Bruno Books

The second of a four-part series, "The Pact With Bruno" is David O' Neal's novel of wealth, family and revenge. "Pact" continues the adventures of Doug Carlson from the first book, "What Goes Around," and the decisions that entrench him firmly in mob boss Bruno Sebastino's tight-knit family. O'Neal again illustrates how, when faced with the "no win" scenario, often the choice is simply survival. This story addresses the idea that cops can become immune to the very laws they represent. So hold on to your seats, breathe in . . . and hang on for a wild ride . . . as the saga continues . . .

I had high hopes for this little book. I currently read about 100 books a year (and particularly enjoy mafia/underworld stories) but this one lacked...well...just about everything. The plot, though largely well-conceived, was interrupted incessantly with meaningless flashbacks. Otherwise powerful scenes became limp with annoying character daydreaming. Not only was there an abundance of typos (probably publisher's error) but the strange use of italics and punctuation frequently distracted this reader. And pacing was irregular: the novel's sense of "time" varied from paragraph to paragraph; the story bumped along. But perhaps the biggest disappointment was the writing itself. I found no voice in the book. Instead, choppy phrases and trite descriptions ("Mama's tired eyes lingered and drank the shared love her men demonstrated for one another") left me searching for writing skills. So I wasted a little time. Big deal. I learn something every day.

David O'Neal has a unique way of taking a great character, Doug Carlson, and sending him on another, and even greater, adventure. Carlson is a more three-dimensional "Dirk Pitt," of Cussler fame, but just as gutsy and demonstrates that he can match wits with an array of very interesting characters. I can't wait until the next O'Neal book!

Reading for pleasure allows a person not to worry about facts, figures or other distracting information. All you need do is sink into the story and enjoy yourself. If it's a good one, time passes quickly. I started "The Pact With Bruno", remember noticing that I was on page fifteen, then in the blink of an eye, it seemed, I had finished the book. That's how good it is; better I think than the first Doug Carlson novel. David O'Neal still has the same sparse, smooth style but this second novel gives us a deeper insight into the motivations of his characters. A very good book.

The Pact With Bruno weaves a web of excitement, breathless anticipation, and heart-rendering emotion. The words followed one another in spell-binding anticipation, as I read page after page, chapter after chapter, until the very last word of the novel concluded the end of The Pact With Bruno.

For those readers familiar with Science in Action, Bruno Latour may not at first strike one as the ideal candidate to sort out the most pressing philosophical issues about human cultures. But that is exactly what this slim, easy to follow volume does: it sorts them out. Latour posits that our "modern" society (and this is taken as Western and/or industrialized society) is based upon a series of paradoxes whereby both nature and society are "constructed" (by humans) and at the same time "transcendent." This contradiction enables us to, among other things, appropriate huge chunks of the natural into the social without giving it so much as a thought because the "modern constitution" of our thought effectively prevents it. Nature can both intervene in society (e.g. by being transformed into manufactured items) and remain distinct, pristinely "natural." Through a series of carefully argued comparisons and contrasts between the "modern consistution," the "non-modern constitution," and (of course) the "postmodern constitution" Latour offers a way for Western society to achieve a responsible relationship to nature and society through a reconsideration of the affects of, for example, the implementation of a new technology on both the natural and the social. The many graphic illustrations and charts serve to provide visual explanations for his argument. I never would have ventured into this text without them. Regardless of your background or ideological leanings, be prepared to be challenged by We Have Never Been Modern in two areas. First, Latour is not shy about employing specific terms where he deems necessary, and that is absolutely everywhere. Many of the neologisms I have found quite helpful, but the reader's attention must never waver when they are trotted out. Furthermore, you should be prepared to follow Latour wherever he may list, in particular into the history of the vacuum pump. The second major area of challenge is in the nature of his solution to the modern quandary, what he terms "The parliament of things." This arrangement of otherwise distinct and dispersed voices from and about the same "quasi-object" will require major compromises all around. It is hard enough to give a voice to indigenous populations, Latour wishes to enlist others (even scientists!) to speak on behalf of the trees. The price is hefty, but well worth the money, the wait and the effort of what, in the main, is an exhilirating read.

