If you are Catholic and have ever thought of becoming a foreign missionary as a lay person or religious, I would recommend reading this book.

It gave interesting and challenging personal stories of people (mostly young professionals) who have decided to serve God in some capacity with the Maryknoll missionaries in a foreign country.

Aging hippie street performer, Flint McLelland misses 1963 and desperately wants to see a return to the sixties. As he plays baby boomer golden oldies on his flute to earn loose change, Flint wanders the United States in search of sacred icons that represent the "Age of Aquarius".

Soon Flint gathers followers, mostly renegades, lost since the counterculture collapsed when the summer of love turned into the summer of riots that ended his cherished decade. He informs his aging flower horde that once he accumulates all the artifacts, the sixties will re-blossom stronger than ever. The evil scientist the Logician known in psychiatric wards as Dr. Lojia captures the hero. Logician insists that the flutist is patient Gerrard Hammond struggling to come back from a delusional trip into the past of his mind.

WINDOWPANE is an intriguing drama that leaves the audience to wonder if Flint is a mental case never recovered from drugs or a Pied Piper locked away to abort his tune. The tale provides a nostalgic look at the sixties, but not through rose colored glasses as some bad karma such as overdoses, riots, Nam, and bombings haunt the followers. Though well written and engaging especially for boomers, the tale never quite lights the reader's fire to let their hair down along with Mary down Penny Lane, but his is still a haunting fantasy trip

Harriet Klausner

Excellent connector of times lived. "This is the way it was!" expressed many times by those who have read and given this book. Thank you, Sandra!

The Tiananmen Papers really shouldn't have been as controversial as they were--they back up what we already knew, as far as that could be done without access to Chinese archives. How the leaders interact in the descriptions is also consistent with past studies (including very respected ones), as is the process of policymaking in Beijing.

The main value of the book is to get a "feel" for how political decisions are made in China. It's silly to "blast" the book as unreliable, since that's impossible to confirm in any case. The entire study of Soviet and now Chinese politics is based on educated guesses and observation. I didn't get the impression that the authors insist it be accepted as the final word on the subject.

The "Tiananmen Papers" is a rare window into the Communist Chinese decision making process. Its fine detail (said to be three times longer in the Chinese language edition) yields unprecedented insights into the march of events that led to the bloody crushing of the Chinese democracy and anti-corruption movement of 1989.

This book should cause every reader to wonder if the Chinese Communist Party can ever peacefully share or give up power - and, if it can't, what the future holds for China and the rest of Asia.

I recommend "The Tiananmen Papers" to all those who really have a passion to study China - anyone else shouldn't bother as they'll never get past the first dozen pages.

Never has there been a book more vivid and truthful at presenting the Chinese government, its top decision making process, and the agitation, determinations, intelligence, manipulations, and openness of its leaders. This is more than just a recording on the Tiananmen Turmoil, but a chronicle from which useful reflections can always be drawn, especially now. If the Chinese Government, can be brave as to accept this book, repents its ill-doing of the past, and embrace more political openness and changes in the future, we, 1.3 billion brothers and sisters, will be the happiest people on earth.

The more I read, the more I understand, and the more I pity our leaders, for their situations were so critical, futures so uncertain, and with all those uncertainties, had to decide nevertheless the directions of a whole country. You, from this book, will learn how human our leaders are, and how little we can complain, for us in the same situation would have done worse.

This is a great book, and those stated above are just some of my own judgments made upon these very wonderful information whose authencity there should be no doubts, but as all unbiased information are, you will make your own judgments too, which in comparison with the opinions here, would only make the book more interesting. But only to be aware, this is a long book with many details that you might not be very interested at, go to the New York Times Web site, and the excerpts they have there might be better.

I've read most of the Nina Reilly series, and this one is my least favorite. It took a while for things to really get rolling, and there were a few too many coincidences for the plot to be believable.

Obstruction of Justice is the third book in this series by Perry O'shaughnessy. In this book, Nina Reilly and DA Collier Hallowell go on a date hiking. First of all the date was a little weird, considering in the last book Nina and Paul had something going on. Anyway, while on their hike they witness Ray de Beer's death from a lighting crash. The death brings back old memories for Collier of his deceased wife Anna, who was killed in a hit and run accident. Collier hires Paul to try and find clues from Anna's death. In the meantime, Ray de Beer's son, Jason is indicted for murder, and Nina is defending him. As Paul and Nina find out, Anna Hallowell's and Ray de Beer's death are more related that one might think. Obstruction of Justice fits right in with the previous two books in this series, as all are hard to put down, and are great reads. In this book, the only problem I had was that the ending was a stretch and quite unbelievable. Other than that, Obstruction of Justice, is another winner from the O'Shaughnessy's.

