Some readers of Beverly Nichol's books have found his writing hilarious, but I do not. I find him amusing, and have read the trilogy plus his GREEN GROWS THE CITY because they sustained my interest, but he is not P.G. Wodehouse or John Mortimer for that matter.

I cannot judge from Nichols books whether or not he had a particularly deep understanding of human nature. From time to time, he allowed himself to be drawn into odd misadventures with eccentric others, and he certainly had his conflicts with busy-body females, and as often as not he had charming female friends. His best friend in the world seemed to be Gaskin, his 'man' and his cats.

The central theme of MERRY HALL, the first book in his trilogy, is the restoration of the grounds and gardens at his old Georgian Estate. LAUGHTER ON THE STAIRS covered the renovation of Merry Hall--the Georgian Manor house. His third book, SUNLIGHT ON THE LAWN, has people as it's focus--those who inhabited the area in and around Merry Hall when Nichols lived there in the late forties and fifties. First, there is the sad departure of Oldfield whose gardening days come to an abrupt end. Then, there are various episodes involving the ever meddling Rose, tea with Miss Mint, fractious neighbors, overgrown fields, and wells without water.

As always, in a book by Beverly Nichols, there are cats. Nichols had a great love of black cats, and the cats often play a role in one of his tales. Most of the time the story is funny, but sometimes a cat meets a sad end. If you are a cat fancier, you may find his cat exploits familiar and amusing. This is a nice book for bedtime reading and a fitting end to the series.

Beverley Nichols had a rare talent. His writing is witty and humane and perfect for relieving the stress of life lived in the modern world. When you read this book you will be saddened that only two others of his sixty odd minor masterpieces are still in print. Buy this book if you love gardens, or old houses or simply reading well written stories, some of which are laugh out loud funny. Beverley Nichols writes like Oscar Wilde, except his subject is gardening and old houses and the curious people who dwell in them.

This is the third book in the Merry Hall trilogy; a hilarious series of books written by a "proper" British gentleman about the trials and tribulations of finding, remodelling and decorating his home and garden. The books are heaps of fun, filled with his beloved flowers and cats, as well as, rival gardeners and nosy neighbors (if looks could kill! ). Altough his trilogy is chiefly known for its superb humor, it often astounds with deep insight into human nature, and many a times it tugs at the heart strings (I ended up shedding a few tears over each book). I read "Merry Hall" (my 1st Beverly Nichols book) about a year ago, after which I was compelled to read all of his works (which in most cases meant searching for out of print books). I highly recommend the entire trilogy to anyone who wants to laugh.

I have the original 1991 walkthrough, on Console Xpress, a British magazine, for the SNES, which has detailed maps, the maps are extremely useful for anticipating obstacles, jumps and enemies, other then that, this updated guide is very good.

Super Mario World-one of the bect games for GBA, but quite large.
This book-helps you find every exit, beat evey boss, and finish the game!

This is an awesome guide for anyone who has Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. I got this book when I was stuck at a certain level and it helped me beat the level. This book has info on all enemies, all the secret exits, all the dragon coins, and info on how to beat every boss. It also has very detailed walkthroughs. This is a must-have book for anyone who owns this game!!!

A great book for beginners and a quick refernce for the intermediate users. Authors have maintained a good flow with easy to understand examples. The only drawback - the book has not been updated / revised or published after 95. Despite this shortcoming an excellent resource to learn SQL.

I knew little about SQL when I picked up this book, but I have learned exactly what I needed for my project. I am still using it for reference sometimes. A good book to learn about SQL syntax!

Good examples that really worked for me. I really enjoyed the book. The book was well written and structured with all levels of programmers in mind. I reccommend this book

What happens when business people start to act like 5 year olds at the playground - I'm taking my ball and going home. This is a great story about the desire of American Express to move into the world of private banking and the bank they tried to by - Republic Bank run by Mr. Saffra. Not only does the book provide us this weird story but also it gives the reader a great back ground on these two companies - the American Express information was very interesting. The story of the two companies coming together and then having a lovers spat is just darn interesting and a little tabloid TV. The book keeps your interest and is a nice little find if you pick it up.

