The author humorously and accurately portrays some of the personalities of modern Muscovites, both foreign and local. Many major categories are covered: the artist, the potential emigre, the emigre who has returned, the indebted businessman, the mafia thug, the hard-as-nails old woman who's survived so much, the heavy-drinking, English-teaching foreigner, and more. They're all a very odd bunch, but he somehow makes them believable, and likeable.

Everyone will enjoy the novel, but a small amount of Russian--at least the alphabet--and some time in Moscow itself will be needed in order to more fully understand all of the inside jokes.

Highly recommended. This foreign resident of Moscow will lend it enthusiastically to others in order to give them a better idea of what it's like here.

The brightest novel in the modern bilingual world. You can't just simply write such a book - easy, without suffering.

Author survived a culture shock. He met irrational Russian mentality face to face during the worst time of the modern Russian history. And he was able to understand things, which not each Russian understands.

I think this book is a masterpiece of the new culture, culture of multilingual people, citizens of the World - the powerful fusion of American, European and Asian cultures.

Author was an eye-witness of dramatic changes - the downfall of empire and the birth of a new country. And he shares his thrilling experience not only as a spectator, but also, as a participant. Could you imagine modern Marco Polo or Gulliver or even Indiana Jones? That's it! And also - unique alloy of Anglo-American and Russian humor.

It is easy to read but it is not easy reading. It is funny but it is not senseless. It has many layers and attentive reader could discover them without end.

Definitely, Anthony Perry has a great gift. He can talk to readers with optimistic smile and love, even when he talks about sad things. (Oh, those incorrigible Americans, they always SMILE!) And he can see amazing grace of life even when the life itself is cruel and unfair.

You can't just easy read this book. You gonna love it!

As an experienced C programmer I found this a useful introduction to VHDL but was worried by a number of obvious typos and missing/mislabelled diagrams - if I can catch the easy ones (starting with the cover and chapter 1!) with no knowledge of the subject what are the important ones I didn't get? At the very least the publishers need to put up an errata site unless there is one I couldn't find.

It is a very nice intro book on VHDL. And did a good job demonstrating VHDL on a simple CPU design.

A note to computer programmers:
Despite what most people thinks, VHDL is NOT a programming language. No more is Verilog HDL a programming language, and Verilog is somewhat like C. So don't read this book in the mindset of a computer science/software engineer view point.

Other than that, this is a great book for undergraduate computer engineers who have little or no background in VHDL.

When I meet someone who has shown a strong interest in sailing in the International Dragon class and is looking for some way to impove their understanding of all aspects of what makes one of these boats go quickly this is the one that I recommend. It is covers tactics, rules, boat and crew preparation, sail and rig setup. The one aspect that is not included is team and match racing. A great book for the advanced to intermediate competior.

This is a great book and I recommend it to everybody that isinterested in racing sailboats. Dave Perry has competed at the highest levels of the sport, and this collection of anecdotes underscores his experiences. Compared to Stuart Walker's muddled and confusing writing, Dave Perry's examples and experiences are valuable and clear, and I am also encouraged by the fact that all of the situations are in one design sailboats...

Caliban Cove is the first original novel based on the survival horror storyline from the popular Resident Evil games. Author S.D. Perry deserves kudos for delivering the expected goods and keeping them fresh, threatening, and interesting. The story picks up shortly after the events at the Spencer Mansion have concluded and the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members disgraced by the slimy tentacles of the Umbrella Corporation. Adding insult to injury is the discovery that their own organization is a part of the monstrous conspiracy. Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. team member Rebecca Chambers joins up with a Maine based branch that is intent on digging up evidence of Umbrella's misdeeds at the company's Caliban Cove facility. What the team does not know is that the unstable scientist in charge of the research there has become completely detached from reality, creating an army of zombies and monsters and a plan to infect the world with a stronger, airborne variant of the T-Virus.

The pace of the book is every bit as quick as The Umbrella Conspiracy, but it reads far better. More like a story than a playing out of a video game's puzzles and obstacles in narrative form. Perry shows she has both a solid grip on the ideas and concepts that drive the games as well as a talent for expanding those into an entirely new story without loosing touch with what makes the universe of the Resident Evil games so addictive for its numerous fans. Highly recommended.

