At first look, "With Fire and Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874" appears to be an update to the 1994 Department of Arkansas Heritage project, "Rugged & Sublime: The Civil War in Arkansas", to which Dr. DeBlack was a major contributor.

WITH FIRE AND SWORD follows much the same outline and material as "Rugged & Sublime," and adds some new information and personal stories drawn from recent works on Arkansas and its role in the Civil War. Where WITH FIRE AND SWORD stands out, however, is in the extension of its coverage beyond the War years to the recovery of the state and its citizens after the War and the role played by Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction as well as local politics, leading up to the local "Militia Wars" and the "Brooks-Baxter War." These instances have not been addressed in readily available works in the past decade.

WITH FIRE AND SWORD stands as an excellent first reader or introduction to antebellum conditions, the Civil War, and Reconstruction in Arkansas; and provides not only an overview of events but also footnotes, lead-ins, and references to additional research for the reader who wants to look deeper under the surface in this fascinating area.

Woodstock, New York, is famous for its counterculture idiosyncracies. This is true not only in music, art, and rock-and-roll, but also of the quirky, handmade homes built by many of the town's citizens. This book pictures many of these houses, and explores who built them and why.The book is available at the Golden Notebook book store, in Woodstock, NY, 12498.

After I finally found this guide in the stores, I instantly got it. When I started up a new game later that day, I easily fought my way through the first two people on the Yugi side with this guide as a reference. But now that I'm on the third person, this guide isn't much of a help. I haven't finished this game yet, and I'd really like too! (I have yet to actually finish a Yu-Gi-Oh game).

All-in-all, this is a decent guide, but it should give you more information, that's why I'm giving it simply 4 stars. Get this guide if you are having problems with the game, and even if you aren't!

On my two week journey to Miami I used this guide as a supplemental fill-in guide to Frommer's South Florida. Broken into four regions: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and the Keys, this Zagat Survey will save you time (and disappointment) by helping you select the best place to feast.

I have used other Zagat Surveys for years and have found them to be up-to-date and reliable in their critical evaluation of a restaurant's food, ambiance and service. Scoring 1-30 in each category (food, decor, service), a restaurant's top score in each category can be 30. The "Chef Allen's" Restaurant (Miami) scored 27, 23, 25 . . . the highest score in Miami. The remaining restaurants in Miami have a flagship to follow. One of the most useful features is the guide's "Top Rating" sections: Top Food by Cuisine, Best Buys, Most Popular, Top Outdoor, Top Romantic, Top Views, etc.

This is a very good pocket guide and, if there is a downside, it is the lack of maps. Of the four profiled areas, only Miami and Ft. Lauderdale get two small maps each, showing on the map the 40 most popular restaurants in each area. Another area that may disappoint some is the terse 50 word description for each restaurant, a brief narrative that fails to mention any outstanding restaurant dishes. If you are looking for a fuller restaurant description, for a few select South Florida restaurants, I commend to you "Frommer's South Florida" travel guide. This guide is best for those that live in Miami. That said, Zagat has been, and is, a great dining guide for these areas. Recommended!

This was my second 3D Studio max book. Buying it then was a mistake. There are many introductory books out there and this is one of the best but the problem is that the followup to this book; Inside 3DSMax vol 2, has everything vol 1 does and more. Get it if you are just starting out, and then I hope you are not scared of big books because this is where you start off, and start off well. If you already know your way around Max and just want to know advanced stuff like material manipulation and smoother models, get volume 2.

Many books on the market will give you step by step instructions how how to create a scene, or create certain effects. Although this is sometimes handy, it doesn't easially allow the user to incorperate the skills they learned into their own work.

Inside 3D Studio Max shows you the concepts behind how the program works, and allows you to apply these concepts, and skills to your own work, rather than a preformatted tutorial. It is this fact, however, that makes the book not extremely useful for modelers who are new to the program. This book often speaks of the manual which ships with 3DS Max, and the writer made it clear that this was not yet ANOTHER MANUAL. Inside 3D Studio Max explores how to expand your ability.

If you have no prior modeling practice, read the manual which ships with Max, then buy this book. If you do that, you will appreciate what is taught in this massive book.

