There are books for reading once, and there are books for keeping forever, reading over and over, serving as an everlasting source of inspiration. This book is in the "read once" category. The only reason you keep reading this book is because you want to find out what happens next. Once you know the plot, you have exhausted the book's potential. There is something very evil and sinister about all of Weinstock's books. Each book of his that I read gave me a creepy feeling which has to this day not quite faded. All the characters, even the "heroes", are sly, manipulative and cunning. No one is honest, trustworthy, or straightforward. The plots are breathtaking, that I will admit. This is a great book to borrow from the library and then return once you are done with it. Or borrow a friend's copy. There's no way I would buy such a book to keep it in my home. There is absolutely nothing meaningful in the book that makes me interested in re-reading it. I really wish that Weinstock would have softened his plots and characters somewhat to make them more human.

I enjoy reading suspense stories by such authors as Ludlum, Greene, Clancy, and Forsyth and have, lately, emersed myself in books about Judaism. This novel is a creative attempt to combine the two in an entertaining way. The characters are interesting and well developed, albeit somewhat unevenly. My only criticism of this book is its ending - it is superficial and not very well thought out. A different ending, e.g., the development of an antidote to foil the plot of the villians, would have been more consistent with the storyline

I think the Gordian Knot is an amaizing book which I will certanly read again. It was definatly worth every penny I saved to buy it! It is a very spine chilling book. Also I would like to comment on the excellent vocabulary that is used.
The way it is written and the way it suddenly stops and has ... makes you carry on reading it, which is why I finished reading it in about 1 day!!
So I think everyone should buy this book, and will be kept busy for a while! AND ENJOY!!
Rochel Beenstock (13)

Told in a dry, humorous style, this will appeal to readers who enjoyed the works of Houston/Bates and Shipton. It's a little short on high climbing drama, but is still a reasonably engaging read. I found it interesting that these women in the 1950's had so little trouble with their guides and porters, by comparison with some later expeditions.

This is a chronicle of the historic journey made by the 1955 first all female expedition to the Himalayas. It is an amazing adventure for those Betty Crocker days. While it ocassionally reads like a buddy book, its flavor is somewhat anachronistic and reflective of its time. It makes for a very interesting read.

This expedition, a somewhat grandiose term for a group of three women and their Sherpas, endeavored to explore the remote and then uncharted area of Nepal called the Jugal Himal. Their journey and trek through Nepal makes for a travelogue of delightful descriptions and anecdotes.

Unlike many modern day expeditions, these three women exhibited nothing but synchronized teamwork throughout their journey. This was not an ego trip for them. They were motivated by a genuine curiosity of the world in which they lived and an appreciation of the different people and cultures with which they came in contact.

True adventurers, they climbed unexplored ranges and reached the summit of a 22,000 plus peak without supplementary oxygen. They did all this without any casualties. It was very important for this particular expedition to be successful, because there were many nay sayers at the time who would have been only too willing to jump up and shout that women were not fit for such a venture. Thankfully, they were able to prove them wrong. Wonen can climb and lead an expedition!

In the spring of 1955, the Jugal Himal region of the Himalayan mountain range was an unexplored mystery when three women embarked on the first all-female expedition to the Himalaya. All three participants were obscure mountaineers unknown to the general public when they made their first ascent of a 22,000-foot peak. Tents In The Clouds: The First Women's Himalayan Expedition is a thrilling account of their adventure which is as stirring today as it was when first published in 1956. This new and revised edition includes nearly thirty stunning photographs, as well as a new foreword by renowned mountaineer Arlene Blum. Tents In The Clouds is secure in the annals of women's studies as both a classic of climbing literature and a testament to gender equality issues.

Mabel Stark, a real life circus performer, is someone I never would have known about if not for this very amusing novel. In this fictional memoir, Ms. Stark recounts her life story from a rebellious Kentucky teenager through her various marriages and through her rise to superstardom under the big top. A real gender-breaker Ms. Stark becomes the world's first and foremost tiger trainer during the era when the circus was the king of entertainment. Through the colorful narrative of her tumultuous life we also get a glimpse into the universe of the circus and all the eclectic characters (human and otherwise) that dwell in it.

Author Robert Hough does a great job in keeping the action fresh and fast-paced in a writing style that is easy reading and highly entertaining. If you are looking for something different to read, try The Final Confession of Mabel Stark.

