V Books

This is among my favorite computer science books. I read the first edition straight through from cover to cover, even though I had some prior knowledge of the subject. I have since purchased the second edition, which exceeds the high standards set by the first edition. Scott's book would have made the programming languages course I took as an undergraduate much more enlightening, had it existed at the time.

As a software engineer, I tend to be picky about my books, but this one is very in depth and a good read. You will learn a lot about different programming languages, and why certain languages are better than others for solving different types of prroblems.

Over the years the Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition) (also knwon as the dragon book) has become the de facto standard for introducing compilers and related topics at universities. This is very unfortunate because "Programming Language Pragmatics" is in a completely different league and should be the one used instead. It gives the student (or the self taught) a complete and through overview of parsing, grammar, automata theory and other key language constructs. What really differentiates this book from others (and most notably the (in)famous "Dragon Book") is that it does so in a easy to understand manner and with lots of well written examples.

Many people find compiler and language theory to be dark magic, and it would be wrong not to acknowledge that these subjects are considerably harder than say creating a web page in PHP or writing a small Java/C# program. But much of the confusion also stems from the long history of porly written books which all have lacked explaining key areas or assumed that the readers just know some obscure CS topics beforehand. This book does not travel down that road, it is well written, contains both simple and advanced examples and is simply a delightful read.

Overall, "Programming Language Pragmatics" (PLP) is a very good book. According to the Preface:

"It aims, quite simply, to be the most comprehensive and accurate languages text available, in a style that is engaging and accessible to the typical undergraduate....

At its core, PLP is a book about how programming languages work. Rather than enumerate the details of many different languages, it focuses on concepts that underlie all the languages the student is likely to encounter, illustrating those concepts with a variety of concrete examples, and exploring the tradeoffs that explain why different languages were designed in different ways."

I'm not knowledgeable enough to pass judgment on "the most comprehensive and accurate" part. But, I'm pretty happy about the book meeting the rest of those goals. I read through the book on my own and have only a few significant gripes:

- Chapters 2 (Programming Language Syntax) and 4 (Semantic Analysis) are tough to get through. They're basically trying to teach enough about Alphabets, Languages, Regular Expressions, Context-Free Grammars, Finite Automata and Push-Down Automata for the reader to understand what the rest of the book is based on. I've read Cohen's Introduction to Computer Theory, which is dedicated solely to this material and I still had some trouble. With an instructor in a class to walk through the things, it should be doable. But, for a person reading the book on his own, ugh.

- All of Section III: Alternative Programming Models, seems to depart from the format of the rest of the book (as noted in the Preface) where the author talks about the concepts and then how the different languages implement them. Instead, he focuses on the languages themselves and almost seems to be trying to cram a primer into his text. Since the section seems to be a special case, it wouldn't be so bad except that the languages covered are a bit out of the mainstream and so that degree of depth gets pretty unreadable at times. Again, with a professor around, things would be better.

- At a more pedagogical level, the author has a tendency to merely explain what his example Figures are doing in general terms. The problem is that a lot of the code/pseudocode involves fairly advanced structures in several languages (many of which most people won't have run across). It would have made things a lot easier if he had walked his way through each of those Figures line-by-line and explained what each line did. Once again, this wouldn't be that much of a problem in a normal teaching environment since a professor could do it.

Other than those three things, this is a very good and readable book. I rate it at four stars out of five.

Every good programmer should know more than one programming language, that much is almost a consensus. But more than that, every programmer should educate himself about programming languages in general, what they mean and how they work. It's important to know at least the major programming paradigms, because they form the "mental model" of computation that is available to a programmer in a language from that paradigm.

And then it's always illustrative to know about the differences in many common languages, to see where different decisions have been made and what are the consequences. To know that certain legacy languages (e.g. C, Fortran) have features that were not designed because they were the "best" option (for some definition of best), but because the design was constrained by what technology was currently available.

This knowledge is not only required of compiler writers. It should be required of every good programmer. Compiler writers, of course, must know this, and probably in more detail. But Scott's book is a good resource about programming languages, in a level of detail that I believe adequate for all programmers.

There are two main kinds of books on programming languages: they are "survey" and "implementation".

