College and University Books

An amazing person as well as basketball player and coach, Don Haskins relates the history of Texas Western/UTEP basketball in a way that the movie "Glory Road" (though very good) simply could not. Even though the title makes it sound like the 1966 season is all that is covered, this book actually tells the history of Haskins' long tenure here at UTEP, from his first years at the school through the historic championship in '66, and beyond. His insights into the players, coaches, and personalities he came into contact with were enthralling, and the wonderful storytelling really makes you feel like you were there through all the good times and bad. I read it cover to cover the same afternoon I bought it, and highly recommend it to any fan of UTEP, Coach Haskins, or basketball in general. Thanks for everything you've done for the city of El Paso, our university, and the game of basketball, Mr. Haskins.

I had great service arrived just in time for fathers day and my father went to UTEP during the duration of the book so it made for a great fathers day present and the service from amazon was awsome thanks alot amazon.

Your current published reviews are enthusiastic but in some cases contain factual inaccuracies. The movie and the book are related in title and subject (Don Haskins); but that is about as far as it goes. The movie which focuses on 1966 is moving and concludes with a happy and factual ending - that is, that Texas Western won that game in 1966 --- but the movie not always true to the facts. Understandably I suppose when you try to compress a life story, even if only one year of a life, into a 2 hour or so movie. The book, from someone who played for Coach, reviewed and commented on the galley proof, and has represented Coach Haskins and the '66 team as a lawyer and a friend for 35 plus years, is "spot-on" and should be read by everyone who has ever had an interest in basketball.

As to the fortunes of 1966 team and the gentlemen representing that team so well, then and now, suffice it to say that the past 3 or 4 years have indeed been a trip down Glory Road: The team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA this past April, only the 6th team to ever be so honored - and the first collegiate team --- with the enshrinement proceedings to be held on September 7 and 8, 2007 at the HOF facility. The team has also been honored with dinner and a movie at the White House with President and Mrs. Bush; the team will be inducted in the Boys Clubs of New York Hall of Fame in October of 2007, and some of the members volunteered to take an Armed Services Entertainment Tour to Germany, the Netherlands and England in February of 2007 to entertain our country's troops and their families. Also, Texas Western's victory on March 19, 1966 in College Park, Maryland over Hall of Fame Coach Adolph Rupp and his great Kentucky Wildcat team, that included Pat Riley, Louie Dampier and Larry Conley, among others, was selected by the National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") as one of 25 defining moments in the 100 year History of NCAA sports.

I could go on but I think this should at least clear up a few matters and hopefully whet the appetite of prospective readers and reviewers to pause and consider reading this book, viewing the movie. Coach Haskin's story is presented in an interesting manner, containing both Coach Haskin's well known skills as a pick-up riding around story teller and the literary skills of Dan Wetzel who spent hours upon hours riding, listening and recording those stories.

It is well written and factual to a fault; and points out what people can do when they put aside prejudices, rediculous stereoptypes (blacks had no discipline, couldn't be a point guard or quarterback) and circumstances and judge people by character and performance; not color and privilege. Every one of those (then but now not so) young men -- all are still alive except Bobby Joe Hill who passed away of a heart attack in 2002 --- that comprised the Texas Western Team in 1966 had talent and skill; more importantly they had character and heart and respect for each other and their coaches and that combination took them to over the top.

Enjoy this story and share it with others - because of their courage and accomplishments, and those of others in other aspects of the 60's civil rights movement, questions surrounding recruiting, playing, starting and honoring people of color in sports today seem strangely quaint, and beyond the imagination of most people born after the '60s. But it wasn't always so and for this all of society owes a debt of gratitude to Don Haskins, the members of his '66 team, the University of Texas at El Paso (formerly Texas Western College) and the citizens of El Paso for contributing to the environment in which we now find ourselves with respect to race relations in sports.

I have the honor of being Don Haskins teammate at Oklahoma A & M, now Oklahoma State University and couldn't be prouder and happier for a very good film about a very historic Coach and athletic event. Please be advised that Don's whole 1966 team was just inducted into the new Collegiate Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Missouri. Buy it, you will like it...!

In one of those quirky moments in the book and movie industries, the autobiography of coach Don Haskins was already "in the pipeline" before the development of the picture.

The book and movie share the title - Glory Road - which is a name of a street on the UTEP campus to commemorate the championship basketball season.

The book obviously gives a more fuller picture of Haskins and does not solely focus on the monumental victory by Texas Western College (UTEP) over Kentucky in the 1966 NCAA Finals. There will be areas "filled-in" where the movie takes artistic license with some facts/scenes to push the plot along.

