This is another good book for the Forgotten Realms line. Detailing the most famous of the (semi) secret societies. Also included are Harper NPC's the complete and slightly boring history of the Harpers, and other fun stuff. A must have for any Forgotten Realms DM.

This book is a must have for any game based in the Forgotten Realms setting.

This is one of the most coveted AD&D supplements of all time. Providing the in-depth source material for the incomparable Harpers, this 128-page book provides exclusive information on: the Code and its profound implications, the complete history of the Harpers, ways and powers of the Master Harpers, profiles on the most powerful Masters, lots of complete stats on famous characters, the High Heralds, allies and secrets, the famous, ever-veiled Haunts, new magic and spells, new magical treasures, nemeses, ballads, a new monster, and much more. This book has an unparalleled reputation for excellence - if you can, find out why!

The categorization is fresh and appealing, and the section on each plant has exactly the information I wanted. I would have liked a little more about the varieties listed as her "favorites." There aren't too many unusual plants, but this book is so nice to read and look at I've spent a lot of pleasurable time with it.

This book has all the things that it has taken me four years to learn through trial and error: what flowers bloom at the same time, what to do, when, and how, ideas for keeping clematis roots cool. :) Although it has a few design tips, its focus is mostly on individual plants. It has glossy two page spreads on 41 different plants, as well as sections in the front on general seasonal garden care and propagation. The information is concise, helpful, and manageable. You can look at the pages, enjoy the pictures, take what information you want and leave the rest. In the wintertime when there are no flowers outside, you can revive yourself with the the beautiful Dorling Kindersley photographs. Chemical fertilizers and insecticides are suggested occasionally, but most of the methods are organic. My only complaint about this book is that it is written for a slightly warmer climate than my own zone 6. This is not a complaint so much as a wish: I wish someone would write a book like this for my zone! Still, most of this information transcends hardiness zones and should be helpful to anyone who is starting a flower garden. Don't make the same mistakes I did, buy this book instead.

I love flower picture books, and this is one of my favorites. The photography is outstanding! I especially like the back instruction pages with sections devoted to topics such as winter flowers, fast growing flowers, flowering climbers, flowers for shade,scented flowers, flowers to attract butterflies, etc ...

Beautiful to set out on a table and instructional as well. A must for all flower lovers.

This is a brand new book by Paul Kidd, the author of numerous popular novels. The Rats of Acomar is fast reading, with vivid word pictures of the events taking place when the mythical Rats rise up to take what they feel is rightfully theirs. I enjoyed reading this science fiction, fantasy and could readily relate to how the mythical events described, really remind one of events actually taking place in real life. Only the players have been changed. Worth reading.

In the broken wasteland of Acomar, a land teeming with starvation and death, the rat Itheem live. Their bones litter the waste, fallen in the endless battles over territory and food. In terror of the Itheem, the canine Uruth built the great wall to keep them imprisoned in Acomar. But with the rising of an overlord, G'Kaa, everything is changing. The Itheem clans are uniting, planning to take the lands of the other races. But what can a free-spirited coyote, Tupan, her greyhound companion Surolf, the pony Hern, and the rebal rat Ra'sish do to stop them? A very good read, simultainously exciting, sad, and laugh out loud funny. Terrie Smith's illustrations are excellent as well. :-)

After reading Paul Kidd's other new book, "A Whisper of Wings", I did a search here on Amazon and came up with The Rats of Acomar. After the delightful experience I had with Whisper, I picked this one up at Barnes & Noble, too. Talk about a slam-bam exciting storyline that grabs you in its teeth and runs! This book is the first in a new series, and if they're all half as good as this one, I suspect it'll be one of the best sellers ever. This series is sort of like, well, a really COOL version of Brian Jacques' Redwall series... but with ten times the excitement and none of the boring food fetish that chokes his books (and their readers) from stem to stern. This story has it all... action, adventure, humor, great villains, quirky heroes and a rich, detailed world. Paul Kidd really seems to have a talent for bringing characters to life, which is only helped by all of the full-page illustrations in the book! You just never see that in most books these days. As a matter of fact, Whisper, Paul Kidd's other novel, was the only other book I've seen with that sort of thing in my last five years of reading. This book, and Whisper, are the two best Paul Kidd books I have read since "Mus of Kerbridge", from TSR. I totally recommend this book. Five gold stars!

