My mom and I began to learn German with a tutor over a year ago. This was one of the first books I bought and I still refer to it regularly. It helps to have some understanding of grammar in general to really get good use out of this book, but taking on German implies some mental commitment and capacity anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Strangely, the first half of the book is all verbs and the second half the rest of grammar (articles, nouns, etc.). The table of contents is concise and detailed however, so this "separation" is not a problem. Actually, it makes it easier to find things when you know what you're looking for. You will need a dictionary accompanying this book, as it isn't comprehensive vocabulary-wise, but this book generally gives you all the rules you need and I highly recommend it. It is remarkably thorough for a book barely 100 pages long. There are no exercises and I caught three or four typographical errors, but this book has plenty of information in it, is lightweight, and well-worth the purchase for beginning to intermediate German students.

This book is a great German grammar summary. It features a large section on verb conjugation (60 pages) followed by smaller sections on articles, nouns, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, numbers, pronouns, et cetera.

I am a new learner and found having a grammar handbook essential when trying to do readings or translations. This is a good one because the explanations are clear and compact. Compact is important: its easier to remember.

Also worth hunting for at the library is "English Grammar for Students of German" which discusses the issues involved in grammar with English examples.

This book gives an excellent overview of the topic, written in an easy understandable way. The authors have researched numerous articles and studies and compiled them into this work. The book also contains a lot of tables and graphs to illustrate the text. The foundations and the scope of target costing are well discussed and a small case study gives an idea how target costing is working in a practice. Moreover, there are a lot of references to literature and some examples from industry discussed. In the appendix there is a very useful collection of tools used in the target costing.

Definition and scope of target costing as explained in the book:

The target costing process is a system of profit planning and cost management that is price led, customer focused, design centred, and cross-functional. The target costing initiates cost management at the earliest stages of product development and applies it throughout the product life cycle by actively involving the entire value chain.

The difference between target costing and cost management is that the latter focuses on reducing the cost when they are already occurring, that means when the product design and the process are already defined. The target costing approach on the other hand helps to identify the allowable cost for a product in the design stage, the cost at the manufacturing stage are therefore known to be achievable and competitive. Further cost improvements are achieved by kaizen costing (continuous improvement).

this book is best for persons to understand the target costing indeeply with plain english. this book is also suitable for cost management in the globe.

This book provided more detail for target costings, more useful everyday, in both practical and theorical case. Moreover, this book use plain english for whoever in the world.

Men Against the Sea is the fictionalized second book in the Bounty Trilogy. Mutiny on the Bounty recounts the tale of the voyage of the H.M.S. Bounty from England to Tahiti and a little way back, the mutiny, and the subsequent events that affect those of the Bounty's crew who remain on Tahiti. When last seen in that book, Captain William Bligh is cast adrift far from land in a small vessel overladen with 18 other loyal men and about 7 to 8 inches of freeboard above a flat sea. Practically speaking, their chances are slim.

Men Against the Sea begins with the mutiny and describes what happens to Captain Bligh and those he commands as they make their way eventually to the Dutch settlement of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. Along the way, Captain Bligh and his men traverse around 3,600 miles in their fragile vessel while suffering many horrors including attacks from the native people, lack of sleep, storms, bailing for their lives, cold, thirst, too much sun, and hunger. The authors make a good decision in choosing to have the ship's surgeon serve as the narrator of this saga. This perspective made it possible for the book to include his physical descriptions of the deprivations of the Bounty's abandoned crew to help make the story more compelling. In the true spirit of a story about English tars, there is a considerable discussion of how the starvation the men experienced affected their intestinal tracts.

Captain Bligh comes across very poorly in Mutiny on the Bounty. The opposite occurs in Men Against the Sea. His leadership is one of the great accomplishments of seamanship of all time. Throughout the troubled voyage to the first landing at the Dutch settlement on Timor, Captain Bligh only lost one man. Captain Bligh also comes across as a brave, worthy, and dedicated sailor who is more than willing to share the deprivations of his men. In one stretch, he mans the tiller for 36 straight hours despite being exhausted. At the same time, even the most querulous of the crew usually keep their silence.

