I have been a fan of Mr Howard for nearly 12 years now, which in my opinion, makes me a bit of a connoisseur, and frankly this book was a bit of a disappointment. Undoubtedly the contributing writers are well-respected and immensely able but their writing lacked the Howardian flavour I have come to love. Ghor's sudden personality shifts are hard to follow and the various ideas in the story lack sufficient depth. This book is not the way Mr Howard would have written it. Nevertheless, this should be read because the original idea belonged to the great REH.

Ghor is a nice blend of Conan and the Cthulhu Mythos together. Abandoned as a child because of a deformity, Ghor is adopted by a pack of wolves. Raised by them, he adopts the ways of the wolf, yet when he meets up with humanity joins them. Constantly struggling with his wolf upbringing and his human surroundings, Ghor becomes a mighty war hero wherever he goes.

This is an excellent adventure book that takes a Conan like hero and plots him against all sorts of evil (and good), including some Cthulhu creations as well.

Originally Ghor was an unfinished story by Conan creator Robert Howard. Upon finding this unfinished story, a magazine decided to finish it. What they did was have a different chapter every month written by a different top fantasy writer. It made the reading interesting.

While most of the chapters were great. Some were excellent. Unfortunately there were a couple chapters that I just wanted to get through to reach the next writers' chapter. Overall a really good read.

I WAS VERY SUPRISED ABOUT HOW WELL THIS STORY CAME OFF. THE VARIUOS WRITERS DID AN EXCELLENT JOB IN WRITING AN EXCITING BOOK THAT FLOWED SMOOTHLY. IT DID NOT COME OFF AS A SERIES OF SHORT STORIES. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD FANS, AND FANS OF FANTASY IN GENERAL.

I own both Shigley's books on Machine Design, Mechanical Engineering Design (which I would rate 5/5) and this handbook. I find this handbook is very extensive in the topics it covers, just about everything pertaining to Machine Design, but fails to elaborate in many of the key areas. Furthermore, many formulas are presented, but there are not enough examples on their use. My greatest complaint though, has to do with the print, it seems as if I had in my hand a book written out in the 60s. Drawing are dirty and unclear in many situations, tables seem as if they were cutout from another book and pasted here, then photocopied (the first drawing in the book, a man, seems as if it was photocopied on a lousy photocopier from an old newspaper), and the typeface in the graphs is plainly outdated. I understand late J. Shigley is no longer among us, but Mischke should modernize the quality of presentation when deciding to launch new editions. Overall, I recommend Rothbart's handbook over this one.

This text is an excellent reference for any design engineer working in the machinery field. It fills in where the Machinery's Handbook falls short. The text is basically (I am oversimplifying) an expanded version of the Shigley McGraw-Hill Machine Design Textbook. My only complaint is that the discussion on the strength of welded joints is missing.

I read the book when it was first released and actually I just "happened" upon it. I was and am still the BIGGEST Charles Haley fan and I was just looking to get any memorablia that I could. I thought the book was great because it explained why he played so hard and why he felt the way he did about things going on in the NFL. I think that he is a great player and he is just misunderstood by players, coaches and fans alike. If you read the book then you would gain more insight on him and his thinking. And being one of his biggest fans, I guess that I am a bit biased on this review. But he was very frank and candid in his portrayal of the NFL. He didn't sugarcoat anything. Also it showed how committed he was to playing the sport and committed to his personal life as well. The only thing that could have changed was some of the foul language but again I think that that was just him being Charles Haley. Anyone knowing anything about him knows that he does not hold his tongue, not even on live television. So you would have to expect that from his writing. I would love for him to read this so he will know that he has one devoted fan in me!

Haley expresses his views (openly) on everything from racism in the NFL to the physical and emotional toll the game takes on its players. He doesn't hold anything back and just tells it how it is. Not many players get to play for two great teams (like the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers) and win Super Bowls with each. He's a legendary player and that explains why he's the only man to earn five Super Bowl rings. This is a very well-written book and a great one for the true Dallas fans!