Survey books show how things work in a lot of languages, comparing them along the way. Often the comparison gets down to small details that can affect the meaning, or semantics, of similar programs written in these languages. These books contain one individual chapter for every major topic, and inside such a chapter all languages are compared in relation to the topic. For example, one such chapter covers "subroutines" and then compare a host of different languages on how they implement subroutines.

Implementation books are different: they show how to implement many language features, usually by presenting code for interpreters and compilers. The reader doesn't learn that Ada permits nested subroutines, but instead how nested subroutines really work and how to implement them in a language, for example. A very good book of this kind is "Essentials of Programming Languages" by Friedman, Wand & Haynes.

I normally prefer the implementation books. I'm not really interested if Standard Pascal permits functions to be passed as parameters or not; if I do need to write a Standard Pascal compiler I'll look for a reference manual. I much prefer to know how to implement functions as parameters, and be done with it. Comparing minutiae about extant programming languages can sometimes be very enlightening, and sometimes be mostly dull.

Scott's book, however, really shines because it mixes feature descriptions and implementation details in the presentation. It does the usual routine of comparing a lot of different languages, most of the time the more popular ones like C++ and Java, but it then shows how the implementations differ because of differences in features. The book strikes a good balance between "language design" and "implementation" approaches, although it is clearly slanted towards design, and so more of a traditional "survey" book.

It wins over other survey books by including implementation information about almost every topic, and by the clear writing and style. Also, most survey books concentrate on mainstream imperative languages (nowadays C++, Java, C#) and leave other paradigms to chapters at the end. Scott's book is a bit better in this respect: the presentation often includes Common Lisp, Scheme and Standard ML in the comparisons. There are separate chapters about functional and logic programming too, but considerations about functional programming are spread in the whole book. This is important because paradigms change, and a good programmer must be able to adapt.

It's a good reference for language implementors and good education for most programmers. I look forward to the next editions.

Although the famous author's last years brought her much sorrow and depression, she continued to depict the world as it once more became plunged into yet another world war. In her famous journals, she described movies she saw, including GWTW, air conditioning, and the frustration involved with generational gaps. It is a must read for those who followed the previous books.

Obviously this is for fans of L M Montgomery - if you know and love her writing, you will recognise among the friends and acquaintances of her youth the characters that people Anne of Green Gable's turbulent world. But this wonderful journal is much more than that - it is a fascinating insight into a world which is long gone.

We read of Maud's complex family arrangements, her desire to be a good teacher and disappointment with some of her placements. Her small victories selling stories to publications, and the seemingly endless stream of suitors who proclaim love for her (my favourite is the hapless Mr Mustard). It is a tale of love found and not acted on (and the agonies that accompany it), familial obligations, frustrated talents and beautiful Canadian country side. It tells of heppiness, despair, joy and nostalgia, and is as engagingly written as any fabulous novel.

By all means read this if you wish to understand the creator of one of the world's most engaging literary characters, but also to have a glimpse of a world none of us will ever see the likes of.

Poor poor woman. I could scarcely put it down. But it brings up many questions. Why did she think that Mr. Leard, the Love of her life, was not worthy of her? Why did no one ask her husband Mr. McDonald what the heck was bothering him? Why did she not know in 5 years of courtship that something was terribly wrong with him? Poor, poor woman. The synthesis of this book is when she asks herself why a woman that she felt was mean and hateful was happy and she was not. Indeed, why?

IF YOU LOVE THE OTHER DIARIES YOU WILL ENJOY READING ABOUT HER FINAL DAYS. I ENJOYED ALL OF THE OTHER DIARIES BUT THIS ONE IS THE SADDEST. SHE HAS HER GOOD DAYS AND BAD, BUT SADLY SHE STOPPED WRITING IN THE LAST YEARS WHEN LIFE BECAME SO UNBEARABLE THAT SHE COUDLN'T EVEN WRITE ABOUT IT SO THIS DIARY IS INCOMPLETE. YOU WILL LOVE SEEING INSIDE THE LIFE AND MIND OF AN AUTHOR WHO ACHIEVED SUCCESS IN HER OWN LIFETIME AND LIVED TO WRITE ABOUT HER PERSONAL LIFE FROM CHILDHOOD TO HER LAST DAYS. THIS DIARY IS HER LAST, BUT LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE ON IN HER WRITINGS. HER DIARY WAS A WAY TO SHARE HER INNERMOST THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS THAT SHE COULDN'T SHARE IN HER NOVELS. YOU TOO WILL FEEL LIKE A KINDRED SPIRIT.

