Although I have nothing but the utmost respect for these reknowned climbers and their worthy attempt to summit K2, I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as some of the other climbing epics out there today.

It is interesting to see the difference in climbing narratives written back in the 50's as compared to those written in the last thirty years or so. It seems like there was a different attitude toward climbing in the 50's and before, one that was more supportive of teamwork and cooperation, whereas many of today's narrations are more reflective of each person being responsible for taking care of him or herself only (such as the '96 Everest disaster). As in the case of Art Gilkey's emergency situation, the entire team without question (at least in this rendition of the story) made the effort to get him off of the mountain.

I was somewhat bored by this narrative though (except for storm and the famous Pete Schoening team-arrest) and it's one-dimensional portrayal of the team members. It made me wonder if Houston and Bates were telling it like it really was. They were always very complimentary toward everyone on the team. But in extreme, stressful conditions (both mentally and physically) like these, don't people sometimes become short-tempered, or even withdrawn? But perhaps the authors' objective was not to give insight into individual team members and how they interacted with one another, but rather to just tell of their adventure and how, through remarkable teamwork, they were able to survive K2 against the odds, and live to tell about it.

I also would have liked to see more detailed maps of their route throughout the book, so it would be easier to follow them on their ascent and descent.

I won't deny that this book deserves a place with the other classic mountaineering epics, due to the extraordinary events that this team lived through. However, I prefer narratives that really tell it like it is, "warts and all." I want to get a true sense of the struggles (to feel like I am really there in the bitter cold), and come to understand each person who makes up the entire team.

A 1953 climb still translates in 2002. This is a detailed account cowritten by two of the climbers and is very detailed including the long walk in. I was surprised how little mountain climbing had changed although it did appear distances traveled daily were less as they required 8 campsites to get to the peak. I find books on mountaineering expeditions very interesting although the climbs themselves contain long periods of boredom. This expedition is no different as a brutal storm stops the climbers just short of the summit. The book does a great job detailing how high altitude can effect a climber's body. One of the writers was a doctor.

Needless to say, the long, unforgiving storm takes it's toll on the men placing them in ultimate peril. Getting down from the high altitude, steep face carrying a wounded member led to the most incredible living disaster I have ever read. Well, living for most of the climbers

Read this book for adventure and historical climbing perspective.

At 28,250 feet, K-2 is the world's second highest mountain, 800 feet less than Everest. Mentally add 6,000 feet to K-2 for sheer meanness. Everest is considered a "snow" mountain; K-2 has everything. Snow, ice, rock, constant avalanches, loose shale and a generally evil disposition.

In 1953, an eight-man American team attempted to summit K-2. The book tells us of their meticulous preparations, financing and outfitting. I was struck by the fact the cost estimate for the entire 8-man expedition was $25,000. I recently read the cost for one ~person~ to join an Everest expedition is $80,000!

The two authors come across as fine, honorable, decent men. The entire team's bravery in adversity is inspiring. After a spell of fine weather during the first part of their ascent, all their luck went against them. One team member became seriously ill and a bitter storm locked them in their "camp" for seven days. The camp was a mere outcropping on a rocky ledge. The wind almost blew them off their fragile platform. They were determined to carry out their dangerously ill member. The task was almost impossible to contemplate, let alone carry out. They were not successful only because the storm was so unrelenting.

I will not spoil the book for you by describing their descent. The authors will astound you with their story. Highly recommended

This game is very much business as usual for White Wolf. Thestory and background are very well done and very slickly presented.The first half of the book is devoted to this and is surprisingly entertaining reading for an rpg. The system is simple and straightforward. Players of other White Wolf games will find much that is familiar in it. Combat is the only big change with more detail added from the world of darkness game series. Character generation is much the same. That said, this game also contains the usual White Wolf flaws and ploys. Information is very sketchy on some points that are important to the game. Information on the game's main enemy is very sparse for instance. This sort of thing recurs throughout the book and is a painfully obvious ploy to force storytellers to buy more books in order to use the game fully. Be prepared to either do lots of work filling in the holes or to buy several more books. Despite it's strong points, I can not give it any more than three stars as a game due to it's incompleteness.

Trinity is the best science-fiction role-playing game I've ever played. Built on White Wolf's familiar Storyteller system, Trinity takes the best that system has to offer and incorporates a number of elements that distinguish it not just from other White Wolf games, but from more "generic" sci-fi rpgs such as Alternity, Star Trek, Spacemaster, or Traveller. With topics ranging from psionic powers, hard tech, biotechnology, and weapons of the 22nd century, the game comes with the building blocks necessary for good sci-fi.