This is an overall GREAT book, and it has really helped me to become a much better 3D artist.

Inside 3DStudio MAX At last!The book we all waited for.Inside 3DStudio MAX,writtten by Steven Elliot & Phillip Miller;authors of Inside 3DStudio Release 3 & 4.Some said that Inside series is better than the manuals.Well,to tell you the truth,they are quite right. The book is very well structured.It has 29 chapters,starting from explaining the core concepts of MAX,and ending in Network Rendering.Every chapter has its introduction and summary,that's very good 'cause you know what's the chapter about and the summary reminds you the most importants parts. It is not a book that throws you some tutorials only.On the contrary,the writers pay attention to general knowledge an animator must have.Mixing colors and light,story boarding,etc.. Every button is explained thouroughly in the book.It teaches you the best way to model and animate efficiently every model you can think of. Of course,it has some drawbacks.Material editor,Video Post,Space Warps & Particles are not explained in depth.Although there is a solution to that(in February 2 more Volumes will be published:Inside3DStudio MAX Volume II:Advanced Modelling & Material Editor,Volume III:Animation & Character Studio),who wants to buy 2 more books that costs 110$ additionally?(Answear:Me..:P).Another drawback is that the book has color photos only in the chapters that refer to Material Editor(although some will say that's no big deal).And the CD that is included with the book has 200mb of textures.O.k ,where's the drawback?:) Only a few of them are useful.90% of them are very artistic and extend beyond the needs of traditional animators.I think that whoever makes the textures(by the way Tim Forcade,who included textures in 3DStudio 4 Hollywood & Gaming Effects & Indide 3DStudio 4),should have in mind that animators need practical textures like wood,metals and stuff and not abstract paintings.... Inside is for the novice and for the experienced animator,and it is by far the No.1 if you want to master MAX. "Inside 3D Studio MAX should be a part of every serious animator's library"(Larry Crume,Vice President,Autodesk and General MAnager,Kinetix)

This book examines the problem of financial misstatements with a special focus on Enron. The book is light on facts and analysis, but heavy on opinion. Most of the chapters just restate contemporary criticisms of contemporary management decision-making (e.g., greed). The authors have very little to say about warning signs and the accounting used by management to mislead investors. Those wanting a more substantive analysis of the issues and the perspective of an insider should read Arthur Levitt's new book, "Take on the Street."

In another era, we might have been tempted to shrug off How Companies Lie as just another polemic against corporate greed. In the wake of Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco and a host of other corporate scandals, however, we must (sorrowfully) admit that this book is as timely as it is insightful. Readers will gain much from the book's explanation of some of the actual accounting techniques that companies use to mislead investors, as well as its advice on how to spot telltale signs that a company might be cooking the books. While financial and accounting experts might find this analysis a bit basic, we from getAbstract recommend this book to all general business readers.

If your looking to share an opinion with someone and you feel like business leaders are letting you down, then by all means, pick up this book. This book stands on its own and appologizes to no one. The Wharton Business school's review is dead on in citing that the authors are trying to get at something much deeper than the shallow perspective of accounting. Something is fundamentally broken ... and these boys point it out. This book is not about greed, its not about Enron, its not about accounting methods, but its about a deeper and more fundamental issue that no one else seems to be getting to .... our system for understanding the current economic, legal and technological functionality of our corporations is broken. As the authors point out, "Have you been able to tell recently when you hear an earnings report on the news if anyone can tell the difference between them lying to you and the truth? I've been listening and I can't distinguish Xerox today from Xerox a year ago when I hear it on the news. The people these guys are talking about begins with us. Read this book and read it deep. There is a warning here that we all better pay attention to. Remember, this book is acknowledged to have been written before all this Enron stuff took place, and then a little Enron perspective was added. If the authors are actually that correct, we have a long way to go to fix the curret problems.

I just passed the CVoice exam and this was one of the (few available) books that I used. I also used the Cisco Interactive Mentor for VOIP and found it to be FAR superior to this book, both in terms of general technical info and test preparation. I also recently picked up Integrating Voice and Data Networks (Cisco Press) and what I've read so far has convinced me that there is no reason on earth to buy this book anymore -- the long awaited "good Cisco VOIP book(s)" are here, and this is definitely not one of them.

