I recently decided to try reading some classic books. Mutiny on the Bounty was the first one I tried. Although some of the navigational and shipping vocabulary was unfamiliar to me, the plot of the book and the triumph of good and truth made this story one of the best I've ever read. Better still, it is based on actual events! I think you'll agree with me that Captain Bligh makes a most agregious villian-his parts were almost difficult to read. Still, Roger Byam's heartfelt account made this a fascinating read. Give it a try!

Mutiny on the Bounty is a stunning work of historical fiction that is a pleasure to read.

The novel chronicles the events of the HMS Bounty as seen through the eyes of Roger Byam, a midshipman on the infamous Bounty. Through his eyes, the reader sees the terrible events unfold aboard the ship--the cruelty of Capt. Bligh that ultimately leads Fletcher Christian and much of the crew to mutiny against the captain. With Bligh left at sea, the crew returns to the South Pacific, seeking to make a new life for themselves and hoping to avoid capture and court martial by the British authorities. The conclusion of the novel is heart-wrenching and simply superb (and will be left as a surprise).

This novel relies a good deal on historical fact, though the authors clearly fill in the gaps with literary license. The characters are superbly developed and the story is riveting throughout. There is much nautical vocabulary, but this shouldn't distract readers as it can be glossed over without losing any significant content. I am not a historian and can make no statements about the veracity of the portrayals in this book. I do know that readers will find this novel difficult to put down. It is simply a classic story.

This book is interesting. It gives a great and detailed history of the ship Bounty. With her tyrant captain (William Bligh) and the admirable Fletcher Christian the ship sails from England to the south sea island of Tahiti. The whole crew recieves either physical or verbal abuse by Captain Bligh. Finally Christian becomes sick of it and gets most of the crew to rise in mutiny... You will have to read the book to find out the rest of this exciting story. Told in the words of the innocent midshipman, Roger Byam, who is wrongly found guilty of mutiny and condemned to death, this is a classic few can forget. Read this exciting book and I guaranty that you will love it's adventure and suspense. You won't be disappointed!

I've read this book and its pretty good. For an intermediate to advanced, it covers a lot of topics from basic form design, client/server programming to HTML programming. it discusses also a lot of secret tips regarding Access 97 programming. Although esentially a pretty good book, what the book lacks is more in depth discussion regarding its VBA and DAO topics.

Excellent book. Shows real life tips and tricks that help the advanced Access developer get more productivity.

This is a great book. Where so many books are full of waffle this cuts to the chase. Secrets and tips are useful and break the book up. I agree it is good for the beginner / intermediate. It has probably dated since I bought it, however Access 97 is just about the same as it was back then.

If you are quite advanced I would say this book is not enough, but it is a good foundation. Otherwise I think you will be delighted with this book.

Everyone at work kept stealing it from me even when I hid it under my desk in a pile of rubbish, so now I keep it at home.

Good luck!

PS: Ask yourself - why would I bother writing a review of a book I bought years ago?

Clyde Bresee experience as a youth in the South gives us a view that is not shaped by the Southern Culture but comes through as an objective on looker that understood the plight of the slave and the free men. Plantation Life after cotton and war.Priceless.

This book offers a delightful walk through the south of the 1930's. The culture is penetrated through a child's uncluttered horizon. Coupled with a mature sifting of events this book offers wonderful insight into the healing, fragile and unique culture of Charleston. Wonderfully written, this book offers a charming notch of history.

From the New York Times Book Review-- Mr. Bresee is a writer of distinction from whom we must hear more. His prose is transparent, supple and spare; he evokes unhurriedly the smells and textures of the Southern world of his boyhood; his account of the fading landed aristocracy his father worked among is both astringent and forgiving; he is honest in his own baffled hypocrisies over "color." Through the power of Mr. Bresee's writing we travel deep into the heart of a troubled culture and the "unexpected" ambiguous beauty of a childhood lived in it.

