Let me quote the Wrox website: "The exercise answers to this and several other books are not amongst the files we've been able to recover from the old Wrox servers, yet. We're still trying to find them, or to recover them from some other source so we can repost them."
It is two months later and there is still no code for the exercises at the end of the chapters. The sample code is still available, however.

This book is outstanding! I never thought I would change over from Visual Basic but I am convinced C# is for me! This book covers everything from the basics of the .NET framework, all the way up the ladder. I would highly recommend this book to the Visual Basic crowd!

Great book if your are new to programming. However, it is, just like the title implies, designed for beginners. If you have any C++ or Java experience you might want to skip this book and go straight to Professional C#.

This light-hearted venture into the world of Bernie Rhodenbarr, burglar extraordinaire and bookstore owner contains much of the sharp, witty dialogue of the previous books in the series only sharper and wittier. The discussion between Bernie and Carolyn over the sexual preference of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone is priceless. This is a sometimes-confusing mystery involving a series of events that sees Bernie burgle an apartment, return the booty and then re-enter the place to plant evidence after finding a corpse in the bathroom. Bernie sets out to work out who committed the murder, plus who committed a burglary that he's been mistakenly charged with. This is a most entertaining mystery that continues to keep you thinking, while providing plenty of smiles along the way.

Lawrence Block is one of our most talented mystery authors. In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series he explores how an ordinary, but intelligent, "honest" person might go about pursuing a life of crime as a fastidious and talented burglar who isn't proud of what he does, doesn't like to hang out with criminals, and really gets a big thrill out of breaking and entering . . . and removing valuables. As you can see, there's a sitcom set-up to provide lots of humor. But the humor works well in part because Mr. Block is able to put the reader in the Bernie's shoes while he breaks, enters and steals . . . and evades the long arm of the law. To balance the "honest" burglar is an array of "dishonest" and equally easy-money loving cops. As a result, you're in a funny moral never-never land while your stomach tightens and your arm muscles twitch as tension builds. To make matters even more topsy-turvy, Bernie at some point in every story turns into an investigator who must figure out "who-dun-it" for some crime that he personally didn't do. It's almost like one of those "mystery at home" games where the victim comes back as the police investigator, playing two roles. Very nice!

So much for explaining the concept of the series. The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams is the sixth book in the series. I strongly suggest that you begin the series by reading Burglars Can't Be Choosers and follow it up with The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, and The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian. Each story in the series adds information and characters in a way that will reduce your pleasure of the others if read out of order. Although, I originally read them out of order and liked them well enough. I'm rereading them now in order, and like it much better this way. The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart comes next in the series.

As this book opens, Bernie has been going straight . . . for almost a year. Barnegat Books, a used hard cover book store he owns and operates, has been providing his living rather than burglary. Then, he receives a double shock. His new landlord is Bordon Stoppelgard, and with his 30 year lease at an end, Mr. Stoppelgard announces that the new lease will be for $10,500 a month rather than $875. How can Bernie afford that? He can't. Then, Stoppelgard comes into Barnegat Books to buy a first edition of Sue Grafton's "B" Is for Burglar for $80 plus tax. Bernie tries to refuse him the sale, but Stoppelgard insists, slapping a hundred-dollar bill on the counter. Then he laughs at Bernie for selling a five-hundred-dollar book for so little.

But Bernie's sorely tempted to burgle again . . . both for the money and the thrills he gets from burglary. That temptation is particularly great just now because Bernie knows that the wealthy Martin Gilmartins will be out for the evening. Bernie does his best to avoid temptation . . . and succeeds. His only slip is to call Mr. Gilmartin from Carolyn Kaiser's apartment to ask him how he liked the show . . . a call that can be traced by the police when Mr. Gilmartin discovers a burglary has been committed and valuable baseball cards are missing. Bernie's alibi isn't very good because he decides to go out after leaving Carolyn. Someone might think he was visiting a fence to sell the baseball cards. What to do?

