Although this book is admirable for its accurate and realistic recreation of turn-of-the-century Kentucky and the vivid characterization of Christie Wheeler, the book ultimately is unsatisfying because it progresses at such a slow pace and only sporadically engages the reader's interest. Furthermore, the book's concluding sections are especially weak. They lack depth, development and seem rather disjointed from the rest of the novel, which is highly detailed and complete.

This novel will capture your heart; the dialogue, the characters and the setting take you back to the early 20th century in rural America. Christie Wheeler, mother of three, is pregnant again and believes she will birth a monster as punishment for having impure thoughts of another man. Instead, she has quintuplets, each with their own little personality and appearance. Tragedy strikes, though, and Christie and her husband, James, must learn to deal with the loss of their babies. Bobbie Ann Mason does a fantastic job of depicting family life, industry and the media in the early 1900s. I would also recommend Weeds by Edith Summers Kelley. -- Melissa Galyon

"Feather Crowns" is a wonderful read for both it's story of Christianna Wheeler and her family and it's historic content. The book was both intruguing and entertaining as it painted a picture of life at the turn of the century and the hardships of trying to raise a family during that time. I strongly recommend this book if you enjoy reading southern genres and enjoy looking into the past.

The front cover of the book might lead you to misunderstanding that "Four Feathers" is a book about war; actually, though it deals with the war in the Sudan in late 19th century, the book consists of superb descriptions of complicated psychology found in the hero, the heroine and their mutual friend. "Four Feathers" as a whole is not a book like "She" or "Beau Geste," but it is rather a special kind of romance which could be found only in this era.

To disprove his disgrace, the hero Harry Feversham, who quit his regiment just before being sent to the Sudan, decides to go to Africa, disguising himself as a Greek, and firmly is determined to give back three white feathers sent to him as a symbol of his being a coward. One clever touch is given here; his fiancee also added one feather to them, and rejected him in the face before their marriage. Now you think Harry must prove that he does not deserve such an act. And probably, you expect the book to draw you into the world full of adventure. No, you're wrong.

There are certainly descriptions of adventure under the sizzling sun of Africa, but you must wait. Before they come, we are introduced to the complex relationship between Harry and other characters that are involved in his action. Various feelings of love, regret, courage, and suspicion, all caused as aftermath of the crucial action of sending white feathers, follow with a surprisingly and deeply psychological insight. Though the story is, as you expect, very melodramatic and sentimental, the characters are well-drawn and convincing, and if not as insightful as Henry James, surely deserves much serious attention.

The adventure scenes come in the last third of the book, but the suspense is a little diminished due to the rather hasty ending of the book. (If you want to read a book full of adventure in Africa, I recommend P. C. Wren's "Beau Geste," which I found a gripping tale, too.) Still, the descriptions of the House of Stone, concentration camp of POW, (where the author himself visited after the war ended) are still realistic and shocking, and will haunt your mind after reading, and as an adeventure story too, you won't be disappointed. In short, "Four Feathers" is one of the greatest forgotten bestsellers in the English literature.

This book is full of noble ideas and notions of Victorian honor in the days of the British Empire. Those who come to this book after seeing the 1939 Korda classic, or even the more stark 1979 re-make might be in for a suprise. Even as this review is written yet another cineamtic foray is being planned with a Fall 2002 re-re-make. No doubt 21st century notions of Political Correctness shall be heavy handed on this 19th Century classic.

Still, I think readers will be in for a bit of a disappointment here. Not for the book itself which is a sublime piece of writing, a work typical ot the pathos of the time, but because of the lack of action contained therein. This is a pyschological and emotional work. The main charcters have many inner feelings to deal with. The plot moves slowly at times, building to a gradual crescendo typical of Victorian novels of the day before it resolves itself in rapid sequences.

The film versions convey the general impression of the book, but there are not big clamatic battles of Omdurman or prison breaks which made the Korda movie such a rousing epic. Here Harry Faversham is very much on his own to resolve his fears and inner emotions, as are his friends. Its good to see a book like this revived, but readers who come to it from the movie theater or video are apt to be suprised at what they find here. Lets hope the find the suprise a pleasant and interesting one. I know I did.