Since this is the first Nina Reilly book I picked up, I have absolutely no complaints. I literally stumbled upon this book on a friend's bookcase, casually opened it up, and almost literally didn't put it down again until I had read the very last page.

My only question is: Where have I been? Why had I not heard of this wonderful series, and its equally wonderful authors, sisters Mary and Pamela ("Perri") O'Shaugnessy? If this is, as some of the reviewers say, the "weakest" in the series, will I survive the strongest?

The story takes place in scenic Lake Tahoe, where sleazy casinos vie with gorgeous mountains and stately pines for attention. The night are dark and starry, and the days...well it depends who you are. For struggling attorney Nina Reilly, who is living with her brother and sister-in-law when the book begins, the days are full of crime and conspiracy. So she decides to hike a nearby mountain with a man who interests her: deputy DA Collier Hallowell. Collier is still mourning his wife, killed a few years earlier by a hit-and-run driver who was never found. Nina has some vague idea of bringing him into the world of the living.

But before that can happen, the two encounter a family that puts the word "dysfunctional" to shame. It consists of blustering Ray DeBeers, given to abusive language, his fearful wife Sarah, his gorgeous twins Jason and Molly, and a family friend. A storm comes up, Ray is hit by lightening and killed--and the action begins, not to stop until the very last word of the very last sentence.

Was Ray's death really an accident? Is his death somehow connected with the death of Hallowell's wife? And what of the mysterious, ethereal artist Kim Voss, she of the indoor cactus garden? Add in a genuine grave-robbing, a mysterious gardeners, stolen cars, people who won't talk, people who talk too much, and a brilliant teen who may or may not be connected to the DeBeers family, and the action is fast and furious. Nina, her sidekick and sometime lover, PI Paul van Wagoner, Hallowell himself, Nina's Native American secretary and a host of lesser characters try to solve a mystery that simply compounds upon itself like a cancerous cell. In the end, nobody is untouched or unhurt by the actions that unwind at dizzying speed.

I loved this book so much, I purchased everything else in the series I could get my hands on. Now my problem is: Do I go back to the beginning, and patiently catch up? Or do I read the next book in the series (whose teaser appears at the end of the paperback version), "Breach of Promise"? Stay tuned. This is one reviewer who is totally, happily, hooked.

This appeared to be a good book for beginners (I'm one!) until I began to have problems running the programs. After a few typographical errors I ran into more difficult problems in chapters 13 and 14 on functions. I first went to Que website to look for a list of errata but there was none. Later I went on line to a c/c++ newsgroup and got help. In the above chapters the functions in the examples should have been prototyped (declared before the main function) but were not. I would have more patience with this book if the publisher made some effort to correct these errors, other publishers do. This book will frustrate beginers rather than enlighten. I would not recommend this book.

This book should be the textbook for Beginning Computer Programming.

I am a relative beginner to programming. In the past, I have found programming tutorial books to be absolutely boring because they lacked examples. This book is ALL examples. It is a very good way to teach the language because at every stage of the learning process, I am forced to take an active role in the learning process. I am halfway through the book and I have already typed in about 20 mini-programs that have progressively become harder and more complex. The result is that I am naturally becoming comfortable with the C computer environment.

I just had to write a review for this book. It has helped me a lot in learning C programming. The examples are very clear and straight forward and the explaination are very description.

Buy it....I don't find much great books out there for C for beginners but this is the best.

Will

I was disappointed in this latest novel by Nicholas Evans because it was nowhere as good a story as his two previous novels, The Horse Whisperer and The Loop. I am angry because this had the makings of a "great" book and ended up being nothing more than a longer version of a Nicholas Sparks' novel. And, don't get me wrong - I enjoy a good Nicholas Sparks' book but not when I'm supposed to be reading a Nicholas Evans' book.

Set in Missoula, Montana and inspired by real life smoke jumpers, this book follows the lives of its three main characters Ed Tully, Connor Ford and Julia Bishop over a period of about ten years. Ed and Connor are best friends brought together by their love of life and interest in "smoke jumping." Ed is exuberant in nature while Connor is reserved yet they both complement each other. Julia is Ed's girlfriend and she will become another thing in which the two men share an interest. This will become a book about choices with loyalty and friendship being at its core.

