The book Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush was very likeable. I enjoyed it especially because of the supernatural in it. The ghost in it was described in such detail that it seemed as if you were standing there in the room viewing it. I also enjoyed the book because its main character was a teenage girl with many responsibilities. If you are a teenage girl, you are sure to be able to relate to this book. Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush was also a good book for anyone who is dealing with a death in their family, especially for someone who was really close. I could share the girl's pain in the book because I knew what it was like. The book doesn't bring you down, it just shows how things work out in the end. If you enjoy the supernatural, have experienced a death in your family, or you are a teenage girl with many responsibilities, then I strongly recommend this book.

I thought that the book"Sweet Whispers Brother Rush" deserved 5 stars because it is a great love novel but at the same time you can't put it down. It is deffinetly one of the best books I ever read and more than a 1 time read.

I just finished reading this great book. Why is it great? It would make a wonderful stage play and I'm surprised that no one has done it yet. Hamilton is a master at characterization. The mother and daughter along with their relationship are entirely believable and complicated. Hamilton captured that fine line between love and hate which teens experience with their parents. This book is much better than "Catcher In The Rye!" Buy this book. Read it. You'll be glad you did. And watch out for those fine lookin ghosts hang'n out at da Sevn Levn. See ya dude!

I have thumbed through a few .net and one ado.net books and this has been pretty much the most useful for me. The other ado.net book by David Sceppa was ok, but typical for Microsoft, its heavy on the wizards and stuff so I didn't learn as much as I might have. Plus, in my case, the wizards didnt always work because I was trying to hook up to FoxPro, not SqlServer. This book has a tendency to see things from Sqlservers point of view too, even though ado.net can work with alot of rdbmss. Anyway, if you are familiar with Oreillys nutshell books, Unix in a Nutshell for example, you will have an idea of what is up with this book. Its an excellent addition to Oreillys line.

I have always been a fan of the O'Reilly Nutshell series, and this book lives up to the tradition of its predecessors. However, this book actually goes one step further: all the content in the book is provided on an accompanying CD, which integrates an electronic version of the book directly into Visual Studio .NET. This means that (like the regular MSDN documentation), the O'Reilly documentation becomes a part of your context-sensitive help. Now that's pretty cool!

The book is current with the 1.1 version of the Framework, which is a big deal, since there were some pretty significant changes to XML in this release (which is integral to ADO.NET). Like all the other Nutshell books, this one begins out with a quick introduction to all of the more popular classes in ADO.NET through explanation and examples of use. I personally enjoyed the section on DataTables, as there is a lot of discussion on things I don't normally do in conjunction with DataTables, like computing aggregate calculations and merging data sets.

Even though this is an ADO.NET book, the authors realize that you can't talk about just ADO.NET, you really need some discussion on implementing the data in a GUI (like using a DataGrid). The authors actually spend some time discussing various issues in data binding and various methods for retrieving and displaying data via this mechanism.

Finally, there is considerable discussion (for a Nutshell book) on the relationship between a DataSet and XML. This discussion also includes the basics of using an XSLT to transform XML.

(excerpted from The Indendent Review, Summer 2003)

Stephen F. Knott has written an important extended historiography of the scholarly and political reputation of Alexander Hamilton from his untimely death at the hands of Aaron Burr to the present. It is a story well worth telling, and Knott makes valuable points about accuracy and bias in scholarship that political scientists and historians should take to heart no matter what their political leanings or their views of Hamilton. For these points alone, the book deserves the attention of those interested in the Founders and American political thought.

Although the book succeeds up to a point in its primary aim to dispel myth and to correct the historical record about Hamilton's place in history, it ultimately falls short of the mark. In the end, it ends by substituting modern-day Hamiltonian myths for supposedly Jeffersonian myths. That regrettable outcome attests that Hamilton is perhaps too important a founder to be surrendered to Hamiltonians, whether they be those of Hamilton's own day, or present-day champions, such as Knott.

In fact, Hamilton shared a much larger context with other Founders. From this context, Americans draw their distinctive political traditions, and no matter how great the temptation, we should resist the urge to extract a particular individual for elevation as prophet or denunciation as scoundrel. Despite his favoritism for his subject, however, Knott has come admirably close in certain particulars, and we should not lose sight of them. These points rescue the work and make it an important contribution to the dialogue about the founding.

