I don't study Insects proffesionaly, I am simply curious about living things around me. I have several Field Guides that offer very little information about the Insect in question (which I suppose is all to be expected from a small book) and I wanted to know more. For instance how do the mouth parts work, what are the different body segments and what do they house or what is their function.Well here it is in "Black and White" litteraly... If you want pretty color pictures this is not the book for you. The figures in the book are however, very detailed, expertly drawn and all body parts are labled. So far every answer I have sought has been answered by this book.I believe that this book is well worth the high price tag. Remember this is only MY opinion, I could be wrong...

I had to purchase this book for a class in my undergraduate work. However, as a graduate student, I use this book every semester. I am presently working in a lab and i.d many samples of insects. Some common, some not. I often reach for it to get to family so I can key to genus and species if I need to take the i.d. that far. The numbered keys are great! They reference forward and backward, which really helps if a mistake is made. Definitely a good one to have on the shelves.

It is the most appropriate book I have seen for graudate student who want to be an entomologist. It have a comprehensive knowledge on how to study the insects.

I give Under The Mermaid Angel two thumbs up.
It is a good book to read if you'r feeling really down and depressed and you just want a really good book to read to so totally boost up you'r spirit.

I read this book when I was twelve. It is still my favorite book. And when I read it, I finished it in 2 days! I couldn't put the book down. It is not tons of adventure on every page but it is soo interesting. I felt connected to Jesse. Well, Jesse feels kinda in a rut in a very boring town (Ida). But when roxanne moves in she changes Jesses life. They become best friends even though the big age difference. I think the climax of the book was when Roxanne wanted to touch Frankenstiens hand at the church and she didn't. I thought it was so sad that she sat next to him but never said or did anything. And he never knew. And that she came all the way to Ida and sat next to him and never told him. Very sad. At the end of the book. I wished that it would go on. I wish Martha Moore would make a sequel. Because I want to know if Frankenstien ever found out about his mother.

Although I read this book like 5 months ago I can still remember what it was about!! I can't even describe this book it was so amazing! To all readers out there: read this book you will fall in love with it!

I have NOT read this book! However, if you can get your hands on "The Portable Dorothy Parker" (available through Amazon), you might want to read HER review of this book.

Once, I had a friend who had men falling all over her. Somehow, she knew how their brains were hard-wired. In fact, she would tell me, "do X, then Y, then Z, and he will call." And, (though he'd never called before), he called! For the past 10 years I've been trying to figure out what magic formula she used.

This book explains it. Of course, not all men are the same, and the book adds the disclaimer that the techniques suggested work on men with rather conventional views toward women. But, it adds, most men are rather similar in what attracts them. (After all, how many men do you know who wouldn't date Meg Ryan?)

Long before John Gray or Ellen Fein & Sherrie Schneider wrote their best sellers, Doris Langley-Moore was advising young women about the art of romance.

Langley-Moore's writing is clear, precise and classy, and is even more relavent today than when it was written. She breaks down the art of attraction, details how to develop feminine wiles, and explains why men reject 'nice' women. TOTLA is written as a dialogue between two characters which allows her to address areas of ignorance without insulting the reader.

The editor's notes however are highly annoying and detract, rather than add, from the wisdom within this book. Skip right over them if you can.

I bought this book because I absolutely LOVE Jo Beverley and I was not disappointed with "The Wise Virgin". The case of mistaken identity but finding true love amidst such problems of long time bitter feuds. I really shed a few tears on this one, as to the poignant way Ms. Beverley fleshed out her characters. She makes me laugh and she makes me cry. So sensual in such a short story, it was a pure Beverley delight.

I was very much impressed with "The Vagabond Knight" by Margaret Moore, as well. Here you had two wounded souls both past the fresh dew of youth, older and hopefully wiser, but both carrying baggage. I cried for these two as well as laughed as some of the dialog, and shed tears of joy at the end. I felt she dealt well with giving both a history and tieing it up quite nicely in the end.

The "Unexpected Guest", by Deborah Simmons, again was a wonderful short story. Being able to flesh out so many characters this well in so short a story time is the mark of a very accomplished author. I was so impressed with this story, that I plan to look into other novels by this author to pick up more works on the de Burgh family.

As a rule, I dont like anthology novels and much prefer the meatier stories, but this was excellent. A keeper to reread around the holidays!