These journals, are beautifully put together. I remember when I found the first one and then each suceeding volume. I knew this one was coming. I even called the author at Guelph University to ask her how much longer I would have to wait.

She said then that they had to wait for some of the people in the journals to die before they could publish them. I would guess Dr. Stuart Macdonald was one of them.

They thrill me and make me feel closer to thise amazing woman. I've read everything she's written now. The sad thing is that once this volume is finished there is nothing new to read.

My greatests thanks to L. M. Montgomery and to Drs. Rubio and Waterson for their great work.

Es importante inculcar a nuestros los valores, ya que de ellos dependen para defenderse ante cualquier situación.....

Este libro los pone en orden y de manera sencilla para transmitirla a los niños.

It's an Ethic's marvelous work that prompts you to give your children and to profess yourself the BEST VALUES...
It does not matter if you are a Baptist,. a Mormon or a Muslim:
THIS BOOK IS A GUARANTEE OF LIFE FOR OUR KIDS !
IT'S THE SOLID FOUNDATION TO BECOME A REAL MAN OR A WORTHY WOMAN!

It's an Ethic's marvelous work that prompts you to give your children and to profess yourself the BEST VALUES...
It does not matter it}f you are a Baptist,. a Mormon or a Muslim:
THIS BOOK IS A GUARANTEE OF LIFE FOR OUR KIDS !

Excellent tool to give those just starting a family or for those old pros. Welocme addition to the child rearing section. I even recommend it as sumplmental reading to those who already have good values through the Bible and thier faith.

este libro, asi como su forma de transmitir, SON LO QUE HA HECHO QUE EL MUNDO SUBSISTA AUN ENTRE GUERRAS Y EPIDEMIAS !
Maravilloso para nostros y para los niños !

EDIT 8Feb08

I have to concur with the others, if I had only two books with me on a desert island, one would be my Bible, and the other would be this book (hedging out my other stand-by: The Institutes of the Christian Religion). I am awe-struck by the gifts of wisdom, insight and understanding that the Lord worked in the heart and mind of this saint, William Gurnall! I can't wait to get home to pick up where I left off, it is that dear to me.

It's loaded to the gunwales with insights; the author has an understanding of spiritual warfare and of the human heart that is simply astounding. One might sit down and study Owen, or Edwards, et al, to great profit (I have), but I believe there's probably nothing better for the final fifteen minutes of the day than a read from Gurnall to pierce beneath the Old Man's fifth rib, to set the tempter on his heels, and to drive one to repentance. A better devotional work to leave a soul begging forgiveness for his 'till-that-moment hidden sin I have never found. That's William Gurnall. He not only trains for war, he reveals sin and generates prayer.

I looked at the abridgement online, the one separated into daily readings, and I believe that this unabridged edition is definitely better.

If only every Christian would read this pearl of great price, this treasure trove of godly wisdom...

Read this manual of obedience and spiritual warfighting and you will inevitably draw closer to your Lord! Read it prayerfully and you will advance noticeably in your discipleship.

Many Christians, such as myself, can divide the days of their Christian experience into pre-Reformed and Reformed. I can safely say that my devotional life can now be divided into pre- and post-Gurnall.

As you read this review, wondering whether to purchase this book, your unseen foes tremble with a trepidation that is most justified indeed. Christ owns His enemies, and He raised up a Field Marshal in William Gurnall to help His sheep do likewise.

William Gurnall is a writer for all seasons. His work, specially the modern abridgment, speaks so clearly and so directly to this generation. You can read a few sentences and pause because you have been amazed at the relevancy of His comments. This is a work that you will cherish reading. You will never be tempted to rush through reading it. Few writers have been able to hold my attention as William Gurnall. C.S Lewis would be the other one. But of course no book holds a candle to The Bible God's written revelation. Don't leave this century without reading this book.

The content of this book is excellent; however, the old style in which it is written made it difficult to read. The revised version in modern english is "an essntial addition to any Christians library.

