Ferguson Books

This is an extraordinary account of a unique psychoanalyst's journey into police work. It would take a very special kind of person to be accepted into the police force as an unpaid expert in personality profiling. This is not your usual office-couch psychoanalyst, but one who uses his training in an area where psychoanalytic insights have practical consequences in tracking down, interviewing and prosecuting the most heinous of serial killers. What motivates a psychoanalyst to leave the comfort of his consulting room to enter the grisly world of police work? One can only guess as Dr. Turco reveals a personal psychobiography which is unique and fascinating, in and of itself. This is a highly recommended page-turner, a real psychological suspense-thriller. It also reveals existential and philosophical counterpoints, helping explain why people go into police work.

Turco's book could just as well have been titled "All About Me." Psychiatrists and their brethren apparently cannot resist centering on the aches and pains of their profession, while the work they do and how they do it takes a poor second. If you are interested in his struggles -childhood, domestic, soul - this is the book for you. If you are interested in psychological profiling, perhaps now that Dr. Turco has gotten so much off his chest he will write that book.

Let me begin by saying that I have always been a true crime/forensic detection fan, and have read about every book available on the subject. Shortly after moving to Vancouver, Washington, where the murders committed by Wesley Allen Dodd took place, I happened upon this book (ok, my husband works in a book store!). I was fascinated reading about these crimes committed in my own community, and I must say it was nice to read an intelligent study of forensic psychiatry/detection that was NOT written by Robert Ressler or John Douglas (though I do enjoy their works as well). This is not your typical true crime story, so if Ann Rule is more your style, you probably will not enjoy this book. It is much more of a study of the workings of the minds of the people who perpetrate these horrible crimes, which I find very intriguing!

I generally check the reader reviews here on Amazon before I buy a book because regular readers seem to be a better gauge than the blurbs on the book jacket.

In my opinion, though, Ronald N. Truco's book did far better here than it deserves.

The subtitle of the book is "A Profile of the Hunter and the Hunted." Add "and the Story of My Life" to that. After suffering through 37 pages, I could not stand to hear any more about why Turco became a psychiatrist, why or how he became a cop, or how close the police brotherhood is. I thought I was getting a book about criminal profiling; instead I seem to have stumbles on an autobiography of someone who happens to have been involved in some interesting cases - and it's a poorly written autobiography at that. The theme wanders all over the place, the author makes questionable claims ("The organized serial killer was originally an FBI concept, although I developed the idea in 1968 when I worked on a series of San Francisco homicides"), and frankly, I really don't care about a snowball fight Turco had with his brother Salvy. I want profiling, criminal minds, and investigation, as the book jacket promises.

Another reviewer wrote, "This is a highly recommended page-turner, a real psychological suspense-thriller." I have to disagree. The only page-turning suspense I felt was wondering when we were going to get to the good part, and the only thrill I felt was finding the book for a few bucks instead of the shelf price of $14.95.

As a reader, I expect good writing, accuracy, and for the author to keep his promises. As a writer, I understand how hard it is to write a decent book. After giving Turco my full attention for 197 pages, I present this book to you, true crime reader, as evidence that some people should be writers and others should stick to their paid professions as lawyers, physicians, or pro football players.

The Ferguson Rifle is about a young man who found himself in the wild west with nothing else to depend on but his gun. He had been given the rifle by it's maker and the interesting thing is that the rifle was ahead of it's time. Because of this, it got him out of many close calls. Since the main character was called "scholar" by his friends, it is easy to see that he was out of place in the wild west. But, with the help of his weapon, he managed to survive the onslaught of many outlaws, save the girl, and find the gold. The gold was not his, but he ended the story happy because of chivalry.

The Ferguson Rifle is a really good book..It tells of the life and hardships the frontiersmen faced out on the lawless great plains.The main character,whose family was killed in a fire and is now leaving home, and a few trappers head west for the beaver rich mountains.They wind up on a wild goose chase when a woman they are protecting is being followed by a crazed man.

This was an enternaining story but it will never be a classic. The character's are strong, but like most L'amour books, theres not enough time to really get a feel for them. It moves along to fast.

The Ferguson Rifle is a decent book, as most of L'Amour's were. He kept them clean, with no sex, little swearing, and no graphic violence. He was also a pretty good writer. His only problem was that he had a deadline for three books a year, and this is another example of what happens when you write so fast. There is no emotional involvement with the character. Like the first reviewer said, there's no time to get to know anyone. But with L'AMour I guess that didn't matter, since most of his major characters were pretty much the same person with a different name. I've heard arguments to the contrary, but those readers obviously didn't pay much attention to what they read. 6 foot 4, black hair, broad shoulders, lean hips, fast on the draw, toughest fistfighter in the territory: sound familiar? It should. That was 85 percent of L'Amour's books. Now, if you want the good parts of L'AMour with a lot more emotion and character development, there's an author by the name of Kirby Jonas that critics are calling the New Louis L'Amour. When you read his books, you will quickly see why. Try him out. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. Keep Louis, too. He's good, just not great.