I read this book in anticipation of the Sept. 2002 Shekar Kapur movie of the same title.
I found The Four Feathers to be an engrossing character examination, with a bit of action as the background. The romance at the center was a bonus, as was the detailed glimpse of life in Britain at that time, the expectations that men and women held for one another and themselves.
I was, however, disappointed by the inaccuracy in the synopsis on the book's back cover and repeated on this website which states that Harry Faversham saves the lives of the three men who gave him the white feathers in order to be redemeed.
I'm not sure where the writer of the synopsis came by that idea but it sure doesn't happen like that in the book. Not to spoil the story for you, but Harry proves his bravery in rather more complex ways.
I also was pleasantly surprised that much of the book is told from the perspective of Ethne, Harry's beloved. Her struggle to "do the right thing" is just as compelling as Harry's struggle to make up for the one time he didn't.

I bought this book soon after its release in preparation for the Support 2.0 exam. While I expect editing errors in any technical book, this one seemed to have many more than the average. I enjoy a few errors as they tend to keep me on my toes, but this book just had too many as they became a nuisance.

As for the technical content, the book did a decent job. There are a few areas, such as ISDN (a large portion of the Support 2.0 exam), which were not covered in-depth enough. Being such an important study area, I expected better coverage here. As a result, I needed to bolster my studies from my BCRAN materials.

My last gripe is the CD. While I love to get a CD with my book, this one was entirely too frustrating to use. The book had numerous errors but the CD had a substantially higher percentage. The questions on the CD are the same as those included at the end of each chapter, so I preferred to use the paper form rather than the CD.

Overall, the book was decent. I felt reasonably well prepared with the exception of a couple of areas. I would have given this book 4 stars had it not been for the high number of errors and the very poor quality of the CD.

Rik

Okay so you passed the CCNA exam and you're very excited, now what? You want to pursue the CCNP certification but are unsure of what to study. You want to make sure you get the best possible book for the greatest chance of passing first time around. Well CIT published by McGraw-Hill may be the choice.

The book is detailed in every topic. The authors have taken their expertise and put in a book that will have you troubleshooting Cisco networks in no time flat. Over 650 pages of examples to learn from along with questions, case studies and helpful hints are roiled neatly into one book.

The topics of methodology, tools and commands, diagnostic commands, LAN troubleshooting, Cisco Switches, WAN and WAN protocols, extensive coverage of TCP/IP, IPX, SPX and routing protocols along with ISDN and advanced trouble techniques makes this a great exam companion as well as a great desk reference.

Also there is a 30-page appendix covering the OSI model, which is great for other exams as well. The book has a cd-rom with over 200 practice questions as a companion for test taking. Overall the book exceeded my every expectation and is surely one for the technical library.

I got this when it first came out on amazon, around the first of June, 2000. I started studying it & finally took the Support exam today. This book is all you need for the exam. Foreget Lammle's book - it is about 100 pages with 600 pages of filler. The longest router dump I saw in this was 6 pages - Lammle's had a lot of 15 page dumps. The book is filled with facts & examples that directly relate to the exam. It was obvious that the writers knew what they were talking about, had taken the exam, and knew exactly what was needed to pass the exam. In the middle of the test (very hard) I started to get [angry] because I swore that subjects werew not covered. When I went back & looked at the book after the test, I saw that they were covered. I also saw that if I had paid closer attention, the answer to the questions would have been obvious. It also has lots of tips for troubleshooting in my daily routine. Another benefit of the book is that it covers switching better than the Cisco switching book.

