When i started reading the novel,i did't feel like droping it.
I felt so touched that the herione of the novel could still carry on with life,and reconcile with Angel who is hypocritic about the religion he criticizes and yet practices when discovering the past of Tess who forgave him of his sin which could not be weighed with hers,but failed to do likewise.

This book has touched me in a very different way than many others have. It is a tragic story and envelopes the reader in a different kind of sadness - a sadness which one cannot pull out of quickly or just draw aside. Many thoughts contained in this book are worthy of reflection. Each lingers in your heart. The happy moments are all tinged with a bitter taste. Each character is flawed as a natural human being and each mistake they make reflects on their future and affects them drastically. Tess Durbeyfield is one of the most tragic characters I have ever read of. From the moment she leaves her home to the supposed D'Urberville relatives, she is pushed into catastrophes and heartaches that just lead to more doom. I recommend this book to any reader who is willing to undergo the myriad of emotions that accompanies Tess's journey through demise. It is not for the flippant, unconcerned, and unsympathetic reader. Everything that happens to Tess happens for a reason, and the reader must be able to realize how each affects her to appreciate this book. Read this book and expect to ponder on many philosophical wonderings. This book WILL affect you! It is worthy of any person seeking a deep and life-affecting novel.

If there were more than five stars possible, this book would get about seven. Hardy's excellent descriptions and deep pathos combine to make this novel one of the best and saddest books I have ever read. This one is a must-read, but be prepared to cry.

The format of this book was illogical and repetitive. The freedom of information trials and the FLIR analysis, although important, were given a great amount of attention most likely because the author was involved in these two topics. The reader could easily skim or skip to chapter 11 without missing much. The chapters covering the reconstruction of the events on Feb 28 and Apr 19 however, were very good and largely unbiased, apart from editorial comments. The discussion of CS gas and related issues was very informative but scattered throughout several chapters. A diagram of the compound would have helped the author reconstruct the events in more detail. Overall, I felt that this author took the easy way out by focusing on certain topics and sticking solidly to the pro Branch Davidian point of view.

This book is superb, and should be read by anyone with an interest in the relationship between the State and the people of the U.S., a category that should include any and every sentient adult in the land. This book and Dick Reavis's "Ashes of Waco" are the two essential reads for the general reader who wants to get the real story about the Waco incident, although there is much more in print and on the web worth delving into.
With respect to Travis Friedrich's assesment that the book is long on conspiracy theory and short on facts, I can't help but think one of the following must be true:
1) he did not actually read the book,
2) he is not a capable reader, or
3) his review is an act of disinformation, intended to steer the curious away from the truth.
This book is packed with detail and corroborative evidence, almost to the point of being a fault.

The topic of Waco has traditionally attracted extreme types -- conspiracy buffs who see mysterious plots everywhere, and knee-jerk defenders of government. This book is a serious treatment of the Waco incident which avoids both approaches. It is highly critical of the ATF/FBI actions, and carefully analyses them as part of a dangerous trend toward militarizing what could be peaceful law enforcement actions.

This book is neither on the political left nor the political right.... it draws high praise from conservatives, and from Gore Vidal. In my eyes, the latter is decisive; when America's most brilliant living author praises an unknown writer's text, nothing more needs to be said.

The book carefully documents the evidence from which each conclusion is drawn. We are neither handed the authors' conclusions on a platter, nor buried as they plod through unorganized data. The points are made, the evidence set out, and the reader is assumed to be intelligent enough to make his own judgment. That said, the authors' insight is at times astonishing. They pick up details of a radio call overheard on a media videotape -- details of how a government sniper dons his equipment on a government-made videotape -- how dozens of 911 call tapes can be interlinked to give a solid timeline on the entire event. Like Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, these writers not only see, but observe. This book took not only writing skill, but first-rate intellectual abilities.

One warning to the reader: the first 10% of the book is a sedate summing up of the traditional view of the Waco incident. At that point, put on your seat belts, because the book suddenly kicks into gear! This is not a detached history of events, but a narrative written by interesting, energetic, and obviously extremely intelligent authors, one of whom who was personally involved in much of the history he documents. By his account, he started in trying to write a scholarly treatment of trends in law enforcement -- and found himself stepping through the looking glass.

