God's Favorite is a novel that in part is fiction, non-fiction, and imagination. Initially I was under the impression that the author was biased; now, after reading the book, I have to admit that Mr. Wright is a fluid writer. I enjoyed the piece on Noriega and the fictional Panama setting. I also found in many sections a great deal of humor. I had to put the book down to laugh. I have read works on Panama and Noriega and found this book flowing; it was not boring, dry, or difficult to read and understand. On the contrary, the book was an enjoyable read.

For those who would like to look at Panama under fiction, this is the book. It does not highlight a detail history; it does include fictional/non-fictional parts that can very well be argued in a political science course.

I would recommend this book for leisure, escape, and for fluid reading which allows the reader to enjoy. Wright's Noriega is a complex, somewhat understood character. Afte reading several works on Noriega (non-fiction), I would highly agree with this book for humor, leisure, and for imagination. Readers should not take the whole book for fact; it is a work of fiction and imagination.

An utterly arresting blend of fact and fiction, "God's Favorite" thrusts the reader into the bloody maelstrom of Panama under Noriega. The book is incredibly accessible, even entertaining, but it never loses its intent to put you into the heart of the situation, sparing no one, revealing everything. Of course, one cannot know what a historical figure thinks, believes or desires. Even their own words are tainted by the unswerving gaze of history. Wright, however, does not let his book rest on his assumtions of thoughts and feeling. He brings a trained observers calculated analysis and the well known documented facts of the situation to frame his narrative.

This is a truly delightful experience, crisp in style, engaging in content and memorable in the final experience. Recommended.

A novel of the highest order, taking in religion, history, various world views, politics, and cultures while introducing the reader to modern times. Set in Panama in the late '80's it is a bottom's up view of the top of the hierarchy and how the way that world works from both the macro and microscopic view. The bloody view of personal and corrupted power will make the reader wince, laugh out loud, and possibly bring a tear to the eye. We find out how an ugly Mestizo can own a country and as the reader gets into Mr. Noriega's skin to see his view, we find that the writer has a good grasp on the ordinary things that bring meaning to one's life; however it is also the view of a mad man. We are given a look at the USA machinations into that region and the ultimate purposes involving new-old fashion terrorism, narco-terrorism, with a pinch of romance. Often I felt as if I were participating in the movie Casablanca. An enjoyable read from front to back. On the other hand, my wife put the book down after page 10.

Contains many interesting insights into twin behaviour and genetics. Wright shows not only the similarities between twins we'd expect but the differences too. However her writing lacks criticality and depth of understanding.

The book failed to address a few issues. While it discusses genetics factors at great length it fails to look at the function of the genes. Wright writes of genes like they are black boxes with their effects being a mere curiosity rather serving any naturally selected function. This viewpoint leads her to ignore many compelling questions.

For example, identical twins should be expected, from a "selfish" gene view, to have much more compassion for each other than fraternal twins. Do they? I still don't know. When Wright talks of twins who "fought" in the womb she doesn't even mention which sort they were. And with her typical lack of criticality, alternative explanations aren't even considered: couldn't the aggressor have been simply learning to control its motor functions in a natural (and well-documented) way? Wright doesn't give us their age (or stage of development) either, which would allow the readers to draw their own conclusions.

Wright also manages to show a lack of understanding of human emotions. She talks of love between partners as being simply a selection of attributes -- for if it were then identical twins would surely fall in love with the same people more often.

However it's still a compelling book in which the author takes the passenger seat in her tour of twins, their behaviour, historical perspectives and happenings.

This book provides proof for the perennial "Environment vs Genes" debate about humankind and personal destiny. After reading this book, I have come around 180 degrees - it's genes. Stories of separated twins leading essentially parallel lives are so compelling, that I realized that we are all propelled through our lives by personality. Our individual fates are controlled mostly by our abilities and instincts than by the conditions of our life. Those abilities and instincts are largely genetic. Far from being a kind of predestination, this frees us to live fully through our personalities, our selves. It frees us from the myth that we are victims of fate - we, our instincts and our abilities are all its shapers.

An open-minded reading of this book will change the way you think about yourself and everyone you know. It's not just about identical twins, but about all of us, and what makes us who we are. I've read many books about twin research, and this is the best.

I picked up this book on a whim and found it engrossing from the first page. Since I was born after the baby boomers, It explained alot of things that I had always wanted to learn more about. Certain cultural references made about those times have been cleared up for me. I didn't give it five stars because it is a little wordy, but it is a great commentary on our culture. Read this book if you are a history buff.

Although I had to read this book for school, I found it to be suprisingly good. I would reccomend this book.

I found this book to be very poorly written and unsatisfactory. It contained lots of bad algorithms and poor coding. Much of the code was unusable and the methods explained were very simple. I could have done without it to be honest. Avoid this book if you want to learn how to program properly

Im not an advaced programmer, but reading some parts... I learned a lot of good things. I couldnt describe them here, but i will implement them on the future projects ahead. Things that I think are essential to the industry grade programmer and to becoming one.
The material was delivered clearly, not necessarily simple... but it is clear. The book is worth all my hard saved money... and im glad to have it, and its fun to read too...

When seeking a reference, most experienced programmers will rather buy a reference that focuses more on the advanced issues than the language concepts itself. Mainly because almost all decent compilers come with extensive help files that cover most of what the programmers might need regarding the language itself. This book doesn't explain much about C, but instead uses C as a tool to explain some very useful issues that are crucial to almost all advanced programmers.

