I was very critical of the first joint effort by Mr. Cussler and Mr. Kemprecos ("Serpent") because it was subpar by Cussler standards. I also thought he had let himself fall into the "franchise trap", where he stamps his name on books authored by someone else and watches his credibility and reader base suffer. However, I wound up giving Mr. Cussler the benefit of the doubt and read "Blue Gold".

"Blue Gold" is the second novel featuring the NUMA team of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala. As with the first book, however, one cannot help but continually visualize Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino - the descriptions of the characters are that similar. Oh, there are some minor differences, but they only serve to make you feel that you are reading the adventures of "Pitt Lite" and "Giordino Lite". The Trouts, minor characters spotlighted both here and in "Serpent", are wholly unappealing because they don't bring much to the overall story, other than an excuse to print an extra chapter or two revolving around a chase or escape.

This book is much improved over "Serpent" mostly due to its, shall we say, more judicious use of detail. Whereas "Serpent" was bogged down by mind-numbing, superficial detail, "Blue Gold" is free of most of these anchors. The end result is a story that reads slightly closer to the Cussler adventures we fans are accustomed to, and moves along at a much quicker pace. The plot is average, though the closing sequence is exciting and unique, with an interesting turn of events not typically found in the Dirk Pitt tales.

All in all, the "sophomore" Kurt Austin adventure is an average effort. It is much improved over the first outing in this series, but continues to be vexed by too many similarities in characters and plot. It seems to me that for this series to fly, Mr. Cussler needs to ditch Mr. Kemprecos and just write the stories himself. Also, if he does indeed have this wealth of material for stories, he should have not bothered creating Kurt Austin and stuck with the tried-and-true Dirk Pitt. After all, Cussler claims Pitt to be his "alter ego", and that familiarity has lent itself to great storytelling. Creating a "mirror" alter ego in the persona of Austin has not had the same effect, in my opinion.

I will continue to anticipate and read the Dirk Pitt novels. However, this series has proven to be a general disappointment, and makes me less inclined to shell out a few extra dollars in between Pitt adventures. I hope that Mr. Cussler will realize that he can't keep running with a knockoff version of the character that made him a top-notch author. His reputation will suffer otherwise, and he will quickly find that even lending his name to generate sales won't work the same magic.

An entire pod of whales surface, dead, in the middle of a boat race; they died because they swam in too warm waters ... In the Amazonian jungle, a pair of NUMA scientists (the Trouts) find a dead Indian in a canoe; in his bag lay an array of tools and gadgets far more sophisticated than you would expect ... Thus starts the story that pits Kurk Austin and Joe Zavala against Brynhild Sigurd, a beautiful Scandinavian amazon who, as head of a large multinational corporation, wants control of the world's fresh water supply.

After the fiasco of Serpent, I was very reluctant to get into the NUMA Files again. However, in Blue Gold, Cussler and Kemprecos give Kurt and Joe a life of their own, instead of writing them as being Dirk and Al look-alike. The characters have similarities, but not so much as to distract a Dirk Pitt fan from the story. Plot and subplots link perfectly as in all Cussler novels I have read, and the pace is typical of the previous novels. The difference in personality between Austin and Pitt makes this story standout against the typical formula of a Pitt adventure with refreshing twists and turns. It is not a Dirk Pitt adventure, but I would definitely recommend it to a Dirk Pitt fan (and I am one of them).