Prior to this reading, I had no idea what a smoke jumper was and found out that there are only 400 of them in America. This is one of the reasons I always gravitate towards Evans' books - I always learn something from them. In The Horse Whisperer, I learned that people COULD talk to horses. In The Loop, I learned that the wolf is an endangered species and people invent elaborate traps in which to catch them. In The Smoke Jumper, I learned that these jumpers parachute out of planes into "fire areas" and have devised incredible ways of fighting and starving fires.

For the first 100 pages, I loved this book until it became a predictable love triangle. Girl meets boy, girl meets boy's friend, girl is attracted to friend, girl feels obligated to boy, tragedy strikes boy and girl until it becomes like every other book of this type that I've read. I enjoyed the beginning, which had to do with the fires, and the wilderness and the program for which Julia worked whereby they brought troubled teens into the open country and helped them find themselves. Once tragedy struck on the mountain, the whole emphasis of the book shifted to the point where some portions were not even plausible. If only the storyline would have continued in the smoke jumper direction, I would have been happy but, in the off-season, Connor is a photographer and spends his time taking pictures of atrocities in third world countries such as Bosnia and Uganda. This book then becomes a convoluted tapestry of puzzle pieces that the reader should be putting together along the way as the main characters strive to find some kind of happiness in their lives. Once the setting shifted from Montana to Africa, I lost interest and found everything from that point on just plain boring and unbelievable to say the least.

There are very few heroes in the world and this book had the ability to create a fictional one yet it failed, in my opinion, because so many of the choices made by the main characters were downright "stupid". Since the fires that the smoke jumpers put out are very damaging, they are also cleansing in that new growth will eventually appear. I'm sure this was probably the moral of the story but Connor's stint in Africa left me begging to get back on U.S. soil so this new growth could begin. While the characters in the end might have finally found self-fulfillment, this reader certainly didn't.

Having read some reviews prior to reading the Smoke Jumper I was prepared for the worst. Lucky we all have different tastes, how boring if we all thought the same because I enjoyed Nicholas Evans latest tale.
The Smoke Jumper certainly holds up with the best for a good portion of the book. The relationship between Ed, Julia and Connor is one of true friendship and the difficulties they all faced and how they dealt with them after the fire was truely sad.
Connor's exploits after were a little disjointed, or should I say the telling of them didn't sit well. But, this was a life story by Nicholas Evans and life doesn't flow along evenly either.
Yes, parts of the african theme weren't needed but then it's part of this story.
Overall, a good read by Nicholas Evans. Yes! I have to say a worthwhile read.

This is most of all a well-told tale of love, friendship, tragedy and triumph. Not new material at all: a love-triangle, a friendship that is challenged by disaster and love for the same woman, the adversities of life and finally fate working in a good way after all.

Since the "horse-whisperer" we know that Mr. Evans is a solid story-teller and takes his time to develop the lead characters. For this he spends the first half of the story on the beginnings of Ed's and Connor's friendship as smoke jumpers in Montana. At the same time he introduces us to Julia who is the central love interest. After a climactic forest fire there is a scissure in the story that I believe is well-placed. Just as the lives of these 3 people are changed dramatically, so are the pace and the main storylines of the book. Evans pulls this off, though, because his characters and settings are well-developed by his groundwork in the first half of the novel.

The book is an overall very good weekend, page-turner read.
Less one star for it is predictable after all.

The last in the "Section 31" series I read of the four, "Cloak" brings Section 31 to the Star Trek original series era. Now, I feel it only fair to warn that I have truthfully read nearly none of the original era books in the Star Trek line, and don't often pick them up.

The strengths of "Rogue" and "Abyss," however, made me decide to take the plunge and I'm glad I did. "Cloak" is a good novel, has an excellent place in the Star Trek continuum, but fell short in a few ways.

The characters were very well written, and with a depth I must admit I'd not attributed to the original series characters before. The author's choice to place this story in a timeframe near to some major events in the original series television episodes was a good one, especially on the front of Dr. McCoy.

However, "Section 31" barely seems to be involved in the book. Kirk and company find a runaway starship with a dead crew aboard, and try to unravel the mystery of its sabotaged state, but you don't even get a ghost of Section 31 until the near end of the book, and I was left feeling a little bit shortchanged - I'd rather expected to get a little bit more into the origins of Section 31 with this book, but this book delves the shallowest into the organization of all four books in this series.

All of that aside, I did enjoy this book. The inclusion of such things as the Omega Particle was excellent for continuity, and Spock's brush with the Romulan Commander was very well placed. If I could, I'd give this a "3.5" stars, not just 3.