I enjoyed Charles Haley's book very much. He talks VERY openly about the NFL and the pressures put on every player. Pressure from the coaches, the media, and the players themselves. Not to mention the disregard many players show for their own health to keep playing, and the drugs they take to do so. I enjoyed Charles' style very much. Some may find it offensive, but if you expected anything different from him what were you thinking when you bought the book?

This book is good at first glance, being accessible and reasonably well indexed. The problem is that it lacks the thoroughness required of a good reference. There is only limited information on the most basic methods and means. It lacks simple things like how to design pinions which mesh with multiple gears, or gears that run under a variety of conditions in normal operations. This fault runs throughout the book, making it almost useless for the slightly obscure applications seen in anything innovative.

This book is not a reference on all the topics it mentions, but it will give you the fundamentals you will need most often. I have often come to this book after looking through more "advanced" texts and have been amazed by its simple treatment. This book, along with a design handbook is a must have for any mechanical engineer. Also as another reviewer mentioned, it comes in real handy when checking FE analyses. Because most of the text gives formulas, checking your mesh becomes very easy. But this is not a "one-stop" design book. You will need your basic texts on solid mechanics, engineering materials, and a good design handbook. (I use Rothbart, but you could use Marks')

This book continues to be the best on covering mechanical engineering components design. It has a good mix of theoretical and practical coverage of the material for and an introductory book. The book covers both factor-of-safety and stochastic approaches to design. I used it in my undergraduate schooling and it continues to be a reference for every day practical designed problems. Recommended for people with good background in Static and Mechanics of Material.

The SAT preparation book, Tooth and Nail by Charles Harrington Elster and Joseph Elliot, gives you a wide variety of new vocabulary in everyday life and on the nation wide SAT test. My personal thoughts on the novel were that it was a fantastic way to teach students and adults new words and there meanings, but the plot of the book wasn't the best I have ever read.

Charles Harrington Elster and Joseph Elliot main point of writing Tooth and Nail was to educate students and adults of new vocabulary words. The novel uses vocabulary words that show up on the SAT. When I read Tooth and Nail for my honors English class, I myself, learned a new assortment or words and new meanings to other words I prior knew before reading the novel. Though, the words in the book were repeated a number of times I guess for reinforcement of the words meanings and different ways to insert into sentences. One thing I did notice that I thought was a brilliant idea was that the vocabulary words were in bold face and could be found in the back of the books glossary. The glossary gave the words part of speech, definition, and the page numbers the word id found on. On some words it also gave some synonyms to the word.

This book proves to have a lot of benefits, but an educated high school student should know eighty-five percent of the words presented in Tooth and Nail anyways. One of the major benefits I got from the novel was words that have similar meanings. Most of the words had synonyms that were also in the book. You have to like synonyms to enjoy this book because let me tell you there is a lot of them. The book could be very beneficial to a student that will be taking the SAT test. Even if the student knew all the words they should still read it as a reinforcement activity to bring back all the prior knowledge that might have been forgotten.

The basic plot of the novel is two new freshman students go to college leaving their families behind. Catlin, one of the freshman students, wants to make name for herself and decides to join the Holyfield Newspaper. She enjoys her first few assignments and makes some new friends, but she's finding herself interviewing victims and almost becoming a detective of some sort in the mystery, searching for a very, very, important item that will change history forever. The two freshmen meet new friends and professors that come into play throughout the books mystery. The two students meet and come upon strange things that are going around the college campus. They have a breathtaking quest to figure out a mystery that has something to do with the great play writer Shakespeare and one of his plays. Throughout the book new clues and suspects suddenly appear without any notice. The book provides mysterious clues and suspenseful plots. You have to read it to believe this book is suspenseful and mysterious.

I would give this book three and a half stars out of a total of a five star rating. I think personally if they would of came up with a little more interesting storyline this book would of got five stars. One thing I did enjoy about the book it used good description words for its characters and places. I think it went extremely in depth in describing certain subjects in the books, making the book a lot more enjoyable and understandable. The narrative voice in the book was Catlin and Phil switching back and forth throughout the story. I think the authors should come out with another book with more challenging, wider variety of vocabulary words, and a more interesting plot I would be the first one in the store to buy copies. If I would give advice to a friend about buying this book I would say yes, only because it a vocabulary builder.

