I've read many books on the struggles of war. This book is different in its portrayal of the inner struggles of the warrior. Excellent account by a decorated veteran.

McCormick's book is like a wonderful piece of folk art: unaffected, spontaneous, from the heart and compelling. Here is a Vietnam that we haven't seen before, a Vietnam seen from the eyes of a bewildered suburban young man scared by forces beyond his control and struggling with his own sexual identity. For those of us who lived through that horrific period of American history, it is a compelling reminder; for others, it is a very different slant on recent history.

A Walk on the Sidewalk opened my eyes to what went on in Vietnam. McCormick's book gave me a feeling as if I had been there with him experiencing what he did, and made me realize even more that those who served were true heroes not only to our country, to eachother as well. I laughed at his jokes and cryed his tears. A family member of mine served almost exactly a year before McCormick, and never speaks of the war or the horrific things he experienced there. While I understand why he feels this way, I give McCormick such a tremendous amount of credit for being able to share his experiences and feelings this way, and would highly recommend this book to anyone, to include those who served in the Vietnam war. Bravo McCormick you are a true hero!

I am a student pilot working on my private pilot's license and have been wrestling with my own fears and anxiety while flying solo. A friend got me this book for Christmas, and the stories have been so riveting and inspirational - now I can't wait to go flying again! What sets this book apart is the quality of the writing and the storytelling - each of the authors/writers in this compilation is skilled not only in flying but with the written word! Excellent, I cannot recommend this book highly enough!!

I have been absolutely riveted by this anthology and I'm going to be sad when it's over. I am a private pilot and the passages got my heart pounding reading the exploits in here, ranging from Berryl Markhams 21 and 1/2 hour flight from the UK to North America, the teen-age brothers going over Guadalupe Pass in New Mexico (11,600 feet in a Piper Cub!), an Air Force Forward Air Controller marking bombing sites in the Vietnam jungle under heavy fire, or a Navy pilot doing night carrier landing qualifications on the eve of the Gulf War.

I second the reviewer above that I will be next getting Ernest Gann's "Fate is the Hunter" real soon: the description of an icing encounter in the early post-war days of airline transport was terrifying. I've not had the intensity of experience of these writers, but I can really appreciate it.

The quality of the writing is top-notch, so that non-aviators will be able to appreciate these experiences. I would hasten to add that 99.9% of aviation does not have this level of intensity.

This a fabulous anthology.

This book is awesome if you want to get a taste of everything that great aviation writing has to offer. There are stories from almost every top-notch book in aviation and you'll probably do like I did and buy every book represented in Wild Blue. The stories are hand picked from selected novels and they will all have you glued to the book, this is one of those books that you just can't bring yourself to put down. Check out my other reviews on the books represented in this one...

The 5-minute pediatric consult is written in an easy to read outline format. The writers have eliminated unnecesary obscure data and offer a concise outline of all major pediatric diseases. The topics are designed to be read in 5 minutes or less and all the up to date information to diagnose and treat a specific illness is included. The topics are alphabetized, so they are easy to look up. The writers are accomplised experts in their fields and the book has been edited by the distinguished Dr. Schwartz, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. As a professor of Pediatrics, I highly recommend this book to practicing pediatricians, family practitioners, nurses and students.

when will the CD be available? I travel to several schools providing healthcare to uninsured children and would like to use this valuable reference. (a PNP)

love the format. listed alphabetically, the items are presented in a easy to read format. Just about all I want to know about the problem when working in a busy office. I can read more later but this gets the job done. an excellent 90's type of book. where is the CD?

David Griebner offers wonderful short stories that are almost Zenlike, but are rooted in Christian faith. His stories, like koans, take us on the road of discovery to gain a sense of the self within, the sense of self that lives beneath the many artifices that we construct.

His stories are short, quiet, meant to be read slowly, and especially, to be read one at a time. Do not read this little volume in one sitting, though certainly that is possible. Rather, read one story, chew it, savor it, and understand how it connects with your life's journey.

