John Malcolm Russell has written some fine books on Assyria, one of them "Final Sack of Nineveh" is a superb tome on the history of the excavations and modern destruction of Nineveh. But unfortunately this work was terribly dry, rather boring, and most frustrating in that he spends way to much time going over Lady Charlotte Guest's diary and all the who-what-when and why of the time she lived in and not hardly enough time on Layard and the excavations. And as far as how the Met acquired the reliefs, it basically came down to agreements made with the Rockefeller family. Not very exciting. I suppose i'm more interested in the digs themselves and would have preferred more on them and less on the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The first chapter on the layout of two key palaces was great, but after that it turned into a long, dull read. Great story...just not told so great.

This book provides a reasonable introduction to the Gothic Revival, but is handicapped by numerous references to works that are not illustrated. Although Clark tries to be fair to the architectural style under discussion, he clearly isn't a fan of neo-Gothic. This book is useful for its footnotes and historical discussion, but it isn't an enthralling read.

The book covers electrical concepts right from the basics of resistors and capacitors and then moves on to the fundamentals of electronic circuits . The coverage of mdifferent types of motors is lacking in the mathematical and design approach although it does cover the theoretical aspects well . Overall an ideal book for beginners but look for another one if you really want some details.

I just bought this book in an effort to get an overview of Flash. Unfortunately, by the time I got to chapter 2 I had already discovered that the author's instructions simply don't work - after following the directions, explicitly, and then redoing the exercise because I couldn't get the butterfly thing to work, it became quite apparent that no one bothered to proofread this first.

I'm now on chapter 4 and very close to giving up completely - while the book LOOKED promising, I'm now convinced that it is so filled with mistakes that it is nearly (if not completely) impossible to complete the excerises as written.

It is really a shame that someone didn't do a decent job editing/proofreading this book - even a once through would have shown that are there are numerous mistakes. This book is a big disappointment. Save your money and look elsewhere.

I picked this book up because of its flashy title. Before I purchased it, I read through quite a few pages. However, being a novice at using Flash, I didn't have a handle on some of the techniques discussed. After careful review, and lots of practice time, it dawned on me that some of the examples and steps in the book were not quite accurate. After running through the tutorials, I made several changes that actually improved the tutorials themselves. For instance, one of the steps is to animate a butterfly symbol you create. However, the steps have you convert the symbol to a graphic. You can't animate a graphic symbol; it has to be converted to a movie clip instead. This was confusing until I figured it out. Also, they want you to add several extra keyframes where you really only need one; and it even helps make your animation smoother when you use only one. One other thing, sometimes the instruction will not match up with the illustrations provided; it requires some patience to figure it out. So, other than the occasional mistake in some of the steps, the book can teach you some really basic, fundamental steps in Flash. Some editing would improve this book. You can't beat it for talking in layman's terms, though I haven't checked out the "Dummies" series yet. Do they even have a Flash MX for Dummies book yet? Before buying this book, look for a few other titles. You might be much happier in the long run, unless you're patient.

My P.e teacher has asked me to make him a flash website. So far I am extreamly advance at flash but I haven't used it for about 2 years. I would like to see how flash websites are made. I am in a advance grade for flash animations and I hope this book will help me to build an advance flash website.

Mr Hallsey is too generous is his review of this book. McKenzie would have us believe this is a serious treatment of a serious issue. Wrong! McKenzie fails miserably to support his assertions with probably this and probably that chapter after chapter. To re-examine Lee's career, we really do not need a play-by-play of every battle. A direct approach to Lee's faults and detailed evidence of such would have served the purpose. Instead the reader is given a flimsy statement and referred to footnotes. One footnote citation is not even listed with the footnotes - I had to check the bibliography to find the full title of that reference. Lee's victories at Second Manassas and Chancellorsville are taken from him by this faux historian while he fawns over the immortal Jackson. Historical context is ignored or twisted in McKenzie's stories of Confederate Command failures and the retention of Lee in command over his own proposed resignations. Additionally, the book has inexcusable typos - the aftermath of the Seven Days left the armies EAST of Richmond, not west. The publisher, Hippocrene Books, should be ashamed of itself to put out this shoddy product at such an outrageous price.

Comical is the best word to describe John D. McKenzie's book Uncertain Glory. It should be considered a work of creative fiction and not a serious history book. The research is shallow, the review is cursory and assumptions are never fully developed. The accuracy in the book is also in question since on page 254 Mr. McKenzie has the battle of the crater taking place on "July 30, 1964." This book could have been a remarkable treatise had any serious time been spend exploring artillery placement, troop deployment and southern economic conditions. It would have also been useful to use the opinions of modern military experts to bolster his position. Having studied the Civil War seriously for many years, I find the book to be bankrupt of any serious historical fact (that has not already been discussed) is not worth serious academic consideration.

Southern historians, the author feels, have had it all their way, denigrating Union leadership and enshrining Lee in a mythos of superb generalship he doesn't deserve.
In this trenchant analysis of the Confederate defeat, McKenzie's criticisms of Southern arrogance, disorganization, corruption, military errors, and dubious ideology are difficult to refute, but considering the 5:2 manpower and 10:1 industrial advantages of the North, his belief that a defensive strategy and greater Southern dedication might have prevailed is less persuasive.
With bibliography, a good index, and wonderfully clear action-maps which lack only scale to be perfect, McKenzie's work is recommended as a highly readable, if tendentious catalyst for further discussion.