Finally! A compelling defense of the Founder second only to Washington in terms of indespensibility to the creation and greatness of this county. Professor Knott chronicles the roller-coaster ride of Hamilton's reputation, from his murder by the scoundral Burr to the present. He presents overwhelming evidence that General Hamilton has been abused by critics, historians and Jefferson-lovers alike. Knott's painstaking history of the apochryphal "great beast" comment provides a frightening lesson of how a single malicious report can turn even a great man's historical reputation upside down. The fact that Mr. Hamilton's solitary statue stands ignored at the back door of the Treasury Department while Mr. Jefferson is surrounded by marble and carved words perfectly illustrates how the myth of greatness trumps the reality of greatness. Professor Knott's conclusion that "a return to Hamiltonianism" could fix much of what ails American politics is right on the money. Fantastic book.

I picked the book for my nephew and ended up reading it myself. I thought it was an excelent book that lendsa bit of insight and history into the crews of the "Enterprise" and Calhoun's "Excelsior". I've been reading all of the Star Trek Starfleet Academy TNG Series.

This book is another really good book. For people who don't know, this is a book about Geordi (from TNG) as a cadet in Starfleet Acadamy. Overall, this is a very good read, although I believe Capture The Flag (#4) is slightly better.

The relationship between Hetty King and Gus Pike that begins in "Aunt Hetty's Ordeal," reminds me the time on "Roseanne" when David moved in and Roseanne warned him: "I consider you family now. And you've seen how I treat my family..." Given how Hetty treats Sara, Olivia and everybody else in the extended King family, you have to worry about poor, uneducated Gus. The problem is that everybody in Avonlea knows to take Hetty King with a grain or salt. But Gus thinks everything Aunt Hetty says is carved on stone tablets and now when Hetty makes a heated offhand remark it has significant reprecussions.

The title of this episode has a couple of meanings. At first we think "Aunt Hetty's Ordeal" is that Muriel Stacey, who has been appointed school superintendent instead of Hetty, is coming for a visit. Hetty thinks it is an inspection, but, of course, it is no such thing. But that does not stop the old hens in town from ruffling Hetty's feathers. Reminded that kids flocked to be in Miss Stacey's school, Hetty goes out to the cannery to recruit and reels in Gus Pike. He can neither read nor write, smokes and plays the fiddle, but he wants to learn and this touches Hetty. Gus had been a minor character in previous episodes, and "Aunt Hetty's Ordeal" is where he starts becoming more important to the show in general (and Felicity King in particular). This is also the point where Hetty King, who tended to be a bit insufferable for my money, started to thaw, because the big difference between Gus and Sara, is that Gus is not family and Hetty ends up opening her heart to him.

This storybook is written by Gail Hamilton from the teleplay by Marlene Matthews, and continues the transition from Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels to more original storylines (although clearly Gus Pike replaces Peter Craig in "The Story Girl" and "The Golden Road"). Note: Do not try to figure out how Hetty King and Muriel Stacey are contemporaries and where this all fits in with the Sullivan Productions of the "Anne of Green Gables" books. Hetty has supposedly been teaching forever at Avonlea School and Anne was teaching there a year or two after Miss Stacey. "Avonlea" had a proud history of bringing back both characters and actors from the "Anne" movies and this is just another nice example of the practice.

Based on an episode from the second season of ROAD TO AVONLEA. Aunt Hetty decides to put her teaching skills to work and gather all the poor uneducated boys in Avonlea and teach them. She meets Gus Pike who is eager to learn. She teaches him how to write his name and proper manners as well as the school subjects. Then, rival teacher Miss Stacey (played by Maryilyn Lightstone, Miss Stacey in Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea) arrives for a visit! Miss Stacey taught Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe and many other famous people and Hetty is angry and she almosts breaks her back! Miss Stacey steps into her schoolhouse as a substitute teacher and sparks fly as she proposes a benefit concert AGAINST Miss King's wishes! I loved this story because it makes you think and laugh and it's good soul food because of it's heartwarming theme. These stories are very heartwarming and set at the turn of the century in the town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Hamilton mastered the "pulp" thrust of science fiction, and its virtues, almost before that term for the genre was coined. He could put more drama into a short story than many writers at greater length would manage in a full-length novel. And all of these stories, originally published in "Analog" and other SF magazines, retain that punch.

The science is far from perfect, and occasionally diverges from what was known even in the 1930s and 1940s. "Thundering Worlds" is full of passion and plot, but the physics of planetary bodies is inaccurate enough to be distracting to an informed reader ... yet, still, it's one helluva story.

This Del Rey edition has a striking illustration on its cover of the best story of the lot, "He That Hath Wings." You'll shed a tear for the fate of the protagonist even if you don't envy him his mutation, as I do.