Griebner's stories evoke in me Dag Hammarskjold's words of gratitude:
"For all that has been--Thanks!
To all that shall be--Yes" (*Markings*, p. 95)

This book is a great book for christans. It has many inperational stories for all ages.

David takes us away from our everyday cares with a set of stories which show the depth of love being offered to us by God. Wonderful reading for spiritual growth.

When the Germans invaded and conquered Poland, a young Polish soldier was in more peril than most. Wilo Ungar was Jewish and badly wounded. Because he wore the Polish uniform he was given the last rites by a priest who thought Ungar was Catholic. For the months after his recovery that he was held prisoner by the Germans he was saved by his captors ignorance of his ethnicity. Finally released he made his way back through war-ravaged Poland on crutches. He was given refuge by Polish families and eventually smuggled himself across the German-Soviet border, was captured by the NKVD and imprisoned as a spy. Ultimately he made his way back to the city of Lvov and reunion with his girl. They married and when Germany turned on Russia, they and their baby Michael managed for a while to evade Nazi roundups but in 1942 they were caught and separated in a time when the Nazi holocaust was being carried out in earnest. Highly recommended for students of the Holocaust, Destined To Live is the riveting story of Wilo's search for his family in a world of love and death, organized violence and the indomitable human spirit.

William Ungar's memoir of survival is the single most moving account of the Holocaust that I have read. With vivd and heart-renching portrayls of his young wife, infant son, other raltives and friends who perished during the Holocaust, Destined to Live brilliantly depicts the devestating emotional toll the Holocaust wrought on those that survived. Without a trace of bitterness, Mr. Ungar describes how he managed to survive the Nazi's occupation of Poland, and went on to create a powerful life that postively impacted the lives of countless others. Destined to Live is not a memoir about survival for survival's sake. It is a gripping tale of how humans, even in the most dire and unjust of circumstances, can use the powers of love and perseverence to create true beauty and greatness. If I were to recommend one book to someone who wanted to learn about the impact of the Holocaust on those that survived, I would recommend Destined to Live.

Mr. William Unger has written a true story that will touch the heart of any person who glances upon it's pages. Being an employee of his great company I may be biased. However, his story will impact as deeply upon anyone, regardless of whether or not they know first hand his kindness and triumph. He has strived and achieved greatness dispite hardship, and by reading this book you will see that this man deserves all that is great in this world. Congratulations Mr Unger, you have touched us all deeply.

A definite read for the person who needs to know the practical issues about Quality Management.

One of few books about Deming actually endorsed by Deming himself - "It is a pleasure to commend this book to anyone for easy reading of the principles of management..." (Foreword). A step-by-step, practical introduction to the basics of Deming's management philosophy, far easier to read than Deming's own books, but not attempting to reach the depth of the system of profound knowledge outlined in "The New Economics." Of particular use to managers and students in understanding Deming, and to educators in preparing several famous demonstrations, including the Red Bead Experiment and the Funnel Experiment, with ample illustrations. This is not a lecture, but a self-paced "fun" substitute for "the real thing" (Deming's four-day seminars). Highly recommended.

This book is unique. It has a format that shows f three levels of the Deming philosophy. It deliniates the viewpoint of the man who led those amazing seminars, It brings the subject to earth with a narrative, and it supplies the wonder of a first-time participant. This is the book I give my students when they ask what Dr Deming was like.

