Extension Books

Being a bit of a romantic, I was very curious about a woman who would marry a man the night before his execution. I wanted a number of questions answered: Why did she do it? Did she ever re-marry? What was life like for her after his death?

The author does an excellent job of reporting the facts and offering opinions on how events in Grace Gifford Plunkett's life shaped who she was. After reading the book, I could answer all three questions, and the book satisfies at that level. Ms. O'Neill puts her subject in the context of the times, and she explains what is going on in Ireland at the time the events occur. In other words, the reader does not need to be intimately familiar with 20th century Irish history to enjoy this book. Grace Plunkett supported herself as an artist, and the author has the good sense to include these drawings in an attempt for the reader to understand the subject.

Again, I am a bit of a romantic. The love story of Joseph Mary Plunkett and Grace Gifford never came alive to me during the book. Their story inspired the beautiful Irish ballad, "Grace," about that fateful night of the execution. Ms. O'Neill quotes from their love letters, and one sensed she could not get some important sources about this aspect of Grace Gifford Plunkett's life. After all, his death did occur 84 years ago.

Nevertheless, the book is a good read, and it would probably make a decent, watchable movie.

By the light of two guttering candles in Kilmainham Gaol's Roman Catholic chapel, Grace Gifford married her fiance Joseph Mary Plunkett hours before his execution by firing squad. In doing so, Grace became forever linked with Ireland's struggle for independence, because her husband was one of the signatories of the Proclamation of Independence. So begins Marie O'Neill's biography of the woman who "became a powerful symbolic figure of the republican ideal for which her husband had given his life."

Twenty-eight-year old Grace, the daughter of a Dublin solicitor, was second youngest in a family of twelve children. Born into a prosperous home, Grace and her siblings were surrounded with comforts, a wide circle of friends, and educational opportunities. Grace, a gifted artist, chose to study at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, then continued her studies in London, and finally returning to Dublin to begin a career as a caricaturist. A chance meeting with an Irish journalist in London introduced grace and her sisters to a broadening circle of friends, including the poet and painter known as AE, William Butler Yeats, Constance Markievicz, and Maude Gonne. The opening of St. Enda's brought them in contact with the future leaders of 1916.

Raised a Protestant, Grace's increasing interest in her father's faith also led to a deepening friendship with Joseph Plunkett, whom she met at St. Enda's in late 1914 or early 1915. By winter 1915, the couple was secretly engaged and planned an Easter wedding following Grace's baptism into the Catholic faith. Through the War of Independence and the Civil War, Grace barely made ends meet. A lifelong Republican, Grace was never a member of Cumann na mBan, the women's auxiliary organization that worked to support the Volunteers. Still, she was arrested and served time in Kilmainham Gaol, along with other Republican women. After her release, Grace, who remained a widow for the rest of her life, struggled to make a living from her art. Many times she was reduced to poverty, and life only became easier after Eamon deValera and his party came into power and she received a civil list pension.

Grace continued to draw, and her cartoons showed an incisive wit. Quiet and moody, she remained in Dublin, working until her health began to fail. She died in 1955, presumably from heart failure. She was accorded a funeral with full military honors.

O'Neill's biography is a sensitive portrayal of a little known woman in a generation of extraordinary Irish men and women. Her history is important so the world can remember Grace Gifford Plunkett, a quiet woman whose immense talent and charm make her more than simply the "tragic bride of 1916."

It is fitting that I first became aware of the tragic story of Grace Gifford Plunkett (1888-1955) when hearing the song "Grace" sung at an Irish pub in Savannah, GA called "Kevin Barry's." The pub was named for the Irish teenager and medical student who was executed by the British in 1920 and became a national hero. In fact, On the day of his execution, scores of his fellow students at all the Irish Universities joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

I listened to the song "Grace" with tears in my eyes as her tragic story was revealed. As the fiancée of Joseph Mary Plunkett, a member of the IRA and one of the heroes of the 1916 Irish Rising, she married him just hours before he was executed. I couldn't get the haunting melody and lyrics out of my mind. The chorus goes, "Grace, just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger, For they take me out at dawn and I will die. With all my love, I place this wedding ring upon your finger, we won't have time to share our love for we must say goodbye." I had tears streaming down my face by the time the song was over.