The book wastes no space on trivial stuff like how to open your compiler or use a non-standard C function. Instead, it goes directly into what's important, explaining the concepts and giving concrete examples where appropriate, all using ANSI C.

Since most of the issues aren't dependant on the implementation schemes, almost any advanced programmer would benefit from this book, even if he/she is not programming in C (assuming advanced knowledge of C, of course). The only exceptions are the topics that talk about the ANSI C rules and code organization and optimization. The only disadvantage here is that this book doesn't cover object oriented concepts, but that's not a surprise of course as the book is titled "C Unleashed." But still for anything else other than that, this could be a great help even to C++ programmers.

The book chapters have been written by more than 10 experienced programmers, 6 of them are really good, which makes each chapter standalone as a small tutorial on some issue. The writing style of Richard Heathfield and many of the co-authors is very nice to read and clear to understand. Some parts, of course, do not have that nice writing style, but throughout the book, the technical information is very clear and easy to comprehend.

I wouldn't recommend this book to any new programmers. But for the more advanced ones, this is something they would want to check.

-Mokhtar M. Khorshid

I bought this book because it has a nice layout and seemed to have all of the necessary facts on ABA-approved law schools. Having gone through the application process, I realize that this book falls flat on several levels. To start with, some of the data is incorrect. For example, almost all of the application fees listed are less that they actually are. Also, there is very little context about the schools. For example, what is a school known for? Is it a large, ultra competitive environment, does it pride itself on cooperation and close-knit atmosphere, or somewhere in-between? A prospective student can make assumptions from the data alone, but contextual information rounds out the data. Further, admissions are mostly made on GPA & LSAT scores but there are no grids or numerical breakdowns; there are only median values. My best advice is to go to the LSAC's website and review the online version of the "Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools." This guide offers statistical data, school info, links to law schools, and data filtering tools so you can interactively track infomation relevant to you (e.g., your statistical chance of getting into a school based on your GPA & LSAT). Overall, it has a lot more to offer than the Barron's Guide.

Barron's Guide to Law School has become like my bible. I take it with me everywhere and could look at it for hours on end. I just recently decided that law school is definately for me, and this book has helped tremendously. It contains many details about each school, things you may not even really care about. It also contains a sample LSAT test which is very helpful. The book also lists schools by region and maps them so you know exactly where each school is, and so if you know you want to go to school in a certain region, you can find out what schools are nearby. This book is a must for anyone considering law school.

I simply can't imagine trying to navigate the law school selection and application process without this book. It would be a bargain at several times the listed price.

To summarize the contents, it contains EVERYTHING.

Who would have thought there was so much to learn about toilets and bathroom culture? This is a great primer for those who wonder just how people did bathe and perform 'ablutions' before the days of indoor plumbing and water-trapped toilets for all (at least all of us in western countries). Written in 1960, it assumes a bit more familiarity than most of us have with English-style boilers and toilets, and more knowledge of history than the average high school graduate would have today. The language is a bit old-school, but in a descriptive fashion, and is never difficult to follow. It does contain several quotes in French and Latin without translations, but they are short, and not essential to the enjoyment of the book.

Clean & Decent is at its best when sharing tidbits and historical anecdotes (such as story of a householder how discovered that his royal houseguests had used his hallways, landings and cellars for their toilets). In the Penguin Classic History edition, an old fashioned font has been used, which, along with numerous black and white illustrations (not all of them very well produced or labelled, unfortunately), gives the book a great "old fashioned" feel.

It is sometimes uneven in its technical data. Some diagrams have quite full explanations, and others none at all. However, it never pretends to be a technical book, and provides a very extensive bibliography for anyone who's interested in the how-to's. Some diagrams and drawings also suffer in reproduction, and aren't very clear. The arrangement of the book isn't very intuitive, and it seems to jump back and forth in time, but then, so did humanities knowledge of and desire for hygiene.

This is enjoyable light reading, especially for anyone interested in 'every day' history who wonders just how people went about at least one aspect of their daily business. It will also provide you with a never-ending supply of did-you-know's. While it's a shame that it wasn't revised and updated to include those other fascinating periods in bathrooms - the 50's and 60's - it's publication as a reprint of the original makes it a great piece of literary history on it's own.

Harold Bell Wright was one of the favorite authors of President Ronald Reagan. In fact, Reagan credited Wright's first book for convincing him to be baptized. But more than that, Harold Bell was one of the most popular American Authors of the early 20th Century. From 1903 to 1942, Wright authored 19 novels that yielded 15 movies. From 1911 to 1923, six of his books made top ten best seller lists. His first seven novels had a combined sales exceeding seven million, a world's record at the time. He was far more popular than his contemparies Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and H.L. Menken. But the latter three live on, while today hardly anybody has heard of Harold Bell Wright. Why has he disappeared from the literary scene? Why was he the most ridiculed writer of his generation even though his books appeared in more homes than any other save the Bible. That's the mystery biographer Lawrence V. Tagg tries to answer in this book as he sketches Wright's life, a life that began in such poverty and desperation that Wright's health was adversely affected throughout adulthood. In the '20s, according to Tagg, if a child went into a library requesting a Wright book, the librarian would try to talk him into something else. Even with his immense popularity, it is almost impossible to find a Wright book in today's libraries. Most are confined to garage sales and flea markets. Could the answer lie in the fact that Wright, a preacher, used his books as a pulpit as he pushed his agenda for "practical" Christianity and non-denominational religion? TAGG lays out a case for this and other theories. It's a well-researched, interesting read about a literary giant who is all but forgotten. If nothing else, the book will make you want to search out Wright books and give them a try.