I can't put this book down, William Gurnall was truly a man inspired by the Word of God. How has this book be overlooked by our modern church? The this book should be a requirement for graduation from seminary. This book is a must for all Christians who feel something lacking, or for those who do not.
Besides the Bible, I have not read a book so powerful.

Compared to this great Puritan work, most modern books dealing with spiritual warfare appear dwarfed, and even trivial. Gurnall's massive exposition of Ephesians 6:10-20 is the product of a series of sermons preached in his church over many years. The book is at once profoundly biblical and at the same time always relevant.

William Gurnall lived during a time of great spiritual conflict in England, and this conflict directly led to the great civil war and the revolt against the king and his Church of England. Just as in the book of Revelation, where one's spiritual loyalties place him in deadly conflict, so in England, loyalty to Scripture placed Christians in the center of that nation's wars. Yet, while many followed the army's progress with great interest, Gurnall realized that an even greater conflict was being waged in their souls. As the pastor of the parish church at Lavenham, where he served all his active life in the ministry, Gurnall was more concerned with his people's souls than with the external progress of the conflicting parties in England. His long ministry encompassed the rise and fall of the Puritan cause. Because he remained in the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity, while thousands of strong Puritans withdrew and suffered as Nonconformists, Gurnall often was not respected by subsequent writers on both sides. His only lasting contribution to the struggle was his massive book, The Christian in Complete Armour.

Yet what a contribution that was! It was so popular with the people of England that it had passed through six editions by the year of his death. This book was a great blessing to John Newton, and was highly praised by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. It has continued over three hundred years inspiring Christians to stand against the devil. Gurnall begins with a call to realize that we are in a death-struggle with Satan and to take our stand and be prepared to fight. He then describes our armor and weapons, and the weapons employed by our great adversary. Each part of the armor is described at length, along with the means by which Christians can employ it in defense and offense against Satan. The book is full of spiritual insight, practical application, and inspiring word-pictures. We cannot read it without new determination to stand for the Lord and engage in true spiritual warfare--not the superficial warfare so often seen in the modern Charismatic movement, but the true and vital warfare of the Christian heart and life.

Gurnall's great book belongs in the library of every church and every Christian family. It makes wonderful devotional reading and produces spiritual fruit. Let Gurnall help you "fight the good fight of faith"!

Thirty short stories by W. Somerset Maugham including "Rain" which is about a prudish missionary and a prostitute and "The Three Fat Women of Antibes" which is an ironic story about self-denial and greed.

As a writer, Maugham considered himself "on the first row of the secondraters". I think he was being modest. Maugham has written some of the finest short stories ever written. His purpose was to do no more than tell an interesting story, but the reader gets much more. Each story is perfectly told; not one word is wasted, each character is fully realized. Maugham observes and never judges his characters. His short stories can be read many times and with each reading the reader finds something new and interesting. Somerset Maugham's short stories takes the reader to a time that is now past but still very relevant.

Somerset is an amazing writer whose words flowed so freely and expressively it makes you want to cry. This book of shorts is classic Maugham and un-put-downable. You'll love it.

The story" Fall of Edward Barnard" is a confrontation between what is called'the Civilized World' and the indigenous, the savage, the primitive world. Edward, thankful to a relative already fascinated by the beauties of the islands around tahiti, had a one life opportunity to have a very introspective reflexion about the meaning of his life. Sent from Chicago for two years, he will delay his return and the promise he made to his bride Isabelle. Why ? Because facing the natural beauty, almost thunderstruck by such simplicity, he wonders what the use of all this hustle and constant striving in our cities which are all but stones with ceasless turmoil. After a unsuccessful beginning in working, he chose a simple life based on beauty, truth and goodness. His thoughts reach the universal when asking himself ( throughout the author's philosophy ) why do we come into the world for to hurry to an office and work hour after hour

I came to know Maugham through his novels, especially The Razor's Edge, Of Human Bondage, and Cakes and Ale. I purchased this collection not knowing what to expect. The stories are character focused, at times incredibly witty and amusing, at times melancholy and near heart-breaking. As in his novels, Maugham has the ability to make the reader see what is not written. Highlights include The Rain, a commentary on the work of missionaries, and The Pool, one of the saddest shorts ever written. Others, such as The Three Fat Women of Antibbes, will probably make you laugh out loud. A first rate collection.