The years after the title run are especially interesting, since the basketball program somewhat faded from national view as the sport became a multi-billion-dollar industry.

It is a shame that history - especially when it comes to matters of race - oftentimes become blurry as the years lumber forward. Though Haskins has always downplayed his role in what was a defining moment on the court of race & athletics, he truly deserved the attention from the national platform that propelled the book to national bestseller status.

The lessons learned along that glory road are as important today as they were 40 years ago.

More interesting than most novels. A plausible and erudite explanation of why multicellular life, aging and sex, all must exist; being logically consequential to mitochondria. A grand synthesis.

What a book, absolutely fascinating and highly recommended, although I must say that this is not an easy book, in fact is kind of complex if you are not acquainted with the subject. This is not a critic, thing is I would not change a bit of it, but in my opinion, people should have a little knowledge of cellular metabolism and biochemistry before attempting this book.

After reading Dawkins book about the selfish gene, it was inevitable for me to wonder about life origins, why unicellular organisms have that tendency to complexity and to group itself, and how all this machinery works. This book provide a thorough and absorbing introduction of Mitochondria and its symbiosis with eukaryotes, what is the function of each one, why there are two sexes and why we aged and finally become history. As you will see, our understanding of these matters is rather modest, the author insinuate possible solutions to some of the big questions, but in any case the subject is so interesting that you read this book excited all the way to the end.

How beautiful is life and how complex ... you can see that just watching a little fly and wonder how on earth this insect manage to fly, as if eukaryotes have a previous knowledge of Physics, as if they have all the basic solutions of nature in a template. I just know one thing: I want to know and read more about it.

A review aimed at science teachers:

Nick Lane's Power, Sex, Suicide. Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life (Oxford 2005, £10) provided me with every reason to wish I was still the same age as when Monty Python were in their heyday. I nearly poked a fellow Virgin passenger, deep in a Women's Weekly, in the ribs to exclaim, `Guess what! Did you know our endoplasmic reticulum is bacterial in origin!' but I was too scared she would respond with `Guess what! Brittany Spears wore a lace dress to the Oscars,' so I behaved myself, for once.

This book is as remarkable as Oxygen, the Molecule that Made the World. Nearly every page brims with exciting teacher-friendly snippets: mitochondria contribute 10% of our total mass and up to 40% of certain cells. Every chapter encapsulates discussion on long debated issues and reaches out for cross disciplinary intercourse: evolutionary biology and chemistry (iron-sulfur minerals catalysed the pH differential in primordial bacteria, in a semblance to the bioenergetics of the hydrogen pump of the mitochondrial inner membrane), fractal mathematics (power laws in biology), and genetics (the gene transfer `ratchet' which drives mitochondrial (and chloroplast) genes to the nucleus but not the other way round, and why these two organelles always keep a few of their original genes). Best of all, this is a book summarises of 21st century research results and debates, and therefore is highly recommended for any teacher of senior biology, and probably chemistry, too. Here are just some of the highlights (for me) anyway:

* Mitochondria control apoptosis - the process of cell destruction that lies at the heart of embryology - and aging.
* Mitochondria do this by leaking free radicals - but there are checks and balances here, so that a small increase in free radicals simply signals the nuclear mitochondrial genes (a process known as a retrograde response) to be transcribed, enabling more respiratory complexes to be built. Too much free radical leakage for repair and the apoptosis cascade ensues.
* Mitochondria are the reason there are two sexes: it is well known that, in general, paternal mitochondria are excluded during fertilization. However, mitochondrial `fitness' is also tested severely during oocyte development in female fetuses (ie, before birth, when oocytes are culled from around 7 to 2 million.). Early in fetal development, when the fertilized egg divides, the mitochondria do not, so that the original population is reduced from about 100,000 in the zygote to around perhaps only 10 (according to one researcher) per cell. In each cell, these few mitochondria circle the nucleus, as if there is an exchange of information about compatibility of nuclear and mitochondrial genes coding for mitochondrial proteins. All this was news to me.
* Mitochondria have two functions: to produce energy (ATP) and to generate heat. There is general evidence for natural selection in human populations operating at mitochondrial level: people living at the poles have more uncoupling of respiratory pathways, thereby generating more heat and the price for them may be a decreased fertility. People whose genetic history developed in tropical regions (for example, African peoples) have greater aerobic capacity - but the price is greater intolerance of fatty Western diets - making them particularly vulnerable to diseases linked with free radical damage - diabetes and heart disease.
* How did Lane come to realize that mitochondria rule the world? While researching methods for predicting the success of organ transplants, he discovered that if the mitochondria die within minutes of being transplanted (for example, when they come in contact with oxygen again, via the recipient's blood), the organ is doomed, no matter how healthy it looks. This is the kind of story that will rope in the kids, for sure!

