H Books

Dont buy Haykin please. Its gone old and flimsy. This is a culmination of two decades of relentless addition to adaptibe filtering. I have read from original Widrow Hopf titles to Haykin bleating. but this is the culmination.

I work on 802.11b and 802.11a/OFDM modems and was looking for some kind of coherent text on decision feedback equalization and other tracking schemes when I stumbled upon this book. I'm deep into chapter three and I can already draw the following conclusions.

There are two things that make this book really great.
1) The teaching style. Besides having a wonderful way with words, the author uses plenty of subtle teaching principles that help in the understanding of the material like frequent repetition of the main concepts and slowly building up examples over different sections inside each chapter.

2) Content !!!! Its hard to assimilate abstract material like estimation theory without at the end having some type of useful application or algorithm to show for. The author's examples and computer projects on channel estimation, channel equalization, maximum ratio combining and Rake receivers are very popular building blocks for a variety of modems. It is very motivating to know that after labouring through the chapter the authors feels that you are now ready to understand decision feedback equalizers and so he presents you with a nice DFE computer project.

Difficult topics require competent teaching approaches and that is exactly what you will find in this book.

The only thing that would make this book even better would be a very brief introductory chapter on statistics and linear algebra. So if you are going through the book and you want to quickly revisit the definition of covariance or hermetian transpose there is one centralized section that has all the useful mathematical tools nicely listed.

As a practising engineer, I highly recommend this book.
Andreas S.

This book is a true masterpiece. It contains the most complete treatment, theoretical and practical, of adaptive filtering that I've ever seen and I've seen just about every book on this topic on the market. In addition to the detialed theoretical derivations, this book is rich with numerous design examples and computer projects with provided matlab code. This equips the reader with proper tools to quickly understand the concepts and put them to practice with relative ease. I highly recommend this book to anyone serious about understanding adaptive filters.

In this book, the ideas and formulas are well presented to the readers. Notations are very consistent throughout the entire book. I have enjoyed reading this book.

This is the best textbook I've ever read. The mix of theory and practice, examples and math, and the ordered introduction of concepts flows so well it reads like a treasure quest. Everything has its place, and the place is known - you just have to follow the signs and keep an eye out for those which are subtler than others, just to keep things alive and interesting. It's indicative of the clarity of thinking and broad sweep of this work that you would refer to it (I do and other students I know as well), for other subject matter such as communications, linear algebra, digital filters, probability and control theory. The homework problems are not just a series of one-liners as in most graduate level text books, but well-marked road maps addressing points discussed in the text and opening up new possibilities. The computer projects are very well commented and the results analysed. The language is concise yet fluid, and there are extremely few typos of any kind. This is a very, very high quality work.

To me, this book defines The Joker; A mean-spirited, incredibly intelligent, completely psychotic mass murderer with a way beyond warped sense of humor. I first read this book in High School. Once I picked it up, it was so amazing/disturbing I couldn't put it down until I'd read the whole thing. I wrote a paper on it that got me into AP English. Now 10+ years later, it was so good I'm searching for it again. This book is a KEEPER. Be careful who you loan it to, they might think so too.

The Joker is, and has always been, my favorite fictional character of all time. If you are a fan of the Killing Joke, and are a fan of the dark, psychotic portrayal of the Joker, then this book will definitely please you. I first read the book when I was in fourth grade. The story "On a Beautiful Summers day, he was" disturbed me then and still does now. It was the one story from this book that has stuck with me for all the years since I first read it (about 11 years ago). Check this book out; it's a real treat for Batman fans.

I find The Joker to be a fascinating fictional character, and this collection of short stories definitely manages (at least for the most part) to get at what I feel is the true character of The Clown Prince of Crime. This little overlooked book is probably the best portrayal of The Joker this side of Alan Moore's The Killing Joke.

