College and University Books

I self studied the ap psych exam and got a 5, all thanks to this book. However, it has a few striking contradictions with the princeton review books of similar publication date.
It is somewhat minor, but still alarming.
This book has all the information, and then some. it covers all the bases. if you study this book, you will get a on the ap exam.

Buy the 5 steps to 5 AP psych book, this book sucked, just like the other Barrons text. This book is vague and boring, the 5 steps book would guarantee you a pass if you read it through.

This book is the only reason that I got a 5 on the exam. The psych teacher that taught us that year absolutely sucked - gave us no prep for the exam at all. I took my time to memorize the whole book and the multiple choice part was all very easy to answer. This book even covered information that I didn't know from the class - and they appeared in the exam. Great book, absolutely recommend it.

I took the AP back in 2002/2003 and my AP psych teacher wasn't up to par. This book is fairly thin but don't be fooled. I read this book from cover to cover and came out with a 5 on the AP. My friend went into the AP with what the teacher taught (nothing) and came out with a 2.

This study guide was very helpful in studying for the AP test and also studying for class tests and discussions. There was some material in there that we did not cover in class and it provided a more in-depth coverage on the themes. I will probably use this book in the future for a reference for future studies that may not be in the class book. Well written, organized, and over all prepared me for the test and all the other tests in the class. It was also very helpful to be able to write notes and etc in the book, until in the text book in class.

This book was really good. In this book Jessica is with the mysterious Mike McAllery. Her friends, Isabella, and her brother Steven warn her about Mike. Saying he drinks constantly and has a diffrent women around for every day. But is all of that true? And when Jessica and Mike are alone together, does Jessica do something drastic? Elizabeth is still trying to recover from her horrible breakup from her x boyfriend, Todd Wilkins. But now Todd has a new girlfriend, Lauren Hill, and life is going good for him. But when Elizabeth uncovers a scandel about the athletes, how will it efect Todd. And could he possibly be involved? And does he also do something with his new girlfriend?The thing liz wouldin't have with todd...sex? This time Liz and Jessic look diffrent. Liz has turned to food for comfort and has packed on the pounds. But does she actually have feelings for someone? Tom vowed never to love anyone again but when he meets Liz will everything change? Winston is living it up at college. But in a all girls dorm! All of his faternity pals are treating diffrent, well of course they would since they want ot meet all of the girls Winstion knows. And what happens between Denise and Winston. Is there something going on between them. Snobby Celine, Liz's roomate, is up to some tricks. She wants the mysterious Wiliam White to herself but she might be a little to late. Could he actually have a thing for Liz? This was a really great book so get it. You won't be disapointed.

This book was really good. I love Liz, and feel sorry for her now that she is pudgy and
can't fit any of her clothes from when she was The Liz Wakefield. Here are changes:
Depressed, tubby, looks like a sassuage in her sheath, on a diet. I hate Todd for
doing this to her! All the things he dated her in and thought she looked beautiful
in can't fit! I will look forward to a time where she will be fit and happy.

Aaaaaahhh. Frachine knocks off the Wakefields-are-perfect stuff. As Elizabeth puts it,
''only one of the Waefield twins were a perfect size six, and it wasn't Elizabeth.''
In SVH, Liz was always thin. Jessica was aways dieting. But now Liz is on a diet, because
she put on so much wieght. I roared my head off when Liz was trying to get into the
sheath! On to Tom. Liz sounds perfect for him. They've had their worlds turned upside down since the got to college, so their a little scared approach their new selves.
I love this book.

Jessica moves in with Mike McAllery and sleeping with him,She has sex with him the first time,Alexandra is now one of Jessica's friends[Sound familiar] kind of like Amy Sutton from 6th Grade She was Elizabeth's best friend,then when she moved away,then when she returned to Sweet Valley,she and Elizabeth had nothing in common as 11th graders,She was boy-crazy as Jessica,and a Cheerleader. Alexandra is in Theta Sorority,and she and Elizabeth drifted apart.Why Can't I find friends so easy at Mott? Elizabeth meets Nina Harper,a black student. Todd dates this girl named Lauren,and has Sex with her.

This book raises alot of questions about what will happen to Jessica and Elizabeth. Jessica is looked down on for sleeping with and over at Mike's House.

