Buck Books

I expected a dramatic book about mountaineering (in the beginning), survival, and determination but got mainly a memoir about family problems, bouts with depression, childhood and earlier climbs. I really tried to like Beck and I do admire his ability to come back from death and recover; but does one need all this drama and trauma to make a man realize that his family and loved ones come first and are the main things in life, and you don't have to climb a giant mountain to understand? In my observations, I always find obsessions a bit weird and off-center in life. In fairness to Beck, the 1996 story has been professionally and strategically told by others, so maybe he and his ghost writer had to fluff up the pages to make a book. There was definitely enough for a great magazine story but a stretch to find over 300 pages to keep the reader interested. Enough said...Beck, hope you're back on the job and helping others like so many helped you. Mabuhay!

For a real life story it does not get much more real than this, a passion becomes an obsession that takes away the hero status that he was aiming for in the first place? . I found it easy to read. A bit of soft filling in the middle and couldn't really relate to the relationship with his wife.

As one of the other reviewers had written, I too have becme nearly obsessed with the events surrounding the tragic events of May 1996. I have read every book I can find on the subject.

Dr. Weathers book is very well written. It gives perspective from his wife and friends view as they waited his return and the sadness and then apprehension when they find he is still alive but in dire trouble.

I'd highly recommend this book. it is inspirational - his courage - his acceptance of what happened.

This book has a great title, as it sums up Beck Weathers' Mt. Everest experience.Unfortunately, this is the only great thing about this book. It is, at best, a mildly interesting book. The only truly interesting part is his recollection of the Everest trip and its immediate aftermath. His survival, which is truly amazing, is almost glossed over and turned into a sad soap opera about a marriage gone stale with time.

It does seem that Beck's patient wife, Peach, had been ill treated in the sense that he would go off to do some amateur mountain climbing (with the emphasis on amateur), leaving her with the kids for weeks at a time and remaining incommunicado. Since her voice is interspersed throughout this book, you can see why he might want to get away. A more insipid voice, I can't imagine. She is what is bad about this book. Yet, at the same time it was her efforts, along with those of her friends, which were the catalyst for the herculean helicopter rescue by Colonel Madan K.C. who brought Beck down from the mountain. Still, she is an utter bore.

What is good about the book is Beck's sense of humor and his indomitable spirit, which is undoubtedly what kept him alive in unbelievably harsh conditions on Everest. Though it is those like him who, financially able to go on these expeditions but lacking the technical skill to effectively navigate the harsh terrain, put themselves and others at risk. While it is clear that he was delighted to be rubbing shoulders with the mountaineering elite on Everest, it did not seem to dawn on him that he was just another foolhardy dilettante who, though having had some climbing experience, simply did not belong on Everest. It is this hubris which brought him to this pass. Quite frankly, given his description of his mountaineering efforts on some of the world's other tall peaks, it is a miracle he was not left for dead long before Everest.

If you like to read about real mountaineering, try a book by Joe Simpson or Jon Krakauer. If you want to read a book about a guy who blows off his family to climb, and all the damage he does because of it, then this book is ideal for you.

I was hoping to read a survival story, instead I got family dynamics.

I also had problems with Hunter's last entry in the Swagger saga, and just had "problems" with a sword swinging Bob Lee, but it was still a good read.

Happily, Bob the Nailer is back in "Night of Thunder".
While not quite up to some of the last entries, it does bring us back the Bob we all love...the gunfighter.
And Bob does it so well.
With a host of a vicious but not too smart criminal family, Bob has his work cut out for him.
You'd think that coming from the same general area in Arkansas, they would have heard of the famous Bob Lee and backed off.
Fortunately for our entertainment, they didn't, so Bob backed them off.

I'm not sure where Hunter is going to be able to go with the Swagger series, since Bob Lee is simply getting a little old, and he killed off Earl Swagger in the early 1950's.
This constrains Earl Swagger stories, because you can only pack so much into the few years between the end of WWII and Earl's death in that cornfield in the 50's.

Like many, I'm getting rather impatient waiting for Hunter and a Swagger to finally deal with Frenchy Short.
I think it's past time for a show down before Short himself is simply too old.

So, while it may not be on a level with "Point of Impact", "Night of Thunder" gives us the Bob we love.... the silent hunter of men.
Fortunately for us, the Bad Guys never figure out that they should NEVER mess with a Swagger.

