The second book in the trilogy picks up the action where the first book ended. Spidey and Bishop are now in a world familiar yet very different. The rest of the X-Men have to try to save the world from Kang's evil plot - and fighting some villains they normally don't fight to do so.

This book continues with the elements I enjoyed in the first - lots of action, lots of cameos, lots of cliffhanger chapters. This trilogy continues to be one of the best super-hero novel(s) I've read in a long time.

I guess I wrote something about the series for the first book, but I want this to stop popping up on recommended books so I'm writing another review. If you want to know what I said, check book one in the series.

Well there aren't many books around that you would not want to put down till you have finished reading it. But this book is certainlyone that fits in to that catagory. From begining to the end, this book will keep you in suspense. I just don't think that words can do justice describing this world. Just imagine being in a wrold where the X_men have become evil and killed or impresioned all the other superpowred humans. Imagiane wolverine free to kill at will. Well stop reading this and buy this book now. I promise you it will not disapoint

I wanted to learn more about Mickey Mantle after seeing Billy Crystal's HBO movie 61*. Since Mantle's career had long ended before I was born, my only knowledge of Mantle was his name and that he was a famous baseball player. I didn't even know why he was a famous baseball player. If I ever thought about it, which I did not, I would've guessed he broke some kind of baseball record. Well, it's obvious to me now that before I read Tony Castro's book "Mickey Mantle:America's Prodigal Son," I had absolutely no idea of what I was missing. And, I wish I found out sooner, while Mantle was still alive!!!

This book opened my eyes to a lot about Mickey Mantle, the time in which he played ball, the legacy of the New York Yankees, and baseball, in general. In regards to Mantle, I never knew what a powerhouse he really was with the ability to hit a baseball over 500ft numerous times. Add to that the fact that he could hit from both sides of the plate and the kind of speed he had to get around the bases. His athletic ability alone was astonishing to me. I really wish I were born earlier so that I could have seen him play.

But, this book is not just a lengthy form of the back of a baseball card containing statistics about Mickey Mantle. It is much more. It allows you to live in the times that Mantle did by explaining the goings on in the country and baseball's role in the country at each stage of his life. I think it was great the way Castro did this because you could get a sense of the emotion surrounding Mantle and the incredible greatness of the Yankees at that time. Dare I say, I got caught up in the story almost as if I was watching it or living through it. (Although, I know I could never really know what it was like to live at that time and experience even seeing Mantle play ball on TV.) For example, while reading about Mantle, learning to play ball from his father and grandfather, as he was growing up, you get a real feel for how much Mickey and his father loved baseball. You also see how even at a very young age, Mantle gave his all for the game. You understand that for Mickey playing ball and playing hard was not only about living out a dream, but also about giving back to his father all he felt his father gave to him. It was a labor of love and you feel that reading this book, especially as Mickey begins to realize his potentials by breaking all kinds of records.

But despite all this glory, the story turns dark early with the death of Mickey's father very, very early in his major league career. It continues to stay dark as Mickey's drinking slowly destroys his body, even as he plays. Yet, even through the drinking and injuries, you are uplifted by knowing that Mickey gets out there everyday to play the game and play it better than great.

Finally, though, Mickey must retire and his life goes downward because his drinking gets so much worse. It is at this point that the clouds really darken for Mickey. It is sad, and lasts for the rest of his life. And yet, at the very end, Mickey steps up to the plate one last time to correct the mistakes he's made by drinking. He does this by sharing his darker story with the country as an example of how not to handle the difficult times and, in his mind, waste one's talents. He begins a "don't drink and don't do drugs" campaign to save others from his kind of problems.

