Bryan Books

This book is a great resource tool. A fairly inclusive area guide with historical, geological and physical details. There are very few locality specific guides available for plant identification. This book has a fairly detailed plant section without falling into the text book category.

I purchased this book for helping us plan a 5 day stay in Stove Pipe Wells. Well worth the money spent.

This book provides a good general introduction to Death Valley, but lacks detail on hiking routes. If you're going to be hiking Death Valley, Michel Digonnet's "Hiking Death Valley: A Guide to Its Natural Wonders & Mining Past" provides better details. The Bryans' book covers more locations, but provides less detail on each.

We planned a week exploring around Death Valley based on this book. Not visiting the touristy places that you can find on any map, but exploring canyons that don't get nearly as much traffic. Maybe it was partially because the book hasn't been updated in awhile, but the descriptions of the places were wildly different from what we found on the ground.

This guy was a Superintendant there for a few years, and thought he'd write a book -- big deal. Coming out of one canyon where he described springs all over the place but we found only rock, we met some people who had another guide that was much better -- sorry that I can't remember the name. Anyway, my advice is to look around, and buy something else -- and something with maps in it, for one thing.

For a general introduction to DV and several of its scenic roadways, unpaved roads, and hiking trails, it's not bad at all. Of course, you always need a good topographic map(s) of the park as well, and the latest information from the rangers, as roads wash out, and trails become blocked or impassible. Only a fool would explore DV, even by car or 4WD, with only the tiny maps in a guide such as this.

While motor vehicle travelers can get by with plenty of water, a full-size spare, a recently checked-over vehicle and proper caution for remote areas of the park, inexperienced desert hikers would be well advised to acquire some additional knowledge on trip planning, equipment, first aid, and map reading. An excellent resource for this is The Ultimate Desert Handbook by Mark Johnson.

We picked up a copy of "The Explorer's Guide to Death Valley" and found this book to be a fantastic resource for our visit! The book is very comprehensive in nature, with detailed descriptions of drives along ALL the roads in the park. It turned out that during our visit in March 2005, a large number of the roads through the park were closed due to storm damage from this winter's record rains, so the book was truly a godsend in figuring out alternate routes through the park.

Another great feature is that the authors tell you pretty accurately the condition of the roads (most of the roads are unpaved), including such important details as washed out areas, how steep are the grades, and the like. We also really appreciated the details on what mining ruins were to be found at the end of the bumpy drives.

We found the information in this book to be very accurate and honest, helping us to decide what we wanted to see in our way-too-short visit to the park. This book is a great one-volume source for seeing the most when you visit Death Valley. Enjoy!

this book gives a good background on the medical aspects of gout.
It fails to give detailed information about dietary limitations available more recently.
Recommend the Gout Haters Diet Book for more extensive food recommendations.

This book gets fairly technical yet remains accessible to the non-medical specialist. Very comprehensive, good evaluation of the existing alternatives. Plus, enough description of what's understood of the mechanism of gout for you to evaluate new treatments.

Highly recommended for those who want to learn more about how to treat their gout and understand the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.

This is an excellent concise but comprehensive book on the gout for the lay reader. It would be better not to have gout, but if you do need to manage it, this is the best book I've seen. The size, title and the photo on the cover gave me the impression that the book was likely to be simplistic and wrong. In fact, it strikes a good balance between readability and detail. It also turns out that Dr Emmerson has published quite a few papers on gout in serious peer reviewed journals.

If you have gout then READ THIS BOOK ASAP - This is the only comprehensive guide to GOUT I could locate. Excellent reference if you want to understand all aspects and possible causes. I ask lots of questions and this book answered 99 percent of my concerns. Buy your doctor one also - I am new to this condition but now have a definitive plan of action to determine the cause and cure it - not just treat the symptoms. DR. Emmerson if you read these THANK YOU! My TOE wishes I would have found this book 9 months ago.