After two rather disappointing novels (Rogue and Shadow), the Section 31 novels take a dramatic upturn in terms of quality and storytelling with S.D. Perry's third Trek novel in as mnay months, Cloak. Set firmly in Trek's third season, this novel does what the best Trek novels can and should do--take threads from various episodes and weave them into an interesting, intellignet story. The book succeeds in large part because we get to see some background to events that occur during the third season--most notably McCoy's finding out about his illness that we'll hear about in "For the World is Hollow...." and his coming to grips with that. We've got some nice character work done with Kirk and Perry attempts to explain just why Kirk had so many relationships the third season and does a pretty good job of it.

All of the original series characters are in fine form here. Each gets to contribue a little something to the storyline and the premise. Slipping into and out of Cloak is like seeing old friends--you get to remember things about them you'd forgotten. It's a wonderful and enjoying book that's just right for the summer reading season.

The first of four novels exploring one of the most controversial & hotly debated subjects by the fans. What the Enterprise crew uncovers will shake the Federation to its core, as the mysterious Section 31, the super-secret black ops arm of Starfleet, sets in motion plans that could bring the major powers of the galaxy to their knees unless Kirk & Spock can somehow contain a man-made disaster of cosmic proportions.

Anne Perry really knows how to tell a Victorian story. I've read all of her books (Pitt and Monk) and never tire of turning back the clock. Half-Moon Street is a wonderful story and a well written mystery. Though some may bemoan the fact that Charlotte was out of the picture (vacationing in Paris), I found that this did not detract from the story in the least (since, I have found that Ms. Perry sometimes contrives plots for Charlotte to "help").

I am always interested in the amount of research that Ms. Perry does and this book was quite well done. The information on photography at the time and how she connected it to the theatre and even a little Shakespeare thrown in was intriguing. The mystery was centered on censorship and pornagraphy and I thought it was interesting that these were problems faced over 100 years ago. I guess there are no 'new' problems, only new ways of looking at them (Pun?). I highly recommend Perry's work. But I think to truly enjoy you need to start at the beginning and read in order. This book in particular delved into old relationships (Mariah Ellison and Caroline Fielding) and someone who did not understand these characters from previous books might be lost.

Anne Perry takes to her soapbox in this primarily Thomas Pitt mystery. Usually aided in detection by his wife, Charlotte, Pitt must rely solely on the assistance of Sgt. Tellman when Charlotte travels to Paris with her sister. Pitt must identify the man found dead in a small boat, his wrists and ankles chained, the body dressed in a ladies' gown and left in a humiliating position.

Set adrift in the water, the man is first believed to be a missing French diplomat; however, Delbert Cathcart, a highly successful photographer/artist, is reported missing by his housekeeper who identifies his body.

The reason why anyone would want to murder a photographer and dispose of his body in such a way takes a backseat to the always sensitive issue of censorship. Perry places Charlotte's mother, Caroline, a widow who has remarried beneath her station to an actor, in the role of hostess to her late husband's mother, a condescending Victorian witch. While attending a controversial play, Caroline is introduced to Samuel Ellison, her late husband's long-lost and heretofore unknown half-brother. His existence is a surprise and a threat to the elderly Mrs. Ellison, who schemes to be rid of him.

The basic issue that connects the controversial play, Mrs. Ellison's secrets and Cathcart's death is censorship. How far should society go to protect traditional mores and values?

Perry does a wonderful job of presenting both sides of the censorship debate in a fair manner. Readers who are not fans of Perry or mysteries should give this book a chance if for no other reason than the volatile censorship issue which affects us today as much if not more so than it did Victorian England.

I loved the 20th novel in Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. Perry does an outstanding job with character development and weaving in history, social, and political issues. Not to mention the actual "mystery" part of the books. I always feel breathless when I finish one of Perry's books ---they are so dramatic and emotional.

Half Moon Street differs from the other Pitt books in that Charlotte and Emily are not in the book. Thomas and Tellman are investigating the death of a photographer, and in a sub-plot Caroline and her mother-in-law play an important role. I highly recommend the book to fans of mysteries and historical fiction.

I used to be a fan of Anne Perry's novels, especially the Monk series. However, for the last few years, I haven't bothered to read her new books, since they have become rather formulaic. I decided to pick up this one to see if anything has changed.

