Meyer's book clearly illustrates that, as far as race-relations are concerned, a solution may not necessarily be in the near future. By explaining and expounding on the instances and ramifications surrounding race issues and their effects on fair (or unfair as the case stands) housing, the reader is forced to consider where he stands in the grander schemes of prejudice and racism. As a historical tool, as well as a teaching guide, this book is both informative and revealing. Perhaps more importantly however, As Long As... forces one to examine their own attitudes towards blacks. It forces the reader to ask the question : In spite of current rhetoric, have things really changed? And the even bigger question of: Would it really bother me to have blacks living in my neighborhood? My guess is that most people would be glad that no one has to know their truthful answer. Very worthwhile and informative.

When I was younger and openly challenged the misguided optimism that America would ever become a integrated society, I was viewed as bizzare and as a black racist. Mr. Meyer shows that White America has and continues to reject integration. Most of it is passive. However it has been ocassionaly violent. My parents' white neighbor next door moved out 6 weeks after my family moved in. Mr. Meyer points out it is the middle class Blacks who bear the brunt of this rejection. For any reader who wants to know why Louis Farrakhan and other Black Militants have a large appeal they need to read this book. Black Nationalism is the hate that hate produced and continues to nourish.

Stephen Meyer has identified a shining example of the complexity that is the American psyche. Told in a compelling weave of human drama and statistical truths, Next Door was difficult to put down.

The very ideals that validated the enormous suffering and loss of the U.S. Civil War are torn asunder with the subsequent isolation and residential subjugation of the newly "freed" in Northern society.

From misguided, misinformed Federal housing schemes and restrictive local ordinances in the name of peace to outright violence and lynch mob mentality, Mr. Meyer paints a clear and disturbing portrait of American hypocrisy.

A challenging work that is as much good reading as a good reference, Next Door is a must for any informed discussion on the housing plight of blacks in America.

This is a book is quite good as most Norton Critical Editions are. It has a lot of what is needed by students for a course on Blake or, more likely, a course that spends part of a term on Blake.

It has some biographical material and some maps of England and London at the time Blake lived. There are also a good helping of black and white as well as color plates of Blake's illuminated works. The color plates are only good - the color is not produced beautifully. The student will only get an impression of the true power of Blake's artistry. However, a good teacher will point the student to the Blake Archive at:... so the students can see the works more completely with variants and in better color (if you have good video cards and monitors).

One of the best parts of this book begins on page 176 where working drafts are shown and compared to the final versions. There is also a nice selection of critical writing on Blake - criticism from Blake's time through the present. There is also a useful bibliography.

In some ways this is "Erdman Lite", but it is much more portable than Erdman and for an introductory course on Blake it is probably sufficient. I am glad that I have it in my library.

But please don't stop here!

Nice book, but too bad its front picture cover is defaced by Norton's double-layer of big gold stickers with high-tack adhesive that makes them impossible to remove without adhesive remaining on the cover.

This is absolutely the best compendium of Blake's work which articualtes an outstanding range of his vision. This edition acknowledges the poetry and color paintings of a consumate craftsman of the imagination on high quality, acid free paper and is nylon stitched and bound in signatures to last a lifetime. Books are rarely made this way but the Norton edition is a beautiful rendering of the first, and perhaps, primary British Romantic poet.

Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather have dreamed of opening a catering business in Dublin since they attended cooking school together. Now they're on the brink of making their dream come true, but not without battling a host of personal issues and complications.

That's the premise behind Maeve Binchy's book, Scarlet Feather. Binchy is an Irish author with a breezy,casual writing style that makes you feel like you're having a conversation with a good friend. She doesn't dwell on lengthy descriptive or analytical narratives,letting her characters tell the story.

Those characters are the strength of Binchy's stories, and that's true of Scarlet Feather.

You find yourself caring about feisty,funny Cathy,who shocked everyone when she married the son of the rich couple her mother used to clean for. You hurt for her when her husband,an up-and-coming civil rights lawyer, seems to have time for everyone but her,and dismisses her catering business as a passing and unimportant hobby. His adamant desire not to have children also contributes to a major turning point for Cathy.

Tom Feather is also a very likable character,and Binchy makes you feel his pain when his incredibly beautiful girlfriend places a possible modeling career above their relationship.

