Bradley Books

For a long time, I have enjoyed romance fiction. Recently, I've developed an interest in historical subjects, and Jean Burr Bradley's Shamrock Green brought these two loves together. Her characters are real and vivid, and the plot moves rapidly. There is never a lull in the novel. I was so involved in the story until I felt like I was walking along the streets in New Orleans with a voodoo curse plaguing me and powerful men trying to run me out of town. But my knight in shining armor comes to my rescue willing to put his station in life and wealth on the line for a beautiful servant girl. I highly recommend this book.

i am seventeen and i read this book and was amazed by it. i paaed on to fellow friends and they thought that it had much time and effort put into creating a great story.

It's a great read, one of those books you can't put down, cuz you can't believe what just happened, and you want to see what kind of chaos it causes, total roller coaster ride. Enjoy!!!!

This book continually moves and keeps you guessing. The main character Danya is definitely a fighter. The fact that you couldn't predict most of the twist and turns made this an enjoyable read. For one moment I thought I was going to be real upset with Ms. Bradley when Danya's love life took an unexpected twist, but she came through for me. Shattered Illusions is a page turner and a great read.

Brad Schultz has done a commendable job on providing direction for people seeking a career in sports journalism. This book is thorough in covering the material. The opening chapters include background on the history of broadcasting itself, while later sections focus more on the theme of the book, sports broadcasting. It concludes with profiles of successful sports journalists who created the paradigm in place today, and the very last chapter takes a look at the future through the eyes of the commissioners of the professional sports leagues.

Schultz's writing style is easy to follow. In fact, he practices what he advocates, i.e., basic writing skills come from effective readers. You can tell from his work that he is well-read. He includes the international, national, and local career options in his discussion. Historically he lists what he considers to be milestones in the development of the profession in the United States. I highly recommend this book. It is well-researched and comprehensive.

Anyone interesting in becoming a sports broadcaster should buy this book. Schultz does an excellent job describing the 'real' workings of sportcasting. He describes both the role of talent along with the vital workings of production. I would highly recommend this book to any broadcast writing professor.

A good read, hits on all of the high points, and reinforces much about the way the industry is changing in the 21st century. I use this for my sports journalism class at Emerson College in Boston.

I am a Professor at Valparaiso University and will be adopting Sports Media as the new textbook for our Sports Journalism class. Many people think of a Sports Journalism class as an easy A or a blowoff class and this book helps dispel those notions right off the bat. Former textbooks we've used were almost cartoonish and went along with the aforementioned perceptions.

In Sports Media, Schultz makes it a point to educate without fluff. Absent from this book are long biographies about famous sports broadcasters that can be found on the Internet, and it it's place is dedication to the Internet itself as a sports medium.

The first chapters discuss Reporting and the difference in how to do it between Print and Broadcast as well as the Internet. Then the book goes into the Visualizaton of sports. Most anchors that start out in small markets will be shooting their own stories as well as editing them and the book discusses techniques and includes a CD-ROM.

Other important topics covered that other texts have not are the Ethics of reporting, the Economics and how to work with Media Relations.

The final chapter could be the most important as it discusses how to get a job. This is the goal for college students and the text provides excellent advice.

I recommend the book for Professors as well as anyone who wants a better knowledge in not just sports broadcasting, but all parts of sports media.