From the moment I first picked up this book, I had the hardest time putting it down. So many times I thought I'd read a couple of pages but then I would still be reading a couple of hours later. Chandra Prasad's On Borrowed Wings is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I loved Adele, the main character who attends Yale disguised as her deceased brother. From making friends, giving reading lessons in her very little free time, and defining herself in an all male ivy league university, I found myself rooting for her all the way. I hope there will be a sequel or even a movie made from this book!!!!

The year is 1936. In the small town of Stony Creek there lives a family of four. There is the mother, a washer woman who used to be a privileged daughter of a professor until she married the father, an Italian quarry man. They had two children, a boy, Charles, and a daughter, Adele.

Charles is the apple of his mother's eye and is being groomed to go to Yale on scholarship. Adele is her father's favorite and her mom is preparing her to be the wife of a quarry man and a laundress. The problem is that Adele is smarter than her brother.

This would have been the path that they would have taken except that Charles and his father are killed in a quarry accident. Adele then disguises herself as a boy and takes Charles's place at the all-male college of Yale. Once there, Adele has to adapt to being a boy, take on a eugenics professor who is trying to prove that all immigrants are unintelligent, and try to be an average freshman in college.

She befriends three other boys and an Italian family that almost adopts her. She proves to be very brave and spunky. There is also a visit by Emelia Earhart to the college, which is a wonderful scene.

I absolutely loved this book. The main characters of Adele and her mother, Gertie, are interesting and many-layered. It left me wanting more. I want to know how Adele becomes Adele again. If she finds love with the rascally Wick. Does she ever reunite with her mother and her mother's family? How will World War two affect the lives of these characters? Believe me, you'll want to know, too!

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

Have you ever fallen in love with a book so deeply that you wanted to keep it and read it again and again? Maybe this is a normal occurrence for you, not so for me. I am a love `em and leave `em reader. Once the last page is read, I am on to my next conquest. That was until I read "On Borrowed Wings".

This book moved me beyond words. I'll admit, I was a bit surprised. The book is unpretentious. But when you read the pages, this matches to perfection with the main character, Adele Pierta.

The author places the reader in the middle of the character's quandary, which is to marry a quarryman. In the 1930s, the little town of Stony Creek had three classes of people. There were the cottagers, who were rich vacationers that visit the little Connecticut town from May to August. There were the townsmen, the town's merchants and businessmen. And last were the quarrymen. They worked twelve hour days, six days a week mining granite.

Adele's mother had once been a cottager. But when she married a quarryman, her family disowned her. This rejection drove her mother to educate Adele's brother so that he'd have chance to go to college and not end up a quarryman. Adele's father insisted both his children be educated, but there weren't many opportunities for women.

The same day Charles, Adele's brother, receives an acceptance letter to Yale, a freak mining accident takes his life along with their father. Rather than be forced into an early marriage, she changes her appearance to look like a man and goes to Yale in Charles's place.

"On Borrowed Wings", so appropriately titled, is the story of Adele's first year at Yale. She transforms from a shy, wispy girl into a force to be reckoned with. It's a true treasure of a book!

What a fabulous book! I was very enraptured with Adele Pietra's story. She was a very likable and believable character and Ms. Prasad drew you into her psyche very easily. You were always left wondering what would happen next and how Adele would handle the next situation. It was definitley a page turner! I was left wanting a sequel!

maybe it's just me, but whenever i walk into a bookstore lately, it seems like the majority of female authors are either rehashing history (i.e.The Other Boleyn Girl) or wallowing in crass 21st-century consumerism (i.e. Shoe Addicts Anonymous). how refreshing, then, to read "on borrowed wings." chandra prasad uses a vivid historical setting to tell a story that is fundamentally unique, despite the long literary tradition of gender-swapping tales; she creates characters and moments that will continue to live in your mind long after you've finished the book.

in fact, your first thought upon reading the final sentence will be to wonder whether ms. prasad plans to continue adele's story in a subsequent book, and to hope that she does.

with its insightful handling of difficult themes and its sensitive depiction of late adolescence, this book would be an excellent choice for high school english classes.

Morrison has delivered the irrefutable "how to" book for marketers, advertisers, and promoters interested in tapping the student market. His balance of strategic insight, wit, and key market stats is right on-target. (This guy really knows his stuff!) The case studies are highly informative and the strategic recommendations that Morrison provides based on his obvious experience is timeless. I wholeheartedly recommend this book as it's a masterpiece for its genre.