I was a little disapointed with S.D. Perry's first Resident Evil book, "The Umbrella Conspiracy", so I was somewhat apprehensive about her follow up. However, "Caliban Cove" is a much stronger story, however much it deviates from the game series.

In "Caliban Cove", Perry has focused on one of the background cast from the first game, the rookie field medic Rebecca Chambers, and has fleshed her out very nicly.

In keeping with the series that these books are based on, "Caliban Cove" has more of the same from the first book- Mad scientists, evil corporate cover ups, zombies and other monsters. While the pace of the plot seems overly calm, the envoirnments seem vivad and convincing. This story sounds like the kind of place a video gamer would like to spend some time.

Overall, Perry seems to have learnt much since her first Resident Evil book, and I'm looking forward to her next venture into the world of survival horror!

This book was as great as the first,and had the same feel!I'm not sure how to explain,but the zombies having guns didn't ruin anything,as some have thought..Also,I like how S.D. kept the puzzle tradition,and making her own was quite clever,and especially the role they played in the story,which was a trademark of the Resident Evil Plot (Go through several small puzzles,just to solve one big puzzle overall).It was sadly realistic,with the deaths of Karen and Steve,going only to show that S.D. isn't one to sacrifice realism for a completely happy ending.It was just wonderful.I look foward to reading the next two,which I have recently ordered...This is definitely one to have if you liked the first!

The novel, based on the life of the French painter Paul Gauguin, is a very absorbing and easy read. Maugham's style has such fluidity that you can read the entire book with great interest in a single day. The main character, Charles Strickland, gives up a comfortable life of a financier to pursue his passsion for painting. Strickland is a man possessed, who is willing to sacrifice his well being and that of his family to fulfill the call of his inner voice to paint his vision of the world.

I like the novel and highly recommend it, but I do have a few criticisms. First, Strickland is portrayed as too inhuman, which makes the character unrealistic. Many artists are driven and single-minded, but Maugham is so concerned in making his Strickland appear a hard and uncompromising creator that he makes him crude. Strickland is taciturn, though he occasionally spouts Nietzshean phrases and tries to project Nietzschean haughty indifference to everything except his art. Not surprisingly, Strickland is condescending toward women and does not hesitate to let us know about it in his rare but obnoxious commentary. If the real Gauguin, or any artitst of significance, were as incensitive as Strickland, he would not be able to feel and to paint what he did. And this, in a nutshell, is the problem with Maugham's novel. He started from a stereotype and ended with the main character who was not particularly compelling.

Obviously the book tells a story based on the life of the famous painter Paul Gauguin but it is also a projection of Maugham's thoughts and desires. In fact his main character, Charles Strickland, is exactly like Maugham would like to be because he sacrifies everyone and everything just to follow his inner vision, which is to paint. He doesn't care about society he doesn't care about material things, he just lives for ideas and is indifferent to everything else. That's according to some philosophers, the true and only way to be an artist and I think that it is also Maugham's opinion about it. Therefore he created a figure who is nothing but his ideal picture of himself, as he did not have the courage and the force to live it in reality, probably due to his constant fear of losing all social relations. It's a really good book which could give you, the reader, the force to realize yourself and to do only what you really like and give up everything else to reach your aim.

"To recognize it (Beauty) you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination." And so the narrator's friend passes along a bit of wisdom early in this magnificent book. Of course, the narrator does not understand and must, on his own, develop knowledge, sensitivity and imagination around the life of the fictionalized-Paul Gauguin, Charles Strickland.

The narration is cunning and subtle throughout. The narrator begins as a young novitiate of life, sides with convention, utters a few misogynistic statements (which are good for a laugh/is this how women were viewed by some in the early 1900's?) and, oh so slowly, develops into a person of sensitivity and imagination. The transformation is subtle and quiet, ending with a physical return to the place where it all started. Those characters, who he had originally thought so highly of, are still the same, mean and opportunistic. He sees their stasis and reflects on the greatness of the man that he himself once thought mean.