But the men are only human after all. Someone steals two pounds of pork. Another shipmate sent to capture birds is overcome by the need to eat them, and spoils the hunting for everyone. In their weakened state, they miss many wonderful chances for food. When they reach civilization and begin to recover from their privations, complaining quickly returns.

My test of how well written such an adventure tale is that I often felt like I was in the boat struggling with them. The main weakness of the book is that it skips many days on end, when the circumstances were at their most dire such as during unending days of storms. By doing this, the reader is denied the chance to have the full horror of the crossing bear down more strongly.

Most of the weaknesses of Mutiny on the Bounty are overcome in Men Against the Sea. So if you found that work unappealing, give this one a chance. It has many of the qualities of great survival and adventure books.

After you finish this remarkable tale, I suggest you think about the ways that adversity brings out the best in you. How can you do as well when times and circumstance are not adverse?

Squarely face the challenge, with confidence that success will follow!

I actually picked up Men Against the Sea expecting a mundane but entertaining sea story. It started off innocently enough until the unlucky crew was sentenced to their watery fate. Then the book suddenly plunged into turbo mode. Now, for an authour to write such a long book about the adventures of 18 men on one small boat and not skip a beat is remarkable.
Captain Bligh establishes his presence on the vessel with an iron grip. His leadership skills and confidence are quite extrodinary as he takes control of boat. One cannot help but feel for the crew as they struggle against all odds. Men Against the Sea is one of those stories that swipes the reader right of their comfy couch and throws them head-first into the raging ocean. The writers describe the hunger and thirst of the men so convicingly that I actually had to grab a bite myself or starve with them! The storms and squalls are believably violent and the Island natives frightfully savage.
It is really a great adventure story. The book manages to surpass its predecessor, Mutiny on the Bounty, by leaps and bounds. From rationing food barely sufficient for one man amongst 18 hungry seamen, too eating raw fish, the crew, lead by their relentless captain, are determined to survive. You will no doubt find yourself cheering at their victories and subsequently mourning their defeats.
What makes the read even more enjoyable is the realization that it is basically a true story. Man against Nature! Trully a book not easily forgotten. It has been 4 years since I read the book and it is still imprinted in by mind.

Read it for yourself. Such books makes being an avid reader so much fun!

It was a hot summer day, and I was in the mood for a sea story. I luckily picked up MEN AGAINST THE SEA and quickly became engrossed. Where the prequel, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, was a story of a mutiny, this one was one of the best men against the elements stories ever penned. We see a very different Captain Bligh, whose temper still flares up from time to time, but who this time is successful in managing a small crew of men in an open boat over 3,000 miles from the site of the mutiny to Timor, which is today part of Indonesia.

Fletcher Christian and his mutineers allow Bligh and his loyalists no guns, three cutlasses, a small medical kit, and a pitiful store of water and victuals. Their boat must skirt all inhabited islands because they had no gifts to give to the natives -- which in the islands at that time meant that they were risking attack every time. Their water supply came from rainstorms and occasional landings for food. They had no gear for fishing. All they had to go on were Bligh's knowledge and guts.

I actually prefer this book to MUTINY and now eagerly look forward to seeing if PITCAIRN'S ISLAND, the third volume in the trilogy, is as good.

James Charles Roy describes himself as a freelance historian. Not much money to be made there, but after reading his entertaining account of leading a tour of American septugenarians into the wilds of ancient Ireland, I think the world needs more historians like him. Roy takes us into the byways and back roads of Ireland introducing us to a part of this beautiful island that most of us never see. His tales and experiences are told with a wry and self-deprecating humor which makes this a thoroughly enjoyable and quick read.

Just when you thought the Irish travel memoir had all but run its course, along comes James Charles Roy's The Back of Beyond, a thoughtful and thoroughly informative investigation of the Ireland of yesterday and today.