I realise my title might be seen a criminal to fans of the erstwhile Dirk Pitt, but I can't favor him over Kurt Austin, or vice versa. Cussler is a formulaic as ever but it works! From the opening taster with Austin's counterpart love of high speed boats to Dirk's of antique cars, Kurt sets off with his own Giordino (Zavala) to find out why whales are dying in super-heated water. They run up against Brynhild, Gogstad's Scandinavian corporate meglomaniac with a penchant for controlling the world's freshwater, a Viking fixation (the references to Valhalla throughout are a nice echo of the latest Dirk Pitt installment) and dubious taste in hirlings (the Kradzik brothers). Throw in the husband and wife NUMA team of Gamay and Paul with a sizable side trip of their adventures in Venezula rescuing the local white goddess, Professor Francesca Cabral, a trip into Mexico and all culminating in a battle at Lake Tahoe and you have a rip-roaring Cussler yarn.
Sure, some will still favor Pitt over Austin but Paul Kemprecos' addition to Cussler's skills have created no poor imitation at all. Hopefully Kurt and Joe's adventures will be as long as Pitt's. Valhalla told us Dirk Pitt was getting older. Kurt Austin is his younger counterpart.

Like the last reviewer I was very disappointed by this set. Mainly because I thought this set would teach vocal techniques. This set teaches theory based information like intervals, scales, octaves, rhythms, notes,etc. Howard and Austin take you step by step vocally thorough all the theory based info on the 4 discs. Still despite my own disappointed with this set I would recommend it to anyone who desire to know theory or may be short of knowledge on music theory. However I wouldn't reccommend this to anyone who just wants to learn vocal improvement techniques or general vocal techiques.

Thanks to Austin & Howard, we finally have a practical training program in Vocal Musicianship. Scales, intervals, chords, rhythm & meter are the building blocks of music. ABCs of Vocal Harmony gears to the human voice and helps you play your vocal instrument with greater skill while learning the language of music. A member of my choir found it at Amazon.com and now I have everyone using it. My choir has never sounded better. Be sure to get the CD version for maximum effect in accessing any subject or exercises at the tuch of a button.

"Your Vocal Harmony Course is great! It's fun and encouraging too. For the first time we have something other than just a book for the kids. Having both male and female voice to listen to and match makes all the difference ... and filling in the missing notes of intervals and chords and getting immediate feedback is just what we need. Thanks." Jayne Campbell - Westlake - Harvard School

One of Ours begins as vintage Cather, you can feel the sun on your face and the soil under your feet. The characters are real and people you know. The troubled protagonist, Claude, is sympathetic. Why not? There's something of him in all of us. Unfortunately, the book falls apart when he enlists as a doughboy and ships to France.

Cather once stated that she experienced everything that ever went into her writing by the time she was 15. Clearly that didn't include the Western Front. The second half of the book, based on her research and interviews with WWI vets, is not her experience and it shows. The events and descriptions are shallow and superficial, and felt more like an outline, without flesh and blood. The book was a disappointment.

Though you begin to realize where this story is headed early in the novel, you are not quite prepared for where it takes you. It is heartbreaking, and Willa Cather does not beat you over the head with that. The story begins in Nebraska- this is where Cather exhibits her best writing in the story. Her description of our hero's lament is sincere in its vaguery. His feeling of entrapment spills over to the reader. Ms. Cather loses some of her magic when he goes off to The Great War. While we imagine that his sense of entrapment in Nebraska is lifted, we never really feel the emotional evolution that we expect he is going through. In addition, the first three quarters of the story contain a complicated familial element to which we never return.

In the end, where we knew we were headed, we long a little bit for the entrapment of our hero's Nebraska, but feel a little bit liberated by his new freedom.

This novel represents the heroic struggle of one individual against farming, social ambition, marriage and war.

Although strong and capable, farming is the worst profession imaginable for this red headed hero. Willa Cather shows every respect for the hard honest life of a Nebraskan farmer, but Claude makes a hard honest fiasco of the farming life. This book is the story of a soul. A strong daring soul that needs to wrestle something bigger than itself (even if it loses). Claude begins by trying to manage his father's farm. When he spends a few years at college, he is shown the world of social ambition, but neither of these experiences set his life on the right path. If you are interested in the dynamics of male/female relationships, Claude's marriage provides plenty of food for thought. Willa Cather chose a very interesting backdrop for her hero when she describes the home front of these two very black sheep.

