C Books

Mike has a way of expressing lifes trials and tribulations. His book is very thought provoking in thinking about ones own spirituality...The land and ones connection to family. I highly recommend reading his book...it will help you gain insight on all levels of life. I have given his book as gifts to my friends and they too enjoyed it. The book was so good that I was disapointed when I came to the last page.

When you going to wright the next one Mike?

I read Mike Hurley's quarterly journal as long as it was published and was very disappointed when he discontinued it. This book has helped me forgive him. My favorite outdoor activity is wilderness canoeing and I have many, many books on this subject and the otdoor life in general. Mike combines a love for woods and waters with a love for the God who created it for us to enjoy. He is very strong on family and his writings weave together this love with the spiritual and outdoor aspects of his obvious interest. This book is absolutely a must read for those who love the things of creation.

I have long enjoyed Michael Hurley's quarterly journal, and I have always found his essays on life, family and faith particularly poignant. This is indeed a book that caries you to quiet places in your soul, to reflect upon the blesings of nature and our places in God's world. As a father, I found his essay "A Boy's Life" incredibly moving and meaningful. A highly recommended read for anyone who enjoys wilderness travel, but also for the serious and thoughtful reader who seeks to explore the deeper significance of our places, our legacies and our lives. I gave a copy to my pastor as a Christmas gift, and he loved it! This book is a quiet and peaceful place that you will want to visit again and again....

As a long times recipient of Michael Hurley's quarterly journal, I have taken great pleasure in revisiting the essays he has compiled in this book. His prose flows like the waters that pass beneath my own canoe. Anyone who escapes the stress of modern life by pointing the bow of a canoe toward the wilderness will also be overcome with a relaxing feeling while reading these essays.

Letters from the Woods: Looking at Life through the Window of Wilderness is a memoir consisting of thirty-one vignettes about life, faith, family, and the joy of experiencing the wilds. Written in the tradition of Thoreau's reflections, Letters from the Woods contemplates loving and obeying God as purpose of one's existence; the splendor of solitude; and the joy that comes from simplicity. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs, Letters from the Woods is a restful and inspirational insight into the beauty and wonder that is life itself.

Thoroughly enjoyable! The daily grind and politics of work-life are portrayed here in a very well-written and fun fashion.

Management By Vice is full of razor-sharp, satiric humor. You'll find no boring, longwinded analyses of the characters and the fictitious Company's history, though there is enough exposure of human nature to fill a work psychology manual! I like the way the book stays focused on a series of sprightly, humorous episodes, which show various aspects of interactions between managers and technical staff. I have seen and experienced them in the workplace for many years, so I fully agree that Management By Vice is in every way a true-to-life rendition of what takes place in many companies. The writing style is appealing too with witty, short verses that relect the content of each episode. Management By Vice is head and shoulders above the 1st grade reading primer level of many unrealistic, silly humor books about management and the workplace. The repartee between the characters, such as the managers and technical staff, is also very real and entertaining. What can be done about the less-than-satisfactory management described in The Company? Any bright reader will see this type of management must be replaced for the sake of The Company's survival. In fact, the

Most of the satiritical episodes in CB Don's book entitled " Management by Vice" are quite familiar scenes in both commercial and government settings. "Gettting ahead" at the expense of one's integrity as well as colleagues' future is the only means for some people. Greed often blinds ambitious management. A quick promotion and fat bonouses are the driving forces for these managers. Hence, short-term goals, say 3 to 5 years, are all thay care about at present, regardless of the future of the organization. Cooperation mergers are too common a way to survive and getting ahead than collisons on the highway, and lay-off is only a part of the evolutionary process, in the commercial world, where survival of those who are most vocal, but are deficient in both technical skills and vision, seems to be the rule. I thoroughly enjoyed reading CB Don's book. It is humorous, yet candid. I highly recommend it to the current managers and those who are old enough to drink....

Mr. R. K. MSc., Supervisory Civil Engineer, from Michigan, USA.
I find this to be a most delightful book. If you have ever worked in an office, design or R&D outfit, you can really relate to the adventures portrayed therein. I spent 35 years in the egg-laying part of the duck and found the barbed lampoons a titillating reflection of my own adventures. There's also a pleasant sprinkling of cartoons and verse the summarize each fo the 11 episodes. The heroine survives a cliffhanger for those of you that relish a bit of adventure. It's one of those "once you pick it up, you can't put it down" pieces that are a fast read and leave you satisfied like a good pastrami sandwich. For you managers, the Scots have an appropriate saying, "would some power the great giver give us to see ourselves as others see us". Give it a go!!