I'd like to think I'm not a dummy, but this was hard to read. It looks to me like the book was translated to English by someone who might know more about Anthropology than written communication. There were times when I felt that maybe it had been run through Babblefish.

Dissing of the translator aside, the author assumes the reader is completely knowlegable of all the apparently pretty divisions and differences in opinions between one group of scientists and another. Man I could care less, unless it leads to an advancement of a science, and I wasn't convinced. But maybe because I didn't care.

There were times where I felt that a greater service would have been done if the soap opera would have been skipped.

That said, the book contains some insightful and thought provoking ideas on how societies view each other and themselves. I found some concepts a powerful catalyst in my design efforts.

i loved this book: it questions the idea of repeatability, which means that it questions the religion of science (as practiced by amateurs)and it shows you how language has served the impulse towards duplicity. the book also has a certain tongue-in-cheek wit about it, and that makes the ideas more interesting to read.

i can see where latour would make people nervous if they were fully invested in a point of view not fully understood. but, until the government takes down the bill of rights, diversity in thinking is still allowed and maybe even encouraged.

enjoy this book. it is fun.

For this reader, Bruno Latour's book is one of the most ambitious, original, and important reformulations of social theory since 1989. It is getting lots of attention among scholars, and deserves a wider public. The press reviews here don't do this book justice.

Latour, for those of you who don't know him, has been at the forefront of the emerging field of "science studies", the history and sociology of science, for the past 15 years. He's also a rather bizarre fellow. His "Aramis" is a book of real sociology that is told in the form of a novel, in which the metro car of a failed Parisian public transportation project becomes one of a series of narrators. In "We Have Never Been Modern," he conscisely summarizes the theoretical basis of his work, and stakes out ground that is genuinely new. The book should excite humanisitic academics, scientists, and intellectually adventurous people from all walks of life with a taste for theory.

The thesis -- the basis for the "we have never been modern" part -- is that the "great divide" between nature and human, subject and object, science and society, was never real. Instead, he says, this subject/object divide was the great dirty fiction of the "modern" world.

To give you the gist of the argument as briefly as possible: the separation of nature and human, that has marked Western intellectual life since the 17th century, allowed both science and the humanities to make their own claims for absolute truth. This divide was the basis for our image of "modern western man."

But these claims hid the fact that "hybrids" were springing up all the while. Modernity also spawned technological "quasi-objects" that blur the line between the natural and the human. The tremendous multiplication of these "quasi-objects" (Latour's neologism)in our times has finally forced us to the point where we are at a startling conclusion: the divorce of man from nature never really took place.

What we thought of as scientific Western man was never real. Latour wants us, the generation left with the consequences of this revelation, to exhume this past of hybridity, and seek out a new relationship between nature and culture. In short, he wants to both humanize science and render the humanities more scientific.

This brief bastardization does not do justice to the work. Latour elegantly and convincingly lays out his thesis, and the results are dazzling and compelling. He's also sharp and witty, and fans of the like of Baudrillard and Derrida will see their idols tossed about a bit.

On the other hand, the book is immensely ambitious in its theoretical claims, and has a tendency to pretend that complex and difficult ideas are obvious truth. One wonders at times if he is practicing the French intellectual's habit of making our heads spin for the sheer thrill of watching the confusion. But he's not, and most readers, I think, will finish the book that Latour is ultimately both a sensible man and a humane one.

As a graduate student in the humanities, I know that this book is getting a growing audience in academia. I hope that some non-academic visitors to amazon.com (especially science buffs who enjoy the likes of Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennet) will treat themselves to this intellectual adventure. It's a truly original book, not much over 100 pages, reasonably priced, and well worth the experience.

Anglophone readers probably don't realise that Latour meant this book as a tongue-in-cheek exercise to capture the postmodern social theory market in his own country by using a postmodern style to show what an illusion postmodernism has always been. But, as fate would have it, when someone sneezes in Paris, an Anglophone is felled with pneumonia. It's hard to believe that anyone with a firm grasp of the history of the last 250 years of Western culture would find this book anything more than a diversion worthy of maybe a couple of arguments in the pub. It's telling that historians of science, who are really the people who are in a position to hold Latour accountable to anything he says here, have given the book a chilly reception. Classify this one under 'Pseud's Corner'.

