Clayton Books

As a basic introduction to 3D and OpenGL, it isn't bad. It doesn't cover advanced OpenGL features (for example picking) or 3D concepts. Beware of the faulty 3D rotation matrices for y and z.

If you want to read the first 30 pages and start programming in OpenGL, this is not the book for you. The first line of OpenGL code is around page 143. Try the book, 'OpenGL Superbible'. Assuming you know enough MFC to get by and if you're looking for a book that will explain the basics of 3D programming and then interface these basics with the OpenGL interface, this book is for you. For the almost 500 pages the book contains, the reading was simple to understand. If you are having a hard time finding a book that explains OpenGL (I haven't found a great book on this subject yet), this is a good place to start.

This pair of training CD's is for both 3DS MAX Release 1 & 2. I bought it because I have one and planned to get the other. I received more than 100 models, more than a hundred in depths projects, and access to more training online. This is an amazing product! Better than any of the other books - and I have them all. Great for new users, or for people who have had MAX for a long time but just can't get into it.

My intent was to buy a complete tutorial that could give me every single explanation about the software. Well, these CDs contain about 70 lessons on modeling, lights,animation, materials etc, but they sure don't cover it all.

As a newcomer to Tacoma Washington I became aware of Alec Clayton's reviews in the local papers, The News Tribune and the Volcano. I thought this guy is pretty well-rounded, reviewing sometimes theater and sometimes art exhibited in local art galleries. Because of this I bought his book.
What's interesting about it is his casual approach to describing the visual arts, sculpture and painting, with little negative judgement, and he can place it in an art historical context. He feel like you are seeing what he sees. I personally think it helps that he is an accomplished painter himself. It is a rare critic who can see from both sides of the fence. This is a really good and informative read. Lynn D, in Tacoma

There are not too many regional art criticism books so that alone makes this book very unusual. It is not true that all the artists live in the major cities of the world, Alec does reviews and writes about his area artists and he gives them the respect that they deserve and need. His technique is like a professional art viewer or a chef who loves to cook for the flavor. As if he loves to look at art and think about it.
I know some art critics are swayed by mere trend and youth and therefore only gravitate toward the latest young artist out of art school,so his writings are the anecdote to those blinded by the glitz. He gets why artists keep at it. Alec reminds me of the artist/critic Fairfield Porter who made a living writing art criticism and was an accomplished painter.

Englishwoman Lisa Clayton was the first woman to finish the extraordinary feat of sailing around the world nonstop. The idea came to her after reading a book by a woman who tried and failed to circumnavigate the globe by herself, so Lisa found a steel-hulled shell and proceeded to rebuild the sailboat to her specifications. She set sail on the Spirit of Birmingham from Dartmouth, England on September 17, 1994 and completed the journey 285 days later.

It took me a little while to get into the book as the first quarter was spent on the details of her life and of building the boat, not to mention the problems she had with money and sponsorships, but finally the boat was ready to sail. Her courage and will to survive were tested along the way when she had problems with equipment breakage, near misses with ships, personal depression, and one horrible storm where all she could do was stay strapped in her chair while the boat rolled over numerous times. This is truly an amazing story and I was surprised I could stay so interested in a story that just involves one woman and a boat. This is comparable to Naomi James' ALONE AROUND THE WORLD and Tania Aebi's MAIDEN VOYAGE, two other women who have sailed around the world.

Englishwoman Lisa Clayton was the first woman to finish the extraordinary feat of sailing around the world nonstop. The idea came to her after reading a book by a woman who tried and failed to circumnavigate the globe by herself, so Lisa found a steel-hulled shell and proceeded to rebuild the sailboat to her specifications. She set sail on the Spirit of Birmingham from Dartmouth, England on September 17, 1994 and completed the journey 285 days later.

It took me a little while to get into the book as the first quarter was spent on the details of her life and of building the boat, not to mention the problems she had with money and sponsorships, but finally the boat was ready to sail. Her courage and will to survive were tested along the way when she had problems with equipment breakage, near misses with ships, personal depression, and one horrible storm where all she could do was stay strapped in her chair while the boat rolled over numerous times. This is truly an amazing story and I was surprised I could stay so interested in a story that just involves one woman and a boat. This is comparable to Naomi James' ALONE AROUND THE WORLD and Tania Aebi's MAIDEN VOYAGE, two other women who have sailed around the world.

I liked this book, however I was looking for something that I hadn't thought of before. It is great for new teachers, but as a veteran teacher it really didn't offer me anything different.

I work for a teachers association. It seems that our new teachers aren't taught a lot about things like discipline or classroom organization in college. For those who think they might need a little extra help getting their classroom organized, I think that this book would make for a nice supplement.

The book details many helpful things:

1. Organizing your classroom based on the age of your students.

2. How to arrange desks, furniture, etc.

3. Making every bit of space in your classroom count.

4. Decorating, creating classroom displays, etc.

... and more.

The book is helpful without being condesending, and it has plenty of examples, tips and ideas. If you are not exactly the most organized teacher in the world, you might want to invest some time in this book.