Aside from the IPv6 padding (which I also objected to), I also had a real problem with the author's writing style -- it was almost like someone just typed up some random notes. I can't understand what the 5 star reviewers are talking about ... this book is definitely NOT going to be a classic. My only hope is that there isn't a second edition.

Save your money and buy the CIM or Cisco Press book.

This book provides excellent technical examples on how to configure Cisco VoIP products.

The last chapter also includes information on the new AVVID IP phones. Information that I have been looking for.

Also, valuable information that I haven't been able to find elsewhere such as how WFQ is not optimal for VoIP QOS and how CBWFQ and IP RTP Priority solve this problem.

Good coverage of QOS concepts.

While this isn't the end and be all book on VoIP it provides a good foundation for getting starting on the voice features in Cisco routers. For those of you that have to justify integrating VoIP into your network the first chapter covers some of the business reasons for doing so.

The coverage on the different QOS methods I found helpful. Understanding the difference between WFQ and CBWFQ and why one should use the latter helped. The configuration examples were great, I just wish that there were more included.

Chandler wrote but 7 novels and most critics and readers divide them into two groups, the first four beginning with The Big Sleep and ending with The Lady in the Lake. These were the books that, if you hadn't already read Hammett, introduced the hardboiled thriller and the Southern California noir scene of the 30s and 40s to the general public. Most readers tend to feel that these were Chandler's best books.

He wrote three more, however, The Little Sister in the late 40s, The Long Goodbye in the early 50s, and Playback a few years later. The Little Sister is generally fairly favorably viewed, and there are many critics and readers who feel that The Long Goodbye is Chandler's masterpiece. It is his longest, most subtle, most introspective, and, to me, his most compelling. Many people consider it a major part of American literature and I think it might well be the best thriller ever written.

Playback, written after Chandler had moved to LaJolla, his beloved wife had died, and his alcoholism had become semi-acute, is a disaster. The writing is flat and uninspired, the metaphors and similes that once flowed so brilliantly are forced and trite ("he was an impervious as the square root of minus five"), and Marlowe is clearly just going through the motions.

If you've read all the others and loved them, I probably can't dissuade you from reading this one. If you liked the grotesquely bad Poodle Springs Murders started by Chandler and finished by Robert Parker, then you'll probably find this one acceptable also. If you barely made your way through Poodle Springs, you'll feel the same about Playback -- and wish that Chandler's last book had been the brilliant Long Goodbye.

Why do I love Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels so much? I love them for Marlowe's edgy, wisecracking comments that drive its recipients mad. I love the gorgeous, incendiary women who linger just a bit on this side of evil. I love the twisty and turny plots and Marlowe's dogged search for the truth. In a world full of liars and crooks one can always depend upon Philip Marlowe's steely honesty and integrity. He is never in it for the money.

"Playback" has all of these elements but, unfortunately, in far lesser quantities than in Chandler's other Philip Marlowe books. In "Playback" Marlowe is assigned to follow this woman without knowing why and to report back on what he finds out about her. All the typical plot devices are there, but the results are far less than scintillating and are sometimes rather dull. If I were to pick out, however, my favorite part of the book it would be Marlowe's conversation with an elderly and infirm man who is staying at a hotel where Marlowe is holed up. Their discussion about the belief in God is incredibly sharp and extremely relevant to a man of Marlowe's profession.

All in all, despite its shortcomings, "Playback," while not top Chandler, is still Philip Marlowe and that can never be bad.

If not my very favorite author, Raymond Chandler is up in the top five. Which is why I loath to rate this book as I do.

The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye were masterworks in Noir literature. The imagery in The Lady in the Lake and Farwell, My Lovely drew you in.

Playback, sadly, is but a shadow of the greats it followed. Shallow images, a not quite transparent plot, and well established characters acting, well, out of character. Marlowe burns a few bridges in this final novel (I've read Poodle Springs, and that wasn't Marlowe), and I think Chandler knew the end was near.