One astonishing book, and the best yet on Waco.

I tried to give this book a chance. A lot of stories start off slow, right? Well, this story seemed to keep the same scheme throughout. It seems as if Mitchell's only quest in life was to make love to this man! I guess the book didn't hold any water to me because the entire story-line seemed to revolve around sex, and everything else was secondary. Yeah, sure they discussed love and relationships, but every 5 or 6 pages, someone was looking at someone else's booty! Is that the message the author is putting out about gay love? I'm not sure, but even in books based on heterosexual characters, sex isn't one of the main issues in the book! Another thing, it seems like "The Second Time Around" can't stand alone. It picks up exactly where "B-Boy Blues" leaves off! I know one is the sequal to the other, but to have to read the same story over again, but from a different point of view is asking a lot from the reader!

These were the best book I've read. I related to the characters because they are universal. I'm not lesbian, but I identifed with the characters. James Earl Hardy is a great up and coming black author. I loved his work and I'm straight feenin' for some Mitchell and Raheim fix. Thank you Mr.Hardy for a classic story in my collection.

This book was awsome. The characters really came to life for me. Rahiem(Pooquie) and Mitchell(Little Bit) showed both sides of the coin. I used to be a B-Boy and when I found the love of my life, I had a lot of issues I had to deal with. At that time in my life, I really didn't know how to make any sense of the word "LOVE". Mr Hardy's explanations of why they were the way they were really hit home. I can't wait for the next one. Keep up the great work.

A claustrophobic novel about a turn of the century Antarctic expedition which turns into a murder investigation when one of it's members is found dead on the ice. The bulk of the novel involves discovering the victim's past and how it interconnected with the lives of the other team members. An interesting, light-weight novel with a twist at the end. Read it on a snowy weekend.

If you've read everything you can find on Sir Ernest Shackleton's trips to Antarctica, seen the traveling exhibit with Frank Hurley's extraordinary photographs and memorabilia from the Endurance, and still crave more about Antarctic expeditions, this book will keep you interested and dreaming of such exploration for a few more hours.

Written in 1978, this is a murder mystery set near the South Pole in 1909, the same year as Shackleton's first expedition and five years before the Endurance epic. A similar crew of explorer-scientists and sailors, with the same attitudes and prejudices that one finds in the literary record of the Endurance, perform similar tasks under similar conditions, with one big exception. Captain Eugene Stewart (sharing initials with Ernest Shackleton) must also investigate his own crew as he attempts to unmask the murderer of Victor Henneker, the expedition's representative of the press, who intends to record the voyage for posterity.

With the same care for historic details and period attitudes which one sees in some of Keneally's later, prize-winning books, such as Confederates and Schindler's List, Keneally reveals Henneker to be a blackmailer who holds damaging information about almost everyone in the crew, their reputations vulnerable because they have violated the inflexible moral strictures of Edwardian England. A cuckolded husband, the secret lover of a married aristocrat, a mountain guide who may be responsible for a fatal excursion, a man tried for theft, and others "guilty" of homosexuality, Zionism, illegitimacy, and heresy reflect the pettiness and rigidity of "civilized" life in England and offer motivation both for the murder of Victor and for participating in the expedition. The book's conclusion is also consistent with the mores of the day. While this may not be the greatest mystery of all time, it is certainly one in which the author has done all his homework, well worth reading for the context it provides for other (real) expeditions of the day.

This is not really a book of Antarctic exploration. Keneally uses this ploy to show us a group of 26 men who spend many months in complete isolation during arctic darkness. The men have different backgrounds and different professional specialties. An uneven lot, if there ever was one. But, of course, they completely depend on each other. They must work as a tight community - and we await Keneally's thoughts of this "experiment". He introduces Victor Henneker, a journalist who has collected unsavory facts on people he meets, including most of the members of the expedition. Henneker gets killed, and his notes now become public knowledge. How do the explorers deal with what they now know about each other? Do they look at them now with different eyes? Most important: do they still trust each other?

Keneally gives us a fascinating portrait of people under the stress of a predicament they cannot flee. A fascinating book.

this book is directed towards high school students preparing to take mathematics competetion such as the CMC and IPO. the book contains 100 thinking skills math question with solutions. Being a high school student (with a huge intrest for math) i was able to solve 71 problems, but i must admit that i really did face ALOT of problems solving some of them.(wait till you see the solution for question #5, #8, #41 and 46 Recomended to any high school student prepared to sit any exam or have an intrest for pure thinking skills math qestions, but if you are looking for something REALLY hard then you best look somewhere else...

