I've not picked up a novel by Gunter Grass since I plowed through (and enjoyed) "Cat and Mouse", "The Tin Drum" and "Dog Years" a couple of decades ago. Prior to reading this novel, I was completely ignorant of the catastrophic sinking of the German ship Wilhelm Gustoff by a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea in the last few months of the second world war. As presented by Gunter Grass, this incident was the result of many fateful events, each one of which may not have been deadly, but when combined resulted in a horrible tragedy.
I found this novel very difficult to read. Grass aptly titled the book "Crabwalk" because the story does not unfold in simple chronological order. Instead the story, as told in the first person by Paul Pokriefke, wanders back and forth over more than half a century. As I read the novel I was flipping back through the pages I'd already read trying to figure out who a particular character is, or to recall a given event. I had to get halfway through the novel before I could recall all of the main characters and events. My knowledge of German is fair, and I found it helpful in understanding location names and some of the peculiar sentences. A good atlas is helpful to have when reading this novel because a map of the region where most of the events in the novel take place is not included.
I'd recommend this book, but it does require some effort on the part of the reader. It's not a poolside read.

Crabwalk is the first great book I have read that was written in the 21st century.

Why Crabwalk? Here's a definition of "crab:" "to move sideways, diagonally, or obliquely, especially with short, abrupt bursts of speed." Crabwalk's structure is similar. Grass offers a clue in referring to "scuttling backward to move forward."

Paul Pokreife, a journeyman journalist, narrates several parallel tracks: his life, his mother's (Tulla), his son's (Konrad), his ex-wife's, the ship Wilhelm Gustloff, the Nazi Wilhelm Gustloff (and his monument and remains), Gustloff's assassin (David Frankfurter), the Soviet submarine commander who sunk the ship (Marinesko), and Konrad's online challenger (Wolfgang "David" Stremplin) and his parents. Sometimes Mr. Grass jumps sideways sharing several stories at that time. Other times he jumps forward or backward to a different time or story. . . and then goes sideways to other stories. It's like stream of consciousness narration except it's finished prose and dialogue. . . rather than thought fragments.

This structure establishes many connections between one person and another to show an interconnected fabric of German society and consciousness since 1933 in the context of a few events, a family and a few other characters. I felt like I had just absorbed the richness of War and Peace . . . except in a relatively short and simple book.

Crabwalk can be read at several levels of meaning. The most compelling story relates the terrible tragedy of the sinking of the German refugee ship, Wilhelm Gustoloff, in January 1945 on the frigid Baltic by a Soviet submarine. More than 1200 survived while most others (estimated between 6,600 and 10,600) died from explosions, equipment faults, rescue mistakes, freezing, drowning, or the icy waters. Of these, more than 4,000 were probably children. There were only 22 lifeboats on board, and only one was launched properly. You'll have to read Crabwalk to appreciate the tragedy, but it dwarfs the Titanic. Yet it's a little-known event. The Germans made no announcement then to help maintain civilian morale. The Soviets were embarrassed and hid the event. Post-war Germany has kept a code of silence around any German civilians suffering as a result of the war, seeming to reflect the national guilt for starting the war.

Paul's being born the night of the sinking, aboard a rescue ship, links him to the Nazi past (through the anniversaries of the Nazi rise to power and Gustloff's death), the consequences of the sinking on the survivors, and the sinking's effect on the next generation of Germans. This connection is the bridge to other ways to read the book.

At another level, it's a story of a dysfunctional family: A woman who wasn't sure who the father is of her only son; a son estranged from his mother by her disappointment in him and his rejection of her values; a fatherless son becoming a poor father and failed husband; and a grandson reaching out to a grandmother for the emotional support his father fails to give him.