Describing the James Island Creek he played in as boy, Mr Bresee writes: "The tide was far out and we stood still for a few moments trying to see everything at once. To have this shoreline for a playground was almost unbelievable. This living, warm thing before us and a stream of moving water! The sloping plane of mud, popping in the hot sun; the black surface skimming with fiddler crabs that vanished like raindrops when we approached."

Those fiddler crabs vanished then -- but they are here, now, caught for us in the fragile but enduring net of langauge.--Andrew Harvey

From The Library Journal-- "Often humorous and even bittersweet, the book is a poignant reflection of the Southern customs, family life, school and race relations."

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer -- "Bresee's prose is cadanced and flowing...a moving look back at his formative years in an alien place."

"The Southern Heirloom Garden" is a rich and instructive work.

At the start of the book, William C. Welch and Greg Grant tell us that "gardening is one of the oldest, and richest, of our Southern folk arts."

The authors divide the book into two sections. The first section refreshingly explores French, German, Spanish, Native American, and African-American contributions to Southern gardening.

The Spanish, for instance, intensely developed and utilized small garden spaces, while African-Americans used brightly-colored flowers in the front yard as a sign of welcome.

This section also has a commendable essay on historic garden restoration in the South.

The second section addresses the plants "our ancestors used to build and enrich their gardens."

There are nearly 200 full-color photographs here, along with dozens of rare vintage engravings. While some of the pictures are a bit small, they are still informative.

Southern gardeners and historians will particularly enjoy this fine volume.

This is a really great book. I loved the essays on each plant. Greg Grant is very humorous. This is not just a coffee table book, although the pictures are beautiful. It offers advise and inspiration to those of us who will never have the "Southern Living Landscape" look.

In these days of trying the "Western grass garden" or the "English perennial border" it's particularly refreshing to study a book devoted to plants that happily grow in the Southern humidity and heat. While the opening chapters on historical gardens in the new world (French, Spanish, etc.) were interesting, the later chapters on plants were the most informative. When reading I could hear my Grandmother using the same commonplace names, like "paw-paw" and how to make jelly from the fruit. The challenge will now be to find some of these plants. (The authors admit some plants are only available from old gardens in the South). It remains one of my favorite garden books for its affectionate commentary on one of the oldest southern pastimes - our gardens and the talking and sharing of plants with loved ones.

OK so it takes half the book to get to the story. In typical Henry James fashion you are completely prepared for the action. Unlike Thomas Hardy, whose surroundings tell us of the character of the person it surrounds, James wishes you to know the depth of his characters as seen through the eyes of others. This of course brings on many minor characters that just seem to disappear, but it is a view of a person as if the reader was on the other side of the mirror watching the story unfold. Yes, James is wordy, yes this is not a quick read, but Henry James has a mastery of language and story telling that is rare.
"The American" is a wonderful love story that ends as a real life love story might end. Do not expect roses and happily ever after, it is as much a story of an ancient social system as it is of the life of "our hero." And the thing that seems to get missed is that Henry James actually wrote this as a mystery, not a love story.
This is a novel to contemplate and read between the lines. Good verses Evil, Noveau vs Old Money, Right and Wrong, can literature get any better than that?

I have this friend who hates Henry James. I can't understand it. The style is dated, in that people dont write that way today, but as you get into the book you begin to enjoy the style, as well as the plot, characters, and French/American dual culture shock that still goes on today. (For an update on the theme, look at Le Divorce and Le Mariage by Diane Johnson). I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen to these characters and the description of Paris in the Second Empire were fascinating. If you watch the Masterpiece Theatre version without having read the book, you will be totally confused. They moved events out of sequence all over the place and after about ten minutes I shut off the tape and picked up the book. You have to know the whole story before you watch them throw characters and events at you in the first two scenes that only appear 2/3 of the way through the novel, after a foundation has been laid as to who they are and when and why things happened.

