Peter Books

An Angel for Solomon Singer was a great book! In the book, this man named Solomon Singer does not like where he lives. It has a great ending because in the end he ends up liking where he lives. Solomon had dreams, and one of his dreams came true because he sneaked a cat into his hotel room. The illustrations are great, and the artist was very creative. The artist make the buildings fade into stars, and the streets fade into fields, and that is very creative. It helped us to understand his dreams and the author's metaphors. I think you would like this book, and I think you should buy it.

This is one of those works that will stick with you. It is rather difficult to discribe. I do note, after talking to several people, and reading several reviews on this site and others, that each person who reads this one finds something a bit different. Myself, I was haunted, in a good way, and yet disturbed at the same time. The wonderful prose pulls you into this unknown mans life. The wonderful art work keeps you there. I personally love the work. I do recommend though, that it would probably be best to read this one with the young reader rather than let them try it by themselves for the first time. I find it difficult to think that a very young person would be able to identify with the lonely man in this story nor understand just what is happening (as a matter of fact, after several readings, I'm not all that sure myself, and I am as old as dirt). Be that as it may, this is certainly one worth giving a read, several reads as a matter of fact!

I bought this book thinking it would be a good one for my nieces and nephew; it really is. While the book is slightly sad, I feel it is appropriate to share with children as it profiles how one can find happiness in their own cirumstances through different vehicles. The vehicle in this main character's life is his "wishes" and his association with a common activity and the people who make the activity meaningful.
Read it, read it again, share it and share it again.

I like this book because it's very creative. It shows a lot of thought. Solomon learns a lesson to use his imagination more. He knows he cannot have balconies, change his walls a different color. And that is why he did not like his hotel at all. The author doesn't use simple words. For example, he doesn't say "a quiet voice said..." He says "a quiet voice like Indiana pines in November said..."
I recommend this book for all people.

I think it is one of the most perfect books ever. Since my mom bought it, well,I'm encouraged. Because I'm a student, I could have it for my schoolbook. If I could give it ten billion stars, I'd yell out, "Hey, Solomon Singer!" (Giggle!)

If you are interested in developing new skills in how to do the relationship dance, this is the book for you. Fearless Loving is a must read. It doesn't matter whether you're currently in relationship, whether you would like to be in a relationship, married, single, recently split up, or divorced. Rhonda has a talent for bringing together concepts and distilling them into bit size, chewable skills for taking action, which most any one of us can implement, given our commitment.

This book is a valuable tool for me, personally and for my sixteen year marriage/partnership. I'm finding new ways to really listen, communicate, to set boundaries, to clarify perceptions, to honor my feelings and to play.

Fearless Loving also offers an insightful and helpful protocol for people who are interested in a new way to date. I highly recommend this book to my friends and anyone interested in Love.

Rhonda Britten just gets it. This book is so wonderful. She can guide you along your path to loving in a way you never thought you could, but always wanted to. The most poignant truth for me is that everyone is innocent. That's so hard to think and act on, but she's so right about it. I would have everyone believe me innocent until proven guily, so it only seems fair for me to believe that about everyone else. This book will help you with understanding any type of love and how to do it best! She never coaches you to be someone you're not, and even highly discourages behaving as if you were playing a game. She teaches you how to test your prospective partner, or current partner so you can hear what they're not saying (which is more insightful than what they are saying). Rhonda will fill you full of courage and you will feel that you can love confidently without ever sacrificing who you are, or ever compromising what you need from a loving relationship.

Fearless Loving is well-written and packed full of useful tools that if followed will send you on your way to building new love relationships, enhancing the one's you already have and uncovering and discovering the ways in which we block or deny ourselves love. The author jumps into the trenches with you as she reveals her own personal experiences. This approach made it feel real and tangible. The best self-help book I've read in a long time!!

If you've ever been through divorce -- if you've ever had a failed relationship and aren't quite sure why things couldn't have worked out better -- if you're tired of playing relationship roulette -- READ THIS BOOK!! It's the guidebook for finding and keeping love that you've been looking for. And don't forget to read Fearless Living, too! It's your ticket to freedom and to the real YOU!

ok, i only first heard of Rhonda by watching the TV reality show "starting over" + then got hooked onto watching the amazing clarity with which she brought women from all walks of life to.
so my roomate bought this book to assist her from dating another jerk, and boy, is this book stellar! its not thick, not complicated, but really packs an emotional + mental punch. i have even more respect for this woman, who has been through so much + has found a way to positively help others. i've been telling all open-minded pals of mine who really do want to change any "failures" they have to read this. its really good stuff!

This is some of the best writing I have ever run into. Incredible! Different. Excellent!

This is the best book I have ever read. My favorite book used to be "The Fools Progress" by Ed Abbey, but McCarthy's theme of regeneration thru violence is written so eloquently, it makes me cry. I can't understand how a person can write about scalping Indians in 1860's Mexico and not have people gasping in horror, but you can't put it down once you start. The story makes one wonder about the history of this country, and the people who settled the west. I particularly liked the scenes in old San Diego and the Colorado River. I can't forget about the mercury miners and their burros carrying mercury in the Sierra Madres. And the kid was one of my favorite literary characters ever. Not loveable or even likeable, but fully materialized. I'm looking forward to reading "The Road" next.

