This book was amazing and gave a lot of perpective in many people's lives.

Reviewed by THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW. Oct.,1999.

John Charles Fremont was one of the best known of the 19th century explorers of the American western frontier. He tracked his course with the aid of stars and planets. In preparing this first volume of his "Fremont's Greatest Western Exploration" series, John Stewart followed Fremont's course using modern highway and aviation maps. In doing so, Stewart went beyond what library bound researchers and historians could offer because of his own considerable expertise in using concepts of navigation to track Fremont's path in detail. Stewart combines his navigational expertise and love of history with a distinctive flair for writing and communicating Fremont's fascinating excursions with a vivid and informative text that will engage the interest of the history buff, and have much with which to commend itself to the historian and scholar as well.

J.I.M. Stewart wrote literarcy criticism and mainstream novels under his own name, and popular detective stories under the name Michael Innes. The Gaudy is the first novel in a quartet about Duncan Patullo and his return to Oxford in middle age as a lecturer. Each book in the quartet can be appreciated on its own, but taken together they form a measured portrait of a middle aged scholar in the mid-twentieth century. The Gaudy is the best of the lot, in my opinion, and is usually considered the best novel Stewart wrote. It is in some ways the antithesis of his Michael Innes mysteries: those are brief and action packed and were written in a week(or so it seems), while The Gaudy and its successors owe more to Anthony Powell and less to Agatha Christie.

Duncan Patullo returns to his Oxford college(called Surrey, based on Christ Church) for his year's Gaudy, the Oxonian term for a class reunion. He is a moderately successful playwright, apparently of somewhat old-fashioned taste (there are dismissive references to Ionesco and John Arden). He meets several of his old classmates, including his old friend Tom, now Lord Marchpayne, and spends a great deal of time analyzing his fellow guests. There are scandals and even a bit of excitement, but the plot is really driven by Patullo's interior monologue, similar to those of C.P. Snow's characters, but rather better thought out and written. By the end, Patullo has accepted a post as lecturer in Modern Drama and a fellowship at the college, and the stage is set for the rest of the "Staircase in Surrey" novels, which find Patullo an aging don.

This book was a bit fresher in its invention than its successors, and the plot twists that drive the action, such as it is, are much less contrived than in the other "Surrey" novels. The transformation of a middle aged playwright who has not thought twice about his old college in as many years into a scholar devoted to the place is marvelously described. Stewart had clearly gotten a subject after his heart, and reaches a power of description unmatched in his other work.

Stewart was a Student (fellow) of Christ Church College, and here writes what he knows. A good work for fans of Powell, or Snow, or Beryl Bainbridge, and a good look at the kind of novel that flourished in England from 1950-1985 or so.

I read this book some years ago and found it invaluble to anyone who hunts wild turkey in the new england states. Instead of giving general turkey hunting info or focusing on southern states as many books do, this one tells about tactics for the northeast and gives a lot of historical turkey data for each of the new england states. Unfortunately, I lost my copy a few years back and since I was able to locate it at Amazon.com I will be buying a new one. Mike Koffink

our linear algebra class prof. told us that this is the most readable math book, that's why the math dept. switched to this book this year. =)

Even not being an expert in IOS and router security, I can acknowledge
the usefulness of SANS "Securing Cisco Routers: Step by Step". While
my router skills do not go beyond basic configuration of Cisco 2500
series, I can appreciate the complete end-to-end guide to router
security. What is better, the book (a 85 page manual jam packed with
commands and practical suggestions) describes not just "how to secure
a router", but "how to configure a router while having security in

mind".

The book starts with a brief policy primer which emphasizes the need
for written security policy. The book then methodically delves into
selecting IOS image, initial setup, remote access configuration, user
administration, configuring services, logging and finally the routing
protocols. The manual covers Cisco routers running IOS 11 and
later. The applicability of commands for specific IOS versions is
clearly marked. Additionally, the tips are categorized into applicable
to internal, gateway and SOHO routers.

