If you believe that the world of acoustics only consists of rooms and concert halls, this is the introductory book for you.

Otherwise, the treatment of contemporary topics is piecemeal. The introductory material is not sufficient to inform the more recent elements (the chapter on digital sound is laughable).

It is well worth the money for room acoustics. It should indicate that specific focus in the title. No where will you find psychoacoustics, instrument acoustics, microphone issues, and true recording issues.

This book is excellent as an introduction to room acoustics. But it has no focus on a myriad of other acoustical issues. It should be called 'Master Handbook of Room Acousitics.'

The chapter on digital sound is laughable and perfunctory. An introduction to specifics of digital sound sampling is essential in a modern book.

Some aspects of psychoacoustics are poorly presented; you should consult Roederer's Introduction to the Physics and Psychophysics of Music for this area.

The contributed chapters are not particularly helpful, and their style diverges from that established by the author. These are rather technical, and the material in the book on digital sound, Fourier Analysis, and related areas (including ray tracing) is inadequate to prepare the reader for the more complex topics.

To say that the Master Handbook of Acoustics is an 'incredibly comprehensive work' it's like saying that the Beatles were 'some band from Liverpool'. Without a doubt, a must-have. Better than that, buy two and enlighten a friend! :-)

Now really, this is the absolute definitive book on acoustics, covering topics ranging from sound propagation to room acoustics to absortion, diffusion, refraction, reflection, diffraction and everything else you can think of.

Professor Rogovin's 1937: Stalin's Year of Terror is a surprisingly optimistic work. I say suprising because its subject is the greatest political genocide in history - the intimidation, frame-up and murder of leading Bolsheviks and socialist minded workers and intellectuals. Yet it is an essentially optimistic work because Professor Rogovin is able to lay bare the driving force behind this terror. He shows that it resulted, not from "mans inhumanity to man" or as the "inevitable result of revolution". Rather it was rooted in Stalin and the Soviet bureaucracy's attempt to destroy the socialist ideals and principles which had motivated the Russian Revolution. By 1934 Stalin understood that the only way to deal with the rising tide of socialist opposition to the bureaucracy's rule, was to destroy the Bolshevik Party. Starting with the "Trial of the Sixteen", which included Zinoviev and Kamenev, Professor Rogovin dissects the trials. There are new and sickening insights. He describes Stalin's hilarity when a fellow butcher recounts Zinoviev's horror when he realises he has again been betrayed and will be shot. Stalin used the trials to intimidate all those who were hostile to the terrible consequences of the bureaucracy's mismanagement of the economy and the growth of social inequality. At the centre of the opposition to Stalin was Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition. Professor Rogovin incorporates the exposure of the Moscow Trials frame-up by Trotsky's son, Leon Sedov. This is a welcome addition. The record of the socialist opponents of Stalin's regime have usually been expunged from all accounts of the USSR's history - in order to fit the false schema "Russia equals communism". As Professor Rogovin shows, the finest representatives of the Bolshevik party, were the most intransigent opponents of the Soviet bureaucracy. Above all it is an optimistic work because it shows that the fate of the USSR was not predetermined. The potential contained in such an insight! is enormous.

With meticulous detail, Rogovin details the unfolding of Stalin's terror in 1937. Having lived under the last years of Stalinist rule, Rogovin has intimate acquaintance with resources from the years of Stalin's terror. He uses this knowledge, memoirs of survivors, and archival material that has only been available in the last few years to detail how Stalin and the privileged bureaucracy he represented planned and carried out the terror. What struck me is how weak the bureaucracy was, that none of what came about was inevitable. Tracing the evolution of the terror of 1937 week by week, month by month, Rogovin recounts how Stalin was able to plan and carry out the liquidation of any opponents. Above all, this book gives the lie to current opinion in the media and academia that Stalinism was the inevitable result of the Russian Revolution. It was, in fact the opposite. The Revolution that inspired so much hope around the world could only be destroyed by having its leadership physically liquidated and its moral authority destroyed through the terror. Rogovin gives many biographies describing how and why dedicated revolutionaries were morally destroyed and then executed. He describes the massive opposition to Stalinism that existed in the Soviet Union in the '30's and why Stalin launched the terror to put it down. He also details how the terror was spread internationally, particularly in the Spanish Revolution. The book irrefutably shows that Stalinism was not a continuation of the Russian Revolution, it was its betrayal. This book shows humanity at its best and worst!

