and entertaining

Though Branson's achievements are impressive and many, the book is heavy with praise and lacks the depth and detail I was interested in reading about.

A good book detailing the rise and riches of Richard Branson. A truly good book for entrepreneurs.

I'm with the above Arabian Night.
I'd like to make dinner with you and dance real slow.
But I would be happy with a job and honored to serve you :)
What'd yah say, big boy?

I started collecting Hellblazer TPB's mostly to complete my Garth Ennis collection, but the character of John Constantine got me hooked. Unfortunately I missed some of the arcs by past writers, but I slipped into the current Azzarello run pretty easily with this paperback.

"Hard Time" is a pretty fun story. The whole prison motif intrigued me when I first heard about it, and I really enjoyed seeing the hardcore Constantine deal with it. Azzarello handles the story pretty well, and although it's far too early to judge his handling of the main character, "Hard Time" remains a good read.

Some of the story elements, though, seemed a tad cliched. The whole story seemed like an episode of Oz. I wasn't sure if he was paying homage or blatantly stealing.

Those who're already fans of the series and missed this arc should pick it up, but if you're new to Hellblazer, start off with "Original Sins". It's a great way to be introduced to the series.

Brilliant crime-author Brian Azzarello has done the unthinkable. He's taken John Constantine past where even Garth Ennis had darred. Azzarrello, once attacked for being and American on what was a very English book, showed us that of all the demons and monsters that a magic man like John Constantine has to face, the scarriest buggers out there are still just humans. In prison for murder, on his own, haunted by the ghosts of his past, John must work his way through the 'system' at place, and in pure Constantine fashion, bring it all down around his head. The art could be better, but the writing is some of the best graphic-fiction to come out in years.

Brassey's series of books on uniforms and equipment are among the better sources. Covering the U.S. Regulars, Militia, Texas Rangers as well as the Mexican forces, this book is well worth having. True, it focuses on the U.S. troops, but this is because there is quite a bit of information, photographs, and exhisting clothing and equipment. The Mexican troops are a bit harder to research. Most historians have come to rely on Joseph Hefter, who pioneered the effort of documenting Mexico's military history. The color plates by Richard Hook are quite good and give good detail. The photos of reenactors also add to the quality of this book. The only negative comments ? The price is high, but if you want a valuable resource, it comes with a cost.
A section devoted to the weapons of both armies and their effectiveness would have been handy. If you are a student of this conflict, go for it.

This book gives a good one-stop-shop for the uniforms and organisation of the US-Mexican War. It is an easy read, providing what I have found to be the most accurate text on this subject readily available. If the book has any fault it is that it concentrates heavily on the US rather than Mexican forces, but frankly this is because of the huge variety within the US forces due to the system of volunteer units designing and providing their own uniforms, and the simple fact that information on Mexican forces is very hard to find anywhere. Nevertheless, the coverage of the Mexican forces represents a comprehensive overview of what information there is available, and is accurate throughout, avoiding many of the mistakes so often regurgitated by authors on this subject.

Well illustrated, with period "photographs" mixed with modern photographs of re-enactors, and colour and line illustrations especially commissioned for this book. Certainly well worth buying if you have an interest in the period.

Good Story line - Poor literary work

This book is written at 5th grade vocabulary skill set. I have never been a speed reader but this book is written with such an elementary language that, I was browsing through pages. Most of the dialogue is very simple and redundant. The love story line between Buck and Chloe is very out of touch with reality (sex is taboo even in a dialogue). This is not to say that one would expect cheap love scenes from these authors but considering that this is a Christian book read by millions of readers, it would have been a good idea to approach the subject in a tasteful way for all the readers (why else do we turn to "other" sources?) The conversations between Buck and Chloe drove me nuts. For such an intelligent woman, she always manages to present herself less than smart. The book does not show any evidence of her intelligence.

I am not Christian but I still enjoyed the book and plan on reading at least #3. I have not given up yet.

After reading the first novel in the Left Behind series, Left Behind, I was compelled to read the second novel because of becoming closer to God through the book. Though the plot was thick, I was bound to the book the entire time I was reading because of unexpected twists and turns and the death of an important member of the Tribulation Force at the end. It was excellently written and kept me wanting to read until the end. After the pregnancy of Hattie Durham, I knew that the rest of the books would be interesting to read especially with the upcoming wedding of the Anti-Christ and Hattie. I cannot wait to read the third book!

For so many years, a Christian's only real option to read quality Christian literature was to read the marevelous C.S. Lewis. I feel blessed in the the last couple of years with the outpouring of quality literature now available. What's more, the different books are all very different. Left Behind is a wonderful introduction to the theology behind the End Times and a great series for all ages. We All fall down is a great book for more mature, intellegent Christians who wsnt to explore the individual ramifications of the End Times and the one on one relationship of a man who has fallen away from God. The Christ Clone Trilogy is a thrilling, Tom Clancey like look at these events, full of unexpected twists and turns. I know some people like to argue the various merits of these books as compared to each other, but I think they are all worth reading and feel lucky to finally have such a wide variety of GREAT Christian literature available.