A part of the book is devoted to using RAT - Router Audit Tool. The
book also contains a large set of checklists for router security,
which will likely come handy while working on multiple routers. The
book appendices also contain the tips for mitigating denial-of-service
attack using routers and guidelines for using nmap for auditing the
devices.

Similar to other SANS guides, it would likely not win any literature
prizes, but can be indispensable if one is confronted with a need to
set up or secure a router.

Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA, GCIH is a Senior Security Analyst with a
major information security company. His areas of infosec expertise
include intrusion detection, UNIX security, forensics, honeypots,
etc.

I bought his book thinking that it would contain a basic summary of each of the popular religions (I didn't read any of the reviews before buying it). The author obviously spent a great deal of time studying many religions, unfortunately, his very bias comments that are interspersed within the text make the book impossible to read. Please Mr McDowell just give us the facts of the religions and not your opionion. This book should of been titled "why my religion is right and yours is wrong".

Concerning his arguments for his chosen religion, what can I say other then they make him look like a fool. His logic to identify an occult religion would surely apply to own religion, but he simply doesn't see it. Its quite sad to think about his state of mind

McDowell's and Stewart's *Handbook of Today's Religions* is a compilation of their series on the cults, world religions and secular religions, under one title. The work provides a systematic survey of the core beliefs, philosophical characteristics and significant writers within each religious viewpoint, and offers a critique from the foundation of a historic, Biblical Christian worldview.

The book is copiously documented from the primary sources and significant secondary materials, and is clearly written in a friendly and personable style. The documentation contained in this book alone is worth the price of the book. The religious views treated, while held to be in error by the authors, are treated with an irenic tone and intelligent manner.

This book has four major sections: Understanding the Cults, Understanding the Occult, Understanding Non-Christian Religions, and Understanding Secular Religions. It closes with an article by Norman Anderson on "A Christian Approach to Comparative Religions."

I read this book years ago when I first became a Christian. It helped to settle in my mind the uniqueness of true Christianity. It also helped to answer lingering questions I had about other belief systems. So it helped to solidify my belief that the Christian faith was true and that other belief systems were false.

In the first section on cults the authors first discuss "What is a Cult?" They then present the basic characteristics of cults and the beliefs of orthodox Christianity. The beliefs are present via quotes from important Christian creeds, with supporting Biblical references. It's not a thorough Biblical study of such doctrines, but adequate for presenting the orthodox view. For a more thorough study on the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, see my "Scripture Workbook: For Personal Bible Study and Teaching the Bible."

The first section of this book then looks at individual groups like JWs and Mormons. For each group it presents a very short history of the group. For a more detailed history of each group, one would have to consult books like Walter Martin's "Kingdom of the Cults" or Ruth Tucker's "Another Gospel."

But what this book does provide is a detailed Biblical discussion of each group's teachings. The book first documents the group's doctrines through extended quotes from it's own literature. The authors then provide extensive Biblical refutations of these doctrines.

The tone of the book is one of presenting an exegesis of the relevant Scriptures. It is not strongly judgmental, just strongly Biblical. And my "Scripture Workbook" provides additional Biblical refutations of claims of groups discussed in this book.

The second section of this book gets into an area that I find rather uncomfortable to study: the occult. I never was attracted to the occult, and it just gives me the creeps studying about it. But the Bible does say not be ignorant of Satan's devices, so at least a cursory knowledge of occult practices can be helpful.

This sections looks at occult practices like astrology, fortune telling, and parapsychology. For each practice, a basic explanation is provided, then a logical and/ or Biblical refutation.

The third section looks at non-Christian religions like Hinduism and Islam. When I first read this book I found this section particularly interesting. I had never really considered becoming a Mormon or JW, but before becoming a Christian I did investigate other world religions. And again, this book confirmed my previous studies that Christianity was to be preferred over these other religions.

The discussions in this section are similar to the ones in the section on cults. A very short history of the religion is presented and then a much more in-depth discussion and Biblical refutation of its teachings.

The last section looks at atheism and related belief systems. Again, a basic history is provided of each system, then logical refutations of their teachings. The authors are smart enough to focus on logical arguments as Biblical arguments would hardly hold much sway with atheists.