This book is successful and excellent on so many levels. It is not often easy to write about history, particularly something as harrowing as Stalin's purges (and final destruction of the Bolshevik Revolution)in a fluid engaging style. Perhaps a tip o' the hat to the translator is also do here. This book does just that!

More importantly, however, is that the book's author recaptures Marxist analysis from facile, superficial historical writings that equate Stalinism with "communism". In fact, Stalinism had essentially nothing to do with either Marxism or Bolshevism. Most anti-Stalinist writings are nothing more than hysterical "anti-communist" screeds devoid of true historical perspective and simply propaganda defending capitalism or "Westdern culture" and using Stalin as the example of how awful "communism" is. While covering in depth the events of 1937, Ragovin also provides an intensive analsysis of Stalin's actions and motivations as well as those of his sychophants and those who opposed him on Marxist grounds. In fact, Ragovin explains in great detail how Stalin DID have much to fear from his opponents and argues effectively that Stalin's ultimate victory over the real Bolshevik/ Marxists was not a sure thing. Although the trials and administrative executions were carried out simply to eliminate his enemies, Stalin wasn't paranoid. There were still many Bolsheviks who wanted to create a real workers state, which, had they succeeded would have destroyed Stalin and his bureaucracy of brutal henchmen.

He descibes the heroism of the anti-stalinist Marxists as well as the depravity of the Stalinists in great detail. The almost unknown history of the incredible bravery of thousands of Trotsky's followers first consigned to brutal conditions in the Gulag and finally all executed after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union is particularly poignant.

Equally devastating is his accounting of the arrest torture and executions of outstanding individuals like Russian Civil War hero Marshal Tukachevsky. He also provides a thoroughly convincing analysis of their intellectual destruction prior to signing confessions to the trumped up charges, on the one hand, while also pointing out that Stalin was correct in his mistrust of these people. If given more opportunity they most certainly would have deposed Stalin.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the real history of the Soviet Union unencumbered by "anti-communist" propaganda. Apparently Ragovin has a number of other books about the Soviet Union written on individual years concerning the events transpiring in those years, but as yet they have not been translated into English. Hopefully, they will be avaialble soon. We need much more of this accurate information on the events of those years, and how those events molded the Soviet Union and the rest of the world.

This book is really complete and will be useful to professional tax preparers and those who already know about tax law. It is definitely not for the beginner (which I am) who wants some basic information. I found two other books that were much more applicable for me -- Minding Her Own Business and Small Time Operator. They talk about taxes in a language I can understand.

Well, let's get right to the point. This is a stellar small business survival guide and it deserves a+. I've practiced administrative tax law for nearly two decades now and believe me - I've read seemingly everything that comes out in this area of law.

Tax Savvy is well-indexed, fun to read and covers everything any small businessperson might need to know to. Now even "mom and pop" can acquire the tax savvy necessary to generate more bottom-line dollars.

Here's the reason I recommend it to all my business clients: Following Daily's advice takes all the risk out of tax-planning decisions. After all, he's the man who literally wrote the book (Stand Up to the IRS) about "battling the beast". He knows what's legal, safe and sane.

Benefit example: the very first thing I looked up in Mr. Daily's book was in the RETIREMENT PLANS section. Just one paragraph in that section saved me, personally, a literal TON of dough.

This one's a winner for the little guy . . . no ivory tower legalese or attorney mumbo gumbo - just the facts, mam. Plain and simple. Thanks Nolo! This review refers to the paperback edition.

A must have book for any small business owner. Full of useful, informative and easy to understand tax help. This book more than paid for itself less than a week after purchase.