Even peripheral characters, like Cathy's and Tom's parents and siblings, are endearing. And there's an absorbing subplot about two children,relatives of Cathy's husband, who she and her parents are forced to care for...at first grudgingly,but they ultimately win everyone's hearts.

Besides the personal crises faced by Cathy and Tom, there is a catastrophe that threatens to destroy their catering business just as it really begins to blossom.

If there's a weakness in this book,it's the ending. I won't spoil it for those who might want to read the book, but in my opinion,Binchey fails to really build a foundation for the way it turns out. Some readers my find it only fitting, but for me,it didn't quite ring true.

That's a minor beef,though. Maeve Binchy's books are warm and uplifting for the most part,and this book could be an enjoyable escape when the snowflakes are falling or you need to take a break from holiday craziness.

I am so glad a friend told me "you have to read this book".
The author weaves words like pearls in a necklace. It is written beautifully and the story pulled me in to that "far away time" to be a witness to each event. Brava!

I loved this story. It is not heavy duty, just a very sweet, poignant story about a girl and boy that made me feel sad it had to end. It's a very quick read, not the great work that "Winged Pharoah" is, but still worth reading. Joan Grant "remembered" this life and wrote it in the form of this novel. She is a very inspired human being and her goodness comes through in every sentence.

the hint book is not as good as i thought it would be. i figure amost of the game by myself. but for beginning gamers it is a good guide

This is a great strategy guide! It explains everything about EA's new PSX game in an easy to read format. You never have questions about what to do on the levels you get stuck on. It's GREAT!(Not to mention wonderful, spectacular, stupendous, excellent, and superfralacagalisticexpialadotches! )! This strategy book is top notch and I recomend it to everyone who owns the game or plans to own the game!

The guide is great. It explains all of bonds arsenal. Everything in the game is on the strategy guide. It has great mission maps and step by step problem solving. Just explains everything. Even gives you cheats. Just great. Prima does it again!

I found that this book has some positives and negatives: Positives: 1. the authors have compiled a wealth of information about volcanoes all over the world: Mt. St. Helens catastrophe, planes flying over eruption clouds, eruption accounts from Krakatua, etc, etc. 2. For a geologist like me, when we study about volcanoes, we tend to forget the human factor, not only hazards, but also how it affects agriculture, tourism, etc. Which I think this book pinpoints very well. Negatives: 1. The book doesn't flow: lots of information, but in my opinion disorganized. Except for the chapter about Mt. St. Helens, I didn't understand the point that the authors were trying to make (or probably there was no point, and it was just a plain description). 2. Any time you touch a scientific subject, you are immersed in having to use scientific terms. Since this book is trying to reach a general audience (I think), it will benefit a lot by having a glossary. 3. Some chapters are really weak, like the one that talks about plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the driving force of volcanoes (mostly) and should have more emphasis on the book, and be explained in more simple terms. 4. The decimal metric system is used throughout the book. This is good when you are writing a paper to publish on a specialized journal, but not for a book aimed at general audiences. The equivalence in the English system should probably go in parentheses.

Neither too little or too much, Volcanoes: Crucibles of Change is the best volume I have ever read on Volcanology. Written for the intelligent layperson, the book never talks down to its reader or loses them in mult-semicolon sentances of unintelligble jargon as so many other books by scientists do. If you want the latest theories on volcanoes, this is th book for you. I was especially surprised by how many dormant/active volcanoes there are in the lower 48. And as one who has flown from the U.S. to Japan, the chapter on planes and volcanoes was both fascinating and scary.

A brilliant book for any volcanoholic. I am a geology student hoping to proceed to volcanology, and thoroughly enjoyed this book just for the sake of a good read on a great subject.

Bert Grant tells his story, in "The Ale Master", about his love of beer and how he helped to open the eyes of the world to the forgotten industry known as craft brewing. Prior to the 1980's, beer was pretty much a boring product with nearly all beer made in a similar fashion, using some grains and hops, but too many adjuncts resulting in products that are nearly identical in appearance and taste. Grant helped change all of that when he opened the first brewpub in Yakima Washington.

This book is a little too short, but it is an easy read. There are also very lenghty footnotes on nearly every page. It would have been better if, instead of using all of the footnotes, the information would have been integrated into the regular reading.

By reviving the microbrewing industry, Bert Grant has performed a great service to all Americans. Never again will we be forced to choose between bland, bland, and more bland when we face the beer isle.