"Mickey Mantle:America's Prodigal Son" is really a great book. There is so much more to this story that hasn't even been mentioned here. It is a small history lesson in the goings on in baseball and the country through the 1950s until the 1990s in addition to Mickey's story. It explains why the game is the way it is today with money at the center and no real grooming of players, for any team, as the Yankees did for so long, which led to their famously long winning streak. You don't have to be a baseball guru, or even a baseball lover to appreciate Mickey's heartwarming story with its greatness, disappointment, and true heroics.

if this is your first interest in a book about "the mick", castro's work is a great place to start. i wish this one was available before i read the other three in my collection. what sets this book apart, is the journalistic integrity that is apparent with it, and the avoidance of sensationalism just for the sake of it. it is complete with dozens of anecdotes told by those that knew mantle - a feature that undoubtedly serves to make it more interesting than standard biographical non fiction. it is obvious that the author, seeking to be impartial, had a love for the player and the person. if you are looking for a mantle biography that is an honest portrayal of mantle as a ballplayer with the dynastic yankees, and as a man with weaknesses, look no further. if you are a american history buff, you will also enjoy how santos weaves events of the day and the flavor of the time into the flow of his book. all and all a great read. i highly recommend it, especially to those who, like myself, grew up "worshipping" the yankees of the 50's and 60's and, of course, their centerpiece center fielder from oklahoma.

In Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son, former Sports Illustrated writer Tony Castro examines Mantle's great promise - Casey Stengel hailed him as the next Ruth and the successor to DiMaggio - and what went wrong for him in the big city. What unfolds is a story of fathers and sons, rebels and heroes, and a youth's rite of passage. At the heart of the book is Mantle's complex relationship with his father, who controlled his son's life both on the field and off, and whose early death plagued Mantle with guilt for the rest of his life." "Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son is based on six years of research during which the author interviewed over 250 of Mantle's friends, teammates, lovers, acquaintances, and drinking partners. It is both a biography of one of the world's most fascinating and enduring sports heroes and a look at the American society of his time.

This story needs to be told. It shows how powerful Miami Cubans not only punished the man responsible for the process of dialogue that led to the release of prisoners from Castro's jails, but essentially elected George W. Bush president in the astonishing electoral race of that year in Florida.

I was moved by the travails of Bernardo Benes,who put his life and family at risk because insensitive right-wingers in the Cuban exile community in Miami turned him into a paraih because he dared talk with Cuba's Castro in behalf of political prisoners and dialogue.

This book masterfully exposes the venality of the right-wing Cuban exile power brokers, especially the suffocating voices of Spanish-language radio in Miami. I can attest to the fact that the book is wholly on the mark. It reveals details about the exile experience that are astonishing, and also very sad. This is the best book I have ever read on the subject, and also on the precarious, often bad-faith relationship between Washington D.C. and Havana.

Speeches by Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro, given in Cuba in 1991, discuss the role that Cuba played in the movement against apartheid. Mandela gives tribute, not only to Cuba?s military action, in defending Angola from South African invasion, but also its example of successful resistance to the oppressors. Castro, for his part, hails the contribution the South African people mad to the worldwide fight for justice, and his growing confidence in the capacities of the exploited.

Did you know that Cuba played a crucial role in the successful battle to end racist apartheid in South Africa? Probably not. In the United States, this is a non-fact. "How Far We Slaves Have Come" breaks the curtain of silence about these dramatic events. And it does so in the words of two of the principal figures involved -- Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro. They describe how combined Cuban and Angolan military forces defeated the South African army, which had invaded Angola, at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. An army of Blacks and mestizos crushing the army of South Africa -- the supposed all-powerful bastion of white supremacy? This was not supposed to happen!

Coming after years of resistance and struggle by Blacks in South Africa, their defeat at Cuito Cuanavale demoralized the apartheid regime. As Nelson Mandela says in the book, "The defeat of the apartheid army was an inspiration to the struggling people inside South Africa! Without Cuito Cuanavale our organizations would not have been unbanned!...Cuito Cuanavale has been a turning point in the struggle to free the continent and our country from the scourge of apartheid!"

If you're interested in South Africa, Cuba, or just in history you're not supposed to know, you should read this book.

Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela together in Cuba, not simply celebrating the victory of the South African Freedom struggle, not simply celebrating the continued life of the Cuban revolution, but speaking the truth about how the oppressed of the world can fight,can struggle, can win. Just the idea that this little book exists, let alone its stirring, intelligent words, reminds me that though the battles have been tough, working people fighting like these two fighters can win.

Sam's TEACH YOURSELF C FOR LINUX IN 21 DAYS is the ideal book for the total beginner wanting to program in Linux. C is the dominant language on Linux, as the kernel and most GNU and GNOME apps are written in it, and this book teaches C in a clear manner without expecting the reader to already know programming concepts.

The book opens with a few chapters of basic C program structure and the mathematical functions needed to perform tasks. After that, it immediately introduces three key programming concepts: strings and streams (inputing from and outputing to an external source). While most programming books don't discuss these concepts until late in the book, keeping the reader caged in mere theory without being able to make a useful program, TEACH YOURSELF C FOR LINUX introduces them early so that the learner can immediately start producing useful programs to solve common tasks.

While Sam's guide to C++ programming on Linux is actually just its generic C++ guide with a few token Linux references, happily Sam's TEACH YOURSELF C FOR LINUX is really solid on Linux and its authors are have actual experience in open-source design.

My only complaints are the limited coverage of structs, which can really make C programming easier and more powerful if used correctly, and of the GNU C Library. The glibc info documentation is so concise and difficult to follow that beginners need a better guide, and it's a shame that this book didn't provide it. The book is also three years old, so its chapter on GUI programing with GTK is somewhat out of date now that GTK2 has been released, although porting a GTK+ app to GTK2 is not a lot of work.

Linux is a platform where luckily all the tools one needs to get started programming are shipped free, and contribution to free (or "open-source") is encouraged. If you want to capitalize on the advantages of the platform, Sam's TEACH YOURSELF C PROGRAMMING FOR LINUX is the way to go.

Before I read this book I had already some experiences in Turbo Pascal, Delphi and little Visual C++. But since I recently switched to Linux as my primary operating system I decided to learn C.

This book does an excellent job explaining C from the very basics. It does not assume any previous programming experiences!

Although this was helpful to me, I am sure I could have understood the presented concepts without knowing other programming languages. You also do not have to know much about Linux itself, mostly is explained in the book in a very direct and clearly understandable way.

It teaches you almost everything compiling your code with gcc, how to use pointers (one of the most difficult aspects in C, I think) to programming for the GUI (Graphical User Interface) with gtk+. Although the chapter about GUI and gtk+ is existent it shows only the very basics. If you consider programmming with gtk an additional book will certainly be required.

The book is devided in 21 easy to read chapter that each cover one aspect of C. But it seems like some chapters, which are suggested to read one at a time,( especially 13, 14, 18), cover a little bit too much for just one day, while others like chapter 1,2 and 19 could be joined with others.

The book also claim to teach you how to acces the printer with C, but it simply does NOT. It mentions the possibility to redirect a "stream" to the printer, but does not actually tell how to achieve that.

To learn C the way the book teaches it you seriously need to invest some time and stay focused.

Since the chapters build up on each other you sometimes wil have to go back and reread some sections. After you learned C with this book you may want to buy a "refernce" that explaines more functions and commands in order to look the syntax of some commands up for which this book is unsuited. O verall the book does a good job teaching the C language with specifications for the Linux environment (it also tells you what to do in order to make your code portable!).

If you are new to Linux and want to learn a powerful programming language this is definetelly the book for you!

I gave the book only four stars because of some editing errors and the nonexistent printer-acces feauture. If this is revised in the second edition it absolutely earns FIVE stars!

