The Valley of the Shadow by Erich Anton Helfert is a narrative autobiographical history of the author's childhood experiences in Czechoslovakia, focusing on the years 1945 and 1946. The book chronicles the tragic decision to expel most of the minority German speaking population from Czechoslovakia after WWII. The book describes some of the most outrageous aspects of the expulsion including the confiscation of the German's property and most of their personal belongings in the process of the deportation. The author lived in Aussig on the Elbe (now called Usti nad Labem) in north Bohemia and he includes in one chapter a description of a dramatic and violent post-war conflict between the German and Czech speaking population in the city. This story is another descriptive example of how the Allies and the newly liberated peoples emerging from Nazi rule were over-zealous in meting out punishment and revenge against the Germans in the closing stages of the war and thereafter. A balanced biography describing some of the day-to-day experiences of the expelled population would be a very welcome addition since this is a chapter in history that we should understand and never repeat. Unfortunately The Valley of the Shadow overlooks all of the most important facts that led up to the expulsion and the book is filled with inaccuracies. The book begins with the post-war expulsion itself and then flashes back to the closing weeks of the war. Nowhere in the book does Helfert have anything to say about the six years that the Nazis brutally ruled conquered Czechoslovakia. Most educated sources estimate that 200,000-300,000 Czechoslovak citizens were killed by the Nazis in the war years, that under the rule of the Nazis the Czech population was not allowed to attend University due to their 'inferior' slavic status, etc. The war years under this regime were an era of indescribable terror and it was significantly worse in neighboring eastern countries such as Poland. In the book the author's family (Helfert's parents were Nazi party members) speaks critically of Czechoslovakia in the pre-WWII years prior to the invasion of the German army. The key fact is that the German and Czech speaking populations in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia enjoyed democracy, which was the first for these peoples in their history. Prior to the formation of the Czechoslovak nation in 1918 the populations of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia lived in the autocratic Austrian Empire, with some preferences shown to the German speaking population since the empire was ruled from Vienna. Unfortunately in the 1930s almost all of the German speaking population rejected Czechoslovakia and the democracy that had been formed, instead deciding that Hitler's promises of another great German Empire in the east, with a privileged status over the 'inferior' slavic (ie Czech and Slovak) and jewish populations was more important than democracy. The Valley of the Shadow neglects or distorts facts both general and specific. Nowhere in the book does Helfert discuss the general fact that the expulsions occured all over Central and Eastern Europe, in Poland, the Baltic States, Hungary, etc. The expulsions did not occur only in Czechoslovakia and they were encouraged by the victorious Allies (ie especially the communist USSR but also the UK and the US). The expulsion decision was made by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference and later further defined and confirmed in Potsdam in 1945. Unfortunately the nations in this region became over-zealous in the expulsion and many German speakers were harmed and some were even killed in the process. Also, specifically when the author describes the violent conflict in Aussig in July 1945 he fails to point out that fighting between German Nazi sympathizers (so called Werewolves at the time) and Czechs continued for months after the war. The unfortunate riot occured in this violent climate. The Czech population believed that the explosion at the refinery was the work of Nazi sympathizers. I cannot recommend The Valley of the Shadow because it lacks balance and misleads the uneducated reader. A more balanced and accurate narration of the events in this tragic period would have been much more effective in generating sympathy for the expellees and help us understand that indiscriminate revenge including violence and the dipossession of property, even following the most brutal, dehumanizing and violent oppression, is unacceptable. For those of you interested in a very good, balanced and accurate general description of this tragic time period, I suggest you read Die Vertriebenen, Hitler's letzte Opfer by Hans Lemberg and K. Erik Franzen.