Many thanks to IDW for embarking on this publishing milestone. Even the earliest, crudest TRACY strips are entertaining and enlightening. Chester Gould's abilities as a storyteller and artist take shape over the course of years. His economy of action, character and suspense grows over decades. It's fascinating to watch the character and the strip develop in these early panels, especially if you know what's coming. At the rate they are publishing these volumes, it is expected to take five-six years to commit the entire work to book form. There have been other attempts over the years, both in hardcover volumes and comic book variations, to reprint TRACY, but it looks like IDW has come up with a satisfactory format, great design, and a commitment to getting it done once and for all. Please support them.

An excellent start to a much overdue collection! Yes, this first volume was pretty much covered in Tommyguns, but its arrangement and hardcover setup make it worthwhile. I look forward to future volumes!

I've been a huge fan of the Dick Tracy comic strip since I picked up my first comic book reprint of the strip sometime in the latter '40s in the middle of the "Boris Arson" narrative arc from the mid-'30s. It was great stuff, and even at my young age I knew it was the real deal and drew upon some actual events for plot points; "Arson" used an iodine-dyed dummy pistol carved from a raw potato to break out of jail! (Ah there!, John Dillinger!)

I was hooked, and became a dedicated collector with issue #29 (toward the end of the "Flattop" arc) and had every single issue from that point forward 'til #137! (Somewhere, inexplicably, they all disappeared! They survived the disapproval of my father, but not, apparently, my first wife!)

Over the past 30 years I've acquired virtually every "Tracy" reprint I could get my eager mitts on, and they've been for the most part excellent. But due to the selectivity of the reprints (none of which touched on the "Boris Arson" arc), there's been no continuity of the Chester Gould oeuvre until this series debuted, and I was all over it!

I've purchased the first two volumes, devoured both, and, O joy!, "Boris Arson" has appeared toward the end of the second one. The publication date of Volume III is a month away, and I'm like a kid awaiting Christmas morning!

I imagine the reason this "Complete Dick Tracy" project wasn't previously attempted had to do with some sort of "rights" issue, but I'm delighted that it's underway... and I know that unless they accelerate the present two-a-year schedule, I probably won't live to see the "Moon Maid" years, but that's okay!

These early strips show how polished Gould had become since his rather crude beginnings, and how much he developed his technical and creative "chops" over the decades. The format is fine... anything larger to accommodate a fuller sized Sunday strip would probably have put the volumes well above the "widely accessible" price point... so it's but a minor inconvenience for me to wear my reading glasses.

Kudos to IDW Publishing.

Around the early 1930s, as Prohibition was coming to an ignominious end, gangster films began to really take hold. James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart led the way on screen, while Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler wrote the books, and on the comics page, it was Chester Gould, with his strip, Dick Tracy. Volume One of The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy follows the detective from the very beginning in late 1931 to the middle of 1933.



As the comic begins, Dick Tracy isn't even a cop. When the father of his fiancee Tess Trueheart is killed by robbers, Tracy joins the police force and becomes a top detective without even needing to take an exam. He first solves the murder of Tess's father and then proceeds to be a one-man-gang against murderers, kidnappers, thieves and con men. His first real foe is the gang leader Big Boy, and most of the early battles are against Big Boy or members of his organization.



For those familiar with Dick Tracy's more bizarre foes such as Pruneface and Flattop, there may be a little bit of disappointment with the more mundane villains in this volume. Besides the bad guys and Tess, the main characters are Pat, a rather hapless fellow detective and Junior, a street urchin who Tracy takes under his wing. But it's Tracy who is the lead character, constantly meeting out justice with fist and gun. Like many such characters, Tracy himself is not that interesting, but is made more so by others around him.



Well-drawn and decently written, even these early Dick Tracy strips should appeal to fans of older comics. It may not be the best of these old-time comics (I reserve that compliment for other strips like Krazy Kat, Gasoline Alley or Popeye), but it is a fun read.

While I appreciate the effort to reprint the complete original Dick Tracy comic strips, certainly one of the most uniquely rendered creations in comics, I have reservations about the chosen format. The reproduction size of the Sunday strips is smaller than ideal, making for some challenging reading. To properly accomodate the Sunday strips, surely a larger format would have been better.