Nikki Swagger, Bob Lee's daughter, is a police reporter for the Bristol Courier-Herald. It is her first job out of college and she is hot on the trail of a story about the rampant methamphetamine trade when late one evening she is knocked off the road in a hit and run. When Bob is notified of the accident his daughter is in a coma and the doctors are uncertain when Nikki will come out of it. Bob Lee is concerned not only for the life of his daughter, but for the rest of his family as well. It could be what it's reported, a simple hit and run, or it could be payback from his past.

When he arrives in Bristol Bob hires the Pinkertons to protect his daughter and then starts his own one-man investigation. He traverses the city--in the throes of a major NASCAR event--and the backwoods to discover what happened to his daughter. He confronts a publicity-seeking Sheriff, a cult-like religious crime family, a NASCAR race team, and bunches of rednecks in his search. He also expends a few rounds of ammunition and gets in more than one fight.

NIGHT OF THUNDER is an enjoyable thriller that, while not to the standards of the early Bob Lee Swagger novels, is packed with action and a sense of urgency. Bob Lee is his tough warrior self prone to do things alone and hard. He is good with a gun and still pretty good without one as well. The prose, at times, has a cool lyrical quality:

"It was that old-time religion, fierce and haunted, harsh, unforgiving. It was Baptist fire and brimstone, his father's fury and anguish, it was Negroes in church, afeared of the flames of hell, it was the roar of a hot, primer-gray V8 `Cuda in the night, as good old boys in sheets raised their own particular kind of hell, driven by white lightning or too much Dixie or too much hate, it was the South arising under red snapping of the flag of the Confederacy."

The plot is swiftly executed with a sure hand. There are no loose-ends, but there are a few plot twists that rely too heavily on coincidence and at least one that was incredulous. I guessed the major twist less than halfway through the novel, but the writing and action was strong enough to keep the story interesting and fresh.

-Gravetapping

I love Bob the Nailer. These series of books have been one of my favorite for years. But alas, even good things seem to always end. Havana was pretty mediocre, The 47th Samurai was pretty bad... i read Swagger for guns, not for swords. It seemed like i spent more time with the last book trying to learn these words then enjoying what i am reading...

but i digress...

Night of Thunder goes back to what Bob Lee is good at. I was worried when i read all these nascar overtones, but alas, it was overall a okay read. Yes, Bob Lee magically knows how to ride a motorcycle, and yes, Nikki was 4 when bob was 50 in Black Light, and now Nikki has graduated college and bob is... well... not 72. But its a step back in the right direction.

You don't have to own a gun and follow NASCAR to love this book. Stephen Hunter's newest Swagger novel is addictive. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. And I wasn't disappointed. It's a good story, told with characteristic wit and skill (and lots of loving attention to every scope and bullet in sight), that builds to a crescendo that is terrifying and really funny at the same time. Hunter's a great detail man -- and he has perfect pitch in Night of Thunder. From the making of an unlikely hero at a country store that will be recognized by anyone who's ever stopped to get a soda on a back-country road to the orchestrated pomp, circumstance and greed that makes NASCAR so appealing, Hunter's created a hell of a story here. One of the nicest parts of this book is the author's abiity to show how an aging and slightly creaky Swagger can still deliver the goods when they're needed. Swagger in his later years is as craggy and flinty as Clint Eastwood, an old lion but still a lion. Night of Thunder is one of Hunter's best.

Just as was the case in Hunter's previous book, The 47th Samurai, I can't understand the criticisms of the book. This one is a page turner that I could not put down and read in three sittings. Swagger, as a 60+ year old, reminds me of the character (Einar) played by Robert Redford in An Unfinished Life: he may be old but don't mess with him or underestimate him unless you're willing to pay the price. Hunter does not portray him as invincible, but as an aging warrior who, despite his awareness of his increasing frailty, is still confident in his remaining skills. Buyers of this book who are Stephen Hunter fans will not be disappointed. I only wish that Hunter was a more prolific writer. His books have been sporadically spaced, but perhaps that may change now that he has retired from his "day job".

I was really disappointed with this one. It was worth finishing, but just barely. Plastic characters, lots of convenience along the way, the ending is wrapped up quickly and easily. Predictably as well. I'd rate it 1 and one half stars if I could.

First of all I have to agree with R. Miller's review that this book does in some aspects read like a screenplay-although when you consider that this is the author's main source of income that should not be a complete surprise. I found the book to be fairly engaging, the characters well-drawn and credible, and enough twists and turns in the plot to keep the pages turning rather swiftly.

