I have to admit, I am not technologically inclined but after reading this book, anyone can understand DVD video. I learned much and it made me think further about purchasing the whole DVD setup.

This is one of the very few books available for DVD review.( the only other book I know is a special issue from Widescreen Review but it is not as complete ) Mr. Pratt uses the same format as his previous book-"Leaserdisc Review". As a LD & DVD collector,I find his book rather useful but sometimes hard to read. His review style is very good which generally cover 4 areas; film, video quality, audio quality and bonus feature. But for some titles, Mr. Pratt is too polite and not aggressive enough to point out the poor quality of transfer or problem of the source materials. It would be nice if he can add a rating summary at the end of each title ( give 1-5 star rating for the 4 parts mentioned above ). Adding picture of DVD cover would make the presentation more attractive but it may require too much work. I will be happy if he can add rating for each review especially on quality of transfer. Most collectors like myself, know exactly what movies to get, and we can find out bonus features information on the back of DVD box or product listing on web pages. What we do not know and eager to find out is the quality of video and audio. I admire and appreciate Mr. Pratt's dedication to make this book available for us. Thanks.

The Lost Battalion was originally written in 1938 and has been re-issued with minor editing in 2000. For those readers seeking a companion volume to the 2000 A&E film by the same title, this book is more than a bit disappointing. However, the lost battalion is an interesting journalistic account of the seven companies of the American 77th Infantry Division who found themselves cut off behind German lines for six days during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the First World War. About 550 US soldiers under the command of Major Charles Whittlesey were trapped in a small river valley under constant German fire. As the authors point out, the unit was neither a single battalion nor was it ever "lost," merely isolated. By the time that Whittlesey's command was finally relieved, the unit had suffered 65% casualties. Whittlesey himself was awarded the Medal of Honor for his stubborn defense. Yet the main lesson of this tale of combat heroism is that, "the human capacity for endurance, for mere passive defense, exceeds all belief and possibility as long as there be a leader to say, don't give up, we're not licked yet."

The book is divided into chapters that cover each day from 2-8 October 1918, with events arranged chronologically. Edward M. Coffin, a modern-day historian at the University of Wisconsin who arranged for the work to be re-printed, provides a short effortless forward. There are several photographs and a few totally inadequate maps that supplement the text, but only weakly. Unfortunately, Mr. Coffman made little effort to update or augment the original narrative and while the story flows smoothly, a lazy and jingoistic style might annoy after awhile. The authors are comfortable with using non-words like "ploying," or "funk-hole" [i.e. foxhole] and attacks that "corkscrew (the soldiers twirl around while advancing?).

Readers expect a hero may be perplexed by Major Whittlesey. Initially, the Harvard-educated lawyer seems comparable to Joshua Chamberlain, the soldier-scholar who won the Medal of Honor at Little Round Top in 1863. Certainly this book paints Whittlesey as a man devoted to duty, who was the only battalion commander to reach his objective and then refused to be budged off by repeated German counterattacks. While Whittlesey demonstrated determination and obstinacy, his actual command abilities are less certain because there were few decisions for him to make after his initial un-opposed occupation of the objective. Thereafter, Whittlesey's role became rather passive - encouraging resistance and vigilance - but not making any critical decisions. Furthermore, Whittlesey's post-war suicide three years later compared poorly with Chamberlain who went on to live a long, productive post-war life. The author's allude to Whittlesey's post-war guilt, particularly sentiments he expressed that his unit's sacrifices served no useful purpose. If this was so, then why did Whittlesey not retreat before the German ring closed around his unit? Having been ordered not to give up ground without direct orders from the division commander, Whittlesey was content to await rescue, but he demonstrated little initiative or imagination. Certainly Whittlesey 's actions merited a Medal of Honor, but the accusations that the price of two virtually destroyed battalions was hardly worth the moral victory that was achieved bears consideration. Apparently Whittlesey himself doubted the value of this sacrifice. Given the inability of Whittlesey to live with the decisions he made and the losses his unit suffered, it is also possible that Whittlesey was fundamentally un-suited to making the kind of life-or-death decisions required of a combat leader. While some of these questions are addressed in the book, the reader should recognize that important questions about combat ethics and psychology have been given short-shrift in the interest of story-telling.