It is a good book as far as explaning what SQL Server has to offer regarding XML capabilities but it should have covered the case studies fully with the .Net Framework. Also, it covers very good the IIS configuration, and how to manage XML Templates, XPath and Schemas. The book has a migration example from ASP to ASP.Net which does not cover ADO.Net. If you want a rich source on how to integrate SQLXML and the .Net Framework THIS IS NOT THE BOOK.

I looked at two other SQL Server 2000 XML books, but found this one to be the best - covering almost everything on SQL Server 2000 XML. Very well written, nice examples help understand the technology better. The chapter on Updategrams is very useful. I wanted to learn updategrams and this chapter covers it nicely to get started using them in production.

Wrox has always prided themselves on code intensive books, and this is no exception. Unfortunately, they are also getting a bit intensive in the area of adding authors to be the first one to market. This leads to a book that seems a bit disjointed. With as few chapters as this book has, I do not see the need for so many authors. I guess it is the length.

Pluses in this book include the chapter on FOR XML and the chapter on OPENXML. I believe this is the area where most developers will like to spend the most of their time. I would have liked to see FOR XML EXPLICIT get a bit more coverage, as this is the bear, but the examples are workable, so I cannot complain too much.

I also enjoyed the updategram chapter. This ability was highly touted in Microsoft marketing events, but took quite some time to surface. The case studies help put the technology in a real world light.

The negatives are few. First, I believe far too much time is spent on XSD schemas, at least with the way it is presented. In a real world scenario, you are probably going to pull the schema from an existing database, which makes this material NULL and void. If you do get into writing XSD, you will find this material far too shallow.

I also would have liked to see how this technology could blend with the direction Microsoft is pushing .NET. I realize this is not the topic of the book, so I have not hammered on this. Perhaps the next book will be SQL Server 2000 and .NET?

I had mistakenly thought that Wrox books were held to a higher standard. First getting a taste for them going through both of Rob Vieira's two SQL Server Programming books and regarding them as the finest technical books I've ever seen. However this Professional SQL Server 2000 XML is a disappointment. Part of the problem lies with having 12 different authors because it seems a bit jumpy. I think I'll really try to limit my future purchases to single source efforts. Also, no care was taken with the code examples that you can download from the Wrox website. The book shows the source but there is really no way of really matching the example to the source other than guessing the name. Often I've needed to open up all 15 or so files in the directory to realize that the particular example is not included. I'm picking my way through but it is not pleasant.

This book is so tiresome. I'm so tired of the same diet books recycling the same message- control your weight- be happy! There is more to life than controlling your weight but you'd never know living in our culture or looking at the besteller lists. Try reading Simple Abundance or the Mass Market Woman. Those books are far better than wasting all your time, money and effort on trying to fight with your body all the time.

While sometimes I pondered over just how much of this book Sarah Ferguson wrote by herself,it is very helpful and practical. Most diet books are so difficult to follow, as good as they are. This one is not. And for the first time I've ever seen in a diet book, the author explains our eating behaviors exclusively from the female perspective. Perhaps the best part of this book is how to prevent weight-teasing and body anxiety in both your children and yourself. The book is very short (I read it in one day and I work!) but I really enjoyed it. The only problem I had with it is that they recommend diet sodas and other aspartame sweetened products in order to cut sugar and calories. They shouldn't promote using chemicals to control weight! Otherwise, a perfectly sensible diet plan I can't imagine not working for anyone.

I bought Sarah's first two books written in conjunction with Weight Watcers and haven't regretted it. This book too, was well worth the money.

This book addresses the real psycological issues and gives practical, usable advice on how to fight your food demons at 1:00 in the morning and at your favorite restaurant.

Sarah is a wonderful role-model, she's conquered her weight issues and has accepted that you don't need to be pencil-thin to be healthy or attractive.

The recipes, a mixture of exotic and simple, are as always a delight.

She makes WW's 1-2-3 success program well worth the effort.

This is a wonderful book. I think that Sarah Ferguson,(teamed with Weight Watchers),does an excellent job discussing the psychological aspects/roots of weight gain, loss, and management. Her personal experiences and feelings enhance the content. Chapter 3, titled, "My Mother, My Weight", is extremely insightful and useful. The weight issue seems to be passed from generation, and I will try to use the information she presents to break this cycle in my own family.