"Temutma" is a little gem of a horror novel from Hong Kong that most readers would unfortunately never have heard of. It is quite possibly the BEST vampire novel I've ever read since Dracula (take that, Anne Rice) - and I say this not because of Temutma's literary merits, but because of its frenetic pacing and the atmosphere of sheer terror that it evokes. Set in Hong Kong in the early 1990s, an ancient horror awakens deep within the catacombs of Kowloon's famed Walled City. A series of grotesque murders are committed on one single night, leaving the Hong Kong police completely baffled. The murders are seemingly unrelated; but for the fact that the crime scenes all fall on a direct line of sight beginning from the Kowloon Walled City, across the narrow strait separating Kowloon from Hong Kong island, to the Bank of China building, and finally ending at a luxury home at the Peak. All victims had been drained completely dry of blood. Even more strangely, one of the first victims had been seen following a subsequent victim hours after he supposedly died, according to forensics. As the chief investigating officer, Superintendent Michael Scott of the Royal Hong Kong Police, delves deeper into the mystery, little does he know that he will soon come face to face with a being more ancient and powerful than he could ever imagine - an amoral being whose only instinct is to satisfy his own bloodlust. Rebecca Bradley and Stewart Sloan successfully weave Chinese superstition with vampiric lore into a melange of fear and action so thick one could almost imagine watching the story unfold in a Cineplex with full DTS surround sound. The characters are believable, the action is evenly paced, and the horror is conveyed though a finely-balanced mixture of suspense and gore. Temutma, the eponymous vampire, is a creature so believably alien, repulsive and evil - and yet strangely compelling. There is none of that vampiric angst, the likes of which authors like Anne Rice are so fond of, to be found anywhere in this book. Here, at last, is a creature that stalks, tortures, kills and inflicts pain simply because it is what it does - much like the way a cat hunts for, and plays with, its prey purely out of instinct, the way all cats do. Five stars and two thumbs up!

For some reason, Amazon's listing fails to mention that this edition is translated into German. If you're looking for the original English edition, it's the one published by Asia 2000 (also listed on Amazon).

I'm a history buff who recently moved to Falls Church, so finding this book was a real treasure, and it's brought the local history alive in ways that tours and historical markers rarely do. It's lavishly illustrated, and the text is engrossing.

If there's one thing that I kept wishing for when reading this, it was for more maps. There are modern street maps of the greater Falls Church metro area, as well as some fascinating historical ones. A topographical map, showing what the area looked like at the time (especially because of later leveling of Munson's Hill), would have been useful. And the narrative would have been greatly improved by maps that showed the changes in camps, pickets, troop movements, and so forth, especially over time (such as in the back-and-forth during 1861). Perhaps this level of detail wouldn't be of much interest to non-locals, but I frequently had to turn to the Web or other books to look up where some of the mentioned places were. I don't think that the cost of adding maps would have been prohibitive, since there are already plates on almost every page.

All told, this was a book of surprising depth and richness for a town that's not well-known outside of the D.C. area, and whose part in the Civil War warrants little more than a passing mention in more comprehensive books about the war.

It is surprising to think a subject as well-covered as the Civil War could be brought to life with a treasure of facts and personalities as is uncovered in Falls Church, Virginia: A Virginia Village Goes to War. Authored by Falls Church historian and researcher Brad Gernand, the book is full of detailed stories, photographs, and other artwork revealing the difficulties faced by a northern Virginia community resulting from the competition between North and South for the hearts and minds of local residents, along with the back-and-forth of Union and Confederate troops competing for military control of geographic vantage points. As a potential gateway to Washington, the village of Falls Church has not received a great deal of focus in the Civil War context. Logically, as history has detailed the great battles of the War, this work moves into some of the intrigue that surrounded the Capital City. It is an entertaining read, based largely on the personal research of the author who I understand has written other books on the region.

I lost my husband Aug 21,08. He was on a motorcycle and someone had ran thru a red light striking him. Married for a short 29 years. I never knew such pain existed. I desperately needed help coping with my loss. I was surrounded by my loved ones, yet felt so lonesome and isolated. I wanted to curl up in bed and fade away...my daugher wasn't allowing it. She bought me this book. I started reading right away, I was looking for comfort from any source I could get my hands on. June's book showed me I was not alone in these feelings. I was amazed at how everything she felt, I was, and am now still feeling. If you have have lost your husband, or know someone who has, I would strongly, strongly recommend this book. I was sad when the book came to an end. A friend who also lost her husband once told me, "it doesn't get better, but it does get easier." With the help of my grief counseling as well as a book such as this, from someone who has walked in my shoes, I am finding comfort and strength to move forward.

Tolstoy said that happy marriages were all alike, but unhappy marriages were each unhappy in their own way. The grief felt at the loss of a significant other in one's life is always personal and unique in one sense, but it is also universal. In her book, WALK IN MY SHOES: Living with Grief, June Stout Bradley shares the first year of the loss of her beloved husband in a way that has relevance for anyone who has lost a loved one.
After the gathering of friends and family a widow is inevitably left o her own resources as others return to their busy lives. She shared the ambiguity of wanting to be left alone with her grief and feeling abandoned at the same time. Whatever life one has had is irrevocably shattered. This is her personal account of the rebuilding that must be undertaken at a time when one feels the least able to summon the strength and stamina to start life anew.
This is not a book of lists of how to do things, or advice on what to do. It's like sitting down with a friend who has been in an experience ahead of you and knows what you are going through. A friend who offers you the assurance that you will make it. A voice that says, "I know. I know.", when no one else really seems to understand. And in her overcoming, many will find help in making the small steps day to day that accumulate in healing.