When I returned to Washington state, I couldn't wait to find out more about Grace. I was so glad to find this book of Marie O'Neill's which tells Grace's story. It's a short book, but packed full of details of Grace's life. It's illustrated with Grace's own cartoons. O'Neill interviewed people who had known Grace including nieces who shared many personal stories of their aunt.

This book is recommended for anyone who would like more details of the 1916 Rising, told in a very personal way.

I bought this item because I work as portlet developer in WebSphere Portal. For this objective it's a great book, but if you're trying to find a general book about portlets programming I don't recommend you this book. This book give you a good idea of portlets developing using WebSphere Portal services, but I think that have weakness in facts as portal themes, the services that you could use in your portlets such as Puma or Credential Vault and a reference of integration with Web Content items.

This book covers much of WebSphere Portal features in an overview sense but cursory on the portlet programming aspect which is lacking in the beginners attempt to understand the JSR186 API and doesn't differentiate it with IBM's own API approach. It has several typo errors but nothing that is significantly non-readable. Overall, I would recommend it for getting to know WebSphere Portal if the online WebSphere's redbooks appear daunting by lack of direction and large volume.

Having "played" with WebSphere Portal since v4.1, I thought I knew quite a lot about portlet development - I mean to say; I started with WebSphere Studio Application Developer ( not quite NOTEPAD.EXE and JAVAC.EXE but ... ).

However, I found this book to be absolutely excellent - you can dip into it, or read it cover-to-cover. The sections on WebSphere Portlet Factory were especially relevant; I can now talk about parametric design and CAD in the context of application development.

Would strongly recommend to anyone interested in portlet development, or simply interested in WebSphere Portal

This is on my list of the top ten best books of all time. It's historical fiction at its finest. The author knew a great deal about the way people lived in the seventeenth century, so he shows us a world none of us have ever known in our technological age. The characters are true to life in a way that would have done justice to any of Steinbeck's books.

Walter Macken, a native of Galway, was born in 1915 and died in his home city at the age of 51. A writer, an actor and a playwright, he is perhaps best known for his novel "Flight of the Doves" - which was adapted for the cinema - and his "Irish Trilogy". "Seek the Fair Land" is the first book of this trilogy, and is set at the time of the Cromwellian Invasions. Although the book itself is a work of fiction, many of the 'background' events are true.

Opening in 1641, the book's central character is Dominick McMahon - having previously lost everything in the Plantation, he now lives in Drogheda. A merchant by trade, he is a husband and a father when he first meets Murdoc - a warrior from the west of Ireland. Dominic himself has little appetite for fighting - though eight years later, he is forced to defend his town against Cromwell's invading army. Within two days of Cromwell's arrival, the town had fallen, with women, children and priests among the estimated 4000 dead. Dominic, however, survives the attack and is forced to flee the city. While his wife, Eibhlinn, is killed in the siege, his son - Peter - and daughter - Mary Ann - also survive. However, the soldier who killed Eibhlinn also left Peter mute with a blow to the head. Joining the family on their escape is a member of the clergy, Father Sebastian, who was rescued by Dominic in the town. They move westwards, towards an area Murdoc had described to Dominic eight years previously - where he hopes he'll be able to raise his family in peace.

I've read a number of Walter Macken's books, and I've found each one very easy to read - like Michael McLaverty, he's a natural storyteller. It isn't always a cheerful book - life for Dominick, his family and Sebastian is a genuine struggle. However, it is a book I'd highly recommend. The remaining books of the trilogy are "The Silent People" and "The Scorching Wind" - well worth reading if you've enjoyed this one.