Subtitled "A Search for the Soul of Ireland," Roy provides an astute and unvarnished take on the Celtic Tiger that is today's Ireland, warts and all. What distinguishes this book from others in this chock-a-block genre, is Roy's commitment to getting off the Board Failte tourist trail, to seek-out and offer insights to some of Ireland's relatively obscure yet fascinating historic sites. The list includes Scattery Island, Athassel Priory, Knockgraffon Motte, and perhaps most noteworthy, Bully's Acre which, in the author's words, is one of "Dublin's oldest (and seediest) graveyards." Within the site, Roy locates the final resting place of British soldiers who fell victim to the Easter Rising of 1916. Were he a relative of one of these fallen soldiers, Roy writes, "I would be quite unhappy with this unkempt, miserable, overgrown lot of weeds that cover these bones of men who died so violently, it would appear, for nothing."

Unlike other noted travelers, like Rick Steves or Michael Palin, Roy doesn't exhibit the enthusiasm or generosity of spirit toward his fellow travelers. This is evidenced in the bulk of The Back of Beyond as Roy leads a small tour group from Cashel to the Aran Islands, Yeats Country to Dublin City. Roy often carps about his charges ("...my group is incapable of making any independent choices..."), those around him (labeling as "pompous" a tour guide at Dublin's Saint Patrick's Cathedral for working herself up into "a fever pitch" about Jonathan Swift), or simply the state of affairs at such popular tourist sites as Bunratty Castle. And yet, Roy's cantankerous style can at times seem refreshingly candid and not at all in sync with Board Failte. "Up with People goes to Ireland" this is not.

In the end, the author, now separated from his tour group and the throngs of tea towel purchasers that frequent Ireland's tourist trail, visits Ardoilean, a little known island off the Connemara coast. It is here that he finds an Ireland that is all but gone. Considering the island's isolation and the "blind faith" of the monks who once inhabited the place, Roy writes, "I may certainly claim an interest in the place, may congratulate myself on having the resolution to come, as many fainthearted people would not...but that doesn't mean I belong." It is here that an often crotchety Roy looks inward, turns self-critical, and makes The Back of Beyond all the more memorable.

A most hauntingly, beautiful history of old, old Ireland. My people came from area of Moyode Castle. Made me one with them. Perfectly researched. Truly knows Ireland and its people. Am on my second read of it. Would love to have him as a tour guide.

Books don't usually show up on your kitchen counter uninvited but this one did with a note tucked inside saying all in the family must read this. One by one we all read "She" reserving judgement until everyone had finished. Chomping at the bit those who had read it could barely wait for the moment when it could be discussed openly. When the last reader closed the book and placed it on the living room table the comments flew.
"I thought I'd hate it...the writing was so Victorian"

"How did Haggard come up with those wild scenarios"
"I hated her and loved her at the same time"
"Right and wrong became muddled"
"Everything was covered, adventure, excitement, romance, death, religion and morality"
"I continued to turn the pages hardly believing that he could come up with another bizarre scene"
Do we recommend it??? A great big giant YES!!!

Oh, thou-who-hast-not-read-this-book, you know not what you're missing! H. Rider Haggard's "She" is one of the best adventure novels of all, and it is one that inspired some of the best adventure stories of all, like, say, the Indiana Jones series.

A mysterious iron box that cannot be opened for twenty years... a 2,000-year-old quest for revenge... a lost civilization in the depths of Africa... and a mysterious queen called "She."

The story covers a vast landscape that will delight your imagination, and the main characters are distinct and likeable, sturdy partners in this most thrilling of adventures.

The story is so exciting and full of action, it's tempting to write it off as pure pulp fiction, hacked out with little intellgence or deeper meaning. You can read the book this way and still come away having a good time. But, if you're looking for that rare adventure novel with a meaningful subtext, "She" delivers on this level, too. I won't give too much away, but I think it's one of the greatest books ever written that demonstrates the total control desires have over man. Arthur Schopenhauer would approve.

