Here is the answer to all those who have vowed each New Year to read the Bible but can't get past Eve's pluck of the forbidden apple. In clear, charming prose that stays true to the rhythm of the Bible itself, the author tells all the great stories of the Old and New Testaments. Hurlbut's greatest triumph is the clarity with which he presents each story in the Bible's great continum. God tells Noah "I am going to bring a great flood of water on the earth, to cover all the land and to drown all the wicked people..." and finally you understand why those 40 days and 40 nights it rained like cats and dogs (to kill all the bad people who are God's first experiment with humanity on earth). Of Methuselah he writes "and we do not know anything about Methuselah, except that he lived to be nine hundred and sixty-nine years old, which is longer than any life of any other man who ever lived." Simple enough. Now we know how his name came to symbolize an aged man, and we need look no further for deeper meaning--it isn't there.

Hurlbut's Story of the Bible was the first and best comprehensive "Bible story book" I read and re-read. As an adult it remains my favorite and now I am sharing it with my own children.

Hurlbut's tells all the stories you remember from Sunday School as well as many that you may not know. It explains with clear and exciting language that is simple enough for children but also interesting for adults. It is almost like reading a thrilling novel, you can hardly wait to find out what happens next. I cannot recommend it enough.

My father read these stories to me when I was little and now I am reading them to my five year old son. He really likes them, the only problem is he keeps wanting to hear about "Jesus on the cross" instead of going through and reading the other stories. I am buying an additional copy to give to our church.

this book was excellent. informing readers of the tragedy of that cold day in January in 1986 when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded killing all 7 on board. for me, it taught me a lot about the disaster and the months leading up to it. i was born in 1986, 9 months after the explosion and until recently, i had no knowledge of it. then i heard that the first teacher to go into orbit was on that flight and she had 2 kids and a husband, it prompted me to read this book. at first glance, i thought, ok, they're going to tell me that she won a contest, she did some training, and she went up in the shuttle. but the author went in depth so much more and explained the hardships the children faced, after learning their mother would be gone for months at a time. and he explained the exhausting life Christa McAuliffe lived prior to lift-off. I reccommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good and fact-filled book now and then. and for those of you who witnessed the explosion 14 years ago, that should make this book all the more important to you. email me comments or suggestions: rogcha_22@hotmail.com

Having experienced the disaster as a middle school student, I have only just begun to research Christa and her glorious rise as an educational icon. As someone who aspires both to be an astronaut and a teacher, I wept at the epilogue. Simply put, Christa was far from normal and average--she worked herself very hard and never seemed to complain.

Hohler did her justice in this chronicle of Christa's final field trip. It should be required reading of all students who wish to make something of their lives.

In the book" I Touch the Future..The Story of Christa McAuliffe"we the readers get to have a closer look at the Challenger tragedy and see just what a tragedy it truly was. Anyone who saw the disaster as it happened probably already had developed an interest in Christa McAuliffe because she was an ordinairy person doing something most of us will never do,and mourned her death.But for those of us who are to young to remember the explosion and the loss of the Challenger crew,( I was only about three years old when it happened) we have to rely on books and old news segments to tell us about this tragedy, and I would have to recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Challenger and Christa McAuliffe. Robert T. Hohler shows the reader all about Christa's training ,homelife and also a clearer view about what her crewmates were like, something we know almost nothing about. I only wish the author could've wrote the biographies of all of Challenger's passengers as well.Read this book so you won't be like me: Not knowing anything about such an important part of history until it's victims had been dead for a decade.

Cooperman once again leaves us in awe. He is a great poet, and a wonderful storyteller. He captures the spirit of the times, and lets you be part of the Gold rush. Only this time you are sure to come out a winner. Excellent work.