However, it's still fascinating to watch the evolution of Gould's trademark graphic style emerge from what started as a very ordinary-looking strip. Since it's probably not going to be done again on this scale, I suppose the best thing to do is accept the Sunday strip reproduction for what it is and board the train -- the best is yet to come.

After just flipping through this book I knew I HAD to own it. I already have a list of about 20 recipes to try, but figuring out which one to make first is the real problem! Will it be the Lipsmacker Lemon Bars, or the Coffee & Cream White Chocolate Chunkers? The list goes on and on, I will have to choose soon so I know what to take to the "Cookie Fest" we are having at work next week. I think whatever I make I will have nothing to bring home but an empty plate. Books like this do not come along very often, so grab a copy, preheat the oven and have fun!

It's funny how some books end up getting used more than others. I'm not sure I would have predicted I'd have used this so much, but I've ended up making more cookies from this one little book than any other on my shelf (and there are many). I'm an ambitious baker, but when it comes to those night-before moments when I need to bake a batch of cookies for somewhere or someone, I'm more often than not a bit too tired. This is simply a very handy book and I've had lots of success with the recipes (although, looking back, almost 100% of my choices have been citrus-type cookies. I think the addition of bright flavors is what makes the dough taste like homemade). The lemon poppyseed tart is also quite good, very pretty and people were impressed (I put fresh blackberries on top--gorgeous).

Thanks for a lovely, useful book.

If you baked your cookies from scratch, or used the recipes in this book using regrigerated dough - nobody will know! You'll know though, because you'll have less mess and more free time.

I used to love baking everything from scratch, and I still do from time to time (seems like twice a year now - Christmas and Easter). But when you become a Mom, although you're intentions were there, baking from scratch is often something there is just not time for anymore. This book gets you bake sale ready cookies that will win you raves as well as raise funds, office coffee room cookies that will be gone within minutes and gourmet cookies that your friends and family will want the recipes for. People will be whispering behind your back that you're the next Mrs. Fields.

Using the refrigerated dough is also less ingredients for the baker on the go - just grab a few rolls and you're halfway there. Stock up on the mix ins, and you're done!

Highly recommend!

This is a cookbook I really do use--a lot. I like some of the very easiest recipes in here, especially the variations on the chocolate chip cookies. They really taste unique. A friend of a friend who worked as a pstry chef thought the peppery ginger chocolate chip cookies (they have cryst. ginger and pepper mixed in) were brilliant and wanted the recipe--thy're that good. Smart ideas, smart book, worth the money.

Kudos! Great book, especially for the occasional baker. I love love love the lemon ginger gems (soft, you add crystallized ginger 1 package 3-ounce cream cheese, lemon zest to sugar dough). I like more innovative cookeis like that and the coffee toffee bars and pretty much all of the cheesecake creations throughout the book. The rest of the gang in my house can't get enough of some of the simpler ideas (my husband can vouch for the fluffer nutter choc chip cookie sandwiches: peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiched between chocolate chip cookies--so easy and so YUMMY!) and the big cookies you can make and decorate like a pizza--big kid favorite.

Hope there's a follow-up book, becasue I'll get it.

I own this series in Japanese, and it is a wonderful read! It has all the important elements of a good shoujo manga: it is romantic, twisted, with a shoujo (in the traditional meaning of the word) involved in finding a new family and love triangles galore. It is just a very fun read, no matter the language!

Yes, the "Best Manga Ever According to Me" award goes to.. FRUITS BASKET!! It's absolutely WONDERFUL!!!! I loved it so much, I've read it 5 times already!
I must admit, sometimes I love Kyo so much it scares me, and this book didn't help.. now I feel bad for him too! This book has lots of character development for Kyo. It was good timing on the writer's behalf. I find myself drawn to the pages where Tohru encounters Kyo in the forest, it's such a perfect scene for him and Tohru.... oh, it makes me want to swoon.....