I shouldn't be commenting on this, since I have not read the book. I don't know if I'm repeating information from the book, but as a Gout sufferer, I feel compelled to mention that black cherry juice or concentrate helped relieve the pain in my toe and ankle. Your mileage may vary, but Google it and there seems to be plenty of anecdotal evidence that it works.

If you are a mail admin and don't use this book, you are either doing it wrong or are a genius.

Anyone who is serious about sendmail administration and configuration must use this book.

sendmail is far to complex to be used w/o a great reference such as this.

This is a great book if you are seasoned Sendmail admin with good C programming skills. I give 3 starts because it is so hard to understand.

I've been using sendmail for 3 years and I just tried Qmail and Postfix. I have chosen Postfix because it's so darn efficiant and configurable.

Viktor Duchovni, is a great help on the online community and the online docs are just as detaild as this sendmail book.

If you are stuck on sendmail then get this book.

But try Qmail and Postfix if you can...

BTW... RedHat lets you choose between Postfix or Sendmail. That means a lot to me.

If you take care of Sendmail servers, you should have this book. I've been using this application for almost 10 years, and I still learn new things all the time, and this book is primarily where I get my answers. Highly recommended.

This book probably covers most information regarding Sendmail but is not meant for someone trying to learn how to configure sendmail. Most chapters have a small introduction and then go on to explain each feature/aspect in detail. For a beginner, it is difficult to connect the dots (features) and understand how to configure / run sendmail.

I admire O'Reilly books for their uncanny ability to hook me into a lot of advance technologies. I desperately need to get a handle on sendmail for basic configuration, so naturally I come to O'Reilly.

I investigated this book several times, and though it looks like a great awesome and essential reference, it simply does nothing for those trying to get off the ground. I think it is only for advanced and seasoned sendmail administrators, but for those trying to get a handle on sendmail, this is not the book.

In contrast, I have books on postfix and exim mail systems by O'Reilly and these books are decent in getting you started. I am saddened that this is mainly a reference and not like other O'Reilly books. The book could have been called "send mail, the definitive reference".

I am nearing the end of this book and have found it incredibly interesting and just as frightening!

I was skeptical about the reports of alien abductions until I started reading this. Now it takes me a while to pluck up the courage to turn off the lights when I stop reading each night!

A definite must-read for all you skeptics!

This book added to my suspician of a government cover up, opened the pandoras box to Alien abduction, government cover-up, military technology, Similarities between everyone abductee. Theories on all of this and more kept me reading this book cover to cover. Skeptics that want to remain skeptical should not read this book. If you have a closed mind but dont want it to be pried open do not read this book. However anyone else should definitely pick up a copy. Every question I had became answered and questions I never asked were asked and answered. It blows your mind at what could be and what is going on out there. With the help of this book I have come to believe that the government is hostile toward whatever it is that IS out there. We had no part in deciding their welcome, who knows what is to come.

If this book is fiction, it stands up all the way. If not its a bonus, but a pretty scary one if we`re under that much control. What do I think? I underwent a total paradigm shift every time I opened the book so perhaps the question is unfair.

C.D.B. Bryan's journalistic report of his attendance at a huge UFO & alien abduction conference in the early 1990's held at M.I.T. is a clearly written and fair minded look at a complicated and often controversial subject.

Despite the fact that most recent polls indicate that the majority of Americans & indeed the world believe "we're not alone", there are many who refuse to accept or are fearful of discussing the alien abduction phenomenon. Similarly, even when UFO enthusiasts come to agreement about various elements within their own community, there are breaks in the ranks in terms of everything from the effective use of hypnotic regression to the incredibly disturbing notion of alien/human hybrids being harvested.

It can all be dizzyingly confusing and even discouraging for the newly interested and so Bryan's book remains one of the more well organized and objective treatments on the subject. The author never tries to sway the reader in any direction. He stays steadfast to his job of reporting what he saw and trying to make some sense of it without being judgmental or partial to a particular mindset.

