As far as it goes, Born Royal is an interesting view into the lives of George V's children. The problem is that it doesn't go far enough.

The author spends far too much time on David (the Duke of Windsor) and his younger brother Bertie (George VI), who have already been the subjects of numerous biographies, and gives George V's other children short shrift. It's unfortunate, given that there isn't much written about them. Hough apparently referred mainly to research he undertook while writing his books on the Mountbattens; since Mary, George, Henry and John didn't figure much in those books, they don't figure much here.

OVERALL THIS BOOK IS QUITE NICE, GIVES A GLIMPSE OF THE CHILDHOODS OF THE CHILDREN OF GEORGE V AND QUEEN MARY. I WOULD HAVE LIKED MORE INFORMATION ON THE PRINCESS MARY AND HER YOUNGER BROTHERS. THE BOOK TENDS TO DWELL ON THE DUKE OF WINDSOR AND GEORGE VI.

It's too bad this book is out of print because it's a tale relevant to the current British Royal Family. Richard Hough wrote this easy-to-read book on the six children of King George V and Queen Mary out of the notes he took for his books on the Mountbatten family. King George (and Prince Philip) was a rigid martinet who could only criticize his children so they grew up to fear him. George (and Prince Philip) adored his daughter Mary (Princess Anne) who grew up self-righteous. Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth II) was not a warm and loving mother. She put her duty to the monarchy above her duties as a mother and neglected her children. Her eldest son Edward VIII (Prince Charles) sought love with a married woman who became a mother-figure for him, a necessary balm for his immaturities. Her son George was the Randy Andy of his era and a bisexual (Prince Edward), too. Among the Windsors, it can be said that history truly repeats itself.

I agree with the first reviewer--not a very useful text. More academic than anything else. I pretty much walked away with nothing from this book. Is choppy and just a compilation of various topics written by a variety of authors--it is like reading different research papers. None of the book is integrated. As the first reviewer said, a better book would have been a text written by one author with an integration of ideas.

This book is a compilation of chapters on malingering and deception by leaders in the field. Like all edited works, it suffers from disjunctions in quality and style from chapter to chapter. I was hoping for a practical manual of how to work with clients. Instead, I got a book that is solidly researched but that would appeal more to a researcher than a clinician. I would have preferred a book by a single author who synthesizes the works of leaders in the field. The content is good but one has to do a lot of work to find the clinically useful material. In addition, the concepts do NOT come alive in case examples. Finally, the print is rather tiny, so those over 40 will strain their eyes trying to read the text.

Dr. Rogers certainly knows his "stuff!" Take it from one of those guy's who has "been there and done that." His arrows hit the mark! Deception and malingering, these are not just mere words to echo in the wind. The author walks along side of the reader, while all the while supporting his professional perspectives with documented and keenly researched facts.

Expertise is constantly evident, with solid exploration being given to 1). Where we've been; 2). Where we're at; 3). And, where we're going regarding better detecting the "fakes" and how to best utilize the available wealth of information contained within these pages.

The true magnitude and complexity surrounding this element of psychopathology, etc., to the qualified and perceptive researcher, is crystal clear, indeed.

This book ought to be readily available to all professionals claiming to be experts in this potentially deadly arena of forensics!

You feel in reading George Duby's book that a corner is lifted on the real world of life under Henry 11 and his sons.It is a long way from the romanticised version we are fed as children but no less fascinating.The story of the last days of William Marshall must be one of the most moving descriptions ever written of a powerful man preparing to take his leave of this life. Spellbinding. The description of a tournament must be the most comprehensive ever written I was brought up on Ivanhoe and all that! The most devastating discovery is the very minor role played by most women in the lives of the Plantagenets - it will horrify the modern woman.This book evokes all the drama we have seen in classic films like "The Lion in Winter" and puts it in perspective. Not for everyone but for those interested in the twelfth century a real spellbinder. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of William Marshall's biography in English?