I NEVER HEARD OF THIS NOVEL UNTIL I WATCHED A HAROLD BLOOM INTERVIEW ON C-SPAN. HE CLAIMED IT WAS THE BEST FICTION WORK OF THE PAST FIFTY YEARS. I QUICKLY ORDERED IT AND BEGAN READING. McCARTHY'S WRITING WAS OVER DESCRIPTIVE IN RELATING THE LANDSCAPE IN WHICH THE STORY TOOK PLACE. IT TENDED TO BOG DOWN THE NARRATIVE. THE VIOLENT SCENES WERE GRAPHIC BUT TRUE TO THE PERIOD IN WHICH THE STORY TOOK PLACE. JUDGE HOLDEN IS LIKE AN EVIL CHARACTER OUT OF A STEPHEN KING NOVEL. THIS GAVE HIM A SUPERNATURAL QUALITY THAT MADE THIS WESTERN SO DIFFERENT. THE CHARACTER KNOWN AS KID, SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY ONE IN THE BOOK WITH A HUMAN HEART. THIS IS WHY IT CAN BE A DEPRESSING TALE TO READ. EVIL GETS ITS WAY EVEN IN THE LAST CHAPTER. THAT'S NOT WHAT I SLOGGED THROUGH 340 PAGES FOR.

I read a lot. I can't think of a better book. Blood Meridian, "the kid," "the judge" and the rest are in my head for good.

This novel is landmark. McCarthy uses settings and actual events of the American west to cut away the superfluous flesh of modern fiction and reveal humanity's rawest. Also a fan of other great southern writers like Faulkner and Penn Warren, I found the prose of Blood Meridian tearfully beautiful and the content atrociously engaging. The portraits he paints of scene and deed are unrivaled; such violence portrayed so eloquently reveals again McCarthys gift for description. The character development is masterful, and the themes presented herein flash through one's mind years later. This book forces us to consider evil, authority, and perhaps divinity anew and is as beautiful as it is powerful. In my estimation this is McCarthy's greatest work to date, and I find it no surprise that this novel was his first to be inducted into the Modern Library. I hope you appreciate and enjoy this literary masterwork as I have.

Where the K&R book is terrible for learning C, this book makes it a snap.
It provides an organized and complete tutorial for the novice C programmer as well as a useful reference for the more experienced C user.

As some one who took an unguided path into C programming, I can really appreciate how much of a difference this book would have made if I came across it earlier.

This book elegantly lays down the structure and parts of the C language. It presents the reasons behind various features of the language.

This is the book that will teach you to think about programming in an intuitive way.

I have read the second edition and recently bought this third edition that has ANSI standard C in the main body of the work, rather than K&R C. I am using it to brush up on C that I have not used in a while. It is still a great book.

I have read the other reviews from December 1997 through February 2004. I do not have much to add to what has already been said, other than what the others write is true. I wish all technical books were this well written.

The perfect balance of complete, useful information on ANSI C. All technical information (data types, operators, declarations, pointers, arrays) is there. It it all explained in sufficient, readable but not wordy detail. It is remarkable in its efficiency.

It's all in there - the preprocessor, railroad diagrams showing the syntax of each statement, code snippets where they useful. Data structures, starting with the bit datatype, then defining and explaining more advanced concepts of unions, structures, and the user-defined types using _typedef_. Then full examples tieing it together with linked lists, then doubly linked lists.

A brief section on software engineering concepts showing the importance of design and test, and finally a complete working C interpreter.

What really sets it apart though is its complete reference of the most-used standard library functions - formatted and file I/O, string and memory manipulation functions. Effective use of the proven library functions is one of the marks of the software professional, and the outer framework of most useful real-life programs is getting data in and out.

The book begins with a very high-level overview of programs to establish its context, but this is NOT a how-to-program book. If you already understand the fundamental concepts (arithmetic and logical operations, looping) and you need a comprehensive book on how to use C, this is the one. There are lots of books in the "this is a reference, not a tutorial" class (e.g. K&R) and lots of wordy tutorials that never get to the difficult parts (like 'how do I pass a pointer to a multidimensional array.'). This is one book that is sufficiently organized to be a reference, with enough clear explanation that you'll learn how and why things work.

I've had my 2nd edition of this book since it was new in 1991 and recently purchased a copy of the reviewed edition for a friend. It's still excellent, with improved coverage of new features and extensions, and removal of the obsolete adjective "new" when referencing the ANSI standard that's been ratified for a good long while now.

There is no mention of C++ - this is a C book. Good ol' ANSI C is still the language of choice for many if not most embedded projects, even new design. I believe a solid foundation in C will serve any C++ programmer well - under the 'object' layer of C++ lie member functions that actually do the work, and those functions look a lot like C...

Like most good technical books, this one's not cheap, but it's a quality Springer-Verlag binding on acid-free paper that will last a career if not a lifetime. And considering the depth, breadth, and clarity of the content, it is a bargain.

A must-have.