With each new Maugham book I read, I gain a deeper appreciation for the wonder of his writing. The story is effortless and at the same time loaded with significant themes that give me pause for consideration.

Most of Anne Perry's works dwell on the darker aspects of human nature, notably various sexual perversions hidden under the veneer of upper-class and middle-class Victorian society. Some of her recent works especially in the Inspector Monk series have also dwelt upon the status of Victorian women of good families, notably the tremendous barriers imposed to them professionally in medicine. More recently, her books have touched more explicitly upon political issues of the day.

This is a slightly unusual Inspector Monk book, in that there is no sexual perversion hidden as the motive for a murder. I shouldn't give away too much of the plot for those who have not read this book. The story is about the fragility of reputation, the impossibly limited choices available to young women in that society, and the ways in which friendships can be misconstrued.

One of the most effective scenes for me was where Sir Oliver Rathbone (the defense lawyer) is neatly boxed in by a match-making mother, and the way in which he understands and reads the minds of the women around him. This is one of the reasons I have kept this particular book, above all the others.

The story-line is at least initially not as dark as the typical Anne Perry (warning: her works are not for the squeamish), with the first half of the book being about a trial for breach of promise brought against one of the most brilliant young architects who refuses to marry a young woman. Why he refuses to marry her is not made clear until the middle of the story, and it certainly comes as a shock to all concerned. The second half of the book is much darker, in that the murder is driven by the personal greeds of one of the principal characters in the trial. This person's crimes are only revealed right at the end, so in that respect, the book is an amazing cliff-hanger. We don't know if this person was guilty until the very end of the last murder.

I have to admit to some problems with this work. Firstly, the motive for the architect's murder is not made clear. One of the problems is that we never get into the mind of his murderer, and that person's past is reconstructed by Monk. From that point of view, this book is not that successful. In the past, I have fully understood why person X murdered person Y (or several persons). In this particular instance, the murder seemed to make no sense. Secondly, I find it hard to believe that while men would be taken in by a cross-dresser, that women would also be unable to identify a cross-dresser. I won't go into more details, but I am surprised that more suspicions were not raised early on.

Although the book is one of Perry's best, I have to also admit that her work is extremely dark. I began reading her in a very dark period in my life. Today, I find the earlier works very good but they are also deeply disturbing. Also in murder stories, I prefer a variety of motives when murder is committed, ranging from psychopathic casualness (chilling in of itself) to blind rage to greed or perversion. While Perry has been widening the range of motives for murder in her novels, most of her murders are committed for sexual (and the odd political) reasons. Reading a whole string of Perrys in a row can therefore be quite depressing and even yawn-producing [with the same narrow range of motives trotted out]. From that perspective, she has moved from being an auto-buy to a "wait-and-see". Perhaps, the surprise element in every series, even a great one, wears out sooner or later, and this has happened with the two brilliant series created by Perry. I still think she has a lot of talent in her; it is just that I no longer resonate with most of her stories.

Anne Perry has done it again! "A Breach of Promise" is the best yet in the William Monk/Hester Latterly/Oliver Rathbone series, and Perry succeeds brilliantly in portraying the fog-bound hypocrisy of Victorian England. The atmosphere of cold, foggy and drizzly Victorian London can be almost be felt and the attitudes and behaviour of the English aristocracy of the time are harshly, yet compassionately, portrayed. And if that is a contradiction in terms, read the book to find out why.

The plot itself is well thought-out although the denouement fell curiously flat, almost as though Perry ran out of stamina. And the relationship between William Monk and Hester Latterly is growing by leaps and bounds - I look forward to see how Perry will develop this theme in her subsequent books. I feel that Monk and Latterly are a more hard-edged couple than Perry's other creation of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt - although both William Monk and Thomas Pitt are examples of people from outside the charmed social circles who carry considerable loads of cynicism and angst.

So far, I think this is her best yet. It's plot centers on, as the title suggests, a breach of promise suit. Killian Meville, posibly the most brilliant architect of his time, has broken off a marriage with Zillah Lambert, a girl that nobody can find anything wrong with- Melville say he simply can't marry her. Sir Oliver Rathbone agrees to defend Melville. He hires William Monk to investigate. Assisted by nurse Hester Latterly, their investigation is cut short by a shocking murder- or suicide. It reveals a shocking fact about Melville that almost no one knew and opens up a whole new problem. I'm not telling any secrets, but to all Anne Perry addicts, there is a major event in the end of the book.

