The style is very accessible, with little stories about the dogs and then capsule reviews with the salient points of treatment. My only problem with the writing is that Dr. Dodman's ego manages to shine through on every page.

Through the years since high school, I have begun to read Dickens of my own free will, and have greatly enjoyed his works.

Nicholas Nickelby, one of my all time favorites, is a wonderful novel, typical Dickens, chock full of characters, plots, satire, and story. Nicholas and his immediate family are the 'black sheep' of the Nickelby name. Humble, gentle, and common in the eyes of their well-to-do relative, Uncle Ralph Nickelby, who denounces Nicholas as a boy, and man, who will never amount to anything.

In typical Dickens fashion, Nicholas encounters adversity first at a boarding school, then in society, as he forges a name for himself. Along the way he befriends many, enrages some, and invokes the wrath of his Uncle Ralph, determined to prove himself right in bemoaning the shortcomings of his nephew.

One point of interest in this novel for me is the major revelation that comes toward the end involving the character of Smike. Throughout the novel he is loveable, pitiable, and utterly realistic, and his significance to the life of Nicholas, as revealed in the final chapters, is a true plot twist, and a charming, if not bittersweet, realization.

For anyone forced to read Dickens early in life, if you appreciate quality satire and an engaging look at the London society of more than 125 years ago, visit this novel sometime, it is one of Dicken's finest.

Christopher has a melodic voice and an imagination that does not quit. Readers will find themselves transported from New York, to the desert outside of the Las Vegas, to New Orleans and Vietmam and to the mysteries of the extraordinary Hotel Canopus and somewhere in between they will fall in love with Enzo and the unique characters that inhabit his world, a world
that the reader will not want to return from.

Much like Neil Gaiman, Christopher is unique with his novels, not an easy feat in this day and age where a good idea gets reproduced in a hundred different ways. I highly recommend this book - it can be read over and over again and the reader will still feel the excitement and wonderment that they felt the first time they discovered A Trip to the Stars. If you purchase
this book - I promise that you will not regret it.

This new translation of OEDIPUS THE KING by Berg and Clay proves to be successful...everything is understandable and rather enjoyable to read too. It's hard to believe that you're actually reading a play.

I suggest that you DO NOT read the original version of the play by Sophocles first...you might be discouraged by the difficulty of the language he uses. Instead, start with Berg and Clay's translation...it's so much easier to read, and more importantly, enjoy.

I felt that the action and plot was well-woven out, and the story tied together nicely; however, there was one flaw. The ending was too abrupt. Of course, I'm not going to spoil the ending for you now (you'll have to read it yourself) but I WILL tell you that if you're one of those people who hate endings that just leave you hanging, you might not like OEDIPUS THE KING.

I had to read OEDIPUS THE KING as an Honors English assignment (and usually what kind of books we have to read for school are good?). Nevertheless, I found the play interesting, but because of the so-abrupt ending with questions still dangling on the end, I give the book 3 stars. (By the way, in no other Greek tragedy are so many questions asked, so be prepared to have your mind boggled by this book!...Have a spiffy day! -Nick Chu

A Rebours is the late 19th century French companion piece to late 20th century English / American books like High Fidelity. If Huysmans were alive today, he would undoubtedly be in a neon-lit bedroom somewhere, listening to the latest Bjork album, ingesting hallucinogenics, watching a Wong-Kar Wei movie with the sound off. Instead, living in a society bereft of what we now call pop culture, he had to content himself with jewel-encrusted turtles and the paintings of Gustave Moreau -- which, thanks to this book, I am now obsessed with. When worlds collide.

What separates A Rebours from its shallow latter-day successors is that Huysmans was an honest-to-God misanthrope, and as a result, his work has an unimpugnable authenticity. There's no pandering to trends here -- Huysmans was his own madman. His major gift, however, was for extreme ornamentation of language ( the French would call it "tarabiscote." ) In the original French, this book seems to take on an almost three-dimensional quality, to spin like an orb in front of your disbelieving eyes.

Of course, there's no story to be found. Just a lot of free-associative ramblings about how, for instance, the sense of smell has been criminally neglected throughout the ages ( think this influenced Harold and Maude? ) A Rebours, it can't be denied, takes a lot of patience to complete. It's often downright dull. But Huysmans was truly prophetic -- he anticipated our entire generation of indolent sensation-seekers.