15 years ago I came across this book accidentally in a second hand shop primarily selling Springer books.
I already had K&R because it was best known, but was not really satisfied with it as a transitioner from Fortran.
This book had all I needed, especially on pointers (see all other reviews).
I always enjoyed reading it. It's not about becoming a C obsfucation contest winner,
but about C as a tool for software engineers.
Combined with Harbison & Steele's "A C Reference Manual" and Hanson's "C Interfaces and Implementations",
which are my other most referenced C books, you will have a solid basic library to rely on as a C programmer.

Peter Cicero use of storytelling to get across a thought provoking and very simple process of changing a business is exactly what every manager and business owner needs to read whether he believes his company is perfect or far from it. His ideas are simple and straight forward but I believe can make a difference when used. I am passing this onto my education department at work and my bosses because I believe his ideas can make a difference.

I enjoyed how this book uses narrative storytelling to explain key concepts. I also liked that the author provided a simple summary of the key concepts along the way. I remember thinking there is a very Chinese Kung Fu-like element to this book. As you might know, the Chinese kung-fu masters studied nature to design combat styles. Paul Cicero uses a similar technique to develop a busines philosophy. I really think Cicero is on to something. I think the MOOSE might just be the next big management concept.

This is a great business book. It is a wonderful read and teaches people how to transform their lives and their workplace. I love how Cicero takes what we can learn from nature (the moose) into the workplace. It is a great new way to think about your life!

Choose the MOOSE! is an excellant business book. I love the way that Cicero takes what a moose does in the wild and translates it to what we can do to thrive in any situation. Cicero hits the nail on the head when he says that corporate america is only focusing on the numbers. After reading Choose the MOOSE! I actually ENJOY going to work.

If you are looking to better your working conditions then this is the book for you. In a great story form, Peter Cicero works magic in the way he helps businesses transform themselves by growing their employees. I have read most of the business books out there today and Choose the MOOSE! beats them all.

This is the best book on C++ ever written, even better than Eckel's "Thinking in C++".

It is a very clear book, easy to read, with colors, well organized and with exercises. Solutions are provided for the exercises.

I think the most important thing about this book is it's written with ISO C++ 1998 and STL in mind. Most other books teach you C++ 1989 (or even older!) and have an appendix about ISO C++ 1998 and another appendix on STL, and believe me, that's not good for you.

This is certainly the best C++ book I have read for auto-didactic purposes. C++ is a horrible programming language (coming from a functional programming POV, as well as a ton of ANSI-C systems and Fortran numerics coding in my past), which has unfortunately become a standard in many fields. Should it be a necessary evil to you, this is probably the book to read. Better yet: find a different line of work. All right thinking people should avoid making C++ a part of their profession. It has erased more hours of talent than MS minesweeper or solitaire.

After having purchased and read many different C++ books over the last few years in an ongoing quest for C++ knowledge... I can whole
heartedly endorse this volume... You will learn C++ from this book , buy it, study it , move ahead with your C++ journey...

Attending lectures on C++: Not a clue.

With this book: No problem at all!

The book is great!

If you like to learn from examples and illustrations, and do not have too much time to waste with long explanations, this book is for you. All the major topics of C++ are covered in a nicely structured series of 33 chapters. To name a few:

-Pointers
-Classes
-Methods
-Overloading
-Dynamic Memory Allocation
-Inheritance
-Polymorphism
-Abstract Classes
-Exception Handling
-Templates
-Containers
-etc

Every topic in a given chapter is typically introduced in two pages, the first with an illustration and/or a sample code, followed by a clear and concise discussion of the topic, including its motivation and caveats. The discussion on pointers is particularly illuminating, as well as the discussion on Classes and Object Oriented Programming, which is after all the heart of C++.

I would not recommend this book for someone who does not have any previous exposure to a structured computer language, but it is definetely a great guide and reference on C++ for those already familiar with C, Pascal, etc.

Zoé B. Oldenbourg (1916 - 2002) was both a highly esteemed specialist in mediæval French history and a critically acclaimed and prize winning historical novelist. She is best known for her novels The World Is Not Enough and The Cornerstone. The Crusades (Les Croisades) was first published in 1965.

Concentrating on the period of the first three Crusades Oldenbourg's book is a social, cultural, political and military history of the period, and covers the history of Turkey, Persia, Iran, Iraq, the Bosphorus, the Balkans, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Sicily, Spain and southern Europe. She makes illuminating references to other phenomenon such as colonialism and pogroms, and is exceptional in that she is able to imaginatively suggest the attitudes, beliefs and limitations of the people she is writing about.

The subject is an immense one: the results of the Germanic invasions; the position of the Papacy; the 'Holy War' and its legacy; the economic effects of overpopulation on a poorly developed agriculture; feudalism; the differences between eastern and western Christianity; heresies and national differences in the east; the history of Constantinople; the rise of the Turks; the divisions and unity of Islam; relations between the Turks and the Arabs, Christians and Muslims; cultural effects of East on West and vice versa; literary influences in both directions; the legend of the Crusader; the subsequent history of 'crusades' such as the Albigensian, the Inquisition and the Conquistadores.

Oldenbourg on contemporary medieval attitudes: it was a time before machines were widely used. 'Man was therefore infinitely closer to physical reality than we can be now. Tools and raw materials had a value and immediacy not easy for us to understand. This direct contact with matter whose laws he knew only empirically made man simultaneously more superstitious than we are today and more skillful and enterprising.'