According to the estimates of the Goverment of Germany and many mainstream historians such as William Shirer at least 12 million Germans and an untold number of Poles, Ukranians, Russians and citizens of the Baltic states were expelled from their homes in the wake of World War II. Almost 3.3 million Germans were expelled from the Sudatenland, the rest being expelled principaly from East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia. This land was carved up by Joseph Stalin. He took part for himself including Northern East Prussia and the city of Koenigsberg, today Kaliningrad. The rest was given to Poland as partial compensation for lands taken by Stalin when he invaded Poland in September 1939, after making a secret pact with Hitler. These lands were than "awarded" to Stalin by the victorious Allies in 1945. Most of the German civilian casualties in these expulsions were women, children and the elderly. There was neither plebecite nor self-determination for any of the peoples involved. The loftly principles of Great Britian and France, going to war to ensure "Poland's Territorial integrity" as well as the aims of the Atlantic Charter signed by the U.S. were discarded. Hitler's methods of ethnic cleansing and forced deportations of civilians that were condemned, justly so, as war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials were embraced by his enemies after the war. The history of the brutal acts of Hitler's regime has been told and hopefully will never be forgotten. This book "Valley of the Shadow" attempts to shed light on events that today are seldom discussed and carefully avoided in many academic circles as well as some history books in the west. My father was born in the German Sudatenland in the town of Graslitz, (than under Austria) in 1918. His people were denied self-determination promised by the treaty of Versailles and by fiat forced to live as second-class citizens in a new multi-ethnic state, Czechoslovakia, created by the Allied powers after World War I. The swift and final dissolution and separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia ten years ago is certainly evidence that the Germans were not the only group unwilling to live under Czech rule. The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclev Havel, has called on his people to critically examine their own history. He, amid a storm a criticism from some of his people, among others, has apologized for the expulsions, calling them a war crime. It is time for those who read books that painfully recount tragic events to decide whether they themselves truly reject Hitler's methods or embrace them selectively. I hope this book engenders discussion and thought provoking debate as well as further study of World war II and its terrible toll on the Sudaten Germans along with millions of others who suffered and died at the hands of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Christian Anton Lehrer, M.A.

I feel very greatful to the author for telling his families story to us. My mother was a child when her family was given the choice to either leave or die. Her parents avoided talking about the terrible journey on foot from the Sudentenland to Germany. The few fragments I know from their tragedy resonate with the story E. A. Helfert has documented in his sensitive and enlighting book. He has experienced the terrors caused by mens irresistible urge of indiscriminate revenge and his story is a warning from history. Yet his story is also one of hope and faith in the good qualities of human mankind. And when these qualities manage to surface in the midst of terror and dispair then they appear like loving miracles. I wished that more people of his generation would write down their lifes' story, so the younger generation can break this cycle of revenge and make miracles.

Lily's life hasn't been the same since she was changed into a vampire. Now in order to become human again she must defeat the evil Sang. On top of that tn order to save the town she must protect the people from Sang's evil creations. And surprisingly enough the change from human to vampire has had an affect on Lily's social life. She's no longer the outcast she once was and wants to celevrate that by having a party. But of course Sang has other things in mind... I found this comic to be just as good as the last. THe plot line is exciting and it makes you wonder "What's going to happen next." I hope that one day Mr. West and Mr. Ellis decide to pick up the pen again and create another comic for the series. I enjoyed it.

West's second (and, unfortunately, last) book in this series doesn't have all the exposition of the first, so he can get down to the nitty-gritty. The story jams, the art is solid and flows pleasantly. Why Scholastic stopped here is a real mystery!

I really enjoyed the first two books of Confessions; a wonderful story about a girl who's learning how to deal with being a teenager and a Vampire, and dealing with the "Forces of Evil"; don't you just love stories with that plotline?

Warren Ellis has done some really great work with Transmetropolitan, the Authority, and other comics, but this Thor story isn't up to his usual high octane output. Deodate's art is slightly above average and the concepts Ellis throws in are cool, but he injects this British hard-nosed cop who seems like a bad cockney Tarantino inspired tough guy who chain-smokes and acts really obnoxious in an endearing yet distracting manner. Possibly Ellis had to throw in a Brit to connect with the story on a personal level, but the character would've made more sense as an American as I don't understand why a British cop would be a tough guy since Britain's crime rate is about as high as Utah's. The Thor Ellis presents is struggling to survive and starts speaking without his Shakespearean oration and I gotta admit it was a refreshing change as you would think Thor would talk like some Scandanavian immigrant rather than Hamlet. The Norse Gods as aliens is also a cool idea (I'm not sure if it originates with Ellis though) and the idea of the Norse Gods "magic" being a form of advanced science that even they don't understand sounds interesting and worthy of more exploration. The new Enchantress with her still evident desire to sleep with the mighty Thor (there's even a joke about Thor's, uh, other hammer) makes sense as they are two immigrants, yet you'd think Thor would've adapted a bit more by now. The villain is a mediocre mad scientist type and I found Odin's brief appearances more menacing and kind of wish the All-Father was the real villain of the piece. As far as Thor stories go, this one's up there with some of Walt Simonson's work back in the 80s, but for Ellis it feels like some filler work that he did while killing time. Ellis probably would've made a bigger splash if he'd kept doing the writing chores, but alas he went on to bigger and better things. I guess Blondie's gonna have to wait for Simonson to come back or something.