What really sets the game above the rest however, is the incredibly rich universe that White Wolf has created. It's possible to play just about any type of sci-fi game you want from Blade Runner film-noir, Aliens-style horror, Star Trek-quests into the unknown, to Star Wars-style space opera. The supplemental books and adventures are also top notch. If you're looking for adaptable sci-fi, Trinity is it.

Perhaps the most undeservedly overlooked game in RPG history, Trinity is a rare gem of a game. Set in the early 22nd century, the game paints a sweeping picture of Earth struggling to recover from war, adjusting to the appearance of Psions (humans with psionic abilities), and the first contacts with alien races.

The storyteller has a broad canvas on which to paint his tales. Corporate and political intrigue, gritty ALIENS style space opera, and Mad Max style adventure in the war ravaged remnants of nations can all be accomodated in the superbly written setting.

The game mechanics use an improved version of the familiar Storyteller rules common to all White Wolf games, making Trinity an easy to learn system for new gamers, but offering elegant simplicity for experienced gamers. The system is easily adapted to other genres such as modern day espionage or detective games. I highly recommend Trinity.

As a novice web surfer, Resaerching Online for Dummies (like me) by Revea Basch and Mary Ellen Bates was just what the doctor ordered. From the world behind the web to thinking and working like a researcher, Basch has provided the basic information necessary for understanding what the web is and what it does and does not do.

Before reading this book I thought a search engine was something a mechanic used to find the infamous "clunk" noise no one at the car dealership can hear. However, it wasn't long before I found my self saying things like "maybe I should try excite." Or, "I bet I can use GO to get what I need." Is this OK to post in public?

But, by the time I read the chapter on specialty search engines I felt like I was cruising the inormation superhighway like no one had ever done before. Dot com this and dot com that.

As I continued through the text I did find myself becoming a little annoyed at the pejorative nature of the writing. I guess that's why the title is Researching Online for "Dummies." This minor distraction aside, Basch has done an excellent job of making sense of this hypertechnical computer lingo. One thing is for sure. "I won't leave my home page without it."

I've been researching online since 1994 and I found something that I didn't know on almost every page of this book. It is informative enough to keep a seasoned researcher entertained but simple to use for a first time web searcher.

I may have to have my copy hard bound somewhere to keep it from falling apart through overuse.

Readable, entertaining, informative, and valuable. What more can you ask from any book? Unskilled researchers wanting to learn something from the subject will find an excellent overview of the necessary skills, tools, and resources, an online researcher needs. Skilled searchers will find a handy reference containing thought provoking ideas. The only problem with the book is due to the etheral nature of the Internet...several examples in the book no longer work as described. Newbies may become disconcerted when following along and finding invalid sites or differences between what the book shows and says and what is experienced on the "real" (?!) internet. To her credit, the author gives ample warning that this may happen. It is the only book of its type that I keep within arm's reach.

As soon as I started reading Head First Java, I knew I would like it. The format held my interest, and the exercises were fun to do. I didn't skip the exercises like I usually do with other books, where they sometimes seem too easy. And I find that I remember the concepts I learned. I am fairly new to Java, and before I read this book, I found some of the concepts confusing, including OO concepts. I now have a much better understanding of the Java language and OO.

In the past, I've learned from the traditional type of text book, but the explanations in Head First Java seemed much easier to understand and remember, and the humor and graphics made it fun. It has the usual errors and typos, but they didn't distract from my learning experience. Now I better understand what I read in my Java reference books. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn or better understand Java, as long as you don't mind having fun while you learn. I am very much looking forward to seeing other books in this series!

In short, it's a great book. It will make all your other Java books
indistinguishable from a printed copy of the API. This is how to
actually understand Java. I kept yelling "So THAT's how it works!" at
least once a chapter. It's really amazing how much I realized I didn't
know. Well, didn't understand. I knew stuff and could do the right
syntax and all that but now I think I really get Java a lot more. In
particular OO and polymorphism which, let's face it, are the kind of
thing that seem simple at first but are slippery to really get ahold of.

The exercises are excellent. I think I could learn more from just the
Head First exercises than from the other books on Java I've bought,
combined. When you buy this, do them all at least once.

I want to point out one particular thing they do with the weirder
concepts. They'll introduce and explain a topic, and then you go to the
next page and there's a picture of someone going "Huh???" And the text
will say yeah, this is a weird concept, and start again and explain it a
different way. And then clarify it again. By then you really do
understand it. I think this is great because it acknowledges that some
of these concepts are just hard to learn. No matter how brilliant you are or
whether you're the love child of Bill Joy and Carly Fiorina.