First off, contrary to earlier reviewers, this book has NOTHING to do with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Out of the 350 pages in the book, they might be mentioned a half dozen times and one might want to get Lavender's "The Way to the Western Sea," if interested on Meriweather and William's trip.
Instead, "Let me Be Free," is on the Nez Perce tribe which lived in Oregon's Wallowa Valley until it was forced from the land in the 1860's. This is a great book if the reader is interested in a century's worth of history about the tribe but I'd suggest something else if the intent on reading this is solely learning about Chief Joseph's tragic flight from the US military in 1877.
I originally got into Lavender's works after reading his fantastic book, "Bents' Fort" which is about the trading family of William Bent in SE Colorado. I had no interest in the subject but was recommended the book and I fell fully immersed into it because of Lavender's detailed writing-style and ability to create real identities to the historical characters instead of just giving names and dates. He has the same writing style in "Let Me Be Free," and will never shy from a unimportant but lighthearted side story. The writing is anything but dry.
The first half of LMBF is on how the tribe lived and existed, its neighbors, and its relations with the first whites to reach Oregon. Lavender has a contentious understanding of the western Native American tribes and writes in a fair and unbiased reader-friendly style and includes the correct names and terms the Nez Perce (Nimipu) used.
The last 100 pages cover Chief Joseph's (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kehht's) flight and includes a fantastic map in the front for the reader to follow the tribe along on its failed march to freedom.
The book fails to get five stars from me because I was most interested in the Nez Perce march and it just took too long to finally reach that subject in the book. It reminded me of "Undaunted Courage," (Ambrose's book on Meriweather Lewis) where there is no much buildup to the expedition that once the reader finally reaches it in the book, it falls a bit flat. However, if anyone is interested on the Nez Perce tribe itself, you won't find a better book. Any Western Oregon historians would also immensely enjoy this work.

David Lavender just may have written the definitive history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. It is a wonderfully wrought narrative, capturing the full width and breadth of this incredible journey. Lavender's sardonic tongue deflates many of the myths surrounding the "voyage of discovery," noting that for the most part this was a well-trodden path. The only actual "discovery" was that of linking the Missouri to the Columbia. However, this makes it no less an adventure.

He downplays the significance of Sacagewea. For the most part she was little used on this voyage. Her one major contribution was helping to secure horses for the great fording of the Bitteroot Mountains. Still, Lavender lavishes much attention on her and her son, which it seems that William Clark did as well. Her presence seemed to secure safe passage during their final leg down the Columbia River, as it made the expedition team seem less war-like.

Lavender also provides the background for the voyage, detailing President Jefferson's dream to establish an American Northwest Passage, linking one ocean to another. Lavender probes the seemingly paternal relationship between Jefferson and Lewis, and how Jefferson was able to win Congress over to a third attempt to cross the continent, despite questions regarding Lewis' qualifications. Jefferson personally trained Lewis for the expedition and provided added tutelage in the form of the leading lights of American science. Like a devoted son, Lewis made every effort to carry out the mission, which Jefferson sponsored, even when it seemed foolhardy to do so.

For those who haven't travelled this route before, you will be in good hands with David Lavender. For those who have, I think you will marvel at how masterful a job Lavender does in recording the events, giving the best rounded version of the "voyage of discovery" that I have read.

Originally subtitled "the U.S. Army's War Against Seven Hundred Nez Perce Men,Women, and Children," this moving history documents the brutal persecution of a small Northwestern tribe. Western historian David lavender never hides his sympathy in this powerful chronicle of Chief Joseph's "flight toward freedom" in 1877 to avoid reservation life. This is a really sad story filled with overlooked possibilities for compromise, understanding, and tolerance. Lavender considers the Nex Perce War the final betrayal of a long and once-promising relationship between white explorers, fur trappers, Christian missionairies, and the tribe. Chief Old Joseph, father of the more famous Chief Joseph, even converted to Christianity for both spiritual and practical reasons. Peaceful coexistence and friendship with the new settlers was his policy. Greed, cultural intolerance, and racial hatred eventually doomed those possibilities for Nez Perce. Although Chief Joseph developed a reputation as an Indian Napeleon for his brilliant fighting tactics, Lavender emphasizes that Chief Joseph continually sought to avoid war. Chief Joseph's simple hope was to have a reservation that would allow his people to live in their traditional land and stay close to his father's grave in Wallowa Valley, Oregon. The United States military commanders of that time, however, demanded the tribe move. This compelling account of the Nez Perce's failed 1700 mile exodus to join Sitting Bull in Canada captures the cruelty, mindlessness, and viciousness of 19th century America's expansionist policies. Chief Joseph's eloquent words, especially when surrending after a blizzard just a few miles south of the Canadian border, accents the pain and injustice.

