The book, developed by a committee of writers, editors, and publishers, is organized around five major categories, Preparing an Article for Publication, Style, Terminology, Measurement and Quantitation, and Technical Information. Each of these categories is, in turn, broken down into chapters that probe various aspects of each category. Finding information is easy, and the writers have used examples generously to make the points clear.

The first section, Preparing an Article for Publication, is, naturally slanted more toward authors and those who toil to prepare author's manuscripts for publication. There are many guidelines offering advice that ranges from preparing the abstract to preparing any of six different types of acknowledgments. Editors and copy editors would do well to review this chapter as well. The section on citing Web sites alone is crucial reading.

I suspect, but cannot prove, that many researchers will not read deeply beyond the opening chapter, feeling that the remaining sections are more the province of copy editors and journal editors. Perhaps there is some merit to that line of thinking, but all authors in the medical sciences would benefit from the copious advice here, and the better writers, I'm sure, do follow the principles of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and usage set forth in the section on style. Common mistakes, such as confusing case and patient, redundancies, and the ever so ticklish topic of race/ethnicity are some of the many points discussed thoroughly.

The section on terminology is so mind-bogglingly detailed that all one can hope to do is remember that the AMA Style Guide will almost always have the answer if you have a question about an abbreviation (how many times is something mistakenly called an acronym instead of an initialism?), medical nomenclature (a huge chapter that is the heart of the book), or eponyms (which, thanks to this guide may now be a topic we can quit haggling over).

Measurement and Quantitation continue to be a bane for many writers and editors, though without delving too much into specifics, let's say that this section will answer most questions but not without careful reading and perhaps a look at the Chicago Manual of Style for a bit clearer presentation on this topic. The chapter on statistics, unique to this guide, notes how to express confidence intervals, confirms that the word Student in Student t test is capitalized (sorry, but this text editor on Amazon.com does not display the italic t), provides a list of statistical symbols and abbreviations, and offers valuable tips about displaying equations. And those examples barely hint at the wealth of information here.

A final section on technical information provides a thumbnail guide to good layout and design of printed materials, worthy sets both of copyediting marks and proofreading marks (which are no doubt often photocopied and posted in a visible location), an excellent primer on how to edit hard copy, and a glossary of publishing terms.

If you are a medical writer or editor, odds are that you already either have a copy of this guide or you borrow one from a colleague. If you are an aspiring medical communicator, you will need your own copy so you can mark in it, attach tabs, and leave open on your desk.

As in the first two books, he found himself tangling again with the class bully, Tommy Wilhelm, who would do anything to make Joshua and his friends look bad.

Like always, Joshua learned some valuable lessons, not least of all that taking things--even from your parents--is always a bad idea.

My two children each raced through all three Joshua T. Bates books.

Parents take note: This series is perfect for second and third graders who want chapter books that are challenging but not too hard. The characters are realistic, the dialogue exactly duplicates that of children this age, and the stories are compelling enough to keep kids turning these pages. Alyssa A. Lappen

Hayes, a longtime personal friend of Miss Smith, has tapped into a mother-lode of personal recollections from hundreds of celebrities, friends, co-workers and fans to create a full picture of this important American. A veritable joy-ride through the world of entertainment as we now know it, Hayes chronicles Miss Smith's fifty year career from vaudeville to radio (where she was the medium's greatest star) through recordings and concerts and then television (where Kate was a female pioneer). Nostalgia buffs will tear through the pages of this book in a delicious frenzy!

Hayes exhaustively produces a discography that is archival in every sense. He captures Kate's spirit with a confidant familiarity and paints an honest picture of this well-proportioned country girl who reigned supreme as "America's First Lady of Song" throughout most of this century. This book is a real treat!

This is a funny sweet little book reminding us that not everyone is as they appear on the outside. Maggie lives the way she does because she wants to, not cause she has to...and even after she makes friends with her new neighbors, she remains her quirky wonderful self. I hope you come to love getting to know the surprising Miss Slade as much as I did.

Of the 100 or so security books on my shelf, this is one of the handful that I refer to on a regular basis.

This is a solid, if a little dry and sometimes a bit out of date, high-level overview of cryptography as it is used on the Internet. There are no equations or lines of code, so if you're looking to implement anything this is the wrong book. However if you're looking to learn about IPSEC, public-key crypto, secret keys, SSL, virtual private networks and things like that this is the right book.

The familiar cryptographic couple Alice and Bob are used in many examples to illustrate four general types of attacks made by "Henry the Forger", "Peeping Tom", "Play-it-again Sam" and "Bailey the Switcher". These are used throughout the book and this really simplifies understanding of how various types of cryptography can be attacked. Another one of the strengths of this book is lots of useful pointers to other books and Internet sites to provide supplementary information.

I'm not going to give this book 5 stars because to me that's a perfect book. However I highly doubt you'll be disappointed with this book as an overview to cryptography and how it is used on the Internet.

The Battle of Bloody Ridge, Sept. 13-15, 1942 was indeed crucial to winning Guadalcanal and Smith does an excellent job of showing the reader why. What is more compelling is his description of what a close-run victory it was. There were many opportunities for the Japanese forces to defeat the US. How those chances were lost makes the overall story more enthralling.

For the most part, Smith is a good writer but he falls into the manner for writing for the professional military man. This style hurts his narrative as might be read by the general public. Those of you who have read the historical journals published by the three services will understand. He is hampered by a tendency to name all the officers leading particular units prior to telling what happened. Frequently, it's the only time the names appear and, hence, begs the question of why mention them at all.

Quibbles aside, this is an excellent book and tells an important story which more people should read.

This book combines the detail of Richard B. Frank's "Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account" and the personal narrative style of Eric Hammel's "Starvation Island" to make a very readable version of the battle. The wide diversity of sources which have been used adds a lot to the perspective and context; much of this information has never been pulled together to my knowledge into a single coherent account. "Bloody Ridge: The Battle that Saved Guadalcanal" is rich in particulars, with plenty of detailed appendices and footnotes. Nor is the opponent's side of the battle neglected; the author's research includes many Japanese sources to tell what was going on at the other end of the island.

I would love to see Mr. Smith's wonderful scholarship and clean narrative style applied to the closing months of 1942 and the final battle of the Matanikou in October which put the lid on any future Japanese offensive effort. Maybe Mr. Smith will write another book about that (hint, hint)!

Thank goodness for Vandegrift, Edson and the USMC! They were tough, smart jungle fighters who were in just the right place at just the right time. The nation owes much to these largely forgotten heroes of the Pacific. Thank you Michael Smith for reminding us of the debt we owe to their memory.