"An Essay on Man" was one of Pope's finest pieces. It has great satirical points with true to life meanings. The piece's discussion on religion and virtue was the best I have yet to find. I gave the writing four of five stars because it was the best work I have ever read that came out of the time period. Pope should always be remembered as the greatest satirical writer ever in my mind.

This is a very good book because it can save you when you are in a hurry! The text is short and the pictures are very useful. It's a general book and talks about the mainly ankle and foot's problems and diseases. Thanks to the opportunity to have it!

As a college Accounting student I found this book extremely useful in explaining the US tax laws in a way I could easily understand. Many "real-life" examples make the reading meaningful.

VERY easy read. Can understand, if that is possible, the tax laws and procedures

This book shows you how to talk with the internet protocols directly with CAsyncSocket or CSocket. There are examples on how to write a news reader or a mail program. It is the only book I could find with these examples. My only criticism is that its not all one author, so programming styles are inconsistent. A better title for this book would be 'Programming internet protocols with MFC'.

Our girls read this after a trip to the Amazon, and found lots that they recognized & enjoyed. The standard of information is rather higher than that in the Magic Tree house books, which is reasonable, given that they don't have to worry about plot & characters as well!

If your child enjoys Magic Tree house, and would like to know more about the Amazon this is fine, but I would also recommend One Small Square: Tropical Rainforests (by Donald Silver). We took this with us to the rainforest (see review) and found it to be excellent.

For readers of the Ramage series this is a critical volume. Captain Lord Ramage finally realizes that marriage to his long-time love, the Marchesa of Volterra, is not going to happen.

A fragile peace has come to Europe. The Marchesa has decided to return to Italy despite the fact her enemy Napoleon still rules there. Ramage is off to the American Tropics again on a secret mission to survey a South Atlantic island. He finds a mix of surprising, deadly, and lovely discoveries. The novel is very slow starting. It focuses on people more than action. An unprecedented amount of informal conversation between crew and captain is a hallmark of this series, but this volume is more reliant than usual on dialogue and repartee. This story is best for how Ramage has to deal with civilians on his desert isle, and with the Marchesa, the IDEA of the Marchesa, and with a new woman in his life. This is almost a romance novel for men. For once his fierce reputation works against him, as he is manipulated by pirates.

As usual the writing is smooth, although a great stretch of the book lacks the tension of others due to it being peace time. Pope makes use of an expedition artist to describe the beauty of tropical skies and waters. You'll find interesting vignettes on shipyards, the Hydrographic Office ("Who knows, one day we might be able to print our own charts..."!), the despicable peace treaty of Amiens, shipboard chaplains, ship's books, and tropical clouds. An excellent map is included.

I have long been a fan of the Ramage series. However, I have grown a little dissappointed of the tedious re-introductions of the the main characters which occur in each book.

Nevertheless, this is one of the better ones. The concept of the story was good, almost believable, and Pope has done a good job in transporting you to the period.

There is little else I can say about the actual plot, without giving too much away. There is a good twist at the end - watch out for it! This is one of the series that you will probably be happy to buy, and re-read, not just borrow from the Library.

Making landfall off the Tuscan coast of Italy (familiar to readers of the very first Ramage novel as the home of his love), Capt. Ramage's frigate Calypso falls in with two French bomb vessels. With the discovery the t wo vessels were to join frigate transports for a secret invasion plan, Ramage's eyes light with new possibilities for applying his devastating but low-casualty "touch" to discomfit Napoleon. Can he discover the destination? He becomes a gypsy spy, attacks a harbor, and chases a frigate, all in pursuit of this goal. His cruise in the Mediterranean is to be continued in the next volume (Ramage's Signal).

More deliberately paced than, say, Alexander Kent's swashbuckling Bolitho series, Pope wrote two major actions to Kent's typical five. Pope includes short didactic pieces, which slow the narrative but contribute to the depth of the story. For example, in the middle of this volume (and to build suspense) is an entertaining section on the handling of Calypso's anchors, and later the commands necessary for setting sail. This series is easier than others for the novice to follow, whereas the Bolitho is for those seeking pure action.

Wherein Capt. Ramage expects prize moneys (from #7 DIAMOND), fits out a captured frigate, attends a court martial, hears of mutiny and a mad captain, reconnoiters the Spanish Main (I'd always wondered what that was) on an impossible task, cleverly incites a "mutiny," enters an enemy harbor and mans another ship, sets off some fireworks, is hit by a storm, and searches for a bit of treasure. Just another West Indies adventure taken in stride by Lord Ramage!

An interesting facet of these middle books in the series (this is #8, and they're not so good if read out of order), is how Dudley Pope is using Ramage's officers as commentators on the qualities of superior leadership, exemplified by the inspiring Capt. Ramage of course. Here it is finely calibrated anticipation of enemy responses and "planned surprises" for them (a la the real Lord Cochrane's prescriptions, again). Pope skillfully lays out Ramage's plans but never spoils them with anticipatory details: you still have to guess 'em. The Admiral back in Antigua makes a fine foil for Ramage's audacity. The concluding chapters are something of an anticlimax.

The action scenes race along, and the storm fearsomely roars--a sudden calderete cascading from the Venezuelan mountain valleys. Another wrap around cover art by Paul Wright (but the sail plan depicted doesn't make sense to me). One map of the eastern Caribbean ("Cannibal") Sea, that would have been good to have back in volume 3 already.