At a third level, Crabwalk is about the experience of the German nation since January 1933 when the Nazis took over. We go through the economic recovery years as Tulla's parents take a cruise to the Norwegian fjords aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff. Tulla grows up during the war and has a miscarriage while being a streetcar conductor. She becomes pregnant with Paul, and after the rescue are settled in East Germany where she becomes a carpenter and a devoted Stalinist. Paul escapes to the West as a teenager, and the two becomes estranged. Tulla also admires the old Nazis after East Germany falls and tries to fascinate her grandson with the ship's history. She succeeds through giving him a computer, and Konrad runs a Web site about the ship and the man it's named for. At the same time, you find out how Gustloff becomes a Nazi martyr after he's assassinated by a Jewish medical student in Davos. Ironically, Frankfurter's health improves by being in prison. He's released after World War II by the Swiss and heads to Palestine.

At a fourth level, this is a story about how our lives are influenced by our environment (our family, our nation, our history and our ways of perceiving).

At a fifth level, Crabwalk teaches us to think about the consequences of when and where we're born. If Paul had been born a few hours later, he would have spent his whole life in the western sectors of Germany rather than starting in the east. He believes his whole life would have been different . . . and it probably would have.

At a sixth level, Crabwalk explains that history repeats itself through the influences of the earlier generations on another. There are many deliberate ironies in the book as one character acts out variations on what an earlier character did (especially the way Konrad mimics David Frankfurter).

Ultimately, the book is about guilt. Who's guilt is it? And for what? What's to be done to atone? "History, or, to be more precise, the history we Germans have repeatedly mucked up, is a clogged toilet." "We flush and flush, but the [content]. . . keeps rising." In particular, should Germans deny their own suffering in World War II as a means to expiate guilt, or will that denial lead to new guilty actions?

The book profoundly expanded my understanding of the German experience. As a young man in Munich on business, I found my sleep troubled and interrupted by dreams and memories of Nazi marchers on the street outside, death camps in the countryside and murderous attacks on fellow Germans. Some taxi drivers who were old enough to have been in the Wehrmacht looked at me with obvious hate. Clients my age were very punctiliously correct anti-Nazis (we even visited events criticizing the Nazi past together). On the streets, young skinheads passed wearing swastikas. Crabwalk helped me to understand what was happening then and now.

Set as a novel, the author Gunter Grass crabwalks his way through the real background, the heyday, and then the sinking of the cruise ship 'Wilhelm Gustloff', last used as a refugee boat for Germans fleeing East Prussia. I had no idea that there was a more deadly sinking than the 'Titanic' until I read this book. The 'Wilhelm Gustloff' quite possibly could have taken 4 times as many lives as the 'Titanic' when it went down in the Baltic Sea. The exact number will never be known. At least 4000 were children. Why haven't we heard about it? The Russians didn't want to admit that their submarine had sunk a refugee ship (although it was still painted like a military ship). The Germans didn't want to admit the loss because Hitler wanted to keep what was left of the dwindling German spirit at the closing of World War II.

I learned so much from this book. CRABWALK should be required reading for everyone!

For anyone unfamiliar with either Winston Churchill or William Manchester, this book provides a nice introduction to both. Remember the name Manchester, and when you're done with this book, go immediately back to Amazon.com and buy "The Last Lion", both volumes (the third volume is not yet published, alas).

There are many astonishing events in Churchill's life, and one wonders at the extent of self-aggrandizement in this book (certainly you wouldn't expect a politician to be entirely honest!). Nevertheless, if only 1/4 of Churchill's stories were true, it would be more than enough to establish him among the icons of history.

That this work ends on Churchill's (first) rise to public prominence is fitting. It is as if to say that prior to his political ascendency, Churchill's life was his own, and thus worthy of his own gifted commentary. Whereas after he became a public figure, there was really nothing more for him to personally relate (of course, Manchester's anecdotal stories concerning Churchill's bathtime hijinks put the lie to that theory - refer to the Last Lion VII). Not that there isn't plenty of autobiography in Churchill's other works (his history of World War II is rife with personal detail), but the tone is different, and the degree of revelation more subdued.