Robertson Davies- maybe Canada's all time best novelist; playright, actor, producer, journalist, director, professor, historian, cultural elitist, mystical eccentric, stylistic conservative and 20th Century Renaissance Man- died the year after this book was published. I was in Montreal the summer before it came out and a McGill U. grad student working in a bookstore there told me that Davies had been living in Vancouver- presumably working on this novel. The book starts out well, but soon degenerates into a veiled collection of sentimental recollections (the book's lead character is no doubt a symbol of Davies himself) that just runs on and runs off its plot like an old train off its track. Too bad. Although it does have an attaction in that it gives the reader a deeper inside view into what this master really thought about this and that, a view much deeper than his many outstanding essays and non-fictional reviews. But this is a weak book; incredibly it is Davies only weak book. I've read all the others and they are all absolute gems.

This is my first encounter with Robertson Davies. I had never heard of him, and would not have read him if he weren't noted in the reader's list of the Modern Library's top 100 novels. And how unfortunate it would have been had I not picked up this book!

The Cunning Man is an examination of the life of a doctor, told by himself. Asked to recall the story of the strange death of Father Ninian Hobbes which he witnessed, he recounts his past; his childhood, his schooling, the work of his profession, the influences that have made him who he is. In doing so, he shares with us his observations on the nature of life, love, art, illness, friendship, and many other things. Davies lets us have a picture of life, complete with accomplishments and disappointments, dreams and dreams undone, and makes it real and interesting and intelligent. I can understand the appeal he has for his fans and I will be reading more of Davies' books soon.

Davies is Dr. Jonathon Hullah. He cannot disguise this fact. I never formed an image of Hullah; Mr. Davies was the main character and fittingly so. Afterall this was his memoir. Perhaps his life unraveled a little differently but all his beliefs are here in "The Cunning Man". I don't believe I have taken anyones' words with such reverence as I have Robertson Davies. He speaks to me beyond the grave - however indirectly - and has comforted me whenever I ended my day with one of his books in my hands. "The Cunning Man" was great for me in summing up my relations with him. After already reading 3 of his novels I felt his last novel would be a fitting conclusion. I was thrilled how perfect the reading experience of this book was. It truely touched my heart because I believe I was part of Robertson Davies' farewell address, which I also believe is all Mr. Davies wanted to do with this book.

I had not read any marketing books for a while and I was curious to discover loyalty.com. A study of the impact of the Internet on Customer Relationship Management looked promising. All in all, this book is quite interesting but I expected more. The focus is more on the benefits of CRM than on the impact of the Internet on the field. If you are already convinced that successful companies treat their clients personally and adapt their marketing campaigns to their profiles, you already know the main message of the book. The numerous examples mentioned in the book will confirm what you thought and believed in. What about the Internet? Well, it appears that CRM still relies on old recipes like loyalty cards, call centers and personalized mail. Of course, gathering information about customers visiting a web-site helps and e-mails are a new and cheap way of communication. Finally, CRM seems more appropriate to B2C than B2B. Most examples in the book are companies selling to individuals. The only chapter dealing with B2B is not very detailed. I cannot say that I did not enjoy reading this book even though I did not learn much. Marketing books are often refreshing readings for people not actively involved in sales and marketing. loyalty.com is well written and properly documented. It is a good introduction to CRM.

Wow. This book really shook some of my assumptions and prejudices about CRM. I've been consulting for businesses about how to build market share and brand value for sixteen years, but I feel as if I've only just learned how loyalty actually works. I don't think anyone can claim to understand customer relationships until they've read this book. Plus it's clearly, succinctly and memorably written. A real gem, and a must-have for everyone in marketing.

This book is a delightful result of Frederick Newell's recent indoctrination in marketing through the World Wide Web. Newell is an internationally acclaimed professional and part-time academic who specializes in database marketing. He admits in his preface that he's a bit of a "geezer" - because his 1997 book, The New Rules of Marketing, lacked a Web component, which undermined its newness. In an effort to rectify that, he reconciles the impressive database-mining and customer relationship concepts from his earlier book with today's rapidly changing cyber-marketing theories and practices. Newell clearly is excited by what he has belatedly learned about the Web's potential, and provides on-target case studies to support his points. We [...] recommend this book to all marketers - especially to those in retail. Those who are new to Web business will find it particularly useful.