Morrison has written the definitive bible for student marketers. Don't let the title mislead you, "Campus Crowd" is just as on-target for marketers interested in teens through twentysomethings as it is for the college market proper. In fact, I'm ordering several books for our ad agency to bring them up to speed. The author devotes a tremendous amount of the book to strategy and infuses the text with just the right balance of stats. The examples, he calls them "Best in Class" case studies, are perfect and there are dedicated sections to both the pre- and post-college segments. Fantastic book. Highly recommended without hesitation.

Given how much college students spend, and their obvious influence on other desirable market segments, Morrison's book is a "must have" for marketers, advertisers, salespeople, and administrators that want to optimize their decision-making with this group. (I actually heard about this book from an overseas colleague of mine.) The author's knowledge is self-evident and the book is a perfect balance of information as well as strategic insight. Morrison even dedicates chapters to future trends (such as privatization and non-traditional students) as well as chapters on targeting high school students, alumni, school buyers, faculty, parents, and recent grads. It's one of the few books that I keep permanently on my desk both to stimulate my thinking as well as to reference key data. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

"Marketing to the Campus Crowd" is an intelligent and highly insightful book from someone that knows young adult marketing cold. Every page oozes the author's obvious expertise with this age group and the book even includes separate chapters on both pre-college students as well as the larger young adult market. As one who works for an ad agency that target's Generation Y, this book is a MUST HAVE! It is both an excellent source for strategic inspiration as well as an overall "how to" guide on tackling this coveted, yet highly elusive, consumer market. Thanks, David, for sharing your wisdom and your wit. Both are deeply appreciated!

Highly recommend this excellent book for marketing pros interested in successfully targeting the student market. Fantastic book! Perfect balance of statistics, great insights on the student psyche, and extensive examples of marketers that are getting it right. Morrison knows his stuff cold and it shows on every page. Can't go wrong with this book, but you can easily go wrong without it! Totally original as there's no other book in Europe (or the States) like it. Five stars. Simply outstanding!!

This was a very well-crafted and informative book, which I would recommend reading to those who haven't yet. For those who have, and who enjoyed it like I did, I would recommend Tent Life in Siberia: An Incredible Account of Siberian Adventure, Travel, and Survival, which George Kennan's account of his travels around eastern Siberia on dogs and reindeer sleds.

In The Other Side Of Russia, author Sharon Hudgins takes the reader along on her Trains-Siberian Railroad adventure through Siberia and the Russian Far East, an area that was closed off to Westerners (and most Russians) prior to 1990s and the collapse of the old Soviet Union. Here the reader will be treated to a unique travelogue that will take them from the frozen surface of Lake Baikal, to feast with native Siberian Buryats, the food markets and "high-rise villages" of Vladivostok and Irkutsk, Christmas celebrations, New Year's banquets, Easter dinners, and Siberian festivals. The Other Side Of Russia dispels the myths and misconceptions about the Asian part of Russia which extends across eight time zones between the Ural Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Offering a window of observation into this land of harsh winters, vast uninhabited spaces, friendly people, strange cuisines, and thriving modern cities, The Other Side Of Russia is a welcome, informative, and highly entertaining read which is especially commended to the attention of armchair travelers and students of Russian culture and history.

The Other Side of Russia is part travel narrative, part social history, part memoir, part food writing. All these parts come together to make a terrific book.

Sharon Hudgins and her husband Tom spent a year and a half in post-Soviet Siberia teaching business management for the University of Maryland's overseas program. As peripatetic ex-patriates, they were familiar with unfamiliarity. But they were still not prepared for what Siberia had to offer them.

Join Sharon and Tom as they picnic with the Russian Mafiya, try to teach in an educational system that discourages questions and independent thinking, and ponder why a herd of horses is tangled in downtown rush hour traffic.

In "Absurdistan" it is just one perplexing thing after another. The electricity and water in their poorly-constructed apartment building work only intermittently. But in spite of such challenges, they make friends and entertain regularly. Cultural differences mean that the same friends who swoon over delicacies such as wafer-thin horse liver slices rolled with layers of horse fat, are unable to enjoy a Hudgins Tex-Mex feast.