Sigmund Freud called it a book "full of hidden meaning." C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien read it and loved it. Give this one a try, and you, too, might become forever fascinated with "She."

From the swoony cover to the intro by Margaret Atwood to the helpful and witty notes, this is likely the best edition of Haggard's magnificent warhorse on the market (certainly better than the benighted edition that omitted all the author's crucial footnotes, as if they were irritating excrescences).

Plus of course the novel's a gas, and somehow it gets under your skin and stays there forever.

Originally published in 1963 (ten years before The Day of the Jackal), this thriller written under a pseudonym by two English graduate students was originally conceived as a reaction to Ian Fleming's wildly popular James Bond series. However, it also drew upon the extremely volatile contemporary French political scene for plot inspiration, notably using real name and identity of Jacques Soustelle. The book's rediscoverer and champion, James Le Sueur, rightly notes in his accompanying historical essay that the book was at the cutting edge of the new political thriller genre which blurred fact and fiction, but perhaps overstates the matter somewhat in saying that it could have started a important literary rebuttal to the Bond series.

In any event, the novel itself, which occupies 178 pages in this edition, is a fairly entertaining and engrossing caper revolving around the planned assassination of French leader de Gaulle by the OAS. After one ingenious attempt by trained bomb carrying dogs is thwarted in the opening pages, a policeman's widow summons Max Palk, secret agent to help bring down the OAS. Curiously, this ubderspy is an anonymous Englishman office drone, living alone in a dull rooming house on the fringes of London, who, when called forth, transforms rather like a superhero. Next thing you know he's driving powerful sports cars, flying his own plane to his French farm estate, and displaying extreme erudition and Holmesian reasoning and cunning. The never explained disconnect between these two sides of him is a rather jarring and unsatisfactory element of the story, especially if the authors intended him to be the anti-Bond.

The plot hums right along with all the usual reversals and revelations, however its flaws are those of many a potboiler: Max is captures and escapes in entirely unbelievable (albeit comic) way, the damsel in distress is too easily rescued, and the plot foiled with too silly a trick. Still, it's not unenjoyable, and there are some real gemlike moments, such as when Max must correctly identify selections from the Oxford Book of Quotations or be taken to the basement and shot.

In his 60+ page afterword, James Le Sueur describes the novel's publishing history and the legal battle mounted against it by Soustelle, who claimed libel. This gets deeply into France's internal and colonial politics and history, especially the Algerian war and the OAS. While he does an excellent job of synthesizing and explaining, the essay is still likely to be mainly of interest to those who already are somewhat familiar with the issues at hand. However, for those who plow through it, it is a remarkable episode in the collision of literature and politics. For more on the subject, try and find Philip Dine's Images of the Algerian War: French Fiction and Film, 1954-1992.

This resurrected 1963 novel by Ben Abro and its accompanying historical essay by James D. Le Sueur are a defintely a great read. The novel is an historical artifact because of its unusual publication history. The authors provide a simultaneously comic and serious plot for the assassination of De Gaulle by Soustelle (both real-life characters). The protagonist is France's secret weapon, one very British and unassuming office worker, Max Palk, a definite contender in the popular Austin Powers and James Bond arenas. This not too savvy spy stops the assassination attempt on De Gaulle before returning to his every day offic job. In his essay, Le Sueur offers a rich analysis of the novel's publication history by sharing real-life courtroom excerpts of Soustelle's libel suit against the authors (Ben Abro) and by describing the geopolitical, intellectual, and historical forces at work during the decolonization era of Algeria and France. I recommend this book both for its creative fictional and non-fictional accounts of an interesting historial period and because it is an entertaining and fun read.

Charles Dunn gives a very detailed book on the traditional way of life of Tokugawa Japan. From the lowly peasant to the nobles Mr. Dunn extensively explains what they did, why they did, & how they did everything. For the casual reader this book might be a little too detailed; but for the historical interested - it is a must. I have yet to find the kind of information that Charles Dunn presents in this book anywhere else.