Its a sarcastic view of management from the point of R&D scientists. From the point of view of the R&D scientists you get to see some of the underhanded and self serving behavior of incompetent management at the fictional company and how it is tolerated by senior members of management. Unfortunately the book does not explore how "The Company" which was once an R&D powerhouse, got to be in this dysfunctional state. Also the book offers very little hope for dealing with a company in this type of state, short of the company being acquired or getting lucky and having unintended benefits during a passive/aggressive power struggle amongst management. If you were attracted to reading this book by the title "Management by Vice" I would recommend skipping this one and instead read The Below-the-Belt Manager by Eric Broder which I found to be more Humorous than this book.

THE MOMENTUM EFFECT - HOW TO IGNITE EXCEPTIONAL GROWTH covers all aspects of management, both external and internal, of a successful company sustaining high growth. It demonstrates how momentum powered firms significantly increase value for all stakeholders, including customers, employees and shareholders through the following eight steps:
* Momentum Design
o Compelling insights that can only come from time spent with customers;
o These insights lead to compelling values by understanding the deeper human drivers;
o Compelling values lead to power offers meaning power with customers and power to generate growth;
o Power offers generate customers with compelling equity maximizing the value of customers to the firm;
* Momentum Execution
o Power offers are continuously tweaked and improved until they become irresistible;
o The delivery of the power offer leads to superior customer satisfaction what the author calls vibrant satisfaction;
o Vibrant satisfaction leads to vibrant retention and
o Vibrant engagement of the customer. Momentum companies engage customers at an emotional level to generate positive, momentum-driven action.

Each of these eight essential components of momentum strategy are described in detail and richly illustrated by real life stories from momentum companies like Wal-Mart, BMW, Skype, Apple and IKEA, to name just a few. These momentum driving components allow you to systematically harness the powerful, sustainable energy that can take your firm to the new efficiency frontier, driving the exceptional growth that will propel you into a different league. Finally, the Momentum Effect is a never ending journey, not a destination.

Jean-Claude Larreche is professor at the renowned European management school INSEAD and a consultant with leading global corporations.

THE MOMENTUM EFFECT is a joy to read and a must read for anybody who needs to excel in today's competitive world. Kai Wenk-Wolff (MBA INSEAD) is a turn-around specialist for manufacturing operations.

This is a book that brought me an excellent and coherent view on so many concepts and principles in the area of marketing. From design to delivery, all consequent phases are clearly described with the use of many very interesting case studies from all over the world. The book provides an approach that you can use to build a so-called power offer, which is a superb customer offering to realize `exceptional growth' in your business. Of course, it doesn't guarantee that you will create extraordinary profits with your service or product, but it certainly gives you many handles to improve your product design, development, sales, after sales etc in a coherent and fresh new way. It connects all those elements as customer value, retention, pricing, emotions, distribution etc, without giving you the feeling that it opens doors that already are open.
The book is very easy to read; when you start, you want to proceed to the end. It is a book you want on your desktop so you can have a look at it regularly, read some pages and think them over. I had the honor of attending a course at INSEAD of Professor Larreché and was inspired by his lectures, but you can feel his enthusiasm and professionalism while reading the book.

When I first leafed through this book, I thought it was a novel. How else could one interpret the fact that tables, figures and diagrams are just a small part of only the 10% of its total pages! Authors of scientific, marketing and management books have not used us to such a minimalism. J.C. talks substance, not visuals. Even for this reason, this book is exceptionally impressive. This "nothing less than exceptional growth" book smells strong, innovative thinking. It's a book on business total philosophy rather than a simply marketing or management text. It provides a sharp anatomy of things, supposedly known in a business enterprise, with the result that bold substance is revealed. Doing things right is not enough for Larreche. One has to do things exceptionally right. "Very satisfied customers" is not enough. Delighted customers should be the basic purpose of any business. Superb, total value to customers is running throughout the book. More revenues for less relative marketing expenditures is to look for. Anything else does not provide proof of the existence of momentum in a business firm. Larreche, a recognized expert of marketing, emphasizes its customer value building wisdom, rather than its routine functional elements commented about and stressed in all common marketing texts. This book, as product, provides the customer with real super value. It has been some time since I read a real best seller to be!