I have been learning C++ for a while on a linux platform, and started to look at some C stuff in the kernel and other programs to broaden my knowledge. I saw that that although C++ is derived from C it doesn't necessarily do stuff the same way, so I picked up this book. It was right on the mark! and explained some peculiar C stuff right away and in a good easy to read style. It consolidated my knowledge well an added to my understanding, particularly with pointers to pointers by including well thought out text and pictures well done. It also provides a good tutorial into basic GCC usage and the peculirities of programming for Linux, I recomend it.

I found that only a very small part of the book is about Neurofeedback. All the rest is about issues surrounding ADD. The author writes as if he is explaining the material to a 5-year-old child. I found that this book did not increase my knowledge (gathered on the net) of Neurofeedback

Too often parents might suspect something is not quit right with their child's attention, focus, and impulse control without knowing why. And all too often the medical doctors are willing to diagnosis by prescription, lets try this medication if he improves then this is what he had. This is an excellent resource with a very comprehensive checklist to help parents understand all facts about their child's behaviors as well as an excellent reference for available options, from medication to toxicity testing to alternative and more effective treatment than medication. Before condemning your child to a life long regiment of taking medication at leats know the facts. Also an excellent book for any medical practitioner that is willing to actually read the endless research and case studies showing how non-medical treatment are actually proving more effective than medication without any of the negative side effects.

Finally a treatment that addresses the causes of ADD! Neurofeedback actually improves brain functioning, whereas Ritalin treats symptoms temporarily and does nothing to deal with the root of the problem. "Getting Rid of Ritalin" provides a wealth of useful information on the complicated issues of ADD and offers an exciting, effective solution in Neurofeedback. It is impressive that Drs. Castro and Hill examine issues that are often overlooked, such as how toxic substances, bad nutrition, and television can all contribute to ADD. This is book is both interesting and extremely useful!

The previous reviewers are being too picky. I'm sure there are mistakes in the translation but this book captures Ruy Castro's writing voice amazingly well. It's really a sweet book, a sweet story and of course sweet music. I know next to nothing about pre-Bossa Brazilian music and I wasn't confused. I did keep a pad by the book to write down names of singers and songs I need to search for. It's fascinating how all these different stories led to Bossa Nova. It's a lot more diverse than you'd think. I only wish there was a companion CD to hear all this great music, especially the more obscure early stuff.

This is a fantastic book. It's not useful as a "reference" because it's meant to be more story oriented. Written in a friendly style - as if you're having a chat w/ the author. There's a problem w/ this, however, as he expects you to know *everything*. I found myself confused at the beginning because there were so many names that I was simply not familiar w/. I may be the only person who doesn't hate footnotes, but this would've been a perfect book for them. These people become familiar through the course of the book, so it doesn't matter in the end. If you truly want the low-down on Bossa Nova (& who doesn't), this is one book to sit down w/.

A thoroughly charming and authoritative history of Brazilian popular music, this book documents the rise of bossa nova, tracking the careers of Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes, Nara Leao and others in a gossipy, informal narrative that's a delight to read. Castro brings the mythic figures of Brazil back down to human scale, poking fun at their humanity, their foibles and years of obscurity, while also pointing out their sheer brilliance, and the adoration that Brazilians feel for their music. The chatty, informal tone adds a nice hometown touch that lets you feel as if you were standing on the corner yourself when that gal from Ipanema walked by, cracking jokes with the rest of the fellas. This book is also notable for its emphasis on the now-neglected figures of the great "radio singers," who ruled the public heart in the decades before bossa hit - legendary figures such as Lucio Alves, Aloysio Oliveira, Orlando Silva, Dick Farney and Sylvia Telles whose stars have faded, but are compelling nonetheless. Castro has complete command of his subject, but doesn't feel stuffy or preachy at all. An outstanding book, and required reading for anyone looking for a deeper knowledge of Brazilian culture.