Hudgins's previous work as a food and travel writer are evident here, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she writes fiction as well. The narrative is effortless and the stories she tells are by turns engaging and frightening.

The Other Side of Russia emerged from Barbara Hudgins experience of living in Siberia for a year and a half, from 1993 to 1994. Working as the onsite program coordinator for the University of Maryland University College in Siberia and the Russian Far East, she worked and lived in Vladivostok and Irkutsk.

Hudgins book is the first book about Siberia I'd come across written by someone who spent extensive time in Siberia. This gives her a depth of understanding that adds a lot to her memoir.

The structure of her memoir is unusual. She's divided the book into two sections. The chapters in part one focus on place - Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Lake Baikal, etc. - and the chapters in the second part focus on aspects of life and culture in Siberia - housing, education, food and festivals. Hudgins supplemented her first-hand experience with extensive research. This offers readers an in-depth source of information about many aspects of Siberian place and life.

What's lost in this non-chronological format is Hudgin's own adaptations and reactions over her time in Siberia. She does insert some feelings and personality, but the focus is on the topic, rather than on her personal experience or characters who change and develop over the period.

Hudgins seems to have thrown herself into Siberia with a remarkably open mind. She expertly captures the small details of Siberian life and renders vivid pictures of feasts shared with Russian friends. For those who have been to Siberia, this book will take you back there. For those planning on going, The Other Side of Russia provides a great overview of the life and culture.

In THE OTHER SIDE OF RUSSIA, the University of Maryland University College has established a joint undergraduate degree program in business management with the Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok and the State University in Irkutsk. In the summer of 1993, author Sharon Hudgins and her husband, Tom, packed off to Siberia and the Russian Far East to serve as teachers in this cooperative venture, while the former was also Maryland's on-site program coordinator in both cities. This book chronicles their experiences from their arrival until their departure in December 1994.

Whether she's describing the immensity of pristine Lake Baikal, the problematic living conditions in their high-rise apartment, local customs and food of the Buryat people, the vagaries and perils of shopping for household necessities, maddening water and electricity outages, local festivals, the growing pains of a free-market economy, the university students' learning ethic, or the conviviality and generosity of their Russian friends, Hudgins has a keen eye for small details, as when describing an open air market:

"An Uzbek woman ... sold raisins and nuts in small paper cones made out of official forms from the Irkutsk Municipal Water Department ... In one part of the market, a pretty teenage girl, wearing a garish, flower-printed dress and a thousand-yard stare, held a handful of peacock feathers and sipped a can of Dr Pepper, while in another section two older women, both drunk, tried to punch each other out in a fist fight."

I haven't been so engaged by a travel essay about Russia since Hedrick Smith's 1976 bestseller, THE RUSSIANS. My only criticism is the relative lack of photographs - only a couple at most per chapter. Luckily, Sharon's poetic prose paints pictures almost as effective as snapshots, as this from her vantage point on the Trans-Siberian Railroad:

"A profusion of wildflowers carpeted the meadows, like an Impressionist painting exuberantly expanding beyond the limits of canvas and frame: undulating shades of yellow, gold, and blue, maroon and magenta, soft pink and pristine white, the pale purple globes of wild onions gone to seed, thousands of red-orange tiger lilies, whole fields of dark purple Siberian irises, and occasionally a single red poppy or two, like a stubborn symbol of politics past. Outside Chita a small lake glistened under the midnight moon."

For me, a travel narrative is all it can be if it makes me want to go there myself. THE OTHER SIDE OF RUSSIA accomplishes that. Well, maybe for just a brief visit, perhaps, because I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

I have had this book for about 10 days. It is excellent, destined to become a bestseller in its category. But this will not be surprising because Oppenheimer's previous book has received a stamp of approval in its category (Top Down Network Design, Cisco Press, ISBN: 1578700698). For those privileged to have Top Down Network Design, we know what I am talking about: a self-contained book that delivers beyond a Cisco Certification test.

It is in this very light that I rate Troubleshooting Campus Networks: it is a an extremely valuable reference book for network administrators, but it will also help you pass the Cisco CCNP Support exam.

Briefly going through the contents, Chapter 1 describes the book itself and its audience. Chapter 2 details formal network troubleshooting methods, including the Cisco Troubleshooting Method, protocol analysis, network traffic types and the various troubleshooting tools. Above all, it emphasizes the importance of proactive network management.