Jean-Claude's energy and enthusiasm for his subject comes thru in his writing like in person with dynamic vocabulary that creates emotion. I think what I like the most about the Larreche approach is that he takes a very balanced view on this subject by focusing on individual and collective details and componenets to drive a business forward on a daily basis.

I liked alot the diagrams on momentum design and execution, the momentum business model, executions accelerate growth, the virtuous circle of internal momentum and the leaders galaxy plus desperados and champions.

A must read for Fortune 500 executives, investment bankers, management consultants and any Board of Director member.

I was struck by Jet Blue's 60% new customer word of mouth acquisition vs. 15% for ad campaigns. For the two comparative models the 642% profit differential also got my attention.

From the book cover of the stern of Jean-Claude's boat, the old adage "leaving your competitors in the dust" takes on a new meaning!

Ann Michele Worrall Paris/Atlanta

A lot of companies and agencies are pushing buzz words such as Customer Centric approach or Marketing 360°. The book from Jean-Claude Larreche is a great balance between strategy perspective and operational implications. It demonstrates that the success in creating value and momentum for growth is at the end of the day a cultural shift within companies. It offers a thinking platform and practical examples which are very useful to convince and address your customers and targets (internally and externally).

I strongly recommend this book for:
- Marketers who are looking for a holistic approach to review their customer focus strategy
- Consultants and agencies for reviewing their recommendations in light of what is driving success at the end of the day

I do not recommend this book for people who think that:
- They have the best product and brand in the world which is good enough to be sold by itself
- Decision makers for whom quarterly results is the main horizon for their strategy

I'm still working through the book but was pleased to FINALLY find an author whose style is clear without being boring. An enjoyable book which has already cleared up some confusion I had before. I have a couple of comments for other reviewers, though:
(1) The title is a play on words. It doesn't mean that the book is supposed to be
entirely about pointers, as a couple of reviewers seemed to think. I think its a great title! (2) The book IS expensive, probably because it is widely used as a textbook. Textbook publishers have been gouging students for years, and in this case it affects more than just university students. (I'm a prof myself.)

As before I bought this book I have problems about advance pointer like a pointer to function, array of pointer to function, pointer to structure or other topic like this. The author explain this topic very well.
By the way, the purpose of buying this book is to solve reading C language code on embedded linux which involve pointer and hardware. The author do not give enogh information about this topic.
However I still rate this book five stars for the topic Pointer on C.

This book is an excellent book on C for people who have previous programming experience. Although the title might be a little deceiving - does not cover just pointers - the author does dedicate the better part of the book discussing. The book has many excellent explanations that are not covered in books that I have read such as a whole chapter pertaining to lists (linked lists, and binary trees) using pointers. The main disadvantage is that the examples in the book are incomplete, thus you are not able to type them in and see the results. Beyond that disadvantage the book is great and offers answers to all the questions (on the website) which is something that I felt to be lacking on many books that I have read so far.

When programming in C you must use, love and own pointers. Look at the function templates for the standard C lib. What do these functions return? POINTERS! If you don't want to learn pointers, or think about solving problems using pointers, then please go drive a truck or program in Basic or some other half-wit language. C will frustrate you to tears if you insist on using subscripts. It's not how the language approaches problems.

I am having to use C# right now and want to gag. Any language that claims to be "C" but doesn't support pointers is an oxymoron. Have a glass of dry water while you try to swallowing that load of bull. Thanks MicroSlop for ruining two languages, Basic (who cares) and C, the language that built the computer revolution (punishable by death in a better world). Arrrghhh. Thanks Ken for a great book for the strong and the brave amongst us.

As others have noted, this book is exremely expensive. I was lucky enough to get a used copy for about half the retail price here on Amazon and I intend to keep it. I haven't read every book on C, so I may be ambitious to say this, but this is the best explanation of pointers I've read to date. The author doesn't assume anything and this is helpful when learning something as tricky as pointers for those new to the concept. The author explains concepts with clarity while being concise. I don't develop software for a living, but need to write the occasional program here and there. I thought this book accurately described the methodology of writing the most compact, yet readable code, for the problems presented. I'd reccommend this book despite the price. Those new to the C programming language won't be disappointed.