OK, a scholarly work it is not but a fun read it is. The book has excellent photos of UAL aircraft, memorabilia and the employees that made her the premier airline known the world over. UAL has had many first over her 80 some years - first to fly with Stewardesses (now Flight Attendants) first to fly the 727 (Boeing would not have built that aircraft were it not for UAL's order - read the "Billion Dollar Gamble" to learn more about the 727), and UAL was the launch customer for the B777. The Age of Flight is a beautiful book with beautiful pictures.

The Age of Flight: A History of America's Pioneering Airline documents the first 75 years of United Airlines in rich detail. Hundreds of illustrations-drawn primarily from the collections of the United Airlines Archives-accompany the authors' insightful text to carry the reader on a journey from the adventurous days of the start-up airmail carriers that formed UAL through the growth and management of the company that became one of the world's largest airlines. All of the better known pioneers and legends are here; Knight, Cuddeback, Lee, Varney, Gorst, Boeing, Vought, Lindbergh, Keys, Rentschler, Patterson, Stimpson, Church, Jeppeson, Hiscock, Kinkella, O'Connor, and Norwood. Due credit is also given to the legions of employees whose work created the dominant transcontinental Main Line and eventual global network based on safety and service. The fold-out of Raymond E. Smith's color illustrations of the fleet from the de Havilland DH-4 to the Boeing 777, a corporate genealogy, thorough indexing, and other features such as a chapter on the future of flight make this book a valuable resource for the student, scholar, and aviation history enthusiast.

John H. Hill
Curator-in-Charge of Aviation
San Francisco Airport Museums

The Age of Flight: A History of America's Pioneering Airline documents the first 75 years of United Airlines in rich detail. Hundreds of illustrations-drawn primarily from the collections of the United Airlines Archives-accompany the authors' insightful text to carry the reader on a journey from the adventurous days of the start-up airmail carriers that formed UAL through the growth and management of the company that became one of the world's largest airlines. All of the better known pioneers and legends are here; Knight, Cuddeback, Lee, Varney, Gorst, Boeing, Vought, Lindbergh, Keys, Rentschler, Patterson, Stimpson, Church, Jeppeson, Hiscock, Kinkella, O'Connor, and Norwood. Due credit is also given to the legions of employees whose work created the dominant transcontinental Main Line and eventual global network based on safety and service. The fold-out of Raymond E. Smith's color illustrations of the fleet from the de Havilland DH-4 to the Boeing 777, a corporate genealogy, thorough indexing, and other features such as a chapter on the future of flight make this book a valuable resource for the student, scholar, and aviation history enthusiast.

John H. Hill
Curator-in-Charge of Aviation
San Francisco Airport Museums

I have thoroughly enjoyed this treasure of a book. Wonderful, clear text and beautiful photographs to illustrate all phenomena described! This would be a terrific read for anyone interested in science, physics, and nature. Definitely worth the money!

This book is intended for people who are intrigued or awed by the way light is expressed in nature. It describes many natural phenomena involving light, including shadows, the color of the sky, clouds, mirages, halos, rainbows, the effects of ice in the atmosphere and much more. The intended audience in my eyes consists mainly of people who like physics but the beautiful color full-page pictures and tips on taking them also make this book a great resource for anyone interested in photography. Even physics students can benefit from this book (although it is intended for laymen, so no equations are used) - the book shows them interesting manifestations of optics in nature. The book also makes a nice gift for people who enjoy nature and would like to know how it "works". Highly recommended!

I am sorry to see that this title is out of print. "Color and Light In Nature" is a wonderful look at the ways that light touches us everyday. I recommend this title for Directors of Photography as well as anyone captivated by light.

