Hall Books

During this era of skyrocketing identity theft crimes, violence and death to innocent victims by stalkers, and government's tracking and monitoring of citizens' business, money and communication, Americans are seeking privacy for personal security and survival. Grant Hall writes on how to live an anonymous lifestyle in his new book, Privacy Crisis: Identity Theft Prevention Plan and Guide to Anonymous Living. And he should know. He used a non-traditional 'defense' to avoid a civil court case by disappearing for four years. A number of privacy tactics outlined in Privacy Crisis belong to Hall. I have never seen these in print-and I began reading privacy books prior to the publication of W.G. Hill's first PT book. Privacy Crisis may be the best book of its kind ever written.

According to Hall, privacy living is the answer to preventing identity theft. One can escape from a stalker or disappear-for any reason by using the information in Privacy Crisis. Alternate identification, renting and owning a home in secrecy, driving and working under the radar and establishing a clandestine communication and computer system are covered in detail. This book is thorough and complete and cites case histories and challenges the author of 'How to be Invisible' on the use of nominees.
Hall provides insight on anonymous banking, cashing checks privately, alternate name debit cards and provides a resource for obtaining a safe deposit box requiring no name or Social Security number. There's information on how to keep investments, property and businesses a secret. All of this can be accomplished in the U.S.A. of all places-a welcome change from the many books offering unrealistic, inconvenient, expensive, offshore remedies for domestic privacy problems.

I have completed Privacy Crisis and this book answered many questions about privacy and the challenges we face today.

Grant Hall has covered all of the important money privacy issues and it is possible to make your assets and money disappear through the application of the principles outlined in the book. And this can be done in the U.S.A. What a break from the other authors who guide readers toward offshore banks and advise giving control to others.

I appreciate the attention to detail. Obviously, Hall has walked where other privacy writers have never gone. I would highly recommend this book to those who fear their bank accounts will be stolen or seized by government agencies or others. Thorough, complete and worth the money many times over, Privacy Crisis will become a big deal in the arena of Privacy Reference books.

This book may be the greatest investment a person could make to escape the threats of stalkers, identity thieves or others who wish you harm.
Buy this book.

PRIVACY CRISIS was written by an author who has proved that through diligence, effort and a working knowledge of the system, one can have privacy in their life.

Grant Hall has opened new doors for those of us who previously believed that the road to financial privacy must be traveled by transferring assets to offshore 'havens' in an attempt to control our assets. In fact, Hall uses business resources that cater to the privacy seeker combined with knowledge of the financial system and negotiating skills to keep bank and brokerage funds hidden from those who may want to find them. Hall recommends using a company that rents safe deposit boxes without identification, tax i.d. or Social Security numbers-not even a name for those who want total secrecy. There's examples of cashing checks that leave no trail to the payee. Hold assets and property in total secrecy. These methods were eye openers for me.

I liken this book to an information enemy to the powers that want to control freedom loving Americans. Those who choose to become invisible to identity thieves, stalkers, private eyes can do it by practicing Hall's principles in PRIVACY CRISIS.

This is the best book on the subject I have read and I highly recommend it to those who desire personal privacy.

Personal privacy is under siege these days. Mine was first invaded when cyber-crooks drained my checking account in a single day. If you don't take steps to protect yours, it too will go up in smoke. For you, maybe it's when an obsessed former spouse or fan starts stalking you. Or the government--claiming "national security"--begins wiretapping your phone. Maybe it's when your employer snoops on all your emails, a gumshoe rifles through your credit files, or you have to supply your most personal information just to open a checking account or buy a home.

You don't have to give up your God-given privacy. Believe me, this book will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about how to protect it--whether in just one area, or an entirely anonymous lifestyle. This author knows his stuff. He's practiced everything he writes about. So his book is far in advance of other privacy books that just recycle armchair theories or even worse, suggest you do things that are outright illegal.

Protect your identity. Protect the privacy of your home and business transactions--your computer, phone, mail, travel, bank account, stored items, credit files, hard assets, and investments. One invasion of your privacy will cost you ten or a hundred times the price of this one-of-a-kind book.