What makes this first volume great is that it doesn't start with Popeye's first appearance but weeks before. Really neat to see Thimble Theatre without Popeye in it. Makes me wanna see volumes of all pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre strips.
Segar showed himself a grade-A cartoonist even before the famous Sailor Man entered the picture :)

As much as I respect the old Fleicher Studios for producing some wonderful Popeye cartoons that became an integral part of establishing him as a worldwide phenomenon I think they did him no favor in moving him into an urban environment. Popeye is at his very best, as a sailor, adventuring on the open seas. Nobody wrote or drew Popeye like Elzie Segar. Unfortunately, Mr. Segar passed away at the very young age of 43 having created Popeye a mere 9 years earlier. So what we have here is over a year and a half of Popeye's absolute best run ever.

This is not the Popeye most people are used to. This is the Popeye that existed prior to being significantly toned down at the behest of William Randolph Hearst in response to the characters growing popularity. This Popeye is a violent, foul mouthed sailor with a serious gambling addiction. Few able bodied males outside of the diminutive Castor Oyl manage to gets through the book without receiving one of Popeye's famous haymakers and I have to give credit to Elzie Segar for his skill in drawing the most thunderous, teeth rattling punches in the history of comics. In the opening introduction there is a group drawing by Segar of a menagerie of characters from Thimble Theater including a most mild-mannered looking fellow named Johnny Doodle. I thought surely Mr. Doodle would be safe from Popeye's fists but sure as the sun rises in the east, before the book was through Johnny Doodle was left horizontal.

In one particularly funny sequence Popeye punches out a man for no apparent reason. When asked why, Popeye answers, "I don't need a reason... I socks `em where I sees `em, I leaves `em where I socks `em". Queried further Popeye responds, "I jus wanted to see which way he'd fall" and finally adds, "I likes to smack tall swabs on account of they fold up so nice" Later it turned out the man he socked was a crook but when it gets right down to it the humor of Popeye revolves around his burning desire to punch everyone he meets and Castor Oyl's vain attempt to control it. Popeye is a man who kills a horse with a single crushing blow. In volume one Popeye is arrested multiple times on assault charges and proudly proclaims, "I hits cops too - I hit's `em jus' like they was somebody else" In a sense the original Popeye seems almost like a parody of his future self.

I absolutely loved this book. A few reviewers complained about size of the images saying they caused eyestrain but I didn't have any problems at all. My biggest complaint is with the gigantic dimensions of the book. I would have preferred something similar to what was produced for the Dick Tracy or Peanuts collections. I also have to confess that the covers are absolutely bewildering. I'm not sure what the publisher was going for but I don't think it worked. I guess I also have to take issue with the introduction which really didn't do anything for me. In the end it's the brilliance of Elzie Segar's drawings and writing that makes this volume. I've already purchased volume 2 and intend to continue buying them as they are released.

Popeye shows up as a natural man. A flawed, older man who has lived a hard life. He is profligate and has low impulse control. He shoots craps whenever he has excess cash. He lies when convenient; but, deep down he is a decent guy who will give the shirt off his back to anyone that neds it. No wonder he was popular. Read these comics and reaqlize that people haven't changed all that much.

Simply one of the finest books I've purchased in recent memory. I own many of the earlier Fantagraphics-published Popeye books ("The Complete E.C. Segar Popeye" series) and this book is a far better product and value. I particularly applaud the removal of the sydicate-added titles and by-lines above the daily strips that were included in the above-mentioned books. Their omission makes for a smooth read. Much praise, also, for the far superior production and design on the book. And the fact that I can get all the material in six volumes including all the color Sundays as opposed to what was previously published in well over a dozen volumes almost twenty years ago? Sweet news, indeed.

I won't go into the brilliance and relevance of the book's content, others better qualified have and will do so here and elsewhere. This book and its forthcoming volumes are essential. I'm so pleased they finally did the material real justice.

Be sure to eat not only spinach but lots of carrots before tackling this one.

Even so, you'll likely need a magnifying glass to read these strips. Who's bright idea was it to cram six strips onto a 10.5 x 14-inch page? It made for some serious squinting when I checked this out at my local comic book store.

And at 10.5 x 14-plus inches, this book hardly makes for cozy reading material.

