Kimberly Ripley did a wonderful job in "Lily's Gift." I found myself getting involved in Lily's life. The sadness of having no father image in her life with an indifferent mother caused her to need her"Gram" even more. I was caught up in Lily's life, especially the teaching from her"Gram." I was sorry to have the book end! Am looking forward to the next edition. Datha Beck Darby

What a heartwarming tale of Lily and her beloved grandmother. A look back into my own childhood couldn't have been more poignant. In today's literature with "perfect" families, Lily's Gift portrays one that's not so perfect, but far more real. Lily lives with a cold and distant mother. Once her grandmother---and truest friend---passes away, eleven-year old Lily Randall is forced to confront some of life's harsh realities on her own. She succeeds, with the help of her friend Gil, and the precious memories of her grandmother.

This is a tale meant for young adults---probably ages 10-12, but as an adult in my 30's---I treasured this tale!

I am an experienced S-Plus user. I found the 4th ed. of the popular book very helpful (and practical). The authors added many libraries to the packaged S-Plus, which is very generous. I would give it a five-star ranking, but I found the various comments on R really disturbing (I suspect most practioners use S-Plus instead of R). Maybe the authors should put everything related to R into separated boxes (or in a separate chapter). Overall, it's a great book and I would like to recommend it to anyone interested in computational statistics. Note: Basic knowledge of S and some advanced training statistics are assumed. Good for graduate students in statistics/finance, or experienced statisticians/financial engineers. For those without sufficient training in statistics, try the S-Plus Guide to Statistics I & II first.

A worthy update. The authors are matter-of-fact and straightforward. I appreciate their terse style, the broad coverage, and the many examples. It's also good that they're starting to split programming material off into its own monograph (S Programming), making this book all the more appropriate for learning, although not quite beginning, statisticians. Their considerable contribution in software is also very much appreciated.

I do not agree at all with the reviewer who chided them for including R; I say so much the better for it. I very much hope that they will continue to do so.

This was a very enjoyable history book, and certainly one of the best books I have every read on Florida history. Though it is filled with facts and dates, it is also full of stories that make colonial St. Augustine come alive. It was also helpful that each chapter is a little story of it's own which relates to the whole book, but can be read separately. Best of all, the Spanish Inquisition makes an appearance, and nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I picked up the book and thumbed through it and became so interested I ordered a copy. It is both scholarly and entertaining. A very worthwhile volume about a fascinating part of American history.

Amazing story about a man who survives/thrives in the rugged conditions of Idaho's central mountains. Unfortunately, once reintroduced into society he is unable to live by rules which he shed himself of a decade prior. Although the book is fascinating it leaves many unanswered questions about who the central character was and where he was from. Maybe it is better that way though as he becomes a myth or legend rather than just another eccentric individual.

A must read for anyone familar with the North Central Idaho Mountain Country (Lewiston, Orofino, Pierce, Headquarters, Elk River). A well written biography about a incredible man who lived his life alone in the mountains of Idaho. A good reminder of the tough life people faced in the early part of the 1900's. If only the book would have been longer, it ended too quickly.

Charleston is yet another one of Alexandra Ripley's historical fiction novels. The book begins during the middle of the Civil War and continues on towards 1898. The story surrounds on the Charlestonians, all whom are related to each other somehow or the other. The Tradds, the family that it is focused on, is made up of Mary Tradd, a brainless beauty as the mother; Pinckney Tradd, the new head of the family since the father died during the war, he's worried about how he can bring money in for the family; Stuart Tradd, a young boy not even in his teens during the war, but decides that he's going to defeat the Yankees no matter what; and Lizzie Tradd, the youngest, who isn't quite like any other girl after the war.
This book describes the lives of the Tradd family, and the struggles of their attempts to earn enough the support the family. The animosity towards the Yankees and other "New People" are expressed with the Charlestonian's way of "politing them to death."
Although the book doesn't carry you to the main character, Lizzie Tradd, until you are well into the book, it is still interesting to read about Pinckney, Aunt Julia, and other extraordinary characters.
I greatly admired Charleston's old traditions, like the Saint Cecelia Ball, and the old custom of ringing Saint Michael's Bells every hour. After reading this book, you won't be left with any doubt that Charleston is a very quaint, original, and alluring city.