I was required to read Tooth and Nail for my etymology class. The whole purpose of this class is to learn vocabulary for the SAT. While my verbal score did increase, it wasn't because of reading the book. The idea is a good one: using words in context is one of the best ways to learn words, in my opinion. But, as many reviews have already stated, it was extremely tedious having to flip through the back of the book just to see what the word means. I noticed that the longer I read, the less I flipped through the back.

The authors call Tooth & Nail a mystery novel, yet the "mystery" part only compromises the last 40% or so of the book. The preceding stuff is just garbage -- extremely slow exposition. There is even a chapter (the "radio chat" for those of you that have read this book) that serves ABSOLUTELY no purpose, other than to cram in words. That's fine and dandy, except one thing: the less interesting a book gets, the less likely you'll finish it. You can tell that the authors haven't visited a college campus for a while (yet, I think they put forth valiant effort trying to make it seem real.)

Indeed, I augmented my lexicon from taking etymology, but most of it was from a wordlist book. Contrary to what many people say, word-books are a good way to learn lists of words, so long as they provide exercises---this is what I recommend instead of (or at LEAST in addition to) this book.

Tooth and Nail is a fun mystery story that contains many SAT-level words in boldface and has a glossary in the back. I found this to be an effective way of increasing my vocabulary, because I got to see each word used in context. In combination with studying word roots (etymology), reading this book helped me increase my SAT I verbal score about 170 points. Why aren't there more SAT preparation books like this?

The story itself is about two incoming college freshmen who gradually find out that strange things are going on around the campus. It's not the most enjoyable story, but it is interesting and relevant to people who are preparing for the SAT (and, as others have said, a whole lot more fun than memorizing word lists).

I have been using this book for an Intermediate Accounting class that I have to take as a pre requisite for a Master's degree. Even though the book is quite complete in explaining accounting principles it is unecessarily wordy and extremely heavy.

The first five chapters (220 pages) provide a review of what accounting is, the accounting information system, the income statement and the balance sheet. Most of the what is written here is either too basic or will be later found in the remaining chapters of the book. These pages could be easily removed without sacrificing the remaining contents and the understanding of accounting.

Later chapters, however, are also wordy and take too much time explaining concepts that could readily be understood in a couple of lines. You end up getting tired of reading the same thing again and again.

In the end, we have to pay the price for so many pages. With 1300 + pages this book is the heaviest one I have ever carried around. Many people in my class have to use a wheeled backpack. I sometimes can't understand the fascination of editors in the US for such heavy books. If you go to Europe, Asia, and South America, books are usually thinner and much, much lighter.

I would recommend the book to be offered in a CD Rom (or e text) format. Carriyng my laptop around makes more sense than carrying the book.

This book for undergraduate accounting classes at the junior level was more confusing to me than the comparable book by Kieso et al. The sequence of the chapters is not entirely logical. More advanced concepts seem to be covered towards the beginning whereas some basic chapters are discussed towards the end of the book. It was especially confusing when not covering the chapter in chronological order - too bad that my class's syllabus was not outlined according to this book's chapter sequence. In a different class - when we used Intermediate Accounting by Kieso - jumping back and forth was not a big problem. This book by Spiceland also seemed to be very wordy. Studying by solving problems at the end of the book seemed to work. However, it is more important to know how your teacher designs the quizzes and exams and then study accordingly. On the CD that comes with it, there is a lot of ballast. The quizzes are the only valuable thing, I felt. There is not really a lot of use complaining about its weight - accounting books always seem to be extremely heavy and pricy. But this certainly holds true for this one as well!!! When I tried to resell the book at the university bookstore, they would not take it back because it was selling badly on a national scale. Very frustrating when you paid [$$$] just a couple of months earlier...

This book put me to sleep. It is a very bland book. This is based on the volume one edition chapters 1-14.

The first two chapters of Ashamed of Joseph caused me to think that the authors truly had a heart for the misled Mormon people and were honestly concerned for their spiritual condition.