It is of incalculable benefit that we have access to such a personalized view of the childhood and formation of such a great man. Not that he could be duplicated by applying such remedies to your own children (just add syphalitic father, sexually uninhibited but devoted mother, and healthy dose of latin lessons at exclusive English school).

I must confess that among the many details contained in this book, the one that I find most revealing is Churchill's daring and disastrous gambit during a childhood game of tag (a presage to Forcing the Dardanelles?). This single incident speaks clearly to Churchill's indominatable spirit, incredible daring, and dangerous creativity.

"My Early Life" is an excellent book. This work is the first in which Winston Churchill offers details on his escape from captivity at the hands of the Boers in 1899, some thirty years after the fact. In an earlier work, "From London to Ladysmith via Pretoria", Churchill gives a great narrative of his capture and internment during that conflict, but had to leave out many of the details of his escape because of the danger a full account would have posed to those people who had helped him in the successful attempt. "My Early Life" also takes a couple of steps back from the original journalistic accounts Churchill wrote, adds more of the background, and reveals the political and social intrigue that formed and guided British military and social circles when the British Empire was at its peak. The best part of "My Early Life", for anyone who is at all familiar with the recorded speeches of Winston Churchill, is that the writing "sounds" like the man, the sentences flowing with an air of granduer that demonstrate the superb command of the English language which Churchill possessed. This is not an easy book to read, but the persistent reader will be rewarded with some of the highest caliber prose ever put to paper by a soldier turned journalist turned politician. This book is a must read.

Winston Churchill does a terrific job detailing his life as a young man in his autobiography, "My Early Life". What make this such a great book is the way Churchill writes: it is rather informal, as if he is talking directly to you. Churchill describes certain experiences in his past so vividly it is like they were fresh in his mind from having just happened. An important feature to this book is that it includes certain incites that cannot be found in any history book. You can learn much from this book. It comes from the mind of an experienced British cavalry officer, journalist, and politician. It is full of stories and special accounts that are never uninteresting. To read and enjoy this book it is not required to know anything about the man, Winston Churchill. Anyone from a high school student to a renowned historian will enjoy reading this book.

Richard Sowers brings a unique and knowledgable voice to the world of NASCAR; a welcome breath of fresh air amidst overly cynical journalists and sugar-coated sentiments. His is an honest look behind the scenes of America's Sport.
"The Complete Statistical History of Stock-Car Racing: Records, Streaks, Oddities and Trivia" is an absolutely invaluable resource. Sowers provides readers with an index that measures the racers of yesteryear against those of the modern era, thus giving followers a chance to debate more accurately about which driver should be called "the greatest of all time." His stance on the true count of the number of races that Bobby Allison won is also not to be missed.
As a writer, I must say that Sowers' book is my Bible, if you'll excuse the cliche. I use it to research and verify facts, and it inspires many articles for my Web site. This book is never far from my reach. I would not recommend this book to someone without prior knowledge of the basics of NASCAR racing, though. They'd be better off going with a book like Mark Martin's "NASCAR for Dummies." But for fans and writers searching for the ultimate statistical guide - look no further!

In addition to its use of Sowers' Performance Index to quantify who were the greatest drivers ever and why, the book presents a year by year history of NASCAR on a scale never attempted before. As NASCAR has only in the last decade or so exploded into truly national notoriety and popularity, there are literally thousands of fans who know little or nothing about the sport's pioneers--men like Lee Petty, Red Byron, Junior Johnson, Fireball Roberts, Buck Baker, the Flock brothers, Tim, Bob, and Fonty, and the wild and crazy Curtis Turner. Many of them were men who learned their driving skills not at some high-priced racing school, but on the rural backroads of places like Georgia and North Carolina--running moonshine and evading the law. It was men like these who in the 1950's competed for small purses on mostly dirt tracks as part of the upstart organization known as NASCAR, which was seen by some as a low-class pretender to "true" American racing--the Indianapolis 500. Today, NASCAR has not only equaled Indy car racing in prestige and popularity, it has surpassed it; advancing beyond the most optimistic dreams of NASCAR's founder, Big Bill France. To learn the fascinating details of this great American success story, you must read this book.