Boy, was this book ever hard to track down! Seems that most people who read it want to keep it for their own collection - and I just became one of them! Besides the fact that Ripley is one of my favorite authors, Charleston is one of my favorite cities, and historical fiction is my favorite genre of literature, this book caught my attention from the first page and kept it all the way until the last.
This heartwarming, often heartbreaking novel reveals the triumphs and tragedies that were 19th century southern America. From sending young men off to fight their brothers,to facing the adversity of Reconstruction, to the struggle between between races and classes, Ripley absolutely captures the latter part of a tumultuous century.
Leading us on this journey is the novel's heroine, Elizabeth Tradd, raised in wealth and finery until the Civil War leaves her family bordering on poverty. "Lizzie", despite the set-backs, however, manages to use her tenacious spirit and her magnetic charm to establish a life for herself while all the while striving to mend the lives of her family and friends.
Lizzie is truly an inspirational character that I grew to love, laugh, and cry for. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys strong characters, fine writing, and an adoration for all things beautiful.

As an avid lover of historical and romantic fiction this book is one of the best that I have ever read! If you liked gone with the wind or scarlett you will love this book. The characters are origional and inspiring. After reading this book I want to visit charleston. Also read the sequel on leaving charleston because it is wonderful also.

After sitting down several times and attempting to learn something from Ripley's Pattern Recognition book I am frustrated each time. I wish Ripley could be a better author. From his writings you can see he knows a lot about Neural Networks, but cannot relate it to the reader. The text is VERY heavy in mathematical formulas (about 1/3 page of pure math per page). Another third of the book are references to other papers (There are 35 pages of references. Ripley cites about 1000 different papers.). That doesn't leave a lot left over for the reader. I suggest this book only for those already familiar enough with Neural Nets to have their papers cited by Ripley.

One thing did surprise me. There is one page with color! Describing clustering (I think). I almost died laughing. Showed it to other stat friends familiar with Ripley and we chuckled.

If you want a nice up-to-date treatment on neural networks and statistical pattern recognition with lots of nice pictures and an elementary treatment, I recommend the new edition of Duda and Hart. However, neural networks were basically started by the computer-science / artificial intelligence community using analogies to the human nervous system and the perceived connections to the human thought processes. These connections and arguments are weak.

However, a statistical theory of nonlinear classification algorithms shows that these methods have nice properties and have mathematical justification. The statistical pattern recognition research is well over 30 years old and is very well established. So these connections are important for putting neural networks on firm ground and providing greater acceptability from the statistical as well as the engineering community.

Ripley provides a theoretical threatment of the state-of-the-art in statistical pattern recognition. His treatment is thorough, covering all the important developments. He provides a large bibliography and a nice glossary of terms in the back of the book.

Recent papers on neural networks and data mining are often quick to generate results but not very good at providing useful validation techniques that show that perceived performance is not just an artifact of overfitting a model. This is an area where statisticians play a very important role, as they are keenly aware through their experience with regression modeling and prediction, of the crucial need for cross-validation. Ripley covers this quite clearly in Section 2.6 titled "How complex a model do we need?"

It is nice to see the thoroughness of this work. For example, in error rate estimation, many know of the advances of Lachenbruch and Mickey on error rate estimation in discriminant analysis and the further advances of Efron and others with the bootstrap. But in between there was also significant progress by Glick on smooth estimators. This work has been overlooked by many statisticians probably because some of it appears in the engineering literature (but one important paper was in the Journal of the American Statistical Association [JASA] in 1972). To some extent this oversight may be due to the fact that it was not mentioned in Efron's famous 1983 JASA paper and hence is usually missed in the bootstrap literature. Bootstrap methods and cross-validation play a prominent role in this text.

This is an excellent reference book for anyone seriously interested in pattern recognition research. For applied and theoretical statisticians who want a good account of the theory behind neural networks it is a must.