Warren Ellis's take on 'Thor', who has always been, in my mind, fairly shallow, left me thirsty for more of his gritty, cynical approach to the character, which never came. The story in World Engine gives a feeling Ellis was setting up for a continued run on the 'Thor' monthly series. As a story, it's a fun read, with an interesting take on Norse Mythology, it just leaves you wishing there was more of it. If you enjoy Warren Ellis's work it's worth picking up.

The Mighty Thor has had his ups and downs over the past years and this is one of the high points. Unfortunately, Marvel never let Warren Ellis continue on the book past this point as Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return took over. This is a gritty version of Thor that is very human. The artwork is wonderful and this would have been a great series had it continued.

Be sure you understand all the elementary calculus principles backwards and forwards, all the properities of logs and natural logarithms, all the trigometric identies and properties, differential equations, and have a strong math background. This book lacks explaination. It statements are very broad and followed by very few select examples that are partially worked out. Be sure to understand the vocabulary of mathmatics. I found the concepts of advanced calculus rather easy but the way the books expresses the material makes the course first appear impossible. Each problem should take no longer than 10 minutes tops. Some students in the class spent hours for several nights in a row working 1 or 2 problems. This is a waste of time.

I am no expert in the area of Mathematical Analysis, but I am an avid reader of any book that pertains the subject. I found this book in my schools mathematics lounge and could not resist reading it from cover to cover. This book is of the quality of such authors as Buck, Widder, Courant, and Rudin. As another reviewer has noted, this book is definitely worth every penny. It is not dry or to pedantic as some of the other afore mentioned authors, yet it is not simple and lacking in content. Of course like any quality Advanced Calculus book it requires the reader to have mathematical maturity as well as patience and the drive to self-explore the concepts. If one cannot follow simple examples and from those examples formulate their own, they may want to review the very basics of mathematics or consider a different major. I would highly recommend this book to advanced undergraduates or beginning gradutes students as a reference book or for self study.

This is the advanced calculus text I used at University of Washington while getting my BS in mathematics. I loved it then, and I've just purchased another copy to use for review. It's extremely well written. If you're looking for a good second year calculus text, this one's it.

... I was expecting a lot more from it. I think it is a shame that Portugal's anti-terrorist wars in Africa (Independence movements?? B.S!) where badly studied. And being portuguese, I could also sense some "white kaffir" mentality surfacing.
But the photos are quite good.
The book itself is little more of a colection of photos and some stories joined together without method.

I acquired this gem from my favorite used bookstore in Denver and am sure glad I stumbled on it! For anyone out there interested in the history of conflict in modern day Africa this has to be on your bookshelf. A great set of photographs from the beginning of the helicopter era coupled with good background from organized military sources and Mr. Venters own hand makes for a great read. The Rhodesian and South West African sections were eye-openers for me. The writing style is unique - a set of "articles" strung loosely together - and easy to read. I can't wait for Mr. Venters' next book.

This is, like most of Al J. Venter's stuff, a _MUST GET_ book.

This book explains very well the features of Fortran90 programming, but it is way too pedantic. I would have preferred a more concise, O'Reilly style of writing. Many examples of very simple code are provided to illustrate points - I found them to distract from the points being made. The book could also have benefited from a more Object Oriented focus as many of the new features of F90 over F77 are attempts to move Fortran in this direction.