I wish I'd known about it before they emptied my bank account.

It goes without saying that personal privacy is a rare commodity in America today. Identity theft has become the country's fastest growing crime. Con artists relentlessly target us while greedy lawyers and vengeful ex-spouses threaten to drain our bank accounts and assets. Our personal computers have become open doors into the most discreet corners of our lives. And that doesn't begin to address threats to our privacy from the government, eavesdropping employers, nosey snoops with hidden agendas, eavesdropping employers, and increasingly intrusive marketing-crazed companies.

Privacy Crisis is easily one of the best books on privacy ever written. Through his eye-opening inside perspective, as someone who evaded private investigators and attorneys for four years by living "below the radar," Grant Hall has brought us an authoritative how-to guide for the average American who wants to protect his or her privacy on an practical level. Far superior to the many theory-laden books on privacy, Privacy Crisis is a revealing step-by-step manual written by someone who has walked the walk. This book is required reading for anyone concerned about their personal and financial privacy in an ever-threatening society.

Phillip Townsend
International Consultant and Privacy Expert

The best I've seen in the practical application of multi-threading technology on the UNIX platform. In fact, I managed to implement this technology into the construction of a communication server quickly and succesfully after reading this book. Well worth the money

Must have book that anybody interested in threading should have. Certainly not for beginner. Explains the basic constructs of threading and then takes specific instances where threading can be applied.

The Book assume the reader has background in threading and OS internal related concepts (althouth pthread is for applications, it has strong similiarity with OS design issue). It gives a concise introduction to the pthread interface and semantics, then quickly (yeah, I like such way) go into application and related issue discussions. I find such way is very intuitive and meet my taste.

There are two drawbacks from general point of view, one is the book is not appopriate for Unix beginner. The other one is the examples are taken from handy code, not well trimmed to only pinpoint the topics, but it make me feel more natural and practical.

Wholeheartedly agree with the others. This is an excellent treatment of threading with a wealth of examples. I especially like the Advanced Topics where they address cases and situations that seem very common in practice yet are not documented elsewhere.

This book should have been called "Introduction to Posix threads in Solaris and multithreading issues".

Pros:

- covers Posix threads, including more complex aspects, which are "usually neglected by ... implementors" to quote the authors. Includes threads cancellation and fork behaviour.

- a set of ideas, problems and methods that you may encounter while developing multithreaded software. Most of them are on the simpler side though.

- compact, highly informative chapters (average to 20 pages each).

Cons:

- No word on differences between Unix flavours. Basically it's all refers to Solaris, which I can understand, since Mr. Kleiman is the head of Sun Solaris threading dept (also Posix threads committee member).

- C API only, no existing C++ implementations behaviour or really anything C++ related.

- Mostly recommendations. Nothing on the _existing_ practices, libs or whatever. One or two of the existing bigger pieces of software could have been surgically dissembled to show how it's done. Some math analysis is shown, but it ends with yet another recommendation.

- The methods and problems covered could be more deep, otherwise it's sort of an introduction.

- Some of the samples are too big.

Overall:

- Gives you an impression that the authors are very knowledgeable (yeah, right, see note on who one of the authors is), and capable of explaining complex things with simple words, but a little bit ignorant in that they consider the reader not worth sharing more knowledge with.

- Certain chapters must be stripped out, and more pure theoretical info added.

- A recommended book all in all.

P.S. A stylish cover.

It's quite refreshing to read a project management book which takes the real world and makes sense of it so accurately as this one does - and extends and converts it into a business stratagem - with some good old fashioned common sense thown it. This easy to understand book is obviously the result of one who has walked-the-walk and not just talked-the-talk - and I would recommend it to anyone who is an experienced project manager who now wishes to extend those principles to business process review, growth and consultation. It is also quite refreshing to read a book from a UK perspective - as most of the best PM books are from the US - and this in itself gives another useful angle on the global status which PM now enjoys. In short: tight, neat and impressive.

This is one of the few books that covers project management as a coherent process while providing detailed guidance for enterprise-level program management.