In-depth, informative, solidly entertaining and yes at times even patently unbelievable, but it's never boring nor a waste of your time. This would be a great starting point for the novice researcher and a great reference book for the seasoned UFO devotee. I subtracted one star for lack of photos, since a few photos of conference participants would have been a welcome addition and personal touch to this otherwise excellent book.

The books starts out well. The author is attending a conference at MIT about abductions by flying saucers. He's skeptical but respectful. He introduces you to the experts, the scholars, and the abductees. So far, so good.

But in the second half, he gives you LENGTHY descriptions of hypnosis sessions with a pair of abductees --- two women whose stories start off where you'd expect and then get crazier as they progress.

Actually, "crazy" is the wrong word. "Implausible" or "transparent" would be better. The two women need to add a little extra juice to their stories to keep your attention, so they add more alien beings, more strange events, and new places to explore.

This book would be a useful addition to the dozen-or-so books on UFO adbuctions if the second half was dropped. As I read it, my mind changed from skeptical and entertained (why DO so many people say they were abducted by flying saucers?) to cringing with embarassment (the Nordic E.T. in the giant cowboy hat was too much).

I graduated from BYU in 1992, and I took my senior course on the novels of Charles Dickens from Gail Turley Houston. She was the best professor I had at the university--smart, kind and funny. I almost cannot make it through the chapter about her (Chapter 8 "Dirty Laundry, Dangerous Words") it hurts too much to read about Professor Houston being so persecuted for doing what she felt was right. All I can say is that, regardless of how you feel about the Mormon church or its flagship university BYU, this book speaks the truth and is worth a read, if only to know what evil otherwise good people are capable of doing to those who don't agree with them.

And who said the truth only edifies? Admittedly, truth can be colored by individual bias, but it has no agenda. We apply an agenda to it. This book has an agenda, but then again, so does every book that purports to offer truth. Ultimately, they say that the truth will set you free, and they also say that freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Truth hurts as often as it uplifts, and the truth of this book may hurt some, but doesn't change the nature of the book.

This is a very interesting book, with great insight into the making of contemporary Mormon culture. Of particular interest is the influence of Earnest Wilkinson during th 60s and early 70s (and later Presidents) in creating much of what we think of when think of modern BYU, such as "anti-feminism," the standards and honor code, air-brushing out things that "we just don't like," etc. When you consider the preponderance of BYU graduates out there in the world of the LDS church serving in leadership capacities, it is clear that BYU shapes the church.

This book deals with several controversial issues, is probably a little one-sided, but overall a very interesting read. I recommend it highly!

Interesting...

Well. There are two or three ways I could tentatively address Waterman's major preemptive issues here. And I think we can agree that he has a lot of them; some of which could widely be interpreted as being mildly juxtaposed. As are many. Let me open my remarks by presenting some initial thoughts regarding his primary approach:

Approaching the subject matter somewhat selectively, basing my treatise, in part, on a series of lectures given by me at the council on Quantum Higher Fractals at M.I.T. and Cambridge, and also speaking as a NASA theoretical physicist and working with just the raw data, taking into account his historical point of view (post WW II/Cold War) - I personally think that Waterman's whole book was likely meant to be rather a precursor Nietzscheistick reference to how Krechner's [elusive though none too widely used] Theorem is sometimes a good filler idiom when no other tack really - or at least readily, comes to mind. The manner in which Waterman hierarchically quantifies most of his earlier solutions? in relation to Chopra's treatise on the quantum mechanical body is nevertheless acceptable. This is no myth. Most of the Mensa colleagues I have come across (with assistance on my part) could generally see this. The "BYU" couplet [or as is more precisely used, word - noting of course, that most (65 to 85%) autistic genius is generally arrived at by hammering home this very principal] was rather, I think, a Jungian parody on how sometimes, in most Gordian test cases, as the subject approaches nil, the subconscious mind tends towards experiences of childhood (or adulthood) behavior, during which time the renal cropping of the id fuses natally, or rather, the "boomerang effect" comes close to what most experts agree is the process most often times recognized as the catalyst of choice during certain post-operative future tentative salmon angioplasties - normally. This naturally being the standardized subjunctive issue in most broad-based test cases. See Ethics in Government Psychological Operations Act, Title VI, P. L. 95-521, 92 Stat. 1952, as amended).