Alright, now i've been reading manga for about 2 years now and i haven't been hooked on one as much as Fruits Basket! It's amazing, it combines romance with comedy, it's a definate page turner! This one may in fact be my favorite one out of the series so far...it's absolutely amazing! You get to see a side of Kyo you haven't seen yet and this particular manga has alot of character developement in it. It's a definate buy for anyone that wants a good romance/comedy! Not only do you get to see an emotional side of Kyo you haven't seen before, but you also get to see his "true form." Overall, the 6th volume of Fruits Basket is a must read! Kyo is personally my favorite character and you really get to see a side of him you don't normally see and you get to see the relationship between Kyo and Tohru deepen and become alot stronger! Definatly a 10/10!
~alexis~

I'm continuing with Fruits Basket since I have been enjoying the character interaction. Now that I've gotten to volume 6 it's getting easier to recognize the characters, but there's still a lot of cross-cultural stuff that eludes me. The most irritating part to me is...I don't even know how to explain this, but here goes:

Someone (usually a Sohma) is thinking about something. So the words are on the page, not inside thought bubbles or anything, just words on the page. But the pictures are of other people (usually Tohru, or Tohru plus other Sohmas). The thinking person is not always present at the scene being shown. For example, the book has Hatori and Shigure in a conversation. Then we have a few pages of this "someone's thinking" with pictures of Tohru et al. having a fun time. Then at the end of these 5-6 pages, we find that it was Hatori doing the thinking. So I have to go back and reread from the point where he and Shigure were talking, so that I understand what is intended. These books really are a lot of mental work to process at times.

I have picked up the first volume of Ouran High School Host Club to see if it's a problem with me, or a problem with manga in general, or a problem with Fruits Basket. I'll report back after a few more volumes of Fruits Basket!

Here in the volume of Fruits Basket you go deeper into Kyo's life...being in the year of the cat Kyo has a "true form". Tohru of course sees him as he really is but will she accept him? Only you can find out but reading this volume!

Yuki is also in the volume but his story is not as deep (but gets deeper as the series goes on) and he has worried Tohru. The "boar" is back and is obsessing with Kyo of course. This volume is so much fun to read, I CANNOT help but read it over and over like 20 times in a row!

Very good review book for Step 1 neuroanatomy section - since this is very high yield. Cover all you need to know to tackle this field on exam. Covers more than FA but is not as exhausting as Kaplan notes.

First Aid is money for most subjects, but it's weak on neuro. This book is a very good balance between too little and too much for this overwhelming subject. The High Yield series keeps improving in quality, and in the newest edition is even better at showing clinical scenarios and integrating other subjects like pathology or physiology (I used an older version and it's still pretty good, though).

I would like to say this is great for course work, but at least at my school they tended to test on obscure minituae hard to find anywhere.

This is all you should need for Step, which does feature a decent dose of neuro (about 10, more like 20 questions). It's also very good at developing as essential foundation of knowledge applicable for future use, which sometimes gets lost when scrambling to cram for course exams.

My big qualm is the pricing. It's a thin book, not a main text. Use the library, borrow it from a friend, split the cost, etc. High Yield makes a nice line of books but they need to trim prices for medical students.

The USMLE has become increasingly focused on neuro over the past few years, and First Aid has become more and more inadequate with respect to neuro. This book is a great way to prepare for the neuro questions on Step 1. It's a slender book and is thus a very quick read --- heck, I'm a slow reader and finished it in 2.5 days. At the beginning of the book are several images of brain sections, with arrows pointing to the most important structures. The book also has radiologic images (MRA, MRI, CT) which were very helpful for me when I took Step 1 --- actually, I remember having 3 distinct questions with an accompanying MRA image. The book does a good job of explaining the basic function/organization of the different parts of the brain in a concise manner. There were a few sections that I thought were a little too detailed for Step 1 --- especially the cerebellum section. Overall, though, it's a wonderful book and it will help you to nail the neuro questions on the USMLE.

Getting confused with studying anatomy of the brain? This is a book for you! It is far better than dozen of other neuroanatomy books! It gives you a lot of details and it's easy to read, too! I'm studying for the USMLE step 1 exam and I will keep it handy all the time!

This is an excellent book and it's really all you need to prepare for your step 1. I used this book and answered every single question on neuro correctly.

...purchase this book. I was looking for web sites to enjoy with my nieces and younger cousins and decided to purchase a book which could "direct me" in the right places. This book is a wonderful addition to have if you have younger children and younger visitors and need a way to "keep them occupied"! Buy this book. It is very well put together! It is also worth every cent. The only thing it doesnt have that I would give it 5 stars is a CD ROM directory for the electronic version...otherwise go for it if you dont mind typing in the sites yourself!