Certainly one of the most interesting aspects of the book is the perspective provided from the German side. The authors were able to obtain interviews with many of the Germans who fought against the Lost Battalion and their side of the story indicates that desperation was not unique to Whittlesey's intrepid band of doughboys. In fact, the German front was beginning to crumble and they never had sufficient reserves to crush Whittlesey. Indeed, while German attacks were constant, the worst damage to the Lost Battalion was done by friendly artillery fire and hunger. One odd omission in this account is that the author's fail to mention that Corporal Alvin C. York of the 82nd Division won his Medal of Honor in the attempt to relieve the Lost Battalion.

Modern readers should also recognize the subtle anti-military bias, common to America in the 1930s, which pervades these pages. The authors want to honor these men as heroes, but not as soldiers. In trying to put the Lost Battalion incident in perspective, the author's conclude, "that the men of the 77th Division lacked not for courage, intelligence, patriotism or any other fundamental quality, but simply that they were poorly trained and insufficiently experienced. Seen from this angle the ultimate responsibility rests on the Washington authorities who sent such soldiers to a major war, and the lesson is that democracies should not engage in mass wars, for when they seek a universal competence they tend to lose democracy." This pro-isolationist hogwash asserts that despite the heroism of soldiers such as Whittlesey, military effort and preparedness fundamentally threatens and debases democracy. In fact, the lesson of Whittlesey and Alvin C York should be that democracies can produce soldiers every bit as good as totalitarian states, but without the need for militarized cultures. Unfortunately, America's enemies also failed to note our ability to produce heroes such as Whittlesey and York and instead perceived the United States as soft and unwilling to sacrifice. Three years after the Lost Battalion was published, the Axis powers demonstrated what happens to democracies that eschew military preparedness.

If you are at all interested in WWI or the US Army and it's traditions, read this book. It was written in the 30's based on documentation and interviews with the living participants. One of the writers was a correspondent. They spin a very lively tale about the "Lost Batallion", a group of men that advance "without regards to their flanks" during an offensive in WWI and get cut-off.

The story is grand. It's filled with heroism, cowardice, triumph and tragedy.

Now, on to the history. While the story is a great read and very good supporting documentation comes with the book. Sometimes the story telling gets in the way of the history. Also, the author's didn't explain the physical location of the events well enough to visualize and the pictures provided are, while interesting, unhelpful. These are the only things preventing this from being a 5.

It's interesting that the sort "cauldron" battle that takes place is similar to the one that the Germans one on the Eastern Front, Tannenburg. It also brings into mind all the cauldron battles that were to take place during WWII. It's a shame these authors didn't write this book after that war, just to see if they compared and contrasted the different events.

The text is very confusing.

The book is easy to understand, but there should be a solutions manual, or at least an answer key to the exercises. It has been very difficult for me to "learn the mechanics" and "apply the concepts" at the end of each chapter. The pace of the course allows the teacher to solve only 2 or 3 exercises in class, and the book certainly does not make selfstudy easy. Needless to say, that you can't learn financial accounting just by reading. To makes things even worse, a study guide, which does not refer to the same exercises in the book, is out of print.

Here is one of the best ratings for this book: most of my fellow MBA students are pathalogical whiners. Even they found this book to be very helpful.

I have a background in technical education and it looks to me like Jamie Pratt knows how to educate his students.

I'm taking biochemistry for the first time and the book is almost useless. It has many errors and the explanations are not clear. To study for my class I have to look for other books. I don't recomend this book to anyone who really wants to learn biochemistry, specially if they're taking the class with a bad professor. I'm not saying this because I don't like the class; I like chemistry and I thought biochemistry would be very exciting. But, the book isn't a good reference, neither the CD-ROM it includes. Thank God I bought it used.

All 3 major biochemistry texts were being used at the univesity where I attended: Lehninger was used in a one-semester survey course for biological science students whose emphasis was not biochemistry and/or molecular biology; Voet was the chosen text for the first of a 2-semester sequence in biochemistry; and Stryer was selected for the second half of the sequence. As an undergradate student, I was grateful that the authors (joined by Pratt) produced a fine version instead of the original Voet & Voet main text. This revised, modified version is more succinct, clear, with excellent graphics and photographs. The level of content in this version of Voet is no less intense and thorough than the other 2 major texts, with a special attention on chemistry as well. One star is taken off due to the high price!