Now, on the other hand, after reading Waterman's book yet a third time, I am ruthlessly reminded of a story a former associate in the NSA confidentially shared with me several nerve-wracking weeks after the free world was assaulted with the "We will bury you" speech by the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev [I had occasion to lunch with the late Premier Khrushchev twice...a phobic yet unreasonable man]. Allow me to briefly elaborate...

One sunny afternoon around 2:00pm, Khu-Chin Wa, the much loved shiny violet humming-bird was chatting with her friend, a 320 lb. wharf rat known in the area as "Froggy" and his brother Petrov - a 30 foot Australian crocodile recently out on prison work-release. When suddenly and without warning, Khu-Chin Wa noticed that Brian was standing nearby behind a telephone pole, drooling and staring lucidly. Realizing the jig was up and that, at this point, her protective coloring was totally useless, Khu-Chin Wa jumped off a nearby cliff, soon succumbing to quickly dying of fatally self-inflicted fall wounds. At which point Froggy, knowing the police would be arriving soon, and stricken with what the voice inside of his head told him was a bewilderingly complex onslaught of uncontrolled dementia, bit himself and then commenced to put the crocodile in a sloppily executed, yet deadly strangle-hold as Brian stood motionless nearby, smiling quietly to himself.

These [categorically speaking] are just some of my initial thoughts regarding Waterman's primarily more selective issues.

? Darba, Why Do Anacondas Cry?, 1969, ibid.

Two BYU alumni, Bryan Waterman and Brian Kagel, have written an interesting summary of controversial firings at BYU in the 1990s. While only Mormons, BYU alumni, or those with an interest in religious universities' battle with academic freedom will read this journalistic narrative, it is nonetheless an important expose of the way the Mormon church operates.

Cecilia Konchar Farr (now at St. Catherine's College in the Twin Cities), David Knowlton (independent writer), and Gail Turley Houston (Univerity of New Mexico) were fired under murky circumstances while the authors were students at BYU, and their unhappiness at the way these firings were organized and carried out prompted them to use the resources at their command to tell the professors' side of the story. They do so convincingly, and the reader gets a scary glimpse of the way the churchmen in Salt Lake City run the university.

Also of interest is the way the BYU administration forced out Brian Evenson (now a successful novelist and on faculty at Brown) of the English department. Professor Steven Epperson and David P. Wright's (now Dept. Chair of Near Eastern Studies at Brandeis) mistreatment also gets a cogent explanation. Waterman and Kagel also give a brief history of feminism at BYU and a careful account of the September Six excommunications in the Mormon church. The book is well written, well documented, and even handed in its treatment of these unhappy events at BYU. The book is too long and repetitive--many characters have their full names mentioned dozens of times in the stories, and some of the main characters are briefly introduced in several chapters. On the flip side, these writers wanted to "state for the record" both sides of the firings so the reader can make her/his own conclusion regarding their fairness.

The unavoidable conclusion is that BYU cannot be considered, at least in the present climate, a true center of higher learning. The General Authorities in Salt Lake City have the final say in what can and cannot be taught or published at BYU, and you risk being fired if you cross them. What is really puzzling after reading this book is why any of the professors mentioned would take a job at such an institution. Perhaps many LDS teachers at the school long to stay in Utah for family, social, or other reasons.

For these professors and others who feel oppressed in their classrooms and writings, why do they stay loyal to the church directed by such leaders? The idea that the church is off course and that being a crusader will somehow be to your benefit is ill advised--they hold all the power, and you will lose every time. Waiting for them to excommunicate or fire you besmirches your name and stains your dignity. Why not leave the church and publicly give your reasons? It will do more to further your quest to encourage independent thinking, and you won't be part of an organization that tramples free thought and objective truth.