The project management processes covered are strikingly similar to PRINCE2 (the UK PM standard), especially with respect to organizational structure. If your approach is aligned to the US standard set forth in the Project Management Institute's PMBOK you discover that you'll have to compensate for gaps between the author's approach and the PMBOK. An example of where such a gap exists is in the chapter on project accounting, where status reporting is not consistent with earned value, which the PMBOK now covers. There are other such gaps in the way process flows are presented. However, this book contains so much valuable information and such a strong approach to managing projects at the enterprise level that the effort to fill in the gaps will be repaid many times over with an approach to project and program management that is absent in the PMBOK.

What distinguishes this book and why I think it's invaluable include:
(1) Strong emphasis on making a business case quantifying project benefits up front, and managing stakeholder expectations.
(2) Focus on deliverables instead of managing to a Gantt chart.
(3) Viable approach for managing project portfolios, which is a true enterprise-approach to program management and an excellent framework for establishing and managing a PMO.
(4) Copious details about the important aspects of project management, including handling issues, quality, and resources.

I particularly like the staged approach to managing projects, which is consistent with PRINCE2, and the use of 'quality gates' as stage entry and exit criteria. I also like the way the book steps you through how to properly set up and manage a single project, then a collection of projects, and finally a portfolio of projects. It is here that the PMO concept starts to become clear and structured, and where the book has the most value to organizations that are struggling with establishing a PMO.

The CD ROM that comes with the book is, in my opinion, more of a novelty than a collection of useful artifacts. The documents are in Acrobat format, making them nearly useless you have the full version of that program, and cumbersome to modify if you do. I would have preferred documents in rich text format, which can be edited by any word processor (MS Word, StarOffice, etc.). However, the forms and checklists are also provided in the book and can be easily replicated.

If your goal is to establish and manage a PMO this book is worth its weight in gold. It's also valuable to project managers who are seeking advanced, proven techniques for single project management. If you fit either of these criteria I also recommend TOTAL PROJECT CONTROL by Stephen A. Devaux, which contains advanced PM and PMO techniques that complement this book nicely.

Having followed Buttrick's guidelines on project management for many years I know they work, even in the most complex and rapidly changing business environments. The most innovative chapters, though, are those on programme management. No other reference deals with this difficult subject so well. Buttrick explains the different types of programmes and how each need to be managed. This book is a `must have' for anyone trying to ensure that their projects meet their company's objectives.

I have spent the last year looking for good project management books. I have found several good ones; however, this one surpasses them all for usability and practicality. If your projects are not overly technical, this could be the only PM book you need. (If your projects have a significant technical component, take a look at Visualizing Project Management for its description of the technical part of projects. But still look at this one for its practicality and directness.)

Robert Buttrick's 'Project Workout'accomplishes what few books manage to do, and that is to present its topic with erudition; with clarity and with rock solid applicability that stems from accumulated professional experience.

It remarkably serves to introduce the neophyte and in the same token enlighten the grandmaster...

I am a nuclear pharmacist who gets to work with a lot of introductory students. This book has greatly increased my knowledge of this subject and it is very clearly written even for the non-specialist in radiobiology. I would buy this again.

A must read book for radiation oncology and physics residents. All topics on radiobiology are explained in a comprehensible way. This book, plus "The Physics of Radiation Therapy", by Faiz Khan, are the basics of the knowledge for the people who are begining in the understanding of radiation physics. Great book, written for one of the best physics in the world.

This book has an excellent concise layout. The chapters are well written with almost every concept covered on the basis of primary literature findings; however, this is burdensome in certain locations where a simple sentence would have been better fit instead of an experiment based explanation of a more remote concept. Additionally, there are some areas, such as the molecular biology sections, that pack in details that take the concept of the mark. Despite this, the textbook is definitely an easy read. The Key points sections at the end is very helpful. There are abundant figures, tables, and graphs for ease of integration of material.