Chapter 3 provides in-depth knowledge on troubleshooting and Analyzing Ethernet Networks. And Chapter 4 will be even more appreciated: about 55 pages dedicated to troubleshooting and analyzing IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks. This chapter alone will be of great assistance to those preparing for Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) from Planet3 Wireless, Inc. It provides an excellent introduction for those who want to know what Wireless LANs are all about.

Chapters 5 and 6 provide indepth knowledge on troubleshooting and analyzing the Spanning Tree Protocol and Virtual LANs respectively. Chapters 7 and 8 do the same for Campus IP Networks and Campus IP Routing Protocols.

What I have found to be of equally great value is Chapter 9, detailing TCP, UDP, and Upper Layer protocols' troubleshooting and analysis. Here, one would find the answers to the questions he may have had about HTTP, FTP, SMPT protocol analysis and the like.

Chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13, respectively provide the skills needed for troubleshooting and analyzing Campus IPX Networks, AppleTalk Networks, Windows Networking and Wide Area Networks.

In all, this is a powerful tool from which you will not only find the answers to day-to-day networking issues, but will also empower you to become a better network administrator.

If you are in network administration, a networking professional generally or preparing for Cisco CCNP Support exam, this is the book!

Good book for anyone who is having problems with their networks. Author makes things easily understandable and the book is a great reference.

Many books have I read where authors speak of Ethernet or TCP/IP or other subjects. This book fills in the gaps without being too vendor biased. Cisco and WildPackets are excellent companies, but the book really focuses on enhancing your network to it's fullest. I learned that just because my network "works", there may be many things ready to break that had not been troubleshot before. Now I really feel able to properly "fix" my troubles and not just make my network magically work when there is trouble behind the scenes waiting for a Friday night to break.
The two authors have been in the industry since it's inception and bring a passion for networking to the table with a focus on teaching those of us who do not have 20+ years in the trenches.
This book is not only a reference book, but a well written, easy to read explanation of networking and troubleshooting. With real-life scenarios from the authors and practical situations played out. I felt as though I had a mentor walking me through the logical steps of analysis.
Buy reference books and keep them on your selves for when you need them. Buy this book, read it and keep it close because you will need it!

My overall impression was that this is a great book. I felt that the first chapter was unnecessary detail, and sort of seemed like chest thumping to me. I find this book to be an excellent reference about just about all aspects of LAN communications. I was not impressed with the WAN protocols however. I sort of expected more of that, as you might find in a Campus network. I keep this book handy, and often find myself using it as a reference when I am unsure of a conclusion I have drawn. I recommend this book to anyone looking for reference material.

I'm sad I waited so long to read this excellent book. "Troubleshooting Campus Networks" (TCN) was published in Jul 2002, and it belongs on every network administrator's shelf -- now! This is the best networking book since Scott Haugdahl's "Network Analysis and Troubleshooting" and Eric Hall's "Internet Core Protocols." TCN will truly test your networking knowledge; you'll quickly validate the truth and discard the fiction.

So many books discuss networks, but somehow distort subtle points. Authors Oppenheimer and Bardwell know their material inside-out and explain key points in clear, concise prose. Ever hear of the "37% utilization rule for Ethernet?" It's false. Think that TCP sequence numbers count packets? Wrong -- they count bytes of data. And why are sequence numbers seemingly "off by one?" Look at the difference between ordinal and cardinal numbers, described in ch. 9.

TCN displays an uncanny ability to include just the information that is needed. "Reversible half-ASCII," which accounts for odd-looking NetBIOS traces, appears in ch. 12. The sections on Windows networking are first-rate, with helpful comparisons of NetBIOS with IPX, TCP, and NetBEUI. Even theoretical but damaging attack methods, like corrupting Hot Standby Router Protocol messages (ch. 8), are illuminated.

I have two complaints. I would have liked more attention paid to the mechanics of analyzing traffic, including the use of taps. Also, the Windows chapter seemed to end abruptly, just when the dynamics of Windows 2000 networking and port 445 should have appeared.

TCN is designed to educate protocol analysts. People with this skill set can administer LANs, analyzer network-based IDS traffic, and deploy network infrastructure. I thank the authors for their efforts and look forward to their next endeavor.