Overall, I think this is an excellent sourcebook. I can't compare this to previous boxed sets, for two reasons: 1) I'm relatively new to Greyhawk; and 2) just about every campaign product more than 2 years old is now out of print. But here's my quick rundown.

The Good -- At 192 pages, this is a very comprehensive guide. It's organized in much the same way as the D&D Gazetteer, only in much greater detail. While a lot of this material (especially the history of the Flanaess) has been covered previously, the country descriptions make up the heart of the book. You get at least a full page for each country, breaking down the cities, religions, politics, economy and more. Want the stats for the head of one of the noble houses of Ahlissa? It's here. Wondering how many orcs live in the Pomarj? No problem. The section on Greyhawk's pantheon of gods is equally in-depth, expanding on the information in the Player's Handbook. I also thought including the color heraldry for each country was a nice touch. The world map is essentially a larger version of the D&D Gazetteer map, only with hexes and more cities indicated. Good, but not great.

The Bad -- There's more here on the organizations of the Flanaess than in the D&D Gazetteer, but nowhere near enough as far as I'm concerned. For example, I figured the Knights of the Hart would be treated like a prestige class. However, there are no guidelines or prerequisites for characters to join such groups. It simply says they're actively searching for new members. While this may be covered in an upcoming product, it should be here.

The Ugly -- I have mixed feelings about Wizards of the Coast turning over Greyhawk to the RPGA. Putting the campaign world in the hands of players is a good thing. (After all, players sustained Greyhawk while TSR was neglecting it.) At the same time, it seems like some details are being reserved for the Living Greyhawk campaign. And that's not for everyone. Greyhawk adventures once made up the heart of D&D. I'd hate to see such a rich product line dry up completely.

If you like campaigning in the world of Greyhawk, this is probably an essential buy. Taken as a whole, it's extremely well-done and deserves a strong recommendation. We'll just have to see if there's more to come.

The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is a great sourcebook for any new D&D player. It goes into greater detail than the other Gazetter (which is much smaller and cheaper) and the details it has is a great help to building a character that is fully set for this campaign world. The book is not a absolute-must-rush-to-get, but due to the fact that the core rule books are set in the greyhawk setting, this helps with all the small things. Not to mention that you get a map of the Flanaess, and we all know that the reason we buy these things are for the maps.

Despite some of the lukewarm receptions that some of the other reviewers give this product, I found the LGG fantastic!

The world of Greyhawk is presented in all of its varying shades of "grey" glory. From Ahlissa to Zief; all of the political factions, organized lands, forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, and islands are incredibly detailed--while still allowing the DM ample room to manipulate/develop the game world to his/her hearts content. (Admittedly a difficult thing to balance, but the authors pull it off!) There are also mysteries and adventure ideas mentioned within each entry to help the game master generate ideas for their own campaigns.

It is true that some of the information in the book may be repeated from older sources. However, it is also true that unless you care to spend tons of money on ebay buying up out-of-print titles, you'll never get this much solid Greyhawk information complied into such a well presented and organized package.

Lastly, many of the authors of the book have been THE backbone to the Greyhawk community on the 'net over the years. They are in no small way responsible for helping to keep Greyhawk alive during the difficult TSR years.

It's great to see their hard work and love for the Greyhawk setting (over the years) come to print media with such style and grace.

M. Schroeder

what's bred in the bone is one of those books that you hope to forget as soon as you've finished reading it -- just so you can go back and rediscover it again. i read this book once every few years, and i'm always surprised at how much i like it. just finished it for the third time. i love his use of the daimon maimas and the recording angel to recount the secrets of francis cornish's life. i recommend this book to anyone that is a lover of great literature (along with any other davies novel you might find intriguing...)