Knights. The word brings powerful images to mind, images of brave and noble men. Men of unyielding courage who fight in great battles, defend their kings, and rescue princesseses. William Marshal does all of this, and more, in this true story of the greatest knight who ever lived

This book is great for those beginning the study of medieval life and warfare of the middle ages.William Marshal is the greatest knight that England has ever produced, and a reader will become captive in the story as William becomes one of the nations greatest and respected nobles.

Each chapter contained too much information for students. Also, it should have more examples for each exercises. If there is a answer key in the back of each chapter, it will be more helpful for students.

Having used several books to teach Managerial Accounting, I find this to be one of the better textbooks in the market. It is comprehensive and yet written in a way that is easy for the student to understand. The authors seem to know exactly what key points to emphasize. Ideal for a self study course.

I don't think it's something you'd want to read for its own sake unless you have a particular interest in the development of the novel in in the nineteenth century. The plot concerns the efforts of Sir Austin Feverel to prevent his son's marriage and then to break it up. There are ponderous attemps at humor. A tragic and melodramatic ending is tacked on. The story is often difficult to follow, with characters being assigned different names. Jane Austen had already shown how a a tight light novel could be constructed. Madame Bovary had been written (for the diffference between mediocrity and genius compare the descriptions of the food at the wedding breakasts in this and in Madame Bovary). This has the clumsy baggy long-winded structure of Dickens (who was writing Great Expectations at the sme time) but without the great characters and confrontations. This was popular literature in its time, and considered scandalous.

Excellent example of the style of the time.

the fact that this book was published in 1997 from work done earlier does not excuse its failure to address material dealing with the panoply of imperatives for security either then or now. while the economy and the environment are mentioned as items to be addressed in the new security syllabus no attention is given to cyberterrorism, asymmetrical warfare, catastrophic terrorism, or even biological warfare. the works cited tend to be parochial and, generally, naive. the book does reveal the thinking of some of the people who occasionally advise our government on such matters as security. zut, alors! some of the chapters include syllabi that provide insight into what is, perhaps, being purveyed as secuity studies across the country and, heaven forefend, around the world. the book provides no web addresses.

This book is actually a guide for professors, with chapters presenting specific courses in security studies complete with fifteen-week outlines and all recommended readings. It is in my view a very fine structured reading program for the adult policy maker who is well beyond the need for going back to school, but much in need a fast means of coming to grips with the dramatic changes that have occurred in our international security environment. Early on it addresses the competing approaches to security studies-from the traditionalist national, international, and regional security approaches to the emerging transstate (non-state actors acknowledged as major sources of conflict and instability) to the global (to include human rights, environmental protection, economic prosperity, and social development as fundamental security issues). It's iteration of the weaknesses of 20th century security studies reads like a list of current biases inherent in those prescribing defense reform today: overemphasis on theory (or worst-case scenarios); insufficient attention to non-combat missions for military forces in peacetime; excessive focus on the US, Europe, and Russia to the exclusion of the rest of the world; too little attention to culture and the relationship of culture to conflict deterrence and resolution; insufficient attention to history prior to World War II; and finally, a neglect of non-military instruments of power and their interaction with the military. Intelligence in particular is singled out as being a relatively recent open topic for discussion, meriting more study. The chapters on Transstate Security by Roy Godson (on non-state actors and the growing prevalence of "global ungovernability") and on Nontraditional Uses of Military Force by George H. Quester, as well as the introduction and conclusion by Richard H. Schultz, Jr., are each, alone, worth the price of the book. Each chapter, with its course outline, discussion, and recommended references, is worthy of careful examination by any serving or aspiring policymaker. However distinguished one's pedigree, we are all students today, and Graham E. Fuller is correct when he notes on page 124 that "most policymakers do not even fully realize the dynamics of the new world we live in."

If the second sentence of Chapter One is an accurate excerpt from this book, it is seriously flawed:

Excerpt from Megawatts and Megatons : A Turning Point in the Nuclear Age

Chapter 1

ATOMS, ELECTRONS, AND NUCLEI

All matter is an assembly of atoms. A liter of water, for example, contains about 1026 atoms of hydrogen and oxygen.