Welcome to Gold Creek, the fictional Colorado boom town in the 1860s that is the central character in Robert Cooperman's collection of extraordinary dramatic monologues, In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains. These poems tell of the most lowdown of high times, for Gold Creek is a town that, in Mr. Cooperman's words, "is emblematic of that most American of activities: working like a dog to strike it rich quick." In this book, the inner lives of the townspeople rise from the dead and, like ghosts compelled to confess, at last speak true. From Mayor Cavendish to Mary Benedict, the Golden Slipper's charwoman, dozens of characters reconstruct the loves and lusts of a town that rose from, only to return to, dust, even though some of that dust was gold. And yet, despite its portrayal of the ultimate squalor of Gold Creek's riches, Mr. Cooperman's collection is great fun to read. One can't help being captivated by the Shakespeare-loving badman John Sprockett, his face hideously mauled by a bear. Sprockett is guide to one Sophia Starling, a daring English beauty, on her one-woman tour of the Rockies. This Victorian vestal virgin for high adventure sports a truncheon, no less, obtained from a New York City policeman. The sexual frisson between Sprockett and Starling is exquisitely funny and touching, as the snowed-in pair learn that two people could not be more perfectly mated--or ill-suited for one another. Equally fascinating is the tale of Etta Lockhart, the prostitute hanged (or "jerked to Jesus," in the talk of Gold Creek) for killing her abusive pimp. Her hanging is the book's central event, reacting to which the townspeople show their true colors (which are more than a little muddy). Mr. Cooperman's poetry perfectly adopts the vernacular of the Colorado mines. The characters speak in that plain American that even cats and dogs can read. Their confessions are often punctuated by the surprise of a simile as they reach for words to make clear their most turbid feelings. "She slapped my face/her palm a hive of hornets," Linnett Sparks says--a poor miner's widow, recalling how, in her girlhood, her mother had reacted to Linnett's mentioning her lost sister's name. Later, on catching a glimpse of outlaw John Sprockett all sorghum-sweet in the presence of Miss Starling, Linnett--now a cook at the Blue Lady Mine--admits, " If he looked at me that way/my skillet might've melted." In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains proves Mr. Cooperman to be a great storyteller, an accomplished poet and a robust lover of life.

Set in the Colorado territory in the 1870's, Robert Cooperman's collection, IN THE COLORADO GOLD FEVER MOUNTAINS, provides a real sense of the life, the values and the ambitions of the people who joined the gold rush, the fever they burned with, their actions and behavior. In doing this, the book is valuable as an historical document as well as a literary one as it provides an authentic imaginative glimpse at the people of that time and place. And as a literary work, IN THE COLORADO GOLD FEVER MOUNTAINS brims with the pathos, lust, and tragedy of humanity and sings in the lyric voice of its dramatic monologues.

IN THE COLORADO GOLD FEVER MOUNTAINS consists of three separate sequences of poems, all involving the ficitonal town of Gold Creek. The first, IN THE GOLD FEVER MOUNTAINS, provides a picture of the small gold mining town in the voices of its inhabitants. It could be a refugee camp; its existence is so tenuous and ephemeral, based on the neediness of haphazard human beings. Perhaps the most dramatic of the three sequences is the second, A COFFIN AND A CARVED STONE, in which the trial and hanging of a woman for the murder of her abusive husband are witnessed and described in the unique voices of several dozen characters. THE BADMAN AND THE LADY, the final of the three sequences, describes, in the voices of yet other western characters, the brief romantic encounter between a proper English woman, Sophia Starling, and an untamed wild west outlaw, John Sprockett, and the lifelong effects the encounter has on both.

All in all, IN THE COLORADO GOLD FEVER MOUNTAINS relates the drama of civilized people in the primitive conditions to which their fate has driven them, whether by choice or by circumstance, in the rich, vivid language of a gifted and skilled poet.

I've been a Test Engineer for 13 years and take it from me, this book is so close to real life situation. It obviously written by people who practice the art of Test Engineering. I wish that I had this book in my very 1st year. This is the bible for every TE.

Most texts on testing seem to be written for the design engineer. They talk a lot about the fault model, the doping process, how the pattern generation algorithms are not perfect...It's like teaching Chemistry at a cooking class.
But don't get me wrong, this is not a cookbook. It does teach a fair amount of "Chemistry". But it's able to show the reader why the theories are relevant and how to apply them. The solutions are presented in the context of the problems, not the other way around, like most text books.

I looked for a book which covers all the important issues for
mixed signal test. This book delivers all the nesessery information for a mixed signal test Eng. It explains all
issues very simple and because of so many example it is
very useful even for not-experienced people.

Jane Kern presented a realistic, detailed picture of the challenges she faced when creating a quality school. The detailed events, hurdles, outcomes, and fellowship bonds allow the reader to actualize her experiences. A must read for educators creating a charter, magnet or private school. As the founding principal of MAST Academy, a USDOE Blue Ribbon School of Excellence,I related to the passion, energy, conviction, anddetermination Jane demonstrated in the school'sevolving years. The leadership, competency, fellowship, and pride among the faculty, parents, students and administration helped create a fabulous school. Well done!

An open, heartfelt look at a school, from beginning to present. Jane held nothing back - she wrote her feelings, her inspirations and most importantly, about the issues and accomplishments that make Seacrest Country Day School what it is today. My kids are going to read this so they, too, can truly appreciate the efforts and caring that have made their school so unique and special. A truly wonderful book written with love and dedication by a special lady about her incredible journey.

Dr. Kern, her students and their parents have developed a solution to the impasse currently plaguing education. How does one strike a balance between the cookie cutter method of teaching and methods allowing children more freedom of choice in devloping their interests? Hers is a fresh approach and the results speak for themselves. Anyone interested in bettering our schools should read this book.