Most people will find The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams to be the very best book in the series. The plot is deliciously complicated and unusual. There are mysteries galore to solve, and it's not clear until near the end who did what to whom. The satirical references to mystery novels and novelists are priceless (these include wickedly twisted misstatements of Sue Grafton titles and stories, and a hilarious sequence about cats solving mysteries referring to the Lillian Jackson Braun books). The book also introduces Raffles, Bernie?s new mouse-exterminating-assistant cat who is always on the paper chase, and Carolyn's offbeat theories about women and cats. The baseball card trivia about the Chalmers Mustard Ted Williams set will delight any collector or fan. The comic sequences had me laughing out loud as Bernie finds unexpected surprises as he employs his burglary talents. Bernie also discovers a new source of income which most readers would not have anticipated. Some of the new characters will also amuse or delight you, even though they are only in this book. In essence, there's enough good material in this book for four excellent novels. And it's all nicely pulled together.

How will Bernie save the store? Who took the baseball cards? How will Bernie solve the other puzzles in the book? You are making a big mistake if you don't read this book!

The theme of this book is whether honesty or dishonesty pays better . . . and why. Where do you see dishonest people doing better than honest ones now? Will that continue? Why or why not?

Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage

Given the Splendid Splinter's recent death, I couldn't resist this title, and in the process, I discovered that Lawrence Block is one of the more clever authors of this day. Our hero is a used book seller and a part time burglar, who tends to use his skills for good rather than evil. One minor complaint is we are often led down a path, only to be filled in later by Bernie the burglar of a fact he had been withholding the reader for a few chapters. But all in all, this light hearted book is fun, and easily readable. I plan to try out more of Mr Block's works.

The book "SHINGLE STYLES Innovation and Tradition in American Architecture 1874 to 1982" is a truely exquisite book. The shingle style architecture is one of the last american architectural styles, and should be deeply cherished. The book has beautiful photographs by Bret Morgan and flowing text by Leland M. Roth. The book brings you through time, starting in the gilded age with lavish country homes, and ending in recent 1982, again displaying a lavish country home, stating the continuation of the shingle style. While reading the book you tend to have vicarious dreams of living in the later 1800s, going to the country home with the faimly and walking along the beach or senic country path, with your shingle villa in the background. The book makes a fine contribution to any library, and in my library it is prominately positioned in reach of all that wish to indulge in the enjoyment of the shingle style of architecture. I strongly recomend this book, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

A truly delectable book! After chewing it over thoroughly from cover to cover, I've been dreaming of shady porches, snug fireplaces, the smell of old houses in the rain. Bret Morgan is a wonderful photographer; his pictures evoke all of this -- I ate them up!

"Shingle Styles" is a treasure trove of architectural images and ideas. We are planning a new house inspired by the Shingle Style and this book has been most helpful in talking to our architect and contractor. The more recent houses are particularly helpful in thinking about adapting a historic style to our contemporary needs.