Please, tell me it isn't so. If it were, we'd be able to see those atoms, wouldn't we?

Although its authors fail to recognize that worldwide oil+natural gas extraction will certainly peak before 2015, this book is very timely. Garwin & Charpak write (p. 246) "We believe that one of the highest duties of society as a whole is to assess and to choose its destiny. In this book our goal is less to prescribe than to inform our readers of the options as we see them ... In considering nuclear energy we do not in any way intend to denigrate other approaches to providing for the needs of society -- including renewable energy, improved efficiency to reduce energy needs, and the like. Nevertheless, all these options will have direct and indirect effects on the environment." Nuclear power for electricity generation is one of their threads, the other is weapons and arms control which Garwin has worked on for many years mostly to point out the futility of defense against weapons not delivered by missiles and against missiles after decoys are deployed.

The book compares the success of nuclear power-plants in France (where reactors produce 80% of the electricity) with the perceived failures in execution in the US. The authors consider both direct (once through) disposal and reprocessed fuel cycles, outlining costs in energy and radioactivity release of both, and the mixed French experience with reprocessing and breeders. They note that advanced reprocessing has the potential to reduce waste volume and long-term radioactivity, at the expense of doubling release today (p. 198). They advocate research into uranium separation from sea-water, noting that early experiments are very promising that this can meet growing power needs for hundreds of years. Of course, what we really need are about 40 years of growth to bridge the world to a mix of fully sustainable electricity sources and to take up the growing slack from declining oil+natural gas. The authors first consider the bridging contribution of coal, arguing (p. 232) that CO2 sequestration is certainly feasible at the cost of reducing power-plant net energy output by 30-50%. Coupled with oil+gas decline, sequestration would reduce anthropogenic CO2 generation to levels well below the lowest 2100 projection of the IPCC (perhaps explaining the seemingly comatose response of Cheney/Bush to the Kyoto process). They discuss reactor concepts like the inaccurately named "energy amplifier" sub-critical, accelerator assisted thorium concept of Rubbia, but less discussion of nearer term developments such as the pebble bed modular reactors that seemed until 4/02 to be on track in South Africa. Both approaches are said to attain passive safety. If such designs are not debugged urgently, we will have to depend on expanded use of derivatives from technically "ancient" light-water reactors derived from submarine power-plants.

The authors also discuss opportunities for terrorists to divert enriched fuel from reprocessing and waste disposal, and note how attractive disposal sites will be for future warriors after all but the plutonium has decayed! They do not discuss the vulnerabilities of existing reactors, but do advocate burying the next generation of power-plants. A chapter on safety also advocates distributing potassium iodide tablets to saturate thyroids of those near power-plants undergoing "an incident"; failure to do this in a timely fashion at Chernobyl produced the criminally high incidence of childhood leukemia. (Until rationality overcomes PR, you can buy suitable KI on the Web. A single dose is useless!) They compare nuclear industry hazards to other industries, tabulating (p. 202) that the relative probability of dying from even a Chernobyl accident is minute compared to cardiovascular disease or "medical errors in hospitals". They discuss the effects of radiation at Chernobyl in detail. There are only a few typesetting errors, and a number of not funny cartoons; the illustrations are clear and useful. It is likely that for the next few decades, our choice in the US will be either a nuclear reactor within 50 miles or electricity rationing through extremely high prices. I plan to use this book in my upcoming college-freshman level energy course for non-science majors ..., and recommend it as a solid introduction to a complex but very real conundrum for our technically challenged society.

Having read Gary Richardson's review, and having NOT READ the book (as is evidently the case for Mr. Richardson as well), I submit that the excerpt in question was intended to have been written and read as 10 to the 26th power atoms in a liter of water. That is a 1 followed by 26 zeros (100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms). While I have commited a diservice similar to Mr. Richardson's by rating it, I will not actually attempt to review the book until I have READ it. May we all do the same!

I got about half way through it and found myself skipping more than reading. Few examples, too much talk about obtuse data structures that even after the description I was left wondering if it was important. Just not enough teaching. The authors need to learn a key axiom of writing: show don't tell. Might be a good reference book, however.