Yes, this book covers the important topics, and overall it is pretty readable, but I wish the editors had not felt compelled to convert every single mention of Grays into rads. For example, here is a passage from the book:

"In 1964, a 38-year-old man, working in a uranium-235 recovery plant, was involved in an accidental nuclear excursion. He received a total-body dose estimated to be about 88 Gy (8,800 rads) made up of 22 Gy (2,200 rads) of neutrons and 66 Gy (6,600 rads) of gamma-rays."

The whole book is like that. The mental intrusion of such frequent parenthetical remarks would be irritating enough in any text, but in this case the conversion from Grays and rads is by a multiple of ten and so the conversion is comically unnecessary. Presumably radiation oncologists, radiologists, and radiobiologists are bright enough to be able to multiply a number by 100 in their heads. It would suffice to state in the front of the book or in an appendix the relationship between Grays and rads, and to make no further mention of rads.

Not only is this book the gold standard, but it is eminently readable. It "sticks". Having seen Dr. Hall lecture I can appreciate how his text reads very much like his class lectures. Makes a topic that a radiation oncologist might find odious rather enjoyable, without sacrificing high standards and scholarly quality.

The author was a schoolmate of mine from Montana. I sent the book to another classmate knowing she would enjoy it as much as I did. She loved it! Pat

After reading her wickedly satiric THE SERIAL, I decided to spend some time with some other authors before diving into this. This one's the Pulitzer nominee, so I assumed something even more hilarious. Instead, I got reality. Still wickedly witty, but factual rather than satiric.

(Same thing? Maybe. Don't make me think too hard or I'll never finish this review.)

It's a very different animal, showing us that McFadden has quite a range. She lived a very interesting life with a very interesting family, and here it is. She's observant, insightful, clever, and well worth reading.

I've read many memoirs and enjoyed them while I read them, then forgot them a week or a month later. Heck, I can't remember most of my own memoir these days. But this is a memoir I will remember. It's a great book. That's all I have to say. If you want to know why, read some other review. I know they're out there. I'm just agreeing with them, okay? It's what I do.

Yay! Cyra McFadden's memoir is back in print! I had snapped up all the used hardcover editions I could find a few years ago when I heard it was out of print. But why?

Because this slim memoir is the kind of story that unfolds in the reader's head like a gorgeously-shot film, one that's perfectly cast and shot on locations that evoke the internal emotions of its characters to stunning effect. Cher once actually owned the movie rights on this book, then I heard nothing more of it. Her instincts were right on. If there was ever a book that cried out to be adapted into a film or a play, this is it.

McFadden grew up in the West, the daughter of Cy Taillon, a legendary rodeo announcer and his wife Pat, a one-time showgirl with charisma enough to match her husband's. Cyra grew up a little cowgirl gypsy, as the family roamed the Western rodeo circuit together by car in the 1940's.

McFadden's eye for detail in regard to smells, sounds and her childhood consciousness is extaordinary, as is her realistic depiction of her parents' tumultuous love for one another that is the basis of the story and McFadden's adult questing. The smell of cattle, the sonorous voice of her father, the taste of all-hours road food and the touch of sequins on her mother's old costume gowns....this book is filled with details that will linger in your imagination for years. Old family photos accompany the text and they are intimate and haunting. All is told in a voice that is unsparingly honest, as well as sympathetic. McFadden cherishes her vagabond childhood and gives us a technicolor look at the richness of its place and time.

Buy this book if you love a well-written memoir. Or buy it because you love the West. Buy it because you love cowboys and showgirls and all-night trips down dusty highways. But buy it, and many copies of it, because you will want your friends to experience its cinematic poignancy after the movie in your head ends.

Obviously, one of my all-time favorite pieces of writing. Woefully under-read and underappreciated, I encourage English teachers to consider this in a curricula on memoir writing. It is lasting stuff.

It's about time this book was back in print. In my opinion, "Rain or Shine" is the gold standard for memoir writing. I read it back in 1986 when it was first published (and a finalist for the Pulitzer that year) and reread it again just recently. Even though I have little or no interest in rodeo announcing, trick-riding, or the old (or even recent) west, I have an addiction to good writing. "Rain or Shine" is so luminous (and humorous) that it immediately captured my attention. And held it. This one's a sleeper. It would make a great movie. It reads like one already.