This collection is an excellent look at the development of one of the old writers of the Golden Age. The stories begin weak, and then become progressively stronger througout the book, until at the end the stories are highly literate. On the other hand, some of the earlier stories are so entertaining (yet corny) that one will overlook the weak writing because the stories are just flat-out entertaining. About two-thirds of the way through the book, there is a story called "Easy Money" that is the most hilarious comedy I've ever seen in science fiction.

Had the distinct pleasure of meeting and spending a couple hours with Floyd before his death. It is great to hear his voice again, reproduced on these tapes. He can give you an inside view of the police brutality prominent in the days of Bonnie & Clyde. The "rubber hose" method of questioning, and getting confessions.
According to Floyd, Clyde lived approximately where Texas Stadium sits today and once found guilty of minor crime as a teenager, met the rubber hose every time something happened in the vicinity.

Floyd's brother Raymond Hamilton, however was a considerably more violent and murderous criminal. Floyd joked that his mother was the only woman to ever have 2 sons on the FBI's most wanted list at the same time.

Sid Underwood has done a great job of telling the Ray Hamilton Story in "Desperation Desperado" The Chronicle of Raymond Hamilton. (ISBN# 0890159661) Ray was executed by the state at age 21. He and another death row inmate to be executed the same day, flipped a coin to see who met "Old Sparky" first!

great listening for anyone into Bonnie & Clyde. Floyd Hamilton was there for many of the escapades and outlived Bonnie & Clyde to rob more banks. He served time in Alcatraz and was almost successful in escaping the island prison. He finally found God and straightened up his life. The added commentary & old radio audio is a little cheesy but Hamilton's narrative--to those familiar with the people and places he is talking about--is spellbinding.

As I sat at a traffic light and observed another motorist talking on a cell phone, I recalled Albert Jay Nock's observations in "Snoring as a Fine Art." Like the English novelists Kingsley Amis and Evelyn Waugh, Nock thought that most of the world's problems were caused by people who were too busy, and that the world be a better place if there were less meddling, less anxious do-gooding, and more sleeping, preferably a European siesta after lunch.

John Henry Newman foresaw the modern mentality which knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. Our untraditional "busy-ness" robs us of the introspection and philosophic habit of mind which Newman thought was the purpose of education. Now the cell phones keep us from even one minute of reflection. For once I agreed with Emerson: "Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind."

Nock lived in the progressive era of the early 20th century, the era of Wilson and FDR, whose Leftist militarism, interventionism, and Puritanism were enough to make any man bitter. In these essays he provided what his collectivist age needed -- a healthy dose of skepticism and individualism. Although I agree with Henry Regnery that Nock advanced the conservatism of his time, many of his ideas now look less like conservatism and more like prescriptions for loneliness and isolation. Nowhere did I see a defense of the social group, which has always been the root of conservatism.

His welcome comments in favor of civilization and the humane life contradict his comments in favor of liberty and equality without limitation. What Nock calls radicalism and anarchism do not lead to the humane life or to civilization. Although he quotes Burke, he overlooks Burke's emphasis on ordered liberty. Nock's view that the state is the enemy is a libertarian, rather than a conservative, opinion. Where Nock spends a great deal of time upset at the world, conservatives tend to accept things as they are, with an eye to the smaller satisfactions of limited freedom in a fallible world, a world which often thwarts human desire and ambition. Nock seems to have overlooked the self-evident truth that mankind does not naturally lean toward the angelic, a failing which, according to Alexander Hamilton, makes government necessary in the first place.

There is more than a little Marxism in Nock's attempt to separate Americans into clear categories of upper, middle, and low, and to define them in reference to the idea of exploitation. His desire for equality, moreover, contradicts his desire for a Remnant. On the one hand, he ascribes to the critic the holy vocation of encouraging the Remnant; on the other, he describes himself as superfluous.

Thus there is a mercurial quality to Nock's essays, a curious combination of exaggeration, despair, and an optimism which seems forced and ideal rather than grounded in everyday life. It may be that Nock attained some peace late in life, that he was able to accept men as they are. But that acceptance is the exception rather than the norm in his writing, and usually gives way to an unsatisfying ambivalence.