The quality of the stories is uneven, ranging from brilliant to forgettable. Unfortunately, the very best stories are all weighted toward the first part of the book and sets you up thinking that ALL of the stories will be that good. My favorites are "The Man Who Laughs" and "On a Beautiful Summer's Day, He Was." The latter, while being the least "Joker"-y of the lot, is also the most disturbing. "On the Wire" is also excellent, and although "Jangletown" falls into the average group, it's memorable for its description of the Joker (which brought shadows of Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum) and the hints at pederasty. Most of the others are average but still entertaining and full of dark, disturbing moments (Bruce Wayne's punchline in "Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard," the opening of "Bone," and the patricide in "Best of All"). The only story I flat out didn't like was "The Joker's Christmas."

I thought it was an excellent decision to use horror writers for the most part to bring The Joker to life...I can't imagine a genre he more belongs at home in.

Do yourself a favor a grab a copy of this book. It's truly unsettling.

This book consists of several short stories, each written by a different author, and all of them about the Joker. The stories are too short for me to tell you much about them, and besides, part of what makes this book great is the different angles taken on the Joker. Each story focus on the Joker, but each shows a different part of the whole Joker.
I would recomend this to any Batman fan, any comic fan, or anyone looking for good short stories.

"Bone" by Will Murray is worth the price of the book alone. "Oh, I'm collecting kitties and puttin' 'em in bags," sings our emerald-topped antagonist. What he does with them is, well, horrific. Throw in F. Paul Wilson's "Definitive Therapy," a chilling look at The Joker through a psychiatrist's eyes, and Robert Sheckley's "Joker's War," with The Joker somehow caught up in the second World War, and you've got a must-read for fans of this mythos. The rest of the stories are hit and miss, but you won't care. This collection of stories will keep you up late.

A pearl! Anyone interested in Geometry shouldn't miss the lucid presentation of the great Hilbert.

I have some 47 books in the geometry section of my shelves. If I had to discard 40 of these, Geometry and the Imagination would be among the 7 remaining.

Geometry is the study of relationships between shapes, and this book helps you see how shapes fit together. Ultimately, you must make the connections in your mind using your mind's eye. The illustrations and text help you make these connections. This is a book that requires effort and delivers rewards.

The leading mathematician of the 20th century, David Hilbert liked to quote "an old French mathematician" saying "A mathematical theory should not be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man you meet on the street". By that standard, this book by Hilbert was the first to complete several branches of geometry: for example, plane projective geometry and projective duality, regular polyhedra in 4 dimensions, elliptic and hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometries, topology of surfaces, curves in space, Gaussian curvature of surfaces (esp. that fact that you cannot bend a sphere without stretching some part of it, but you can if there is just one hole however small), and how lattices in the plane relate to number theory.

It is beautiful geometry, beautifully described. Besides the relatively recent topics he handles classics like conic sections, ruled surfaces, crystal groups, and 3 dimensional polyhedra. In line with Hilbert's thinking, the results and the descriptions are beautiful because they are so clear.

More than that, this book is an accessible look at how Hilbert saw mathematics. In the preface he denounces "the superstition that mathematics is but a continuation ... of juggling with numbers". Ironically, some people today will tell you Hilbert thought math was precisely juggling with formal symbols. That is a misunderstanding of Hilbert's logical strategy of "formalism" which he created to avoid various criticisms of set theory. This book is the only written work where Hilbert actually applied that strategy by dividing proofs up into intuitive and infinitary/set-theoretic parts. Alongside many thoroughly intuitive proofs, Hilbert gives several extensively intuitive proofs which also require detailed calculation with the infinite sets of real of complex numbers. In those cases Hilbert says "we would use analysis to show ..." and then he wraps up the proof without actually giving the analytic part.

If you find it terribly easy to absorb Hilbert's THEORY OF ALGEBRAIC NUMBER FIELDS and also Hilbert and Courant METHODS OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS, then of course you'll get a fuller idea of his math by reading them--but only if you find it very easy. Hilbert did. And that ease is a part of how he saw the subject. I do not mean he found the results easily but he easily grasped them once found. And you'll have to read both, and a lot more, to see the sweep of his view. For Hilbert the lectures in GEOMETRY AND THE IMAGINATION were among the crowns of his career. He showed the wide scope of geometry and finally completed the proofs of recent, advanced results from all around it. He made them so clear he could explain them to you or me.

