This is an outstanding and authoritative introduction to heraldry written by two English heraldists, one an officer of the College of Arms in London. The book is well researched and illustrated. Too often heraldic books are reprints or new editions of books from the first part of the 20th Century. This book has contemporary design and language and is well fitted to be the definitive guide at the turn of the 20th Century. It should be included in the library of every person with a serious interest in heraldry.

An excellent introduction to the field by the Somerset Herald. Chapters cover the origins and evolution of the herald's art, the marshalling of arms, the technical aspects of blazoning, and even the proper decorative use of heraldry. The emphasis, naturally, is on Britain, but Europe and the United States are included as well. Very nicely illustrated, too, with a thick section of color plates. And a nice gift book, too.

This is a well-researched, comprehensive analysis of the history of heraldry in both England and Europe. It features several full-color as well as grayscale plates illustrating ancient coats of arms and the evolution of this art to the modern day. A glossary with illustrations is included in the appendix, and it is well-indexed.

This text is a comprehensive presentation of the knowledge and skills needed by an RN to effectively managed a patient before, during, and after delivery. Tucker has provided all aspects of the procedure in an easy to read, straight forward format. The book includes chapters on maternal and fetal physiology and FHT instrumentation and technology. Of particular note, are chapters on uterine activity monitoring, baseline fetal heart rate changes, and interpretation of reassuring and non reassuring FHT patterns. Interventions and obligations are discussed. A quick method for assessing FHT is given. A standard of care for FHT monitoring and care of the intrapartum and postpartum patient is also included. Nursing diagoses are listed for the intrapartum and postpartum period. Culterally sensitive care is discussed as well. Documentation, risk reduction, and education are discussed. Appendixes add information on risk factors, Leopold's maneuvers, protocals of cervical ripending, care of patients in preterm labor with information on tocolytics, and sample tracings are given. This book is an excellent guide and may be used for reference after its initial reading.

A book to be welcomed by all involved in the profession of bringing new life into the world. Intelligently written for the Nurse,Midwife,OB Interns and Residents. Follows the accepted protocols. A MUST HAVE FOR TRAINEES!

A book to be welcomed by all in the profession of bringing new life into the world. Intelligently written for the Nurse, Midwife, Intern, Resident, Attending. Follows the accepted protocols. A MUST HAVE FOR TRAINEES!

This is a terrific book. It's a gripping read; but it's also the type of book that stays
with you for months, enlightening your day-to-day life with moments of insight. Perhaps
its greatest strength lies in the character of the narrator, the young Nikolaus Martin.
Candid, likeable and exact in his recall, he tells his story so simply and without pretension
that we know we can trust him to tell us how things really were. All the events of his
story -- the irresponsible pleasures of his Bohemian youth, the much-feared occupation of
Czechoslovakia, daring escapes and long months in a prison camp -- we see with
devastating clarity through his eyes.
I learned a lot from Martin: about the events of a particularly poignant period in
European history, about the lifestyle of a hedonistic young man in pre-war Prague
(surprising to me, who thought sexual freedom began in the 1960s), about lice and loyalty
and prison survival. And I enjoyed myself throughout.
This is not a book, like so many I've read about the same place and time, to overwhelm
us with incomprehensible horrors --- the piles of bodies, the black smoke from tall
chimneys. Rather it is the experience of one man who, by turns mischievious,
compassionate and pedantic, manages to bring a dreadful event down to the level of
individual human experience.

I read "Prague Winter" in one sitting. It is the true tale of a Czech teenager living in Prague just before and during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War. The book is riviting describing the gradual loss of freedom for the citizens and how the city slowly turns from a gay exciting european capital to a closed, silent and dismal island of fear and loathing. Martin chronicles the assination of the hated SS Leader Heydrich and the terrible reprisals against the Czechoslovakian people. The book culminates with Martin's attempt to escape the country, his capture and imprisonment where he almost dies. This book really deserves a wide readership because the lessons learned are so very important to freedom loving people.