Mabel Stark a real circus performer known for her famous tiger taming acts from the 1920's is the main character of this fictional memior by Robert Hough. The story begins with the 80 year old Stark telling her life story or confession and it is a thrill for us to read. Mabel has had more action packed into her life than most.
She begins life as Mary Haynie a teenage nurse in a small Kentucky town who ends up in a disasterous marriage and as a result finds herself in a mental institution suffering from a supposed nervous breakdown. When a sympathetic psychiatrist helps her to escape, she finds a job the only place she can, a cheap carnival as a dancing girl. Following another disaster of a marriage she is forced to dance "cooch" and finally gets spotted by Al. G Barnes who runs a somewhat more respectable carnival. It is here that Mabel encounters her beloved tigers and marries for a third time to well know animal trainer Louis Roth. Although the marriage doesn't work out, her career taming tigers is a smash hit. Barnes buys her a tiger cub named Rajah and Mabels life changes. Hough does a fascinating job describing life in the carny and creating the fictional life for all these historically real people. Mabels accounts of raising Rajah and the act she develops and the maulings she survives are nothing short of astonishing. She has a very interesting relationship to the animals.
As Mabel moves through husband number four, she is sought after and hired by the Ringling Bros. circus and becomes a bonafide star. She discovers that fame is not all it's cracked up to be and it is at one of her lowest points that she meets her true love Art, husband number five. It is a very poignant love story that the reader is treated to and you can't help but root for Mabel to be happy after what she has endured. But this story is full of surprises and twists and I was hanging on every word wondering much as Mabel would muse, what life was going to bring her next. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, at 422 pages, it was slow in some parts but overall it was a pleasure to discover Mabel, her world and the unique,quirky characters in her life.

I was a *huge* fan of Glen David Gold's CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL. In fact, that book ruined my appreciation for most of the last year's fiction. It was a long road back, until now. Hough's great work in this book makes it a *perfect* book to read after suffering Carter withdrawal.

Take the early 1900s in American circuses as the setting, light a spot on a unique female tiger trainer, and prepare to be entertained silly. Hough's writing isn't complex, nor is it necessarily lyrical. What it is, if you must know, is perfectly on spot. He works masterfully with the flavor of the piece. It's like going to a great restaurant versus glitzy. He serves you something you go home talking about.

This is a perfect book to give someone who's looking for something different to read.

This one isn't up to par with it's predecessor's. It's an okay read, but not as engaging as the first two. It's hard to believe the "Outfit" guys are that easy to steal from and kill. It all happens so easily that it's not very enjoyable.

The name is Parker and he's not one for making idle threats. When he talks, he follows through with brutal efficiency. And so, when he warned the organised crime boss not to cross him or he would hurt the organisation, it would have been a good idea to listen. What would not have been a good idea was to attempt to put a hit on Parker.

When the hit fails, as of course it must, Parker sets in place a devious plan to hurt the Outfit just as he promised. What follows is a highly entertaining string of crimes around the country, striking blow after blow on behalf of our anti-hero, Parker.

If you're simply after a flat out entertaining book of action sequences that aren't cluttered up with pesky character development, then this is the book for you. As a matter of fact, the entire Parker series is for you. Parker remains the true dispassionate enigma. Sure he's heartless, cruel and vindictive but you've just gotta love the rascal.

I absolutely love Richard Stark's (Donal Westlake) Parker novels! Here we have THE OUTFIT back from 1963 and it still works today! Parker and his underworld cohorts decide to toss the rule bookl out the window and start knocking over syndicate scores. This is tight, fast, and hard. Read Stark or miss out entirely!

stark's writing of the book is problematic because it is cluttered and very hard to comprehend. ...
I took off one whole star because of stark's disclaimer in the first chapter: "Before I proceed, however, it seems appropriate to discuss whether an attempt to explain the rise of Christianity is not somewhat sacrilegious.." I don't feel that Stark should tiptoe around possibly challenging theology if the book was written from a sociological and historical point of view. ...But Stark's information is concise, thorough, and very informative. That is why he received three stars from me.

Excellent book. If you want to learn about the success of Christianity in a social perspective this is the book you have to read. It connects the religious teachings of Jesus and His Church with the expansion of early (and late) Christianity.

As someone who is trained as both a theologian and a sociologist, Stark has done an excellent job in challenging assumptions (e.g., how the mission to the Jews succeeded rather than failed, how a large number of early converts actually came from the upper classes, etc.) held by many contemporary scholars of early Christianity. Hopefully, this will throw these scholars back into the historical material and have them take a second look.