This is a marvellous book. I will illustrate by one sample from each chapter (except chapter 1 on "the simplest curves and surfaces" which is the least exciting chapter). Chapter 2 on "regular system of points" contains a beautiful derivation of Leibnitz' series pi/4=1-1/3+1/5-1/7+... If we draw a large circle centred at the origin then of course a good measure of its area is the number of integer points it contains. Now, for any such point, x^2+y^2 is an integer less than r^2. So the number of such points can be obtained by going through all integers less than r^2 and counting how many times it can be written as the sum of two squares. But this is a classical problem in number theory and the solution is known. So this number theoretic result essentially tells us the area of a large circle, so it implies an expression for pi, namely Leibnitz' series. Chapter 3 is on projective geometry. We go through many projective configurations that are not seen very often today, but still the classics are the best, such as Desargues' theorem. If we have a triangular pyramid and cut it with two planes to get two triangles then the three points of intersection of the extensions of corresponding sides will or course be on a line (the intersection of the two planes), which is the three-dimensional Desargues' theorem. But by projecting the triangles onto one of the walls of the pyramid we get two projectively related plane triangles and the theorem holds for them also. All we have to do to prove the plane Desargues' theorem is to prove that all such configurations can be obtained in his way (i.e. that one can always erect an appropriate pyramid based on two projectively related plane triangles) which is practically obvious. Chapter 4 is on differential geometry. The fundamental concept of differential geometry is curvature, which is a number that indicates how curved a surface is at a given point. It may be defined as follows. We draw a little circle around the point on the surface and consider all the normals to the surface at these points. Take these normals and put them with their origin at the center of a sphere; then they will sweep out a section of the surface of the sphere. The curvature is the ratio of the area enclosed on the surface and that on the sphere as the circle is taken infinitesimally small. This quantity is seen to be invariant under bending by triangulating the surface; then the the circles are polygons with fixed angles and the theorem follows from the fact that the area of a spherical triangle is determined by its angles (proof omitted here; see any Stillwell geometry book for Harriot's beautiful proof (a.k.a. "Euler's proof")). Now, there are two fundamentally different types of points. Either the surface bends in the same direction in every direction, as on a sphere, or it bends in different directions like a saddle. In the first case the boundary on the sphere traced out by the normals has the same orientation as the boundary on the surface; in the second case the orientation is reversed. So, using signed area, the second type of points have negative curvature. A typical surface will have areas of positive curvature and areas of negative curvature and in between there will be lines of zero curvature. An absolutely wonderful, although perhaps not entirely successful, application of this concept is Klein's Apollo Belvidere hypothesis that the curves of zero curvature on a human face determine beauty. Chapter 5 on kinematics contains a determination of the curve that "we may observe ... every day in cups and tin cans when the light shines on them", i.e. the coffee cup caustic. With the sun at x=-infinity, the radius that makes an angle theta with the x-axis will point to a point where the angle of reflection is also theta. Consider a concentric circle of half the radius, and another circle with the other half of the radius as its diameter. The arc cut out of the inner circle by the radius and the x-axis is equal to the arc cut out of the outer circle by the radius and the reflected ray (arc with central angle theta in the big circle = arc with central angle 2*theta in the small cirlce). The shape of the caustic follows by rolling the outer circle on the inner. The reflected light rays are tangent to this curve since they are perpendicular to the line connecting the generating point with the center of motion (intersection of the two circles). From chapter 6 on topology one nice result is that any continuous mapping of a disc onto itself has a fixed point. For suppose it did not. Then any point in the circle can be connected with its image by an arrow. Now consider the point on the boundary. The arrow direction varies continuously as we walk once around the circle, and it end up where it started so it must have made an integer number of revolutions. But there is also a tangent at each point, and the tangent of course make one revolution as we walk once around. The arrows always point to some point in the disc so they could never point in a direction parallel to the tangent so the arrows in fact have to make one revolution also (they would have to be parallel to the tangent for a moment to overtake it, and if they stood still they would be parallel to the tangent "at six o'clock" so to speak). But if we consider the same situation for a concentric circle inside the disc then it too must have arrows making one revolution because the number of revolutions can not make jumps since the new circle is obtained by continuous shrinking of the circumference circle. But as we shrink this circle to infinitesimal radius then all its arrows point in the same direction, so they don't make one revolution, so we have a contradiction. One sees similarly that a continuous mapping of the sphere onto itself also has a fixed point. Since the projective plane is the sphere with diametrically opposite points identified this proves that any projective transformation has a fixed point.