Despite the title sounding like something a barfly might slobber at you before he pitches into the details of his acrimonious divorce, this is a facinating and thought-provoking autobiography.

What Robert Mondavi is to wine, Bert Grant is to beer! This was a fun way to trace the career of one of America's microbrew pioneers while learning a lot about the history of beer in America. Grant's seen it, and brewed it all. Two steins up!

Apocalipstick, oh so cleverly named, is the second book of Grant Morrison's Invisibles series. After the drearily necessary Acadia story arc, these short stories are really what this series needed.

There are some real great single issues, particularly the Best Man's Fall, a story told through the eyes of a military peon.

The main arc, Apocalipstick, centers on Lord Fanny, the transvestite member of the Invisibles. I have to say, this is great stuff, all of the craziness seems rooted in reality, and makes the comic much more human and reasonable.

Morrison's characters are fleshed out in these stories, and these stories show a real desire on his part to get on track and tell some great stories. One of Morrison's weaknesses is to get too lost in the details, but that doesn't happen here.

A real enjoyable read, highly recommended.

I didn't find this book to be as mind-blowingly delightful as "Say You Want a Revolution," but it's still darned good reading -- plenty of madcap ideas from the mind of Grant Morrison. (If you haven't read "Revolution," you really should before you read this book, since "Apocalipstick" is the second collection of the first volume of the comic series.) There are a couple of standalone stories that do a great job to set up the larger world in which the main characters operate. They may seem like interludes or digressions, but they're really the heart and soul of this book. The longer arc that returns to the main plot -- inasmuch as The Invisibles can be said to have a main plot -- is good, but I think it suffers in comparison to the 'Arcadia' arc from "Revolution." It does do a good job of exploring the background of one of the main characters, though. The book also has a lot of different artists, and as a result it shifts in tone and style a number of times. More consistency might have been a benefit, but it does increase the chance you'll find something you like.

Thank the great god Ganesh for removing the barriers that have held back the publication of trades pertaining to volume one of the Invisibles series (those of you in the know will see the secret references in this statement easily...and I didn't even have to resort to the 64-letter alphabet)! Now us latecomers that found volume two can get the backstory on one of the most influential comic series EVER! We have waited too long for this! Grant, you are NOT a wanker, don't let them tell you otherwise! I read volume one in fits and starts, and now I can fill in the gaps! People, pick this one up, and the first one in the series, Say You Want A Revolution. And later this year, get "Entropy in the UK", which I think will include the remainder of volume one! YEEEHAW!

If you collect baseball cards you absolutely must have this book. It catalogs virtually every baseball card ever made, including variations and errors.

Why only four stars and not five? Subtle reasons, mostly. The main reason is that this book, despite being released recently, does not do a very good job of covering the professionally graded baseball card market. This is even more surprising as Beckett does have a grading service of their own. As such, the sections covering the history of baseball cards and how to grade cards is lacking and is pretty much a reprint of what's been appearing in Beckett books like this one for over fifteen years. They really could have done a better job of modernizing those sections.

However, as a reference book to help identity cards and give approximate values, this book cannot be beat. Buy it now!

it is very detailed from cards 1953 to 1999 this is a great beckett with tons of minor league cards and other miselanioues things like penates and all other kinds of stuff this is a great book

This almanac continues to expand -- and become better. Each year, it has added more sets, more details and more areas of collectibles. It is about to ``outgrow'' its covers. But that will be a long-range bonus for collectors. Beckett and able company will be forced to split the book, probably taking out minor league cards. The editors have become particularly adept at adding team-issued sets. A complete checklist of McCarthy baseball cards -- rumored for No. 6 -- would be a great addition. The only improvement I would like to see would be for more details on some sets and certain variations in a set (how to tell them apart). If you are a serious collector of baseball items, this is one of the few MUST books for your book shelf. And it's getting better and better with each edition.

Bottom line: Good reference for C# program syntax, and structure and as rudimentary reference, but you would definitely need more (either from online doc, or other books in the series) to make up for the topics that this book leaves out.

This book is aimed at the experienced programmer who is already well versed in another language (C, C++, or Java are most closely related) and wants a reference on commonly used objects in the .NET framework. It is not meant as a C# tutorial, which is made clear on the cover and back of the book, as well as in the "Who is this book for?" section of the introduction. My review included a cover to cover read through of the book, although this is not the recommended use of this book. It should be used as it's title indicates "Programmer's Reference." That is, it should be sitting in arms reach of your workstation whilst you are coding and I think you'd get the best day to day use of it that way.