This is the first book by Davies I ever read, and it remains my favourite. As I found out later, it is the centrepiece of what came to be known as the Cornish trilogy. It is the story of Francis Cornish, a talented artist from provincial Canada who is recruited into the British secret service and participates in a major art forging operation intended to thwart the nazis. In the course of the process he finds and loses the love of his life, paints a medieval tryptich depicting the Marriage at Canaan that is also a representation of the major figures in his life (all of them very colourful), unmasks another forger after the war and ultimately has to give up his career as a "medieval painter" when his masterpiece is purchased by a Canadian museum on the assumption that it is genuine. Cornish's life is narrated by his daimon, a sort of "biographical angel", and has many more twists and turns than I can possibly describe here. The book is full of Davies' urbane wit and Jungian wisdom. It tails off a bit towards the end, but that is compensated in the "sequel" about his nephew Arthur and his patronage of the arts, "The Lyre of Orpheus". Highly recommended, but I suggest you start with the first part of this trilogy, "The Rebel Angels". Newcomers, beware: Davies' fiction is highly addictive.

I didn't realize this was the middle book of the Cornish trilogy and read it first. I haven't read the other two yet, but I have to say that this book is excellent and one of the most entertaining books I have read this year. This book chronicles the odd adventures of Francis Cornish in a sweeping story which moves from Canada to Europe. Francis Cornish is just enough unlucky that you sympathize with his trials and tribulations, but his fantastic artistic skills and his many riches make him someone the reader might envy and not understand. Davies is an expert at telling this sort of life story, and I think this one is even more enjoyable than Fifth Business. He has a sense of what it is like to have characters at the hands of fate; in this novel, the daimons quite literally command and shape Francis's destiny. Reading this book definitely wanted to make me read the rest of the trilogy.

I've been doing operations research for a number of years now, and I still use this book. I find it really incredible, in that it is the best-written book I have ever seen in this highly mathematical area, with no second! It introduces topics so well that I can skip right to the chapter covering the topic in which I am interested and catch the maximum continuous learning gradient from the global minimum to the global maximum, complete with a survey of and references to the latest research in the field. It's very up to date. The courseware makes it so that even an idiot could understand what is going on. If you can't learn operations research from this, you can't learn operations research. And if you want a quick refresher, an update, or a survey of field X, it accomplishes these equally well.

The above book is among the best ones in the field of OR. Readers having a poor background in Math will not appreciate it whatsoever. I firstly used this book nearly 20 years ago and I dare say it has become a classical book in its field. It is therefore a must for everyone into the OR area.

Very good book! Can be used as a reference for practising engineers or as a Text-book in a class room at the Senior under-graduate class or in a Masters program. I used this book 25 years ago and now the 2001 edition is very well written and organized, addressing the 21st Century problems in OR. For Personal PC applications the CD is of great help for any one who want to succeed in Operations Research!

This novel's style is very minimalist; it is often critisized as having no plot and flat characters. After reading it and thoroughly analyzing it however (this book is one that takes effort; it doesn't "jump" at you) one can see that the Revolution is the plot, and that the characters are only relevant in how they are affected by, or how they reflect upon, the Revolution. Some say that true literature isn't great unless it's political. Maybe so, but a really good novel makes you care about the characters and the reader not want the story to end, and with The Underdogs it just isn't so. Not bad, but not THAT great either. Should definately be read by anyone interested in Mexican history.

I was assigned to read this book for a Mexican Literature class, and I was expecting it to be just another boring history novel. However, this novel was a wonderfully metaphorical account of the hopes, yearnings, desires, and dreams of the "rebels," the poor common-man revolutionists during the Mexican Revolution. It is full of colorful similes that really increase the effects of the fight...the cause...that these people are working for. It is, by no means, "just another war-filled history story." It's an easy read, I finished it cover to cover in just a day and a half, and there's an actual story-line to follow, unlike with so many history tales which are merely accounts of battle. This story has more than its share of graphic battle scenes, but the plight of the revolutionists somehow stirs up empathy with the reader. A fine piece of Mexican literature. Recommended.