Burrough's fabulous research is rarely matched, the marvelous style is consistent with his previous work on 'Barbarians at The Gate'. Few business authors will thrill you as much as Burroughs or James B. Stewart.

The story of how the custodian (Jim Robinson) of one the worlds most recognized names, American Express launched a defamation campaign against a Swiss banker (Edmond Safra). Their efforts would've succeeded if they didn't rely upon an eccentric master of PR (Harry Freeman), a neurotic conspiracy theorist (Susan Cantor) and what could only be described as weasel of a man (Tony Greco)to execute it all.

The portrayal of Safra as an innocent is a bit misleading. Admittedly he took advantage of his post holocaust Jewish peers by purchasing their gold for obscenely below market prices to resell at market prices. In addition, Safra isn't without blame in American Express's paranoia that he would exercise unscrupolous tactics himself.

Read the book to find out why.

I am a fan of the authors writing in general. If you're a person who enjoys reading stories in the Wall Street Journal etc then this book may very well be for you (the author works at WSJ).

This is a fascinating story of international intrigue and business. The author provides historical background for both AmEx and Mr Saffra and then proceeds into the meat of the story.

What's interesting here is that the Vendetta alluded to in the title raises some serious ethical questions on the part of some folks. All I'll say is as you read it do a name search on the web and see where some of them are today, it's not the poor house and it's not jail either.

The book exposes high finance, high power, bare knuckled business street fighting taken to an internation stage.

This book is a very easy read. It is spiritual, but Poetry. The thing I look for in a book is that I see thru the authors mind while reading, and this book does that. I think you will find yourself reading it more than once. I found it as relaxing as YOGA

This book is wonderful in expressing the spiritual seasons of your life. This book is for those people who like to think and be challenged by what they read. An awesome start for a very talented young man.

This book provides inspiring and motivational messages that promote awakening of spiritual insight within me. It illustrates the importance of living life to its fullest. It's practical and able to be understood by most.

Bought the book...readit...liked it...recommend it

I wanted a book that would help me check out the capabilities of my ISP and to determine if we were in the vanguard or lagging behind. The book gave me the information I was seeking and I highly recommend it.

Christopher Bryan's modest, probing reflection on how to read Scripture was a fun read -- that sounds flippant, but I found his prose style entirely accessible and his witness welcome. The book doesn't go into a lot of depth; it's aimed at a general Christian reader. But his words lend assurance to those of us who search Scripture for truth and for a guide to our faith journey -- a journey that tries to navigate between the contortions of literal readings and the iconoclasm of liberal theology. He is especially cogent when he proposes how the Lambeth Conference should have approached searching for meaning in Scripture -- a love-inspired, serious approach other denominations grappling with issues of the day could learn from. I look forward to reading more of his work.

And God Spoke: The Authority Of The Bible For The Church Today by Christopher Bryan (C. K. Benedict Professor of New Testament at the School of Theology, University of the South) is a serious, yet highly accessible study of how the Bible is to be interpreted in today's modern world. Viewing the Bible as revelation, canon, authoritative and the Word of God, and applying its studied wisdom to making tough choices, And God Spoke is a profound and highly recommended theological wake-up call vividly summoning the reader's attention to the textual core of Christian holy belief.

Whether you're an ardent fan or a bitter foe of world-renowned atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, once widely known as "the most hated woman in America," you've probably read most of what Bryan Le Beau's biography has to tell you already, whether it's in O'Hair's own books, such as "All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists -- With All the Answers," in her elder son William J. Murray's critical autobiography "My Life Without God," or in other third-person accounts of her life's work such as Lawrence Wright's "Saints & Sinners." I credit the author with bringing together a comprehensive compilation of facts, figures, observations, and quotations, but unfortunately not with presenting a unified portrait of a major figure of late 20th-century American free thought.