While this book is not easy reading, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Nick Lane does not try to oversimplify the intricacies of the molecular biology
underlying the workings of a cell, but shows how the details are necessary to
understand how and why it all came to be. I am amazed at how he managed
to distil a vast quantity of mostly very recent scientific research into not only
a readable, but also a visionary book. The speculative parts of the book need
to be taken with a grain of salt. However, after reading this book my attention
is drawn to articles on mitochondria in Nature and Science, articles which I would
certainly have shirked before reading this book.

I have been deeply interested in mitochondria for many, many years. I've read both medical articles as well as very excellent lay books (such as Lynn Margulis' Early Life, de Duve's Vital Dust). When I saw this book, I had to have it, especially in view of all the raving reviews.

I got out my highlighting pen and notebook, to make sure I extracted every possible morsel from it.

Well, I can't even get though it. It was tedious, boring, distracted, fractured... and who is Nick Lane? I did a web search and found nothing about him.

If you want to find out why mitochondria are critical to our life and evolution, written in a very accessible, even lyrical way, by a Nobel Laureate who really knows what he's talking about, read Christian de Duve's "Vital Dust." It's not about mitochondria per se, but explains the role of mitos and the origins of life.

This book is fantastic for college students, campus staff, or anyone who wants to lead a missional life! It is perfect for a small group!

If you are looking to get stirred up for, and getting some great practicals for implimenting a effective college ministry on your campus or in your town read this book. You will go through past leaders of mission movements, what their lives looked like, and what was the defining elements that set them apart in ministry.

This is one of the only books I have seen relating solely to the changing of a college campus for Christ. Steve does an excellent job describing his experiences working with and reaching college students, all the while giving practical examples of how any college student can find a strategic group to strive towards reaching for the Lord. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a "how to manual" to reaching the lost on his college campus.

The Fuel and the Flame gives readers practical ingredients to an on fire for Christ ministry on college campuses. Use the fuel this book provides to see your campus catch fire for the cause of Christ.

This book is as hard to put down as it is life changing. Shadrach does a great job weaving practical ministry advice into interesting real life stories. This is a must read for every college minister, every college aged Christian, and anyone serious about building God's kingdom on the college campus. Thanks Steve Shadrach!!!

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.

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.

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 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.

Excellent first book after you have received the diagnosis on your child. Good overview. After absorbing this information, you will want to move on to books that deal with the specific type of epilepsy with which your child has been diagnosed.

After hours of internet searching and bookstore browsing with not a whole lot of usable results, finding this book was great. It is clearly written, easy to understand, and covers all of the different causes for seizures, as well as medications and some discussion of the physiology of seizures. I am ordering another copy for my daughter's preschool teachers, who want to be as educated as they can be so that they are prepared for potential seizures at school.

When my 13 year old son had his first seizure, I completely freaked out. When he had a second seizure, I completely lost it and became full of anxiety, fear, and anger. But after reading this book, I found great comfort knowing that all the emotions I had were "normal". The book is also easy to understand, and covers a lot of information which has helped me to become more informed regarding seizures and epilepsy.

I can't begin to describe the grief and fear and utter isolation I felt when my daughter had her second seizure. I remembered that knowledge is power, and I needed to feel powerful. This book gave that to me and so much more! Suddenly terms made sense and I wasn't alone anymore. The section on family coping is amazing: it's as though the authors have reached inside your mind and put down every emotion you've gone through and some that are yet to come. There are case examples throughout that are uplifting, and yes, sometimes a little frightening, but very helpful to read and very enlightening. Most importantly, the book is positive throughout without minimizing what you're dealing with. My only complaint(and this goes for all books, websites, etc) is the use of percentages to illustrate how uncommon different seizure types are, or how many kids outgrow, etc. We already know our kids beat the odds, we don't need to be reminded, and frankly those numbers that in the beginning were a comfort, now are depressing. Again, if a child in your family has seizures, YOU MUST HAVE THIS BOOK!!!

This book contains the answers to most, if not all, of your questions regarding how seizures and epilepsy will affect your child and family. It will also help you know which questions to ask your child's physicians. It is a most complete work. In five sections it describes why seizures occur, diagnosing, treating, coping, and living with epilepsy. Please do yourself a great favor and purchase this book. It is written in language a parent will understand without previous medical knowledge and also it is written with compassion and optimism. I have recommended this book to my family and friends who wish to understand more of how epilepsy is affecting my son's life. You won't be disappointed, buy it today!

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.

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.