The night after I finished this book I found myself before a slot machine in a small casino. I had a feeling and put a quarter in. I won and won again. I stuffed the quarters in my pockets but there were no buckets available. When I lost two quarters in a row I left. Unfortunately this was a dream and I awoke empty handed. Bob the Gambler is a beautifully observed, enviably perfect novel by a master who doesn't seem flashy because he stays within his means. It is also a surprisingly, even surreally loving story. The novel centers around the fissioned nuclear family of down-on-his luck Biloxi architect Bob Kaiser, a plump transplant moved by the Mississippi coastal decay before it was invaded by "gussied-up Motel 6 hotel rooms [and] an ocean of slicked-back hair," his pretty, witty, and wonderful wife of nine years Jewel, who is tough and stable, and yet the first to thirst for casino action, Jewel's daughter RV, an amazingly rendered, very sweet fourteen year old mid-90's teenager whom Bob adores, and Frank, the family dog. All the principals, as well as Bob's mother, whom we meet later in the book, are expert at the art of the cryptic tough-talking but secretly loving epigram. One of the great charms of this book is the depths of love of the family members both concealed by and revealed by their fragmented banter and quips. There are some wonderful moments and descriptions of daily life and teenage rearing, the euphoric swirl of casino gambling, and the decrepit Mississippi coast. The lasting impression one is left from this book, aside from the controlled brilliance of Barthelme's prose, is in my opinion a meditation on the meaning of money vis-à-vis love. Bob's wife's name, Jewel, is a token of facets of wealth unobtainable by any number of markers or wild infatuation-like risks; theirs, an irreducible love that includes and absorbs others (such as RV) in its understated wake, is the multicolored antithesis of liaisons such as those between David Duke (who make a cameo appearance)-and a sprightly young thing-of any coupling that can be price tagged, exchanged, or discarded. The casino and noncasino lights that surround Jewel, in her preternatural (and perhaps ultimately unrealistic, or at least extremely rare) stability, enact a preciousness beyond money and its temporary accumulations. They symbolize the nonmonetary values of the gift of being, the privilege not of accumulating but of existing-of the privilege of being alive, a spectator of phenomena in a world whose mortal decay, far from being its downfall, guarantees the preciousness of the light show it displays. Anyone who has taken junkets to Atlantic City may have noticed how on the flight there everyone chatters; they are full of excitement on hope. The way back is different. Everyone, or almost everyone has lost. They are quiet-until the plane lands, at which point they clap. Why? Because, although they have lost their money, they are newly appreciative of the far more precious gift of being alive. That is the mini-miracle, the lottery ticket, the stiff Barthelme hits for us in this wonderful paean to human frailty and true, tough love. In a way, Barthelme, his heart bigger than any red chip, says in this book the exact opposite of comedian Steven Wright's quip, "You can't have everything, where would you put it?" Barthelme says (with mathematician Paul Erdos) you do have everything, you have it all, already-you are infinitely rich.

I read this book as soon as it came out, have recommended it to friends, and just now purchased another copy as a gift. It's one of the best books I've read in years. The characters are so acutely observed, the dialogue so on target, that I got carried away with it. The well-written gambling scenes made my hands sweat at points. And the ending -- the ending is absolutely perfect.

Barthelme's new book is fantastic. Rich in detail like his earlier "Two Against One," and chilling in its ability to paint the down and out life of its characters.

Intrigued after reading the previous reviews, I went and purchased this book first, even though I believe it is the 3rd of the series. I won't go into the plot but I will say that the author develops his characters in such a way that you feel as if you really know and care about what happens. Excellent pace to the story. Had me turning pages to find out what happened next. Enjoyed it so much I went and bought 2 of the other novels in the series. Recommended.

I really enjoyed this third Benjamin Justice novel. Ben is such a wonderful character, and now that he has turned 40, things are looking up for him. He's got a new job at a Public Broadcasting Station writing a documentary series on AIDS and bare-back riding, a very controversial new trend. Justice and his new associate producer go looking for the episode's producer, Tommy Callahan, who hasn't been heard from in over a week. Tommy is later found murdered. It's from this point on in the story that Ben gets involved in solving this mystery, and his life gets turned upside down, and backwards. At the same time, Ben is struggling with his love life, infatuated with Peter, the associate producer ( a blond beauty) and Oree, a sophisticated gentlemen more his own age.

There's always plenty of surprises in John Wilson's novels, and this one is one of his best. You just can't wait to get to the end to find out how everything is going to turn out. And the characters are always so well-developed you feel like they could be your friends. I read his last mystery, "The Limits of Justice" first, so now I am working on his previous three. It's best if you can start from his first one, and read the whole series in order, although each book stands on its own. If you like mysteries, you'll really enjoy this one, I did.