The story of Ms. McFadden's parents, Cy and Pat Taillon, comes to life immediately and everything they do seems fraught with such passion and abandon that we know, before they even realize it themselves, that this couple will not end up in rockers at 80 talking about the good old days together. He's a rodeo announcer who likes a drink. She sublimates her own ambitions and becomes a trick rider to be with him. Early on, we are told by members of the supporting cast (chiefly, Pat's sister, Ila Mae, and Cy's best friend, Roy) that Cy and Pat Taillon are starcrossed and mismatched, recklessly piloting their Packard down Satan's driveway and taking their vulnerable little girl with them. However, we don't quite see it that way, as young Cyra is always in her backseat bedroom (they live in the car on the road), humorously showing us that there may be a little envy involved as Cy rises to the top of his game early and stays there. Slowly, the family begins to enjoy some measure of success. Inevitably, setbacks occur.

The couple's eventual flameout is a shock, even though it isn't particularly unexpected or spectacular. One day, Cy Taillon simply unhooks his Packard from the family trailer and drives away, leaving mother and daughter sitting by the side of the road. As the Packard disappears on the horizon, Cy's "best friend" Roy materializes and hooks the trailer up to his car, taking both mother and daughter home with him. Roy has an ulterior motive. He and Ila Mae have been diligently attempting to wrest Pat away from Cy so that Roy can have Pat for himself. It works -- Pat's emotions and security are in disarray. She needs a steady hand, something concrete in her life. Cyra, on the other hand, is never fooled by Roy's betrayal and ulterior motive. She's astonished at how easily he stuck the knife in her father's back. Soon Roy and Pat are married and thus begins one of the most hilarious sections of this memoir -- life with Roy. In a reversal of lifestyles, young Cyra must now adhere to a strange set of rules and regulations intended to foster good health, including the proviso that each bite of food is to be chewed exactly 28 times "to get all the goodness out of it." It is clear, in her shaky state, that Pat has settled for Roy, who is about as boring as he is devious. But is Cy completely out of the picture? Ila Mae and Roy's plan to snatch Pat away and save her from eternal damnation looks like it has run into some kinks.

Cyra McFadden was Cy Taillon's first born child, his namesake, a female replica of him. She was blessed with his almost-impossible-to-feminize name (pronounced "Sigh'-rah"), which is actually quite nice. He loved her and she adored him. Who wouldn't? Not only was he a respected, handsome man, he had the most soothing voice west of the Mississippi, possibly even west of the Atlantic. As a little girl, Cyra could be found at his side, a minature version of him in custom made cowboy boots, her father's jacket over her shoulders to keep her warm as he announced the cowboys. By the 70's, however, Ms. McFadden was marching for peace in San Francisco while her father was promoting the Vietnam war from the crow's nest at rodeos. They hardly spoke. When they last saw each other, father and daughter argued about racial intermarriage, politics and the whole range of topics that fractured families in the early 70's and still does today. After a long estrangement, they made up. On his terms, of course. Cy was a stubborn man, as stubborn as his daughter, and he now had a wife and two sons who treated him in a way his daughter couldn't, with blind respect. It seemed that, in the end, Cy Taillon settled for less just as his first wife had. I found it heartbreaking that, when he died a wealthy man in 1980, he erased his only daughter out of his life so thoroughly that his will, in which she was left nothing, arrived at her home postage due.

Far from depressing, "Rain or Shine" is absolutely hysterical. Ms. McFadden seamlessly weaves actual correspondence into the text that not only advances the plot -- Ila Mae sends out a stream of letters full of moral judgment and condemnation -- but is screamingly funny. When it turns out that Ila Mae isn't exactly a tower of moral rectitude herself, the reader wants to say "I told you so!"

Fans of Cyra McFadden remember "The Serial" from the mid-70's (a rich and enlightened left hook to the rich and enlightened folks in Marin County). She brings the same humor, airtight prose, and bullseye characterizations to the proceedings here as well.

"Rain or Shine" is simply a classic.