I teach sophomore and junior English at a public high school in California. During the first fifteen minutes of each class, my students engage in SSR (silent sustained reading), and I model reading for them by not grading papers during this time, but by reading a book of my own choice. Every day in every class I looked forward to reading The Underdogs during SSR. It's a fast read and provides a spring board into the historical context of which it speaks. This book has made me a student of the Mexican Revolution.

The main character, Demetrio Macias, and his band of revolutionaries at once attract and repulse you until, at the novel's end, the reader understands how bitterly disillusioned Azuela had become with the likes of the generals and foot soldiers who turned their noble cause into a pretext for their own personal gain. Thus, the revolution implodes upon the idealists who gave her birth and, in the end, the generals and foot soldiers of the revolution become comsumed by the same base impulses that once fueled their enemies.

The dialogue, of which there is plenty, burns through the storyline like a prairie fire, so real, so vibrant, and so poetic is it. The narrative draws the reader along seamlessly, and the numerous descriptions of nature dazzle his mind's eye like an apocalyptic vision.

In my opinion, a good novel engages me in the lives of its characters. Demetrio, Manteca, Luis Cervantes, Camilla, War Paint, et al. remain vivdly in my mind as victims of injustice, heroes of liberty, and perpetrators of pointless mayhem.

I fell so much in love with Azuela's style and his masterful use of imagery that I ordered the Spanish language version Los de Abajo! I can't wait to read this novel in the original Spanish. I can't wait to unleash its volcanic energy upon my students.

My favorite line? That of the mad poet Valderrama, who proclaims after the defeat of General Villa at Celaya, "Villa? Obregon? Carranza? What's the difference? I love the revolution like a volcano in eruption; I love the volcano because it's a volcano, the revolution because it's the revolution! What do I care about the stones left above or below after the cataclysm? What are they to me?"

Every gabacho should read this book!

Hastings stands out among the few Korean War authors as an historian with panache and a compelling style. His book tends to focus heavily on the British troops, but he still delivers an exciting overview of the war with surprising gems of information that other, more exhaustive texts left out. It is this human element - as well as a thrilling tone and delivery - that makes Hastings' book more than another history text. It delivers all the energy and immediacy of real men and women who endured this conflict while honoring the broader picture with relevant and detailed material. Rely on Hastings for a broad overview told in a thrilling style with that all-important human element. David R. Bannon, Ph.D.; author "Race Against Evil."

THE KOREAN WAR is the kind of introduction one wants. It recounts the history, but it also incites. The author, although supporting the aims of this first of "limited" wars, also never fails to give his own opinion about the US Armed Forces' conduct in the war. The account has several strong points.

First, he uses interviews and personal memoirs, to make the account personable.

Second, his narrative is fluid and exciting, even when he leaps between battlefield and briefing rooms.

Third, he includes an excellent account of the post-WWII situation in Korea and Japan.

Fourth, his discussion of MacArthur does not stoop to iconography.

Hastings also refers to incidents and policies repeated in Vietnam which help to put the "forgotten war" in its proper context. He does not hesitate to criticize actions, such as the incidents on Goje Island, and is very fair in his portraits of commanders.

This book is both a good introduction for students of Korean history and of military history.

This is an excellent starting point for a study of the Korean War (but certainly not a "sole source.") I grew up during the Viet Nam era and remember questioning how our government and military could have been so incompetent -- how so many lives could have been wasted for no apparent gain.

I purchased Max Hastings' book after realizing that I knew very little about the Korean Was (except what I had read in William Manchester's "American Caesar" or in the biograpies of Harry S Truman by David McCullough and Alonzo Hamby). After reading this work, I now find it difficult to understand how the US government could NOT have looked back on this first attempt at a "limited war" and their total misunderstanding of Asian cultures and avoided Viet Nam altogether.

Why did I find this book heartbreaking? The descriptions of the humiliating collapse and retreats of the US Army -- only five years after victory in WWII.

Why disturbing? Why has this war been "forgotten"? How could the lessons learned here not be applied to Viet Nam? Why has it taken so long for veterans of this conflict to receive (belated) recognition? And just how close did the US come to using nuclear weapons?