I've just started to read this book for research of a novel in the planning, and it has been very useful, even within the first few pages! It goes thru all the classes from the samurai class to the outcasts. I would highly reccommend this book to anyone that needs to know how the Japanese lived during the reign of the Tokugawa shoguns!

Here is a solid, basic theology coupled with a Study Bible that cannot lead you astray. Simple enough for new Christians, yet the Expanded Edition has enough meaty notes to satisfy the advanced believer. Most of the bottom page notes are brief and to the point, with some exception. Lucid, pointed, full of facts, occasionally Ryrie shows his theological position in such places as not listing Jehovah-Rapha (God is my healer) as one of the Jehovah titles in his notes, when nearly all other Jehovah titles are listed from the Hebrew. Basic bottom line: Baptist theology,pleasantly Dispensational,great for salvation orientation and facts on books/authors, satisfying for mainstream readers.

I used the Ryrie Study bible for a quite a while when I first got saved. This is an excellent study bible. Very nice.

Steve Mays Pastor, Laurens, SC.

Dr. Charles Ryrie is is well known for his unusal ability to explain Bible truth so clearly and logically. The thousands of notes in this Bible are a vertual Bible Institue. It is chuck full of clear and simple explanations of very difficult passages. These notes are written by an esteemed scholar with impeccable degrees and qualifications. The very latest information through archeology and history make the notes as up to date as you can find. Dr. Ryrie has such a vast knowlege of the culture of the Bible times that he explains so many things that are not understood without that background of knowledge. His outlines of books of the Bible are extremely well done and helpful. This is one of the best helps of Bible notes available. It is a must for a hungry Bible student who wants not just truth but truth that is from a warmed heart of God's servant.

If you bought this book to use it on J2ME be warned
you can forget 50% of the content, because of assumptions like secondary storage, introspection and no standard garbage collection.

but for me it seems a good starting point to think about my own strategies...

Certainly a wonderful book coming at a very appropriate time, when people write more complex code for various devices. There is a certain gap in the industry in the embedded software field, where object oriented techniques and patterns are not always part of the arsenal of the developers. This book successfully bridges this gap and provides many useful examples as well as proofs for the ideas presented there. The requirements for the reader seem to require some C++ (and/or) Java , but all object oriented programmers and even traditional C users can benefit from it. There is some inclination from the authors to provide more examples from EPOC, rather than more diverse examples but that is not always the case. I recommend the book for the patterns enthusiast as well as the curious software engineer who wants to have a broader vision in his/her software development practices.

This book is an excellent working companion for any software developer. A very readable addition to the growing volume of literature on Software Patterns.

While it focuses tightly on situations where memory is a major constraint, the authors' vision extends much further. A read through the discussion of the wide range of Forces addressed by the Patterns the book describes is very illuminating. Speed, reliability, usability, programmer effort and discipline - even security are all there.

I've never worked on software for mobile phones, embedded devices, PDAs . . . but, with hindsight, I can readily recognise all the Patterns described - and have even used quite a few! More important, I now have a better understanding of the consequences of using Pooled rather than Variable Allocation, the benefits (and drawbacks) of using Embedded Pointers, the ways in which Secondary Storage can assist . . .

The range of practical examples of Known Uses testifies to the authors' breadth of experience - and the relevance of the Patterns described to almost every software environment. From the Sinclair ZX-81 (and earlier) to the latest mobile technologies - with DOS, UNIX, VMS, Windows and many others in-between - and all the applications they support.

Read it like a novel, browse it or use it as a reference book as you please (or, as the authors suggest, leave it open on a radiator for 3 days so that it looks well read and put it on your desk to impress your boss).

I'm just waiting for the launch of the Strap-It-On wrist mounted PC with morse code keypad, coindisc, voice output (with vocal emotions), RainSight weather prediction system and all the other memory-challenged applications invented for it!