The reference in the title is to the dedication of the author's father, a celebrity rodeo announcer, who never missed a day's work because of the weather. It's also a shorthand reference to the old song "I'm gonna love you like nobody's loved you. . ." Her book is not only a tribute to her famous father but an account of a difficult father-daughter relationship that soured from worshipful love to bitterness and eventually to a kind of grudging respect in his last years before dying in 1980.

The book is also a family memoir, characterizing the lives of those awkwardly related to her by blood or marriage: the author's mother and stepfather, an older aunt and her husband, and her father's second wife. Each of them is as vividly drawn as the larger-than-life Western luminary at the center of the story - Cy Taillon, whose golden voice and gentlemanly manner won the devotion of rodeo cowboys and fans from San Francisco's Cow Palace to Madison Square Garden from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Not surprisingly, what the author's story reveals casts her father in a somewhat different light, first as the hard drinking, gambling, womanizing ne'er-do-well who married the author's singer-dancer mother after a one-day courtship. Following the rodeo circuit out of a home base in Montana, they fought and loved each other passionately, a Scott and Zelda of the Western plains, and then broke up. Following a spectacular crash at an air show in Great Falls in 1946, at which Cy used the microphone to calm the startled crowd, he became the hero he was destined to become. Assuming a life of rectitude with a new devoted wife and two new sons, he was finally launched in the career rodeo people will always remember him for. Meanwhile, his first wife languished in a miserable second marriage, and his daughter grew up, loving her absent father deeply while stubbornly unwilling to come to terms with the man he had become.

Thanks to the University of Nebraska Press for reprinting this wonderful memoir. It offers a fascinating window into the world of the rodeo circuit, at least as it once was. For rodeo-going readers, it does much to explain the evolution of the role and persona of the rodeo announcer and the elevation of rodeo cowboying into a kind of gallantry. It's also an entertaining story told by an author with a gift for both sentiment and satire. With her eye for the absurd detail, she can unerringly find the irony in an often rueful story. The many family photos are also a wonderful addition to the book.

While in Nepal last year I found this book to be exactly what I needed to get around as easily as possible. I usually use Lonely Planet Guides when traveling, but in this case - the Rough Guide is superior. Now if I can only get it back from my friend....

great guidebook. Describes in detail the good, the bad and the ugly of Nepal. The language section was extremely useful. A few hours spent learning some useful greetings and phrases will pay off tenfold upon arrival in Nepal. Being able to bargain or ask for directions in the native language is a lot of fun and much appreciated, especially since most travellers do not take the time to learn anything more than "Namaste."

This book has given me comfort and a wealth of information about what I would like to do and see in Nepal. Having a well planned trip in advance is smart and this book will probably tell you everything you need to know about anything, and more. Food, health issues, places to stay, sights, special points, etc. Definitely worth the investment.

I just returned from Nepal using this guide. The book was very well-written with lots of practical advice-- everything from how to book an airline to what kind of diahrrea you may have picked up. Very accurate information re. hotels, modes of transportation, etc. Useful vocabulary list.

The best thing about this book is its vast coverage; especially those places off the beaten track. It has a lot of practical information and despite being 2 years old now, it was still fairly accurate. Other travel books attempt to be encyclopedic about Nepal,... documenting everything without prioritizing the places that people actually do visit. David's book goes into a lot of detail about places of interest, both historical and practical info. For example, the book had an excellent section on Chitwan national park. In fact, on our recent trip it saved us from getting a guide. I thoroughly recommend this book. The author even keeps a website to update the readers. Great.

This is he best novel about the Civil War I've ever read. While the various descriptions made this book sound somewhat clownish, it really is the story of two families of non-combatants and how they struggled to stay alive as the War raged around them. Funny, sad, touching, and excellent in all respects.

This is actually the first book in the H.H. Lomax Series. I think this is the funniest western that I have ever read except maybe "Mixup at the OK Corral: (By the same Author). I cannot understand why this book is out of print. If you find a copy, buy it and don't lend it to anyone because you will want to read it many times and this is not a book that anyone will give back.