As a Statistician, I forecast that you can do no better than this book. A number crunchers dream come true.

As with the entire Penguin Lives series, this book was written by an expert who was given the challenge of sharing his knowledge in less than 200 pages. John Keegan succeeds brilliantly. As an expert on World War II, Keegan has written many wonderful and insightful books and this is no exception despite the literary constraints placed upon him. His clear and beautiful prose make the book a quick and enjoyable read, but he does not sacrifice information. I did not know a lot about Churchill before reading this book, but now I feel that I have a good understanding for his achievements and why he was so significant in his own time. It is a fabulous book for an amateur historian who does not want to spend dozens of hours wading through a biography several volumes long and simply wants to know significant events and some good analysis by a renowned historian. A wonderful, well written, and interesting book.

I've long been interested in Winston Churchill, but the challenge of plowing through the many 2 volume or massive single volume biographies out there seemed a bit daunting. I wanted a simple overview of Churchill's life so I could determine which of his accomplishments I wanted to read more about. Well, this Penguin Lives book did just that. It is a brief cradle to grave bio, but don't let its length fool you. It is well written, well researched (if the bibliography is any indication), and a complex biography of a complex man. I've learned that I'm more interested in Churchill's political life rather than his military career and now I'm free to read one of the many books dedicated to the specific periods of Churchill's time in Parliament. Buy this book for a wonderful introduction to Churchill that will make you want to delve further into his life...or just buy it because its a quick, easy way to learn a bit of history and you'll be able to answer a few more Jeopardy questions.

Well, I haven't read them all, but I have read quite a few, and I think John Keegan's brief life of Churchill is magnificent. Keegan's expertise on military history adds much to our understanding of Churchill. Through Keegan's lens, we see how Churchill's early experiences in Cuba, India, Sudan, and South Africa were truly formative, rather than mere adventures (and opportunities to earn money through journalism). Similarly, Keegan's explanation of the Gallipoli affair helped me understand for the first time why it brought Churchill such ignomy; conversely, my appreciation for Churchill rose even higher as Keegan clearly laid out how Churchill prepared the British fleet for war against the Kaiser. Keegan also shines light on a usually unremarked upon episode of Churchill's life: his months spent in the trenchs on the Western front during the Great War. I have read the (sadly uncompleted) Manchester and the Gilbert tomes, and I highly recommend this little volume as either an introduction to Churchill or as a tasty treat to those who already admire the great man. I ALSO RECOMMEND PURCHASING AN AUDIO CD OR CASSETTE OF CHURCHILL'S WARTIME SPEECHES (AVAILABLE HERE AT AMAZON).

Excellent! Gretchen Rubin presents us with snapshots of Churchill-- the father, the imperialist, the dandy, the hero, etc. Through the different pieces, a whole picture begins to emerge. As much about how we write and read biographies as it is about Churchill, this book is for anybody who likes to think. Also-- great fathers' day present.

If you've ever wondered about the legend who was a young whippersnapper during Queen Victoria's reign, who saw action in WWI & led Britain through her finest hour during WWII, who invented the V for Victory sign, who smoked like a chimney & drank like a fish, who first coined the phrase "iron curtain," then FORTY WAYS TO LOOK AT WINSTON CHURCHILL is just the ticket for you!

As one of those thousands who queued up on that cold spring day to pay my respects at his Lying in State, I learnt more about the character of this icon of my childhood, in one chapter of this book than in all the biographies. I like the way Gretchen Rubin balances each aspect, the ugly & the good, the witty & the sentimental of this larger-than-life hero of a time long ago.