The book is 28 chapters, and the first 20 are short and cover the C# language itself. The last 8 cover: .NET class roadmap; System classes, Collections, I/O, Reflection, Text manipulation, Regular expressions, and Threading. There is one appendix on keywords, and one on Naming Conventions. The book is 555 pages and includes a very complete 30 page index which I referred to frequently to look up concepts covered previously in the text.

What I like about the book: 1. it is that is extremely concise. 2. There are many fully functional short programs that demonstrate one or two objects, and the syntax to use them. These can be used as examples in larger applications that developers can use 3. It is very well organized with a condensed quick ref. table of contents on the inside cover, and more detailed contents a few pages in. What I didn't like was that it skipped large sections of the Framework class library. This is not necessarily bad, however, since it's aim is to cover frequently used, not all, classes, and it did give references to other books (published by Wrox of course) that contain the lacking information.

I downloaded the code examples from the Wrox website and the handful that I compiled and executed ran without a hitch. ---Reviewed by Bill Morgan

This book is a good reference for experienced C# programmers, or for those who know a related C syntax language who want an intro to the language without reading 200 pages of "what is a variable" and "why use loops" and other newbie stuff. Warning-It is a reference to the C# language, it barley touches on the .net class libraries at all. So if you need info on the datagrid, you are out of luck. Great book

If you're already an experienced programmer with C++ or Java and don't want to waste your time reading long-winded text about C#, than this is your book. In roughly 200 pages, the author describes everything you need to know about C#. He describes it in a brief, complete, and well organized manner (assuming you know C++ and Java well). Not much fluff in this book. It is a great book if you want a concise description of the language. It also has a handy reference to different parts of the .Net library.

I bought this book because the Inside C# book was just too long. It could have been much shorter and just as effective. This book was the answer to my prayers. Now if there was only a short book on Windows Forms.

"Captain Sam Grant" must rank with William McFeely's "Grant" and Brooks Simpson's "Triumph Over Adversity" as the most overrated USG biographies ever written. This look at Grant's pre-Civil War years simply is not as accurate and reliable as some previous reviewers would have us believe. Lewis frequently makes unqualified assertions without providing any evidence for these statements, cites dubious or discredited sources in other cases, and quotes still other sources inaccurately. The book, in many places, reads more like an speculative historical novel than a serious academic study. Also, in my opinion, Lewis spends way too much time on the Mexican war. The book is simply not as valuable as its reputation would suggest.

That said, it is not without virtues. It is engaging and, in its folksy way, well written. Lewis' portrait of Grant's quietly complicated character generally rings true. The book is an enjoyable read, as long as the reader does not expect too much.

As a student of Spanish American History, I wonder why this book was not assigned reading when I was in college. The first part deals with family and youth of a precocious lad whose father saw in the Military Academy the Chance for a free education for his son. Grant was a most capable horseman whose ability was appreciated. His first military assignments in the northwest were less than appealing to a man in love, and far from home. His reputation as a drinker began at this time. He was a virtual failure at whatever he attempted to do except crossing the Isthmus of Panama. And he proved his mettle during the Mexican American War along with other familiar West Point cadets who would subsequently become famous leaders on both sides of the Civil War and, later, wars of Indian reduction in the west. In Volume One, the boy becomes a man and soldier. But its greatest greatest contribution is its telling of the Mexican American War and the attitute of those who fought it.

It's a great pity in Grant scholarship that the author of this book, Lloyd Lewis, died prematurely and was not able to continue his trilogy of Grant. Though the able Bruce Catton continued the project, he was never the writer or researcher that was Lloyd Lewis. This book is a remarkably accurate and clear portrayal of Ulysses Grant as a young man. The book ends on the eve of the Civil War, when Grant was stuck in his father's leather shop, bored and aching for something meaningful to do with his life. At 39, the civil war found Grant (or Grant found the war, take your pick) and history was never the same.

Lewis was known for his punctilious and dilligent research and it is a pleasure to read a book devoid of errors and rich in interpretation. He illuminates Grant as he *really* was: a decent, engaging, modest and clear-headed young man, destined for greatness but not quite knowing what to do with his considerable talents. This is one of the most outstanding Grant biographies and a must-read for anyone interested in the life and times of our greatest general.