BYU, these authors suggest, exists to shield students in their intellectually malleable years from truth in science, critical thinking, and scholarly debate. It will keep the church membership strong, so goes the reasoning. If a university exists that will punish you for declaring humans evolved from lower primates and that there was no universal flood, then it doesn't deserve the title of "university".

This is the biggest piece of bull I have heard in a long time! Why do people want to waste their time reading this crap? If you are looking for the truth, why on earth would you read a book that does nothing, but try to tear down and demean someone or something. This is obvious garbage. If you want to know about something, go to the actual source, don't go to someone who has a vendetta or whose only point is to tear down something. Truth builds you up and edifies you, it doesn't take the time to demean others and strive to prove them wrong.

It's really a pocket size. You can carry it on your backpack along with your notebook pc and other books. Has the basic terms, but it's ok for classes.

In virtually no place on Amazon's website, is there the warning that the digital edition is NOT a CD --you must download it from a website-- and the only way you can use is if you have a WinTel machine: The download is an .exe file, and that doesn't work with the Mac OS.

Next, any document worth owning anymore, is a PDF file, which is completely searchable. It takes up very much less space that program written specifically for the task. Additionally, Adobe's PDF documents work across several platforms.

The people responsible for this should be ashamed of themselves, to think that the only computer operating systems used by law professionals are WinTel machines.

This has been the best investment I've made since I started law school. It makes my life so much easier when it comes to reading homework assignments. Every law student should have one.

The only disapointing problem about this "digital" Bundle is that there is NO software. Instead you download a kind of "browser" that is in your toolbar, Much like a Google/Yahoo toolbar. So if you are off line, this does not work, disappointing to me. It is not as readily accessible as a software install that is always there when you need it. I have gained more use from the book than the software, so I would recommend you buy something else for your $$ such as the full version of Black's Law than this software. You can copy/cut and paste the info from the website directly into your paperwork is a good benefit though.

As a working librarian, I had this valuable dictionary near my desk through several incarnations. Patrons searching to understand their insurance policies, a court order, a contract and other legal documents expected the librarian to know all the words. With "Black's Law Dictionary" we were able to decipher most of the jargon to the patron's satisfaction.
I have added it to my personal writing reference shelf to make sure a character is using the proper term and it is spelled correctly in our stories.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Taxes, Stumbling Blocks for Authors 2007."

Empire is fun to read, and informative. I trust Vidal's history, and in fact, his scrupulousness may be reflected in the book's major fault. The historical characters are very static: it seems Vidal does not wish to use his imagination to embroider on the actual historical record, so that by the end of the book I began to grow tired of Hays and Adams and even Theodore Roosevelt (contrast to Max Byrd's "Jackson"). Of the two prominent fictional characters, Carolyn Sanford, the more important, is engaging, interesting and well developed. The writing is witty, often droll. No citizen, after reading this novel, will long for the "good old days" of politics.

Although Vidal provides a shotgun approach to character development, Empire is best viewed in the perspective of two primary conflicts; one among fictional characters (Caroline and Blaise Sanford) and the other among two historical players (Theodore Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst). Only through fictional characters could Vidal create narrators capable of such convoluted and impossibly rich experiences that they could come into critical conversations with so many historical characters. Caroline and Blaise are half-siblings who rival for the same fortune and unravel a dark secret regarding their respective dead mothers.

McKinley and Roosevelt both have imperialistic aims with racist purpose. Both want America to fill the power vacuum created by the decline of the British Empire; both feel it is the duty of the civilized Americans to be stewards for the primitive races of the Asian, Caribbean and Pacific Islands. To the regnant aristocracy, war is the natural state of man. Hearst, McKinley and Roosevelt are portrayed as not only making war inevitable, but also desirable. The respectable and intellectual few, best exemplified by John Hay and the Five Hearts, are more conscientious, but remain low key compared to the dashing and charismatic politicians bent on imperialism and self-promotion.