This is a great book for those who have read Gilbert and Manachester as well as those who are not familar with the extradinary life of Churchill. Rubin has written a wonderfully concise review of this dominate figure of the 20th century. She is able to present various views of a Churchill's very full life in an extremely engaging way. It will make you think or rethink how Churchill was able to accomplish so much. She even provides the reader with a quiz to test their knowledge of the subject. This book will certainly get the reader started on learning more about history and how a man can shape world events.I look forward to other works by Gretchen Rubin.

The other reviewers have it right--a very good book. There is a slow start when we learn about his youth, and he masters the family business of horses. The story really picks up when he joins the Canadian military and then the Royal Flying Corps in France. Frederick Libby is not a deep thinker--he believes in friendship and loyality--he doesn't spend much time worrying about the why of war. He is spontaneous in his response to situations rather than thinking things through. His clear writing gives us a sense of what life was like, but I do not understand why he survived and most of the aviators did not. If I liked this book, then why did I give it only 3-stars? The book has been over-edited and has a feel as though a lot of the life has been rewritten out of it. I want to know more about Libby's experiences, and I feel a bit cheated. Another reason for 3-stars is that the story starts slow, peaks in the middle, and goes back to a slow and finally a disjointed end when he returns to the United States and health problems end his military career. Libby lives for another 50 years, and we are given a very simplified version by his granddaughter which grabs my interest but doesn't deliver more than generalities. A search of the internet does not find any more information about Libby's life. This book whets your appetite for more knowledge about this time when aviators believed they were knights, and the internet has a huge amount of information on this subject.

This story is not about horses, or flying. It's about one thing: character. In Frederick Libby's autobiography the reader sees the story of a young man born in Colorado before the turn of the last century. He grows up learning the family business, mainly horse breaking and cattle ranching. The early chapters are a bit juvenile in their telling but this is only a reflection of his retelling of childhood events. The narration becomes more sophisticated as he recounts later years, but always maintains a simple frontier charm.

While a young man traveling through Canada in 1914 he volunteers for the Canadian army when war breaks out in Europe. He joins as a truck driver even though he has never driven a car before. He ships out to france and spends a cold wet year ferrying supplies to the frontlines. But through it all he maintains a positive outlook and high admiration of the boys in the trenches. After a year of driving he volunteers for the Royal Flying Corps as a observer (gunner). So this American who volunteered with the Canadians ends up with British flying as an observer/gunner/photographer against the deadly German flyers. He later earns his pilot rating and ends up as a squad leader. The desciptions of battles, some of the only first person accounts of the flying war, are intense but not sensationalized. He never glorifies war and tries to give some account of the hardship experienced by the men in the trenches.

The entire narrative shows Captain Libby as a man devoted to those he works with. Whether it is cattle hands in the American west or the officers of the RFC he shows that once he is committed to something he stays with it. The fact that he was barely twenty years old when this started shows how the youth of the time rose to the challenge of the day. Several time during the book He says that he does not know what they are fighting for. However, a man who gives his word to a group of men and sees it through to the end knows exactly what he is fighting for.

Since my brother noticed my review on the last book he sent me, a true story of submarine espionage during The Cold War, "Blind Mans Bluff", I guess he figured to warm up my library with another real life adventure--"Horses Don't Fly". As I opened his package, I admit, I sighed. However, this book is enthralling and compelling as any fictional novel I have ever read.

Frederick Libby wrote his impactful memoir in 1961. He passed away in 1970. There are so many questions I want to ask him. His marvelous capacity for recalling specific details on his life as first a cow puncher out West to his becoming the first American to down five enemy planes during WWI is fascinating indeed. I truly think of him as being the first Marlboro Man. Not in a negative tobacco way, as a rugged, adventurous, spirited man who can capture your attention as fast as he learned to be a pilot and use a machine gun. Which was one day!

Some of my favorite parts of Libby's experiences are during his stand with the Canadian army. Through sensitivity, detail, and even humor, he recreated scenes of comraderie with fellow pilots I shall not soon forget. Friends lost in combat, poignant depictions of wartime London, even playful pranks.