Whenever I get the urge to slip back into Marlowe's trenchcoat (and those urges come often), I still read the series all the way through. But this book is like a ride home from Disneyland: It's a necessary part of the journey, but the one you look forward to the least.

"Java Swing" is an in-depth look at the features and components of Java's popular Swing API. The much-anticipated second edition of O'Reilly's classic brings the book up-to-date with the changes made in SDKs 1.3 and 1.4. Each Swing component is covered in detail, providing information on constructors, methods, and properties. There is of course a plethora of example code clearly demonstrating how to use the various components and features.

While "Java Swing" is quite a hefty book, it does not cover the Java event model introduced in JDK 1.1, the AWT layout managers, or relevant AWT components such as Component that are subclassed by Swing components. Instead references are given to pdf files containing chapters of O'Reilly's out-of-print AWT book. While this may have been an acceptable omission for the first edition in 1998, where it might be assumed that developers had some experience with AWT, I do not feel this is a valid assumption today.

If you can look past the book's omissions, or if you have a companion reference covering those features, "Java Swing" has much to offer and will serve as a treasured reference. If you are unfamiliar with AWT and looking to learn how to develop user interfaces in Java, you may wish to look elsewhere first.

Java Swing is the definitive reference for the Graphical User Interface (GUI) Swing package that has been included in the standard distribution of the Java SDK since Java 1.2. The book is really more of a tomb, weighing in at 1200 pages, and yet none of it seems irrelevant or overly explained. If anything, one would have to complain that maybe there are details missing, but given the length of the book as is, maybe it's better that some of the details were left out.

Publishers O'Reilly have obviously assembled a group of talented Java GUI designers to write this book, because the commentary is rife with real advice and coherent, practical explanations. The book does take some assumed knowledge for granted, such as basic programming skills, knowledge of Object-Oriented programming practices, and UML-style class and object relationship graphs, but I wouldn't say that this book excludes the beginner programmer in the least. Instead, it walks the fine line of being a useful book for both beginner and expert coders quite well, better than other O'Reilly publications that I've read in the past that I felt were overly explanatory.

The book starts off with a little history on the Swing package, where it came from and what its relationship to the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) is, but then almost immediately launches into the format that it uses for the next 900 pages of the book, which is to devote an entire chapter to every major section of swing. Topics covered include: buttons, scrollbar-like components, combo-boxes, containers of every shape and size, dialogs, borders, menus, tables, trees, undo facilities, text (about 220 pages on the major text components alone,) and drag and drop. Each of these sections serves as a useful reference for when you're developing your own GUI applications. The explanations are generally more details and much deeper than those offered in the Javadoc HTML pages provided with the SDK distribution. I've personally used the book on a couple of projects that I've been working on at work, and found that the background given has been incredibly useful, not just for solving problems but for generating ideas for how things could be better. The topic separation is such that you can usually just read the chapter that deals with what you are currently doing, and not have to jump around the book looking for better explanations of the same idea. There is very little overlap in this book, which I consider to be a good thing in a reference book. The final four chapters deal with advanced topics, and a genuinely insightful and useful.

Now for the minor complaints: This book is truly focused on Swing, but sometimes I felt that the focus was just a little too narrow. Mainly my issues come from the authors deciding that AWT is a separate topic from Swing. Thus, any discussions of GUI programming elements that fall under the canvas of AWT are ignored. This is unfortunate, since real-life GUI applications have no choice but to use AWT elements. What's even more unfortunate is that Swing, being built on top of AWT, relies heavily on its architecture. JComponent, the root class of 95% of Swing component, is itself derived from Container and Component, the root classes of AWT. Browsing the O'Reilly catalogue, I failed to notice a book devoted to AWT, though I think it used to exist but has since been discontinued. This leaves me wondering where a GUI programmer should go to get the details needed to do the job. The most obvious omission in my eyes - apart from a discussion of Component and Container - is the failure to properly outline the common LayoutManagers available in Swing. Layout management is a crucial task for GUI programmers, and yet the only mention of them are the new LayoutManagers introduced by Swing. These new managers, however, by no means replace the old AWT managers that are the bread and butter of GUI programming.