I bought this book for Jo Beverley's "The Wise Virgin", and I was not disappointed. The characters were awesome, the story well-developed, and the resolution plausible.

When I buy an anthology just because there's one author I know I want to read, I always hope that there will be good surprises in the other stories. I'm frequently disappointed, but not this time.

None of the stories in this book were a total waste of time. Deborah Simmon's story was wonderfully well-written. And it's clear that it's part of a series of stories about a family of men, which is great news. New books to read, a new author to explore.

The middle story I found less compelling. An enjoyable read, but not a keeper. Still, since the entire book was worth reading, I'll give it five stars to reflect the quality of the two stronger stories.

Normally, short works are dull for me because they aren't long enough to develop the characters... but Beverley was awesome in her The Wise Virgin, which appears in this book! The characters develop superbly and I think it takes a lot of talent to do so in less than a hundred pages! You laugh! You cry! I looooooved it! Highly recommended!

The age of radio seems to be past, but for sports fans, the voices of radio announcers such as Jack Buck (St. Louis), Kurt Goudy (40-50's) and Ken Coleman for the Red Sox, Johnny Most (Celtics) and Johnny Holliday (The Maryland Terrapins) are part of the enjoyment of the game.

Johnny Holliday wrote a memoir of his life in radio, from his start on an all-black R&B station, to doing a live broadcast of the Beatles, to his stint in sports. The book is laced with famous and not-so-famous names. In fact, if you are a radio buff, this book is for you, because Johnny met nearly everyone and his memory for who's who is sharp and detailed.

If you love radio or are a fan of Johnny, you will enjoy this book--a slice of radio as it was in its heyday.

You know the name. You know the voice. If you live anywhere near Washington D.C. metropolitan area, you have undoubtedly heard his voice, in one form or another, on the radio. He's Johnny Holliday. Few names resonate with such recognition as Holliday's legendary moniker. In the past 20 years, he has been most notable as the voice of the University of Maryland Terrapins basketball and football teams, and also well known for his voice-over work in radio and television ads. Prior to that, Holliday made many stops around the country as a disc jockey and sports broadcaster. His journeys enabled to be witness to some of the great moments and know some of the great people in music and sports history. "From Rock To Jock" gives the backstory on Johnny Holliday and allows the reader to feel like they are a fly on the wall at all the stops along the way in his remarkable career.

"From Rock to Jock" is a mixture of Holliday's own memories and the memories of those who worked with or knew him. It makes the various stops on Johnny's journey in life more fascinating this way, to see it from multiple perspectives. A moving foreword and afterword by no less broadcast luminaries as Tony Kornheiser and Dick Vitale, respectively, reflect just how well respected Johnny Holliday is. Having met in him in person, I can vouch that he is just as nice and genuine a person as he seems on the radio and in this book.

Some of the more memorable stops in Holliday's journey include his early days at WHK in Cleveland, his high moments in San Francisco, and his eventual settling in his permanent home in Maryland. San Francisco is especially memorable because the reader gets a look at Johnny's legendary charity basketball team, the Oneders (which, at one time counted NBA Hall-of-Famer Rick Barry as a member), and the impact it had on the community. Plus, it reminisces about Johnny emcee-ing the last concert on the last tour ever done by the Beatles. Without a doubt, "From Rock to Jock" is an entertaining read for anyone interested in learning about some of the great moments of the early and later days of radio and sports, and about the man whose career defined and is defined by those events.

"From Rock to Jock," the autobiography of Johnny Holliday, is the remarkable telling a most interesting life in radio.

Johnny was at Cleveland's WHK at the inception of the "rock and roll" format; at WINS in NYC with Murray the K when the Beatles broke; and in San Francisco at KYA during the Summer of Love.

At the right place at the right time. Many a familiar name turns up---movers, shakers, characters and bit players.

The second half tells of his Washington journey from WWDC to voice of Maryland basketball and football (over twenty years and counting).

It is a truly remarkable story, interestingly written, that will keeping you smiling and bring on a lot of good memories.

An extremely interesting read! It's amazing that somebody actually lived to tell it. If you liked the movie or book "Blow" you'll enjoy this story.

The book grabs you. To give you an example, there are 2 murders in the first three pages. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because thru the whole book he crys how he was scared of Rafa(you will find out who he is), and that is while he stayed in the business.