You absolutely must have this book if you want to learn Java, and you
absolutely must have this book if you've been programming for a couple
years but you have to admit deep down you're still a little fuzzy on a
how things really work.

When I first saw "Head First Java", it reminds me of the colorful "conversational English" books I had when I started to learn English years ago. The casual, humorous books have turned out effective for English language learning. Is that style good for the Java language learners as well? Is this type of books for beginners only?

With those questions in mind, I started to read "Head First Java". Since I consider myself a Java expert (I wrote a Java book myself, after all), I decided that I would NOT read the book from cover to cover. Instead, I would randomly flip through the book for the humorous stories and photos. I figured that if I cannot learn much new about Java from a "beginner" book, I can at least have some fun.

Geez, I was wrong. I was ADDICTED to the book's short stories, annotated code snippets, mock interviews, puzzle games and brain exercises. They are not only entertaining but also informative. It may be a beginner's book but the stuff they cover are definitely deep enough for expert readers as well (e.g. multiple inheritance, polymorphism, inner classes, threads, RMI, ... just to name a few). The best of all is that I can actually remember the things I learned from the book because I associate them with the stories and pictures. I guess it has something to do with the fact that both sides of my brain are active when reading this book: The right side is for the stories and the left side is for the technical and logic stuff.

There are other great Java books (e.g. "Thinking in Java" by Bruce Eckel) in the market. But they are all very serious and require the readers to spend hours to read entire chapters. The great thing about "Head First Java" is that the bite-size code snippets and stories allow me to learn something about Java in my 5-10 minutes spare time, one piece a time.

The overall writing style is casual and enlightened. The presentation style (fonts and placements of graphical elements) fits the content very well. The book covers a wide variety of Java topics including: basic code structure and language syntax, OOP concepts, math and numbers, exception handling, the Swing GUI library, serialization, network, and distributed computing.

Of course, the casual style is not for everyone. I know people who love the re-assuring feeling from "serious" books. But I can re-assure you that Kathy and Bert are authoritative figures in the Java training community. The content is absolutely first class. I highly recommend "Head First Java" for both Java beginners and expert readers.

I enjoyed reading Alyce Faye Cleese's book on the mothering relationship. My mother has been dead for many years but the relationship lives on thru memories, thru my relationships with my children and thru other important relationships. The ten steps in the back of the book are especially helpful in dealing with anyone in your life. I bought a copy of this book for each of my children in hopes that it would facilitate better understanding between all of us. The main message of this book to me was mothers are people too and to have an adult to adult relationship with them you must move beyond your child-like view. Great read, hope another book follows this one soon.

If you only buy one book this year - make it How to Manage Your Mother! It is worth every cent! Through the stories of the lives of famous public figures and unknowns alike, the writing of Alyce Faye Cleese and Brian Bates evokes painfully poignant as well as hilariously funny memories of childhood - you will shed tears of nostalgia and of joy. Whether you loved your mother or hated her, this book is for you. For me, it made sense of not only my relationship with my mother, but put my relationship with my own children in perspective too. From it's 'funny mother' stories to it's sheer common sense advice, How to Manage Your Mother will make you see the most significant woman in your life in a very different light. Highly recommended.

While on one level this book, written by globetrotting psychotherapist Alyce Faye Cleese truly is a valuable book for contemplating your own relationship with Mom and for dealing with any unresoved issues with her, it is far more than a how-to.... Written in highly readable narrative, the multiple-faceted How to Manage Your Mother provides intriguing glimpses into the maternal scrapbooks of the world's powerful and famous. Peruse the acknowlegement page. Once you've lowered your eyebrows, start matching celebrity to mother... Some mothers are openly honored while the identity of others has been changed to disguise the cloven-hoofed. The role of the mother-behind-the-person makes a most fascinating study.

This book is a fairly complete overview of planetary mechanics, at least from the standpoint of the Newtonian formulation of the problem, for the authors do not use Lagrangian or Hamiltonian methods. The use of Hamiltonian formulation, via phase space constructions, sheds considerable light on the two-body and the N-body problems, but the reader interested in Hamiltonian mechanics will have to look elsewhere. Also, the authors do not discuss the presence of chaotic dynamics in orbital mechanics, nor are integrability issues discussed. In addition, the current debate over modifications of Newtonian mechanics is not included in the book, due to its time of publication.