So overall, this is a very helpful book due to the breadth of belief systems it covers. But with such a variety of views discussed, it doesn't provide as much detail on each group as some other books might. But for someone who was in the position I was of still having questions about competing worldviews to Christianity, this book can be very helpful. And it will provide the Christian with a basic knowledge of each of the systems discussed along with providing much material for Biblical studies. And for more Biblical study on many of the topics discussed in this book, see my "Scripture Workbook."

I usually LOVE Frommer's books. Their book on Costa Rica is outstanding and so is their Europe on $50 a day. However, I was a little disappointed with this one. My husband and I are about to travel to the Greek Islands and we wanted to at least see a one page per island description -- even if the description just says "uninhibited, don't travel here.' This one only goes through the main islands. I'm sure it's still a good guide but we wanted to see at least a listing of all the islands. It does give good tips and stuff and I'm sure we'll find them all helpful.

I went traveling in Greece 2 years ago and found other travel books to lack info on the Greek Islands and had to struggle my way through the islands. As I am planning to return this summer, I have found this book to be a good reference to prepare, and one that I will bring with me. When most of us think of Greece, the Greek Isles are the place most of us invision. This book gave me a good reference as to where to go, where to stay and what there was to do. I would reccommend this book to others.

Had Borges ever read this classic detective novel? I'm not suggesting Innes bursts the boundaries of his form like Borges or Chesterton. On its most obvious level, this is a typical product of Golden Age detective fiction - conservative, obviously ideological, a puzzle-like mystery solved by a socially and intellectually superior detective, archly written, set in a socially acceptable milieu (an Oxbridge college) full of the right people, with amusing instances of outright snobbery. But if he doesn't burst his genre's limits, Innes certainly seems to nag at them. Because, in his almost complete abstraction of plot to the exclusion of meaningful character or locale ; in his filtering of third person objective narration with the voices of the narrated; in his continual self-referentiality; in his meaningful allusinism which both focuses on the genre, but also well away from it; in, most importantly, casting doubt on his detective hero and offering a very unsatisfactory solution, Innes seems to be edging towards a position that would allow Borges to launch his metaphysical fantasies, thus undermining the very fundamentals of the genre he's working in.

After hearing a couple reviews from friends in person, as well as the enthusiastic applause it received from the readers here, I expected quite a bit more from 'Clan Novel: Toreador' than I received from the first of the 13-book series. Not that it was a bad book, or that it occupied countless volumes of my time. Rather, it was an easy read, one that went by quickly but did not leave many lingering afterthoughts in its wake.

As would be the fashion, bits and pieces of this book are to be incorporated in the following 12, each overlapping a small amount. I initially ordered the first six of the series and intend to read through them; I hope that the intrigue grows, or even, appears. Like other books of a series, though, I'm hoping this is just a lead-in to much better material.

For my $ and a few hours reading, this is a good start to what is quite an epic series about vampires. No doubt, this is not an instant classic, but that's not what I expect from a short pulpy book that's the first of 13. It has character sketches of two Toreadors (one "real" artist and one "poser"), it shows the two main sides of White Wolf's vampire faction (the Camarilla and the Sabbat, and even tosses in some of the independent groups, like Setites) and it gets the action of the series underway (the Eye of Hazimel, the Sabbat attacks, etc.). The sex is not erotic, but these are undead we're talking about. There are some scenes that drag a bit, but there are some interestingly unsettling ones as well (a vampire coming out of frenzy licking dried blood off a road, a vampire kissing a bust he sculpted, etc.). My advise is either expect to read the entire series or don't pick up the first book at all. Judged by itself it may not be what YOU want it to be. But as part of the series, I think it succeeds just fine.

I liked this book. It was a decent intro to the world of the Camarilla, in particular, two Toreador vampires. I read reviews of most of the series of 13 novels, and this first book didn't rate real high. If that's the case, I am really looking forward to reading the novels which seemed to rate the highest! Setite, Gangrel, and Ravnos.