She is illuminating on the distinction between western and eastern religious feeling, in a way which explains much subsequent Catholic history. She says also that 'men thought of themselves first and foremost as religious beings...'

A plethora of suggestive ideas: that popular religion was (and is) largely pagan (and pagan is used in a non pejorative way); that miracles occupied the space in our lives of science; that war and religion were combined in the Latin west in a way they never could be in the Byzantine east.

'This exclusive, even excessive, exaltation of physical valour was something the Byzantines could never understand. The people of Western Europe believed implicitly that a man's worth was, first and foremost, measured by his prowess in battle. To the Greeks, courage was certainly an estimable virtue... but they did not rate it any higher than many 'civilised' virtues.'

'The fundamental difference lay in the co-existence in the Western mind of two quite separate ideas, the warrior and the Christian. Byzantium never seems to have been affected by any such ambivalence: it was too blatantly paradoxical for the logical Greek mind to accept.'

On the tangle of military and political objectives pursued by both east and west Oldenbourg sheds a clear light.

She suggests a connection between the German tribes who destroyed the western Roman Empire in the 4th century and the Crusaders. The feudal nobility, she says, were of Germanic or Nordic extraction, unlike the Latin peasantry. They preserved their ideals of love of battle and glorious death despite their conversion to Christianity. The union of these two diverse traditions led to the idea of a holy war, and such wars were waged in Syria in the 12th century. The Germanic tribes, many of whom admired Rome as a great civilising power, conquered it. Later, as admirers of Christianity, they attempted to conquer the Holy Land. In 1204 they conquered Constantinople.

The defining 'cause' of the Crusades was the rise of Turkey as a major power. This rise threatened both the Western, Greek and Arab states, although Turkey itself was Islamic. The Arabs, friendly to Christians, had been accepted politically in their position of power in Syria and the Middle East as well as elsewhere for 400 years. Now the Turks were conquering areas towards the Holy Land, and also areas in the Bosphorus - they posed a direct threat to Byzantium. The Crusades were initially launched to protect Byzantium from the Turks. But the Crusaders included Normans, who were more interested in conquering Byzantium than the Holy Land. And the Great Schism had recently separated the Churches of east and west: instead of reuniting them, the Crusades were to widen the gap between them and exploit their differences.

'Alexius saw no reason to fight the Turks simply because they were infidels (he had suffered too much from Christians to share any prejudges of this kind)...'

'the Greeks were trying to use the Latins in order to reconquer their own lost provinces, while the Latins thought the Greeks had a duty to help them in the much more important task of recovering the Holy Places.'

Oldenbourg follows this concept of the holy war through subsequent history. The union of the military culture of the barons and the culture of love and romance of southern France led to the ideal of chivalry. Later this culture in turn was conquered during the crusade against the Albigensians. Relics of these ideas can be seen in the Inquisition - the Church Militant - and in the deeds of the Conquistadores. Most recent was the attempt of Hitler to conquer the Jews.

The more one explores a subject the more there is to explore. Oldenbourg's book suggests this complexity. There are no easy answers, few generalisations. It is both honest and learned, and motivated by a clear and compassionate intelligence. It has had a far greater effect on me than the celebrated study by Stephen Runciman, still a standard work on the subject (strangely, another major study is Gibbon's, 200 years out of date and still an acute analysis despite it). Oldenbourg explores one of the great conflicts between Christianity and Islam so as to show how misleading it is to regard it as a simple conflict between two ideologies and in this way her book can be helpful and relevant to those who wish to see present day conflicts in a broader, less bigoted context.

For the amateur historian, like myself, I was pleased that the author separated out the sources contemporary to the events of the Crusades. Also, the author often cites these sources (such as Anna Comnena and William of Tyre) directly and openly evaluates their positions and prejudices. Considering the limited extent of these original viewpoints, that few people were literate in those days, this emphasis helps in establishing some validity to what is a very distant interpretation.

The Frankish barons, who are the major players in the three Crusades discussed here, led a loose mob that included a fighting force of knights and squires along with any number of illiterate fanatics. They were inspired by a central religious authority, the Pope, and certain fiery orators such as Peter the Hermit. The Franks were not much further advanced than the federated tribes they had been when they overran Western Europe. They were hardly more than barbarians, fierce fighters, glorifying War, recently converted to Christianity, who used the Pope's urging to continue their heritage of invading and plundering.

The overland journey of the First Crusade, with Jerusalem as its goal, must have been unimaginably difficult to survive. The Franks fought their way through the insufferable summer heat of the Mideast, conquering and plundering as they went. When their situation became dire, when it became exceedingly difficult to obtain supplies, they resorted to terror. Bohemond, the Count of Toulouse, who became the prince of Antioch, is reported to have actively encouraged the notion that the Crusaders were cannibals.

It was an age of illiteracy, lawlessness, fanaticism, and superstition. There were these material possessions - the Holy Lance (a piece of rusted iron claimed to have been the sword that pierced Christ's side), the True Cross, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher - that the Franks used as rallying cries. The fanaticism combined with the brutal conditions of the journey drove them to the point of insanity, to the point of massacring as many civilians as they could once they entered Jerusalem.