I couldnt recommend this more for a good read. The only caution I have is for readers who have never been to France. They may get an extremely negative impression of French people from many of the characters in this book. Go to Paris and you will find the city is wonderful, and so are the French people. These characters are not typical!! They belong to a certain class, and the book does take place 150 years ago. If this book doesnt get you hooked on James, I dont know what will. Try Washington Square and dont miss that movie, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney and Maggie Smith.

This book is long, but only because that's how James tells the story. It's like a soup that needs to boil all day, so it's kept on low, but when it's done, it's perfect. The book stays at the pace of "our hero" the American Christopher Newman. A smart, educated, rich, yet easy going, simple, and humane veteran of the Civil War and a self made tycoon, who goes to Europe to see the "treasures and entertain" himself.

He becomes entangled in what he thinks is a simple plan for matrimony, but is really truly a great deal larger and more treacherous and terrible than that.

We spend a lot of time in Newman's mind, paragraphs of character analaysis are sprung upon us, but nothing seems plodding or slow, nothing feels useless. By the end of the book we find that we think like the character and can only agree with what he does. We react to seemingly big plot twists and events as he does, without reaction, and a logical, common sense train of thought.

But don't misunderstand that. For a book that is so polite and the essence of "slow-reaction", it is heartwrenching and tragic. You will cry, you will wonder, and you will ask yourself questions. Colorful, lifelike, and exuberant characters fight for your attention and your emotions, and we are intensely endeared to them. Emotional scenes speckle the book and are just enough. And the fact that something terrible and evil exists in this story hangs over your head from the beginning. It's hard to guess what happens because James doesn't give us many clues, and the ending may come as a surprise to some people. And without us knowing it, James is comparing American culture to European culture (of the day), and this in of itself is fulfilling.

Indeed, James uses every page he has, without wasting any on detailed landscapes and useless banter. 2 pages from the end you have a wrenching heartache, but the last paragraph and page is utterly and supremely satisfying, and you walk away the way Newman walks away, at peace.

The Paradox of Power has actually transformed the ideas about a leader. Pat has mentioned of seven paradoxes, most important of which are certainly absolute love for your followers as Jesus had for his twelve non-schooled disciples, a vision and preparedness to 'accept inaction as the best form of action' and 'silence as the most powerful speech' at the appropriate time.His examples selected from the life of John F. Kennedy (talking to a mines worker), Robert Lee make his musings on desirable traits of a true leader as given in the book, more acceptable and laudable,

At a time when America can use it most comes a perspective on leadership delivered by someone who has lived his own words and succeeded. While many influential leaders throughout the ages are cited as examples and role models in this book's 230+ pages, the central figure is a man who would not be seen as power figure by today's definition. Yet his methods, when sought with sincerity and applied as though part of our reasonable responsibility, always work. The author has spent his professional life in the world of professional sports, but this book is not just for sports fans or corporate leaders (although that latter can and will certainly benefit from the wisdom of Mr. Williams). Anyone in a position of influence over others (who doesn't qualify there?) will find life-changing advice from time well spent in this book. Read slowly for more effective processing!

"Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once." - Caesar

Just one of the many brilliant quotes from this powerful and enduring tragedy, which happens to be amongst my very favorite Shakespeare. How could anyone not enjoy Marc Antony swaying the weak-minded and feeble-minded plebians with his vibrant and rousing speech? Julius Caesar is unquestionably quintessential Shakespeare, a monumental work that perhaps is surpassed only by Hamlet and rivaled by Othello, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, & King Lear.

Julius Caesar teaches us about the dangers and pitfalls of ambition, jealousy, power, as well as the sacrifice for the greater good - even if it is another's life. Amongst the bood-thirsty traiotors, only Brutus genuinely believes in the assassination of Caesar for the greater good of the Republic. Julius Caesar galvanizes the brain and awakens the spirit from within with scenes such as when Marc Antony proclaims, "Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war."
Countless amounts of quotes and passages throughout the play rank among my favorite Shakespeare. Needless to say, this book should be on the bookshelf of any and all with any semblance of intellect and enough cultivation to appreciate such superb literature.