I have noticed going through the reviews on this book that the majority of the negative reviews criticize a part of the novel but not the whole. I understand if you become disgruntled with a part of the novel, but don't let that halo effect cloud the rest of the book. Granted the story of the big-town cop having a traumatic event ruin his life and forces him to move to the small town and become the target of the younger incompetent officers has been done before but that does not mean that Russell Andrews did not do it well in this book. (Which I think he did)

The transformation that the protagonist-Justin Westwood-goes through during the course of this novel is a solid piece of character development on Russell Andrews part. By the last part of the story I found myself wondering if I would have had the guts to do what Justin has to do in order to survive.

The romance in this novel is perhaps a touch contrived, but it is far from inconceivable as stressful situations (and the characters in this novel are put through their share) can cause people to bond together.

The supporting characters I thought were well, if hastily, drawn out. Russell Andrews gives them just enough idiosyncrasies to appear human and allow the reader to relate to them in their brief appearances. I will admit that the conclusion was a little too contrived and easy and left me wondering if the author had a deadline to meet and just had to wrap the novel up.

Overall though I felt this novel was a fairly decent thriller and would make a very good beach or train read.

I read a lot of thrillers, and I had high hopes for this novel given the good reviews for it. "Russell Andrews" is a pseudonym for a well-known editor in the publishing world, so I figured the book would be decently written.

Unfortunately, what I found was a remarkably weak thriller. Nothing in this novel rang true for me. The problems include cardboard characterization, cliched dialogue and situations, a completely unbelievable romance, and worst of all, an incredibly convoluted conspiracy plot. This is one of those books where you don't really understand what's going on until the author provides a 20-page explanation at the end.

There are far superior thriller writers out there that deserve your business. My advice is to read those authors instead: writers like Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, Robert Parker, Stephen White, and Tess Gerritsen. These writers employ three-dimensional characters and much more believable, fully-developed plots. This writer, at least in this novel, does not do that. I strongly advise you to skip this one.

For the type of book it is, it is quite well written, if a tad cliched. (How about we try the big city cop moves to small village because he's lazy?) Good characterization. Fast paced. BUT...work with me here. It takes place in the present day. The secret people are dying over has to do with stem cell research. And we find this out because some guy who should only be in his 80s is really 116. Well, by my calculation they must have started the secret treatments on him well over 40 years ago. Stem cells in 1966? I don't think so. Save this book for the beach.

I listened to this audiobook while riding the bus. If a book is boring or the details confuse me, I generally don't bother to finish it. But in this case, I was able to pick it up each trip and wanted to know about these characters.
One reviewer said why not kill the people who"knew the secret". Uh. They were being used as guinea pigs to test the anti-aging drugs, that's why not....
Thriller-only readers may not like the complications and philosophical asides, but as a literature reader, I found it worthwhile and engrossing.
Also, the main character was sympathetic. I don't read cop novels as a rule, so the material wasn't dated or boring to me.

I'd say this is worth the 5 bucks. Handy, easy to use, covers all the functions of a D70. I keep it in my holster pack, & reference it from time to time. Not an in depth book, but what do you really expect for 5 bucks.

Easiest manual I've ever read. Speaks in plain language - wish he would write a "middle" level manual.

Nikon should have included this book with the camera. I still use it from time to time for quick reference.

This is the best quick start guide for the D70 that I've seen, especially if you are visually oriented. The succinct, step-by-step instructions are supported by color photographs and diagrams. It's an accessible introduction for technophobics and technophiles alike...especially if you hate sifting through the fine print in the manual. An excellent value.

It's only five bucks. Well, I lost five bucks. Don't bother buying this book. If you bought a D70 and you need this book to figure out how to work it, you should have bought a disposable camera. Do you really need this book to tell you to turn the ring on the lens to zoom? If you're sitting at home with your $1000 camera in your lap waiting for this book to arrive so you can learn how to zoom your camera, then this book is for you. Overnight it if you have to. Otherwise, don't buy the book, send me four dollars so I can enjoy a cup of coffee at Fourbucks. At least one of us will get something for your money and you would have saved a dollar. It's a win-win.

World famous stage actress, Jessica Fontaine is involved in a train accident in Canada which mars her beauty and cripples her body. She has been the protege of a former great actress, Constance Cameron, who had nurtured her talent and who had tried for years to foster a relationship with her equally talented grandson, Luke, a top Broadway producer.
After the accident, Jessica becomes a recluse on a small island off the US coast, ignoring all overtures from friends and show biz people to pick up the threads of her former life. Following the death of Constance, Luke discovers among her posssessions, a small chest, filled with years of letters from Jessica, and after reading them all, is drawn to the actress and determined to meet her. He tracks her down and, after an initially rocky start, they are so mutually attracted that they enjoy a week of sizzling romance which Luke is determined to continue. Jessica is still undecided about any future for them and, with a complete lack of confidence in her new, unglamorous appearance, bolts, literally hiding out in Sydney, Australia.She tentatively begins a career as a play director after meeting and befriending a dynamic woman who guides her to a new beginning in theatre. Of course, as in any good love story, she is pursued by letters and faxes from Luke and it's these communications between them, in wonderful prose, that form the basis of the ever growing understanding of each others deep seated fear of commitment but very real love and need. This will probably be classed as a "womans" book but I found it to be a great read and enjoyed every page.