I agree that this book, co-authored by the co-greatest mathematician of the first quarter of the twentieth century, is a masterpiece to be treasured and kept in print, as other reviewers have stated.

However: The Preface states: "This book was written to bring about a greater enjoyment of mathematics, by making it easier for the reader to penetrate to the essence of mathematics without having to weight himself down under a laborious course of studies."

All I can say is that if you read this and find it "easy," then you have terrific mathematical talent! Yes, the drawings and the intuitive descriptions are helpful, but much of the book is so obscure that I have been told that one of the world's leading geometers is working on an annotated edition explaining what the authors were talking about. On topics which I had already studied elsewhere, I found the presentation illuminating.

I still recommend this book.

This was a very informative book, written in plain English for those who are depressed and their families. There are many good exercises besides the profound text it provides. It covers the many forms and facets of depression in a very user-friendly way and I will not hesitate to use it and pass it one to others who may need it. It contains all the keys plus suggestions on how to put them into action and if that alone is not enough, how to talk to your doctor about medications. It gives life coping strategies that anyone can use. I couldn't put this book down.

As a person with long-standing problems and treatment of depression, I found this by far the most thorough and useful discussion of depression ever. It is excellent writing from warm, caring, down-to-earth-sounding professionals who do not seem to feel that they are All-Powerful. The authors certainly give the readers all the tools needed to help themselves and to seek and follow professional help when needed. In my opinion, this book should be a textbook for all medical students, whatever their specialty, as well as psychology students, seminary students, and anyone in the "helping" professions.

A very nice book.

This is an excellent book, honoring the WHOLE person (body, mind and spirit), down-to-earth and very respectful of the different ways people deal with their personal distress. I am very surprised at the Publisher's Weekly review, as I found the book to be just the opposite of that assessment. In fact, this is the only book I've read whose authors, in fact, DID seem like they knew from experience the dark maze of depression. I have shared the book with others and will continue to recommend it. I discovered the book by accident at a bookstore one lonely gray day and read it three times. It truly is a life-changer.

I am quite grateful for this book, which actually helped me organize my thoughts, get them down on paper, and turn them into a plan for action for working on my depression. The book's focus on taking action was really the key for me, as I imagine it could be for other people experiencing depression. For many years, I was mired in thoughts of my depression and loneliness and felt completely stuck. Within a few days of reading the book and completing the exercises in the opening chapters, I was able to accomplish a few small things that had been really worrying me, and I gradually started to make progress in getting my life back together again.

Like another reviewer, I was also surprised by the Publisher's Weekly review posted above and disagree with much of the author's assessment of the book. If you are depressed and feel like you've been going around in circles about daily issues like paying the bills or larger issues about finding meaning in the life you lead, this book might also help you find a way to assess your situation and begin to relieve symptoms of depression. While no book is a cure and any approach to addressing depression requires a strong personal commitment, the authors of this book have really helped me, someone who has suffered from depression for more than 10 years. I thank them very much.

I got a copy of this in a second-hand store when I was a kid and I've practically read the covers off. Absolutely magical. I have never read a better imagining of the Cinderella story.

you can not give this book enough stars. this book brings cinderella to the next level very tastefully. thank you to the author for this teenage level.

The book is very good story. The author has done a very good job of telling the story. I have readed this book since 6th grade and now I'm first year in college. I have enjoy this book every time I read it. I recommend it to every one.

I found it! Like one of the other reviewers, I read this book, and re-read it and re-read it, in Elementary school and loved it! The internet and places like Amazon.com have been a god-send for finding those treasures of childhood I thought I'd never see again. This remains to this day my very favorite version of the Cinderella story. Well worth the read no matter how old you are!