Chapter 2, learning basic ATL was great, but after that the book went south. If you are new to COM or ATL try another book.

I have now finished reading this book - and am chuffed about how I am now traversing with ease various ATL examples I have found on the net. I give it four stars. Prior to reading it, I had no COM experince and no MFC experience (only win32api and c++).

BAD BITS: Like other readers, I found the chapter 2 client-from-server-wizard bit to be unsuitable. At the time I was still trying to grasp the main concepts. I just skipped that bit.

And also, perhaps the chapters are a bit long, they cover alot in one chapter.

GOODBITS: Comprehensive - for me, this book left no questions unanswered. If you reread a section you will eventually understand it. I constantly annotated with a pencil things such as "see pagexx", "see pagezz", But its all in there!

Well chosen examples - they like throwing in examples that expose the little technical quirks that I assume will be hard to figure out unaided. It is true that this would make a good reference aswell as a learning guide.

Technical detail - I like to know what is actually going on behind the scenes, and in all those macros. This book told me.

I thoroughly recommend this book for those with no MFC or COM experience. I would recommend re-reading chapters if you get lost. The examples aren't that important, (I think I did about 4 examples all up). Goodluck - its challenging, but what you are capable of when you get to the end is quite impressive.

This book was one of the best that I have read on a particulartopic...

The authors provide a lot of instruction about how to readthe book, recommending, for example, that you read through the chapter before actually attempting the examples. This is, of course, a standard recommendation (which in my experience many readers of technical material do not follow). Following this advice, I found that the authors were correct, and the material was far more understandable.

I am NOT a proficient C++ programmer.

Yet by the end of the book I was able to create my own bug-free COM server with a full object heirarchy including a collection. I had been unable to understand implementing collections in C++ with other books.

My intent was to have a C++ COM server so that I could hook up a VB client and study the interaction of the two at the lowest possible (for me) level. I wanted watch calls to QueryInterface, watch reference counts increment and decrement. I wanted to see how COM objects were intialized and destroyed.

I succeeded, thanks to this book. END

So you have already seen the present and former capital, and now you would like to see the "real Russia", or you have adopted a child from Murmansk, or you are meeting a prospective bride from Magadan (don't laugh--whenever I answer questions from people who are traveling to regions outside of Moscow/St. Petersburg, 80% are going for adoption or marriage!). There are almost no current guidebooks to regions such as Perm, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Volgograd, Crimea, Minsk, and the Far East. The 'Lonely Planet Russia, Ukraine & Belarus (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, 2Nded)' has the largest area coverage of any guide currently published in English.

It is also ideal for those taking a river cruise between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The coverage of the famed Trans-Siberian route is ok, although I think the 'Trans-Siberian Handbook' and 'Siberian Bam Guide : Rail, Rivers & Road' do a better job for those particular regions.

The Moscow/St. Petersburg sections are ok as well, although I think anyone spending more than a few days in each of those cities should look into guides that cover only those cities.

Restaurant, hotel and travel information are good, although could use more details. The history sections are adequate considering the scope of the book. Also, the twice-yearly updates at Lonely Planet's web site, although lacking in breadth and depth, provide some more timely information than what appears in the book.

It is undoubtedly hard to write a good guidebook on countries like Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where the situation has been changing daily for the last 12 years, in almost every aspect of life. Hotels, restaurants and other outlets change. Styles of life change, as do security and the uninspiring state bureaucracy. Yet, Lonely Planet has successfully overcome this challenge, and produced an excellent guidebook, perhaps only slight below its usual excellent standard. Information on Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, etc, is thorough and wise, and is a must for any traveler. The guidebook is perhaps weaker on other, more remote, regions of these three countries, as one would expect. The facts about the country (history, culture, etc) are of great interest and excellently written. This is definitely a book not to be left out of your baggage before you take off.