I read the reviews on this book and thought that it was perfect. I figured the complaints raised would be addressed in the new edition. So I went to my local bookstore to check it out. The book seems popular because it was hard to find a copy; however, when I did I find a copy I was very disappointed. This is a brand new edition but they reference sites and restaurants that are no longer in existence. For example, try to find the Chicago rib shack. According to the web this place no longer exists and is now a Japanese restaurant. If you need further proof, go to the index and look up Syon Park. The book says pg. 183-4 yet nothing is there. I did find the Syon Park info on pg. 181 but then what's the point of the index??? At this point I threw the book down in disgust and walked out. I'm still trying to figure out what they put into the 2nd Ed????

I subsequently picked up "Fodor's Around London with Kids" which has been useful in planning my trip.

Some good information, and a good source for telephone numbers and things to do that you might not see suggested in other books. You do get the feeling that the author actually lives in London, and he has a good feel for what kids might enjoy and what they will probably find boring, (but that their parents think they should take them to). The second edition was better organized and more accurate than the first.

The restaurant suggestions, however, as another reviewer mentioned, are not accurate. "Kid Friendly" they are not. We went to a restaurant, described in the book as having a menu of "fish fingers, burgers, etc.". We arrived to find not a fish finger in sight. I showed the book to restaurant manager who laughed, and said these, guys never come here, they call up and say "Do you feed kids?" - If we say yes they put down kid friendly. ... London is expensive, and this book won't save you any money.

All that aside, I guess I would recommend this book as a source of things to do, but take the restaurant and hotel reviews with a grain of salt.

We're currently living in London for four months with a four year old, and we use this book just about everyday. As some of the other reviewers mentioned, it's not great for restaurants or hotels, but is well worth buying just for the comprehensive list of places to visit that kids would enjoy. We found this book much more helpful than others that we purchased. Most other books have too much information and list too many places to visit. This one just listed the major sights to see, but includes some of the lesser known places. We love it, but we're also more interested in taking our child to the National Gallery to see Michaelangelo and to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs, then we are in taking our child to Legoland. (And yes four year old children can appreciate Michaelangelo if you explain it to them!)

This is without a doubt, the biggest waste of time of any Cisco Press book I ever purchased. I was VERY excited about the coverage this book promised for poorly documented topics such as Cisco Secure Policy Manager.

What a bitter disappointment. This book is as wide as the horizon and as deep as a backyard puddle.

I wish I could give this title a negative number, but I'm forced to be polite and post a "1".

I can't believe any self-respecting CCIE would attach his/her name to such a fluffy, insubstantial work of garbage.

Save your money and buy one of the specific security titles:...

I can hardly believe that this book was written by CCIEs as it contains a lot of errors. What do you think about "service ROUTER-encryption" command, phrases like "unless you are purposely using SNMP version 1, the "snmp-server community" command must be avoided at all costs (because it enables SNMP ver 1 instead of ver 2)" and so on. A lot of the text was directly borrowed from cisco IOS configuration guides without any modification. And believe me, extended numbered access lists can be edited as well as named ACLs!

This book goes hand-in-hand with the MCNS coursebook. Where the MCNS book is Wordy, this book gets right to the point and tells you how to use Cisco Secure Policy Manager and Cisco Firewalls. However, This isn't the book for you if you need to have everything explained to you in great detail. MCNS is the book for that.

This book is well written and keeps your interest. (Something that is hard to come by in the networking field of books.)

Kudo's to Andrew Mason, and Mark Newcomb for an excellent book.

This book is about a man who runs away from his father because the father does nothing but yell at him. This book is one of my favorites, even though I gave it a four, because it had a lot of action and it made me want to keep reading. Although I still think that the orignal was one of the better ones that have been written.

The book "Rip Van Winkle" is about a guy named Rip and his father, Dame, who thinks that Rip can never do anything right. Dame is always yelling at Rip. Dame really got mad when Rip sold part of the family property, so he went away for awhile and met some strangers and started to drink quite a lot of beer. You have to read the book to find out what happens next.

Several of these other reviews are for a different version of this story. The one I am reviewing is an "All Aboard Reading" version. It is definitely written for beginning readers (1st-3rd grade)

This version is a good introduction to the classic Washington Irving story. I do not like the way Rip's wife yells at him to get to work or how Rip is only "maybe...a little" sad when we finds out that his wife has died after his long sleep. Neither Rip nor his wife were the most exemplary characters! :-)

Still, that is the way the story was written and can be a good launch into a talk about character.