This book may be the most realistic description of middle-west sentiment during the first world war. It describes the emotions of Americans who volunteered to fight for people they had only met via the black and white media of newspapers. The war becomes a sort of crusade, and Claude feels compelled to answer the call. Willa Cather gives a wise description of the issues, and even expresses the sentiments of honest German farmers in Nebraska. Claude's best friend is from the Bohemian old country, and doesn't quite agree with Claude's choices.

This book has received quite a few reserved reviews. I recommend this book without reservations.

I admit, I might be getting too critical when it comes to mystery novels lately. But I have read so many that I start to know what a really good mystery novel is and which ones are not. "Zero At The Bone" was the first novel that I have read by Mrs. Walker. Don't get me wrong, the book wasn't bad at all, but the plot moved quite slowly and there was not much suspense. Most of the novel described in great detail the tasks and obligations that a zookeeper must go through. How to clean the cage, sweep the floor, feed the animals, take the snake out of his cage, and on and on. If you work at a zoo, you'll love this book I guarantee it! Although, the characters were well developed and likeable, I wouldn't put this book on my "must read list" at all. Not bad Mrs. Walker!

Brad Stonecipher

I really enjoyed Zero at the Bone. You never knew where the plot turns were going to take you. It is rare to find a mystery novel that leaves you guessing until the end. I found it a great read along with Mary Willis Walker's other books. I just wish she would write another one soon.

Walker does an excellent job with this book.

As you eneter Katherine's world it's crumbling away and then she gets notice that her father who she hasn't seen or heard from in year dies. She goes off to see him off and go through his extate. When she comes across something that doesn't seem right and this embarks her on a journey that will change her life.

Walker paints a powerful picture with her words. In one scene they come across a lion traped in a cage. You can actually see the lion and feel the cage and his imperfections with your hands. It will send chills up your spine.

This is her best book and the only one that stands on it's own. Her other books deal with continuing characters and are great, too.

Read. Enjoy. Then take a trip to a large zoo and enjoy the animals.

If you liked Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal with all there power you'll enjoy Mary Willis Walkers' work.

This book was published back in the 1980's under the 'mens adventure' category. It is pretty light reading, but it provides a good source of entertainment about an interesting scenario (post nuclear world).

In short, something to read and enjoy and not take too seriously.

If you like books about war that you don't have to take too seriously then scout one of these aging paperbacks out.

Its not in the class of Clancey or Bond, but this is a good read in the "B" category (like OK B or direct to vid movies). I read a lot of military and techno thrillers, and this one has enough of a "feel" of reality and fast enough pace with a sci-fi flavour to have me hunting the others in the series.

This is for the people who love good old action/adventure with great characters. The small group of guardians are formed after WWIII breaks out and it is a fun read, and pretty damn believable.

Well, I didn't like this book too much at all. All of the other reviews that I have read say that it's great, it's a classic, a timeless tale! And maybe it is. For me, I found it really hard to get into. There's not much dialogue, or action. The only exciting part comes at the end, with the Reverend Dimmesdale & his confession. Maybe I'll enjoy it when I'm older. I'm only 13 right now, and I don't think I could stand reading it again. My friends know me as a generally fast reader, but this book took me 8 weeks, maybe more, to finish! I found it very boring. I've been reading several books at once, and after a couple pages, I found it too much to keep reading, so I picked up another book that I had previously thought boring, and it seemed like non-stop action! And a lot easier to read, too, than the wording of Nathaniel Hawthorne. However, I will admit that The Scarlet Letter DOES convey a message of guilt, revenge, cowardice & bravery, and the terrible wrong that is sin. For that, I give it 3 stars. I would rate it higher, but, like I said, I found it extremely boring and tiresome. I recommend this book to people who love to read, who don't get too frustrated with tough language, and who have a LOT of time on their hands!:) I'm sure I'll try to read it again someday, but as of now, I need a break from Hawthorne's beautiful, intricate, meaningful, yet difficult words.