This is the second in the book seris and is well worth the time it will take to read this. It has acton and adventure and there is even a joke in it about Bill Clinto

This is the funniest western I've ever read! My favorite along with Lonesome Dove. I love his country sayings. I laughed out loud and was sorry that the book ended. Didn't know this book existed until I stumbled onto it in a library. A Lewis book is like a John Wayne movie, based on history, spurred with suspense and spiced with humor. The perfect formula for any book. I'd love to have the Lomax set! Why are they out of print???

This is a humorous, clever tale of a well known western folk hero and a virtually unknown bumbling western nobody. The book engrosses you from the beginning and keeps you guessing until the very end. Don't let the length discourage you. This is a great read!

I purchased this book for someone who isn't much of a reader. He loved the book from its first page and read the book through in no time. He is currently reading his way through the rest of the series.

I Enjoyed the return of the Mountion man The Preacher,Was one tought &very cool Man .that didn't take any Fool Hartedness
He would try walk away .But the Bad guys would not have any of that walking away,So they keep on pushing

striker1

Johnstone's Mountain Man novels are so fast-paced and exciting, you have to catch your breath. This is classic writing!

SMOKE JENSEN LOST HIS FIRST WIFE AND CHILD TO a small group of worthless hired guns. It was quite some time ago but felt like only yesterday when he rode into a town named BURY, a town he believed the 3 bandits now resided. If it did the population was going to decrease just as soon as Smoke found the cowards.

"The Return of the Mountain Man" is the second of the Last Mountain Man series, and it is with this book that the Legend of Smoke Jensen really begins. William Johnstone is a Master storyteller and this book will keep you interested from start to finish as Smoke Jensen who seeks his revenge as Buck West for the murder of his first wife and child. This book is an excellent starting point to the tales of Smoke Jensen which will follow in other books in the series. As in all Johnstone a lesson can be learned if one reads deeply enough.... It will be left up to you the reader to find that message.

I found this to be an excellent introduction to how to build a fully functional, autonomous robot. This book covers everything you need to build robots using LEGO Technics (think LEGO blocks plus gears, motors, etc.) and a Handyboard, a robot brain developed to get the hard digital electronics out of the way so you can concentrate on putting together a good design with motors and sensors and software intelligence.

As someone looking for how to break into robotics without first getting bachelors in Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering, this book was for me. I got the basics of the two topics covered and was able to dive right into the interesting "what can I do with my robot" scenarios.

This book also goes into some detail on inexpensive sensor components out in the electronics market and how to use them in robots. I found this to be a great source of ideas and instructions even when not creating robots using the Handyboard brain.

For those looking to dabble, be aware that this is a book best used in conjunction with real, live robot parts. (...)

This book presents an introduction to various aspects of robot building and planning. It is written as an undergraduate textbook, and contains numerous exercises throughout the text. The book assumes that students and other readers will have access to Handyboards and LEGO Technic equipment, as well as a desktop PC and hobbyist-level soldering equipment. The book walks the reader through analyzing a Handyboard, how to use it, how to build custom sensors and motors, and how to write programs in assembly language. All of this information would be very useful to first-year engineering students as it would help them put theory from many of their other classes into practice. Nevertheless, most of the tasks and programs described in the book could actually be built with a standard LEGO RCX brick. On the other hand, a person who masters the material in this book would be able to take advantage of the extra sensors and motors that the Handyboard supports and build far more sophisticated robots than would be possible with LEGO Mindstorms equipment. Anyone who builds robots using LEGO equipment, whether with a Handyboard or an RCX, will find information in this book about Braitenberg vehicles, LEGO design, control theory, and robotics contests quite useful. The introduction to Assembly language in Appendix A is also presented in an easily accessible style.

I just finished participating in the MIT 6.270 Autonomous Robot Competition. This book really pulls together everything you need to understand how to build a robot from Lego parts, and interface it to the real world using a variety of sensors and actuators (aka motors). There is so much to be learned by actually BUILDING a robot - this is a great book to help you dig into your own project. You can order the same hardware and software used in the MIT class off the internet as well.

