This is a wonderful book-rich with history and classic recipes! I grew up eating at Joe's on our annual trips to the Miami area. The food and atmosphere were always memorable. I have especially enjoyed creating the salads, sides, and luscious desserts that enhanced the stone crab experience in my own kitchen. This book is a must have for both the recipes and the tales that have built the persona of Joe's Stone Crab.

I use this book with 7th and 8th grade students when doing field ecology studies. The reason I really like it is because it not only provides a closeup photograph of the leaves, wood and seeds but ALSO provides a photograph of the entire plant, as it looks to a student walking up to it. Additionally it gives data on the nutritional value to wildlife and livestock as well as native uses. Botany is a personal weakness, but I find the book easy to use. A field guide for botany bozos. Experts may like it too, but I cannot speak to that. (We use it to identify vegetation in West Texas too.)

This book starts out on the dead run and doesn't let up until the last page. A series of very believable situations (as in Before the Wind by Charles Tyng) woven through by some serious "in your face" action (reminiscent of Thomas Lord Cochrane), this could be three or four novels but printed as one. I was concerned that all of the adventure would be used up in this book, but as we near the end, well.... you have to read it to really find out what happens. Seems, this is only the beginning of what may surely be a powerful series of novels. Richard Woodman bows to no man.

Ten of Joe's favorite stories with delightful photographs of the master storyteller telling stories to a live audience of kids. In sidebars Joe gives his tips on the techniques for everybody-- kids, teachers and parents--to tell their own stories.

This is an outstanding book. It's enlightening entertaining and very enjoyable. JL's life from early childhood in Alabama to his youth in Detroit is clearly written. His amateur career is well documented as are all his professional fights. His boxing coterie and family life are also well drawn. I didn't know much about JL before reading this book, but I came away liking him very much and obviously respecting his boxing abilities. Mr. Bak has written an instructive and very enlightening book.

I was never a runner but I wanted to run a marathon so a friend recommended this book. It is an excellent "how-to" manual and I followed it word-for-word. Benyo gives advice from day one through the actual races (mile by mile) and post race recovery. I hope this book makes it back into print because it is an excellent guide to running a first marathon.

"I wish someone had given me this book when I first began managing other people. I wish someone had given this book to all my past bosses while they were managing me." Dana Voien, Vice President, Baxter Japa

I don't often do book reviews, but when I saw that this book did not have any remarks, I couldn't resist taking the time to write one. This book is truly one of my favorite books of all times. The story begins with the two main characters (he's a principal and she's an elementary teacher)in the midst of a crumbling marriage. The couple once loved each other deeply, but when he (Joe) discovers that he is the reason they cannot have children, he shuts down emotionally. He comes from a loud, happy, Italian (I believe) family. He's always dreamed of having a family of his own and is devistated and ashamed of his perceived inadequacies. His wife (Samantha)loves him and has no desire to give up on their marriage, but she's at a loss as to what to do. She says adopt, he says no way. Then Corey enters into their life. She's an adorable, and often awful little "urchin" that Samantha teaches in her 1st grade class. Corey has a terrible home life and worships the ground Samantha walks on. Bit by bit, Corey incorporates herself into Joe and Samatha's life. When the chance comes along to take Corey into their home, Joe balks...and Samantha opens her arms and her heart to the little girl. Joe eventually realizes that his family doesn't have to be connected through blood -- just love.

It's a beautiful story and one shouldn't be missed.

I am not questioning the amount of effort that has gone into the book, but some foundations upon which the book makes many of its claims are fundamentally flawed. For example, it is widely accepted (and has been conclusively proven) within the Oracle community that worrying about cache hit ratios, multiple extents, etc is a flawed methodology for tuning an Oracle database which will serves simply to misguide the novice.

Leave this book on the shelf...

In his book, Rich has merged his many years of Oracle performance tuning expertise with advanced insider techniques in an easy-to-understand way. Hundreds practical topics, undocumented references, experts tips and real life examples have made this book a must have for DBA's and any Oracle performance tuning personnel.