Albert Jay Nock was perhaps one of the only three truly enduring bellettrists 20th century American letters yielded up. He deployed a truly lyric and insinuating prose style of uncommon grace and oddly puckish wit, and it served to unfurl one of the rarest of American minds - a shamelessly recalcitrant individualist whose intellectual evolution never obstructed or abrogated the core of the man: that the individual deserved his long-stolen propers; that the lowest common denominator should be tolerated but not consecrated or canonised; and, above all, that the State was an organism worthy of that which its crimes ever deserves: the fear and loathing of any and every man and woman who cares a whack about his or her fellows. To read him is a singular joy. And you will find no more sensible or beautifully-balanced introduction to the man and his singularity of writing than in this volume which Mr. Hamilton has composed with uncommon brilliance.

This is a wonderful collection of some of Nock's finest essays. It offers a great insight into one of the most brilliant (and overlooked) minds of the 20th century. He is a very gifted writer and a truly dedicated lover of liberty. If you enjoyed "Our Enemy The State" you will surely cherish this book.

I loved reading this book as the language used is very attractive.Information introduced in a very reader friendly way and different colours are used to stop you falling asleep.This book explains even tiny things and avoids complicated pionts by referring the in depth reader to Appendices at the back of the book.I recommend this book for any body intrested to get significant information in a short time.This book is very useful and easily digestible specially if English is not your first language.

This book is very interesting. It has extensive amount of information about everything you ever wanted to know about nutrition. From tables that display the amount of vitamins and minerals your body needs to information of various food items (ie. calories, fats, protien, etc.), this book is for you. Gaining a little to much weight? This book could be a cheaper version of a dietician. However, you may not find this interesting if your english skills are not up to par. Students in post-secondary use this book, so if your english skills are not to good, you might want to try another book. To sum it up, you could use this book but you better be ready to get out that dictionary.

Although I found this subject much harder than I anticipated, the manner in which Whitney wrote the subject helped me understand the material. I have learned much more than I had thought I would.

This book documents the friendship and political careers of two of the Confederacy's most important statesmen. Davis does a nice job of providing historical detail while also weaving a readable story. However, at times, the prose is too informal and almost needlessly dramatic. Moreover, much of the history is quite derivative, as I learned very little new information about the men in question or the political tenets of the Confederacy. His previous book, "A Government of Our Own," is a much better historical treatment.

Toombs and Stephen examplify the problems within the Confederate
government. These incredibly close friends of the strong Georgia delegation were powerful national political figures whose bitterness over personal issues, Toombs, and Stephens' strict constitutional views undermined the Davis administration. Stephens never seriously worked with the dominating Davis and was later opposed to the administration over constitutional issues in the face of bigger war emergencies. Toombs loses the opportunity to become the first President by his bellicose enthusiams for the office coupled with drink which lowers his place in the new government and raises Stephens' star. Excellent description of both men including Toombs rise as Secretary of State, his anti-Davis stance and his mercurial and short military career. The author also covers the end of the era of both men including Stephens' attempts to rewite history in a light more favorable to him then his actions were in reality. These two powerful men and closest of friends could not see the big picture of the war seeking their narrow views in spite of the war effort. Together with Governor Brown of Georgia, they represented a crisis of independence within the Confederacy that no doubt contributed to the fall of the Confederate government.

What a delightful little book! And frankly, I don't often use the term "delightful" in a book review. *The Union That Shaped the Confederacy* is a swiftly-paced, lightly written work that details the friendship of a pair of Georgians - Robert Toombs and "Little Alec," Alexander Stephens.

It is very important to know exactly what you are not getting with this book. You will not get a standard biographical treatment of Stephens and Toombs, and author Davis makes this abundantly clear from the outset. You will not receive great insights into the minds and thinking of these two men, but will come to appreciate the antebellum, war-time, and post-bellum periods of American history as these two men saw it.

William C. Davis does not attempt to make his subjects either heroes or villains on the Confederacy's stage. They were what they were - friends who for the most part held similar political beliefs, worked for the same ends, and became, as the war progressed, more and more bitterly opposed to the administration of Jefferson F. Davis.

Because of the nature of the work, the reader receives a slice of Civil War-era history from a perspective he or she would not likely get. Along the way, one receives insights into the functioning (and dysfunction) of the Confederacy's Executive Branch, as well as the building of the "loyal opposition" to Davis's administration. We see the strengths and weaknesses of these two prominent Georgians, as they struggled to establish a new nation out of the old.

Davis's writing style is loose and fast, and almost reads as if a good friend is telling a story of another pair of friends. To some, this may be distracting, but I found it to be just part of the story. *The Union That Shaped the Confederacy* can be read quickly, with a great sense of satisfaction. This book comes highly recommended.