However, after the second chapter, it became vividly apparent that the book was written for the sole purpose to viciously and scathingly mock the Mormon founder and "Prophet". The Cranes seemed to be having a fine time doing so. Based on some of their comments in the book, I could envision them sitting around the computer, father and son having a fine time trying to outdo each other in wit and satire.

Instead of simply presenting the facts about the Mormon "Prophet", and allowing the reader to come to his own conclusions about the foundations of Mormonism, the book was riddled with sarcastic, mean-spirited comments about Joseph Smith.

Although there are historical facts presented in the book, some of the necessary information is suspiciously left out. For example, the theory that Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon from a contemporary named Spaulding was presented as irrefutable truth. The Cranes failed to mention, however, that there are serious doubts that the Spaulding manuscript ever existed! All of the evidence regarding the manuscript is sketchy at best. None of this important information is given in Ashamed of Joseph (By the way, the phrase "ashamed of Joseph" is used so redundantly throughout the book as to make one want to pitch it across the room every time it appears.)

After much research into the character of Joseph Smith, I'm confident enough to say that he was certainly no "Saint". After reading the Cranes' book, however, I can also say the same about them. They certainly had their own agenda in the writing of this book, and it wasn't a very loving, or Christian one.

There are no illustrations of any Mormon leaders, followers, or other Mormon points of interest. The authors made sure to include photos of themselves, however.

For the serious researcher into Mormon history, I would definitely not recommend this work

The Cranes, who were merely angry that 8.3 million people would belong to the Mormon Church when the book was written in 1993, must be throughly enraged by now. The Church currently has more than 12 million members, has been featured on the cover of TIME, has had its president on 60 Minutes, and, best of all, has become "mainstream." The Cranes thesis is that the Church is ashamed of Joseph Smith and downplays him whenever possible. There is no doubt that the Mormonism of today bears little resemblance to the 19th Century religion of Smith and Brigham Young. This is hardly a recent (pardon the word) revelation. However, I don't think today's practicing Mormons are ashamed of Joseph Smith. Rather, they are very proud of the Smith who has been so completely reshaped by the Church as to make him unrecognizable to the man of history. They are not interested in the historical Smith and are unlikely to change. The Church has done such a great job of both diluting Smith and convincing its members that anything contrary to the modern version must, of necessity, be ill-motivated, and thus false, that no full-fledged Mormon would ever bother to read this book, let alone believe any of it. The Cranes have done a good job of documenting the numerous problems of Smith - his "peeping," contradictory statements regarding the First Vision, lack of physical evidence to support the Book of Mormon, polygamy, power grabbing, etc. However, there is nothing here that isn't presented better elsewhere. There is a genuine need in the pantheon of Mormon history for a relatively short book that synthesizes the Smith of history versus the Smith of the late 20th Century. Unfortunately, the Cranes desire to deprogram Mormons and return them to the "true" Christian fold is as obnoxious as the Mormons desire to direct everyone to the "true church." Without the Cranes missionary zeal (and the use of countless exclamation points) the book would have been a much better product.

The Cranes present a revealing examination of the life of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose members are best known as Mormons. They document the deemphasis of Joseph Smith in the public presentations of the church. This shift in focus is not surprising when you consider that his doctrines include the outrageous statement that dark skin is a curse from God. They also illustrate many of the events of Joseph Smith's life, as well as examine a number of his unfulfilled prophecies. The truth could hardly be topped by any work of fiction. Many of the Cranes' references come straight from the Latter-Day Saints' own publications. Particularly compelling was the comparison between the humble and meek life of Christ and the violent and proud life of Joseph Smith. This book will not reveal much that is new to those who are familiar with the history of the Mormon church(es), but it is a good introduction for those who think that the LDS church is a group that is not too different than other denominations. I have also heard good things about Charles Crane's book comparing the Bible with Mormon scriptures, and Jerald and Sandra Tanner's exhaustive works on the LDS church have also been recommended.

Harrington and Burger waste a lot of time, and my money, in this book without an end. When detailing the crimes, they become rather coy and worried about being overly sensational. I appreciate that many books become lurid in their description of crimes, but Harrington and Burger are almost shy in their description.

