Taking us from Argentina through Alberta to Africa, Grady's admirably mixes his keen sense of observation with vivid descriptive skills. He doesn't simply interview the field workers, but joins the digs, suffering the dust, storms, bugs and labour alongside the scientists. He maintains his sense of humour, however. The result is a highly readable book on the paleontologist's work.

The idea that the dinosaurs escaped extinction 65 million years ago, surviving in the form of birds has been a major point of discussion among scientists during the past few years. We follow Grady on his journey from Patagonia through China to the Alberta badlands in revealing much of the new evidence touching on that question. In the course of that trek he introduces us to a gallery of field researchers dealing with that and other uestions about life in the remote past. Grady's focal point is Canadian paleontologist Phil Currie. Currie, a man who long ago might have escaped the rigors of field research for a quiet laboratory, remains captivated by digs, with their constant surprises and revelations. Grady is gratified to see Currie stay Canadian, increasing attention to the high level of this science being done here. Canada's fossil record has been handled poorly, from indifference by Ottawa to being scavenged by the Americans. We've lost too many good researchers, as Grady points out. His book goes a long way to restoring Canada's place in paleontology.

Grady's account of the work of a field paleontologist is a very human tale. Given that he's a writer rather than a professional bone hunter, this is no mean feat. We are shown the ordeals and triumphs fieldwork provides. It's hard, demanding work, requiring some special skills. Beyond the question of endurance is the ability to focus your mind on what you seek in order that your eyes will isolate it from the surrounding rock. It isn't just luck that turns up fossils.

If there's a shortcoming to this book, it's the lack of further presentation on the issue of dinosaurs becoming birds. While it's gratifying that Grady emphasizes Canadian scientists, he completely overlooks the contribution to the evolutionary links of dinosaurs and birds made by Robert Bakker. Bakker's mentor, John Ostrom, receives a scattering of passing mention, but Bakker's studies are far too important to ignore. Even a footnote would have redeemed this issue. Still, the book is a fine start to understanding the dinosaur-bird issue.

As its subtitle suggests, this book is a travelogue, its theme an exploration of the evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds; but it would be a mistake to consider it an addition to the scientific literature. Like most modern travel stories, too much of this book is taken up by Grady's fleeting impressions and details, such as what kind of sandwiches he ate in Argentina. While trying to follow the paleontological thread of the adventure, readers are led into long digressions on Tarzan, cars named after animals, the tango, and other decidedly nonscientific topics. The science can be mildly interesting when it appears, but even it is handicapped by errors such as identifying Dimetrodon as a dinosaur and trilobites as crustaceans, and Haeckel's Law (stages in an organism's embryonic development and differentiation correspond to stages of evolutionary development characteristics of the species) taken too seriously. There are several gratuitous stabs at the "Victorian mind" and its alleged inability to fully comprehend evolution or sex, forgetting that this is the society that produced and nurtured Darwin and Huxley. The one explicit conclusion here is that if birds and dinosaurs can be evolutionarily linked, somehow the "comforting picture" of creation once provided by religion can be reassembled. Not for academic audiences.

How are modern birds related to dinosaurs, and is there life after a species becomes extinct? Grady reveals the work and perspectives of paleontologist Phil Currie, who is the leading proponent of the bird-dinosaur theory. Grady does more than review theory: he traveled with Currie in China and experienced the drudgery of fieldwork first hand. An excellent set of insights is presented.

"Designing Clinical Research: An Epidermiologic Approach" did a thorough analysis of various methodologies, which medical scientists could use in everyday research. It, first of all, outlined all the essential steps (used in epidemiological research), before delving into the analysis of each step. Its information is current and versatile. But, certain important issues like research-funding and statistics received less than expected attention. Despite this flaw, I would still recommend this book to scientists. Its pros did exceed its cons by a mile.

On the whole this book is an excellent work.

But there is some possibility of fostering illusions in many readers' mind that they actually have great power of research in spite of not having good understanding on basic principles such as statistics.

It is not sufficiently equipped for graduate student or researcher above the level.

I bought this book for a course I am taking as part of my fellowship. This book focuses on the concepts of study design and critical aspects of clinical research. To my surprise, what I found was that I have a greater understanding of how to intrepret literature. This is mostly because I'm able to view it from an investigator's point of view. I'm now able to thoroughly dissect a study and identify the weaknesses, etc (without even reading the discussion section). For those who plan on doing clinical research or just practicing evidenced based medicine, this book is a must.