My other minor complaint is that the book is cumbersome. This makes it a chore to use, though I fully admit that this is a very minor problem. However, I would have preferred that the publishers ship the book as a two-book set and charged a bit more for it.

Negatives aside, this book is a must-have for Java Swing programmers. The book isn't perfect, but I haven't come across a better reference for the topic.

Pavel Vorobiev and I are currently finishing up an 'advanced' Swing book consisting mainly of examples ("Swing", Manning publications). We have referenced the Swing source code nonstop. Apart from this, we feel that Java Swing is the best Swing reference money can buy. This book is not an API docs dump. It is a high quality reference book for GUI developers who are prepared to do their job professionaly, not blindly. If you are looking for a hand-holding tutorial this book is not for you (for this I would suggest Up to Speed With Swing).

Java Swing is very well organized and full of original explanation. I encourage potential readers to disregard other comments claiming that this book is API repetitive or doesn't explain enough. No book can cover every possible situation that can arise in the creation of a GUI, and no book will fully explain all of the inner workings of each Swing component and UI delegate. Swing is a very complex and extensive library with some very interesting and powerful mechanisms working behind the scenes. Without a doubt, Java Swing is the most informative and rich reference available. I recommend it highly.

Matthew Robinson
"Swing", Manning publications
Swing "Tips and Tricks", The Swing Connection

This is Parker's book, as first four chapters, credited to Chandler, are a very small part of it. Thus this book can be evaluated on several tiers: (1) Is it a seamless continuation of the style and character development of Chandler's work? (2) Is it a valid representation of Chandler's characters, perhaps in the style of Parker? (3) Is it a good book on its own?

I haven't read Chandler, so I'll stick with (3). This book is a good read. The story, characters, and plot are sufficiently engaging that I found it hard to put down, which is rare for me. Parker really excels at detective fiction, and this ranks with his best.

One issue is that Marlowe as represented here is like Spenser's twin brother, so if you're tired of Spenser, you'll be only moderately refreshed by the new protagonist.

Another is that Parker's love for Boston and New England doesn't extend to LA, Hollywood, and "Poodle Springs" (Newberry Springs?). There's a shallowness in his description, which is perhaps partially justified. But Michael Connelly, for example, does a much better job of capturing a feel for life in the Los Angeles region.

But still I recommend this book. On it's own, it's a good, engaging detective novel.

The heirs of Raymond Chandler, one of the most imitated writers of all time, approached Parker, an obvious disciple of the master, to finish an incomplete manuscript the deceased author left behind. This was a tough assignment: The story was begun when Chandler was past his prime, his habitual alcohol abuse having taken it's toll on his creative powers. There was no plot to speak of, just a few initial chapters, with Chandler's writing sounding like a maudlin parody of his earlier work. Still, the talent was there, and the playfulness and wit had not died out completely, in spite of all else. And like Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe is too good to let him fade away just because his initial author has passed on. So Parker had to finish someone else's novel, with someone else's style and someone else's protagonist, in another place and time that wasn't his own. And he did a remarkable job - funny, witty, and as true to the original as the first five chapters that were given him would allow. It's a period piece that re-creates the decadent world of Marlowe's California, with a nod or two to contemporary tastes for violence and sexual content. So once you understand the obstacles, you can appreciate the result even more...a fun novel that stands on it's own as a parody and as a hard-boiled romp through old L.A., and a chance to spend some time with a much-missed thick-skinned soft-hearted galahad of the golden state, after a long goodbye.

Chandler died in 1959 leaving behind the opening chapters of this Philip Marlowe PI novel which Parker has completed. Here, Marlowe has a rich wife (shades of Hammett's Nick & Nora Charles) and has moved from L.A. to the big-buck community of Poodle Springs, where he is hired by the area crime boss to track down a missing local who has run out on a gambling debt. The plot evolves with murder, blackmail, and a little bigamy for good measure. Though there's more talk than action and Marlowe's usual hard edges are rounded off a bit, there is still deep intrigue and lots of snappy dialogue. Completing a story started by another is difficult, especially when it involves an estalished character, but Parker has done an impressive and admirable job in adapting to Chandler's style and sense of humor. All one can say when reading this novel is, "Marlowe, it's good to have you back."--Michael Rogers