Things have changed considerably since I went through the college application process myself and that being the case, I felt rather lost and helpless on how best to help my son get through this next big/huge step in his life!... I read the book and then my son read it... We both felt that it answered so many questions that we each had and gave us a kind of "step by step" plan of action!... it really helped to put our minds at ease... I am very grateful that this book was written and highly recommend it!

This is an outstanding book. What I appreciate most about it is its thoughtfulness. Where other books present statistics and give only brief attention to very important topics, this book presents a fair, smart, and thorough account of the World of Admissions and encourages you to sit down and think about things, guiding you along each step of the process.

The best book I read so far. As an admission consultant, I think it covers the basic information that parents and kids should know. I even met her in person this year. There is one little problem about this book - it is two years old. So new things happened within these two years have not yet been covered, such as the SMART grant (new for year 2007).

This book is clearly written and an excellent guide for the high school student and parents.

As a high school senior, I've been having the usual problems with finding a college that I feel is right for me, and then actually going about the process of applying. Not only was this book helpful in answering nearly all of my questions, but it is written in an interesting, friendly manner that I found heartening in the midst of a process that has been incredibley stressful! I recommend this book not only to high school students but their parents as well - my Mother read it and she loved it too!

Wow, I just want to say this book is awesome! I remember buying it at Barnes & Nobles because I thought it looked interesting. It was so good, I just could not put it down! I read it in like two days and I have been waiting for the sequel for months. I'm going to go and pre order it now!

I know it says in the summary that this is for readers of Gossip Girl and A-List, but I swear this book is much better than those. I liked this book so much, because it showed four girls in pursuit of their dreams. I could relate to each of them in different ways, and I felt like the ending was perfect. It wasn't entirely corny and predictable. This is similar to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, except for the fact that we don't have to wait for a second book to come out before we find out what happens.

It is the time for their lives to truly take flight. Best friends Harper, Kate, Becca and Sophie have graduated high school and are going to separate colleges to pursue their separate careers. But to Harper's disappointment, her future is crushed when she received the rejection letter from NYU and rather than tell her friends the truth, she decides to spend the year writing America's next Little Women. Although her gambling journey was not to be taken alone, for Harper inspired both Kate and Sophie to chase their dreams as well. Sophie blindly stumbles into Hollywood in search of the perfect audition that will propel her into the movie business, but instead finds love with the wrong actor. Leaving home with only a passport and an open road, Kate bails out of Harvard to explore the world and its broad opportunity where she hopes her dream is hidden. The only one to stick to her plan, Becca hits the ski slopes on the Middlebury team content with the only thing she feels good at, which keeps her company when her friends are far. Love comes to each girl that year and with it decisions that could change their lives, and though apart, the four friends manage to find ways to hold each other close. Bass Ackwards and Belly Up, by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fein, is a heartfelt novel that defines the love that is intertwined in the friendship of four girls who experience their first steps into the real world.

Bass Ackwards and Belly Up is made up of the four stories of the four friends Becca, Harper, Sophie and Kate. The tales of each of their separate lives makes the book a more intriguing read, one that's difficult to put down. From each girl, the reader can sometimes relate and because there are separate stories, it is easier to compare with.

Thorough the hard times, together or apart, the authors do a great job of defining each character by their experiences. For instance, when Kate is robbed and Harper finishes the first fifty pages of her book, each girl is changed and reacts a different way to the events. The characters are very well developed and it makes the story much easier to imagine.

Bass Ackwards and Belly Up focuses on each friend's dream, whatever that dream may be. In this way, it gives teens the incentive to chase their dreams, but still to think out what this change may hold for their futures. Through this story, the authors send a great message for teens that shows you can accomplish whatever you wish if you just give it a try.

This story of four friends and their adventures as young adults is an incredible story of love, determination and the freedom to make your own choices with the burden of the consequences. I highly recommend Bass Ackwards and Belly Up to teenage girls and young adults for I highly enjoyed it myself.