This text is wonderful. As some have pointed out, it might not be the best introduction to statistical pattern recognition and classification. Not every text should strive to be introductory, however, and this work shines for other reasons. The true strength of the book is its synthesis of material from diverse domains in a single text. My experience has been in the realm of statistics, and it was insightful to find that neural network approaches share much with traditional classification and discrimination techniques. I find the book enlighting not so much because it explains a given technique in great detail, but because it explains how a number of techniques are related and differ from one another. In this sense, it has opened up a whole new world of approaches to problems I encounter, that I had previously deemed inapplicable because they were "AI engineering techniques" or some such thing. If you want to learn about the details of a particular approach to pattern recognition--e.g., ICA, kohonen maps, SVM, etc.--find a different text. If you want an overview of the field of pattern recognition, however, buy this text. It provides a comprehensive, integrative perspective on classical and modern techniques from a number of disciplines. In fact, I would recommend this text as a complement to a more detailed text on a given pattern recognition technique--the one will fill in the details Ripley necessarily skims, and Ripley will explain how the technique is related to everything else.

It is a shame Patricia Highsmith was unable to sustain her brilliance throughout all of her novels. Even the Ripley series has its slow moments. I had hoped the final Ripley novel from Highsmith would be one of her better works; some of the amazon.com reviews looked promising. But sorry to say, Ripley Under Water is just average Ripley fare.

Ripley Under Water starts off with such a wonderful premise. Tom Ripley is being hounded by a fanatic who for some inexplicable reason senses Ripley's murderous past, and is determined to make Ripley's life miserable as he uncovers the truth. But unfortunately Highsmith doesn't turn on the anxiety as expected, and the story has a rather unsatisfactorily flat ending. Beyond this, Highsmith spends so much time re-telling tidbits of the early Ripley novels ... as if there are potential readers who decided to start off on this book rather than follow in sequence (not likely, and not advisable).

But Ripley Under Water works very well in one aspect: the Ripley ambiance. It is amazing how Highsmith can capture the feeling of the characters and the setting so consistently throughout the Ripley series, a series spanning some 30+ years. She spends so much time detailing Tom Ripley's behaviour at being ... Tom Ripley! Enjoyable to an extent, but this too wears thin.

Bottom line: a satisfactory read for Highsmith fans only.

This was my first Patricia Highsmith book, and I, too, picked it up because I had seen the movie "The Talented Mr. Ripley". I couldn't find that book, so started with this one. It took a while to "get into" the story, but I was quickly compelled. The one drawback: too many french phrases that I had to spend time either trying to figure out from the context of the sentence or look up the meanings from the on-line french-to-english dictionaries. Some words just weren't there. Mon dieu! Aside from those irritations, I found the story to be fascinating, particularly with Tom's relationships to those around him. Heloise, for instance. Sometimes, it seemed like she viewed him with antagonism or thinly veiled contempt. Her responses were too cool at times. Not like a wife. Why don't they sleep together? Is there more about their relationship in previous books? I thought the relationship with the friend that came over from England was also interesting. I so enjoyed the scene where they witness the Pritchards falling into their pond. You could truly sense Tom's utter delight that his nemesis was going to drown! I loved it! And how he had to tame his obvious enthusiasm so that his friend wouldn't find him totally reprehensible! Brilliant writing. I will definitely read more of her books and am sad the series is over.

This was the first Ripley book I ever read, and remains my firm favourite - I enjoyed it even more than 'The Talented Mr Ripley', which itself is also excellent.

Patricia Highsmith is one of the most effective suspense writers I've come across. I have never been able to put my finger on exactly why - others can do the fancy literary analysis - but you HAVE to keep reading, you feel like you're right there in that place and time, and you feel all of Tom Ripley's worry, relief, triumph and terror as if it was your own.

Her books aren't particularly fast-moving or violent, and don't get to the action directly enough for some people. But if her wonderful, evocative prose gets you, Ripley (re-)discovering the single corpse of one of his victims is more horrifying than anything in a dozen splatter books - I was just dreading it, for pages and pages before it happened.

Ms Highsmith's talent for building tension, suspense and sheer dread are even more marked in Ripley Under Water because we know what's going to happen - Ripley has done some bad things, and somebody is trying to get him into trouble for them. As a plot summary, that's a non-story, but in the hands of Patricia Highsmith it's a taut and compelling thriller.