As a crime historian, I treasure author Celeste Morello's two volumes on the early Philadelphia mob. As a reader, however, I was a bit disappointed. Morello appears to be a far better historian/researcher than she is a writer. She apparently had difficulty weaving an overabundance of facts into a coherent story. Accounts of underworld incidents often interrupt other accounts or character descriptions.
While those aspects of the books diminish the reading experience somewhat, they barely put a dent in the author's overall achievement. Morello seems to have a rare understanding of the Sicilian psyche and illustrates the importance of old-country rivalries in making sense of underworld conflicts.
Due to her willingness to tap into records neglected by other researchers, to her critical eye, and to her grasp of Sicilian tradition, the two volumes of Before Bruno contain a wealth of information that won't be found elsewhere.

The author must be given a lot of credit for doing the research and bringing to light this negelected subject. This is the only book ever published that deals with the early days of the Mafia in Philly. Therefore it is essential reading for any serious students of the subject. However, the author's style of writing is bland and lifeless. She manages to transform a tremendously interesting subject into a dull and almost sterile story. Hopefully books number 2 and 3 are more exciting.

I thought that this was a wonderful book. I am from Philly and have been following the misadventures of the Philly mob all my life. This book works as an authoritative and documented history of an interesting field. It explains the roots of the mob to compare to its sorry state today. It is written in a style, however, more akin to that of a novel than an academic text. I highly recommend it.

The 1st couple chapters made me feel like I was doing a thesis for a masters and is more for sociologits. The main part of the book was really good reading if you are into the history of Philly , the Philly mob or ethnic groups in Philly. I read it for mainly the mafia history. It is obvious she did a lot of work on the background. I just wish it was a little longer for the amount of money you pay. Looking forward to the next volume.

This book is easy to read, full of factual info. the numerous problems and exercises help understand and apply the concepts of global investments; It is recommended for the CFA exam and I fully agree.

Great. I discovered the benfits of global investings and themethods to achieve those benefits. Well sritten, easy to read, full of practical info.

Simply the best on international investing.
This is a sophisticated book tht teach you how to think and how to implement.
Designed for an investment professional. But great pedagogy and not US-centric.

Although all facts in international investments is covered, the author did not add his comments or insight.

No further knowledge gained except knowing the facts. I wish I could find a more interesting and useful book on this topic.

I found this book to be a very personal account of battles on the Eastern Front of WWII. Whilst it might be a little thin on excitement, I prefer the author's honesty, especially with regard to their training regime. I was amazed at how many Russian tanks the Panzers took out in comparison with their own losses. Imagine if Manstein had been permitted to perfect his elastic defence option during 1944/45 instead of Hitler's preferred rigid defence - the losses on the Soviet side would have been far, far greater.

Lastly, the writing style of this book is at times hard to follow, with overuse of commas, etc - but this adds to the authenticity of the account being that the author is not a noted writer.

I enjoyed the book and it gave me a renewed interest in the events of the Eastern Front.

Lots of info about the panzer IV and Jagdpanzer IV and how the crews operated them.

Some good insight on personal experiences but not much more. A lot of extra material added to beef up the book. There are better books on the personal experiences of a German soldier. This rates way down on the list of being really interesting.

For those of you who are keen to read about the fighting on the Eastern Front 1944/45, from the point of view of a German tank crew member, then look no further than this book!

The author was born to ethnic German parents in Canada, and was promptly shipped back to Nazi Germany in early 1939 with his brothers, to help the Third Reich! He ended up learning German, joining the Army, and serving with a Panzer Division fighting the Russians.

This account is humourous, and also detailed, with plenty of technical information about the two vehicles in which the author served, the Panzer IV and Jagdpanzer IV tank hunter.

There are plenty of gems of information, and superb accounts of tank combat against the Russians at the end of the war, about which very little has been published in German or English. Highly recommended, particularly for those interested in armour tactics at the small unit level 1944/45, and for understanding in detail how German tank crews operated their vehicles.