I like this series because the most difficult questions are raised and the author faces them with honesty and fearlessness. He isn't afraid to take us all the way down the darkest corridors of ourselves or of the society we have created. I read and re-read all of them and ask myself the same questions, Justice asks. What is desire? If we follow it, where will it take us? What is honesty and when is it useful, when distructive? How do we deal with the persistance of slings and arrows, especially as we get older? And the terrible reality of not knowing ever, really, why we do what we do. Wilson asks more than this, following the answers relentlessly toward often ambiguous conclusions. These books are thought provoking as well as entertaining. Tough stuff, but irresistible and memorable.

This is an unusual book in which hard core tracking tips are blended with instructions on cultivation of the inner silence. As opposed to other stories about tracking which border the domain of fiction (e.g., "The Way of the Scout"), Brown gives us in this Field Guide practical advice on reading animal tracks, constructing shelters etc. The tips on "Nature Observation" in this field guide are unsurpassed by any other tracking book I know. TB provides us with priceless descriptions of what happens the moment we enter the forest - that is, how the alarm signal spreads from the birds to mammals and how long it takes for it to subside. The forest he is talking about is a living entity, where everything is connected and where one can plug into the circuits of the information flow by learning to listen to the sounds, by studying the terrain and the wind and by knowing how to camouflage and mask one's smell. The book provides useful info on various types of walking/stalking in the woods. Finally, there is deep reverence for nature something which occurs when one has learnt to be silent amidst the whispering trees (no mean trick for the Westerner who tends to function through the head). Tom Brown has learnt the inner silence tricks from his Apache teacher ("the Grandfather") and trackers might find this book useful for learning more about Native American attitudes toward nature. A similar approach to nature is encountered in some of Paul Rezendes' books (which i also recommend). In short, this book will be useful to those who are interested in approaching nature on its own terms. It will inspire the beginners in tracking and complement knowledge of hard core SAR UTS trackers (:)

This book gave me a renewed enthusiasm for nature and an urgent need to be outdoors, I wanted to do everything he was teaching as I was reading it. I went right out and practiced his techniques as soon as possible during and after reading this book. I've never seen so much wildlife as I do now. It has made me a better outdoorsman and has given more meaning to my time spent outdoors. I can't wait to share it with my father who taught me some basics of tracking when I was a boy. This book taught me all the stuff I wished I had learned long ago, now i must make up for lost time I spent with my eyes closed to the things that connect me with the earth.

This book guides you to a deeper communion and awareness of nature not possible through the ordinary outdoor pursuits most authors write about. Here you will learn the basics of camouflage, observation, and movement which opens the door to seeing more in the outdoors then you thought possible. After reading this book for the first time, I took Brown's advice and simply sat down in the woods. Within fifteen minutes a woodchuck came blithely walking by totally oblivious to my presence. That was more wildlife than I had seen on a dozen previous hikes or camping trips. It was the starting point of twenty years of exploration and discovery and the end of mindlessly walking along trails and missing everything along the way. In this book Brown takes you beyond the "veneer" most other tracking guides cover. He helps you learn how to age tracks, identify the animal's sex, and read the animal's movements and emotions from the shapes and forms found around the track. Brown teaches through stories and experiences that brings tracking to life. This is in stark contrast to the dull didactic recitation of measurements and readings most other books provide. If you ever wondered if Native Americans could really track like the Apache in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the answer is here because Brown learnt everything he knows from an Apache Native American. Are you tired of returning from long hikes or camping trips only to feel that you somehow missed something? then get this book and welcome to Tom Brown's incredible world of adventure and discovery. Keep one thing in mind however, this book is only the beginning. It's up to you to decide how far along this path you want to walk.

Morgan Jones is an ex-BBC engineer - it shows! His techincal knowledge is excellent, his presentation is clear and easy to follow. Here's the big BUT - like the BBC - there is little creativity or 'daring' in his designs. His project is based on something he did 20-odd years ago and did not excite my imagination. A very good introduction (I enjoyed it immensely) but I think that Rainer zur Linde and Menno van der Veen have more to offer in extending thermionic technology.