Hearst is an antihero similar to Satan in Milton's "Paradise Lost." Clearly, Hearst is a manipulative megalomaniac, but he is much more interesting character than the prudent McKinley or the bellicose Teddy Roosevelt. Although the Hearst who instigated the Spanish-American war of 1898 and incited the assassination of McKinley connotes horror and repulsion, Vidal clearly enjoys Hearst's vapidity and ingenuity. Hearst is a cad to the American nobles, but he is able to history on his own terms and to suit his own purposes. Using inaccurate and biased propaganda, Hearst is flamboyant and irresponsible, exploiting the indifferent American masses while inventing heroes to lead them. To Vidal, Hearst created public opinion, while Roosevelt simply rode public opinion. Therefore, Hearst is the inventor of the modern world while Roosevelt simply followed his lead.

This historical novel takes place roughly between the years 1898 and 1906. The novel is seen through the eyes of three characters: one who actually existed, William McKinnley's and Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of State John Hay; and the other two are purely fictious, the aristocratic half-siblings Caroline and Blaise Sanford. Vidal uses his immense knowledge of the intricacies of all the political controversies, large and small of the period, and personal conflicts among the elite Americans described here.

Those elite Americans who make frequent appearances in this book include Henry Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Randolph Hearst. However, many of the other prominent characters of the period also make appearances: Mark Hanna, Henry James, William Jennings Bryan, William McKinley, etc. Vidal portrays James, one of his favorite novelists, in a funny way in that James speaks in that long winded wordy way that he wrote most of his novels.

Blaise is a chief lieutenant of Hearst before he strikes out on his own. For most of the novel he is in legal battle with Caroline over the disbursement of their late father's estate. Caroline herself can probably be said to be the main character of this book. She manages to make a modest success as the publisher of the Washington Tribune. However, she gets herself into trouble when she starts an affair with a disconcertingly good looking married freshman congressman named James Burden Day. This affair starts when Caroline is 25 and is her first sexual experience.

The part of the book describing the first sexual encounter between Caroline and the Congressman is probably the worst written part of the book. We see Jim and Caroline at a party in the midst of other aristocrats; then they are talking; then Vidal through the thoughts of Caroline, heaves tedious lengthy metaphors about food and Greek gods at the reader in the midst of which Jim's hand is sneaking towards Caroline's [...]; then we have Jim asking why, if Caroline is a virgin, there is no blood coming out of her frontal private area. Then we have the news that Jim pays a visit to Caroline's home every Sunday for a session in Caroline's bath tub and bed.

Vidal has the tendency to put his own intelligent observations and metaphors about certain characters into the minds of his characters, which makes the latter seem not always 100 percent plausible. When I was reading the book I thought the dialogue between the characters was sometimes a bit wooden but then I when I finished the book I thought maybe it was plausible enough. One or two of the scenes of lofty philosophical conversation between Caroline and Henry Adams, in the latter intellectual giant's drawing room, seemed somewhat implausible and maybe a little pointless for the novel's purpose.

Vidal's fiction is always a pleasure to read. In this book, he demonstrates his usual genius mastery in describing the buildings, people, streets and other details in the historical epoch in which the novel takes place. His prose is always clear and graceful, sometimes really extraordinarily so. The way he portrays American politics at the turn of the Century is really quite effective. The American people were restless under the extreme corruption and brutality of the big businessmen who controlled politics. Vidal effectively shows the sordidness of all this towards the end of the novel, with the conflict between William Randolph Hearst and Theodore Roosevelt. Hearst, who is excluded from the drawing rooms of most aristocrats because of his uncouth journalistic practices, finds solace in posing as a champion of ordinary people, a reformer and progressive. Of course, what he really wants is political power and he is willing to make alliances with anybody, including the bosses of New York's Tammany Hall, to whom he is theoretically in opposition. Theodore Roosevelt similarly poses as a Progressive, but his substantive gestures towards seriously regulating corporate power and political corruption are not much. The climax comes when Roosevelt gets wind that Hearst has obtained copies of numerous letters from the man who disperses bribes for John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil to politicians, to those politicians. A letter from this man to Theodore Roosevelt is in this file but its meaning is unclear. Hearst wants to print these letters in his newspapers at politically opportune times during his own quest for political offices such as New York governor and President. The last scene in the novel is a meeting between WRH and TR at the White House where each man gives to the other, very unflattering opinions about the other. Vidal says at the end of the novel that WRH and TR really did have a meeting at the White House relating to Standard Oil corruption and Roosevelt's link to it, but no one one really knows for sure what was said in it. Nonetheless, the dialogue Vidal places in the mouths of the men, are accurate renditions of what they really thought, he explains.