Max Mermelstein approaches this story as though he's a kid who managed to sneak into an R-rated movie, and now he has to tell all the other kids about it. This book was worth the money, although at times it's rather blandly eloquated and leaves you wishing he had a better way with words. The magnitude of what he was involved with more than makes up for that, though. It's a great read even for those not interested in the drug trade, especially if you have a mind for business. It's such a different perspective on money-making schemes compared to something you'd read in a business mag, but is definitely enlightening for that very reason. That morality inversely equates with revenue is a common theme throughout the book.

It used to be that the U.S. military turned out officers who could write decently. Apparently this is either no longer the case -- or the Rangers tend to draw their officers from that portion of the corps which consists largely of people who can't even write a decent field manual. Major Lock is one of these officers, and TO FIGHT WITH INTREPIDITY suffers badly because the publisher of this book didn't assign someone to edit Major Lock's manuscript as thoroughly as it needed to be. This notwithstanding, Major Lock's book is an uniquely well-researched and enormously valuable source of information on the history of the Rangers in America and the Ranger units of the U.S. Army in the wars and other armed conflicts of the 20th Century. I find this book a valuable addition to my library despite the fact that it reads like a badly translated copy of a textbook from the Frunze Academy, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the U.S. Army's development and employment of light infantry forces.

LTC Lock has done in a compact form a BDU pocket-sized complete history of the U.S. Army Rangers, this quantification is usually what we praise, but we forget the quality of his writing when he does this. We need to realize what is it that we want to learn from Army Ranger history other than the predictable HOOAH! stuff?

LTC Lock in his book reveals an aspect of light infantry operations we simply do not understand today with our men turned into pack mules with "100 pounds of lightweight equipment". Read his accounts of Roger's Rangers and you will see a light infantry that could "fly" on its feet through the woods and outfight the Indians. The recent film, "Last of the Mohicans" best captures this capability. This was a Ranger infantry that was willing to use unusual mobility means, also---boats, ice skates, snow shoes, living off the land--all to get that mobility edge over the enemy. In WWII, Darby used speed-marches and carts to carry mortars/ammo to close on enemies rapidly to gain surprise/violence of action. Merrill's Marauders used mules to carry 75mm pack howitzers and supplies to penetrate deep into the jungles of Burma and take Myitkyina airfield from the jungle-seasoned Japanese. In Five major (WALAWBUM, SHADUZUP, INKANGAHTAWNG, NHPUM GA, & MYITKYINA) and thirty minor engagements, they defeated the veteran soldiers of the Japanese 18th Division (Conquerors of Singapore and Malaya) who vastly outnumbered the Marauders. Always moving to the rear of the main forces of the Japanese, the Marauders completely disrupted the enemy supply and communication lines, and climaxed their behind the lines operations with the capture of Myitkyina Airfield, the only all-weather airfield in Northern Burma.

Theese lessons need to be applied to today's light infantry that is still over-looking the capability modern mountain bikes and carts with oversized tires could give an Airborne Ranger-type force to close on an enemy after insertion out of detection range by parachute/airlanding aircraft.

My only fault with the book is that it doesn't clearly lay-out the roles/missions dilemma current Ranger infantry is in---it really has 2 types of missions:

1.) on one hand its America's shock troops storming defended high-value targets alone or as a spearhead for other troops (WWII Commando mindset),

2.)on the other, it has to be able to "Range" across the land as light infantry for days at a time to raid/recon (traditional Ranger missions).

These two missions are different and require different mindsets and equipment---and this is why TF Ranger in Somalia did not have armored fighting vehicles--because it was not seen as appropriate for "Rangers to do mech" if one was defining the unit by traditional roles/missions. However, shock troops need shock action and that means Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) and shielded men, which Rangers lead the U.S. military by employing for the first time rifle-caliber resstant body armor and having the physical conditioning and willingness to take Soldier's load risks to go into battle with it. AFVs are not popular in the minds of some Rangers, but its necessary to successfully perform shock action missions in urbanized terrain. Other elite units in the world can ride AFVs without their image suffering. Walking is not always the best way to "range" across the battlefield, as Ranger gun-jeeps, RSOVs (Land Rovers) and HMMWVs attest from combat in Iran (Desert 1), Grenada (airlanded from C-130s), Panama (parachute air-dropped) and Iraq (Desert Storm). But these are unarmored vehicles not up to the task of advancing in the face of concentrated enemies and their fire. LTC Lock in his superb chapter on the Mogadishu raid expertly outlines why Rangers should have had armored vehicles and that they would have prevented 1-18 men dying that day. His Somalia chapter is as good as Bowden's entire book, "Blackhawk Down!" and in some ways better---because it doesn't mince words and gets to the point that AFVs were needed in the force structure.