The slaughter in Jerusalem marked the beginning of the Frankish occupation of the Holy Land. It is true that in some ways the Franks learned to live with their Muslim neighbors, and for their part the Muslims, although perhaps more civilized at that time, could also reach extremes of cruelty; still, it is hard not to sympathize with Saladin who kicked the Franks almost all the way out of the Holy Land less than a century after they first arrived.

I thought reading this book would be a daunting dask, at 593 pages, on a subject that I knew nothing about, and considered dry. Was I wrong! Ms. Oldenbourg makes the crusades and the participants come alive. She imbues the participants with personality, so each individual is memorable, the reading better than any novel. From the blonde, blue eyed cunning soldier Bohemond to the tragic love triangle of Melisende, Fulk and Hugh, this book has it all. Scheming clerics, ambitious men, massacres, acts of superhuman strength, love, hatred. Not boring at all! And the great part is that it is not fiction. Well worth the read!

Zoe Oldenbourg's "The Crusades" was one of the first books I ever read about the subject, and still remains an unsurpassed introduction to the topic in my experience. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it is still one of my favourites.

Oldenbourg covers the main events of the major Crusades, and informs the reader in great detail of the situation at hand. Oldenbourg gives a very detailed introductory account of the world and lives of the Crusaders. It will certainly give you enough to decide if you want to learn more on this fascinating topic, or just leave it with Oldenbourg's book.

As an initial introduction to the Crusades, "The Crusades" stands as one of the best available, and will keep you engrossed throughout.

This volume, first published almost thirty years ago, gives an account of the first three crusades along with the history of Jerusalem up to its conquering by Saladin. The author does not view the Crusades as primarily a war of conquest or as a search for new colonies and trade routes. In addition, she wants to contrast the Crusades with the Islamic expansion of four centuries earlier, the goal of the latter in her opinion being the total conquest of the world. The goal of the Crusades was primarily to retake Jerusalem, and this viewpoint makes the author definitely at odds with many contemporary assessments of the origins and reasons for the Crusades. Readers who thirst for an in-depth knowledge of the Crusades will find a book that is well written and easy to read. Whether or not the book constitutes sound history can only be decided by a lifetime of intense study of the historical documents and sources. The general reader will thus have to remain in a state of suspended judgment on the accuracy of the book. Other books, especially those written in the last decade, should be consulted to gain further insight and alternative points of view.

The author wants to emphasize the human aspects of the Crusades, she asks readers to remove themselves from their modern context and try to understand (however difficult this might be) what life was like in medieval times. She gives a highly interesting account of the conditions of life in those times, referring to it as "simple" because of the state of technology at the time. Whether the technology of today makes life more complex is perhaps a matter for debate, but to claim life was more difficult back then is a credible proposition. The expenditure of human energy needed to obtain the basic life necessities was certainly a lot greater than what is required today. But the author reminds the reader that mental abilities were not necessarily diminished, pointing to the "better memories' that were developed in those times, due to general lack of writing skills. But she definitely wants to emphasize that society at that time was based exclusively on masculine ideals, and that the Catholic Church was "resolutely antifeminist." Her evidence for this is somewhat weak, and this position has been criticized vociferously in more contemporary accounts of the Crusades and the history of the Catholic Church.

There are many places in the book where the discussions are particularly interesting or surprising. Some of these include: 1. That "popular opinion" held that Peter the Hermit was the real instigator of the Crusades, having received a "letter" from Jesus Christ that he was commanded to deliver to Pope Urban II. The author reminds the reader that there is no evidence that Peter ever met the Pope. 2. That after the fall of Antioch, the Crusaders, with the assistance of native Christians murdered all the Turks that they could find in the city and believed that the this massacre was "pleasing to God." The author though does not offer the reader any evidence for this view. How does she know that the Crusaders against Antioch really believed this? 3. The author believes that the number of women and children that were murdered in the "Great Massacre" was exaggerated by chroniclers of the time (especially Islamic historians). But she is quick to point out that putting the real number aside, that most of the population in Jerusalem was completely exterminated, with most of these being unarmed civilians. 4. That the Muslims of Palestine did not anticipate the religious intolerance of the Christians. Interestingly, the author states that the Muslims who conquered the area centuries earlier did not attempt to force the conquered peoples to convert to Islam (Mohammed though murdered nearly all of the Jewish peasants in southern Palestine). 5. The author mentions that Baldwin, in the process of conquering the coastal cities, permitted various massacres in some of these cities in order to "terrorize" the defenders of the others. 6. The origin of "Sunnism" and "Shiism" is discussed, where Sunnism represents the "official orthodoxy" and Shiism is the "breakaway sect." At the time of the Crusades, the Sunnites (as the author refers to them) were represented by the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad and the Shiites were represented by the Fatimid caliphate of Cairo. The extreme hatred between these two sects survives to this day. 7. That Bohemond blamed the failure of the Crusades on Alexius Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor of Constantinople, and tried to convince the Pope to launch a Crusade against Alexius. 8. The author contends that the concept of a holy war, or "jihad" was alien to Muslim leaders at the time of the Crusades, but that they acquiesced to public opinion and so were not willing to speak out against launching a jihad against the Franks. The thinking of the Muslim chroniclers gradually changed though, and by the time of the battle of Hattin, jihad became part of the consciousness of Muslims, and soldiers became "soldiers of God." Victory in war was the direct cause of God's favor to those who were faithful. 9. That religion at the time was "inseparable from politics" and consequently that any action taken by a statesman had to have a religious motive and must be justified by a religious point of view. The author describes predilection towards religion as a "universally recognized moral necessity." 10. That with the exception of Anna Comnena, the history of the first three Crusades was of minor interest to the historians of Constantinople. The author describes Anna Comnena as being only marginally interested in the events of the first three Crusades. The Fourth Crusade, which is not discussed in the book, was of course of great importance to the Greek Christians.