This book was a nice easy enjoyable read. The characters were very interesting and you cared what happened to them. It was a story of great love and courage and found it to be an inspiration. Jessica overcame and found love and laughter in her life again. A book I would recommend to read more than once.

Have you ever had a dream where you are trying to walk thru ankle- deep mud, water, sand (pick one) in heavy boots, and each step is almost impossible?? That's what I started to experience about a third of the way thru this book. The main charactors, Luke and Jessica, talk, talk, talk, deep serious conversations that go on and on, and if they are not doing that, they dissect everything-- acting, directing, etc. On and on. I started skipping pages, and when I started reading again, they would still be talking about the same thing. I started skipping more and more, and finally I just didn't care anymore. These charactors are the most self absorbed, dull people I have ever encountered. Even the grandmother who had passed away was long-winded in her letters. A lot of the book is written in the form of letters, and boy, are they boring.

Having just finished with a tough year of school I was looking forward to wrapping myself up in a great book that made the hours fly by in the most pleasant way. With so much dribble out there I was having a tough time until I spy'd Judith Michael's book on the shelf. "Yes! Goal achieved!" All I have to say now that I've read the book is I will just keep looking. This book is slow and while the characters are interesting they have so little to do you quit caring about them. I think any two people in real life would have more interest to me. My suggestion is DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. Reread some better and older books from the same author. And pray the next book is much better so I won't have to keep looking for a good book - and neither will you.

I read Inheritance written by this husband and wife team a few years ago and truly enjoyed it. Deceptions was also a good read, and I followed that with Pot of Gold, entertaining as well. I felt Acts of Love was terrible by comparison! Pages and pages of dialog that dragged on without getting to the point. I finished this book but getting motivated to do so was a real challenge.

I love bug books. Spiders, ants, and other creepy-crawlies thrill me. In fiction. I'm not insane. But every now and again, I pick up something that turns into an excellent bug book and this is one of them. (FP Wilson's Nightworld is another.)

This one involves alien-like bugs, is action driven, from the very first page, and never lets up. I cannot understand how another reviewer said there was no story or plot. It's a standard one, but very well handled. A couple of things didn't mesh (continuity errors) but they weren't glaring, as some authors' are. One of the best books I've read this year.

Whitley Strieber has written some very intelligent, scary, thought-provoking stuff -- and this ain't it. It tries to be, by turns, sexy, scary, and really really gross, and fails miserably on all counts (well, it does manage to be pretty gross). There are no believable characters, the horror is too over-the-top and cartoonish to be scary, and the plot is beyond stupid.

This novel is worse than the worst I read as a tad in Amazing Stories back in the 40's! No plot, paper (not even cardboard) characters,and impossible dialogue. I finished it just for the challange.Wolf in the Adirondacks.

Forget all the bad reviews here. They are from people who obviously do not like to have fun and pretend to enjoy Peter Straub....This novel is a mix of Lovecraft (it's dedicated to him), Machen, John Carpenter's The Thing, Mimic, Swarm, Day of the Triffids, Invasion of the Body Snatchers....Strieber throws it all into the mix and creates a ballsy, relentless horror novel thats just too damn fun!

A small town becomes the center for invasion of hideous creatures, arriving from another dimension. Whitley Strieber pays superb and creepy tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. This is one of those books where you know the characters are caught up in something so sinister and evil that it's an almost no win situation. Very creepy, very dark, very Lovecraft-like. A perfect blend of horror.

A must have for all students beginning in signal processing and using MATLAB.

This really is a comprehensive but practical exploration of the capabilities of Matlab in the Signals and Systems concentration of electrical engineering. Its most encouraging features are the inclusion of solutions to the exercises, and, only slightly less important, the code to get those exercises done. Although theory is not neglected, it never becomes tedious. Astonishingly intelligible. I cannot imagine an improved version of this text.

I am a third year electrical enginering student. I have just begun using matlab quite often and I had to buy this book for one of my classes. This book has offered no help whatever-so-ever. It contains almost entirely all problems with no help on how to solve them. A terrible waste of money, look elsewhere for help with matlab.