Although The Scalet Letter is superbly written and there is no denying the greatness of Nathanel Hawthorne, I must admit that the book was, perhaps, a bit on the dry side. Hawthorne, himself having grown up in Puritan Salem, writes from first-hand experience of the unwavereing rigidity and intolerance of Puritan society. Hester Prynne, having committed the unthinkable sin of adultery and conceiving her illegitimate child Pearl, becomes a veritable pariah as she is forced to live on the outskirts of town and wear the ignominious scarlet letter A on her bosom for eternity.

In sanctimonious colonial Salem, Hester's impropriety is tantamount to murder in today's society. She, however, should not have to bear the guilt alone. As they say, it takes two to tango. Reverend Dimmesdale, in his absolute cowardice, is just as, if not moreso, guilty than Hester. Furthermore, the biggest coward and hypocrite proves to be none other than her spineless husband, Roger Chillingworth. I must say that the reading was at times a bit laborious, but a good read nonetheless. I must further confess that the movie version with Demi Moore is much more rewarding, although the book should undoubtedly be read first.

I just finished The Scarlet Letter in school. Hawthorne does an excellent job of describing every nuance of this story, and that is why at times it is a little hard to follow. But the very heart of the story is one that we all can compare with. Hester Prynne has committed a terrible sin, and bears The Scarlet Letter on her breast. This classic tale begins with Hester on the gallows platform, alone with her baby, Pearl. Throughout the course of thise novel, Hawthorne weaves his way through characters so that you feel you are a part of this story, and by the end you have no doubts in your mind how you feel about each character. This is a book that you will either love or hate, and it really depends on when you read it. Try to take your time through the book the first time you read it, then everything will make much more sense, and you won't throw down the book in disgust. On a side note, you can really skip the introduction chapter entitled "The Custom House" because it has little to do with the rest of the book.

The book does not have the in-depth coverage that expert SQL users would expect. If you are a beginner then it may suit you just fine. There are not enough nuts and bolts for people like me who really need the complete reference book.

A very good book on Oracle8 administration, performance tuning, backup and recovery. Full of well organized useful information.

I am primarily a Solaris system admin who wants to learn more about the inside of Oracle and what it takes to keep it up and running. The O'Reilly titles were a major disappointment since most of their stuff usually rocks, but let's hope for better 2nd editions on those along with some good tutorial material. The Oracle Press titles are totally disorganized and a major embarassment! David Austin has put together a great book with Using Oracle 8, and if you have to suffer through NT (and thank God I don't), he has plenty of material on Oracle Enterprise Mgr (all of chapter 4). Then he moves on to the nitty gritty, with a Unix-oriented or at least generic "pure Oracle" approach. I have spent two weeks browsing and reading various Oracle books and good choices are hard to find. I strongly recommend Alomari's "Oracle8 and Unix Performance Tuning" as well.

I was amazed that Clive Cussler takes the time to have his main character Dirk Pitt introduce us at the beginning of his book to this series' new hero - Kurt Autsin. Here, Cussler is obviously trying to immediately convert all Dirk Pitt fans to Kurt Austin fans (Dirk Pitt actually has a "cameo appearance" in the book).

I went into this book with an open mind, but was dissapointed becuase I was expecting all of the witty dialogue that exists between Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino to also exist between Kurt Austin and his "sidekick".

Unfortunately, this book lacked the true Cussler witty "repartee" and did not keep me on the edge of my seat. With every other Cussler novel that I've read, I can almost never put them down, but with this one, I was almost begging it to end, but kept reading out of respect for prior Cussler novels, hoping that it would get better (unfortunately, it never did).