These books provide a nice history of the cooking techniques but the recipes are hard to reproduce because the ingredients are hard to find. If you read cookbooks like they are novels then this is for you.

While I completely agree with all of the other reviewers (in that this is an excellent book), I do want to take the time to point out that this is not just a cookbook. Within each chapter (each dedicated to a certain country), there is history, education and just so much to learn. For example, the book tells you about the cheeses, wines, beers and other specialties of each country and special holiday meals and snacks. The traditions of the peoples are spelled out and almost makes you feel like you are there experiencing them. And, of course, great recipes of each country as well. This may be the BEST book I've ever owned. I highly recommend it. Unlike most cookbooks, you can just read this one and have a ball.

I dithered for months whether to spend such a lot of money on 'just another cookery book', but I'm glad I did - it is definitely NOT 'just another cookery book' ... I've just spent most of my day off totally absorbed in these 2 books.
There is plenty of interesting information, with superb photography and illustrations; well-researched commentaries on the various industries; snippets of little-known historical info (did you know that Britain's King Edward VII gave the name Crepe Suzette to a spoiled dessert?) and well-chosen recipes which highlight the particular country's culinary strong points.

These are 2 weighty tomes (6lb/3kg each!), but only in the physical sense - they are very readable. With a chapter devoted to each of the European countries, the authors give an introduction, an overview of the country's specialities and an in-depth look at each speciality:- how it is grown/made; different varieties; anecdotes from the area; useful snippets of information, as well as some wonderful recipes (not all of them well-known).

Obviously some countries get more coverage than others; France Spain & Italy each get far more attention than, say, Russia - but deservedly so, given their gastronomic heritage (although the wines of France are over-played, to my mind).

While I would not recommend this as a working cookery book, it is certainly a valuable addition to anyone's culinary library - an ideal present for that friend of yours who has a love of food and cooking; anyone would be over the moon to receive such a present!

This book is a steal at twenty bucks but you'll need a wheelbarrow to lug it around -- it's big and heavy! The book is 12 1/2" x 11" and 1 7/8 inches thick. It's 640 pages in length and there's a nice index to steer readers to where they need to go.

The product description says that this book weighs just under eight pounds but it feels more like twelve to me. The paper is of excellent-quality stock, very thick and heavy. This volume is what we used to call a "coffee table book".

Here's what the book is about:

1. It details individual and exotic ingredients which serve to make traditional European ethnic dishes.

2. It features, specifically, European recipes and dishes.

3. It provides hundreds of beautiful color photographs and detailed descriptions which insure that the reader will know precisely what these regional products look like and how they fit in to particular dishes.

Here is a list of the countries whose food and beverages are featured in this fine work:

1. England

2. Scotland

3. Ireland

4. Denmark

5. Norway

6. Sweden

7. Finland

8. Russia and other member states of the former Soviet Union

9. Poland

10. The Czech Republic and Slovakia

11. Hungary

12. Austria

13. Switzerland

14. Germany

15. The Netherlands

16. Belgium

17. France

18. Spain

19. Portugal

20. Italy

21. Greece

22. Turkey

The book is bulging with tips, (e.g., how to cook crayfish, how to make tortellini, etc.) These recipes are not for the beginner, many are even difficult but they're the real deal. For that reason, it's not actually what I would term "a cookbook". Still, newbies can benefit from learning all about basic ingedients and the ethnic origins of our own American cookery.

There's no use to say more. This book gets my highest recommendation.

I thought that this was a really wonderful book. All books of this type have to show the really traditional dishes but often that is all they do. This book showed a lot of dishes that are still popular in the different countries and it showed part of the modern influences. It is an informative book and really interesting to read even if you never intend to actually cook something from it.

Professor Wood admits that, in contemporary America, only the most intrepid minds dare question diversity's exalted stature as a cultural ideal. So it should say something Wood's disregard for his own reputation that he has written this book, which assails the ideal of diversity on page by page pace. I will admit that I bought this book hoping to see just this kind of thing-to see a credible author and skilled mind slay diversity in a "public setting." Of course, it's only a public setting if more people read the book.

My own antipathy toward diversity took root during my undergraduate experience at the University of Nebraska, where diversity pervaded official policy, speeches, campus news articles, and student government. Not despising diversity, I merely became irritated with its omnipresence, the way one might tire of a food group if forced to eat it at every sitting. In short, I was unaware of diversity's true malevolence before reading this book. But Wood documents diversity's self-contradictions, its empty thinking, its threat to individualism, its corrosive impact on higher education, and more. In higher education, for instance, Wood attacks race preferences for admission (carried out in the name of diversity) and notes that, at the U. of Michigan, a white applicant to law school scoring between 163-165 on the LSAT and holding a 3.25 GPA has about a 23% chance of being admitted. A minority student with the exact same academic credentials has a 99% chance. I mention this in this review so that the potential reader can get a feel for the content of this book.