I bought this for myself at the recommendation of an email group of future and past brides. It helped me so much that I bought it as a gift for a friend. It is most especially helpful for those bride-to-be's who have been single and on their own for some time, and the changes they will go through as they go from single life to married life. It has some very good recommendations and points out many things about men and new husbands that you won't realize until you experience it for yourself. It also helps new brides to see things more from the man's perspective, and what's really happening with both of you as you try to adjust to such a big change in lifestyle. I would recommend it for anyone who's about to take the plunge. There's something in it for everyone and it covers a wide variety of topics.

A fun read, it'll be more useful to newlyweds that those with 'cold feet.' Fun, but about as fluffy as they come.

The title of this book is misleading.....I think this book is not only beneficial to the new bride (or future bride) but for anyone (man or woman) who is married, contemplating marriage, or dating.

It is written in a humorous and positive light, yet doesn't mince words. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READ

Great book, packed with code. I appreciated that it didn't talk down to me like other books on this topic have done. It took me right to where I wanted to go. No problems with anything on the CD. Packed with code that I was able to put to use right away.

What can I say? This is the definitive book on XSLT.
There is no question that Hjelm and Stark has done a fine job of covering the subject matter in this book. They discuss the XSLT and its use in depth, as well as giving GREAT example code. It is packed with related topics including HTML, XHTML, WML, etc. This book is probably not aimed at absolute beginners, but rather assumes a familiarity with HTML and related technologies, and that the reader is just expanding into XSLT. In particular it is assumed that the reader is familiar with XML. The authors' style of writing seemed very readable, clear and concise. In summary, this 320-page book is a great introduction for those who want to approach XSLT applications. It is more a book for inspiration than reference, although most of what you would need to look up is in there somewhere. Its strength is in the depth and detail of the examples and explanations.

I've already read the tomes on XSLT and I was just looking for a how-to with plenty of examples. I wanted to be sure the author had connection to W3C and that's what these guys have. What a surprise when I opened the zip files on the CD to find just that. If you need a complete reference on the topic, this book isn't for you. If you want to learn how to create transformation sheets, then this is it!

A good focused journal, but it does have a very specific purpose and doesn't really allow much room for straying off the subject. "I Believe" offers a page for different things (your beliefs on family, history, movies, people, wisdom, etc), then at the end leaves you several pages to write about your other beliefs that they didn't cover.

Each page offers a quote at the bottom to suggest a way you might answer the "I believe" for that page, but they're easy to ignore if you have no problems coming up with beliefs for that subject. The quotes can be helpful if you're not sure what they had in mind when they made the page, though some of them are not quite as deep as perhaps a serious writer might want. ("Choices" has a quote about the type of orange juice a person prefers, for example. Also, the quotes can seem sort of one sided. On the "girl thing" page the quote refers to a serious issue such as abortion, while the "boy thing" which is right next to it, talks about movies.)

Overall a good idea. I would have given it four or five stars if it hadn't been for the quotes, but they are easy to ignore, as they reside at the bottom of the page.

A book a person can't put down. One must read it in one sitting. A great gift book. Each page offers a gem of an opinion on...which berry is the best...what rock band is the best...what a father means to a son, or what a daughter means to a dad. Stark strings these paragraph-long insights into a reality strewn page turner and in the end challenges the reader to mail in his or her own "I Believe" submissions. Funny & thought provoking!

It was an easy job for Parker, knocking over the armored car, but his inexpert driver takes the corner too fast spoiling the getaway. So Parker must take cover in an amusement park closed for the winter. But he's seen going in by a pair of crooked cops and the mob guys who are paying them off. And the one thing on their mind is to go after Parker and take away the money and make Parker disappear at the same time.

Donald Westlake, alias Richard Stark, really knows how to spin a tale. The plotting is tight and the prose is sparse. Parker is a tough man in a fight and it's fun watching him get out of a situation where he's trapped in a box with no way out and twenty men hunting him down. A good crime read.

Beverly Hills Cop 3 is also known as "Die Hard in an amusement park," due to the climactic battle in which Eddie Murphy, holed up in a deserted amusement park, takes on a tide of villains. I don't know if the filmmakers realized it, but this is the same plot as Richard Stark's Slayground, published in 1971.