I used this book in a course that had for its textbook Signals and Systems by Oppenheim and Willsky. While I wouldn't recommend trying the problems without a good understanding of the underlying concepts, the MATLAB commands themselves are very well explained, and the instructions very straightforward.

This tutorial fails on every level possible. It does not teach Matlab in the context of solving signals and systems problems. It does not teach the theory behind signals and systems. If it hits a topic that requires anything greater than the most elementary explanation it merely refers you to the Matlab help files. I would expect that a book labeled "Computer Explorations in Signals & Systems in Matlab" to do just that - explore problems in signals and systems using Matlab by showing examples starting with the simple and moving up to the more complex that will involve looping and calling of subprograms. The exercises provided - unsolved of course - could have been good ones. The main problem with the exercises is that as you are doing them you have no idea if you are on the right track. You feel as though you are being led through a maze and only at the end of the exercise (which can consist of 10 or more subparts) do you finally get a feel for whether you have done anything correctly. This could have been a good book if the author would have only provided some examples of substance that would provide the student with the skills necessary for solving these exercises. To you professors out there - PLEASE stop wasting your students' hard-earned money and stop assigning this book as a required text. I am sure you can come up with good Matlab problems on your own and the book adds nothing to your students' educational experience. As an alternative might I recommend "Digital Signal Processing Using MATLAB" by Ingle and Proakis. It doesn't have much theory either, but it does have detailed examples on how to do DSP in Matlab. It's $20 more expensive than this book, but at least you are not throwing money away.

I never received the Medical book I purchased. The money was taken out of my account. I have e-mailed the seller twice without response. I will not purchase through Amazon again.

the seller send the book very soon but she give me a wrong one, and then she send me another one, but it was lost in the way. Although she returned my money, but I took a course two weeks without textbook.

I was very disappointed in the 9th revision. Although the HIPAA compliance and e-commerce sections have been updated, the material in the workbook is exactly the same. That includes all the same editing errors from the last edition. I spend hours of my time "re-writing" these editions when they should be correct at publication. The same ICD-9 and CPT errors are still there. I am seriously thinking of changing books for my school.

Having had to wait many weeks for the new, revised 7th Edition I was very pleased to note the improvements made from the 6th Edition. The color examples, universal legend symbols and easy paragraph read for the student are excellent. Another long awaited addition is the expanded Medi-Cal section (applicable to California only). Having been in the industry for 25 year I can say that this is the best Billing book on the market that I have been able to find. The only down side to this book is that it is not written for the "new" biller, but more for an intermediate to experienced biller. As long as the instructor can "dumb down" some of the excellent explanations, students will learn a tremendous amount from this book. I use it in my classroom along with my own material and the students are leaving the class with a well rounded knowledge base. Over all, I am pleased with the new Edition and it's contents.

I felt a little bogged down by all the information contained inthis book. It seemed too detailed and included a lot of stuff thatdidn't really apply to just medical insurance (for example thecomplete hypocratic oath which doctors take)! Overall, it was a pretty good book. It would have been a great book if they had cut out about a third or even half of the information. I thought Guide to Medical Billing, by a company called ICDC was much better. A lot of the pertinent data without too much extra. I also liked a book called The Medical Billing Handbook by Jason Cummings.

Mr. Adams is an excellent story teller and I own a few of his books. They are well worth the money; the only caveat is that the small amount of letting and nearly non-existent margins makes his books hard to read--other than that, they are excellent.

My kids love Charlie's books and so do I! Keep finding the spooks!

I liked it alot because of it's creepyness

I live in Bucks County. I have read this book. It seems the author has foucus on his point: to tell ghost stories. However, he seems to focus on UPPER BUCKS COUNTY. I have found no LOCAL stories that I can relate to. Also, the book focuses on Bed and Breakfasts Inns, rather than ANY place. If you love a good creep, then this book is for you.

I did not finish this book. I was disappointed by it. It was not well written, in my opinion. It seems as if ghosts in Bucks County tend to haunt mostly businesses that stand to benefit from being labeled as haunted. The author's claim that it was book that had to be written doesn't ring true since I think he has been involved with a series of similar ghost books based on other locations.

Collaboratively written by JoAnn Janssen and Gwen Ellis, Dress Like A Million Bucks Without Spending It! is a practical and economic guide of making the most out of a personal clothing budget. Tips for shopping, organizing, accentuating the positive, keeping an eye out for quality, learning how to sew buttons or fix split seams, passing shoestring budget ways on to the children, and more are all covered in this superbly organized, "user friendly", and highly recommended primer.