If America's light infantry forces would look back via LTC Lock's fine book into its methodology of Roger's Rangers; it will find the mindset needed to make it the most mobile and hardest-hitting infantry on earth that can range across the terrain quick enough to defeat the stalemate sensors and optics will create against a slower moving force. If these forces will understand that as Col Daniel Bolger states in Death Ground: America's Infantry in battle: "Ranger tabs don't stop bullets", and accept a modest number of air-droppable and helicopter transportable light tracked AFVs into its force structure for its own organic shielded mobility and heavy firepower, it will have learned well from its Somalian ordeals and be ready to lead the way! into the 21st century.

Ranger units have always put tremendous emphasis on history and tradition as an aspect of pride in duty, and that's where this work has real value. Academic critique from recreational readers won't reflect this --it's just another book; however; Rangers and men in the Special Ops business out there will see much deeper meaning in it. If you want to take pride in wearing the beret a step further (whether today or years ago), read Lock's book. There are nearly four centuries of tradition behind the Ranger Creed and Roger's Standing Orders: Learn the history.

Based on some of the other reviews here, I purchased this book with the objective to get a jump start on how to architect a .Net solution. For example, I was looking for answers to questions like: How to integrate with legacy applications, how to modularize, where to put components, security and performance considerations, redundancy and sizing, database connectivity, etc etc.
There is nothing in this book pertinent to .Net architectures, in my opinion. It is a collection of common practices and questions to ask that every architect should be familiar with, anyways. I am a Sun Certified J2EE Architect, and much of what I saw in this book could be legitimate questions at the Sun test as well - that's how generic this book is.
I am not interested in passing the exam. Don't buy this book if you are not, either.

I gave up on the MS Press 'training kit' book about half way through. Fortunately this book was an easy read, great preparation for the exam, and even included additional advice for the real world. In fact, I wish more people in the IT field would read this to better understand the context in which they work. Be aware that this is not technical beyond helping you understand which business problems suggest which technologies (web site, web service, windows application, ...)

It is a pleasure to study for a Microsoft Exam and actually learn something along the way. This book is well conceived and well written. It covers all of the material necessary to pass the .NET Solution Architectures exam. In fact, it includes enough real-world knowledge and background information that I would suggest it for learning about Microsoft architectures even if you aren't planning to take the exam.

Other reviewers have written about the execellent references that the book provides, so I won't repeat all of that here, except to say that the book was published after the exam came out and that some of the material in the book is more up-to-date than what is being tested by Microsoft. This will not pose a problem for the person taking the test, however.

a very good reference for herbal use. The section on witch-craft is a little bit too far out there, but the different spells and recipes are a good laugh, I wonder where she found them or if she just made them up.

i found this book i a parking lot and it was the start of a whole new approach on life. Any reader will find it to be a no nonsence directory to herbalism.

This invaluable book is a wonderful combination of recipes, anecdotal advice, and historical reference. I would recommend this book for the beginner who is interested in herbal history, would like to know how to find herbs, and start dabbling in recipes. For those who are more experienced, it would complete an herbal library.

I read this book for my book club. As a book club book it was pretty successful. We didn't talk all that much about the book itself but the book prompting some wonderful discussion about food and memories and the like.

For the reader without a discussion to look forward to, I'd be reluctant to recommend the book. Something is missing for me about this read. I've given it three stars because the actual writing (particularly some of the food descriptions) is quite strong. But the content is lacking. I'm all for memoirs of interesting people but I really learned far more about Moore's relatively ordinary life than I ever wanted to know. Then, just to confuse things, are some pretty random essays about food totally outside of the context of the memoir. It just doesn't work for what I want out of a read in this type of a book.

Moore tells her story her way, in her own time. I sometimes had unanswered questions, but they were answered by and by. Great read!

This is the sort of book you want to curl up with in front of a fire, no one around to disturb you. The plot flows (for the most part) smoothly from one self-contained chapter to another. Moore's tantalizing descriptions of people, places, and, most importantly, foods, provide brilliant and amusing reflections on life. My only complaint is about the editing, which I found wanting in some respects. On the whole, this was one of the best and most fulfilling books I've read in a long time.