This book made me recall things I had learned about the Nazis during World War II and had let slip into my mental dustbin of facts and memories I wish I'd never known. I had conveniently summarized in my consciousness all I thought I needed to recall about these things: The Nazis were a brutal, horrible blight on humanity and if there ever was a Hell on Earth, their world was it.

But this summary doesn't cut it, as I rediscovered reading Prague Winter. The horror and depravity of the concentration camps was bad enough, but what it did psychologically to the inmates was even worse. To survive, one had to become inured to it and learn how to play survival games that are unimaginable in today's world, and that must have left a permanent scar upon all who survived.

The way Martin has chosen to narrate his experiences makes it seem all the more like the Hell on Earth it really was. The utter chaos of the time; the knowledge that each decision one makes, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it might be, could literally mean death; the insanity of the oppression; the things that one was required to accept in order to survive; the attitude about death one must adopt--are all made plain through Martin's matter-of-fact way of describing his experiences.

I could hardly put the book down, but it was very painful to read. I'm reminded of Solzhenitsyn's books--all of which I've read. To realize the depths to which insane megalomaniacal leaders can plunge society is really sobering. We truly do not know how good our lives are here in the US and Canada.

This book should be read by all freedom loving people.

I have always struggled with how to pray. This book has helped me more than any other. Kay Bessler Northcutt's rich and vital images have deepened my understanding of what prayer can mean. She has given me language for feelings that I wasn't sure how to express. Her vocabulary is one of gratitude and wonder.

This thoughtful and creative collection of prayers follows the church year. Powerful,insightful, unconventional images fuel the prayers, week after week. Prophetic and pastoral, Ms. Bessler Northcutt's voice challenges and comforts.

This small volume offers a stirring collection of prayers. Kay Bessler Northcutt's use of language and imagery is amazing. The prayers in this book correspond to the church year, and make for delightful devotional reading. As the pastor of a church, I can also recommend these beautifully written prayers as a resource for other ministers and worship leaders.

I've created basic database structures and applications for about five years and pledged never to go past writing macros, because I didn't want to be forced to learn VBA. I run a realty and mortgage office and just couldn't spare the time. Now that Outlook and the Office suite is becoming more familiar with my crew and now that we've joined a WAN and some B2B data sharing, the basic stuff just didn't fill the bill. I've bought quite a few books on Access recently (not to mention dozens from the past few years) and have found this one to be one of the best in its presentation and content.

It gave me some real insight on how I should be considering networking and upsizing. I answered more questions I had after spending 12 hours with the book, than I had spent searching the net or reading the other books for several months. I even read though the code and understood it, and contrary to the warnings the presentation still flowed well. I still know little VBA and am now going back to get a Wrox book on Beginnng Access 2000 VBA.

Concise, very detailed, stuffed full of info and reference. I'm a Wrox fan now.

I've been consulting for over 5 years with Access in all it's iterations except 1.0 and I must say that this is the best book on intermediate topics that I have found. There is no "fluff" like in books from other publishers (especially Queue in my opinion). This book is concise with real world examples for real world issues. When I first opened this book and read a bit I realized this book was written by consultants/developers who have gotten there hands dirty and not "feel good" academics who have never written a line of code for a company. Keep this one handy if you're the Access guru at your firm.

Professional Access 2000 Programming is a combination of a training book to heighten your programming skills, and a reference work that will give you a complete overview of Access 2000 and it's related programming environment. It's written in the traditional Wrox style that is so easy to read and usable for developers.

One thing I do miss, is the usual Wrox opening statement where it is described whom the book is written for and if any previous programming skills are assumed. It's not until chapter 3 that you find out VB or VBA programming experience is assumed to make use of the chapter. Don't start on this book without any knowledge of VBA, since it is used in most of the coding examples. If you don't know VBA check out the following books: ISBN 0782123244, ISBN 1861001762 and ISBN 0735605920. An understanding of ADO would also improve on the usability of the book.

To make use of the books fullest potential, have a design plan of your database next to it and make notes or check for errors in your design when you go through the chapters. This helped me to improve on the design of my database.