The narrative is as linear as an old pulp novel. The book opens with an armored truck robbery that quickly goes wrong. Parker, alone, escapes with a satchel of money by climbing the fence of a nearby amusement park, which is closed for the winter. Parker walks right into a meeting between a local mob boss and a few crooked cops. Parker escapes into the park, only to find there's no other way out. And he can't just leave, because he knows those mobsters out there will be waiting for him. He also knows that soon enough they'll realize he's the robber being mentioned in the news reports, the robber who has seventy grand on him. So Parker sets up as many traps as he can in the park. That night the mobsters come in after him, and what follows is a nail-biting thriller that would be fit for the screen, if not for its single-track mind and lack of subplot. It's survival of the fittest all the way, as Parker does whatever he can to [detour] anyone who comes after him, and escape with his life.

The novel itself doesn't start out so linear, as first we follow Parker through his botched robbery, and then we go back to before the robbery, and meet each of the mobsters and crooked cops. Once these pleasantries are out of the way, it's straight-up action and adventure time. Parker is his usual cold, calculating, monosyllabic self, and the assortment of mobsters and cops after him are each well-drawn and memorable. There are also several reversals and surprises strewn through the plot, such as when Parker "lucks out" and kills the last person you'd expect him to. However, what at first seemed like a lucky break soon turns out to be Parker's misfortune.

All in all, Slayground is an entertaining, quick read, but has apparently not yet been reprinted. I'd suggest finding a copy at your local library, instead of paying a fortune for a used edition.

This one is Super-Parker. I am in awe of Stark's (Donald Westlake) skills at placing the entire action in a closed-for-the-season amusement park with only one exit. Parker is trapped not only by crooked cops, but the bad guys as well. What a kaleidoscope of rides, color and strange machinery! Yet it is all aslant. Rather than crowds and summertime weather, it is empty, cold and bleak.

The tension never lets up. Will the bad guys find Parker's stash? Will they corner him? Can he pull another trick out of his bag? Will the scaffolding hold?

I am always baffled when people complain of lack of characterization in Parker novels. To me, the beauty is being right inside Parker's head when he meticulously plans his heists, revenge, and plans. True, we never read of honor, sensitivity, introspection, and love for the very good reason Parker possesses none of these traits. I always think Parker would be a totally successful CEO of a giant corporation if he had taken up another line of work.

"Slayground" is vintage Parker, hard-boiled, violent and as perfectly crafted as a fine watch.

I found Probability and Random Processes a difficult subject and it was compounded by the instructor's selection of the stark and woods textbook. While it has some interesting problem sets and the tone of the text is very engaging, Probability and Random Processes, 3rd ed. has several problems. First of all, the book has several typos, including some in derivations which can cause a "what the...?" moment. Second, many sections in the introductory material gloss over derivations, skip steps, or leave proofs of theorems as the classic "exercize for the reader." (!) The biggest problem the text has is that it doesn't adequately explain the intuition for problem solving. For an engineer coming from industry and starting grad school after an extended period away from college, the net result is that the book is not self-contained. I had to buy the Papoulis book and the Schaum's outline to keep my head above water. When the semester was over I ditched the Stark and Woods and kept the Papoulis book.

I am a grad student who has to read this book every week to do the homework :P. Personally I do not reccommend the book for anyone who doesn't have strong random process background. For average student like me, I found myself read it more than 10 times in some of the topics to get the idea of the section (in order to finish end of chapter's questions). Also, I feel like there are some missing link that the author left out (may be because author assume that you know the background quite well) and that sometimes make the flow of the explanation not smooth.(for me)

This textbook is for EE grads who are oriented towards signal processing. One of the reasons I like this book is that the authors carefully selected the end of the chapter problems. This book seems to have struck the right balance between theory and application and this is reflected in the problems at the end of the chapter. Another strong emphasis of this book is applications to signal processing and the last chapter is only written for this area. Relative to the book by Papoulis, this book explains the details better for a beginner and also has more application. Relative to the other book by Leon+Garcia, this book emphasizes more signal processing concepts like PSD, KL transforms, trellises, detection&estimation while that of Leon+Garcia has more details on queing theory and networks.
I would wait for a new printing since the first printing of the 3rd edition has some minor errors. A very nice feature of this book is that it starts from the concept of probability space, Algebras and measure in a non-rigorous way to help the student cope with the minor "contradictions" they might perceive when reading a textbook in probability.