Bad book design and layout have made what could have been more accessible material a real chore. I like the dimensions of Tony Millionaires' Maakies books: one strip per page, and look ma! no squinting!

this was a decent book with a lot of good usuable information. It is a Must Read for anyone over 45 who has a poor diet and is over weight. It is written by medical doctors who are interested in healing the body-not just treating the symtoms. there are also many suppliments that they recommend that are available in most stores (unlike Kevin Trudeau who recommends product not even available in the U.S.)!! It was well worth the money and I strongly recommend it to any one who is concerned about heart disease.

I've had a heart attack. I want to take personal responsibility for my health and do all I can to prevent my experience from reoccurring. As I began recovery and started researching the why's of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), I found there was more I needed to know. Dr. Sinatra's book helped me understand how my body works and what I and my doctor can do to promote healing and restore my health. Dr. Sinatra's book is well written and chocked-full up-to-date information that the reader can use. The resources contained in this book are invaluable. There is hope. GW

Nice book especially the supplements section, such as vitamins, enzymes, etc...that is if you don't mind taking supplements instead of or in addition to standard medications.

Dr. Sinatra's book endorses traditional medicine's solutions to heart disease -- as a last resort! He believes there are many changes in diet and supplements that may help you avoid/postpone heart surgery. And he backs up his findings with research. Finally, a intelligent approach that lets the patient decide what's right for them.

I have been reading a lot of books on medical matters. The titles in general are always very promising but the content deceives from time to time. Not this time. This book is a must read for everybody, CVA-diseased people but even more for healthy people. I should recommend it also to every doctor. Not only in the States but certainly in Europe where medicine is based on treating the symptoms. That's old stuff. Prevention is what the population needs and that's what this book is all about.
A very sincere congratulation for the authors of this fantastic work.

Cute adventure/mystery featuring the watchmaker turned amateur sleuth mouse, Hermux Tantamoq. Very lively story with plenty of action, suspense, and humor. This would be a great read-aloud. Although obviously the second book in the series, it wasn't too difficult to jump right in and follow Hermux on his adventures. I didn't feel like I was missing too much by not reading the first one yet. Recommended.

This was a cool book about the watch fixing mouse, Hermux Tantamoq! It is the second in a series about him, but it's just as good as the first book(which doesn't happen very much)and I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It all starts when Mirrin Stentrill, puts on an artshow in the museum. When Mirrin was blind, she saw many visions and so when she recovered from her blindness, she decides to paint pictures of what she saw when she was blind. But it turns out that the pictures she paints are cats- a word no one likes to use in the city of mice and rodents. Then along comes Birch Tentintrotter, an old chipmunk, a friend of Hermux's father. He tells a secret to Hermux; a secret no one knows about, and about a map he had found in a library years ago. Birch believes that cats really did exist. To prove that, Hermux, Birch, and their friend, Linka Perflinger, set off on a journey to the Kingdom of Cats. On their journey, Hermux and his friends uncover the evidence that cats once had mice as slaves. Now, Hermux doesn't know if he's doing the right thing to find the whole truth about them.
Michael Hoeye describes all his characters and the scene very carefully and really well. I like the way he gives a personality to a character and he sticks with it. He doesn't mix Hermux and Mirrin's personality together. It's just Hermux. And it's just Mirrin.
I really enjoyed this book because of the great journey that Hermux and his friends went on. It was so exciting and I really loved how Michael Hoeye made me want to keep reading more and more!

Hermux Tantamoq, a distinguished mouse who lives in the heavily populated city of Pinchester, is sailing through life day in and day out, in his watchmaking shop, until one day, an old, weather worn chipmunk missing an ear stops by, says his name is Birch Tentintrotter, and he would like to speak to Mr. Tantamoq seinor. Hermux's father had passed away five months ago, and no friend of his from college would look like that old wreck!
Meanwhile, Hermux's friend Mirrin Stentril's first art show is causing tremendous uproar. She's been painting CATS!!! Everyone (the hamsters, mice, ferrets, squirrels etc.) knows they're not real, right? Well Hermux, Birch and aviatrix Linka Perflinger are out to prove those art critics wrong!
Michael Hoeye combines detail, vocabulary and suspense in this stunning sequel to Time Stops For No Mouse, proving never to overlook history, even if you are afraid.