Libby was a true hero. With medals to prove it. Yet, his writing reveals he was just a cowboy who learned how to fly. He tangled with the Red Barron and won, but does not flaunt his ego. In this day of techno wars and seeking singular positive influences--this man amazes me.

A superb true to life memoir of a flying Ace in WWI.

--CDS--

I would have rated this book much higher had it not been for two reasons: 1. It took almost half the book for it to get really engrossing and 2. At times I had the feeling, especially in the first half, that the author favored the South and so was biased in some of his reporting. However, once the story got to the Battle of Franklin the narrative had a quick flow to it and was so compelling I could not put it down. Some of the gruesome depiction of war dead is so vivid that even a week later it sticks in my mind. I also question some of Mr. Groom's beliefs about what happened. At one point he makes a statement that leads you to believe that 1. the war was a big mistake and 2. the North was the aggressor. The statement is that "the war, by far the most destructive to human life of all America's wars, produced 600,000 casualties while freeing 3 million slaves." If Mr. Groom thinks the sole reason for the war was to free the slaves and not to preserve the union he is sadly mistaken. I think intellectually he knows better, but that old bias seems to constantly get the better of him. Still I would call this one of the great books about the war, in spite of the criticisms, because when all is said and done, it is still a great read. It ranks up there with books like "The Killer Angels."

Shrouds of Glory does an efficent job of laying out John Bell Hood's last hurrah at a little known, but crucial battle of the Civil War. What may not be so well known is that the Battle of Nashville in December of 1864 was also the vindication of the Union General George "Pap" Thomas, (who by the way was originally from Virginia).

Linclon & Grant had their doubts about Thomas's waiting game at Nashville. The orders to relieve him of command were on the the way when Thomas unleashed the Union attack and the resulting disaster to the Confederate Army of Tennesee vindicated his patience. Sherman said the Battle of Nashville was the only battle of the Civil War where a whole army ceased to exist after the fight.

If Hood was desperate to make a break through, and he was, as Groom has laid out. Thomas was just as determined to close the door once and for all. I appreciated how this book laid out the events leading up to that battle.

Just as a side note, one of the Union regiments at Nashville was the Ohio 182nd Infantry. In that regiment was my great-grandfather, Sgt. George Debolt Newcomer.

As a high school history teacher and Civil War Buff, I am always looking for ways to bring the deeds and accomplishments of history to life for an audience with open hostility for the topic. This book accomplishes this next-to-impossible task. Groom writes with the prose of a novelist (no surprise), the research of a scholar (surprise)and a genuine love for and interest in the subject matter. One of the most fascinating non-fiction books I have even read, complete with excellent maps and interesting photographs.

I could not put this book down! Rabbi Winston has taken one of the fundemental principals and one of the most confusing principals of Judaism and has made it easy to understand and comprehend. The coming of the Messiah is not a fairytale, but something that is as important as the weekly Sabbath. We are use to kosher food because we see it and eat it everyday. Rabbi Winston superbly lets you see how the coming of Moshiach is not only very realistic, but will be here soon in our days.

Most 'End times' books one reads are based on current and past political and/or economic/social events or on interpretations taken from English translations of the Bible. What makes this book different is that it seems to be written by someone steeped in the original Hebrew prophetic tradition, direct from the original texts. It is also a thundering good read that keeps one's attention throughout -- as all good action novels should. The characters are all eminently plausible and, taking recent occurrences into account, so are the interlacing scenarios. I recommend this book highly for anyone interested in a spiritual aspect behind world events. It certainly inspired me to take my spiritual life just that little bit more seriously ... for who knows, it may in itself be largely prophetic ...

I read the review by the "expert eschatologist" and "thriller buff," and quite frankly, I think he missed the point altogether. Everyone is entitled to his opinion and you can't please everyone, but having read the other two books he mentioned, "The Promise of God" and "Samson's Lion," I don't see how he can even compare them to "Not Just Another Scenario."