A modern replacement of Libby Hyman's classic series, but, even so, is now beoming out of date because of the rapid advances in molecular biology. Dr. Barnes is deceased and I understand that Dr. Ruppert has no plans to update the book, a horrendous undertaking. Nevertheless, I know of no substitute for this fine text. Readers should also refer to Margulis & Schwartz "Five Kingdoms".

Ruppert and Barnes' text, now in its 6th edition sets the standard for invertebrate zoology texts. The authors provide adequate depth for undergraduate courses in invertebrate zoology, and good fodder for graduate students starting in the discipline as well.

There are outstanding collections of line drawings in the text -- a method of illustration I prefer to photographs for most instructional purposes.

There is good coverage of invertebrate animal groups, but, since it's published in 1994, there are a few places where the book is becoming dated. There is, for example, no information about the Cycliophora, the latest invertebrate phyla to be proposed.

I hope that there will continue to be new editions of this text produced. I cut my teeth on the 3rd edition, and other editions have figured prominently as I have worked through my graduate and professional careers.

Top-notch material. If you are considering which text to select for an invertebrate zoology course, I urge you to give this book a look.

This book covers all the major taxa of invertebrate fauna and is surprisingly comprehensive for such a diverse topic.

Robert Hass (UC Berkeley, English Dept.) is a wonderful poet and teacher. Human Wishes demonstrates that he is one of the most interesting poets on the scene today. His verse is vibrant and energetic. I highly recommend this collection of poems. Also, Hass has done much to introduce poetry to the general public.

Hass is a Northern California poet who has an eye for subtle movements in the natural world. Whether his setting is Tacoma, WA or Mt. Tamalpais, he always manages to capture images of life at its most fundamental source. For example, in "Spring Rain": "...the light will enlarge your days, your dreams at night will / be as strange as the jars of octopus you saw once in a fisherman's boat / under the summer moon...."

The strongest work here is the prose poems, such as "Museum" (describing a couple at a Kathe Kollwitz exhibit), "Human Wishes" ("This morning the sun rose over the garden wall and a rare blue sky leaped from east to west"), "Tall Windows," and "The Harbor at Seattle."

Also, the third section of this little book contains some gems, such as "Misery and Spendour," "Santa Barbara Road," and "Berkeley Eclogue."

Hass loves word craft and the spirit that inhabits diverse poetic voices. His enthusiasm and zeal for the 'poetic' is much felt in this rich, little volume. In reading Hass, one feels as if the printed page could crawl or even perhaps fly away with the beautiful life that is found there.

I also recommend: C. Milosz, R. Jeffers, and A. Zagajewski.

Hass shows us why it's more important to release a great book every decade or so than to publish a mediocre one annually. This is absolutely one of the best collections of poetry ever. It blurs the line between prose and poetry in its pages, so I recommend it to fans of fiction as well as fans of poetry.

You can do much worse than to emulate Robert Hass.

Robert Haas is amazing. A talented, fabulous poet. This is great poetry and understandable for the "non-poet." A must buy!

This book is REALLY for coursework : someone who is going to sit down and read and work thru this book sequentially, not randomly like a reference book.
Other than that caveat it does what it promises ably but be aware that it is MATHS heavy and REQUIRES the programme work.

I read a lot of books about complexity analysis. And this book is a state of art in the field. Easy to read, and well done.It cover the necessary staff that every new commer to the field should know, can be used as a refference,and it make a good teaching material for graduate student.

This is an excellent book on the analysis of algorithms. More specifically, it is a book on the mathematics needed for the analysis of algorithms. Quite a few algorithms are presented and analyzed in great detail, but the emphasis is on the analysis techniques rather than on the algorithms.

This is in contrast with Cormen,Leiserson and Rivest, or Sedgewick's own "Algorithms" series which emphasize the algorithms rather than the analysis.

If you're looking for a catalog of algorithms along with explanations, you want a different book, but if you want to know how to analyze that bizarre code (which Fred in the next cubicle wrote) and prove that it works well (or doesn't) then this is an excellent choice.

The book is aimed at advanced undergrads/graduate students and assumes a certain amount of mathematical sophistication - i.e. calculus, discrete math, probability, etc.

On the spectrum from "Mathematical Techniques" through "Analysis of Algorithms" and ending up with "Catalog of Algorithms", I would start with Graham, Knuth and Patashnik "Concrete Mathematics", travel through this book, on to Knuth "The Art of Computer Programming", then to Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest, and finally end up with either Sedgewick's "Algorithms" or Skeina's "Algorithm Design Manual".