This book has a good story and an interesting angle. I liked the involvement of the Indian characters, although the Indian aspects of the story were very superficial. It is a fun read, although lacking in any real depth. The characters are all very one-dimentional. Changes in attitude are sudden and un-supported by the story.

I found the writing style to be rather annoying. The verb tense switches repeatedly from past to present tense and back again. Sometimes in the same paragraph. It feels very sloppy.

In general, the book reads like a pre-teen chapter book, although the subject matter (government conspiracies and assasination plots) would preclude that particular audience. It's a shame, because this could have been a really terrific story.

Worldwide public awareness of UFO/ET phenomena and government suppression of facts behind them seems to never have been greater than now. I perceive the inspiration for Grady Lee Bryant to write this exciting, fast-paced, truth-conceived adventure to be almost visionary. He is to be commended, also, for assessing certain rumors or beliefs of the Mescalero Apache which were utilized credibly to relate their involvement in the Roswell, New Mexico 1940's ongoing UFO mystery....a feat in itself, since it seems many aspects of Native American cultures are closed to outsiders and are somewhat allusive. I enjoyed reading this most entertaining book.

An exciting fiction story in Southeastern New Mexico that follows the alien incident in Roswell, New Mexico.

This book is nothing more than a glorified korean-english dictionary. It was a bit disappointing since I was expecting more of a textbook-like style.

This book can't be used like a dictionary or a textbook in the traditional sense. The secret to learning Korean is learning how to think in Korean. This book gives some really good common vocabulary by their Chinese (and some pure Korean) roots. It's great for learning Chinese roots as well as associated words. I've never seen a book like this and highly recommend it. It's a great vocabulary builder.

But it is for people who are serious about learning Korean and won't do a casual studier any good. Also, unless you already have a solid grasp on grammar and the language, this book needs to be used in conjunction with other resources.

this book is different from most other books so dont expect it to meet all of your demands if you are not deeply dedicated to learn such a remarkable and different language.

No me gusto para nada este libro. Es bastante superficial y no toca los temas realmente de fondo.

This is Grady's first book and it sets the tone for his later two books, Successful Software Process Improvement and Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-wide Program. What makes this book so important is that it is one of the first to integrate software metrics with project management metrics.

What I particularly like about this book includes:

(1) Complete view of metrics that matter, and the chronicle of how these metrics evolved in a large company (Hewlett-Packard).
(2) Recognition that any software metrics initiative extends beyond the project that delivers the software - Grady examines post-production metrics and ties them back to not only the development life cycle, but the product life cycle as well. Ten years after this book was published there are still large organizations that are struggling with doing this, yet Grady's book provides a clear roadmap to achieving this elusive goal.
(3) Continuous improvement is the central theme in this book. Grady does not stop with collecting and analyzing metrics, but how to effectively employ them to spot improvement opportunities and develop a strategy to effect those improvements.

The book is written as both a story of how a successful metrics program evolved, complete with anecdotes that will prove helpful, and as a collection of data that illustrates what is and is not important to a comprehensive metrics program.

Among all of Grady's books I like this one the best; however, I recommend that his other two also be carefully read if software process improvement is your goal. He has much to say and backs it up with data and a chronicle of his experiences from real projects.

I was introduced to Mr. Grady's work when I borrowed a copy of Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-Wide Program. Where that book interwove a storyline into metrics and how they support mature process improvement, this book is more like a desk reference. Mr. Grady has divided this book into two parts: tactical metrics, which are project-oriented, and strategic metrics which address process improvement.

The first part starts with a collection of practical rules of thumb for software managers. This collection of heuristics covers every phase of the development life cycle and are backed up with data gathered during 125 software projects at Hewlett-Packard. An example of one of these rules of thumb is that you will find 1 defect after software has been released into production for every 10 defects caught during testing. This, of course, is purely empirical, but is an interesting rule that I mentally filed away. Some highlights of the first part are: a good introduction to the goal-question-metric approach to determining what to measure based on your objectives, and a focus on project goals of maximizing customer satisfaction while minimizing project schedule and costs, and product defects. This is followed by chapters that address each of these goals. One of the best chapters in the first part of this book is work analysis. While I am more focused on the service delivery side of metrics (after the project has produced something that has been released into production), some of the metrics were very valuable to me - especially the ones that revolved around testing and QA.