"Under the Greenwood Tree" does not rank among Hardy's greatest novels, but it includes many moving moments and memorable characters. This first of the great series of Wessex novels introduces the reader to Hardy's beloved and changing countryside. The landscape and it's occupants are lovingly invoked, and the natural humour of the locals shines through.

In fact, the supporting characters are far more interesting than the hero and heroine. "Under the Greenwood Tree" is really a tale of young love, and although Hardy touchingly illustrates the yearning and naivete of his lovers, both characters remain at arm's length. This is particularly true of Fancy, the heroine, whose emotions do not become apparent until close to the tale's end.

Hardy would explore many of "Greenwood Tree's" themes more effectivly in later books, but this novel is more than just a warm-up act. The decline of English country life- one of Hardy's greatest themes- has never been as tellingly illustrated as in the sub-plot of the Mellstock Quire, and the contented, ironic ending rings as true as any of the fatalistic horrors to come.

The painter Poussin's famous title might stand as a rubric for this lovely book. Hardy views his cast of rustics through the prism of music: the old church stringed instruments choir is to be replaced with the spanking new organ. There is the added romantic interest of young musician Dave and the controversially female organist, Fancy Day.

This is a story of established customs breaking down through the interloper: a new vicar in town. Structurally divided into Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, it follows the natural rhythms of the earth and of society. Hardy revels in his descriptive powers.

Filled with nostalgia and that increasingly fashionable concept - "Englishness", and seasoned with wisdom and wit, this is truly fabulous - a mini-masterpice in a similar bag to, say, Mrs. Gaskell's "Cranford".

"Under the Greenwood Tree" was deservedly Hardy's own favourite among his novels.

This is one of my favorite Hardy novels! His vivid descriptions bring the rustic setting, characters, and customs to life. It's like peering through a window into a world gone by. The story weaves together love, social position, and the slow displacement of old traditions with modern conventions. A delightful read!

This book is good for people who have minimal experience with VB.NET and ASP.NET. It's very easy to read and understand and find what you need. With little background of VB.NET and ASP.NET, you will be able to write your first database driven web applications. This book is good as a starting point on the subject matter. The book goes through the items in short simple to understand paragraphs.

For experienced developers, you may want to skip the first two chapters. Chapter 2 gives an overview of realational database, how to use the database to retrieve and store the data. Chapter 3 covers methods for connecting to several different data source such as SQL Server, Excel, and XML. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 have lots of examples in reading and displaying the data using Data Reader and Data Set objects. All the examples in the book use Data Grid control for displaying the data. Later in the book, it discusses ways of using the data grid control for creating,inserting, editing, and deleting records. I tried several of the examples in the book and they worked fine. That is one thing I have come to like about the WROX press books is their examples are very understandable and easy to learn from.

Also, the experienced developer who is interested in learning the subject matter may find many other sections in the book boring because they will go through material they already know. It would be very nice to see a book such as this that can cover the subject for people who are already experienced as developers.

This book is well written and has the information that a junior programmer can use on his/her first programming language and the VB.NET/ASP.NET fundamentals for the experienced programmer to get a first look. ---Reviewed by Michael S.

This is a great book which covers most of technique to write an ASP.Net web application using VB.Net for database access. All the examples are quite easy to follow and understand. I highly recommend to any person who wants to learn and build web application.

It is not until you read a book that is dedicated to using databases in ASP.NET that you realize just how much there is to learn. This is a very readable & well structured book with excellent 'Try It Out' examples that provide easy to follow step-by-step guides.

Obviously understanding data readers, datasets, command objects and web server controls is vital but there are some rare and extremely useful chapters: componentization - leveraging class libraries for data access, performance, and a chapter that discusses Data-Driven ASP.NET application in the Real World that raises some very interesting issues; for example security tips, raising your own database errors & organizing your code.

The authors not only provide information that you would expect but they offer every encouragement to raise the bar by discussing ways to do things even better; for example 'A Better Connection String', creating Data Access classes, and fine tuning dataset & datareaders.