Huysmans was literature's great complainer, capable of finding the misery and ennui in any situation-- even bachelorhood in late 19th century Paris. And while the book is regarded mainly as a manual for decadent living (Dorian Gray kept it by his bed), full of recherche and recondite indulgences, Huysmans' depiction of the unending quest for novelty and sensation is also drolly funny at times-- as in the scene in which an impotent des Esseintes takes up with a ventriloquist in the hopes that she can get a rise out of him by impersonating her own husband threatening violence outside the door while they copulate

The great challenge is how do you make a reader identify with a group of people who steal and murder for a living? The most interesting character for me was Innocent, the Yoruban black convert to an African brand of Christianity, who comes across as half savage, half mystic. Even the Captain Bartholomew Roberts' fear of the Almighty lent a spice of philosophic reality to what otherwise could have been a very two-dimensional character. Griffin lets us in enough on these inner lives to engage us with the characters.

The reversal at the end was for me an unexpected though intriguing finish with the motives of Phineas Bunch, the cabin boy, who is introduced by the second page, seems a minor character, and yet plays a key role. I won't spoil that surprise! It's a good pirate puzzle piece.

I recommend this book as a good read. It is satisfying as an adventure, as a historical snapshot of the period, written with enough twists and turns to make you enjoy the voyage.

Nicholas Griffin writes very well, and this is his first published book. I will read his next book also. The glossary in the back is very helpful, but I wish it had been more extensive. Also, in the paperback, the printing on the map is too small to read.

It did seem odd to me that an educated person like William Williams found himself among such cutthroats. Why was he there, and why did he stay in the face of the horrors they committed?

If you like boats, adventure, pirates, this is a good book to read.

And, it's a good time to read this book and contrast it with the summer's movie from Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean.

It is written in the third person and told primarily from the point of view of William Williams, a youthful English scholar, impressed by an English slaver, and shortly thereafter captured by pirates. The story is that of his adventures with these pirates and their captain, Bartholomew Roberts, aka, Black Bart, a real life historical personage.

What sets this book apart from its peers is not only its great attention to detail, but the attention it pays to those little things that all of us who read historical fiction are interested in. How is justice meeted out on a pirate ship, for example? How does a captain become a captain, and how does he remain one? How is he able to get these outlaws to do anything? What do they do with their riches? Who would trade with them? For that matter, where do they get their crew? All of this is explored, and all of it is quite interesting. Also conveyed quite well is the way of life in general in this long ago century. If life in London was tough, life in the English navy was tougher. And life on a pirate ship was very, very brutal.

Also exceptional are the characters, who are unusual, but nevertheless completely believable. Along with your typical European cutthroats, there is also mixture of black Africans, Amazonian Indians, and Portuguese merchantmen thrown in. I particularly liked Innocent, the Queequeg of the novel, with his weird philosophy--an illogical mixture of the barebones stories of Jesus and Homer's Odyssey--taught to him by a bored, smirking shipmate. The main impression you get of these guys is their ignorance. None of them can read or write, and all of them are superstitious and childishly cruel. Of course, this makes sense. Pirates were culled from the lowest dregs of society.

The plot is as it must be: there are the wanderings around the Atlantic, the sometimes vicious encounters with merchants, the storm scene, the starvation scene, the mutiny, and finally the scene in which they are brought to justice. But it is fresh, and there is something new to be found in all of it. It is also artfully done. The ending, in particular, is poignant, as we realize that the lives of these poor men--those that survive anyway--are never going to change. They can expect no sympathy during the course of their short, brutish lives, and what little hope they nurture turns out to be illusory.

This definitely feels like a book written by committee.

I wish I could have read it long time ago, before I started dig into all the details of Servlet/JSP/EJB! While, after understanding all these building blocks, come back and read this big picture blueprint is still a very nice treatment.

High recommended for serious server side Java designers / Architects !

Looking forward to the upcoming 2nd edition of the book.

1. On the technical side, the book explains new and refreshing aspects of options that every risk manager, who never actually traded exotic options, should read to understand the trader's "situation" when it comes to hedge a portfolio. Part II clearly describes the core aspects of plain vanilla options. Chapter 9, on Vega and volatility surface is well written, but could have been more precise on examples. Part III correctly outlines binary and barrier options and one feelt that Taleb was a currency option trader ! Some "wizards" are very true (p.60, on the Burnout of traders) and some, like the "risk management rules", are pure conceptions of the author without bringing anything new.

2. The editor could have been more careful with the reader's comfort, the charts are often two pages away from the written descriptions, the notes refer to pages at the back of the book, etc...

3. The author is sometimes so pretentious that it becomes very irritating and actually damages the quality of the book. It seems very obvious that Taleb has a wrong understanding of modern risk management. Today's (good) risk managers are sometimes ancient derivatives traders, they are mathematically and financially skilled people, they are part of the financial landscapes taking part actively in the management of positions. This book contains some good real life analogies, but the others are regrettably offensive.

This books stays a good book to read and to recommend