Le Beau's exposé begins promisingly enough as we're treated to invaluable excerpts from O'Hair's diary entries covering the early days of her adult life, when she was still wrestling with many of the iconoclastic ideas that would later make her famous, and which are more a part of our present worldview than most people probably want to admit. She left her first husband for another man during the conformist McCarthy era, for instance, nearly twenty years before such behavior became socially acceptable, and refused to marry the father of her second son because she considered him her intellectual inferior. The book shows us the genesis of her mission against the influence of organized religion in the lives of unbelievers as well as her family's exodus from persecution and hostility. All too quickly, however, we move into the realm of religious polemics and lose sight of the colorful personality behind the Murray (and later O'Hair) family's struggle to protect what Madalyn regarded as her First Amendment right to freedom not only of but also from religion. She had only begun her fight when she won her 1963 landmark victory in the Supreme Court to have mandatory prayer and Bible reading removed from America's public schools, and wasn't about to stop there. By the book's midpoint, quotes from O'Hair's radio and television broadcasts are presented out of chronological sequence without a unifying theme that might show us more of the real motivation behind the message. In William Murray's autobiography, which for the most part depicts O'Hair as a heartless villainess, she at least emerges as a three-dimensional flesh-and-blood human being who for better or worse held sway over a coterie of non-conformists and freethinkers who, apparently like her son, began to resent and ultimately to rebel against the extent of her influence. He honestly exposes his own flaws as well, at least up to a point, explaining how he virtually abandoned his daughter to his mother's care as he struggled with drugs and alcohol. For him, religion was the cure-all. For Madalyn O'Hair, we learn, it was just another soporific intoxicant best avoided by responsible individuals. Le Beau's analysis presents Madalyn O'Hair more as the often cold, analytical brain behind the operation than its warm, pulsing heart, even though it offers us random detailed glimpses of her emotional vicissitudes -- courage, bitterness, determination, panic -- and while it is more impartial than Murray's book, it never takes us very far beneath the surface. We learn little about O'Hair's second marriage, which lasted more than a decade, or her relationship with her family after her notoriety began to wane in the 1980s, when her son William became a Christian and when she began to alienate many of her former supporters with her increasingly outrageous behavior. Even most of those who stood by her to the end are only mentioned in passing.

For nearly eighty pages (and through more than the usual number of typographical errors), Le Beau's O'Hair remains only a figurehead to us, even as he discusses her mysterious disappearance in 1995 and her eventual murder, which even those who had long hated her found inexplicably brutal. Even though we may admire O'Hair as an indefatigable pioneer of secularism (or hate her as a foul-mouthed exponent of irreligion), we only occasionally feel we really know her as the driven human being she unquestionably was. While the astute reader can discover how O'Hair managed to distill the ideas of other freethinkers from Socrates to Carl Sagan into a refreshing elixir of liberating unbelief, the book remains more journalism than true biography. If you like cold facts, though, presented dispassionately, this is the book for you.

and then there is the truth. Bryan Le Beau gets to the truth beautifully in this informative and interesting book.

Trying to understand Madalyn Murray O'Hair was always difficult. Her message was sometimes lost in the chaos of her showmanship. Le Beau presents quotes and arguments in a cohesive form that help the reader understand her point of view in a way that eliminates all the emotional button pushing that O'Hair needed to do in order to get the attention of the press. Without O'Hair's personality interfering with her message it becomes infinitely easier to understand what the message actually was and how the prevailing mores of the time affected the various media, and even personal, events in O'Hair's life.

I found the examination of O'Hair's controlling personality and it's effects on her life and her cause particularly interesting and it was presented in an unbiased way - something that is rare when reading and trying to understand about O'Hare and her views. The historical overviews of Madalyn Murray O'Hair's lifetime were nicely written and ultimately necessary to fully understand what it was that was propelling O'Hair through her life.

After reading "An Atheist Epic" by Madalyn Murray O'Hair and "My Life Without God" by William J. Murray it was difficult for me to really understand where the truth lies. I was pleased to find it in "The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair".