Like Robin Grunder's (New York, New York March 1999) review I just saw on this page, I had read this book (from my church library, no less!) when I was about 10-12 years old. I fell in love with it, and it left a marked impression upon me. Sort of "Cinderella at a whole 'nother level." But as a teenager I could not find the book anywhere. As a young adult, I would revert back to childhood books in times of stress (Madeleine L'Engle, Carolyne Keene) and looked for Eleanor's "Glass Slipper" many times to no avail. Then, in my late 30's, when Internet searching became all the rage, I one evening put the title in a search engine and VIOLA! There were several used (collectible) hardback copies available through Amazon.com! ... but I have my used 'library' copy and I'm ecstatic. I'll pass this on to my child's children, who will hopefully love reading as much as I do.

This is a very effective piece of economic reporting and must be one of the most acute pictures of 'capital in the raw' that I have read, a desmerizing tonic to the endless litany of neoliberal triumphalism. Neither Marxist, nor doctrinaire, it unwittingly scores a bullseye of indirect marxist analysis of the one-and-the-same process that is the invariant of the capitalist system. This isn't even a radical statement. Slogans one way or the other are stopped in their tracks by facts here, and facts that induce momentary helpless shock, quite short of firebrand indignation. We don't live in a global democratic system. Therefore we don't live in a democratic system. Capital has beaten the pants off sentimentalism here. Democracy so-called is a good front, but otherwise an inconvenience to the predators described herein. The author produces one horrendous
statistic about forty thousand people controlling 81 trillion in assets. Capital.
Not much more needs to be said.
Your move, unless you are powerless, a democratic nobody. Checkmate?

A scary must read for those concerned about the country's future. If you feel the uneasy economic chill in the air, this book will explain why! If your city's industrial base is gone this book will explain why! If you are stuck in a minimum wage "temp" society this book will explain why! This book exposes the neo-con globalist fantasy for what it is...Free trade is not free! and Cheap labor is not cheap! Unfortunately this book does not explain why no one seems to care!!!!

I read Global Squeeze when it first came out. It's much more realistic than any others I've read since. (Future Perfect, Maestro, Independently Wealthy) I can see no hope for our middle class due to the job exports in all occupational categories. For the latest real world view read Business Week, Feb. 3, 2003, "The Global Job Shift."

We are in real trouble.

The book would better be titled "The First world squeeze", because if we go by the parameters of this book, what we find is a purely First world crisis.This crisis infact looks like a boon for the labour-cheap thirdworld or developing countries. But, combined with the on going hi-tech revolution, it could mean a elite class in the third world also. This is the sort of reality we find, as we observe the yawninig gap in the developing countries also, between its rich and poor. So, it looks like that the world's poor are being pitted agianst the rich and privileged few of the world more and more as the Globalization advances. Going by the present trend in polarisation of the classess world wide it looks-the day is not far off when the working class of the world would rise in unison, to deliver a death blow to the global capitalist system- as predicted by Karl Marx 150 years back.

As an Economics major in college, I found the book captivating. It shows the ways the emerging global market affects the first world nation's prosperity, stability, and confidence. The book also raises social responsibility and personal justice issues that will directly affect everyone within the next 30 years.

Fair disclosure: I was given this book by my mother-in-law; Harold Dick was her uncle. Nonetheless, while I have an indirect family connection, I think I can be objective enough to say that this is a great book.

First, Harold is clearly a lover of and believer in airships, even many years after his work with the Zeppelin company when he wrote this book. That comes through on every page.

But on top of the wonderful feelings that he conveys, there is also a lot of technical detail. Pressure ceiling, ballast, wind, valving hydrogen, gasoline vs another fuel, etc. But told in an interesting way.

And a lot of nice pictures...some are the ONLY pictures in existence of certain events.

Altogether a really great book for enthusiasts of aviation history.