Unlike the other reviewers, I found this particular collection to range from truly awful to good; there is nothing spectacular here, though. Troy Denning, an FR author I usually enjoy quite a bit (and whose first two books in this particular series are excellent), delivers a plodding, predictable story that degenerates into standard fantasy fiction stereotypes without any significant characterisation. This is atypical for Denning, and for this reason I am likely more disappointed than I might have been had another author penned the tale. Salvatore and Cunningham, as usual, deliver satisfying tales with memorable characters. Jessica Beaven is, to me at least, a new contributor. In my opinion, this should be her last attempt. Her tale was disjointed, stylistically pretentious and without any storytelling merit whatsoever. While this may tide one over between "The Siege" and the forthcoming "The Sorcerer," it would be best to not bring too much hope for an overall satisfying FR experience with this particular anthology.

This book provides an entertaining read even with the occasional poor story thrown in. The Theme of the book is interesting and several of the stories more than do it justice. The story by Paul Kemp was exceptionally entertaining, and the Lisa Smedman story was also very good. Salvatore's characters are always interesting and, although short, his story was a fun read. There are several others that make the book worth purchasing also, just accept that there will be some stories that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief. This book does prime the pump of interest in the return of the Shadovar adequately to make this an anticipated FR event.

From Lisa Smedman's Netherese mystery tale to Peter Archer's Indiana Jones-esque reprise of a character from Realms of Mystery, Realms of Shadow offers a nifty tie-in which stands effectively apart from the polarizing Return of the Archwizards trilogy (personally I like the trilogy a lot, but plenty of you don't -- do not let that discourage you from buying this anthology). I particularly like Paul Kemp's story (watching this guy. He's going to be Salvatore-big some day), Elaine Cunningham's comedy and Richard Lee Byers' adventure tale set in the ruins of Tilverton. Ed Greenwood's story sets some kind of "sets of villains in one story" record with four - phaerimm, malaugrym, shades and Bleth/Cormaeril renegade Cormyrians.

I really like Beth's design's, since they are much more interesting than what you find at craft stores. If you know how much her kits cost you'll teach yourself to read charts. The main problem I have is the charts. She uses alot of similar shades and unlike some authors she doesn't use markings to differentiate them andit can cause a problem. Also it helps to get an Appleton shade card.

This is not a new book. Don't be fooled. It was published in 1992, and has been released with a new cover photo. Good as it is, don't buy it twice!

The patterns in this book are wonderful. They are not like the typical mass-produced commercial crap that's at every Mervyns in every town across America. The patterns range in size from pillows to small rugs. The colors are great. I recommend using the Appleton yarns.

I found this book to be very detailed in its descriptions of the North, and liked the fact that it leaves a few mysteries and potentially interesting sites here and there for you to embellish yourself. In doing this, I think it does a good job of giving you lots of details without restricting you.
The art and presentation are great. I liked the large fold-out map, however, I would have liked to have seen small shots of the relevant portions of that map in the "Lay of the Land" part of the text so that you could read the book without having to constantly refer to the large and unwieldy map. The map is nice and nicely done though, and I think it would be excellent for use in a game.
Anyway, I'd give it 4 stars because it was everything I expected it would be, gave me all of the information I was looking to get out of it, and was well done. It didn't blow me away, but it's a solid book and well worth the money.

this is an excellent source books which detail the silver marches, who are all the main players, and all of the alliances. it has great info on a lot of towns and cities, and gives a lot of needed background information to make a DM's life easier, and also lets players know how to best role play their characters as well. I also like it because the makers of D&D seem to have come up with two ways of making their products, one is a very nice quality of artwork..that is found in all of the forgotten realm books, and the three core rule books, and then their are the books like the 2nd monster manual and the epic level handbook...i don't understand why these are different qualities, but rest assured that the silver marches is the higher quality...about the only bad thing i would say about this source book is that it is not hardback, of which that i think we all prefer.

This is a well written supplement that is enjoyable to read for someone like me who has avoided the Forgotten Realms in all previous editions. For those already well versed in the Realms, I feel this probably sheds light on an area that has recently been developed, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, it balances crunchy stuff with background/story stuff, which I always appreciate. There is plenty of room for your own extrapolation of the material as well, as the author provides a rich playground for the imagination. If you're a fan of the new edition, I'd get this book. I hope more will come out like it.