Quickly, quickly! That is the focus of this book. The authors seem to be aiming this at someone (you) who needs to solve a problem now, without having to spend hours wading through the official manual. So Hatfield and Jones set out to find problems ("tasks" as the book terms these) that could be solved in 10 steps or less. Obviously, by the way, this is a user's manual, not a programmer's manual.

This constraint of 10 steps is broad enough for them to offer solutions to a gamut of common problems. Like copying a song from your music CD to your computer's hard disk. Many users have probably fumbled through the XP manual for this answer. Here, it is task 79. In fact, in recognition of the importance of music, some 14 tasks are grouped together that deal with music related problems.

Perhaps if you are still unsure about this book, try glancing at the contents. It lists 261 tasks, each with a very descriptive subject line. Care has clearly gone into the wording of these.

This is a great book to read from beginning to end or to have sitting next to your computer if you are running Windows XP. This book presents information on over 250 different tasks that you will find yourself wanting to do with Windows XP. Even better, it presents these tasks in very easy to follow steps. Some of the things that you can learn to do using this book include:

- set up your computer to work with the internet or a network
- clear your internet history files
- remove the temporary files created when you surf the web.
- set blocks on what web sites kids on your computer can see.
- Set up different backgrounds and resolutions for different users or accounts on your computer
- learn to create movies, audio CDs, and other multimedia programs.
- create a screen saver with your own pictures
- resize, crop and change your pictures
- add and removing passwords
- change the standard fonts used by Windows
- add or remove programs correctly
- Much more.

Even if you've been using Windows XP for a while, you should find some new tips and tricks in this book.

Are you a systems administrator? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Dave Kleiman, Laura Hunter, Mahesh Satyanarayana, Kimon Andreou, Nancy G Altholz, Lawrence Abrams, Darren Windham, Tony Bradley and Brian Barber, have done an outstanding job of writing a book about the Winternals and Sysinternal tools in real-world situations that administrators can and will face on a daily basis.

Kleiman, Hunter, Satyanarayana, Andreou, Altholz, Abrams, Windham, Bradley and Barber, begin by showing you how to use Process Explorer and Autoruns to spot and eliminate malware autostarts, services, drivers, and processes. Then, the authors describe in detail, the tools developed by Sysinternals to illustrate this sort of advanced information and explain how to use them. Next, they show you how to use Sysinternals tools to monitor active sessions on a computer and how to discover which processes are accessing which resources. They also show you a better way to manage disk and file fragmentation on your volumes. The authors then continue by examining the data recovery tools made available to you by the Winternals team. Then, they show you how to make sense of the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Next, the authors show you how to monitor active socket connections. They also examine a few tools provided by the Winternals group that any software developer would find useful. The authors continue by discussing the available source code. Then, they cover topics ranging from advanced system optimization, to options available in a multiboot system with various versions of Windows, to data recovery for NT. Finally, the authors show you how to use screensaver with a perverted twist to it.

This most excellent book will show you how to bring dead systems back to life through the use of Winternals. Perhaps more importantly, Winternals software is capable of doing much more than that!

I starting looking at Winternals shortly after Microsoft acquired the Winternals company. I almost didn't read the book, because I do not use the commercial Winternals tools. When I saw the book covered tools available from Sysinternals, I decided to concentrate on information relevant to me. I'm glad I did -- Winternals is a remarkably helpful book.

The most surprising aspect of Winternals is the focus on malware detection and removal. I expected the book to basically explain the tools and their options. I did not imagine the authors would provide multiple examples of fighting malware with Sysinternals utilities. Some of the discussion of kernel-mode rootkit removal is a little naive and outdated, given recent advances in the field. However, I really liked seeing more-or-less real-world examples of proper tool usage.