Cusler's books are memorable for the two action heros Dirk Pitt and Al Giordano but it is Cusler's crisp and compelling writing that keeps the reader turning the pages trying to read each new book in a single sitting. This latest pseudo-Cusler book is an enjoyable read, it's just not Cusler. Why give us the shadow when we can have the substance? The Kurt Austin/Jose Zavala characters don't really do anything, and what action there is, is flat and unimaginative. Yes, there is a tantalizing combination of mysteries to be solved and yes, there is an attempt to weave the series' regulars into the plot, but the book lacks the genius that characterizes the earlier books in which each new paragraph, sentence and word compelled the soul of the reader to gnash teeth, shiver in excitement or even shed a tear for the NUMA team. If Cusler is gone forever, then RIP Dirk and NUMA, the new team isn't getting the job done.

Concerned that this was co-written and not a strict Cussler I still bought this book and I can honestly say I was not dissapointed at all. This is a terrific novel that centers around the mysterious efforts of an unknown person/group that is sabotaging archaeological expeditions that deal with Columbus and pre-Columbian history. The first part of this wonderful novel begins on the Andrea Dorea on the eve of its sinking and raises many interesting questions. The story proceeds from there and involves a hot button topic involving the forecast secession of the Southwest United States. I have read about this issue from several sources, so I found this particularly fascinating that it would be involved in a novel. As always the beautiful characters of Clive Cussler fill the pages with life. Kurt Austin is a terrific character, even to a hard-core Dirk Pitt fan!!

This is, regrettably, a quick makeover of a good book on hardball squash into barely acceptable book on softball squash. For the beginner, it would be a confusing mixture of the two. For an observer, some of the quotes from pros are revealing as to the gaps between the softball and hardball traditions remaining in the USA. For a more complete guide to the game, get "Squash Workshop" by Ian Mackenzie ... or get "Learn Squash in a Weekend" for a brief but technically accurate guide. - Ron Beck, publisher squashtalk.com

I think this would be a very useful book for someone who started with hardball and wanted to change over to play softball. As someone who started with softball, however, I was a little disappointed. I have also read Jahangir Kahn's "Go Play Squash" and I thought that book had much better descriptions of the technical aspects of the softball game. For me, too much of Francis' book focused on overcoming hardball habits that I don't have. But the book did contain many useful quotes from professionals about tactics and mental preparation.

I had been toiling in low-level/beginner squash for a year until I bought and read this book. My game saw huge gains after reading this book. Many ideas, basic shots and strategies are summed up in simple, succinct points. I can not compare this book to other squash instructional books as this is the first that I read but for me the proof is in the pudding. I credit this book with being a major factor in breaking me out of the beginner game and propelling me into the ranks of competitive squash. I was playing hack-ball beforehand and afterwards had a far better understanding of basic stroke, hitting for length and basic strategy. The 8 drills that are detailed are good, my only complaint being that they could have included a few more. Bottom line: Invaluable resource for beginners.

The book is a Christian-based named book. With each name, there is a one or two word "Inherent meaning," to the name and a one or two word "Spiritual Connotation," and then a bible verse that relates to the meaning. I was hoping there would be more explanation of the names.

This was also not the book I meant to order. There is another book with the same title by Pierre Le Rouzic.

Although it's a Christian book, there is a wide variety of names from all cultures that are not Bible-based names.

I like how all the names are listed alphabetically and not divided by sex. To me, it just seems to take longer to go through names when they're divided. With this book, you have one set of "A" names instead of two, etc. Another thing I like is that there isn't an overwhelming amount of alternate spelling and nickname suggestions.

The Name Book is from an interdenominational Christian perspective and includes Bible verses from various Bible translations (each abbreviated). There are also lists in the back of female and male Biblical names. Even if you're not Christian and are simply looking for a name, don't pass this resource up.

This book is an excellent research resource for the serious student seeking to learn the Father's symbolic language to us in regard to dreams & visions. This is not a regular run-of-the-mill book of baby names to choose from (although it provides an excellent resource for that as well). It is brief, concise & to the point with the language/cultural origin, inherent meaning, spiritual connotation & Scripture reference - & precisely because of this form, it is able to list so many names (over 10,000). It is an absolutely invaluable & wonderful research tool. Many, many, many thanks to the authors/compilers!