This was an interesting book to read but, not very helpful.

For those who are considering inventing for a living, this is a nice book to have. It is also useful for individuals in organizations who need to or would like to innovate. The book is a quick read and does not go into any subject area deeply, although it does provide a nice overview of inventing. For the most part, the author illustrates concepts by presenting anecdotes from his distinguished career as an inventor. Changes are you will learn some things, but will probably look to additional sources for more information.

I agree with much of what the other reviews have said so far: on the plusses and minuses.

But watch out, it contains some real important advice not found in other books. This was particularly true in the area of finding the areas and products that need to be improved first, not inventing for your own ego and the creative process he uses for inventing.

The author teaches entrepreneurship and has a company that invents new products. He's been at it for quite some time and has a string of successes. So, he's qualified to speak.

His book is organized in thirds. First, there is the overall introduction and summary of his process. This was excellent. Then he goes through a series of his inventions and uses them to illustrate the various ways that products can be invented. This was great too, but a fair number, maybe a third, of the examples didn't seem to prove a point. Also, this is where other reviewers fell out of interest with the book and claimed the author was tooting his horn. I didn't get that feeling, but did feel that some of the stories didn't add value to the book.

Third, there is some really great information on creativity that he summarized from his classes and there is some great biases of his that he presents as practical advice. The creativity information was a little cryptic. But if you have read other invention books, the information really came to life.

For example, here's a partial quote that I underlined:

"In creative problem solving, begin by assessing the problem before labeling it. Use a system - a series of proven steps. Here's a five-step system: 1) Assess the situation. Ask questions. Ask them endlessly. Answers will sugest new questions. Be intelligently ignorant. Gather facts relentlessly. But consider 'facts' opinions, until rigorously tested. Search for the key factor. In almost every situation one particular fact will turn out to be more important than any other... 2)," etc.

Notice that he lays out 5 steps for you to follow; I only quoted one of them. These are not the only five. He has lots of steps, some of them on the same subject... but following different paths. Also notice that some of the information appear as platitudes ("Be intelligently ignorant."), but these often summarize previously material in the book. And finally, considering facts to be opinions is an important point that I did not properly recognize.

On this he also said: "What 'everybody knows to be true' probably isn't." This led me to ponder that maybe I should search for what is falsely held to be true about a product area, and try to develop products/services resulting from it. As an example, Compaq falsely held that selling through retail stores was better than selling direct through the phone and internet. Dell proved them wrong. At Compaq this was an opinion parading as a fact and it was sitting there for over 2 years, waiting for someone to exploit it.

As a Connecticutt Yankee inventor, the author is parsimonious with his words. He has taken a vacuum sweeper to his writings taking out all extraneous words and sentences. I found this format to be quite acceptable. But this small book (93 pages) should be used as an important adjunct to another more complete book.

But his strategy is probably better than most and so is more valuable than a lot of detailed wrong-headed, or theoretical, books. You get enough information to go and do it. His plan is not a repetition of others. He has a unique approach to it.

The author is a practical inventor in that he works from lots of drawings, builds lots of prototypes, and most importantly, he focuses only on products that people want and that companies want (or currently do) manufacture. You will get a step by step plan on how to work backwards from the market. I think this is most important.

One negative: there is a little bit of repetition in this small book, and this detracted a little.

But overall, this book is packed with useable, practical, important and valuable information. My book is heavily underlined. This small book makes a great book to take on a 2 hour airplane trip. Then you should implement his suggestions and review the book periodically.