She gets us right inside Ripley's mind, a place with neither conscience nor much regret about his murders. His privileged existance, thanks to both his ill-gotten gains and the assets of his wealthy wife, is wonderfully

evoked, and we squirm at the creepiness of the Pritchards, his meddling new neighbours.

The waiting, while the reformed predator Ripley is himself preyed upon, is almost agonising. If you've seen the movie and don't like books where you know the ending, then start with this one. It'll scare and surprise you, it's simply a marvellous book.

While folks reading this review have probably read the first three Ripley novels and will probably read the fourth (The Boy Who Followed Ripley) regardless of what I write, let me just say a few words on what to expect. Having read some 20+ Patricia Highsmith novels I have alternated between being a raving fan and a semi-harsh critic of her work. When she is good, she is very good indeed. When she has an off day, her material is just ho-hum. I'm afraid The Boy Who Followed Ripley falls into the latter category.

The Boy Who Followed Ripley has just an interesting premise. A sixteen year-old American rich lad seeks out our rogue Tom Ripley and befriends him. We discover the boy has a dark secret, which he shares exclusively with Ripley. The boy's friendship extends into something like hero-worshipping. At this stage Highsmith could have used some clever homo-erotic angle, which would have been an interesting twist back to the original The Talented Mr Ripley novel, or at least made the boy into some sort of threat to Tom Ripley (..a man with many secrets). But no, the author merely injects some rather unoriginal mystery/criminal handy-panky which involves with boy and Tom Ripley. The only curious bit is that Tom Ripley is the good guy here, which is a bit of disappointment for the fans of the Ripley series.

On a much more minor note, I was unfortunate enough to read a 5-6 year old UK version of this novel. The publisher took liberties in translating many expressions into British slang, which is really appalling since the two main characters in this novel are Americans. It is downright bizarre to read a book where Americans use words like loo (toilet), pissed (drunk) and fag (cigarette). This is the first time I witnessed this in a UK edition Highsmith novel; I hope the most current edition of The Boy Who Followed Ripley is spared from this nonsense.

Bottom line: a very readable, but very mundane Ripley book. Disappointing and, sadly, not recommended.