Although not as comprehensive as their larger text, this book is ideal for a beginning course in biochemistry. Most undergraduates are overwhelmed by the encylcopedic nature of Voet & Voet's main text, so the author team are to be thanked for joining with Pratt to produce this fine text. The book is on the level of the other main biochemistry textbooks (Stryer & Lehninger), but has the wonderful images and diagrams for which V&V (via artist Irving Geis) are famous! The interactive CD is very informative and useful as well. I have switched my classes to this text, as have about half of the liberal arts colleges in the midwest area (noted at the last MACTLAC conference, where the text, although new, was aready tied with Stryer as the textbook of choice).

This book is almost entirely about finding specific constellations in the sky. If that's what you want, then it's for you. It is not about constellations in general, nor does it have star stories. It only has a few "activities." I bought it to use in my classroom, but haven't touched it. I have to wonder why I bought it, because I have the same opinion of Janice VanCleave's books....they look good, but there isn't all that much substance. I just had a weak moment! This one is worse than usual.

Janice VanCleave's "Constellations For Every Kid" is one of the books I used to teach an astronomy unit to the boys I help homeschool. It is quite limited in its scope -- containing only the northern constellations and no complete star maps -- but is very useful for basic constellation identification. I used it mostly as a source of seasonal star maps for the boys to copy. It also helpfully identifies some key stars in various constellations, and provides tips for finding various constellations once the positions of others are known.

However, this is about all the book is good for. The explanations of various phenomena are extremely limited, VanCleave provides none of the legends behind the constellations, and her suggested questions and activities are often impractical or pointless. (She also turned Saggitarius into some unholy thing she dubbed 'The Teapot.' Sheesh.) The book wavers between being a teacher's handbook and a student's textbook -- and fills neither purpose very well.

In other words, don't buy it. Skim through it and take any useful activities and explanations, but don't be too disappointed if you come away with only a few ideas.

My 7 year old daughter and I have had a great time with Constellations For Every Kid. Each chapter provides a "bite size" chunk of information, a stargazing opportunity, questions to reinforce what was taught, and an astronomy-related activity. Other strong points include simple but quality illustrations and helpful pronunciation guides. The book covers topics like the general motion of the sky, precession, ecliptic, variable stars, spectral types, folklore, as well as the names of the stars and consteallations clearly, with enough depth to be interesting but not so much detail as to be overwhelming. In short, My daughter may not remember all the specifics but she's getting the basic ideas and we're having fun in the process.

For a person who needed information on growing Irises outside England and the Pacific Northwest, this would be not be the best first purchase. I can't judge how well it would describe cultural best practice in England but with Irises climate is extremly important. What works in one climate will not work in another, Iris Borer, for example, only lives in North America but it is a terrible pest there. It would make lovely winter reading for most of us because of the artistic photographs and excellent botany of the various Iris species. However don't expect to be able to buy many of the varities shown, the English have their own set of Iris varities and only rarely import the American ones.

"The Gardener's Guide to Growing Irises" by Geoff Stebbings is more readable and less usable than many of the gardening books I own. It is a wonderful book to curl up with in the winter when your garden is covered with snow. The pictures are beautiful and in color, although I wish there were more of them (I think I've been spoiled by the photos in the Iris catalogues that show up in my mailbox every Spring). The author has definite opinions as to which varieties work best in the garden. In his chapter on "The Value of Iris in the Garden" he states the following:

"Perhaps it is because the bearded iris show such variety that many gardeners do not look elsewhere in the genus for garden plants. This is a mistake, however, because although the deep, blackcurrent purple of 'Superstition' may have a velvety sheen, a ruffling and size that are hard to match, the deep purple of forms of 'I. Chrysographes' are augmented by bright golden markings on a flower of refinement and poise that makes the other look clumsy and almost grotesque."

The tall, bearded Iris also gets short shrift in the popular "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden" by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, but I would venture to say that theirs is the minority opinion among gardeners. Most of us love the bearded irises for their gorgeous colors and perfumes, and in spite of their short season of bloom. This book's longest chapter is on the Tall Bearded Iris, so it can't be said that the author neglects them. There are also chapters on the Siberian Iris, the Pacific Coast Iris, the Water Iris, the Spuria Iris, the Stinking Iris, the Dwarf Bulbous Iris, and "Iris for the Specialist".