Highly recommended.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

LP Vietnam is an O.K. book if you just want to know how to get around, basic accomodations, etc. There are some good information in the book, but not enough. If you are interested in knowing about modern Vietnam, you are much much better off reading Catfish and Mandala by Andrew Pham and Shadows and Wind by Robert Templer. These two authors did an extraordinary job of describing what is happening in Vietnam right now. I am very disappointed at the guide books to Vietnam such as Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Fodor's etc. Should they be unbiased sources who actually tell the readers the stories behind the sights? Nope! they didn't do the job that well. Instead they rely too much on the information which is given by the government propaganda machine which is totally fabricated. For example, on page 467 of the Lonely Planet Vietnam book, the story about the One Pillar Pagoda is mentioned that it was destroyed by the French before they left Hanoi. Guess what? The French didn't destroy it, it was the Communists themselves who destroyed it at the time because it was described as a remain of a feudalistic, decadent, reactionary past (a sort of Cultural revolution that is copied from China). It was rebuilt not because Hanoi suddenly had a change of heart to treasure the national treasures. It was rebuilt because of the tourists' money. What a disappointment for these supposedly guide books that really mislead the readers.

I make regular trips to Vietnam and I've used both the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet. Having seen the two latest editions, page by page, Lonely Planet is, simply, better. LP provides far more detail, more maps (all of which are much more user friendly and accurate), is loaded with contemporary information (NGOs, motor-biking etc), has better photographs, good illustrations, and entertaining side-bars. The book introduces us to the personalities and characters who run guest houses, restaurants, bars, boutiques, and so forth, and it really makes you feel like a local. The "reader from France" seems to have a personal animus against the writers and Lonely Planet. But otherwise, what could be the problem? I found this guide well researched, consistently useful, and fun to read - that's what I want when I'm on the road.

I travelled in Vietnam for three weeks in October, 98. This was my first visit to Vietnam and my first visit to Asia. Lonely Planet Vietnam was my first Lonely Planet book. I found it easy to use, funny and informative. I liked a lot. My fellow traveller (who does not need travel information) kept asking to borrow it so I gave it away and had to buy another copy for myself. I enjoyed my trip to Vietnam, unexpectedly beautiful country with very friendly and hospitable people. Lonely Planet added greatly to the many pleasures.

I am still kicking myself for spending good money for this book. This is the first Connie Mason book I've read and will be the last. Mason tells the story...literally. There were times that I laughed out loud at some of the more intense moments when the characters are recognizing their own glowing physical attributes and sharing with us. I'm sure that Mason never intended to give this perception, but sadly that's the way it came across to this reader. Over and over and over again. The editor needs a serious reprimand for allowing this book to ever be put into print. We've all heard that the publishing industry is a beast, that it is next to impossible to get published. Connie Mason proves them all wrong.

I loved this story, but the hero was a little irritating. Thorne the Relentless spots Fiona the Learned in a pool naked on the Isle of Man after he feels a compulsion to go to the island. Immediately he is enchanted and has to have her. He is scared off but returns a year later after suffering a whole year dreaming about her and obsessing about her until he is sure he is bewitched. He is sent to kill the 'witch' on the Isle of Man. He soon finds he can't kill her, he'd rather stop breathing for he feels completely under her siren spell and must have her.

Fiona is no witch, she is a healer. Since she was small, her friend and teacher Brann, has told her she will be captured by her future soulmate, a Viking, on a raid. She is appalled and aghast. She isn't sure Brann is correct, but when Thorne shows up and takes her to his homeland. She soons realizes she is indeed his soulmate and can't understand how Thorne will accept this since he firmly believes she is a witch and has cast a spell on him.

The history here is excellent and is accurate. You get a real life glimpse into Viking life and how they were. I liked Fiona and Brann, but Thorne quickly got on my nerves. He continuously believes that she is a witch and has cast a spell on him. He also believes EVERYONE else besides Fiona when things happen, even a known murderer and liar. The story kept me turning the pages regardless of how Thorne got on my nerves, lol, Connie Mason is a superb writer and this story is worth the read...

Tracy Talley~@

This is the first book I had ever read of Connie Mason.I found that I couldn't put the book down. The characters of Thorn the Relentless and Fiona the Learned were made very well, and the love scenes were amazing. If you see this book in stores, pick it up and read it because it will blow your mind, like it did mine. It is surely a keeper.