Part 2 is squarely in my domain - production and application support, and service delivery. The best chapter, Dissecting Software Failures, was one of the most insightful descriptions of the defect life cycle I have ever read. It fully addresses defect data collection and analysis, and how to use this data to effect process and product improvement. Even better is the chapter on investing in process improvement. Here Mr. Grady gives a workable approach to using the defect data to developing a business case for process improvement. He guides you through developing a plan, selecting from among an array of solutions, and case studies.

This book is a quick read. It's main value lies in the many tables and facts provided on nearly every page. I use it as a desk reference, especially the appendices that summarize defect origins, types and modes, and metrics definitions. It spans both project and production metrics, and is as valuable to project managers as it is to application support professionals.

The theme here is 'process' and round-trip engineering using a tool (Rose). Although it assumes knowledge of UML and Visual BASIC it spends some time introducing its OO aspects and how UML maps to VB. The focus of the book is the Synergy process that uses the UML notation and applied here in VB. Personally I believe that each developer or team should have their own process depending on the domain and type of project but nevertheless there are some great techniques to borrow from Synergy and add them to your own. In particular the discussion on use case analysis and the progression to class design from that is very good. Weaved throughout the chapters is the use of Rose for keeping code and design in synch so if you are not a Rose fun this might get in the way. Worth noting is that the case study is taken through the whole project life cycle stages and the climax is the translation of the same code/design of a standalone system to run in MTS and then a further iteration is described for giving the application an ASP web interface - excellent stuff if you are interested in Microsoft's component technologies.

Visual Basic is the wild west of modern software development tools, supporting RAD (rapid application development) and seemingly promoting a ready, fire, aim approach to developing applications. UML, the Uniform Modeling Language, and a software process aren't always easy to use with VB, and most UML books take a high-level view that make it hard to apply to VB development.

Developing Applications with Visual Basic and UML breaks ground in an area where I've seen no other book yet do a good job, applying UML to VB. UML is a complex design notation that works best with object oriented design and programming tools, but VB 6 is at best object-based. Reading most generic UML books requires, at the very least, an advanced degree in computer science, keeping it to the intellectual elite of the software world. The author has bridged this gap effectively, relating the various diagrams and tools in UML to VB applications, demonstrating how you can apply them to real applications. And relating terms and concepts in VB to those in UML is a big help as well.

This is a complex, in-depth book, and it would be easy to get lost in the conceptual discussions and sample project. But between the clearly marked process diagram used consistently throughout, goals and checkpoints that start and finish each chapter, and constant relating of new concepts to those covered before, the author helps the reader stay clearly focused on the big picture and which part is being discussed.

Rational Rose is used as the sample design tool throughout the book. This might annoy readers using other tools, but the Rose-specific discussions were light enough that you should be able learn the technique well enough to apply it with other tools. The author sometimes gets bogged down in a few too many step by step listings to accomplish a given task in VB. Anyone picking up this book had better have a pretty good feel for VB already, or will become quickly lost.

The one thing that mildly annoyed me is that the author introduces yet another design process methodology, his Synergy system. Synergy seems reasonable enough-I haven't yet given it a work out-but I'm not sure that the world needs another methodology.

I'm not sure that you could sit down, read this book, and emerge an effective design engineer for enterprise applications using VB. But if you have a good feel for what it takes to build robust applications, have some familiarity with software engineering concepts, and have struggled applying them to VB projects, the book provides an excellent bridge between VB and UML. Certainly the best I've seen so far, and applying the techniques are sure to improve your development projects.

This book is one of the most useful books I have ever owned. Buy it, read it and place it in your inventory next to the other classics on the top shelf because you will reference and recommend this one again and again.

Process and structure are increasingly important as VB rapidly moves into the backoffice of corporations and becomes the de facto development platform for more and more business critical applications. Couple this with the fact that the Microsoft-based technology landscape causes us to rethink our application domain on a daily basis and process and industry accepted approaches become an absolute necessity.

Mr. Reed outlines a pragmatic approach to using UML within a process (Synergy process) with VB development better than anyone else. The book covers UML techniques in the proper depth without making the reader muddle through pages of useless text. The example outlined in the book is solid and provides an understandable story anyone can follow and instantly apply to their own situation.

Mr. Reed's experience lends creditability to the concepts in the book and helps the reader understand how to apply these concepts. He distils the copious topics of UML and using a development process into a single book that would otherwise require the reader to work through several books in order to understand these topics.

Hopefully the next version will be in hardback in order to endure its years of use.