This weird titled book contains 100 mathematical problems. Most of the problems in the book require high school level mathematics.... Personally I - a high school student- found no difficulty solving 71 problems in the book. Unfortunately a good number of the problems in the book, I have seen in other mathematical problem books. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the problems in the book. The book is targeted to those students preparing to take math competition such as ILO and the CMC. The solution of the problem are clearly outlined and I had no difficulty following them...wait till you see the solution for problems #21, #41, #42 and #90... I strongly recommend this to high school student interested in mathematics, if you are looking for something REALLY REALLY hard you could well steer away from this book and find something harder...

The Green book of Mathematical Problems is definitely a great book. It contains challenging brainteasers that will be of interest to anyone interested in undergraduate-level mathematical problems dealing with real numbers, differential equations, integrals, polynomials, sets and other mathematical topics. This book offers a selection of 100 problems with hints and solutions. The hints are very helpful and the solutions are easy to follow. The book isn't expensive. So it's a good choice.

Frank, Joe and Chet fly off to the California desertland to search for a man who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Did he leave by his own choice or was he kidnapped? Also, Mr. Hardy investigates a group of criminals who are counterfeiting government checks. I thought that this book had a very good plot, it was fairly well-written, the events moved along quite well and there was quite a bit of interaction between the Hardys and the criminals during the course of the book. However, I found that the book could have used a bit more action and that, while I did enjoy the book, it never completely grabbed my interest to the point where I didn't want to put it down. I would recommend reading this book, but while most fans would probably like it, few probably would say that they absolutely loved it.

This mystery takes the brothers west into the desert in search of the missing Willard Grafton. This volume has remained one of my favorite higher volumes. The brothers have a great amount of interaction with the criminals, especially Caeser and Ringer. I especially liked the middle of the book when they are lost in the desert and hop aboard first an old antique motorized car of sorts and a freight car after that. This book flows along effortlessly while keeping the reader interested with very little suspense. RATED B+

This book takes you on another adventure of Frank and Joe Hardy,sons of the famous Fenton Hardy.Ill tell you I was at the edge of my seat while reading it!

Some of this book was cool but there was a huge feeling of d??vu as I progressed through these stories. It's no secret that Conan Doyle brought Holmes back to life only by popular demand and not because he felt anything special for the character. As a result, these stories and mostly uninspired and are basically retreads of stories that have come before them.

Plus there are some parts that really bug me? How does Holmes make a living? Never once does he actually charge these people for his services. Where does his cash come from? And for that matter where does Watson get his money from? He says at the start he sold his practice to shack up with Holmes so if he is not a GP then what is he? A mere observer to the Mysteries? And what of his wife Mary Morstan? Does he not live with her any more? According to this he lives with Holmes? What is going on?

If Conan Doyle were really serious about these stories then elements such as these would have been stronger and characters would be more fleshed out. The introduction of a new character in Inspector Stanley Hopkins is practically useless as he is just a generic police officer.

The long and unrealistic monologues aren't so abundant here but the stories always seem to get off to a slow start. A couple of them are cool and interesting but never seem to generate an atmosphere or give any chance for Holmes or Watson to evolve.

Conan Doyle only wrote these stories because his readers wanted them. Not because he felt they needed to be told. He felt totally indifferent about Sherlock Holmes and these generally poor stories only prove that.

The soft-cover Wordsworth Classics edition of The Return of Sherlock Holmes reproduces The Hound of the Baskervilles and the short stories that make up The Return of Sherlock Holmes as they originally appeared in the Strand. It also contains the interesting, though poorly reproduced, illustrations that accompanied the stories. Because a page of the magazine is reduced to the size of a trade paperback page, typeface is very small.