I just finished this book tonight and was sad to reach the last words - I only have one more Ripley book to go that I have not read, and since the passing of Ms. Highsmith I know regrettably there shall be no more adventures for Tom Ripley after that. I actually paced myself so I could mull this fourth novel in the series over throughout the summer, picking up again where I left off on airplanes, at lunch, and on the bus to work or school. I am very easily drawn into the enticing world of Villeperce and Belle Ombre in the French countryside that Patricia Highsmith has lovingly created for the talented Mr. Ripley to exist in - I am highly disappointed these places are pure fantasy, as I would have enjoyed a pint at Marie and George's bar-tabac with relish. This book is a mixed bag, I think, but still a great read. There are all the wonderful little details that Ms. Highsmith includes that make Tom Ripley a real person for the reader. As referenced by another reviewer, his relationship with his wife Heloise is fascinating to me. Separate beds, stories he doesn't quite share, obviously illegal activities, yet a true sense of devotion that evidences itself in the little presents he loves to buy his wife while on his twisted, dangerous adventures throughout the European continent. Heloise is not stupid, so I am sure she knows exactly what her husband is up to, so she probably doesn't care. There are a lot of marriages like this - maybe she finds Tom's antics entertaining. She does also know of Tom's homosexual leanings...as evidenced by her strong reaction to the arrival of Frank Pierson into Belle Ombre. Heloise realizes that Frank is infatuated with Tom and that Tom is attracted to Frank, whether he admits it or not. Heloise must really love Tom, since a streak of jealousy appears here that is not typically present in her cool, French behavior. She does not like the idea of Tom palling around with an attractive, teenaged American boy. Of course, she does not stop him. Just like she's never stopped Tom from his murdering, art forging, or smuggling for Reeves Minot. That's Heloise for you. I said this book was a mixed bag because you have to suspend a great deal of disbelief to plow through the kidnapping nonsense thrown in the middle. It seems like Ms. Highsmith wanted an excuse to preach about the evils of the Cold War, so she chose a kidnapping run in Berlin as a platform. It is ludicrous to believe that Tom Ripley would have been allowed to become such a guardian to Frank Pierson. If I had run away from home at the age of 16 to find myself in the company of a 30 something expatriate in France, I would think my parents would have made some sort of protest. Instead, the Pierson family seems delighted to meet Tom Ripley and thinks nothing when Frank says he "thought to look Tom up" after hearing his father mention Tom's name once regarding an art deal. In this way Ms. Highsmith intends to connect this book to her others, in which Tom Ripley was involved in a forgery scheme involving a painter named Derwatt. The Dickie Greenleaf affair from the first novel in the series is also referenced frequently, which comes to be a strength of this book. Frank Pierson is plagued by his crime, which Tom Ripley doesn't fathom. He admits to himself that the Greenleaf murder is the only one he feels guilty about, but that the other dozen or so corpses in his wake are as meaningless to him as so many pounds of meat in the Villeperce butcher's shop. And this from a man who can't stand the sounds of lobsters hissing as they are boiled in his French country kitchen. Tom is even more amazing than Heloise at what he chooses to see and not see about himself. What does he think of the fun he had wearing drag in Berlin? Why did he choose that hotel in Chelsea to stay at in New York City when the Waldorf=Astoria or the Pierre would have been the choice of a respected and well-to-do man in town? What exactly is the deal with the very separate bedrooms and the impression Tom gives of loving his marriage, but only for the creature comforts it affords his life? Perhaps Heloise and her friend Noelle are doing more on their adventure cruises together than charting ice flows in the Antarctic. This is what I love about Ms. Highsmith's novels...she leaves a lot of doors open for your own imaginings. Her books end without happy endings and definite answers...so rare today, in a world where Chrichton and Grisham sell the movie rights before their books are even published. She doesn't write with a cinematic eye. These were not screenplays, but actual books meant for people with imagination and intelligence of their own. I plan on re-reading the whole series years from now, since at 25 I don't think I will see the same things in them that I notice now. There is a great paragraph in The Boy Who Followed Ripley about generations, and how there really is no clear break for the 25 year periods that are supposed to define them. The things that define you are what you read, what you listen to, what world events affect you. Time really ceases to matter in the end for all of us.

I'm working my way through the Ripley series (am currently into number five), and I think that *The Boy who Followed Ripley* is the best since *The Talented Mr. Ripley.* (Though the second and third in the series are well worth the read, and besides, I wouldn't recommend skipping them, since they provide background essential for fully appreciating the later novels.) What a great character Tom Ripley is! We've seen it in previous books, but here we see a lot of the tender side of Tom, who is really affected by his relationship with the boy Frank. I also find his relationships with his shady cronies interesting--they'll break the law regularly, but there is indeed some honor in their relations with one another.

The action of the book is indeed slow, as another reviewer mentioned, but I was struck while reading it by how tense an atmosphere the author managed to create without so much action. Always a sense of foreboding.

Again, as another reviewer mentioned, the action that does occur is perhaps not as well described as it might be. I at least was confused about precisely what went on in the apartment, the big action scene: the bad guys were going this way and that, and seemed to give up without a fight, but I didn't quite understand everything. Didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel, however. And before I log off I'll be ordering some non-Ripley Highsmith novels.

This was a fun read.

Basically this ex-lawyer, guitar playing man is called and asked to go to Sedona to play with a friend of his. Everything that can go wrong does- flat tire, lost luggage, a murder or two, a surly cop and being shot at. What makes this book interesting is how the main character, Tony, handles all these things. His bad attitude about New Age stuff I think is kind of funny.

I would certainly read more by this author.

I rated this a four (if I could I'd rate it a high three or a low four) because there are times that things are flat. For example, the parts with the lady cop with her attitude doesn't come across as being very well written. Also, there is a lot of casual sex in this book some of which could be left out. (not details thank goodness!)

I enjoyed the story. It's a man in trouble kind of thing. I've driven down to Sedona a couple of times, so found that fun also. Usually I like longer books but this one worked for me.

I enjoy reading this and all the books by Ripley. Certainly worthy of interest.