I realize that I'm supposed to think "Empire" is brilliant, because it's Gore Vidal, but it is a major bore. Nothing actually happens; its just 400+ pages of dialogue. A well-written conventional history of the period would be more enjoyable and more informative. This is a total snooze-fest.

Faced with a long and dreary winter? 'Empire' may be just the antidote. Gore Vidal's 1987 epic makes for educational, if sometimes tedious, fireside reading. 'Empire' is a tough one to plow through in one sitting, let alone one month, but in the end it rewards the reader with an informative narration of turn-of-the-century America. The fourth in Vidal's five-part series, 'Empire' features both historical and fictitious characters, who share the plot in equal dollops throughout the novel. A cursory knowledge of early 20th-century American history -- McKinley, Roosevelt, Hay, etc. -- enhances the reading experience. But even without this knowledge, the book is well worth the read. The closing dialogue alone justifies the effort.

I'd imagine most microbiology courses for biology or science majors is going to require knowledge at a much higher level than what is on here. So maybe it would be good for a basic introductory course but for most it won't help and your time would be spent on better material.

thank you for the fast delivery of the book.

I'm in a very fast paced micro class. Our class is only 5 weeks long and we get the same amount of info as a normal length term. This book is going to be a life saver! I'm so glad I got it. And spending the extra $1 to see it and print some pages out on line while waiting for it to come in was a huge help, too.

This book made medical microbiology much easier. I used this book for my medical microbiology class. It is easier to understand and it cut my study time because it was to the point. I also used the following:
Microbiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers (ISBN:0971999635)
The second book helped me prepare for the kind of questions on my medical microbiology tests. In fact, both these books helped me to get a 93 average in my medical microbiology class. I was recommended these two books from a friend of mine in another med school. He also got high grades on his medical microbiology exams.

These are great flashcards unless you actually want to learn and pass your microbiology class. Not only is the content poor, several of the cards in my pack were improperly printed with half the text cut off. No wonder they come sealed in plastic at the bookstore, if I had had the chance to look at them before I bought them i would have known better. They do work well for leveling a wobbly table though.

Most students are familiar with Rosa Parks, but this story takes you beyond the bus. We get a glimps into Rosa's personal life, which allows students to develop more connections. The illustrations are amazing, as is all of Bryan Collier's work. Great book selection!

Good book, beautiful artwork. Get the book if nothing else for the pictures. The book itself was ok, it was a little jumpy and didn't go into very much detail of the actual event. However, it is a nice book for young children who don't need or want much detail.

Everyday Rosa Parks rode the bus to work. There was a black and white section. She sat down in the neutral section and a man didn't want her to, but she stayed and got arrested. She was arrested for the wrong reason. People made signs and walked to support Rosa. They stopped riding the bus too.

I liked the book. The pictures were good. I learned that white and black people were separated. That's wrong. Since I read the book, I now want to watch a movie and learn more about Rosa Parks.

Reviewed by: Jada Monet, 7 years old

if you're looking for an children's biography of Rose Parks or of the Civil Rights Movement, this books isn't it.

Buy it for Giovanni's magical and powerful words.

Buy it for Collier's amazing pictures.