As a former academic who has designed and taught a course on valve amplifier design, I strongly recommend this book. It is an unusual blend of the practical and the mildly theoretical, with both areas starting at a very elementary level but continuing to the point of genuine sophistication.

Morgan Jones is wonderfully enthusiastic about his subject, and even more so for his clear personal preferences within this field. If only UK school science lessons had this level of emotional involvement!

Any constructor, whether professional or amateur, member of the valve era or member of the IC age, would do well to buy this book.

Nick Sheldon

I give Jones high marks for several reasons:

1) Comprehensive coverage of vacuum tube phono (RIAA) preamp design and optimization, the best in or out of print as far as I know;

2) Overall organization and breadth;

3) Technical explanation at a useful (not excruciatingly hard but not oversimplified) level;

4) Readable style.

While I am not as committed a believer as Jones is to the supremacy of push-pull amplification, I recommend this book frequently and with enthusiasm.

Is it perfect, the best possible book for the tube audio enthusiast ever to be written? No.

Is it the best book available? A resounding yes.

-j

Ovidio Díaz Espino's "How Wall Street Created a Nation" is not a very reliable source if you are seriously researching "life in the tropics" -though Díaz claims in the foreword that he wanted to disclose the "mystery" behind the creation of the republic of Panamá. It cannot be denied that the author did quite a thorough research on the library of J.P. Morgan, but it appears as if this part of the story were the most important in the creation of a nation. And I believe that Díaz is dead wrong: people with strong links to a land create nations, not foreign money. The inclusion of Morgan's (his then employer) and ("Teddy") Roosevelt's names in the book's subtitle is an indication of who Díaz thought as his target audience. As for us, here in Panamá, who have made a little research - in situ - on the genesis of our country, we associate the creation of Panamá with persons like José Domingo Espinar (who was the first to separate the Panamanian province from Colombia), Justo Arosemena (who created the Federal State of Panamá) and rebel lawyer Pedro Prestán - who, in Díaz' book, appears as a pyromaniac mulatto, when Prestán was actually sentenced to death after two Americans and an Italian testified against him, when he was accused of burning the city of Colón, on the Caribbean coast of Panamá. This side of the story is largely omitted in the financial saga Díaz has concocted (sometimes performed by ugly Latino stereotypes and narration "a la Hollywood" - perhaps for selling movie rights?), which affects the book seriously. All the information Díaz found about how the Panamá Railroad Company's employees planned a sort of "coup d'état" in Panamá, in 1903, is valuable, but it needs the counterpart that he mentions here and there, when he admits that Panamanians tried to separate from Colombia more than 50 times. If this had not happened, surely a Chinese and a mule would not have been the only dead on November 3, 1903, the date of the separation. Many loyal patriots would have died for Colombia, but this was not the case. So the heroics of the Wall Street personnel and their colleagues in Washington and Paris only represent the economic machination that fueled an old aspiration. As it is, you may find it interesting, but please be aware that this is only part of history. It is not strange that Díaz ends his book citing a "Zonian" (Americans born and raised in the Canal Zone), reinforcing my impression of this book's submissive point of view.

Being a Colombian, the explanations by local historians of how Panama was lost seems to be plagued with errors and gaps that mask the need to protect the image of certain Colombian leaders who are still described in elementary school history books as "patriots". In the case of Panama a similar situation occurs. The local Panamanian explanations exude heroic figures, intense fighting, tremendous leadership and planning skills, etc which are grossly exaggerated but appeal to local consumption. That is why this book allows for a small peek into some real history of how foreign decisions were made to build the canal, and how the locals played the cards that were dealt to them.

I wish to thank Ovidio Diaz Espino for a well-written book that is definitely a valuable contribution to the better understanding of Panama's history and its relations with the United States.

This book touches historical accounts and serves to straighten facts that are virtually unknown to many Panamanians.