Simplistic in the extreme... don't expect to be able to do much with visual basic after completing this book. A quote from the book:
"By the way, a Visual Basic .NET program uses an asterisk (*) to represent multiplication, not a X symbol as you might expect."
New topics are covered in just enough depth to become familiar but useless. This is a painless introduction to the topic... however the real pain will come when you try utilizing all the knowledge you've gained and discover that the depth of your understanding isn't sufficient really to do much more than write trivial programs similiar to the trivial examples presented in the book. For example: scrollbars are introduced as stand alone objects without mention of how they might be made part of a window.

There are many visual basic.net books out there but this one explains the basic of vb.net very well. I will recomend all beginners to go for this book.

I really enjoyed The Doctor's Medicine Woman by Donna Clayton. My enjoyment of the story was only made better by the fact that Ms. Clayton has truly done her research on the Woodland Indians. As an author and reader of Native American stories, I found the NA background done well. And the characters' relationship was believable and poignant. What more could one ask from a romance? I also loved the relationship between the children and their new father. Very nice!

This is the second book in the single doctor dads series. Dr. Travis Westcott wants to adopt two Native American twin boys. Being part Native American himself has helped his case with the counsel. It also didn't hurt that he helped play a role in seeing that they got the medical attention they needed to save their lives. The counsel, however, worries about him taking the boys away from the tribe. They believe he is ignorant about the ways of there people and the boys will suffer by not knowing and understanding their heritage. The counsel has agreed to let him adopt the boys, but Travis must allow the tribes medicine woman to live with him until she believes the boys have a good understanding of their culture. Travis never expects to fall for her, but when they are together sparks fly.

I was disappointed because I felt that the story was centered on the thoughts of the characters and rarely on their actions, interactions, or conversations with each other. I also felt that the author was building up to something important and than just tossed it in at the end of the story. I got to the last page and I thought, this can not be the end. The story was okay, but I felt it could be a lot better.

Drum Into Silence (2002) is the third novel in the Drums of Chaos series, following Drum Calls. In the previous novel, the three Mages attack Ellar in the Vale of Caeffordian and Cymel yields wholly to the Flow, blowing away the Mages and becoming the White bird. She takes Lyanz, Amhar, Talgryf, and the bodies of her father and Elizeth to her home. At Ellar's Tower, she finds Breith and tries to return to her own self, but can't. Terrified, she flies away.

In this novel, Breith calls to Cymel, but she starts to fly away. He grabs at her, but only clutches some long black hairs and a leather clasp, a tie that Cymel used to hold back her hair. Breith hauls the bodies, both dead and alive, into the entryway of the Tower. He wraps the dead in sheets and carries them into the cellar. Then he carries the sleepers upstairs to the dusty, cobwebby beds and quickly falls asleep in his own bed.

The next morning, Breith finally gets to wash off the ash, sweat, blood, and stench and drink a cup of tea. He decides to leave Talgryf with the responsibility for Lyanz and Amhar so he can pursue Cymel to turn her back into a human. Breith slips away under a flimsy shield of no-see and, days later, Talgryf manages to get the Hero and his lover off the mattress and onto the road. In the shrine of Marath Alaesh, Brother Kyo drops an icon of the god and chases it around the altar, only to realize that it has become an incarnation of the god Himself; he is signaled to seek out and help his brother. In Valla Murdoch, Faobran sends Yasayl, Malart and a group of scribes out to sea. Rinchay Matan watches her god, Kamkajar, shrivel and fade away and she dedicates her life to finding and punishing the liar who has destroyed her tribe.

Deep beneath the temple of Dyf Tanew in Tyst, Oerfel, the hidden Mage of Neddys, makes it back to his hexagram and resolves to destroy Cyfareth University. Mahara lays siege to Kar Markaz. Hudoleth renews her youth and returns to the palace to manipulate the Emperor.

This novel is the conclusion to the series, which was interrupted by the author's demise. The posthumous collaboration with Kevin Andrew Murphy has been very true to the previous volumes.

Highly recommended to Clayton fans and anyone else who enjoys complex tales of wizardry and war.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I imagine it must be very hard to pick up someone else's work midpoint and try to bring it to the conclusion they intended. Kevin Andrew Murphy certainly gives it a good try here, and I'm not at all sorry I finished the book (which I had been eagerly awaiting for years. There is no huge let down here, no great frustrations. But while there are hints of Jo Clayton's voice here, and I enjoyed visiting with her characters again...this is a pale continuation of the series...the depth is, sadly, missing...and I suppose, in a very real way, that is the most fitting tribute to Ms. Clayton possible...her work was finished, but her spirit is clearly absent.

Every Elvis Presley fan should own this book. Pictures on every page,colour and black and white, and many unseen photographs.My daughter just bought herself a copy, and now I have to get one too.
Great Book!

Very nice layout of pictures both color and B&W. High quality shots. Some very common pictures but also filled with "new" pictures previously unpublished. The compliants I see are that there are captions inside pictures covering up parts of the pictures, this is annoying. Also the author didn't check the facts right. There are many errors in these captions when talking about Elvis and his life. But this book is mainly about the pictures, a great coffee table book!

I bought this book for the history of the Evans Manufacturing company, and it was a great read. However, I am a collector of Evans compacts, and this book gave that topic only a small amount of space and only covered late '40s and '50s compacts. There are tons from the late '20s and '30s that could have been featured here as well to make the book worthwhile to me. But the book covers lighters really well, and if I choose to start collecting those, I will study this book hard before I make any choices.

this book is a definite for the collector of lighters. it is a book that all collectors of lighters should have. it is wonderful.