If you are picking up a Lincoln Rhyme novel for the first time; rest assured you are in very good hands. Jeffrey deaver has developed his character extrememly well over the three books and though some people crib about the ploy of using a quadraplegic detective; trust me, it works and how ! . In the Empty Chair; Rhyme is not only a fish out of water(out of his familar NY surroundings) but he also has to grapple with trying to convince Amelia sachs that he has to undergo a complicated operation which could leave him worse off but which could also give him some additional mobility if things go well but before that he has the local Police department asking for his help in locating 2 kidnapped girls and from here on, you are in classic Deaver territory; he piles on the chills and the thrills without ever sacrificing the characters in favour of the plot, the ending is a virtuouso tour de force and it was virtually impossible to second guess the outcome of the book. Garnett's obsession with Insects was a great touch and though like one reviewer mentioned ; it is a little reminescent of Silence of the Lambs; Deaver has managed to make that detail fit perfectly into place in the context of the book. I am not going to divulge the further twists and turns but believe me; if you start reading this book in the evening; you can be sure that you are going to have a late night trying to finish it. I would have given this book a perfect rating except for the fact that towards the end; great though it undeniably was, I could not help overcome the feeling that it was written to be made into a movie, it read too much like a screenplay. Don't let that stop you though, read it, it is one terrific ride and you are going to have a good time, Guranteed !

If I haven't read Bone Collector or Coffin Dancer, I may give this a 5-star rating. This book maintains all the elements or a good fast thriller - distinguishable characters, tight plot, unexpected twisted, that will keep you to flip the book like crazy. But this one lacks the tightly woven complicated plot as in Bone Collector, or the much further character development (for Lincoln and Amelia I am refering to) as in Coffin Dancer.
Some reviewers argued that in the beginning, you have already known who the killer was. But if you are a veteran Deavers fan, you should know that Mr. Deaver will keep giving you surprises in his books. In fact, I think because I have become used to expect the unexpected, so that soft some of the excitement in reading his books lately. But there is seldom any author nowadays that can create such tension as Mr. Deaver does, so I still recommend this as to all thriller lovers.

Jeffery Deaver has done it again. If you're looking for a suspensful novel, filled with intrigue, twists and turns, you've found it.

"The Empty Chair" is a gripping story that takes you to Smalltown USA. Lincoln Rhyme is asked to look into a case of a local teen in a nearby town that has committed murder and also kidnapped two young women.

The story seems clear-cut. You've got the good guys and the bad guys. The Prime Suspect is really the culprit, the antagonist in the story, and all Lincoln has to do is find him before he murders the girls.

However, all is not what it seems. The book doesn't reveal everything about each character at once. It does this in layers. By the time you think you have it all figured out, Deaver removes another layer that undermines your confidence in anticipating what happens next, who the real bad guy is, and how it will end.

"The Empty Chair" is filled with suspense, intrigue and its riveting story will keep you guessing through the end.

The legend goes that when Abraham Lincoln met Harriett Beecher Stowe, he said to her, "So you're the little lady who started this great big war." The impact of this book cannot be overstated. By showing the kind and compassionate slaveholding families, as well as the horrors inflicted upon Uncle Tom by Simon Legree, Stowe illustrates that the institution, by its very nature, can never be kind or compassionate despite the actions of the individual slaveholders.
The book begins as Uncle Tom is sold to a slave trader. Though Mr. Shelby, his master, hates to sell him because he has been loyal and Christian, he recognizes that he has no choice based on large debts he has accumulated. Simultaneously, Mr. Shelby decides to sell a three-year-old boy, Harry. Learning this, Harry's mother, Eliza, escapes with this boy and heads north for Canada. Stowe continues to outline the diverging fates of Eliza and Tom throughout the novel.
Tom is sold to a kind family with a nearly divine daughter, named, aptly, Evangeline, who convinces her father to free his slaves. Before this can happen, her father is killed and Tom is sold to the brutal Simon Legree.
Stowe has been criticized for her racism, which does come through in her storytelling. She often refers to the steadfast faith common to people of African decent and makes other sweeping generalities. However, this story cannot be taken out of context and one cannot disregard the era during which it was written. Stowe was heroic to depict the gamut of possible treatments of slaves, and portray slavery as nearly equally cruel no matter how kind the master. The fact remains that no matter how kind an individual slave holder was, slaves were still subjected to having their families ripped apart when dictated by economic need or by death of their masters. By not depicting all masters as ogres, Stowe's abolitionist message rings more truthfully and convincingly. Lest we ever forget just what it meant to own another person, in all its various vestiges, every high school student in America should be required to read this novel.