Well written detailed coverage of Fotran 90. Clear explanations of obsolete F77 features and other features of the language to avoid using and why. I would recommend this text to anyone wishing to learn F90 from scratch or upgrading from F77. Good example programs, code fragment and many programming exercises with solutions. I am now enjoying the use of derived types and generic functions as well as extending the intrinsic functions.

This is one of the best books on Fortran 90 programming. Its major strength is that the information in the book is reliable and correct. It may especially be very useful for experienced FORTRAN 77 programmers. I think every Fortran programmer must have a copy of this text in his/her library.

This is a basic and simple cook book for children. It makes a nice quick read for kids and adults. Unfortunatly not all the information is accurate. In a few of the passages you will find the "politically correct" version of history slipping into place. For a quick lesson in colonial food it does an okay job, but for any type of true indepth look- look elsewhere.

Hasty Puddings...is a TERRIFIC book for both adults and kids, in or out of the classroom. I found the history absolutely fascinating and the recipes are classics and well worth having in any kitchen or classroom. Don't miss this book...it's a wonderful blend of history and recipes!

This book is an excellent way to teach history through hands-on activities. Kids will not even realize they are learning about our colonial history while they are reading this fascinating account of the food eaten during this time period. Kids will learn about the dangers of fireplace cooking (many women burned to death because their dresses would catch on fire), the origins of "Soul Food", and the paramount importance of the Native Americans to the survival of the first colonists. It it written for nine to twelve year-olds so it fits perfect with the fifth grade social studies curriculum but my eighth grade students also love it. Students can use it for their eighth or fifth grade US History project presentations. They can present the history of colonial cooking while serving Johnnycakes or Peanut Soup.

This is the second in the Inspector Felse series. Unfortunately Ellis Peters has written pages that are full of descriptions of emotional trauma and "angst" of the protagonists as well as waxing lyrical with metaphysical insights. There is no doubt that characters need to be 3-dimensional, as well as scenes and situations to have reality and flavour, but Ellis Peters seems to have over-done it. Readers can skim through some of the more esoteric paragraphs without losing the thread. Despite this, the book does have suspense, a good plot and enough action to hook in the reader and, of course, a surprise ending. Having read it, I don't really want to read it again.

Across the heath to war I fare
The great green heath so broad and bare
For there, where the splendid trumpets blare and thunder
There is my house, my house the green turf under.

Such is the closing stanza of Maggie Tressider's personal translation of "Where the Splendid Trumpets Blow", made when she first began learning her concert repetoire. Contraltos, as her friend and colleague Tom Lovell is wont to say in his more sour moods, are liable to find themselves expected to sing a lot of Mahler.

Sharing the driving en route to a concert in Liverpool, Maggie hits a patch of slick clay at forty, and the last thing she's aware of is her own voice, lamenting "My God, what have I done, I've killed Tom." Even upon awakening in the Royal Hospital in Comerbourne after nearly dying in surgery, and being assured that Tom escaped with only a mild concussion, Maggie is filled with a foreboding shaken loose by the shock of the accident. Her surgeon, a great admirer of her music, persuades her to confide in him, as one artist to another who wishes to keep his work from being wasted. She's haunted by the feeling, too foggy to be quite a memory, that at some time, she failed someone so badly that he died.

Her surgeon (meaning to tactfully steer her onto a therapist's couch), suggests, "Suppose someone else, someone who makes a job of that kind of thing, took over the stone-turning for you?" And Maggie grasps the idea with both hands - and gets him to put her in touch with a good private detective.

Enter Francis Killian, a battered Korean War veteran, who mostly takes on impersonal investigations involving lots of paper: research for writers, tracing witnesses, searching records for lost details. Noting that Maggie always speaks of her victim as 'he', Francis begins combing through her past for the great turning points of her life, and looking for any young men she might have associated with before immersing herself completely in her concert career. Her serious study began with Dr. Paul Fredericks; as one of his star pupils, she accompanied some of his twice-yearly European tours ('Freddy's Circus'). And on her last such trip, there was one difference: Bernarda Eliot Felse, rather than Freddy's sister, served as chaperone.