Don't buy it if it's intended to teach children who are wholly uninformed about American history. I had six immigrant teenagers read this book, and all they could tell me after they were finished was that Rosa Parks was a lady who was thrown off a bus because of white people. They weren't sure why. And then a bunch of people walked to Washington D.C. afterwards, but they weren't sure how this connected to Rosa getting thrown off the bus. In the end the teens were really confused.

A must read for all youngsters. The feedback that we have gotten on this book from the kids who have read Tyler and His Solve-a-matic machine by Jennifer Bouani, is very positive. I highly recommend this book

This was a good book. I liked seeing more of the Martian Manhunter's story played out.

There are a few stories in here. Again, a Batman warning turns out correctly, as far as how good an idea it is to try and brainwash a bunch of Martian Manhunters that hate you. i.e. not very.

The JLA also meets Santa, as told by Plastic Man to his kid, which is pretty funny.

The weak part is an odd Polaris/Joker episode that seems to come out of nowhere.

These were originally published as JLA #55 - #60.

The White Martians, J'onn the Martian Manhunters 'evil counterparts' if you will, were first defeated in JLA: New World Order. The White Martians lay a trip for J'onn, thinking that taking him out first is the key to defeating the JLA. The shape shifting Martians were 'wished' out of their hypnotic state inadvertently by J'onn while battling ID (United We Stand).

The White Martians should be a great foe for the JLA. But their defeat, while clever (think oxygen and fires, no spoiler here) is somewhat contrived and convenient.

This issue also contains Bipolar Disorder (JLA vs. Polaris infected with a Joker toxin) and a JLA Christmas tale that is better left unread.

Fav panels: page 50, Superman with the White Martians behind him masquerading as the rest of the JLA; page 85, Superman, WonderWoman and GL pulling the moon closer to the Earth.

There are some plot holes that bothered me. In most of the story, the white martians are shown to be extermely powerful and ruthless. Yet, there are some scenes in the story with, J'onzz, Batman, Flash and Lantern where the White Martians suddenly get soft just for story convenience.

Still, I really enjoyed the pacing of the book and the focus on J'onzz. The art was also very good.

Terror Incognita contains numbers 55-60 of the monthly JLA comic and is book nine of the collected reprint JLA paperbacks. Chapters 1-4 of this book pit the JLA against the White Martians (evil counterparts to JLA member J'onn J'onzz, debuted in "JLA: New World Order") and are written by Mark Waid. Chapter 5 is a crossover with the miniseries "Joker: Last Laugh" by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty. Chapter 6, a Christmas story, is Waid's last as JLA writer.

The four-part White Martian story is marred by the inconsistency of the art. Superstar penciler Bryan Hitch left the book after part one, and the initial transition from him to guest artist Mike Miller is jarring. This is admittedly unfair to Miller, however, as his art would hold up fine against any artist not in Mr. Hitch's category. Waid turns in a fine story with some nice insights into the character of stalwart Leaguer J'onn J'onzz and gives a real sense of the team being threatened by the immensely powerful evil Martians. Sadly, the means by which the JLA defeats the Martians is all too similar to how they prevailed in one of the Grant Morrison stories now collected in "JLA: American Dreams," so Waid's final arc lacks the impact that his earlier work on this series had.

Chapter 5, unfortunately, requires reading "Joker: Last Laugh" to know what's going on. "Last Laugh" has not been collected in trade paperback form. It was a huge crossover and received mixed reviews, and in no way affects any other story in this book. It was a mistake for DC to include this story here, as it confuses the reader and detracts from the rest of the content.

Chapter 6, Mark Waid's farewell, is a Christmas story. I don't like Christmas stories in general, superhero Xmases more specifically. This one is cute, slightly irreverent, and there's a nice Mike Ploog quality to the art. Still, though, it's just a Christmas story, so those hoping one of the best (but not exactly most consistent) superhero writers in the biz will leave JLA with a bang might be disappointed.