The modern perspective following the text enlightens and should be read by anyone seeking more knowledge about this amazing tragedy and time in history. An irrepressible 5 stars.

Julius Caesar is probably one of the better plays written by Shakespeare. This play if full of intrigue, action, betrayal, and emotion. This play is not very long (5 acts), which makes it a quick and exciting read. The characters are built nicely, and what is nice about this version of the book, is that it is easy to read, and any words that may be unfamiliar are defined on the opposite page, making it easy to look them up, and understand Shakespeare's difficult writing style. This is definately a play worth checking out. It's a fun read, and with plenty of helpful tools built in to help along the way.

Shakespeare gives a whole new face to history, transforming Caesar's assassination into a conspiracy, in which the conspirators have some reluctancy to join in. Brutus, for example, is deeply tormented, as Caesar is his friend and trusts him, but he is manipulated by Cassius, who makes Brutus believe that his duty to the people of Rome should be greater than friendship, and that the Romans want Caesar dead. The book is an exploration into the human psyche, and changing characters. I find it interesting that, though the play is called "Julius Caesar", its central character is Brutus, who has to deal with the guilt of betrayal versus what he feels is a duty to the people versus his love of Caesar. Intense, breathtaking, dramatic.

"The Whiz Kids" met my expectations. It is great material for Phillies fans. Having grown up hearing the names of Ennis, Ashburn, Konstanty, Roberts and the rest, I wanted to read a good account of the first Phils pennant since 1915.

The ever humble Roberts (with the help of a professional writer) recounts his rise to the major leagues as well as the futile history of Phillies baseball. It's a nice, easy to read story that follows a tried formula: the team has a long history of losing, young players come aboard and develop into a close team, they exceed expectations and go to the World Series. There are plenty of scenes that flesh out the personalities and struggles of the team mates. Plenty of train trips and hotel stays. Tough game situations yeilding exciting victories or close defeats. Those looking for deep insights into the era should look elsewhere. In fact, I see this book aimed primarily at us Phils fans. Our banners are few, so we need to raise them high. These aren't Duke Snyder, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and the other "Boys of Summer." The Phillies of this era had one great year surrounded by several decent years. Only a couple of the names stand out these years later.

I give the book four stars because it served its purpose for me. If you are looking for light reading material about a cinderalla team, this could be for you as well.

This is a very well written account about a team that captured the hearts of an entire city. This is a great account of the surprising achievment of the 1950 Phillies. The excellent interviews of the players involved and the rehashing of the author is great. A very nostalgic and fact filled retelling of an exciting and fun filled year in baseball. A must read for all Phillie and historical baseball buffs.

Authors Paul Rogers and former Whiz Kid pitcher Robin Roberts have done a great job in bringing a memorable team back to life. Baseball books on teams usually involve New York teams and it is refreshing to read a book about a team that will always be remembered, not just by Phillies' fans, but by baseball fans across the country. Many of the names I came across in this book were merely pictures on baseball cards I started buying in the early '50's and this book provided me with some insight into their accomplishments on the ball diamond. There is a story behind each of those players' names I have in my mind, and the authors brought them to life in this book. If there was one drawback, if I may call it that, I found an excessive amount of play-by-play among the pages. However, I can live with that. The names of Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons, and Richie Ashburn are household baseball names, but I was also happy to read about lesser lights like Bubba Church, Mike Goliat, and Stan Lopata who were only pictures on baseball cards to me. Phillies' fan or not, if you like baseball history, you will enjoy this book.

The chapters on object -> RDBMS mapping and implementation using non-OO languages are worth the whole book!

It's outdated because it uses the OMT, I would really thanks Rambaugh if he could write a new edition!