This book covers the tuning tips and techniques in using newest features in Oracle 8i as well as the original features in Oracle 7 or 8. As Rich's first sentence indicates, "Oracle is a symphony and you are the conductor, with an opportunity to create a world class performance", his book will help you to achieve this opportunity and to become a great tuning conductor of Oracle performance.

The first chapter of the book serves as highlight notes, which sets up five quick goals to instantly improve performance. Through the rest chapters of his entire book, readers will gain detail tuning knowledge about disk I/O, init.ora parameters, OEM, Explain Plan, table joins, hints, PL/SQL, parallel query, using V$ views, accessing x$ tables, new features and many more tips and techniques for reaching the best performance. After reading this book, be sure to share your thoughts with others in your review.

I was happy with this book and it can help u find orcale tuning problems and find results fast.

Richard Price has an ear for street dialogue and he knows how to give his characters depth and dimension. As much as I loved Price's "Freedomland", this book is an even greater accomplishment.

There are no one-dimensional characters here. Everyone is real. Strike, the clocker, deals drugs and damages the life of a young boy. Yet there is goodness, awareness and a glimmer of hope inside him. Sometimes we hate him, sometimes we pity him, sometimes we admire him. Rocco the homicide cop is equally vivid, a hero in some ways, a tragic figure in others. These are people we care about because they're so full and real. Even Rodney, Strike's boss, a badass dude for sure, dispenses some truths and solid advice when he's recruiting clockers in lockup.

As deep as the characterizations run, the book surprisingly evolves into a whodunit. By the time you realize this, you're so involved with the characters, you have a steep investment in how it all turns out. There were times I laughed out loud, there were times I cried, and there were times I had to put this book down and reflect on the poignant truths that reveal themselves to these people.

As a fan of crime fiction and police procedurals, this book stands apart from the genre. There is action, to be sure, but "Clockers" is a character study in a gritty environment, and you feel the threat and wear of imminent violence on every page. Yet you'll find some decency as well.

For an exciting and totally involving journey into the inner city and the world of cops and dealers, it doesn't get any better than this.

Richard Price's "Clockers" is easily one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It is a riveting tale of ruthless detectives, the guilty, the innocent, racism, drugs and hope.It is a book that makes us care about its characters including Strike, Det. Rocco Klein and many others. It is a book about the state of the drug problem in America as well as a tight, captivating murder mystery. Spike Lee made a wonderful, gritty film from the novel and both are urban masterpeices.

Clockers is a murder mystery, complete with suspense and a twist ending, cloaked in an unconventional, raw street setting. The novel possesses more street-smarts than any other book I've read, fiction or not. The dialogue, internally (i.e., in the characters' own heads) and externally, was tough and vibrant, and employed street vernacular which rang credible without sounding clichéd. Many authors tell tales of drug dealers and ghetto crimes, but rare is the account from a drug-dealer's point of view. A troubled, intelligent, calculating drug-dealer, no less, who considers the repercussions of his every move.

All of Clockers' characters were realistically flawed, able to invoke both sympathy and disgust. Strike, the ulcer-stricken dealer, was in constant turmoil as he struggled between trying to earn enough from his illicit trade to get out of it, and attempting to help others avoid being dragged into the same web. Rocco, the homicide detective and delinquent family-man, had a love-hate relationship with his work, and sought a mission through which to justify his continued involvement in the force. Victor (Strike's brother) was an honest, hard working black man who had risen above the allure of the street life around him, but wrestled with his own demons and internal sense of justice. Everyone's paths met with the murder of a lesser character, at which point the cat and mouse game was afoot.

Lesser, but no less interesting plot lines abound: Strike's education of his would-be apprentice, Tyrone; Strike's efforts to free himself from an unhealthily dependent relationship with drug kingpin Rodney; and Rocco's schoolboy interest in being shadowed by a cocksure filmmaker with an interest in a police picture. Also fascinating and seemingly credible were the lessons in police and ghetto-civilian dealings: crooked cops being paid for protection; dealers ratting on one another to escape arrest; and unlikely, yet highly effective, working relationships between cops and dealers born from years of coexistence. Lastly, the issues broached by Clockers are current by today's standards, including AIDS, the questionable efficacy of drug busts, and the shiftlessness of ghetto kids who turn to pushing in the absence of concerned adults.