It's difficult to find original material in most security books. "Hack Proofing Your Network, 2nd Edition" (HPYN2E) breaks that trend. Responding to feedback on the first edition, the authors have made numerous improvements in the second edition. If you're looking for relatively novel content in a security book, read the sections of HPYN2E I discuss next.

HPYN2E shines in many respects. The "laws of security" in chapter 2 are accurate and enlightening. Chapter 4 helps teach secure programming techniques by comparing insecure and secure code snippets. Chapter 4 also demonstrates debugging and disassembling code, usually not seen in security texts. Chapter 8 probably contains the most advanced coverage of buffer overflows I've read in a book. By actually showing and explaining stack traces, the authors share a level of detail sufficient to satisfy all but the most elite coders. Chapters on "diffing" (5) and format strings (9) are robust. Hardware hacking, thoroughly described in chapter 14, is fascinating. The author cared enough to include numerous clear photographs of disassembled equipment, and mentioned many helpful external web references.

While these great chapters comprise more than half of HPYN2E, the remainder is not exceptional. I was not happy with the rambling, wordy chapters on spoofing (12) and tunneling (13). Spare us the quotes from Dante's "Divine Comedy"! Still, this material is easily skimmed.

Because HPYN2E is written more from an intruder's point of view, the title doesn't seem to reflect the material. The book isn't exactly a "how to hack" manual, but it expertly illuminates many facets of compromising information resources.

When I read the first edition of this book, was truly disappointed. I was wondering how such people could have written such book. Not that the book was worthless, but too 'standard' to met the expectations I had from these guys.
Still the idea was very interesting (information directly from the real experts), and I kept waiting for a new edition.
Well the second edition is now out, and not only fulfills, but exceeds all my original expectations !!

Let's take a look:

The Approach:

Understanding attacks and vulnerabilities, by understanding 'how to hack' (good hacking of course. . . .ahem )

The Book:

Rewritten, expanded and improved, the book consists of 800+ pages well structured into 18 chapters (against 450+ pages and 15 chapters of the first edition).
Well written, well presented, with a real fancy table of contents, the chapters include url's, a FAQ section and a SOLUTIONS FAST TRACK one.
A lot of CLEVER code is included as well as helpful 'Tool & Traps' and 'Notes from the Underground. . . ' outlines.

The new sections (all outstanding) include:
- Hardware Hacking (otherwise only found in papers)
- Tunneling (excellent)
- IDS evasion (very easily explained)
- Format strings attacks

The Intended Audience:

People willing to become network security pros.

Contents:

- Introduction to Security, Attacks and related Methodologies.
- Cryptography.
- Unexpected Input, Buffer Overflow, Format Strings.
- Sniffing, Hijacking and Spoofing.
- Tunneling, Hardware Hacking, Viruses (et al.).
- IDS Evasion.
- Automated Tools.
- Reporting Security Problems.

The Bottom Line:

It is not just a good book, it is the best book among high level network security books, and the only that compares with specialized papers. Only quite easier.
I got more than 60 papers on buffer overflows. None compares with the classical 'Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit' by Aleph One. IMHO, however, the corresponding chapter from this book, does compare and is really easier to understand.
Finally, the 'piece de resistance' of the book, is the chapter about Spoofing. Really enjoyed it, and by the way got surprised reading the innovative (to me) technique to 'Spoof Connectivity Through Asymmetric Firewalls'. Good Job Dan ;-)
As an added bonus, as an owner of this book, you'll find a lot of code files, applications and links...

I have the first edition of this book also, and I was really glad to see the second edition come out. There are some great hacking books out now, but I really think these ones are the best. I found in depth coverage on a lot of stuff you just can't find any place else. Some very cool info. on administering hosts locked behind a firewall and tips for making a "poor man's VPN". I also like that a lot of big names wrote the book, and their personalities really come through. A lot of tech. books can be a little dry even if they are well written. This one is actually entertaining also.