One of the reasons why NJAS has been so appealing to countless readers is because of its loyalty to mainstream Jewish tradition regarding the concept of Moshiach and the End-of-Days, unlike the other two books. Furthermore, in true Pinchas Winston style, the author has once again taken very deep and profound concepts and made them palatable for those knowledgeable about such ideas and for those who are not.

Furthermore, one should not mistake clarity of thought for simplicity. As well, I don't think the author of NJAS was interested in creating a surprise ending, but rather, he seems instead to have wanted to show how "predictable" tradition could come true even in our day-and-age. In my opinion, he has done this and has done this surprisingly well.

In fact, not only is this book well-written and credible, but uncannily current historical events are unfolding in a way very similar to what Rabbi Winston has portrayed a year prior to their occurring! This, I am told by others, is another reason why "Not Just Another Scenario" is so appealing and inspiring.

As a final note, I have no doubt that Rabbi Winston is capable of writing a spy-thriller that could rival some of the best from the secular world. However, the concept of Moshiach and the End-of-Days is not fictional; they are very serious ideas with huge ramifications for all of mankind. Rabbi Winston, who apparently is well-versed in the Kabbalistic understanding of these central tenets of Orthodox Judaism has done a masterful job of revealing them in so short a book while interweaving them with modern day events and issues.

"Not Just Another Scenario" is a great book to act as one's guide through these turbulent times of ours, and a tremendous source of hope and inspiration for better times as well.

I think this book is good for someone who has programmed in C and would like to gently move "on to C++". However, it has two shortcomings: 1) the author uses the same monotonous example of trains throughout the text. 2) there are quite a few concepts in C++ (e.g. copy constructors, operator overloading, streaming) that the author spends little or no time on. 3) the author's explanation of templates at the end of the book seemed somewhat confusing, and could have been

simplified.

On the positive side, I think it provides a good place to start for a programmer who needs a gentle introduction to C++ and knows some C.

In my experience, On to C++ is by far the best introduction, and perhaps one of the best books in general, on C++. It is extremely well written and allows one to move from procedural programming to object oriented programming very quickly, especially if you are already familiar with C.

It is not comprehensive, and is not meant to be, but covers all of the basics of the language quite well. The use of essentially the same example throughout the book strengthens it as a tutorial, but weakens it somewhat as a reference text.

SUMMARY: Excellent book! My highest recommendation if you need to get up and running with text-based C and you are starting from zero.

DISCUSION: This book separates itself from almost all others by sticking with teaching the reader how to write programs in C. Topics such as Windows programming, details about using specific products (Visual C++, C++ Builder, etc.), and historical anecdotes about the history of computing are left for others to cover. These subjects are indeed interesting, but the novice is easily overwhelmed by them (for me, the transition from Apple IIe line number based BASIC to structured, compiled programs was rough enough!). Winston's approach allows the programmer to begin solving problems quickly. Once the user is used to the language and has a few programs under his belt, he can think about tackling K & R, Schildt, Perry, etc.

The story in this book is too similar to the story in "A Rumor of War". The differences between these two books are "Better Times than These" involves the army and "Rumor of War" involves the marines, and "Better Times than These" is fictional and "A Rumor of War" is non-fictional. If you're going to try out this book I would recommend that you don't but instead try out "A Rumor of War".

It amazes me that some books get published at all. In this case, the story is there: the themes, characters, and the events. I was disappointed in how Groom constructed the tale. At times the text appears to have been written by a high school student.

Better to read Walking Dead by Craig Roberts, or The Only War We Had by Michael Lanning (if you can find it).

This is a very fine novel - one of the best about Vietnam. It has a good, authentic story line, interesting and well developed characters and solid writing. It's easy to read and hard to put down. I think anyone interested in the Vietnam war experience would find it well worth reading.