This work of art evoked every emotion I have in me. From sympathy, to ire, to joy. This opened my naive eyes to what evils humans are capable of, but at the same time proved to me what spiritual and god-like creatures we have the potential to be. The plot follows several lives, all affected by slavery. The hero of the story is a simple minded Uncle Tom who sticks to his righteous christian ways through all the adversity he encounters as a slave. The symbolism and satire in this book make it all the more interesting and meaningful. I am only sorry I don't know more about the politics and characters at the time because Stowe makes reference to incidences in her time period. Stowe's views on the issue of slavery are excellently expressed. She doesn't come off as preaching, or arguing, merely objectively stating the facts.(Yeah right) By using sarcasm, satire, symbolism, and religious teachings, she kept the book interesting and to the point. Every word she wrote further supports her beliefs. In the end the overall mood gets a bit gloomy, but the finale is magnificent.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is about the evils of slavery from many different sides of the issue. The main character (Uncle Tom) is a good, always obedient, Christian slave that's master has to sell to pay off a debt. He has several masters, one very kind, one just normal, and one very brutal. It reallly shows how horrible slavery was. After reading it, it became obvious to me why there was a war to put an end to this terrible atrocity. Uncle Tom shows us how it is possible to do the right thing, face horrible punishments (being beaten almost to death), and still love everyone, including his evil master which he also forgave. It was one of the most memorable books I have read. I recommend it to everyone and I think it should be required reading for all schools. I think this book definitely deserves five out of five stars.

This book is long on the classical Unix-of-yore (awk, sed, five different shells) but short on really useful 'hard' Linux stuff. Many configuration commands, networking, etc are missing. There's a big overlap with my five-year-old Unix V reference, also published by O'Reilly.

Similarly, I think the large Perl section is misplaced in a Linux reference book. If you need this level of detail, you get one of the camel books.

Also, the index leaves something to be desired -- and that's a big minus for a pure reference book like this. Indeed, as some other reviewers have noted, once you know which command to use, man pages will in many cases be just as convenient.

This is the best comprehensive first-line reference I've seen for Linux to date. It's most emphatically not a tutorial or a book on system administration, but when I want to know how _that_ command works, or what _this_ flag does, it's the book I pick up first. Its examples are quite good, and it's well organized.

First off, this book is NOT for absolute beginners. It is not a book meant for someone who has zero experience with Linux. But, as a desktop reference for those who know how to use Linux, it is an excellent and handy book. It helps by saving time scanning through man pages for commands and GNU tools. The information on Emacs, vi and shell syntax for bash, csh and tcsh shells is extremely helpful.

This classic of the english literature, written by Kate Chopin, is a revolutionary novel for the time she had to live. It was bad seen and was forbiden for more than 50 years. The idea that a woman, a married woman, would laeve her husband and her children, to live with another man,wasnt allowed in her society. Im not saying that nowdays such a thing is allowed, but in those earlies days, this thing wasnt even thought, thats why this book can not have a happy end for Edna, because in no way her dream would have been come true. Personally Y think Robert loved Edna vey much, but he knew, he never could have been with the woman he loved. Her friend Madmoisselle Reisz, told her she needed to be strong to face her feelings and let Robert by side, because he finally would destroy her life. At the end that was what finally happened, Ednas complete life turned around Robert until that point, in the absence of her husband, she left home with the only purpuse of beeing alone until Roberts return. Y think that she was so in love, that she was forced to sink in the sea. Personally I found it an excellent book and it could bea very good advice for further generations.