Well, what to say about this book ? On one hand, it has really good examples for system programming. On the other hand, you sometimes should ask yourself: "Man, this is a good code and it works well...but, what is the use for myself?" What I want to say, is that you often learn good tricks but you will never need them. Sometimes there are also things, which are very difficult, but not very well explained and you need another book to understand it completely. But at least the biggest part of this book is very useful, and every ambitious DOS coder should own it...unfortunately, the later books of this series also contain Windows-programming...Windows and System-programming....hmmm. (Sorry for my bad English, I'm from Germany)

I tend to agree with adrian2's comments. Abacus books, in general, often have flaws. Many exist in their Atari ST documentation, still this book contains many things the expanding programmer will need to know to do more than just use existing library routines found in their language. The code and documentation will help you do lots of fancy tricks in DOS. The 1992 version has lots of Quick BASIC code and if you program in Quick or Power BASIC you might want to find the 1992 edition. There is also THE DOS PROGRAMMER'S REFERENCE by Jamsa, which has less Quick BASIC code, but is also an excellent book. Both should be in any serious DOS programmers libraries.

Even though this book contains a lot of information about low-level programming, you should read it very, very carefully. The book would have received a rating of 10 were it not for the fact that there are several errors across various chapters. Some of the book's explanations can also be a bit misleading at times.

Here are some examples of the errors you'll find:

"However, the joysticks can be monitored only with the polling method because a special hardware interrupt, which executes when the user moves the joystick or presses a button, is assigned to joystick cards" - page 289.

The above is not true: a game card does not generate any hardware interrupts. In other words, no hardware interrupts are "assigned to joystick cards".

"If you want to access the keyboard at its lowest level, you must capture and redirect keyboard hardware interrupt 90H." - page 283

Actually, the right answer to the above would be would be interrupt 09H. The digits are reversed.

"One of the special features of the PIC is to 'cascade' interrupts [...] this method has been used so 16 different hardware interrupt devices can be handled" - page 207

No. Today's IBM-PCs can service the interrupt requests of up to 15 hardware devices. This is due to the fact that one of the interrupt request lines, which would otherwise be used for this purpose, is needed by the system to cascade (connect together) its two interrupt controllers (PICs). This leaves only 15 lines available for use by hardware devices.

There is also another problem with this book. While in some cases it explains how gain direct access to certain devices (like the keyboard controller), in other cases it simply talks about the BIOS functions which allow access to devices (such as game cards). Despite all of the above, there IS a lot of information in this book, and it could actually prove useful if read with a bit of skepticism.

We used this book in a systems programming class I had at IIT in Chicago. It is not the end all "bible of PC", but it is certainly a very, very good book. Much of the information you will never use, but there will come a time when you will need that one sub-routine that no one else can find or understands, and you pull a code snippet out of this book, apply it to your code, and appear "god-like" to your colleagues. This has happend at least five times since I've owned both editions, and for that, the book has paid for itself. If you write code that goes beyond what the component libraries in your prgramming environment can provide, such as multimedia, games, or networking, it would be a wise investment to have this book in your arsenal. David C. Freeman

Ever think you might want to hear about pizza being made with Amaretto, cookies, or fruits? If so, get this book, it's pretty good.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who wants to make great pizza at home. The recipes are easy to follow & use ingredients found in any store. The book is in b/w with no pictures.

The book starts out with a brief history of pizza and gives an overview of all the ingredients in the pizzas. The section on dough lists all the ingredients involved & what they do. Troubleshooting information is also included.

There are recipes for 9 different doughs, 5 different sauces & a few oils. Many styles of pizza are then given including Mediterranean, Italian, American & dessert. I really loved the spinach stuffed & deep dish pizzas.

The breakfast pizza is a great change when you get sick of eating cereal & the sweet ricotta pie with espresso syrup is a must for any coffee lover. A list of good pizza places to eat both in the US & other countries is a nice bonus.

As an avid collector of cookbooks, and a gourmet cook, I struck gold when I picked up this book (sorry, I did not buy it from Amazon). However, your shopper should know that this is THE only pizza cookbook you will ever need to buy. Pasquale Bruno really knows his pizza, and his style is a good read as well. thanks.