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

This book was required for a college class. I found it obtuse and the illustrations/photographs were unclear, as in, there was a photo of a house, but why it was an example of a particular appraisal situation was unclear. I found another book published by the Department of Real Estate (California) to be much more consise and clear. For someone new to the subject, this book seems to make the topic more difficult than necessary. If it is required for a college class, there isn't much you can do about it, but if you are just looking for info on the topic of appraisal, I would suggest another book. Good luck!

This is a great book that is used in some of the colleges for textbook. It explains the fundamentals of real estate appraisal by using pratical examples which we may experience everyday. In addition, it clearly shows the calculations, number by number with detailed explainations to make the readers easy to understand the concepts. It really helped me a lot in the real estate business.

I like this series and have read all the previous installments. This one has a promising setting--a luxurious ocean liner on her maiden voyage--but I agree with others that the motivation for the crimes is not very credible. It has become fashionable to bash the blockbuster movie Titanic, and the author does so here, via her characters. I found that attitude disingenuous, in that Borthwick is obviously cashing in on the interest in the disaster stirred by the movie. Style and characters remain engaging, but the plot in this one is definitely lacking.

Most series that survive into a ninth volume would appear to support some kind of loyal following. This particular mystery, being my first attempt at the books featuring Sarah Deane by J.S. Borthwick, would not be likely to cause me to become a staunch fan.

The setting would seem to be fun and inviting. Sarah, husband Alex and her crotchety aunt, Julia, are returning from Europe by ocean liner. Multiple attempts at thinning out the ship board population (some attempts successful and others less so) cause the Deane party to become immersed in shipboard friendships while unraveling the puzzle. Various aspects of the Titanic (cinematic and otherwise) are built into the mystery but the author captures the authentic flavor of traveling by "floating hotel", Harrods and all. The new acquaintances who become part of Sarah's and Alex's circle are distinctive enough in their portrayal but rather lacking in serious motivation for murder -- at least a motivation that I could take seriously.

An innocuous piece of fluff but not exactly an absorbing one.

This most recent paperback adventure for Sarah, Alex and Julia was enjoyable. I liked the interplay among the chief characters and the picture of life on a cruise. I have to say, though, that the vast majority of the entertainments (excluding creeping around spying on crew and/or fellow passengers) sound absolutely terrible, and any plans I may have had for a cruise have been put on hold. I hope that the author was being facetious.

I agree with other reviewers that the plot was weak, and the motivations more so. Everything was very convenient, and the interaction among the various police departments of different countries struck me as wildly improbable.

My major complaint with the book ties in with the substandard copy editing job it received. While the grammar and spelling were largely fine, the punctuation was not, and a tendency to forget to insert quotation marks at the end of a character's remarks was particularly distracting. There were also some factual errors that the characters would not have made (one example is that a fan of Brother Cadfael notes that those books took place during the thirteenth century; the books are largely set during the war between Stephen and Maude, which took place in the twelfth, not the thirteenth, century). Another example is that the piano on board is referred to as a Beckstein; the correct spelling is, I believe, Bechstein. But these are minor matters; the quotation mark problem was not. I hope corrections can be made for subsequent printings. St. Martin's Press is a wonderful press responsible for most of my mystery reading; typographical errors should not interfere with its image.

i have reordered this book two times. it has pages missing. i raise bobby calves and the crucial pages that i index are missing. i am assuming that this book is not available complete which makes it useless. it was given to me as a gift from my son who spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 140.00. he is out the money and i am dissatisfied.

If you know the diagnosis then good descriptions of the clinical signs and pathogenesis are usually available. However having ploughed through the verbose text, which is in remarkably bad type face, you are rewarded with a minimal treatment section which is extremely frustrating. Copiosly referenced the book is of little use alone requirring a good library and a serach engine to obtain up to date information.

A fabulous mine of information, the textbook to turn to, it has pride of place on my shelf

This is a wonderfull book with lots of pictures of beautiful models

this book was great SIKE it was bad dont get it

Most of the quotations are boring or put downs. "The extravagant girl usually makes a poor mother and a bankrupt father." Any girl can be glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid." "There's nothing consistent about human behavior except its tendency to drift toward evil." If you are looking for more positive quotes for personal use or public speaking a much better resource is THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS by Cody Jones. It has a topical guide with 96 topics arranged alphabetically. Each topic is amplified by one or more verses from the book of Proverbs. There is also an in-depth commentary with many historical drawings that give you a sense of the culture of the time. In the back are 6 popular translations of Proverbs in parallel.

... some [of the quotes] can be claimed to be 'negative', but they are actually quite true. If you want motivating quotes, get a motivational book! There is Anthony Robbins and Stephen R. Covey for that.

If you're looking for a quotation book that will help in speeches, conversation or essays, this is a useful book to have. The supposed 'negative' comments are so true when you think about it, and those that you find completely untrue are really there for the humour only. The quotes about girls may get a little painful if said mentioned in a grave manner. But someone who says "Attention girls: Always save a boyfriend for a rainy day -- and another one in case it doesn't rain" with a wide smile on his face, ending a speech.

I strongly suspect that the crowd will be in laughter rather than angry at that. There are some very meaningful quotes too, like "It's better to look where you're going than to see where you've been". This book isn't bad at all!

One thing though, that I don't like about this book is that it doesn't attribute who the quotes are from. If that is important to you, then don't get this book. For those who find that it is extremely important, yet want this book badly, you can simply type in the whole quote in any search engine on the internet and viola, you'll find websites with these quotes and the proper attributions.

Get this book if you want nice quotes without attributes, and quotes that you can use to humour many people (some are outrageously hilarious while being so true). Get it if you want to boost wrtings, and of course learn from the profound minds who wrote these quotes.