As interesting as this book is to read, it is not really organized to help you locate a quick paragraph on what to do about the Iris borer grub that you just discovered in your 'Beverly Sills' rhizome. In fact 'iris borer' isn't even listed in the index. If you flip to the lone page on 'pests', you won't find them there, either-just a few miscellaneous paragraphs on aphids and wet rot.

Buy "The Gardener's Guide to Growing Irises" if you love irises and would like to learn more about them. However, you might want to look elsewhere for a straightforward guide to growing and caring for these lovely flowers.

I was very disappointed by the lack of information. The experiments (this book is entirely experiments - which I disliked) take a long time to set up. Even if they work (which they often don't), they will often only demonstarate a simple concept that could be explained in one paragraph. A complete waste of money. I would recomend "Physics the easy way" by Robert L. Lehrman (Barron's Educational Series, Inc.) over this book any day.

This book is just right for introducing physics concepts to children in the 8-12yrs. age range. My students prefer learning the concepts by "doing" rather than by just reading about them in a science text.

This would be an alright book for a person who's never seen the plane to get familiar with it, but that's about it. There is no tech info, no performance data. It attempts to cover about 30 years of piper cherokee/warrior performance and updates while being as vague as possible. Its sold at many FBO's as a replacement for the POH-sad, because it lacks any of the tech info that you'll need to complete even a short VFR flight plan. If you want a couple nice pictures, and a description of how to do a preflight of a generic "cherokee" this is your book. If you are looking for a personal POH, keep looking.

This booklet covers mainly the fixed gear powered by the 150 and 180 HP engines with most of the info relevant to the other Cherokees. It includes loading and performance charts as the original POH does, but expands on information not found there. I wish the original POH for this aircraft was as informative as this book. Just the existance of this type booklet by ASA is telling as to what is lacking in the Cherokee POH. The book states it is not a replacement for the original handbook. I feel it is good supplement.

A Book Review of "The Agrarian Revolt in Western Canada: A Survey Showing American Parrallels" by: Erin L. Smith

Does Uncle Sam and Jack Canuck share a common history in regards to their agrarian movments? This was the question ask by Paul Sharp in his thoughtful book "The Agrarian Revolt in Western Canada: A Survey Showing American Parrallels". Orgainally published in 1948 this monograph does a fine job of illustrating with remarkable adroitness the narrative of the agrarian sedition in Western Canada. In his opening chapter Sharp shows well that "It was the existence of cheap land to the south that was largely responsible for the delay"1 in devolpment and settelment of the canadian prairies. Sharp goes on to show that by 1909 "the same type of land could be purchased"2 in canada at two dollars instead of 50 per acre. In his next three chapters Sharp developes for the reader a picture of the growth in farmers' associations between 1889 and 1915. The following three chapters are dedicated to the affects of World War One on the farmers' movement, also discussed in these chapters was the establishment of farmer leagues which were exclusively for politcal action. The last chapters delt with the epidemic of organized agrarians between 1918 and 1922 including the eventual collapse of the movement.

Dr. Sharp does a skilled job of showing simlarities or parrallels between the American and Canadian farmers movements. However intersting and obvious historical parallels may appear to be, understanding them well does not necessarily mean a complete comprehension of the past. In fact utilizing such methods to apprecate the elapsed may obfuscate ones survey of the prior. The dissimilarities are just as important to understanding the past as similarities may be.

Francis Bacon felt that through thought, we were capable of understanding the human potential and some universal truths. However, he named four false idols that could prevent us from that higher understanding about the human experience. He felt that if we were not ever aware of these idols we could be led away from the truth. An idol is something with a false or misleading meaning not necessarily pertaining to religion. One of these idols of which he warns us of is the "The Idol of the Cave...For every one has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of nature..." This idol seems to be what we call bias. Consequently the way we see and perceive our world is obscured by our own cave. Hence, our experiences and ideals form our cave. The cave then discolors our study of past in its own unique way. Studying the parallels can become its own cave unless all efforts to remain honest and detached are used. The enterprise to authentically know the past is already handicapted by a scholars cave. Sharp added an extra layer to that stuggle by focusing on the parallels.