Watchmaker-extraordinaire and resident cheese lover, Hermux Tantamoq, is in for the surprise of his life, when his good friend, Mirrin Stentrill, reveals the scandalous work being featured in her new art show: cats! After all, mice don't want to hear about cats, even if they never actually existed, and the entire town of Pinchester is up in arms over the showing. Then a long lost stranger known as Birch Tentintrotter, a chipmunk, visits Hermux and lets him in on a very important secret: cats DID exist, and Birch has the facts to prove it. So, on a split second decision, Birch, Hermux, and he lovely aviatrix, Linka Perflinger, set out to the desert to find the lost Kingdom of Cats. While there, Hermux learns many new things about the history of mice, things different than what he was taught as a child, and he begins wondering whether it is really necessary to bring these truths forward.

As a fan of the first Hermux Tantamoq novel, TIME STOPS FOR NO MOUSE, I knew that I had to check out Michael Hoeye's latest contribution to the series, THE SANDS OF TIME, and I was not at all disappointed. Young Hermux is as adorable as ever, in his quest to find out about the lost civilization known as cats; and his sidekicks, both new and old, are perfect. The wonderful story that has been crafted will delight readers of all ages, and keep them begging for more Tantamoq. A must have!

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

John Maxwell wrote a timely book on how to plan your life. No detail was left unturned in this book. John helps you define your purpose, where do you want to go, how far can you go, how do you get there from here! Then he helps you see your full potential by asking simple questions: What should you pack for your journey, how to handle detours, are you there yet. He than introduces the concept of helping others get to their dreams in route to your dreams. Is it a family trip, who else should be on the journey, and what should you do along the way! John than beautifully ties a bow on the book by asking what you like best about the trip.

This is a great book for planning the rest of your life. Again, I buy it by the case and give to everyone involved in any type of business! My way of helping others grow as I grow myself. A must read!

A popular leadership speaker and prolific author, John C. Maxwell has a great deal of experience in the process of personal growth, and he communicates it well. This book, published as The Success Journey in 1977, is a useful step-by-step guide to plotting your journey to success, right down to the thoughtful exercises at the end of each chapter. Maxwell does a nice job of mixing the personal and professional sides of success and encouraging you to redefine it. His definition is that success is following your true purpose and living up to your dreams and potential, rather than just accumulating wealth and possessions. The book is quite a fast read - probably because a good portion of it is devoted to quoting others - and its evangelical tone may not appeal to all readers. Maxwell also makes frequent use of catchphrases, which help fill a page but say little. We recommend this book to ambitious individuals looking for guidance on creating and following a workable, actionable life plan.

I am definitely a John Maxwell fan. This man is truly gifted and knows how to communicate so all can understand and benefit.This book was great but even better if read as a sequel. Don't get me wrong this is a stand alone book by itself but I am glad that I first read The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. The 21 Laws is much more dry and technical while this book is personal in its application. You will better understand the process by first knowing the driving principles.There are several excellent lists that are explained in detail but my favorite is entitled, "How to Take Others for a (Life Changing) Ride. #2 states to , "Limit Who You Take Along". This one explanation alone is worth the book. It should prevent burn out and minimize disappointments.Page 177 has a chart on communication styles and the results. He applies this not only to the business world but to the family unit as well.I particulary like the chapter, What Should I Pack in My Suitcase. This will help me redeem my "downtime" as I travel. This guy is a genius.

The Roadmap to Success is by far the best motivational book I have ever read. It was the first book that I have read by Maxwell, and since then I have read four others. He teaches us a new way to think about success. Clearly stated success is: knowing your purpose, growing to reach your potential, and sowing seeds to help others. It is amazing how much better you perform and how much more you enjoy life when you view success through this framework. If you have been successful so far in your life, this book will help reinforce any doubts you have about your choices and reaffirm the actions you have taken. If you are committed to growth and development then this book is a great start to helping you put aside your fears to get the most out of your life. If you are closed minded, resistant to change and generally a pessimistic person this book is not for you. While those people that continue to make excuses for their failures or the way their life turned out will never succeed, those who have the right mindset and follow Maxwell's advise will surely go far in life and reap the beiefits and joys of success.

The following is what I liked best:

The section on Goals
They MUST be activities that are: written, personal, specific, achievable, measurable, and time sensitive.

The Quotes:
"You can not make any progress when you are facing the wrong way." & the another one by Charles 'Tremendous' Jones who said "The only difference between the person you are today and who you will be in 5 years come from the books you read and the people you associate with."

The Benchmarking idea:
To attain success you should ONLY pick 3 to 5 areas to work on & grow in at one time.