The Internet Yellow Pages is a "must have" book for students, adults, schools, teachers, and public libraries. Parents, teachers, and libraries should have access to this fabulous resource. After all, most homes and offices have at least one telephone directory. Let your fingers do the walking with this fabulous Internet directory which includes over 800 pages of carefully alphabetized, categorized, and graphically appealing subjects that can be used for research and information gathering. Does your child or someone you know need to write a report? Possibly a state, gold rush, science, animal, or other type of school report? Look no further. Just get out the Internet Yellow Pages, type in the URL and you will be instantly connected to quality web sites without wasting valuable time using various search engines.Each site is full of great information that has been carefully reviewed as "kid safe" by the author, Jean Armour Polly and her staff.

In addition to the excellent educational locations there are also many sites that are fun to visit, such as, jokes and riddles, toys, sports, games and fun, rainbows, boating and sailing, to name a few.

The final section of the book is dedicated to parenting and families. This section includes subjects such as entertainment, movie, video reviews, education, baby-sitting, health and safety. All the information is carefully referenced in the final index and the bonus CD-ROM includes tutorials, for safe and fun surfing on the net. This is a wonderful book and a very good investment. It is a reference guide each home, school, or library should have at their fingertips.

C. Mendenhall Teacher Deer Creek School

Customers may be confused by the way this book is listed. There is a NEWER edition of this book out, I should know, I am the author! It's available here at Amazon. Look for the one that says 4th edition. The ISBN number of the new edition is 0-0072121858. It is also called the Millennium Edition.

Our Girl Scout/Brownie International Day was a smashing success thanks to this book. Our troops were able to find information, recipes, songs and dances quickly and easily. We kept it at the Headquarters for a few months and everyone turned to it to find out about every country from Haida Nation to Iceland. The girls loved the website activities and the leaders loved the ease with which they could retrieve information. I also used her editorial blurbs to entertain the crowds between performances.

The 2002 Net-mom's Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages directory offers kids and their entire families a number of refreshing, entertaining, and informative Websites. After a brief introduction readers are treated to Net-mom's top hotlists, top Websites, and safety tips for surfing the Internet. Then the real fun begins!

This 587-page yellow page directory covers hundreds of topics of interest to kids and their families. Websites offer information about animals, art, buried treasures, coin collecting and money, computers, food, foreign countries, American history, insects, interesting facts, the Internet, music, scouting, ships and shipwrecks, space missions, sports history, toys, transportation, weather, world leaders, and much much more. I took the time to visit some of the Websites listed in the book. Here are several that caught my interest:

Students will be in for a real gooey education at Silly Putty University. Here they will learn about the history, composition, and many uses of this still-popular toy - the toy with only one moving part. Students will also learn about the many varieties of Silly Putty currently available - the original pink, the 50th year anniversary metallic gold, glow-in-the-dark colors, temperature sensitive color changing colors, and an assortment of bright colors. When ready, students can elect to take the final exam in order to receive their Silly Putty degree!

After viewing the Silly Putty Website I moved on to Coin World , to look up some information about my favorite coin - the 1943 steel pennies. During the second World War copper was needed for the war effort so zinc-covered steel pennies were struck. However, some rare 1943 copper pennies and even rarer 1944 steel pennies were made. At least one 1943 silver-bronze penny was made! I performed some additional online research and ended up placing bids at eBay for some steel pennies - and I won!

As with any child-age educational material, parents should become seriously and creatively involved with the upbringing of their children. They should take the lead to protect their children at all times while they surf online. To her credit, the author advises parents to review certain Websites that contain sensitive material. Topics such as religion, politics, child development, environmentalism, and the creation-evolution debate sometimes touch upon controversial issues and require responsible parental involvement.

The author provides brief and concise summary descriptions of each site mentioned in the book and creatively relates topics of interest to encourage readers to dig deeper in their online researching. As I've found out for myself, visiting Websites like the ones listed in this book can be a good educational experience, as well as a bunch of fun for the whole family. Parents can sit down with theirs kids and have many hours of fun and adventure. This book is ideal for babysitting, daycare, home-school, and public school use!