Well researched, well argued, and well written. Another excellent book from this author.
A must for everyone interested in Canadian naval history.

Once again, an excellent book from Julie Ferguson on the submarine branch of the Canadian navy.

Following on the heels of her first book, I was anxious to get my copy and continue the story of the Canadian submarine service. I was greatly disappointed. The text meanders through politics and policy and only covers those in passing. The references are minimal and nowhere near in depth as her first book. There are grammatical and spelling errors throughout, and maps that cannot be read (too small and not in colour even though some of the legends describe coloured routes/borders etc.) I ended up only reading the material that may be directly related to the vaunted submarine service. She should have waited a further 5 years, doing more research, before publishing this one.

Second and third authors Eleanor E. Ferguson and James G. Ferguson should be chastised for the weak intellectual quality of this book and for its hefty price tag that discourages amateur food lovers from learning about regional cuisine. In fact, amateur food lovers are all that the Fergusons can claim to be; the pretentious socialties have no more authority in writing a food book than does the McDonald's CEO (and perhaps less). The sole comfort is the lack of publicity this sham book has gotten since its publication, and this reviewer encourages all potential customers to wholly reconsider their purchase and keep from wasting their money.

I have little to add to the first review, except to reiterate the exceptional photography, the wonderful assortment of foods and the clear directions all combine to make a fantastic book.

As for the second review, it was my pleasure to spend time with the Fergusons prior to and during the publication of this book. I am amazed at the vitriol the reviewer is showing toward the Fergusons - they are anything but pretentious. As for the accusation of being amateur food lovers, well, I wasn't aware that one could love food professionally, nor do I see how one's amateur status invalidates one's ability to be a professional author. Jim and Eleanor are two wonderful people who deserve priase for the work they have done, not bile from someone who clearly has another axe to grind.

This massive cookbook is well worth the investment. Excellent and easy to follow recipes have delighted our family and friends. The Homestead is a grand historic resort, and the information about its culinary operations is fascinating. Chef Schnarwyler makes the world of French sauces easy to understand with great diagrams and clear descriptions. Outstanding color photographs of this beautiful resort throughout the seasons, and of the grand food, are a bonus. This has quickly become one of our favorite cookbooks!

Don't let the playful, hilarious, and often brilliant language of Jon Ferguson's debut distract you. This is a heavy and serious read that only appears to be a fun and carefree ride. Ferguson's use of poetic language indicates that he has an ear that musicians with perfect pitch will be jealous of. Like his hero, Larry Farley, Ferguson is a deep and complex thinker that mulls over the meaning of existence with humor, arrogance, and compassion. I predict that this book will be used one day in the same way that "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence" is to introduce folks to philosophy in easy to digest segments. The sections dealing with Alzheimer's Disease are brilliant, and in a strange way redeeming. Ferguson is a major talent. A philisophical page turner that is fun to read.

I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to consider his existence. The author, through Farley's lectures, takes the reader on a journey where one begins to ask the questions which have no known answers. For the scholarly, this may be philosopy light, but for the novice it will fill your mind with questions, forcing you to "think" about the answers. But does man actually think? Farley's view on this age old question is offered up in this easy to read and sublimely mellow story. Besides the questions, there is also a nice story intertwinded within the passage.

Farley's Jewel was a helter skelter ride of phenomenology. I did enjoy the reference to the Oakland Oaks but did he(Fergunson) forget about Rick Barry. The heartfelt relationship between Farley and his mother was very moving and led this reader to themes of reconcillation.

A great book idea, a poor authority, poorly organized. One should prefer waterboarding to this book. There is some accuracy and design in the book which recommends against capital punishment, but much rehabilitation need be forced upon the author before he is allowed to suffer the public further. I sentence the author to three to five years of hard revision.

I think this book should be on every professional's desk. I probably recommend it to my seminar attendees more than any other book.

The book is divided into the following sections:

-Punctuation, Mechanics, and Spelling
-Grammar
-Usage
-Pronunciation and Misused Words
-Vogue Words and Terms
-Who Tells Us What To Say and How To Say It?

As you can tell, from the section titles, this book helps with your writing and speaking. The book also shows how things change over time. For example, datum used to be singular for data and data was plural. Now the word data is used to represent both the singular and the plural.

I love the author's explanation of which versus that. Should I say, "It was the dog that lives next door." or "It was the dog which lives next door."? The technically correct answer: that. However, something like the following would be incorrect:

The food, that consisted of table scraps, was given to the dog.