As an Englishman. resident in the United States, what do I miss most? The BBC. As a little boy I looked forward to all the broadcast plays every week. The BBC cast performed about 6 hours of radio plays every week. They still do, haven't you also noticed the number of TV plays broadcast by A and E? Most of them originate in the United Kingdom, Hornblower, ETC.. Now we can enjoy the performances by means of these Bantam Double Day releases. Very well done, by a very experienced cast, you can let your imagination run riot as you picture the various scenes in your mind. These are the classic stories by Sir Arther Conan Doyle. They have been around for 100 years or so, and time has not diminished their appeal. On this Audio Book you have 4 stories, each about 45 minutes long. If you haven't heard these before, then I don't wish to spoil the story line. If you know the stories then you will not be disappointed. Each story is presented in the time period of around the 1900's, you can almost smell the gas lighting, not to mention the foggy november weather, the horses, and so on. Order these from Amazon, and search for more of the BBC plays, they are great.

"Sammy Kidman is a brash, good-looking undercover narcotics detective who achieves his outstanding conviction rate with no regard for the impact of his actions on anyone else unfortunate enough to cross his path. In a dangerous undercover scheme, he smoothly solicits the help of naive apartment-house neighbor, Marni Taylor.
Through Marni's unrelenting love and passionate prayers, the God he has always ignored steps in to save Sammy's life. Redeemed, the aggressive detective tries his best to walk upright in the modern Babylon of Dallas, Texas."
This story starts out wonderfully, with a can't bear to put it down plot. However, halfway through the book, Miss Hardy loses it. The story becomes routine and boring and the ending is almost too much for even fiction. Overall, a good book, but Miss Hardy has done better.

I get the idea that this book is something of a departure for Hardy, but she's obviously having fun with it. Sammy is this Dallas cop with an attitude who finds God and tries to walk the straight and narrow. Christians who are uptight about everything won't like it, and people who don't believe that God can do anything won't like it, but most other poeple would find it worth reading.

The world's most lovable jerk with a smile to dazzle any woman (eat your heart out, Gilderoy!) has just discovered the one assignment he can't get away from...the persistence of the love of a personal Savior. Sammy: Dallas Detective is the first book in the series that hilariously and fondly follows Sammy's attempts to live his faith despite his profession, his surroundings, and his own ghosts of the past.

Sammy's pre-, conversion, and post-conversion experiences are wrought with the realism of modern-day spiritual warfare in the midst of a world with its eyes closed and a church that is sometimes blinded. However, Mrs. Hardy unceasingly points to the goodness of God's plan throughout Sammy: Dallas Detective, Sammy: Women Troubles, and the other uproarious sequels.

Once again, Mrs. Hardy does not disappoint as she launches into a modern-day setting with her consistently inspired stories. If only the VIP cover did the book more justice....

There are people who will start reading this book then about 100 pages into it realize that it's going nowhere fast. Take my advice and keep reading. It gets much better, and more interesting. The ending is really good, and might have even upped this review a star.

ac

This novel, contrary to some of the other comments, is a wonderful piece of literature. Although not the most uplifting, it is a great example of Hardy and Deterministic and Naturalistic fiction. Despite Tess' best efforts (like Jude in the other Hardy novel), she is unable to escape the poverty and misfourtune which she attempts to leave behind. Although somewhat lengthy, the novel is one of the better pieces of British fiction to come out of the period.

my language arts teacher had my class choose a book to read. I had no idea what I wanted, because she wouldn't allow me to read anything by Stephen King, and I had no other ideas for something worth reading. My friend suggested Tess of the D'bervilles, and so I took it from the school library.

Unfortunately, I started reading it a week before I was supposed, and finished it the next day, and so I must choose another book to read for class.

This is an excellent book that makes you think about what women had to go through a few hundred years ago. It makes you think about the complete lack of backbone shown in Tess untill the very end, when she finally realizes the injustices done to her were NOT her fault. You must remember that she had not been brought up to understand certain things, and could not have understood how to cope, or over come with problems that many women of her time had to face.
The ending was excellent, and rather sad.
If you enjoy learning about history, I suggest reading this book.

Frank, Joe and Chet head to Los Angeles to track down a ring of car thieves and to find a rare, valuable coin stolen from Chet's cousin, Vern. I would rate the book average to good; although, it proved to be much better than I had thought it would be.

The Hardys track down a missing coin in this book. It's a great book for kids, it's action-packed and has a neat coin in it.

This is an educational, action packed book. I recommend it to any fan of the Hardy Boys series.