As a recently misplaced Chicagoan, pizza has always been a main staple in my family and I must say that this book falls VERY short of the mark when compared to Mr. Bruno's other book on pizza: The Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook. It is a nice addition for those who enjoy collecting cookbooks and does have a few good pointers, but if a person wishes to make REAL pizza, he/she should get the other book and follow Mr. Bruno's recipes and suggestions to the letter at first. I also think Mr. Bruno could have been more honest in the appendix about pizza places in Chicago. His list is old and needs to be updated; a person following his recommendations would be disappointed in their Chicago pizza experience. O'Fame and Gino's East are GREAT, but he knows as well as anyone that NOBODY from Chicago who isn't driving his parent's car has gone to Uno's since the Carter administration. Uno's and Due's have become the Chi-Chi's of pizzas. The other places he lists are OK at best. There are some fantastic pizza parlors around the area that he undoubtedly knows about and should mentioned. But then again, maybe he's like me and doesn't include his favorite place so it remains a quiet, neighborhood joint where only the most initiated pizza-hunter ventures.

Benno Thoma captures the essence of men, while giving the readers a bit of wanting to be like them

Benno Thomas has got to be one of my favorite photographers. In this 3rd Edition Euros book you'll find a wonderful sampling of his most exciting images of young Mediterranean or Turkish men in black & white prints. These guys are young, and handsome. Benno really knows how to pose his models to bring out the sensuality in all of them. The lighting, shadows, & location of the shots are perfect. These models are relaxed and just being natural in their surroundings. It makes you feel like you're a voyeur and that's the sign of an excellent photographer when you feel that way.

There are so many photo books out there it's hard to choose, much less collect them all. This is definitely one of my favorite's. A must have for your collection. I hope to see more future photo images by this photographer... .

I only own this one of Benno Thoma's books but (by viewing just these 47 duotone photos,16 of which depict frontal nudity)I can honestly say,I like his work.The youthful appearance of his models,combined with the various settings and the way he uses light,create a very pleasing effect;an overall atmosphere of sweet melancholy,informality and relaxation.All the guys in the book are very cute young men,appearing in natural poses of self-preoccupation.The camera's intrusion into these "private" moments is as subtle as a lover's tender and affectionate touch would be.So,what is captured on the photographic film is much more than the models' undeniable physical beauty.Thoma manages to give a distinct quality to each photo and create a tangible familiarity which makes someone feel he is in the same room with the models;close enough to "savour" their youth with all five of his senses!This feeling is enhanced by the softness and warmth of the light.A light natural and rich (even when not very strong),that makes body hair shine like gold and the skin appear softer than silk.Finally the whole mood (particularly the melancholy) is strengthened even more by the use of settings,such as old-fashioned bathrooms and hotel rooms,ill-lit attics and dilapidated walls.I really enjoyed this first acquaintance with Benno Thoma's style and I think you will too;especially if you like young men with boyish charm!

Dean Keefer's photographies show real men. Men with steeled bodies, posing in old ruins or directly in the wild nature, where their beauty turns into magical attraction...

Dean Keefer's collection is a stunning vision of black & white and color prints. In all of his powerful frames the purpose is obvious and lacks a subtle touch. This honesty is refreshing, but predictable. The greatest strength of the art is the consistency with the theme of lust. It is a powerful tribute to the human need for beauty. Each page flows with its own description of beauty, and the images never fail to compare to the previous page's display.

Small photobook consisting of 28 detachable postcards of mostly male nudes, both color and black and white. Photos range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Some of the models are shown in industrial and urban-ruin settings, but this has been done WAY better by other artists. Many of the photos, (too many), showing men in work boots, look too staged and obvious. Several of the photographs have the models sneering at the camera with that "stoned Elvis" look, a detraction from the art and the men. One photo of a model dancing with the springs from an old mattress can be detached and discarded. In short, if you are a die-hard collector, you can get this book if you want to round out your collection, but passing it by won't diminish your collection either. For the passing motorist, you can find the same type of photographs in almost any good porno mag.