Instead it should be:

The food, which consisted of table scraps, was given to the dog.

This is because the inserted statement - the one separated by commas - is non-essential information. It is traditional that "that" is used to introduce essential information.

I love this book and think you will to. I read it again every two years. This keeps me in grammatical shape - at least as good as can be expected for a West Virginian like myself (smile).

I hope this information helps you make your decision more easily.

Tom Carpenter

Ever wonder what is the correct way to say or write our own language? Well, this guy has put all of our most commom mistakes in one place. I get so aggravated when I hear such lazy grammar usage. But now I have an easy reference to know what is correct and what is not. I also found several I was in question about for myself, and now I know what I have been doing wrong. Want to know the "REAL" and correct usages for "I" and "me" in a sentence? This book spells-it-out.

This book was a bit different than I was expecting based on the title. The Continental Divide hardly figures into things; in fact I think the South Park WY crossing (on the Oregon Trail) is the only pass across The Divide mentioned. And it's not that Ferguson uses The Divide as a sort of metaphor for a divided country, or some such thing. If anything the Rockies as a whole appear here as an attractor, or maybe a canvas upon which various aspects of the country's psyche play out in several ways. I'd put Ferguson generally in the McPhee camp of writing, as this is a mixture of historical reportage and philosophizing about the cultural milieu both past and present; but don't expect as much science/geology as you might get w/McPhee.

A lot of the activity in the book takes place in other parts of the country, whether it's the Great Plains or in magazines popular along the eastern seaboard, rather than in the Rockies proper. Much of the book centers on the 19th century, when the Rockies were first being explored and settled -- if that's the word for it -- by Anglos; though men like Pike, Fremont, and Hayden are mentioned, most of the focus is on the trappers and "mountain men" rather than the official explorers and surveyors. Instead of very much about the mining days 100+ years ago we get much on the health mecca and dude ranch aspects. And while there are plently of colorful characters, it isn't *that* sort of a book. Only the last two (short) chapters cover the time after World War II.

So to me it seemed like a somewhat random walk that I wouldn't have thought to take on my own. If there had been some great new theme(s) or revelation(s) which resulted from Ferguson's rambles I might have liked the book more. But I was left with wondering why he chose to focus on the somewhat unusual or off-beat subjects that he did. Oh well, at least it was something kinda different.

This is an excellent book: full of history, information, stories, and insights about the Rocky Mountains. I read it during a recent trip to the Rockies. Not only did it increase my excitement about going to and being in the mountains (at one point I read it while sitting next to a lake in Rocky Mountain National Park at 10,000 feet with an afternoon storm coming in), but it made me think about them in ways I had not previously considered. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who cares about this wonderful part of the world.

This book nicely reviews how the place of the Rockies in the American imagination has changed over time. Americans originally saw the Rockies as a worthless "desert" but later became interested in classical conservation (like Teddy Roosevelt). Recent decades have seen the arrival of hippies, temporary residents, tourists, and dude ranches, among others. The book does not focus on the factual side of these changes - how many hippies were there and where did they go or how long did they stay - but rather on everyone's alleged views of the Rockies. In other words, it is more an "intellectual" history than a social, economic or political history, and a pop-intellectual history at that.

As is normal for these kinds of books, the evidence is not systematic but anecdotal. Ferguson's synthesis of each period's view of the Rockies is highly personal and it would be easy to construct alternative accounts. His book also does not go into any great depth, though it compensates for this in breadth of coverage. It can't hold a candle to Nash's "Wilderness and the American Mind," but it does cover a slightly different cast of characters and would be a fine companion volume.

The main line of the narrative warrants some reflection. Ferguson sees a development over the last century from early tourists who wanted to spend extended time in the Rockies, whether camping or visiting dude ranches, to the modern tourist who wants to drive through the park, take a few pictures, and leave. If you're thinking of buying this book for a vacation in the Rockies, I hope you'll be one of the people who relax and stay a while.

All in all, the book was interesting enough, well-written and a quick read. However, it didn't leave a lasting impression and I wouldn't go out of your way to read it. It would make a pleasant companion on a hotel balcony overlooking a mountain, or outside your tent in the backcountry. I gave it three stars as part of a struggle to stop grade inflation at Amazon, but most people would probably give it four.

This was a great book that I received which is currently helping with a course that I am enrolled at in college. It is very interesting and very informational

This book lacks example problems and has an errata almost as thick as itself. Poorly explained topics complete this debacle.

Great book. Easy to read through. Chapters are short and concentrate on only one subject at a time. Some of the derivations are left to the student/reader so if you do not already have a thermo book investing in one is a good idea. Overall, great text.