"How Wall Street Created a Nation" helps to understand Panama's social and political struggles since becoming a nation, almost one century ago.

It also helps explain Panama's continuous struggle for political, economic and social stability in present times.

I must be romping through my third childhood because I still love this classic equine tale about the founder of a truly
American breed of horse. I enjoyed it now just as much as when I was young; Henry's story holds up with successive readings
since the human emotions are sincere, and the dramatic events are true. The young protagonist, Joel, has a passion for horses; as a young man he dreams of finding his beloved, Lil Bub, the first Morgan colt whom no one wanted.

Even more, this is a story of Vermont--famous for its Green Mountains and courageous patriots--during the War of 1812. Later on in the story we witness a brief but triumphant presidential visit, where the Morgan horse was publically recognized.

Plenty of dialogue, short chapters and excellent b/w sketches by Wesley Dennis combine to give us a delightful gallop into the Yankee past. No one knows for certain who sired the "little" colt, whom only a poor boy could admire, but tales of his racing speed and pulling strength quickly made him a local legend, with farmers eager to get stud rights. Like BLACK BEAUTY this book is written for kids and horse lovers of all ages. PS: Because they are so strong and fast, Morgans are used in the National Park Service.

The story line is very lovely, a book about the strong bond between a boy and the sire of a truely noble breed of horses: the Morgan. It is based on a true story. Readers should be warned that some of the characters are made out to be very steriotypical Vermont poor folk *limited vocabulary and wearing scraps of leather for shorts, ect. ect. ect.* and may be offended by such. I myself have heard several complaints on this. However, the overall effect does present a believable story. Worth looking into.

This is a special book to me, as it was the book upon which my son's first book report was written about a dozen years ago. It was also the last time he needed my collaboration on a school project.
The story is a nice introduction to American History and to the world of horses, both of which continue to interest him as he heads off to an Ivy-laden college this fall.

In the first offering in a series of stories about Morgan the dog, Irbinskas demonstrates from a dog's point of view the magical union of friendship and the sentiment that one does not have to be perfect to be special. As a mixed-breed, Morgan wonders, "who would want me?" But Brittany, a young girl longing to have a dog and immediately captivated by the adorable Morgan, rescues him from the animal shelter. As the story unfolds, suspense is created as a frightened Morgan runs away from Brittany during a thunderstorm; thus, Morgan's valiant adventure begins. Although Morgan's heroics result in a slightly predictable ending, the story, meant to encourage pet adoption, reveals the magical bond of friendship that can exist between pet and owner.
On the first page, Morgan dreams of "happy days, and cozy nights, rides in cars and friends for life!" To portray Morgan's dream, illustrator King uses subtle shading of watercolors to show the non-definition of the dog's perception. Images in milky colors of yellow blend into shades of blue and pink above Morgan's head. Later, King repeats this technique, using regal shades of blue and purple, to illustrate Morgan's fantasy of majestic heritage. This visionary composition creates a magical element that reinforces the special qualities Morgan possesses. King also takes great measures to capture the hues and textures of nature through active brush strokes that imply movement and life. From the catch-light in the dog's pupils to the pink softness of his tongue and bushy white tail, illustrations fairly come alive enhancing the mood and general emotion felt about so loving an animal.
The book concludes with the author urging those who wish to love and care for such a pet to adopt one from a local animal shelter. ....

A delightful story with an important message about unconditional love, and pet adoption. My six year old wanted a dog just like Morgan! Morgan represents courage and love, while Brittany, his new owner, is an example of love and acceptance. I loved the cover picure!

What a great read for children! Being a volunteer at our local bookstore, I chose to read this book at our children's workshop. The children responded with great enthusiasm. The full size pictures were great. This book wasn't drawn out and kept the children's attention. The bond between Brittany and her dog is heartwarming. The magic between Brittany and Morgan seems to only be the beginning of more adventures, hence the title "The Day the Magic Began". I also checked out their website. Great animated introduction.