My concerns with Winternals are the same ones I usually express when I read a book by multiple authors: internal redundancy. Ten authors and one technical editor wrote Winternals. As a result, the Windows registry is "introduced" several times in the book. The same goes for popular tools like FileMon, RegMon, and PsList. Removing these redundancies is the job of the lead author or editor. Since Winternals seems to feature neither party, the book is internally redundant.

In some cases I felt introductory material wasn't necessary. For example, I didn't need ot read about DNS and Whois in Ch 8. I imagine most people reading Winternals already know how those protocols work.

Minor problems include appearances of odd text formatting and some screenshots being too small to really decipher. I didn't see many obvious typos, although the mention of "Syng set" on p 334 should say "SYN sent."

Despite these issues, I liked reading Winternals. Windows-centric security analysts, incident responders, and desktop engineers who are beginning to use Sysinternals and Winternals tools will find this book invaluable.

This book is in the same vein as the other Avalon books, with some compelling characters and an interesting opera adaption for the plot. On the whole, however, I was disappointed with the quality of the book. While some sections were fine, there were some that are simply the result of bad editing and poor writing. The initial passages of the book in particular seem overly contrived. Thankfully, the book improves the further the story progresses. If you like Marion Zimmer Bradley, you will likely enjoy this, but if you're new to her, start off with a better example of her work.

While I knew that Marion Zimmer Bradley also wrote the famous (and yet still unread by this reviewer) "Mists of Avalon", I was pretty sure that this book was a standalone when I read it. And it certainly felt like one! Good to know I picked a "prequel" and not a sequel.

"The Forest House" is a really nicely written fantasy/romance sort of novel. It's got this thick, intriguing plot. The plot is pretty complex as are some of the characters (some remain woefully flat throughout the book). I found that while it's not a literary masterpiece, it's certainly an enjoyable read.

What I liked least of all in "The Forest House" was the ending. While dramatic and impressive, I felt that one of the character's behavior was pretty... inappropriate and weird. On the whole, though, the story is cool. It's this big tale of powerful women, goddesses, rituals, and British/Roman politics. There are some cool bits of historical fiction, some neat fantastical parts, but mostly a romance, ethereal sort of tale. It's well-written and descriptive, full of clear images and really creates a good mood.

In the end, it's an enjoyable read. There are flaws in the book, for example among the characters, but despite that and things like the rambling length, it's a nice read. I can't compare it to "The Mists of Avalon", which I haven't read, but as a standalone it's pretty good.

Recommended to fantasy/romance fans who like thick books to disappear in.

Again, too dull to finish. Perhaps it has something to do with it trying to connect to The Mists of Avalon, but being completely different, and just two characters that have been created to have a romance, a Roman, and one of the priestesses of the local religion. If you like that sort of Tristan and Isolde thing, then this may well be for you.

Marion Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67. Writing for over 4 decades, she is best known for her Darkover science fantasy series and her Arthurian masterpiece, The Mists of Avalon. She also edited anthologies for 14 years and published Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine.

She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack.

This is the3 second book in the Avalon series and follows the best selling Mists of Avalon. Inside the wall of the Forest House in a remote part of of Britain, a secret sect of Druidic priestesses guards the ancient rites of learning, healing and magic against the onslaught of the Roman army. Nothing has ever been able to stop the might of Rome's legions, will a few women be any more successful?

It really could have been good. The story was very interesting. Unfortunately:

1. It was poorly written. SO many sentences did not make sense. I would have to go back and read and reread. It seems like she was trying to make it more wordy than it needed to be.

2. The characters were not developed. Except for Caillean. So I ended up with basically no attachment to the main characters. Was it really necessary to spend a few chapters on Gaius' career when we don't know jack about most other things in the book?

3. It seems like chapters are missing. This book should have been longer or had a bunch of half-finished plots left out. Like the ending. It seems like the ending was on fast forward. You might as well read Cliff Notes. I felt the same way about the end of Mists, too, but this was worse.

4. Can't somone just write a book that is "pagan friendly" yet not all about rape and torture and sacrifice? All these books are doing is making me hate the Romans and Christians of the time and leaving me with a sense of despair. I just want one book where they weren't all shown as heathen sacrificers and the Christians show them how to be civilized, "good people".