The section on Choices:
In order to make progress it will involve 3 choices: to gain something, to lose something, or to trade something
and when you choose: pick the former rather than latter:
Achievement over affirmation
Excellence over acceptability
Personal growth over pleasure
Future potential over personal gain
Narrow focus over scattered interests
Significance over security

And finally the Laws on Developing others:
Take someone with you: "There is no success without a successor"

Rating: Strong Buy

Very good book to start reading about a people and a time that is hard to research and investigate.I think the author presented a very good account of the Sumerians and in a clear and concise manner.Excellent book!

An extremely rich series of tableaus of a fascinating cvilization in all its past glorious history. The author is a superb writer. And this book is a treasure...almost all the vital aspects of Sumer are depicted with bright colors:...religion...culture, way of life...society..ideology...history and fascinating stories..It is rich rich rich. No library on history and civilizations is complete without this book! Really a rare gem!!

Kramer provides a brief survey of the history of ancient Sumer. Even though this book is listed as archeology, he gleans most of his narrative from literary sources. It includes a history of the area from early dynastic times down to the time of Hammurabi, as well essays on Sumerian literature, education, religion, and so forth. Kramer writes very elegantly and includes a large collection of primary sources, making this book, despite its age, one of the best on its subject. On the other hand, it is a rather old book, and there are some subjects where Kramer's interpretations do not seem to have been accepted by more recent scholars, for instance his theories about Magan, Meluhha, and Dilmun. Despite this, his book is a good introduction to the history of Sumer, worthy of a read by anyone who is or thinks they might be interested in the subject.

Kramer, one time the world's leading Sumerian epigrapher, does a remarkable job here of clearly explaining concepts and developments to a nonspecialized reading audience. In this regard, I found much in this book about both the general mechanisms of writing as well as the actual inscriptions themselves to be extremely useful when I wrote my own book (Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq). It is a rare academic who can move between the writing of technical journal articles and of books for the educated lay public, something in which Kramer, regardless of how dated specialists may now find his work, excelled at.

The Sumerians is a very interesting book about ancient Mesopotamia and Sumerian civilisation.
One of biggest mysteries of the world is the development of human culture and civilisation, for many decades scholars believed that first writing system was invented in Egypt but excavation in Mesopotamia showed a different picture and tablets found in that area dated back to 3000 BC and recent excavation in Iran revealed tablets(proto Elamit found in Jiroft area) dated 200 years before Sumerian tablets.
The book gives a good insight to Sumerian daily life, Sumerian law,religion and Sumerian gods, mathematical school tablets(dated 2500 BC) which includes multiplications, squares, square roots, cubes
And many other amazing information about medicine(prescriptions to make herbal medicine) .
This is a very good book with lots of information and easy to read and
good value for money.

This series is great and this was another chapter in the ongoing story of Maturin and Aubrey. Their adventures are of another world and provide a great contrast to other books.

This entry in the Aubrey-Maturin seagoing saga was probably my least favorite that I've read so far in this series. My quibble was with the novel's plot, which was pretty thin and derivative of other action novels and movies. And Diana Villiers, Dr. Maturin's love, is starting to remind of the character of Irenee in The Forsythe Saga. Everyone is always talking about how fascinating she is, but darned if I can see why. On the plus side, as always O'Brian serves up amazing historical details and makes Jack and Stephen witty and real. And the on-going story of their lives advances to a very eye-opening and surprising ending. So you can bet I'll look forward to the next installment of this series.

The focus is on Stephen Maturin in this seventh installment of the Aubrey-Maturin series, which, though it isn't the best or most exciting of the first seven books, is still a ripping good read. Returning to England following their escapades in North America, Aubrey and Maturin try to settle into life at home -- Jack with his family and Stephen with his scientific pursuits -- but their pasts catch up with them, compelling them to join forces for a spur-of-the-moment mission to the Baltic. Will they succeed? Will they overcome the old problems that dog them? And just who is the surgeon's mate? Read this tale of spying, diplomacy, and (of course!) naval combat to find out.

Patrick O'Brian's scope of imagination is staggering. We are now into the seventh book in his series, and Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey and surgeon/naturalist/spy Stephen Maturin continue to find themselves in realistic-yet-dire circumstances of a personal, military, and intelligence nature. Through it all, these two characters never seem like invincible juggernauts, but instead very human, very capable men living by the best their wits and luck can offer.