E. Knipp

Best friends Harper, Sophie, Becca, and Kate have done everything together since elementary school. Now they've graduated, and are about to go off to college. True, they're all going to different schools, in different cities, but they're still all having the same experiences, just in different locations. Then, the night before Becca is supposed to leave for Middlebury, Harper drops a bomb. Instead of heading off to Manhattan, she's going to be staying at home in her parents basement and writing the next Great American Novel. In other words, following her Dream. Sophie and Kate quickly hop on board the "Dream Train," as they call it, going to L.A. and Europe, respectively. For Becca, joining the Middlebury ski team is her dream, but her friends tell her she should work on expanding her horizons by falling in love. As the girls' powerful stories alternate throughout the novel, you will be rooting for all of them to accomplish their dreams. True, there are obstacles: a bitter ski coach, skeezy guys, and writer's block, to name a few. But this Dream Train is full speed ahead, and it doesn't stop for anything or anyone.

Despite their vastly different personalities and families, Harper, Sophie, Becca, and Kate have been best friends for years. No matter what, they tell each other everything.

Well, almost everything. Harper was rejected from NYU, the only college to which she applied, and has been keeping this a secret from her friends and her parents for months. Right before her friends plan to take off for colleges all over the country, the truth comes out.

Well, kind of. Harper acts as though she has decided not to go to NYU, preferring to stay home and write the next Great American Novel. She thinks this quasi-admission will shock her friends, but their reactions shock her even more: two of them decide to follow her example and take a year off from college to chase their own capital-D Dreams.

From there on, the story follows each girl in turn. Each storyline is given equal time and attention, switching back and forth every few pages. This format will be familiar to fans of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Sophie wants to be a famous actress. As luck would have it, her mom's old friend lives with her husband in Beverly Hills and allows Sophie to stay at the guesthouse rent-free. Sophie's landlords are quite busy and have good connections, giving her total freedom and helping her snag some auditions. Sophie befriends Sam, an aspiring actor who takes care of the pool and does odd jobs around the place, and Trey, a famous actor who gets her a line in a movie and steals her heart. If you like Sophie's storyline, read The 310 series by Beth Killian.

Kate's post-high-school plans were supposed to be set in stone: Go to Harvard with her long-time boyfriend, study hard and get good grades in an effort to live up to her parents' high expectations. Harper's big plan makes Kate realize she has no plan of her own. Europe calls out to her, so she books a plane ticket and packs her bags. As her boyfriend drops her off at the airport, he breaks up with her. She heads off to her big trip feeling more alone than ever. While she travels, she attempts to work her way through a list of 100 tasks ("Touch the Berlin Wall," "Take the water," "Stomp grapes") created by her friends and her younger adopted sister Habiba. If you like Kate's story, read 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.

Becca heads off to Middlebury as planned, wanting to wow the school's coach with her skiing ability. He coached an Olympic team and she wants to impress him more than anything. She ends up getting on his bad side during the first practice and staying there for quite some time. Not only that, but small pratfalls evolve into bigger disasters, snowballing into something she never could have seen coming. Somewhere along the way, she manages to do the one thing her friends challenged her to do: fall in love. If you like Becca's story, read the Love Bukowski series by Emily Franklin.

Meanwhile, Harper finds herself staring at a blank computer screen. Now living in her parents' basement and told that she must pay rent, she takes a job at a local coffeehouse. An old classmate, Judd, becomes an unlikely friend. The twenty-three-year-old English teacher she crushed on in high school becomes a regular customer - and maybe something more. Now if she could only manage to actually write something . . . If you like Harper's story, read That Summer by Sarah Dessen.

The book covers three months in the lives of four teenage girls. As any teenager can tell you, that is both a very short and a very long period of time. During those three months, the characters are each granted a new kind of independence, but manage to come back together. If only all friendships were truly this strong, and we were all afforded the freedom (and, for the most part, incredibly good luck and easy resolutions) these girls were given.

George Perkovich has produced a seminal work on India's nuclear weapons program. He analyzes the political, economic, security issues that have contributed to India's decision-making regarding the bomb. George has correctly identified India as being caught in a dilemma for a long time over nuclear weapons testing. India also provides the only example of a nuclear weapons program that was openly debated in a democratic society. This debate (which ranked often very low on the priorities of successive prime ministers who correctly placed socio-economic development as a higher priority) has led to India shifting its position over time -- one from being the first proponent of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to opposing it due to is discriminatory nature today. It describes how India's opposition to nuclear weapons in the '50s which was perceived as being moralizing in the West, has now changed to embrace weapons since the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty permanently endorsed the nuclear weapons status of the five declared nuclear powers without any comprehensive, binding time-table for destroying all nuclear weapons -- a position that India objects to as being discriminatory.