Of higher education, Professor Wood also points out how diversity is cleverly used as a two-faced recruitment tool. Diversity is marketed to white American teenagers, Wood says, as a way to escape the social narrowness of their high school experience-as a "romantic mingling" experience with "the other". But diversity is then marketed to minority students as an assurance that they will feel welcome at State U., where increased recruitment of students of color will offer minorities a safe haven from the crush of the predominantly white student body. Fantastic observation, because it's true, and it reveals diversity's opportunistic nature.

Despite diversity's grotesque track record, Wood also realizes why diversity has maintained a near universal following in this country-it seems to command us all to be fair, helpful, open-minded, and above all, to avoid judgment of other people, other beliefs, and other ideas (is that such a good idea?). As Wood argues, despite diversity's more noble exhortations, we as neighbors, citizens, and co-workers can better achieve good will and social betterment if we set aside silly race-based distinctions and look instead at individual merit.

As an example of how holistic Wood's view of diversity is, take one of the early chapters. In it, Wood draws on his experience in anthropology to relate how Americans in the 1800s and early 1900s were avid readers of books and compendiums that provided rich, unabashed descriptions of the world's geographic and cultural diversity. True diversity. He contrasts this bygone interest in the world's people and places with the new diversity, which Wood argues accentuates slight differences between people (black Americans, white Americans, Hispanics, etc.) and asserts, against the evidence, that the differences between us are gigantic. Furthermore, he chastises contemporary Americans for believing themselves to be educated about and sensitive to cultural differences, whereas, these same Americans believe, past generations were parochial, ignorant, and unappreciative of these differences. "It is a sad delusion," he writes.

Although it wasn't the most enjoyable segment in the book, the best work Wood does (from an author's and researcher's point of view) is when he traces the growth of diversity from an LBJ speech through the Supreme Court's Bakke decision through the 1980s and then today. Wood's treatment of the Bakke case is remarkable in its detail, and is sure to startle the reader when one realizes how a marginalized, fringe idea (that there is real, measurable educational value in having a diverse student body), set forth by Justice Lewis Powell, spawned the monster we wrestle with today.

Overall, Wood takes a topic that had great potential to be tedious and academic and turns it into a delightful read that manages to deal with diversity comprehensively and delicately without compromising the reader's interest. Flat-out, this is a great book.

Professor Wood offers a holistic look at this strange new ideology of diversity, particularly in how it has surged from an obscure portion of the Bakke case to an all-encompassing religion for its adherents that continues to encroach on virtually every aspect of public life. His best argument is that diversity, when brought alongside traditional American values of liberty and equality, always seems to trump the latter pair, and we end up forsaking both liberty and our belief in equality to preserve demographiclly correct proportions of essentially manufactured ethnicities.

Wood comes to some strong conclusions, but never commits the near universal sin of hyperbole that currently envelopes both political left and right. That alone should earn him four-and-a-half stars. Anyone interested in a thoughtful, well-researched critque of this concept of diversity need look no further than professor Wood. Please, delete Hannity and O'Reilly from your shopping cart and buy this book first!!!

Diversity is the greatewst lie in america today. What does diveristy claim. It claims, as we learn in this fine read, that diversity is essential to success and understanding and tolerance. THis is actually completely false. Diverse workforces and diverse college campuses dont actually make anything better, in fact they make people less tolerant. Diversity is the ideal of the communist left that says everyone(remmember "workers of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your chains!") is the same and that by mixing us all together in some grand social experiment that we will all be happy. That sad part is that 'diversity' and 'tokenism' really mirrors far more what queen victoria did at her diamond jubille when all the 'oddities of empire' the diverse masses from all over were paraded in front of the aristocracy. This is the truth behind diversity. In fact the liberal would love it if every diverse 'oddity' of humanity could come to college dressed in 'traditional garb' so that we can admire and see them as if they are in some museum. But this doesnt help the 'exotic' people we bring in to diversify ourselves, it actually mkaes them feel more like outcasts. Hiring one Sikh and one Hindu and one Pathan and one Gurka and one Jew for your coproation wont help them, in fact they would all be more productive if they worked with eachother against eachother. The idea that they will become more tolerant is also false. In most racially mixed societies(Brazil, south africa, Israel, Australia, America) the many races hate eachother much more then they did prior to the mixing.

Lets take for example the situation in malaysia when they were building the Petronas Twin Towers. They had Japanese workers building one tower and koreans building the other. The teams hated eachother and competed. If they had been mixed they would have worked slower and they still would have gone to lunch speratly and not 'tolerated' on another. Here is an example where diversity would not have helped in the workforce. Diversity is simply the aristocracies latest social experiment to divide us so that they can keep us all down rather then letting us become tolerant on our own. A great book.