Not essential, but it would have been nice if the sample code used in the book had been made available to the reader. At one place in the book the author even writes that the sample code is available from Wrox' website, but as of today it is not.

This book has given me the skills and confidence to start working on client/server solutions and integrating SQL server. It breaks down the entire complexity surrounding Access 2000 and database development to sizeable blocks and tools that I can piece together according to programming and design goals. A must have for any Access programmer on his way to become a true professional.

MARTIN GRUSINS' "PROFESSIONAL SIGHTSINGING TECHNIQUE" IS A COMPREHENSIVE, HANDSOMELY PRINTED AND METICULOUSLY ORGANIZED TUTORIAL FOR THE SERIOUS STUDENT OF SIGHTSINGING, EAR TRAINING, AND MUSIC THEORY. THIS VOLUME IS ACTUALLY THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF PROGRESSIVELY ADVANCED BOOKS THAT GRUSIN IS WRITING BASED ON THE VAST EXPERIENCE HE HAS GAINED IN HIS MANY YEARS OF TEACHING PROFESSIONAL VOCAL TECHNIQUE AND SIGHTSINGING TECHNIQUE TO SINGERS AND MUSICIANS.

AS A GRADUATE OF THE EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC WITH A MAJOR IN THEORY AND AS A NEW YORK STUDIO MUSICIAN FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE MARTIN GRUSIN STUDIO PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANSHIP SERIES.

MARTIN GRUSINS' NEW BOOK IS A VERY VALUABLE TOOL FOR MUSICIANS AND SINGERS WHO NEED TO IMPROVE THEIR SIGHTSINGING SKILLS. I RECOMMEND IT.

PROFESSIONAL SIGHTSINGING TECHNIQUE IS A MUST FOR ANY MUSICIAN SERIOUSLY INTERESTED IN INCREASING HIS OR HER ABILITY TO READ AND SING MUSICAL NOTATION. GRUSINS' BOOK IS WELL ORGANIZED AND CLEARLY ILLUSTRATED WITH A LOGICAL AND EASY TO FOLLOW GRAPHIC PRESENTATION. WORK WITH HIS SYSTEM AND WATCH YOUR CONFIDENCE GROW.

What I like about this book is that it is not your usual 500 pages tome, but a readable, very focused view on SATAN (and probably helpful for SAINT too). I especially liked that it also points out what SATAN does *not* do, and what to do and where to go for more information on network security in general. Recommended.

The first time I heard about Satan it was when I started my quest into Linux tools. I found Satan " the fixed release for Linux" I tried it !!! but never do things at 100%. When I read the Book....suddenly all changed..I have discovered the hidden side of Sys Adminz. I stopped hacking and now I'm working on the right direction. I'm on my way to code " LUCIFER" a Satan-Like software.

I read the text file and used the SATAN version 1.1. This really interested me. I never expected a book such as above and I was only surfing the Web with Amazon.com when I came in contact with this book. I thought of giving it a try. This book is just incredible and explain SATAN in more detail. I am a System Admin and I know what are my problems, this book really opened my eyes. AN EXCELLENT EFFORT!

Great book, but Martin Marty is not an "illustrator."