This review is a follow-up to my May 13, 2000 review and only addresses the Ukraine portion of this guidebook. My wife and I did spend our entire summer in Ukraine and used this guidebook as our travel bible. We found the information up-to-date and accurate. We also generally agreed with the advise which I think is remarkable since, with three months there, my wife took me to see just about everything the book suggested doing in Kiev and many things it merely discussed but did not recommend. Additionally we also traveled throughout western Ukraine for two weeks. In fact, we went on a group tour of western Ukraine and our guidebook turned out to be a big hit. Everyone on the bus wanted to read it. A fellow traveler who had brought Let's Go Eastern Europe 2000 with him agreed that Lonely Planet was much better. Until something newer comes out, with respect to Ukraine guidebooks I think Lonely Planet can't be beat.

If this was just a plain old mystery novel, which "The Two Georges" is at its heart, this would be a pretty boring book. Fortunately, Harry Turtledove's alternate world gives it a major boost.

The American Revolution never happened, and without the American Revolution, the French and Russian Revolutions never happen either, so geopolitics are locked in a three-way dance between the British Empire, the Bourbon Franco-Spanish Holy Alliance, and Tsarist Russia. These powers control most of the world, while the lesser powers, Portugal, Denmark, Japan, and Switzerland control the rest. Germany and Italian are nothing more than a loose collection of regional authorities.

One of the crown jewels of the British Empire is the NAU, North American Union, the provinces that would have been much of the United States and Canada. And here, the story begins.

The story is so sterotypical it's not even funny. The protagonist is a hard drinking divorcee, bitter with his life, but dedicated to his job. His partner, friend, and foil is an older black man. He is the hero's moral voice, he's a family man, passed over partially because of his race, but he has the strength and character his partner lacks. The love interest is beautiful and brillant, with a troubled background and strange connection to the case. The villians are a group of radical racist political dissents. The rest of the cast is paint by numbers.

Yes, the plot's a carbon copy, but the setting vitalizes it. British controlled America is less advanced and more polite than the reality.

Turtledove does a good job as usual in adapting the story, but the story itself fails with some points. Because of its unoriginal storyline, the rest of the story suffacates.

In my opinion books by Harry Turtledove (and even films by Richard Dreyfuss) can be a so-so affair. But I did like this book. The premise itself, that America could be happily part of the British Empire, without a revolution, is always an interesting one,especially considering how easily it might have been. It is also a brave book, especially in its attempt o debunk some "heroes" of modern America, especially JFK. And American life, especially the idea that blacks are far more equal, with Martin Luther King as the Governor, and many dominating the political classes, and the digs at gun control (with only 5/6 gun murders in what would be LA in one year). The Story line itself was good,a well realised crime thriller, with unexpected twists, and especially liked the detail of the story to, the careful descriptions of the food and travel conditions.

However I don't think this book is worth a fifth star, it reads very much like a film, also while the details of the book make it, they also let it down, because in places it drags, and the action moves far too slowly. The love story, does seem a bit false. Also some of leaps he makes, the use of airships, the pace of life and lack of technological advancement seems for the world he creates is a bit lacking, merely to show how different the world would be, rather than being a bit more realistic.

But as with all Harry Turtledove's book, it is the characters that make you ignore its faults and keep going through its prolems, and thi is no exception. The two leads are excellant and well fleshed out, and make you want to know what happens to them, also the bad guys in the story are not totally demonised, and in some places you can understand why they do the things they do.

This is a good book,and I would buy it, and my advice is: stick with, and don't be put off by its lack of pace.

The idea of the sun never setting on the British Empire is fascinating even to patriotic Americans and Dreyfuss and Turtledove have given us their view of the possible result. In an interesting mystery with a lot of twists and surprises, the authors give us an America where things are slower, crime is lower, and technology minimal. Though it paints a picture of a "kinder and gentler" America--short of the homegrown terrorism of the Sons of Liberty--much of what we still hold dear as Americans is demonstrated by Colonel Bushell and his aide Captain Stanley: An unfettered view of right and wrong, loyalty to what is demonstrated as a just system, and the desire to succeed against all odds. This is certainly an excellent book with lessons for the real United States in the closing years of the 20th century.