Enter Bunty Felse and her husband Inspector George Felse. Bunty had noticed a change in Maggie on the trip, turning her back on everything in life but music. And one troublesome young cellist, Robert 'Robin' Aylwin, walked out on the Circus in Austria - left the hotel, the Goldener Hirsch, and never returned. A hotel in a little town at the exact center of a lot of illegal activity along several borders, including another of George's missing person cases. And George, as a professional stone-turner who *hates* loose ends, suggests a little vacation, to see if Francis flips over the right stone to answer everyone's questions.

Did Maggie have anything to do with Robin's fate? Or could he himself have flipped over the wrong rock one summer night, and turned up something deadly?

Bunty has a larger role in this volume than in some of the cases set earlier in the Felse marriage. Their son, Dominic 'and his Tossa' are away in Yugoslavia (possibly _The Piper on the Mountain_) and don't enter into the story. Maggie Tressider, the woman with an archangel's voice whose face carries more force than any photograph can convey, dominates the story, however. After her ranks Francis, who's being forced to feel again after so much digging through her emotional history, looking for someone who could have made her feel so guilty. The supporting players are also very well drawn: surgeon Gilbert Rice; Friedl, an otherwise beautiful woman cursed with a harelip, one of the family who runs the hotel; and who can forget the platoons of drunken Austrian wedding guests infesting the hotel late in the story, getting in *everyone's* way as a search is undertaken. :)

I like romances, I like mysteries, I like the combination of the two. This is both mystery and romance, light on the romance, even light on the mystery until you're drawn in and trapped. Ellis Peters's description and prose move the story along unobtrusively yet with no stalls. A touch above the usual.

I'm a serious student of alternative history and was looking in earnest to read Ellis' book, because it has been footnoted by some big names in the field.

What a disappointment! This book might be of some interest to engineers and people who love to play with numbers, but it makes zero sense historically. Not only is Ellis' final concluclusion absurd, but the length of time it takes to get there is far too long. The writing is clumsy and the thoughts convolulted.

This is one time I'm sorry I spent the money.

I found this book to be a fascinating publication.

Mr Ellis certainly has done an enormous amount of research, both in the libraries, and in the field.

I found that the central theme of the book ties in very closely with arguments put forward in publications by Robert Bauval, Robert Temple, Graham Hancock, Maurice Cotterell, and others. In fact, it is very believable, unless one is unable to discard the dogma of centuries of archaeological and religious indoctrination.

The central theme (theory) certainly gives us a different view of the possible meaning of the Pyramids, and Stonehenge

It is a great shame though, that the proofreaders seem to have "slipped up", and enjoyment of the book is marred by a plethora of spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Perhaps in the reprinted edition......?

All in all, a good read if you have an open mind.

Nice to see something very new and exciting in this field of research. Well researched and very provokative thoughts on the history of manking - I like it.

Have read all the books, stories, coverage etc. on Tom Jones and still yet have to add to that.I have had a personal, Close - up and personal experience with him that affected my whole life (possibly for the better) and am looking for a ghostwriter to write my story.It has never been told and might give a new light on him and his life. Serious ghostwriters can e-mail at:nydiamond31@hotmail.com

I purchased this book from a used bookseller thru this site, and was pleasantly suprised at how quickly it arrived. It was in very good condition, complete with dust jacket. I have to agree with a previous reviewer that indeed, some things may have been better left unsaid or unpublished. However, one must remember that no matter how much we may idolize and idealize our favorite entertainers, in reality they are just human beings like the rest of us. My initial impression after reading the book was, hmmmm, I don't think I like Tom Jones quite as much as I thought I did for the last 30 years or so. However, the book contained a lot of interesting information about the life and career of a truly great and unique entertainer. Now I'm waiting for reviewer "nydiamond" to get her story published, as I'm fairly certain I can guess who she is.

This 'tell all' book about the great Welsh singer is an excellent read. It traces Jones' legendary rise to superstardom but also includes stories about TJ super fanatics like Pastor Jack J. Stahl, who was named the 'Strangest person in America' for worshipping Jones. This Biography is like none other you will ever read. If you are a fan of Jones & want to know what he is really like 'Close Up', than this is the book for you!