"Funeral in Blue" is another in the series of William Monk mysteries set in Victorian England. William Monk is a former policeman who is now a private investigator, and Hester Latterly, his wife, is a nurse who is married to Monk. In "Funeral in Blue," two women are murdered in the studio of an artist, Argo Allardyce. One of the women, Elissa Beck, is the wife of Kristian Beck, a respected physician with whom Hester has worked. The other woman is an artist's model. Both women were strangled, although the police have no idea why they were killed or who did it. Hester has a personal interest in this case, since her good friend, Callandra Daviot, secretly loves Dr. Beck and Callandra is anxious that he not be blamed for the homicides.

In an implausible scenario, Monk joins forces with his old enemy, Runcorn, a policeman who is in charge of the homicide investigation. Monk and Runcorn interview everyone who has a connection to the case, and ultimately Dr. Beck is arrested, since his alibi for the night of the murders doesn't hold up. In addition, it turns out that Dr. Beck had a strong motive for wishing his wife dead.

During the course of the investigation, Monk visits Vienna, Austria, to explore the roots of Elissa's relationship with Kristian. Elissa and Kristian had fought in the revolution that took place in that city thirteen years earlier. Complicating matters further, Hester's sister-in-law, Imogen Latterly, had a connection with Elissa Beck that may have a bearing on Elissa's death.

As is usual in Perry's novels, most of the book consists of a series of repetitious interviews in which the investigators try to ferret out who is telling the truth and who is lying. Nothing much happens until the end, when the murderer is finally unmasked. The solution is implausible and it comes completely out of left field.

Unfortunately, Perry does little to explore the relationship of Monk and Hester. The couple spends very little time together and Hester and Monk seem more like good friends than husband and wife. The characters in "Funeral in Blue" are rather bland and the pacing is slow. What Perry does well is describe the atmosphere of Victorian London. The city itself is the best and most lively character in the book. If Perry had imbued her characters with as much life as she does the city of London, "Funeral in Blue" would have been a much more compelling mystery.

Victorian era private investigator William Monk lost his memory in a London accident six years ago. He remade himself and his wife Hester is very proud of how her beloved has dealt with adversity. Hester studied nursing under Nightingale and assists surgeon Kristian Beck in the operating room.

When Kristian's wife and a model are killed in an artist's studio, Hester prevails upon Monk to investigate so that any stigma to her employer's name is removed. Unfortunately, Monk finds no evidence to clear him. Instead he finds many reasons why Kristian would want to kill his wife. The police arrest the doctor but his true friends rally around him and force Monk to dig deeper.

Anne Perry has written another fine mystery that captures the essence of Victorian England. Monk is at his best when he searches for the truth even if he is the only outside the police who feels Kristian murdered his spouse. Hester humanizes Monk by showing his compassionate side. Place FUNERAL IN BLUE on your book-shopping list if you want to read an excellent historical mystery by a talented author.

Harriet Klausner

I give the five stars for the exploration of the minds and hearts that Ms. Perry writes in Funeral in Blue. It's impressive that after more than a decade of writing these same characters, she always finds something else to bring to the light and explore, and thank God, nothing melodramatic like the things the mediocre writers resort to. We don't find out that Monk is the lost Duke of York, kidnapped at birth to replace a son lost to a Northumbrian fisherman and his wife. :-)

The characters skillfully have more brushstrokes painted within the outlines Anne Perry had written in books past, giving us more color and insight into them. I'm glad to see Monk taking up the quest for his past again--he seemed to have dropped the idea after "The Silent Cry", which somewhat annoyed me.

Hester and Monk appear to be settling into their relationship with more ease, but they haven't become complacent--there are still flashes of the sharp tongues we know they both possess. They have their roles at home worked out, and they're blessedly atypical, fitting those two perfectly.

Let's see. The mystery left me a little bit unsatisfied. I think this was more a character development novel of Perry's, rather than more mystery-oriented such as "Defend and Betray". For the most part, Perry seems to go for one or the other--rarely do we have lots of chracter development packaged tidily with a great mystery.

I've learned to accept that, and thus enjoy each Monk book. Predictably, the books since Monk and Hester's marriage have been more character oriented, and "Funeral" was no exception. I expected that, but the ending sort of came out of nowhere...that jarred me a bit. I somewhat expected the murderer to be who it turned out to be, but the ending seemed a bit quick and left me scratching my head in confusion.

Anyhow--I expected a character-development novel and got much more than I thought. So I can honestly give this book five stars--I think Ms. Perry looks more to develop her characters than to write the perfect mystery anyhow. Good entry in the series, and that's my two pence!