But if one wants a practical introduction to Newtonian orbital mechanics that also addresses numerical issues, this would be a good book to begin with. I would recommend the use of a symbolic programming language, such as Mathematica or Maple, to assist in the visualization of the orbits and in the routine computations if one were to use this book as an aid to teaching orbital mechanics. Another good feature of the book is the interjection of historical background and anecdotes at various places in the book. For example, one learns that it was Edmund Halley who was primarily responsible for bringing Newton's discoveries to the world. Newton's work remained idle for twenty years until Halley encouraged Newton to publish his explanation of planetary motion.

The mechanics as outlined in this book is timeless and will continue to be learned by future generations of students as they take up the reigns of human exploration beyond the Moon to the entire solar system.

This work was written by three instructors at the USAF Academy for use as a textbook. It provides an excellent introduction to astrodynamics. A knowledge of calculus and linear algebra is required, but the derivations are quite reasonable. The diagrams are also very good, enabling the reader to visualize complex spatial orientations.

The book's only weakness is its age. Several real-world examples are out-of-date, and the numerical analysis techniques do not reflect the current state-of-the-art.

Nevertheless, this is the best book to start learning astrodynamics, and gives a solid foundation from which to study more advanced texts.

Written in the 1970s for use at the Air Force Academy, this book, though quite old, is still a great reference for those wishing to learn basic astrodynamics. It covers most of the major topics in very good detail, and is suitable for self-study as well as classroom instruction. Its age does not really have a significant impact on the quality of its content.

When I tried following a vegan diet in the summer of 2000 I made extensive use of TVP (texturized vegetable protein). I found TVP to be ideal for making imitation meat products, and this cookbook was an excellent resource for finding ways to use TVP. And some of the TVP foods I found to be better tasting than their meat counter-parts!

Probably the best tasting recipe I made from this book was the "Herbed Loaf." Also excellent was the recipe for "Sloppy Joes." And I made up a large bath of the "Veggie Burgers" and froze most of them for quick sandwiches later.

However, after a few months I found that I wasn't "thriving" on the vegan diet. And one reason I didn't was I would later learn that I was allergic to TVP! Since I was eating TVP almost every day, this had significant health implications.

But it should be noted that I am not allergic to soy in general. And I have since found out that many people have a problem with TVP who don't have a problem with soy otherwise. So there is "something" about the processing method that turns soybeans into soy flour and then into TVP that makes it even more of a potential allergen.

As a result of this problem, I eventually stopped the vegan diet and went back to eating a still a mostly plant-based diet, but with some animal foods. Maybe if I hadn't been eating all of the TVP I would not have had problems with the vegan diet as I do believe that a vegan diet can be healthy. I even have a chapter on "The Benefits of a Vegan Diet" in my book "Creationist Diet."

But all of that said, if you don't have a problem with TVP, then this cookbook would be of great benefit. But I would be careful about eating too much TVP until you're sure it's not a problem for you.

I highly recomend this book to anyone! I love the vegie burger recipe! This book has many good recipes from all different cultures and a helpful source of mail order tvp. Great buy!

This book is really a wonderful beginners cookbook for TVP. I've made many of the recipes in it and they all turn out great. My husband, a dedicated meat eater, LOVES the TVP Sloppy Joeys! He loves sloppy joes with meat, but he likes these even better. There isn't much vegetarian food that anyone will enjoy, whether vegetatarian or not. I can't imagine being a vegetarian without TVP. If you like TVP, you need this book.

For my fellow reviewers who choose to simply pass this play over because of the prevelant violence, I must point out the complex, witty character of Aaron the Moor. Shakespeare either intended for this play to be a parody of Marlowe/Kyd, or he wanted to experiment with a character, Aaron, to evoke every possible feeling from his audience. And, in my humble opinion, Shakespeare succeeded at this. Aaron is, at the same time, evil and cunny, witty and horrifying, and compassionate and stoic. His final lines, as he is buried up to his neck, left to starve, are some of the best confessions ever produced by the bard. It takes a truly cruel and uncaring individual to not feel for Aaron, who gives up his life for his child's, and who hopelessly and blindly loves a cruel witch of a woman. This play is worth reading, or seeing if you should be so lucky, simply to indulge yourself in the character of Aaron the Moor.

On a superficial first reading, 'Titus Andronicus' is lesser Shakespeare - the language is generally simple and direct, with few convoluted similes and a lot of cliches. The plot, as with many contemporary plays, is so gruesome and bloody as to be comic - the hero, a Roman general, before the play has started has lost a wife and 21 sons; he kills another at their funeral, having dismembered and burnt the heroine's son as a 'sacrifice'; after her husband is murdered, his daughter is doubly raped and has her tongue and hands lopped off; Titus sacrifices his own hand to bail out two wrongfully accused sons - it is returned along with their heads. Et cetera. The play concludes with a grisly finale Peter Greenaway might have been proud of. The plot is basically a rehash of Kyd, Marlowe, Seneca and Ovid, although there are some striking stage effects.