Can you imagine the impact this book must have had when it was first published in 1899? So scandalous! And it still has the power to make its readers eyes grow wide.

My only complaints are that the ending was unrealistic. (Of course, it fit the BOOK completely---it just wasn't practical.) I also think the portrayal of Edna as a nonchalant mother (as opposed to a nurturing mother) was unfair. Chopin wanted readers to view Edna as a victim, and when Edna turned around and neglected her own children...that didn't help our sympathy for her. ...Yet surely we readers realized this was a woman who was too oppressed and stifled to know what to do with herself.

Anyway, before I forget, a word of caution: HAVE A DICTIONARY NEARBY!! WHOA! Chopin was obviously VERY intelligent, along with being ahead of her time. Vocab. word after vocab. word, I tell ya.

Overall, the reader feels pity for practically every character. But it's not such a melancholy atmosphere that would make one want to stop reading it; it's merely proof that Chopin can weave a web of believable characters struggling with believable circumstances.

I would voice one more disappointment, though, if it wouldn't serve as a spoiler. ...Um, I think I was hoping that Edna would betray her husband a little more than she did...succumb to temptation a bit more...because I was rooting for her! I was sympathizing with her, and I thought she should get what she has longed for. But no such luck. Her conscience probably prevented something from going too far. Rats.

This is a sophisticated read laced with French phrases and lengthy paragraphs, but worth your while.

Though at one time I, too, would have rated "The Awakening" one of the worst reads of a lifetime--for its predictability in the context of a woman oppressed by Victorian society, and the most undeveloped, unsympathetic heroine for whom I was unable to muster the slightest emotional investment--a nagging, relentless undercurrent of something I couldn't quite identify festered long inside me regarding this novel until the story, and author, were at last redeemed upon my third reading, in a literature course that finally ended this internal struggle.

Having much faith in Kate Chopin as a writer, I never felt 'the awakening' was about sex. This was too easy, even for a book set in Victorian Society. Further, it occurred to me that although women were limited beyond the domestic sphere in this era, suicide was not particular to the phenomenology of Victorian women (as it was, say, to Wall Street brokers at the onset of the Great Depression).

"The Awakening," in title and content, is irony. Edna Pontellier's awakening is about who she perceives herself to be, and who she actually is. She dreams of passion and romance and embarks on a summer affair, yet she married Leonce simply to spite her parents, who don't like him. She moves out of the family home to live on her own--with the permission, and resources, of Leonce--hardly independent. She claims to crave intimacy, yet she fails horribly at every intimate relationship in her life: she is detached with her children, indifferent to her husband, leery of her artist friend, and can hardly stand another minute at the bedside of her warm, maternal friend, Mrs. Ratignolle, to assist her in childbirth. (Ratignolle was my favorite character of all, read after read, simply because she was so content with herself.)

The Awakening? The surprise is on Edna, who is not the person she imagines herself to be. The irony? Edna Pontellier is never awakened to this, even at the bitter end. Feminists have adopted this book as their siren song...embarrassing at least! A feminist reading would, predictably, indict Victorian society as oppressive to women. Yawn...So that's new?!! Tell us something we don't know! I can tell you that concept wouldn't be enough to keep a book around for a hundred years.

But the concept that has sustained this novel over a century's time is its irony. And it is superbly subtle. I believe Chopin deliberately set up Victorian society as her backdrop to cleverly mask this irony...'the awakening' is not something good (a daring sexual awakening in a dark era for women): it is something horrible that evolves and is apparent to everyone except the person experiencing it. This reading makes Edna's character worth hating! Chopin herself hated Edna Pontellier and called her a liar through her imagined conversation with her artist friend at the end of the novel.

Chopin also cleverly tips the scales in Edna's favor in the first half of the novel, but a careful read reveals those scales weighed against her in the second half. I give the novel 5 stars because it took me three readings and help from a PhD lit professor to figure out this book. And I'm proud to say that I am, at last, awakened.