Sharp utilized a plethora of varied sources such as newspapers, goverment documents, even political prapaganda. However much importance and reliance was placed on primary evidence like the Grain Growers Guide, and the Nonpartisan Leader or other nonpartisan newspapers. These sources can provide much useful evidance about the state of the movement, major uncertainty faced by farmers, even strife within the movement, along with other helpful information. These sources also give a one-sided and partial narrative focusing the authors attention away from a comprehensive awareness. This reviewer can not help but wonder if more impartial evidence had been used for the study, if the picture painted, by Sharp would have been in piercing contrast.

However Sharp must be commended for his efforts to show the reader the whole picture as a North American. Because of environmental factors, clearly the Canadian and the American farmers shared many of the same hardships and frustrations. In his effort to show the parallels, considerable worthy evidence was provided to show that there was much ingrained dissatisfaction within the farming community towards the market system, and it's apprent inability to give everyone an opportunity. "Railroads were attacked for charging exorbitant rates and for failure to provide sufficient cars to handle the farmers' crops."6 as early as 1890. Sharp used this evidence and much like it to prove that unfairness was a fundamental part of farming, long before the revolt had poltical consequences in the late 1910's and that there were years of education and awareness on behalf of the farmers prior to the revolt. Furthermore there was "...growing sentiment that political action alone could save the western farmer."7 well before the turn of the century.

Sharps most meaningful contribution to the discussion of cooperatives and grain growing was that the farmers perceived the market driven grain industry as unfair to farmers. Beginning in 1901 with the formation of the Territorial Grain Growers' Association or TGGA8 farmers began a critique of the mercantilistic system that was grain selling, and transporting in western Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Out of the early farmers movement came a fundamental principle of cooperation which was predominantly antagonistic to market economics. Moreover Canadian farmers concept of cooperation was interventionist in its approach. Chiefly affected by the governments policy setting authority during the First World War the agrarian revolt perceived such market control as essential for survival.

Sharp did leave an important qusetion unaswered. Was the agrarain revolt a politcal or economic awakening. Sharp provides some evidence that indicates the revolt was primarily a political manifestation. However he also uses information that identfies the revolt in a dualistic form, both political and economic. These dualing ideas create confusion for the reader and can ultimately obscure some of the leading concepts. Nevertheless many interesting ideas, and concepts about the underlying factors surounding the agrarain movement have been brocked by Sharp and though the abstractions are sometimes twofold they do create awareness and may ultimately provided the necessary historical foundations for future scholars to find answers.

This book is in the end a noteworthy jumping off place for one who wishes to study the agrarian movement in western canada between 1885 and 1928. Sharp has provided much historical context for the scholar, which makes this book a good first read on the subject. It is the opinion of this reviewer that too much attention was paid to the parallels between America and Canada: and that the real value of the work was its effort to prove the intrinsic frustration of farmers and their class consciences. Moreover Sharp's book leads us on an entriguing path of study about how the mercantilism of farming led farmers to politcal, economic action. Finally, Sharp and the the publisher should be complimented for a job well done.

I had to use this for a class and boy was I dissapointed. This book relies more on words than examples. Each sentance feels like a mouthful, packed with words that each refer to a concept in programming. Subsequently, you either have to read extremely slow, or read the paragraph over and over before you understand what the author is trying to say. Extremely unclear and frustrating. Avoid this book.

I had to use this book in one of my classes, and it was really bad. It didn't do a good job of explaining anything and was really confusing. Alot of what they had to say seemed to be really out of date, and there were a bunch of technical errors.

Althought the authors tried hard, this book really isn't worth the time it takes to read. The book is littered with numerous errors, both technical and theoretical. The writing quality is poor, and the typesetting renders most code samples almost unreadable. The book has been very poorly updated, and still shows a world-view strongly anchored in it's first 1975 edition. A chapter on the web has been tacked on in an effort to make the book seem modern, but the authors seem to be considering html a programming language worthy of inclusion. Although the authors play lip service to explaining the theoretical concepts behind programming language theory, many of their statements are simply given on faith, and the times they do attempt explanations, they are generally either poor or very incomplete.

Please, do yourself a favor and get a copy of David Gelernter and Suresh Jagannathan's Programming Linguistics. If you want more of the math behind the theory, John Mitchell's Foundations for Programming Languages is excellent as a supplement, and Jaco de Bakker and Erik de Vink's Control Flow Semantics covers formal semantics from a more strongly mathematical perspective (the other two books are probably prerequisites for this).