What an amazing book! Jerry Gentry studied the patients, nurses, and doctors that make up the Grady Hospital Maternity Ward in Atlanta. He follows several mothers on their journey through prenatal care, pregnancy, and the births of their children. He then follows up after the babies are born. I found this book compelling because it demonstrates every aspect of its subjects' lives. You feel like you personally know the people discussed. It is an emotional and monetarial journey of hardships for most of the mothers involved. Being an Atlanta native this novel has given me new respect for Grady hospital. A great ethnography for anyone interested in the subject and/or social behavior.

I found this book hard to put down.

I constantly kept thinking of what the main characters might pull next.

This book demonstrates that life can be stranger than fiction.

Gentry does an excellent job of getting the reader involved in the daily dramas that make up Grady Hospital. You could not begin to make up the tales of some of these characters! Riveting.

A Matty Madrid Mystery where the Sante Fe PI enters the Texas State Prison at the pleading of her inmate ex-husband.

A prickly thriller with attitude, full of eccentrically ordinary people touched in many ways by the penitentiary at the center of all their lives.

Nothing earth-shaking - just a solid mystery, set in an unusual location with tough folks in tougher situations doing the worst & the best they can.

As the author of a mystery series featuring a male Latino in a leading role, my path often crosses with PJ Grady's as we make our way around the mystery community's conventions. We frequently serve as members of the same author panels, and I am always proud to be part of the same panel as Ms. Grady. MAXIMUM INSECURITY is a terrific debut novel, and Matty Madrid is an amazing creation. Matty is true to life. Ms. Grady has a thorough understanding of the Hispanic culture of northern New Mexico. Matty accurately reflects her time and place. In MAXIMUM INSECURITY, Matty is hired to investigate the murder of a prison inmate. That murder proves to be merely the tip of an enormous iceberg of corruption. During the course of Matty's investigation, the reader learns much about this young woman PI and the world in which she operates. MAXIMUM INSECURITY was most deserving of its Shamus Award nomination.

Miss grady is a close friend of mine, and i think that as a teacher of mine and as a friend, she is a really good author. The book is very suspense full, and very well writen in general. I was suprised at the way the plot turned out, and I thought that she deserves a Shamus Award.

Brian

I found that Cottonclads! was a quick read as I finished it in one day. This book really helps to paint a picture of the state of affairs along the Texas Gulf Coast during the Civil War.

The book places special emphasis on the Battle of Galveston, which freed this important Texas port from Union control. Additional chapters cover battles at nearby Sabine Pass.

What I liked most about this book was its ability to get me to think about Galveston in a different way. I had never thought of what this city was like in the 19th Century, but the book claims that it was the largest city in Texas. When the Union Army occupied the city, it was with the intent to legitimize a Union-backed government there and to use the city as a base of operations for Union troops to penetrate deeper into Texas. In the end, the Union penetration of Texas failed, just as Sibley's Brigade failed to take the desert Southwest. It was only fitting that the regiments of Sibley's brigade were present at the freeing of Galveston from Union control.

I recommend this book as a starting point in learning about the Union blockade of the Confederacy and the Rebels' efforts to thwart it.

Cottonclads! The Battle of Galveston and the Defense of the Texas Coast presents a good account of the many naval operations along Texas. The book has good details; it includes battles ranging from Galveston to Sabine Pass. The book provides a good starting point for the interested reader to research and learn more.

Dr. Frazier's book on the Galveston campaign is a very important and readable work on this often over-looked battle. It is well worth the read.

Some fancy names for "western drinks". Living out West I ship this book to friends and family on the East coast just for laughs. They inevitably call me and tell me they just made themselves a "Purple Jesus" or a "Cactus-Rita". It's a funny bar book, if you're not much for hard liquor there are a few food recipes, but it's mostly a drink guide.

After writing his masterpeice, A Cowboy In The Kitchen, Grady has given us a book of savory cocktails to wash down his cowboy cuisine!

The Reata Rita is the best margarita I have ever had! And I can't wait to try the Sonora Sangria! Grady has even selected listening music for each beverage. You might try the Texas Lemonade if you're a Pat Green fan!

This book is a must have for any hard-core drinker!

The author of 'Cowboy in the Kitchen' has returned with more entertaining foods for urban cowboys, from coffee drinks and coolers to cowboy cocktails. Enjoy a lively set of drinks from the 'wild west' with Cowboy Cocktails, with its light-hearted humor and fun ingredients.