Lets face it, this is the best book to get started on Object Oriented Programming. An object is still an object, whether you show it in a cloud or in a box. Plus this book has some valuable tips on programming the right way, and puts reusability in perspective. Its written in extremely readable fashion, quite unlike some of the UML documents out there. The only thing that bothers me is the price tag, which seems to be a bit high.

A landmark in OO literature: always was and always will be. Taking things from step zero to discussing very advanced issues. The notation used is the one where UML has borrowed most of its elements (especially the class diagrams). The process it describes has become the typical process for OO development (especially 2nd generation OMT as described through a series of articles in JOOP by Rumbaugh). In all, a book that leaves nothing uncovered from notation to process and more importantly in depth discussions on OO concepts and techniques that will always be true. Finally, this is one of the few books that discuss how to implement an OO design into a non-OO language such as C, Pascal, Fortran etc. END

It's long been a rule of Trek fiction that only the TV shows and movies (except STV) are canon, but when you've read a lot of Trek, and then read Avenger, you find yourself saying "What a minute... what about "Federation" and "Time for Yesterday"?" Shatner/Reeves-Stevens does a decent job with humor (the EMH scenes were great) and tying story lines together, but the book was a disappointment after Ashes of Eden and The Return (which was how Kirk should have gone out). And Jim still lives. And lives... Where's Scotty? Does the Shatner/Doohan feud continue through fiction? If barely breathing McCoy can still show up...Well, there's two more books coming. Who knows? Maybe Khan will show up? Kirk v. Borg Queen? The mind boggles.

After reading the fantastic 'The Return' I was eager to devour another great visit from the literary world of William Shatner...and when 'Avenger' came out, I figured I had found my 'fix'. Unfortunately it was a few steps on the ladder below 'The Ashes of Eden' AND 'The Return' in the way of entertainment. I found it interesting indeed, and like another reviewer mentioned, I had to outright laugh when Kirk came on more physically able than Riker, smarter than Data and you could see the behind-the-scenes rivalry Shatner has with Picard because he out-thinks him at virtually EVERY turn, practically making him look stupid by comparison. It was these particular parts that I not only found overblown, but outright ridiculous.

Now with that said, I STILL enjoyed the book...WHY? you might ask? Well unlike some people who read books and tear them to shreds, I understand that I am NOT supposed to take a science fiction novel seriously. C'mon, it's Star Trek for heavens sake! Kirk doesn't really exist, and neither does ANY Trek character, so therefore I understand that no matter HOW contrived the plot may be, it was written for me to enjoy, and that I did, very much (not as much as his first two Trek books, or the subsequent follow-ups, though). Shatners collaboration with arguably the BEST Trek authors in existence (Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens') pays off for the most part, but despite a lightning fast plot and fun gadgets galore, its the plot itself that brings 'Avenger' down a notch or two. I find it a bit hard to swallow that the United Federation of Planets, with the combined resources of a slew of planets and preparations, that overpopulation could sneak up on them without a tremendous plan designed to correct it in place decades before it could become a problem...but if I suspend that belief because as I said earlier the book was written for FUN, it was a fairly fun read altogether. Now Shatner's follow-up ('Star Trek: Spectre' and 'Dark Victory') are actually MUCH better overall...and I very much look forward to reading 'Preserver'...but I can't say whether or not I'll wait for the paperback...

For any of lover of Star Trek The Original Series or The Next Generation this would be an excellent book to read. I love both and let me tell you I've read it at least 3 times and it's still as good!

Shatner did a wonderful job of blending the two generations. The reuniting of Kirk, Spock,and McCoy was done so well you would have guessed that no time had passed between the friends. Plus, by the end of the story I was sure that Picard and Kirk were going to see more of each other in the future.

This was an excellent follow-up to "The Return" and I hope that Shatner wries another to tie up loose ends and with the way this guy writes... I'm sure he'll come up with a few more ideas. If you haven't had a chance to read this book yet and You like Star Trek I strongly recommend this excellent book.