As Goodyear's liason to the Zeppelin Company, Harold G. Dick had unprecedented access to the ships, the information, and the people who defined this "golden age." He speaks with authtority because he was there. He can relate unique statistics on the performance of the Hindenberg in trans-Atlantic flight because he flew as a officer/observer. He speaks about the personalities of Dr. Hugo Eckner, the chairman of Zeppelin, and his son Knut, because he enjoyed the friendship of both. He also touches upon the rise of the Nazi Party, since he was a direct witness to propoganda flights (and some more harrowing events). (His photographs of the damage sustained by the Hindenberg as it attempted to lift off on such a flight are unique; Nazi officials confiscated all others, but he managed to hide his film.) His access was unique, and so therefore is this book.

One of the best airship books written as the author was directly involved in all aspects of the zeppelin program. No book written so far exceeds this one in illuminating the operations and organization of the passenger airship effort. Pictures never before seen are included. The story is told in context with the political situation of the time. A must read book.

An excellent book that appropriately combines historical, technical, and personal detail.

Harold Dick wrote an enticing account of his time with the great airships. He had complete access to the entire program. They even let him assume flight control resposibilities. The right man was in the right place at the right time.

This is a very sweet, very cute story about a little girl trying to put all her stuffed animals and dolls (her "children", I suppose) to bed so she can sleep too.

It has that nice, repetitive structure children adore - she finds a toy, tells it that it's not time to whatever, it's time to go to bed!, and ends nicely with everybody tucked in and "Good Night".

The illustrations are very well done, in a style that looks more classic than it is.

The one concern you might have (I don't, but you might) is that it's one of those books that doesn't show parents. If you're creeped out by Max and Ruby, you might find this book a little odd too - the girl single-handedly takes on the parental role for herself and her toys.

Of course, if you don't overthink it too much, it's just a sweet, short little book.

My two month old son lights up every day when I read him this book. I don't know if it is the sense of fun in my voice as I read the words, or the charismatic characters, but I love it as much as he does. I wish there were real playthings that look as sweet and filled with life as the toys in this book do. There are also lots of wonderful extra things going on in the illustrations to pause for comment and speculation. I was hoping to find more work by this writer and illustrator combo, I will get Christmas is Coming.

Two other books my son loves so far are Baby Cakes by Karma Wilson and Sam Williams, and I am a Bunny by Richard Scarry.

I am looking for more books with friendly beautiful illustrations, and sing song writing that isn't too long or too short. I look through reviews hoping for trails to great books and music, I hope more readers who love this one will include some of their and their children's favorites here too.

Like Goodnight Moon, this book is about winding down and getting ready for bed. My toddler used to do the very same thing: gather up all her buddies, tuck them in, and say goodnight. Helps kids shut down for the night. That said, this book is ideal for bedtime, and would be a great gift for a toddler (AND their parents if it helps everyone get some sleep!)

My daughter got this book for Christmas (she was 3). She and her father read it every night and now she has it memorized. She "reads" it to us each night. The illustrations are very cozy, but the best part is the story. The text has a very soothing rhythm. Each page ends with "Silly ***, it's not time to ***, it's time to go to bed." I think that when my daughter repeats that phrase over and over, it helps to convince her that it's also time for her to go to bed. :-) After hearing it, I feel ready for bed myself! I think this is going to be one of those books that she's going to remember fondly as an adult, much the way I remember "Harold and the Purple Crayon" and "The 5 Chinese Brothers".

Again the author and illustrator has another awesome book, and I am happily looking forward to any others they put out!

This book is the same little girl and her stuffed animals that where in the book " Christmas is Coming". This book is special because it can be read all year around! And because instead of us parents rounding up our children for bed, the little girl in the book takes our place and finds all her stuffed & loved friends to join her in bed! It's just an adorable book, and one that is easy for 1st time or new readers and even children who can't read can look at the pictures and tell you what they see. What a treasure it is to have your child read you " their" version of this book! Also, watch the apple on her nightstand!

Hope you like this review and when you purchase this book you are pleased that you did!

If this is a tale oft told, I can think of no other than has been told so eloquently. The author's descriptions are as vivid as they are beautiful. Male or female, young or old, you will find this first work by M. H. Herlong touching and incisive. If the last portion of the book doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you are cold indeed. Add the information provided at the companion website [...] and you will double your pleasure.