Peter Wood's book is written in an easy-to-read, logical, and well-reasoned fashion. Before earning my master's degree last year, I attended meetings at the university's "Diversity Task Force". I must admit to using some of Peter Wood's same arguments regarding the superficiality and shallowness of the "Task Force" criteria for measuring the diversity of the student body -- It felt like I was banging my head against the wall! I sensed that my white male status was seen as subtracting from the diversity of the student body, regardless of my diverse life experiences. Maybe if I were raised by a pack of wolves? How come this makes so much sense and many other people don't see it? Thank you Peter Wood for this timely book. I wonder if the logic and science will be enough to deprogram any diversiphiles. In my experience, they are close-minded to any argument, regardless of reason, that may disrupt their delusion. I would also like to add that most of the diversiphiles I met are good people who have good intentions; however, we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This book should be required reading for all people who want to improve "diversity".

The thesis of Wood's book can be stated in this way: With relative cultural unity having been achieved in America with the removal of legal barriers to opportunity for minorities, a more recent movement has arisen that seeks to undermine this unity by introducing a new type of "diversity". The former term refers to true diversity between cultures that involves deep and fundamental differences in worldviews that are more often an obstacle to overcome than something to be celebrated. (One example used by Wood is Herman Melville's extended experience with Typee people in the Marquesan Islands.) On the other hand, the new diversity (used in italics by the author) turns superficial distinctions into epochal differences (such as having a college roommate with fake Polynesian tattoos) that, according to the diversophiles, must be retained in the culture at all costs.

This is more than just a silly exercise in treating cultural fads as meaningful differences. Wood describes a two-phase process in which this concept of diversity is a means to a specific end. The first phase (diversity I) stresses hard that people must be defined by a race, even if the minority does not wish to do so, in order to create identifiable "groups" in society. The second phase (diversity II) uses the fiction that diversity of race, gender, sexual preference, etc. is equivalent to diversity of worldview. With this foundation, questions of diversity take on an ominous meaning - when this kind of diversity is emphasized as a policy in the workplace, on campus, or elsewhere, a conflict arises between the interest in selecting the best qualified individual(s) and preserving an overall profile of a workforce or campus population. And when these superficial race, sex, etc. characteristics of a person are given a preference over actual qualifications to do the job, it brings up the same issues of racism that America had been trying to move away from for so long.

An especially helpful passage in Wood's book is his breakdown of the Bakke decision, which upheld the race-preference factor in school admissions process. Justice Powell's opinion for the court made the "diversity" principle a major issue, which was unusual considering that no other justice on either side joined him in this portion of the opinion and that little attention was given to this issue during the case itself.

The bulk of Wood's book then explains how this principle has been applied in most areas of society - the workplace, campus, the arts, etc. The book was published in 2003, but came out before the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding in part the University of Michigan's use of race-based preferences. However, the book is a valuable resource in describing the problem beyond the immediate political debate.

I found it best technical book till date but you should know Flex & Ruby before you can jump into this..

This is a great book. Peter is the #1 expert in Flex + Rails.

I have used Flex for about a year and I have only dabbled in Ruby/Rails development. I have been curious how I might back a Flex front end with a simple service layer that isn't hard to create, maintain or host. So far I have only worked with Java/Spring/Hibernate backend services which can take a little while to build and integrate (Grails is MUCH faster).

After about 100 pages I'm in interation 4 building an interesting RIA with a Rails backend that I can host on relatively inexpensive server if I wanted to. My only struggles thus far was getting MySQL going properly. But that was only because I forgot a step in installing it.

If you have little exposure to Rails and/or Flex and you feel at home on the command line as well as you do in an IDE like Eclipse, this is a great "project" book for you. I'd say you probably want a primer in Ruby, Rails and Flex before you get going but it is pretty easy follow and has a lot of free professional advice from someone that has obviously been around the block a few times. Peter is very upfront about some things that he has done in the book that should not be considered "best practice".

I am hoping to get some good insight how I might do something similar for Flex and Grails. Regardless, I am confident this is going to be a fun journey!

I wasn't sure whether a mixed-technologies book would be adequate for both reading and reference, especially with two technologies. As both a software engineer and a moonlighting instructor this book was an easy read from the start. Mr. Armstrong explores both Flex 3 and Rails 2 with enough background information on both technologies to get a reader ready to code--and that was just Chapter...err...Iteration 1. The second iteration begins with coding (Hello World) and it doesn't stop. This is a must for your coding library and makes a great textbook for students who enrolled in courses geared toward building web and Rich Internet Applications.

The author goes into great detail on how to efficiently get Rails and Flex working together. The book is updated for the latest version of Rails as well as the upcoming Flex 3 release. I've found the book easy to follow along with and enjoy the author's humor spread throughout the book.

As a developer I'm often tasked with making "things talk to each other". Typically if I can I'll use a tool like Flex Builder for a project and if I have a choice I'll pick Java, .NET or Ruby for the server back end - whatever is the best fit. This book only backed up my belief that Rails and Flex really do work very well together. I've learned a lot going through the code both on Rails and Flex.

I also liked how the author is continually refactoring the application (called "Pomodo"), that is where your learning kicks into overdrive. He uses the Cairngorm framework and even RubyAMF. I didn't have any experience in either up until this point. Now I can say I do and it all fits together nicely.