The author put a lot of "facts" in this book. However, there are few explanation and no references. He describes many detail specifications that makes this book read as more likely a handbook. It's so easy to find out the differeces if we compare it with Tananbaum's or Stallings' computer network books, the laters are written in a teaching oriented form that readers are guided to understand basic theory and architecture. And of course, there are numerous references for both students and instructors to find out where those contents are originally from, or what to read for further studies. The lack of refernce is a big drawback for Carne's book. It's really abnormal. No matter if I were the instructor or the student I won't pick this book for textbook or self-learning. Even if I need handbook for reference, I'll choose either Freeman's books or just get a Newton's Telecom Dictionary for fast check. By the way, the graphs in the book are really rought and ugly.

I had to come up to speed on the current telecom technology now. This book answered my needs with a thorough intro to the latest technologies including (gasp!) clear illustrations and enough detail to convey understanding without drowning me in arcane details. The glossary is especially well done. It is not a simple minded survey leaving out the important details; instead it provides clear definitions and directs the reader who needs more info with useful references.

It is indeed a primer. If you need all the hideous (glorious?) details, get Freeman's magnum opus.

I have looked at many books that cover a wide variety of topics in telecom but didn't find one that covered everything and gave functional details. Digital Telephony (by Bellamy) is good if you are solving differential calculas problems and it still does not give enough details (functional engineering wise).

The title says PRIMER but it is a good detailed reference also and illustartions and diagrams are very helpful. I am writing as a telecom software developer ofcourse.

This 656 p. compendium is the most comprehensive English-language chronology I have found in an intensive search over the past several years. Focused on science and technology, it has more than twice as many scientific events than the Grun "Timetables of History" compilation (which deals with many more fields). It divides its subject by General, anthropology/archaeology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, math, medicien, physics, and technology, each presented in separate columns, using the same style as the Grun chronology. Unfortunately, the last publication was around 1991, and we badly need an update. Though the expansion of science may complicate things, the tremendous advance in electronic communications means that editors could upgrade this volume in a fraction of the time required for the existing editors - at least from an operational point of view. So come on, publishers, take up this attractive challenge. One should mention that there is another formidable challenger in the field - the massive German Chronik der Technik. But it too is out of print.

What you see is what you get with this book,and that's plenty. It's a great aid to teaching science,because it helps students more easily and quickly visualize when and where and to a small degree, how various scientific discoveries were made.What I like most about it is that the book doesn't make the assumption that science existed only in the West. Discoveries in the East,Middle East and even the Americas are mapped in "Timetables". To be honest I wouldn't have bought this one for private use but it's invaluable in a classroom setting.

I would really recommend this for classroom use, or perhaps to add to your school library. It begins with a few pages, organized in a separate row for each division of (first) a few hundreds of thousands of years, in the Stone Age; then every few hundred years, during the age of Sumer and Egypt; every few years, as you leaf through the days of Greece, Rome, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, and eventually it works up to having multiple entries in each category for every single year that goes by. I should note that this not nearly as eurocentric as my last few sentences might suggest -- there's plenty of material about developments in China, the empires of Songhay, Mali, etc. in Africa, the Islamic world, the Incas and Aztecs, and so on.

The headings include Anthropology/Archaeology, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathematics, Medicine, Physics, and Technology. The book is subdivided into several sections --

1.) Science before there were scientists: 2,400,000-599 B.C.

2.) Greek and Hellenistic science: 600 B.C. -- 529 A.D.

3.) Science in many lands and medieval science: 530 -- 1452

4.) The Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution: 1453 -- 1659

5.) The Newtonian Epoch: 1660 -- 1734

6.) The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution: 1735 -- 1819

7.) Nineteenth century science: 1820 -- 1984

8.) Science in the twentieth century through World War II: 1895 -- 1945

9.) Science after World War II: 1946 -- 1988

10.) The coming era: 1989 -- 2000 (Yes, 1988 is the last year that this book covers. I don't know why they haven't updated it. This is a flaw, of course, but I stand by my five star ranking, because anything that recent can be looked up on the internet, etc.)

Each section is prefaced by a helpful essay, to place matters in context. Also, there are many small "boxes" interspersed throughout the text, to give more complete information on particular figures.

I don't think this book has quite as much material as Bernard Grun's "Timetables of History", but it's layout is better, and more helpful. I think this book is worth having.