Originally published in 1955, PROTESTANT-CATHOLIC-JEW is still worth reading and still significant. It is a good deal more than a tour of America's religions; it is a book about what it means to be an American. Herberg got a few things wrong, and a good deal has happened since 1955, but he was a wise man who was close to the mark on several important issues.//Briefly, Herberg argues that, contrary to Israel Zangwill and other theorists of a single assimilating melting pot, the United States has three melting pots: a Protestant melting pot, a Catholic melting pot, and a Jewish melting pot. According to Herberg, each subsequent generation of Americans considers itself less and less "ethnic." But as ethnic consciousness declines, religion becomes more important, so any intermarriage among different ethnic groups stays within the same religious denominations. For example, third-generation Polish-Americans (almost invariably Catholic) don't marry other Polish-Americans, but they do choose Catholic spouses. Their children become Catholic Americans, and part of the Catholic melting pot. // Herberg claims that the three melting pots are so important that there are now three fundamental ways of being an American. One can be a Protestant American, a Catholic American, or a Jewish American. The only exception Herberg makes is for the members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose intellectuals confuse everyone by insisting on Four Great Faiths rather than Three.//Herberg admits that the triple melting pot thesis has certain flaws. Specifically, he regards African Americans as a permanent outcast group that will likely never become part of the larger Protestant melting pot. (He says nothing about black Catholics and black Jews.) He also acknowledges the existence of a few members of various Eastern religious sects, but he clearly considers such people too marginal to think very hard about.//Within a few years of the publication of PROTESTANT-CATHOLIC-JEW, the whole idea of the melting pot--even a triple one--became unfashionable. Eminent scholars and politicians told us about "unmeltable ethnics." At the same time, religious intermarriage has become more common, making one wonder if the triple melting pot thesis is still valid. And, since the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, large numbers of Asians have moved to the United States, creating the outlines of a nation with Five Great Faiths: Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, and Hindu. Unfortunately, Herberg himself is no longer around to interpret these trends, so we'll just have to sit here and cook for awhile.

Herberg brilliantly analyzes, with both insight and feeling, the development of the American religious landscape. We owe much of our cultural and religious identity to the waves of immigration that came to our shores and the particular ways in which these newcomers were assimilated to the American way. Our situation has changed somewhat since Heberg's work in 1960, but his careful, lucid, and detailed explanation of who we are is still highly worth reading. I warmly recommend it to my students.

Being a French speaker, I didn't have any problem understand it and reading it. The subject is really well covered and written by many scientists. Many causes are explained.

This is the best, most comprehensive treatment of available data (which has grown some) and theories (which have grown but not multiplied) on land vertebrate extinctions of the last 100,000 years. If you are a mammoth/sabertooth extinction hound, this book will feed you better than any other. It does require some specialized knowledge in a few chapters, but the gist is accessible for the educated layperson. It's worth hunting for or buying used.

A more recent offering, though briefer, is "Extinctions in Near Time," Ross MacPhee, ed.

I appreciate the candor in labeling two of the major sections, entitled 'the theoretical marketplace: geologic-climactic models' and 'the theoretical marketplace: cultural models' which encompass variations on each of the two main theories for the extinction.

In addition to theories, the book describes the various mammals as well as their pattern of disappearance region by region worldwide. At 867 pages, it will keep you going for a while, but it's worth every page.

There is only one chapter on birds, only passing references to a tortise, lizard, or fish, and nothing on plants. I would love to find similar treatments for changes in characteristic flora for the same time period.

This is THE reference on Quaternary extinctions. The beauty of this book is that it isn't just one person's opinion, but a collection of well-researched articles on Quaternary topics by some of the top minds in the field. College students, especially in the biosciences and geography disciplines, BUY THIS BOOK AND KEEP IT HANDY!

I've been an RSC fan since their early renfaire days, & their work is as timeless as the Bard's. This is Shakespeare thru the eyes of American pop culture with references to everything from Casablanca to Dr. Ruth to rap music. But it's not Shakespeare for dummies -- the RSC lads know the real texts inside & out. They show Shakespeare's greatness thru their humor -- & they remind us how funny Shakespeare really is. The RSC would be an excellent introduction to Shakespeare for students or anyone who thinks the Bard is stuffy & boring.

As the child of a teacher of English, I'd been introducted to many of Shakespeare's plays at a very early age. This has lead to two things - a twisted sense of humour and an appreciation of the same. The Reduced Shakespeare Company fits the bill perfectly. Silly, witty, and intelligent, the RSC puts life back into the bard. If you're looking for a serious scholarly thesis on Shakespeare, look elsewhere. If you're looking for somthing that will make you laugh until you cry, the RSC is for you! And hey, you never know - you might learn something too.

A whimsical mixture of slapstick humor and witty parody. Somewhat sophmoric at times, but generally insightful.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company knows their stuff, and are very creative about their presentation.