At the outset of the novel, Aubrey and Maturin need to flee the New World for the old, but find themselves hard-pressed to do so. Thanks to Dr. Maturin's single-handed destruction of French spy networks in Boston (including a wee bit of murder), a wealthy intelligence figure hires ships to track down the fleeing Maturin. The result is a thrilling chase off Nova Scotia and the nearby waters - while I prefer Aubrey's sinking of the Dutch 74 the Waakzamheid in "Desolation Island," this chase is one of the most thrilling in the series so far.

And the joys of this novel don't stop there. O'Brian once again finds various ways to inject humor into his novel. Dr. Maturin hits a personal and professional high (as a naturalist) when he gets the chance to address a body of learned scientists in Paris . . . only to bungle the presentation horribly. Aubrey allows himself to be seduced by a wanton woman while celebrating his escape from the jail in Boston, and is confronted with news of the natural biological result of such a transgression. Maturin and Aubrey are accompanied on many of their adventures in "SM" by the Swedish captain Jagiello, a supremely attractive young man, and Aubrey finds himself at a loss as to why the women fall all over themselves for this young buck when they could have a sailor "with the handsomest set of whiskers in the fleet." There are joys in this novel that you just don't find in most swashbuckling thrillers.

But at its heart, "SM" is an adventure yarn, and O'Brian does not disappoint. In a story that sweeps from the New World to Paris to Denmark to the infamous Temple Prison back in France, Aubrey and Maturin find themselves thrown from one pan into another fire. And God bless them for it!

Confession time. THE SURGEON'S MATE is the fifth book in the "Aubrey/Maturin Series" of seafaring novels that I have completed; however, it is the seventh book in the logical series order. Having subscribed to receive the entire series, I began reading the books in the order that they arrived, assuming that the publisher would send them in proper sequence. Such turns out not to have been the case, and some of my discontent with other volumes I have reviewed derived from the fact that I had missed some events because of reading the books out of order. Allow my experience to stand as evidence that, for maximum enjoyment and even comprehension, these books should be approached in their logical sequence.

I have now edited those earlier reviews to correct any misstatements as to the books' places in the sequence of novels and have removed comments pertaining to missing events that actually were addressed in preceding volumes. Nonetheless, I find that my overall assessments of the books remain unaltered. I feel that Richard Russ (Patrick O'Brian's real name) is essentially a "three star" author. When he writes of naval engagements aboard men-of-war, sloops, frigates, and the other fighting ships whose maneuvering capabilities are largely at the whim of the prevailing winds, he is a most engaging author. However, when he delves into the interpersonal relationships of his characters, he is less successful in engaging his readers.

Two other continuing weaknesses in Russ' writing are his heavy use of now-archaic seafaring terminology that often clouds the meaning of the passage and his frustrating lack of time transitions. The first problem could have been alleviated by judicious use of explanatory footnotes. The latter could have been corrected by use of transitional commentary. As it is, however, in one sentence, the captain may call for one of his officers, and in the very next sentence he is speaking to that officer. It is as though a time warp has occurred and the officer has materialized next to his captain at the very moment he is called for. This annoying truncation of time appears in each of the five volumes I have read thus far, and I fear it is a weakness to which the author is blind and may well continue throughout the series.

By itself, THE SURGEON'S MATE, while subject to the general criticisms I have mentioned, is, by and large, readable and engaging. Is Russ/O'Brian improving as he writes additional volumes, or am I becoming accustomed to his style and more accepting of it? In either event, I found this volume a much faster and more intriguing read than some of the others I have already encountered. The single most perplexing thing about this book is its title. There is no focus on any "surgeon's mate" whatsoever, and where Russ/O'Brian found his inspiration for the title remains a murky mystery! (Some reviewers have identified the title as referring to the character of Dr. Stephen Maturin; however, he has hitherto been described as being much more than a naval surgeon, being a skilled physician while a naval surgeon was essentially limited to chopping off shattered limbs. If this is indeed Russ/O'Brian's intent, then his choice of title essentially demotes Maturin from his former position, which is not, I think, the author's intent.)

If, gentle reader, you are determined to read the entire Aubrey-Maturin series of novels, you will certainly not want to miss this one. However, you will perhaps enjoy it most if you have read the preceding six volumes first. On the other hand, if one is interested in merely sampling Russ/O'Brian's work, this would not be a bad example to choose, although I would still suggest reading at least the first work, MASTER AND COMMANDER, before delving into any of the succeeding books, including this one.