Jonathan Bate in his exhaustive introduction almost convinces you of the play's greatness, as he discusses it theoretically, its sexual metaphors, obsessive misogyny, analysis of signs and reading etc. His introduction is exemplary and systematic - interpretation of content and staging; history of performance; origin and soures; textual history. Sometimes, as is often the case with Arden, the annotation is frustratingly pedantic, as you get caught in a web of previous editors' fetishistic analysing of punctuation and grammar. Mostly, though, it facilitates a smooth, enjoyable read.

Now that the film "Titus" is about to open, I thought I had best hear a recorded version of the complete play to keep my mind clear during what is bound to be a perversion. Of course, many consider "Titus Andronicus" a perversion anyway; and to tell the truth, I do get a little queasy during the various mutilations that make the deaths at the end a relief rather than a shock. But accepting the play on its own terms, you will find the reissue on tape of the 1966 Caedmon recording of (CF 277) possibly the best directed of the entire classic series. Howard Sackler has a bunch of professionals on hand and he lets them (with one exception) tear up the scenery. Poor Judy Dench, who has so little to say as Lavinia before the plot makes her say no more, can only make pathetic noises for most of the play until her final death cry. The evil brothers, played here by John Dane and Christopher Guinee, are not only evil but sarcastically so--and this works on a recording as it might not on the stage. Perhaps Maxine Audley's Tamora is a bit too Wicked Witch of the West now and then; but her co-partner in evil, Aron the Moor, is brought to life by Anthony Quayle in a role he made famous on stage, going even further in the outright enjoyment of his ill-doing. Yes, this play can easily raise laughs and takes an Olivier to keep the audience in the tragic mood. (Reports are that he did it so well that some audience members became ill and had to leave.)

Which brings us to Michael Hordern's Titus. Hodern is a fine actor but not a great one. He suffers well but not grandly. I am surprised that his Big Moment--"I am the sea"--is lost among all the other images in that speech. But anyone can direct someone else's play. This recording, soon to be rivaled by one in the Arkangel series, is definitely worth having for Quayle's performance alone.

This isn't the most famous nor the most recommended of ATL books (compared to ATL Internals and Richard Grimes's books), but I recommend it highly. I don't plan to become an ATL or COM expert any time soon, and I quickly found information here that wasn't available (or wasn't as well explained) in other sources.

This book helped me a lot in creating an Automation-compatible enumeration interface that VB can use with its "for each" construct, and testing this interface from C++ (which can be complicated).

It's not a classic (only classics deserve 5 stars), but it's been of sound practical use to me, and that's high praise indeed.

Good balance of explanatory text, diagrams, screen snapshots, and code. Compared to the 3 other ATL books I've read (ATL Internals, both the beginning and professional Wrox books on ATL) this book easier to understand and is suitable for straight reading. The other books are better suited as references. This book will get you up to speed on ATL and COM quickly, and it covers a lot of good topics, including ADO, OLE-DB, NT services & DCOM, connection points, and most of the stuff you would expect from an ATL book.

I have only recently started using COM in my applications, and needed a good book to explain not only COM/DCOM but also ATL. This book is a very good, step-by-step, readable resource that should help any Borland or Visual C++ programmer. I am a Borland C++ Builder user, and the book uses mostly examples and source from Visual C++. The author explains the concepts in such a good way that I have had no trouble at all using the Visual C++ compiler and I was experimenting away in no time. The book also has great DCOM sections, explaining all the nitty gritty and extra features in simple english.

This is a must have for anybody who wants to get into COM/DCOM and ATL rapidly. Great book!

I just LOVE books that let you be proactive and have fun while doing it! I especially love the story of "Diva-rella.!" It's time we women started to lighten up and enjoy taking control of our lives, too. This books gives us great ideas on how to strut our stuff with the best of them. Makes a great gift, too.

I found this book to be a complete delight, a pleasure cruise of helpful hints to guide me through the bumps in the road of life. If you find yourself stopped in life or life just isn't what it used to be, or you just want to have more fun in life, then this book is for you! I AM DIVA!

A FUN, TOUCHING AND INSPIRATIONAL GUIDE TO LIVING LIFE AGAIN WITHOUT THE GUILT. TRULY UNIQUE! (ANYONE WHO IS THINKING OTHERWISE SHOULD REALLY TRY READING THE BOOK)