I read this book to my seven-year-old because I wanted him to gain some appreciation for engineering and history while enjoying a good adventure story. This book could not have been more disappointing, or irritating. In unimaginative, stilted prose that lacks appeal even for the very young, this book manages to vitiate everything about the Panama Canal tale that is worth telling. Astonishingly, the author says nothing about the malaria and yellow fever and accidents that took a devastating toll (5,600) on a 70,000 man workforce. Instead we are treated to the happy spectacle of workers cheering and clapping for Goethals. The story also stresses Goethals regret at never having had a chance to fight in battle. A great message for seven years olds! (It left me musing that if he had joined his men in the trenches he could have at least "died for his country, or commercial shipping").

Most unaccountably, the book has dialogue like this: "I know now what wives are for! They are to help husbands feel important" And if that wasn't good enough, the author sees fit to repeat it again toward the end. The Discovery Biography series makes a big fuss about its editor, Dr. Mary C Austin, touted as an "outstanding reading educational specialist". Unless she proposes to turn elementary school children into ultra-right wing dullards, I can only imagine that she never actually laid eyes on this text.

I certainly wish I hadn't.

For a really exciting read, try A World Explorer:Henry Morton Stanley, written back in 1965 by Charles Graves

This book is for teenagers, it is presented in a very younguish context with illustration and large print. Amazon should actually classified as a children, teenagers reading material. Actually teenagers do not read this type of books anymore, I used to read them in the 70's. Very dissapointing considering I am a serious reader looking for info on a more detailed and technical manner.

I completely agree with the reader from NJ. I can't imagine it took 10 or was that 20 Oracle experts to come up with this garbage.

Don't confuse this with another book with a similar name, "Oracle Unleashed" (Note: the word server doesn't appearin the title), that book is a lot better than this one.

Imagine writing all the possible Oracle topics you could write about, throwing them into a hat, then reaching in and grabbing a random handful. Then very briefly touch upon the topics you chose, occasionally going into just enough detail to pique your interest, but not enough to provide you with any useful information. It amazes me that a book of over 800 pages can say so little. I'd love to know who this book was targeted at. If you just want an overview of Oracle, there are much better (and shorter) books out there. If you want any detail, you won't find it here.

The less-than-favorable front cover of "The Cure" by Jo Anne Greene should warn potential readers of the nonsense within.

This sorry excuse for an informative bio about the music group, The Cure, contains so many borrowings from other sources that the "author" would have done Cure fans more of a service if she had just listed all of them and been done with it.

Even worse, the book is so full of misinformation, I find it very difficult to believe Greene paid much attention to anything she ever read or saw about The Cure or its mastermind, Robert Smith.

I was hoping for much better, since most of the other published works about The Cure that I have read were at least acceptable. Even the collaboration she undertook with Dave Thompson for "The Cure: A Visual Documentary" was better than Greene's solitary attempt, though it is far from stellar. It seems that it takes the both of them to produce anything even remotely worthwhile. Neither can do it alone; Thompson's "The Making of the Cure's Disintegration" is cute in its false jewel case, but again, a bibliography listing would have sufficed instead of the constant rehash of information any real Cure fan who has the ultimate book "Ten Imaginary Years" already knows.

Ultimately, this book is a must-have ONLY if hearing or seeing the words "The Cure" or "Robert Smith" cause you to whip out your credit card and complete the transaction before your senses kick in.

I, however, have a valid excuse for owning this book... I didn't have a review to base my decision on, but now you do ...so, you don't.

What is this story about? What reading level? How long? What genre? C-mon, we need answers

Boring -- Don't waste your money folks! I thought I was going to read some great things in critical pedagogy! The title should have been "...and unfocused rantings." She tries to make these "words" or "phrases of wisdom" and all they are is nonsense. They are so high falutin' I didn't get it and this is my favorite subject!!! or were they just stupid rantings. I can not express how terribly dissapointed I was. I'll never pick up another book by her. One star is the lowest I could go, if there was a 0 rating I would have used that!

The title implies a book about the details of the Battle of Midway in June 1942; however, virtually 2/3 of the book covers the naval campaigns prior to Midway, e.g. Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, British Navy in Indian Ocean. A disappointing amount of space is devoted to interesting details about the battle. One photo shows the Japanese carrier Soryu being bombed by B-17's from Midway yet the caption states the carrier is the Zuikaku at Coral Sea! Lt. Clarence Dickinson is repeatedly referred to as "Clarence Dickerson"; The Orders of Battle are comprehensive and useful. Overall, this "Campaign" series of books about battles usually provide previously unknown details about the subject battle, and clarifying diagrams about what happened; but this particular book has no such content or format. It was listed as available through the U. S. Naval Institute from an independent supplier; but someone needed to review this book before recommending it. To most naval historians, this book will probably appear to be inaccurate and superficial--which is not what a good history book effort should be!

This book is about 110 pages and almost 40 percent of it is filled with maps, and the author seems to repeat the same thing over and over, it is a very poorly written book with very little information. I have a computer related degree and i had a hard time understanding what he was trying to say, i wonder how one with no computer background would feel like. Anyways my recomendation, DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY AND TIME

This book did not inspire me to better myself in my artwork as the artwork contained within is horrid with the exception of about 3 peices not done by the author. The content has little you can not find explained better in the manuals or any other book for that matter. The tutorials I didn't even want to participate in because the end result was not even something I would want to even show my cat... In short, if you know absolutly nothing about photoshop and you have the money to burn.. feel free. However if you have any basic knowledge of photoshop (any version) feel free to pass on by and purchase something else! (GAH!.. how could Mesmer publish this? it says for games and movies yet he doesn't seem to have worked on any movies and the few games he has worked on I've never heard of. That should have been their first clue..)

doesn't excuse poor scholarship. Slavery is a tricky topic to teach and discuss today in the United States because of national history, current racism, and the ideal of personal freedoms. However, it is an institution that has lasted for hundreds of years and it needs to be taught. I want to applaude the Watts Library for tackling such a book but frankly they needed a better scholar. Greene's writing is well done and the images are great. But the sources she relied upon are horrible and out-dated. Her concluding sentence at the end of the "notes on sources" section should clarify to anyone who knows anything about slavery in the Roman world: "Just as in the Roman empire, it took a civil war, and many lost lives, before slavery finally ended." First problem: don't compare United States slavery with ancient slavery, they are not the same. Second, there is no civil war that ends slavery in the Roman world, it dies out overtime and that time extends into the Middle Ages. As an ancient historian who studies slavery and values education at all levels I am extremely disappointed by this book.

Sleeping Beauty was a huge disappointment. I expected something similar to Stephen King (or at least Robin Cook) and got nothing even close. TV anchorwoman Nancy Seymour is diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease. Fortunately for her, her husband is a doctor who works for a chemical company experimenting with cryonics. He and his boss convince Nancy that allowing herself to be frozen until the company can find a cure is her only hope for survival. When she awakes she finds that she is the most famous person on earth, and also one of the most troubled. She's lost her job, is tormented by nightmares and mood swings, and can't stand the touch of another human - even the man she loves. All of which had me waiting to find out what sinister and evil things had been done to her while she was frozen in the cryonic tank. When the truth is finally revealed it's anti-climatic and disappointing to say the least. In addition, there is so little time spent on any kind of character development that it's difficult to feel much sympathy for the victim or even to really dislike the bad-guys. You just don't feel like you know them well enough. Avoid this one.