The real mass of the book is an endless litany about how long it takes to get Ng to trial, and in fact, the trial hasn't even begun when this book ends. The authors endlessly quote sources, to the point that the reader just wants to cry.

I am still trying to figure-out the reason for this book. It basically tells the reader nothing, and doesn't inform in any way.

Don't waste your money.

The trial was only half over when the book ends. Yes, Ng was found guilty but the penalty phase of the trial remained. After 14 years, couldn't the authors (and publishers) waited a few more months? I found the account and analysis of the legal wrangling simplistic and shallow.

Among true life crime stories, this one gets high ratings for effort and its choice of the most sensational subject matter. The perpetrators of the hideous crimes described in these pages make Ted Bundy look like a boy scout. The two villains of the case stalk and capture their victims, force some of them into sexual slavery, torture them in a variety of ways. These miscreants have no moral limits, taunting a mother with the threat of killing her baby (which turns out to be no idle threat) while they force her to perform sexual acts on film. Men, women, and children (even whole families) disappear from various California locales and end up savaged by the brutal world of Leonard Lake and Charlie Ng. Aside from sexual perversion, robbery and theft of identity are the other motives of these crazed killers. The gruesome stuff occupies the first half of the book and includes descriptions and narratives of the various law enforcement agencies involved in the case.

A key ingredient of this book is the very size of the case, which presents giant hurdles for the police and prosecutors who must bring the case against Charlie Ng. Fortunately for law enforcement and victims, one of these murderers commits suicide when first apprehended. But the remaining killer, Charlie Ng, flees to Canada to escape the possible death penalty in the U.S. Charlie Ng is a master of gaming with the legal system, firing his lawyers, stalling, engaging in other delaying tactics at the expense of the victims and the legal system. The legal manipulations get so bad that an appeal goes beyond the Canadian high courts to the United Nations committee on Human Rights. Although the murders were committed in 1984, it's not until 1998 that Ng actually goes to trial. The sheer size of the case is staggering, and the legal system is in danger of collapse from its crushing weight and the tremendous financial burdens imposed upon the authorities.

The last section of the book is devoted to ideas and commentary on reform of the judicial system. On the whole, this is an ambitious book, but it chokes on the same bones that the legal system uncovers during its investigations. There's too much of everything to consider: too many murders, too many people, too many clues and crime scenes. Another reason for what occasionally seems a disjointed approach may be that it was written by two authors. Though some readers might need to bypass the nauseating details of the crimes, this is worthwhile news reporting of a case that occupied the public attention for more than a decade and resulted in several network television documentaries. The book's commentary and critcism of the legal system have an appeal and relevance to crime victims and their families, as well as to officers of the courts.

This book aspires to mediocrity, and generally succeeds. It isn't actually bad (or I would have given it one star) but it isn't really any good either. The amazing thing is that in 300 pages, Gross manages to produce no significant new insights whatsoever. He relies entirely on secondary sources, but there is no "value added" in his synthesis of these works. You're better off just reading his sources for themselves! Even some trenchant criticism of the existing sources would have been welcome, but Gross simply regurgitates them uncritically. Gross is a retired USAF pilot, so you think he would have a lot to say about airpower, but that is regrettably not the case. I already know what a lot of other historians think about the use of airpower in history, but what does Gross think? I still don't know after reading this book.

I suppose one could recommend this book for undergraduate military history courses (if any even exist, given the sorry state of academia today), or perhaps for Air Force ROTC cadets. Anyone who already knows any military history will find little that is new in this book.

With over 15 years of experience and up to date on all of the new product lines as well as the upper level machines, I must say that this book isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Most if not all of the information contained is readily available from the manufacturer of the appliance. If you have a more serious problem with your machine then you do in fact need a technician to inspect it and give you the options to repair it CORRECTLY or to purchase a new machine. Put your dollar to use and hire a real professional, with real, in the field experience.

Being an appliance repair tech with over 15 years of REAL field experience, I can say the info in this book is at best common sense and at worst just plain wrong. Save your money to spend on a service call to have a real professional service and maintain your appliance.