This book is not just another massive tome guaranteed to baffle the novice. Unlike other works on Perl and CGI scripting, Elizabeth Castro lets you test your own scripts by installing a personal server downloadable from the web. The chapter 'Unix Essentials' serves as a basic phrase book of Unix commands, a blessing for CGI neophytes like myself. This slim volume is packed with punch because instead of having to plow through pages and pages of enigmatic codes, you can check the scripts you write in the chapters by comparing them to the downloaded material. The illustrations are easy to understand although some prior knowledge of HTML is assumed. If that's not the case, you can use the downloaded forms as a beginning point for creating your own designs. In short, this condensed volume really delivers what it promises and is a windfall for freshman programmers like myself.

Great beginner book for learning how to build Perl CGI scripts for your websites. It does assume that you already understand basic programming concepts and know HTML.

This book explains how to: process data entered through HTML forms; work with strings, arrays, conditional statements, and subroutines; work with cookies; and write to external files. I would've liked to have seen a little more about matching and parsing in the 'Analyzing Data' section and also about what makes a Perl CGI script different from a regular Perl script (in other words, just a little bit more about CGI)--but it's still an excellent book.

Although I am computer knowledgeable and have several certifications, I knew absolutely nothing about Perl and CGI before reading this text. I looked at several other texts that were larger but seemed to contain a lot more fluff instead of actually useful information. This book was excellent for learning Perl and CGI starting from complete ground zero.
Within hours I was creating and testing scripts and actually wrote one to do what I needed done. I also downloaded another script that would not work and was able to troubleshoot and fix it to do what I needed. An excellent book that walks you through the steps one item at a time it was easy to understand and work through.
One of the things that this book contained that I did not see in other books was instructions on how to download, install and setup a personal server so that you can test the scripts you write as you learn. This information alone makes this book superior to most others. There is no better learning environment than being able to actually write and test the scripts.
Some HTML knowledge is assumed, however it is very little. Picking up a basic HTML book allows you to quickly come up to speed with the knowledge assumed. On the other hand, the required HTML knowledge is easily obtained from various sites on the Internet.
I could not recommend this book highly enough for anyone who needs to learn Perl and CGI basics and needs to get up to speed as soon as possible.

I have a tango school in Spain, and the lessons on the CD rom is what we use to teach our students. It has been great and they have improve a lot faster than with traditional type of teaching.
Thanks

Extremely easy to understand. The moving graphics are superb, I have never seen anything like it so far. The videos are clear and they even run on my old computer. It still's amaze me how can anybody could thought on compiling such a great method.

It is amazing how easy it is to improve your dancing by watching the videos and the explanations, cause then when you go to practice, you know what to do and what you are looking for in the exercises.

Forgive me, it has been a while since I have read this book so I may not remember everything accurately.It just seemed to me that Mr. Gonzalez has virtually placed blame or insinuated that Mr. Castro could be to blame for every misfotune that has occured in the United States since he has been in power.Everything from AIDS to September 11th.I am not saying that he did not carefully think things through.I am just saying he went a bit overboard. Some of his arguments seemed reasonable enough, but some were weak to say the least.A prime example of this would be his use of a letter that Fidel had sent President Roosevelt at the tender age of twelve.Could that really be used as evidence to prove his point?Perhaps, but I highly doubt it.I know I certainly would not want to be held accountable for something I might have written when I was twelve.Also, his references to Castros love of cows and milk connected with his possible homosexuality really seem inane.Overall I feel he had a few points worthy of reflection, but he added so much ludicrous commentary that I could not possibly take this book seriously.Did I mention how incredibly cheesy the picture on the cover was?

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The Secret Fidel Castro: Deconstructing the Symbol is a take-no-prisoners approach to history. I could not stop reading it until the very end, though I confess than now I am more confused than before. The author proves that the answers to most questions about Castro are wrong, and adds some unanswered questions of his own.

Why does Fidel Castro hate us so much? A very disturbing book all Americans should read, particularly in these dangerous times.

Lisa Schmidt, Boston.

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The book reads like a Tom Clancy thriller. Unfortunately, it is a real life thriller.

Helen Martinez, Monterey, California.