The basic content of this book is excellent. It provides a readily accessible introduction to the principles of engineering. This book could easily be used as the text for a first year course in a unified engineering curriculum including Computer Science. The one flaw with this book is that it appears to have been rushed out by the publisher. Many of the page references are to the wrong pages and some of the pictures are rather blurry. Finally, the instructions for creating and downloading ICB files to incorporate assembly language modules for interrupt side programming and similar purposes needs to be reworked in a future edition. I hope that a future edition will also have a chapter on electrical design and construction techniques to compliment the chapter on mechanical techniques. I also look forward to a third chapter on sensing and possibly a second chapter on control theory. Regardless, this is overall an excellent book and should be acquired by anyone interested in small robots.

After 12 years of running an engineering club, I finally found a helpful book. I work with students from 6th to 12th grades. My 8th and 9th graders have no problem following this book. As a matter of fact I can't keep it on my desk. It is frequently either checked out or on the floor with the "builder". Yes, it is a freshman college book but my kids seem to have no problems reading it. My students participate in BEST, FIRST and Botball.

History is so much more when you see what a lifetime was really like in the 19th or 20th century for someone completely "unimportant." A story like Rosa's is a hundred times better than the oatmeal summaries we get about immigrant hardships and all the stuff about people coming to find their fortunes in America or whatever. This gutsy girl never wanted to come, didn't choose to come, but what do you do if you start out life as a foundling, are sent to work in a silk factory at age 8 where your job is to unravel silk cocoons (!), and then you get married off to an old creep who's carting you off mostly to run his boarding house and look after his mistress while he slaves in an iron mine in Missouri. Man, this was a hard life, but out of it came this wonderful, storytelling woman who somehow survived to tell us what things were really like to end up starving in Chicago in the 1890s. Whew. Forget the history textbooks. Let's just puts books like these in front of our kids. And ourselves. Take Me With You When You GoNutty to Meet You! Dr. Peanut Book #1

A wonderful view of immigrant life as well as a poignant look at life in the old country. Rosa's voice is full of detail--almost as if she is sitting across the table from you, sharing the joys and sorrows of her life.

Being a member of a third generation Italian American family this book was very interesting to me. I felt like I was sitting next to Rosa as she went through her experiences. It brought back many memories. I finished the book in one weekend then mailed it to my Italian mother for her to enjoy. This is the first Italian American book I have read that was written from a women's point of view. I highly recommend it.

I stumbled across this book a month ago while writing a term paper on Italian immigration.
Rosa's tale is a poignant story. Her life story reveals her pride,faith and determination to survive in both the new and old world and her unwillingness to compromise her values.

I highly recommend this book!

First we need to thank Helen Barolini for resurrecting this precious book from obscurity. And for all those who complain there are no uplifting, inspiring tales about Italians, here in Rosa The Life Of An Italian Immigrant, is the proof that there certainly is.

Rosa would be the first to say she was no one special, just an ordinary peasant orphan who kept herself from starvation and worse by the faith of her religion and incredilby hard work for her entire life. Not that hard work is a surprise but the reality with which this uneducated woman shows us a plain ordinary life is as unforgettable as she is. God gave her the gift to tell the story of her life, to share laughs and to charm her new friends in wherever she landed, in a mining camp, a convent school or a silk factory.

From her early life as a child laborer who is beaten for mistakes in the silk mills of the 1860s to the uneducated young girl who is forced to marry a lousy, drunken bum, Rosa perseveres and triumphs with a long life and many friends who love her. You can't read this story with out falling in love with this precious woman as she endures life.

In 2001, it is hard to imagine that the cruelties Rosa suffered were every day occurences a century ago (or even less!), that is, nothing unusual. We have come a long way baby, but we had better not forget where we've come from.

Rosa The Life Of An Italian Immigrant will keep you rooted in the reality of our history and ancestry. Buy it, read it. Give it to your friends. Buy them their own copies! Give it as gifts to all the young women in your family.

Rosa's story must be remembered. Her story is unforgetable, so is Rosa Cavalleri.

Hey, Hollywood, I dare you to make a movie about this incredible woman!!!!