The spectacular achievement of this book is that it shows dads what they look like to their teenage sons. It holds the mirror of your son's eyes right up close, where all the unflattering things show. Then it shows us that our sons love us anyway. I finished the book, wiped a way a tear -- something I almost never need to do -- and hugged my sons.

It is definitely a terrific sea yarn. Like all great books, it builds in some wise observations about life without being the least bit preachy. Perhaps that is because the wisdom comes through the voice of a fifteen-year old who, after struggling with dad, becomes the father figure through chance, or maybe through a choice (a question you will have to answer for yourself, Dad). There are also some sly allusions to Hemingway sea tales and to Hurricane Katrina (the author is from New Orleans), but maybe I just made that up.

Read the two-page prologue and you will be hooked. Give it to your son. Give it to your Dad. Read it with your son, or for your husband, or your brother. Sail in your son's boat (or your father, husband, or brother's boat) for a while.

This book captures the imagination both as a beautiful and harrowing adventure story and a drama of family loss. The aftermath of his mother's death challenges the narrator's relationship with his father. But when Ben confronts a life and death struggle at sea his bond to his young brothers becomes the focus of this gripping tale.

This incredible first novel is a gripping and extremely well told adventure tale that will keep you turning page after page. Though her vivid descriptions will have you feeling each toss and sway of the boat, you realize it is much more. Told through the eyes of the oldest son, it is a poignant story of a family coming to grips with a terrible loss and it is the bond between the father and his sons and the siblings with each other that will ultimately resound in your memory. This is a wonderful story of loss, love, perceived betrayal, and peace. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to future publications by Ms. Herlong.

As a fifth grade teacher, I find it difficult to find books that appeal to everyone in my class. I either please the girls, or the boys, and usually it's just the girls. Finally, I have found a book that all of my students enjoy. In fact, for the first time, both boys and girls are begging, "Don't stop. Please keep reading." I even have students begging to take it home so that they can find out what happens next. The Great Wide Sea, by M. H. Herlong, is spell-binding, (even for the adults)!

This was the best book! I've read it three times and the ending six! Carrie is the type of person who I would want to be, yet she struggles to find herself and to live up to her family name. Yet, through her path to self discovery, she realizes she hasn't lost the love she thought that she had.

THis was my second favorite book in the Hearts and Dreams series. I loved the character Carrie ! She was strong once she knew her own strenth and she could do anything! I hope that Ms. Cameron will write a new book for this wonderful series!I love reading historical romanaces and hope she will start a new series after she has completed the "Hearts and Dreams" !

Timid sixteen-year-old Carrie Kelly feels as though she lives in the shadows of her brave, independent, and courageous ancestors. She knows she'll never be as brave as her mother Stephanie, who found her true love after travelling to California during the Gold Rush. Carrie does fall in love, with handsome John Stapleton. But when Carrie's outgoing friend Jessica falls for John as well, Carrie knows she doesn't have a chance with him. But when the devestating fire of 1871 rages across Chicago, Carrie is separated from her parents. If she is going to survive and find her family again, she must reach within herself to find untapped depths of courage and strength that she never knew she had. Althought I wish that the Hearts and Dreams series could have continued beyond this book, I have no complaits about the book itself. It showed that you never know your own strength until you are tested, as evident in Carrie. I highly reccomend this to teens who like historical romances.

This book was one of the most interesting books that I've ever read. I absolutely love it. I have read it 3 times. If you liked the other books in this series, you'll love this book! Buy and read it today! I can't wait until the next book in the series comes out!

This book is really great! I've read all 4 of the books, and this is my favorite. It's about this shy girl,Carrie, who's always scared, sort of like chuckie on the rugrats. She meets this guy, and really likes him. His name is John Stapleton. All of Carrie's family is brave, her mom snuck on a boat, and followed the gold rush, just for the man she loved. This guy, John Stapleton, cares about other people,like the poor. But Carrie's friend, Jessica, who is VERY pretty, also likes John. This is the story of how carrie finds out who she is, and the story tells her life, and what happened to Carrie...
A great book, you have to read it!