I only want to touch a little bit on what this fine book has to say about growing mushrooms, which is surprisingly little; out of 21 chapters, only one is about growing shrooms, the rest are for growing weed. The cultivation techniques are simple and effective, but taken nearly verbatim from...., which in turn was an adaptation of the techniques by Oss and Oeric in the Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide, I believe. Buy this book if growing shrooms is an afterthought to lessening your chances of being caught growing marijuana, for that is where the author earns your money. Mr. Bunch is obviously knowledgeable about growing high-quality, clandestine weed, and is also very fun to read, but unfortunately he is little more than a novice mycologist. I highly recommend this book to anyone intending to cultivate marijuana, but for those intending to grow psilocybe mushrooms, I must refer you to the Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide and the Mushroom Cultivator, by Stamets and Chilton.

If you ever wanted to grow your own treez or mushrooms, this is the book for you. Put it in the bathroom and read it when you have some time - worked for me!

This is a brilliant very informative book ,it is set out in such a way that it is very easy to read and follow the techniques used.It explains how to grow marijuana and mushrooms and other more interesting information very well with everything you need to know.This is definately the best book i have read on how to grow mushrooms ever guarenteed, as all of the other books i have read on this subject have been to confusing to follow or not informative enough and therefore this is the only book on that subject alone with the marajuana growing also as good.

Kepel is an ideal guide to Islamism as an international movment. Though somehwat controversial, Kepel has produced quality scholarship with an eye for detail for a long time and is well-known and widely recognized scholar in the field. Islamism has become over time a politically moribund ideology driven more by desperation and disillusionment than by anything resembling political success or ascendency. He covers all the major topics and personalities--not nearly enough for indepth study but that's not the purpose of his book--and has a talent for connecting the dots of the international scene, thereby demonstrating the geopolitical nature of the movement despite its diversty and diffuse organization. While some may be taken aback by his assertion of the 'failture' of Islamism in light of the extreme actions committed, he nonetheless makes a good case for argument not equivocating politcal failure with political impotence. Likely the best introduction to the topic available.

Having spend several years living and traveling in the Gulf during the 1970's I felt this book was extremely informative and thorough in its review and discussion of political islam. For anyone who really, really wants to know what is going on in that part of the world - this is the book to get.

Kepel's 'Jihad' is an excellent introduction to modern Islamism. This is a great book if you want to know more about various Islamist movements such as: bin Laden's al-Qaeda, the civil war in Algeria, the Shi'ite revolution in Iran, the Taliban in Afganistan, and the various Islamist movements from Egypt to Malaysia.

Kepel comes to an interesting and controversial conclusion. At a time when the US administration is making vast increases to the budget to fight the war on terror (against Muslim terrorists), Kepel writes that Islamism has seen its peak as a political movement and has been on the decline since the mid 1990's. He wrote in his conclusion:

"In spite of what many hasty commentators contended in its (September 11th) immediate aftermath, the attack on the United States was a desperate symbol of isolation, fragmentation, and decline of the Islamist movement, not a sign of its strength and irrepressible might."

My reaction to this conclusion (I read the conclusion before reading the entire book) was similar to what Walter Laqueur wrote in his article 'A Failure of Intelligence', published in The Atlantic Monthly - March 2002:

"However, the same conditions that gave birth to Islamism thirty years ago persist: economic stagnation or even negative growth, the unemployment of the young. So do resentment and free-floating rage. If Islamism is bankrupt, where is the ideology to replace it?"

These are good observations, but they miss the point of Kepel's book. Kepel does not cover what he thinks will replace Islamism. Laqueur's arguments make me wonder if he even read the entire book. (Laqueur also finishes with some ridiculous statements about a lack of Middle Eastern self-criticism, which makes it sound like Laqueur has digested the ideas of the famous orientalist Bernard Lewis more than anything Kepel wrote.) Kepel is not making a sweeping statement about Islam and the West - that the tension is over and everyone will live happily ever after. Kepel realizes there will be violence in the name of Jihad. For example, his conclusion also stated:

"This does not mean that we shall not see other outbursts of terrorism that claim the mantle of jihad. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular will be ripe for more violence."

Kepel's book is more informed and specific than Laqueur acknowledges. It is about specific movements within the Islamic world, started by theorists such as Mawdudi from Pakistan or Qutb from Egypt. These movements seemed to be ready to take over the Middle East as recent as five years ago. Islamist movements succeeded in Iran and Afganistan, and in various other places in the Middle East. But since then the theories behind Islamism have not been as accepted. This is due to complex reasons, such as the increased power of the middle class in the various countries, which Kepel covers in detail.

If there is a fault in Kepel's 'Jihad', it is that the text takes a while to get used to, since it was originally written in French. I found myself reading some paragraphs two or three times over - especially in the first half. I'm not sure if I got used to the text in the second half, or the writing improved. Also, he could have spent some pages on a definition of Islamism - what theorists such as Mawdudi and Qutb wanted. You would have to get that research from another book, such as Qutb's 'Milestones'.