BAH, HUMBUG-Written by Leigh Greenwood. Nate Jerome, an advertising exec, wanted to go somewhere hot for the holiday season, to get away from business, and the ice cold weather. But when he gets an invitation from his neighbor, Milly Thurston, to spend a cozy, passionate, holiday with her, it's an offer he can't refuse. 4 stars.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT-Written by Elaine Fox. When Susannah Murphy returns home for Christmas, she meets up with a late-night savior, who may just be the person who can teach her the true meaning of love and happiness. 4 stars.

BLUE CHRISTMAS-Written by Linda Winstead. Jess Lennox has had enough bad luck with dating, to know that she will NEVER, EVER date a musician. But when he meets up with Jimmy Blue, a handsome, up-and-coming one. She takes a chance on love, and may just have a happy ending. 4 stars.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the three stories in this holiday collection, and hope to read more by these authors. Fans of the holiday collection, "The Night Before Christmas" will relish in these stories.

Erika Sorocco

I know this was a short story but I did not want it to end. It was a nice way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Bah Humbug -

The first of three stories in this anthology, _Bah Humbug_ is a charming little tale reminiscent of Scrooge. Nate, an over-worked ad executive is fed up with Christmas and the endless number of decorations and hoopla that fairly scream, "You must love Christmas! You must love Christmas!" What he needs is a little Christmas cheer to pick him up. He finds that in his neighbor, Milly. She's like Ms. St. Nick -- totally devoted to all things Christmas but she doesn't have anyone to share it with. Nate's sense of humor will leave you in stitches and Milly's a hoot with her oversized joy of Christmas. They're completely opposite but so well suited for each other I was grinning from ear to ear. But, it isn't all wine and roses, sparks fly when these two get together! The ending will make you cry! Ms. Greenwood has a wit to her writing that is thoroughly refreshing. This story will have me searching for her other work. I really got a lot out of this little story. It was a great read and I'll be picking it up again come Christmas.

Christmas Present -

A cute quick read, this one didn't quite catch my attention like the first one. A story of old hometown rivals heats up with romance amid advice from a wizened old man that seems to know everyone in town. Starts off slow but does get better toward the end.

Blue Christmas -

What woman hasn't dreamed at least once in her life of being swept away by a wildly sexy musician? Jess lives the dream in this cute story by Linda Winstead. It'll make you cry and laugh and urge you to latch on to what you feel is right even if you think you shouldn't. Right on par with the first story, _Blue Christmas_ is a feel-good tale rather reminiscent of _It's a Wonderful Life_. It'll make you cry more than once and it'll make you feel warm and cozy no matter the time of year.

All in all, _Christmas Spirit_ is a remarkable little book filled with lovely Christmas tales. Suitable to read anytime, I'm sure I'll pull it out often and give it a read through again -- but I will also make sure to read it every Christmas to put myself in the Christmas mood.

A Library reference tool

The American Civil War must be the most written-about episode in U.S. history, with as many as 70,000 titles thus far and more appearing every day.
The sheer scope of the literature can be overwhelming. Where to start? The present work is an excellent jumping-off point, as it organizes the literature and research into eleven broad areas, then subdivides each into 47more specialized topics such as ordnance, social conditions, and economic factors, each of these then treated in a bibliographic essay by an expert on the subject.
The result is a feast for beginner and old hand alike, opening the entire literature for browsing or focused research. Woodworth and colleagues have produced a work of enduring value, which deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the Civil War.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

This is one of those books that at first glance you might say it's too expensive. But it is an investment. This is an in depth and scholarly look at multiple genres of Civil War books of all sorts, cogently described with insightful essays. It will save many readers many tedious hours of searching through OCLC and other bibliographies. (Simply for the price of a stay overnight in a downtown Marriot.) Seriously though this distllation of years of work by a lot of heavy weight scholars will save you many hours of tedious digging. If you cannot persuade your local university or public library to buy it then by all means do so for yourself. In addition the book includes a listing of the book trade members, both publishers and dealers, who specialize in the Civil War. Carter Rila