A must-read for anyone interested in nuclear weapons proliferation and arms control negotiations today.

Less to do with the bomb per se, but a scholarly history of the Indian nuclear program. This is a work that will be quoted again and again.

This is easily one of the best books I have read about my own country. Very informative.

Note to editorial Reviewers: India entered the nuclear club in May 1974 and not in May 1998 as suggested by some of your reviews.

Some highlights of the book.

* The term nuclear "haves" and "have-nots" was coined by Homi Bhabha initially and used by others and till date has been central to putting forth our country's opposition to NPT and CTBT.

* University of Chicago's late Prof. Chandrasekhar's refusal to head the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) after the death of patriot Dr. Homi Bhabha.

* One of my disappointment is the author's avoidance in the discussion of the cause of the death of Dr. Homi Bhabha, even though such an incident is beyond the scope of this book. Since Bhabha provided the impetus and leadership during the nuclear program's infancy, I expected the author to throw some light on this issue.

* Vikram Sarabhai's hatred for Nuclear tests is news, especially since he was heading the Atomic Energy commision. As a spaceman it is surprising that he headed the organization in the first place.

* Indira Gandhi's refusal to allow more nuclear tests after 1974 stemmed from her abhorence for anything nuclear after her post-Pokhran I experiences. This is contrary to the popular belief - international pressure.

* Most sections of the book has an objective view of the Indian nuclear scenario except the last few chapters where the author seems to bend towards India signing the CTBT and the NPT. Or atleast implying that India's moral stand on nuclear issue was defeated after the May 98 tests.

* BJP (and its predecessor Jana Sangh) has been the only political party to openly campaign for Nuclear power.

It is time that India and Pakistan get the respect they deserve as nuclear powers. Why is it that France, Germany, Israel, the U.S., Russia, and South Africa (now supposedly non-nuclear) have been able to garner the respect that China, India and Pakistan are alluded by? Is it becuase they are not white Europeans? Nontheless, a well researched book.

As an Indian immensely proud of his country's accomplishments and having had to enter multiple debates with other non-Indians in May 1998, I gained a great amount from the book. It is immaculately researched and it seems that Perkovich has left no stone unturned. It goes into such depth and understanding of the Indian polity's psyche as previously unseen from a non-Indian author. Perkovich is not merely narrating a set of events which led to the testing but defending a theory that goes against current understandings of international relations and nuclear non-profileration by setting India as an example. I enjoyed every chapter of the book and hope that current policy makers in the field learn from it. A must read for every Indian interested it their country's policies and others making policy for the rest of the world.

Applying to Graduate School can be an isolating and discouraging process. This book is thorough, practical, and not without humour. Well worth it.

As a first year graduate student, I was asked by my Director of Graduate Studies to read Semenza's "Graduate Study for the 21st Century" this summer before beginning the program. The book is a concise, easy-to-read introduction to graduate programs in the humanities that manages an excellent balance between useful information in the short term (how to approach seminar papers and comprehensive exams, for example) while also keeping the big picture in view (i.e. the looming job search). I found the book incredibly informative and worthwhile, full of the things that I wanted to know, but no one was telling me. A must read.

I've read "Getting What You Came For" and other highly recommended books out there about graduate school and academics, but this one is certainly the most up-to-date, detailed, and clearly focused on those who want a tenure-track job. Although this book is written for the humanities and I'm in a social science Ph.D. program I found it very helpful and it was easy to 'translate' to my field. If you know you want an academic career I highly recommend this engaging and well thought out book.

Finally! There's no better advice for graduate students in the humanities than what Prof. Colon Semenza offers in this incredibly detailed, thoroughly honest guide. I share other readers' regret that Graduate Study for the 21st Century wasn't available when I began graduate study in English. I've recommended this essential book to everyone I know in the humanities as well as the social sciences (where Colon Semenza's insights also apply in many respects).

I am a tenured professor of English (coicidentally, my specialty is Semenza's -- early modern drama -- I should say, however, I don't know him). For several years now I have been running workshops on the job market, serving as my department's "placement director. This is easily the best book on the topic out there, an essential work for any graduate student in the humanities. When I read it I immediately disposed of stacks of photocopies (sample letters, etc.) and stopped preparing a rather lame powerpoint presentation. Now, I simply recommend (read:insist) students take a look at this book.