As a fan of Fantasy/Sci-Fi, this book was a good read during a recent trip to Ireland. Mr. Macken weaves a terrible time in Irish history (Cromwell's march through the Ireland sacking and looting) into a work of fiction that is part heroic epic, part Catholic religious teaching, and part pure allegorical myth-making.

As a non-Catholic and only part Irish American, this was interesting for it's descriptions of the role the church played during these times and the descriptions of day-to-day life in the Connemara countryside during the mid to late 17th centruy.

This is more Michael Moorcock than it is Oxford History, though...

If you could lie on a beach on Galway Bay and read a novel, this would be a great choice. This is part of a trilogy Mr. Macken wrote before his untimely death at age 52(?). The other two novels cover more recent periods in Irish history.

I started writing in verilog HDL in early 1990. When I read this book it gives me lot of of new information that I was not aware of. From students to senior engineers, I strongly suggest to read this book. It provides very good tips to write your code for synthesis and verification. Again, excellent book.

Regards,

VerilogGeek

This book tries to do three things: 1) introduce designers to some of the idiosynchrasies and pitfalls of the Verilog language, 2) teach some important basic digital design principles, and 3) go beyond pure functionality and help designers appreciate testability, verification, and emergent system performance issues. It does very well in all, I think. They do not mire themselves down in the detailed syntax or semantics of Verilog except in avoiding the aforementioned pitfalls. On the whole, the design principles are well illustrated. They did reference a web page on metastability and synchronization between clock domains, but by and large, the book is self contained. It seems to me that there is an error in the gated clock discussion in Fig. 2.20. The clock polarity is invered compared with Fig. 2.19 - the latter is correct. Also ~clk needs to be used instead of clk in some of the latch control code in the corresponding Verilog examples. Otherwise, I have found few problems. This book is by far the best of the dozen or so (generally poor) Verilog books I have read.

I highly recommend this book for students/engineers who have basic knowldges in Verilog and want to know how to improve their design and what they should focus on during their design phase for their project.

This book is well-organized. It starts from basic concept of verilog, followed by the RTL design, and verification. The authors even provides a section called common mistakes to help readers understand the pitfalls they usually make and the side effect of making these mistake.

This book is easy to read. One of the reasons is the authors provide a very good flow for readers to read through the book (from basic to advanced); moreover, the authors also provide explanation for some jargons which beginners are not familiar with. Finally, all of the questions are listed in TOC, which is pretty easy for students/engineers to skip to the topics which interest them.

I believe this book is a must-have in the book shelf. For students, you may ask your library to buy this since it is not cheap. However, it does worth buying if you want to keep it yourself.

Given how heavily companies spend on advertising and merchandising, any factor - in this case, better use of branding - that could possibly enhance the survival chances of a product extension deserves serious consideration. In fact, if you are thinking about launching a new product tied to an existing brand, this informative book might save your career. Author David Taylor identifies so many prerequisites for making a brand offshoot successful that you may decide to take up some safer activity - like bungee jumping. That cautionary guidance alone is invaluable. Unlike many other marketing authors, Taylor writes concise chapters, liberally dosed with good examples. Each chapter ends with a summary, checklist and pertinent takeout. The package works well to convey Taylor's provocative ideas. To avoid embarrassing product failures, read this book. We warmly recommend it to those daring enough to be branding and product-marketing specialists.

It's a very easy-to-understand book on brand streching. Brand stretching surely will leverage a brand asset. Hoever, it should be done carefully. This book will guide you step-by-step on stretching your book.

This photojournalistic presentation of the pontiff is the best tribute to this spiritual giant of our day. An award-winning news photographer and an accomplished journalist together have brought out the best of Pope John Paul II through this documentation in words and images. There are, as many as 135 previously unpublished photographs in color, of the Pontiff from 1978 to 1995. Each of these photos by Gianni Giansanti, is a work of art in itself and all of them together take one deep into the personality of the Pope. The text written by Marco Tosatti who has accompanied the Pope on his pastoral visits for 14 years, is filled with information unavailable elsewhere. The book is organized into three sections: the Vatican, Private Life and Papal Travels. There is also an introduction that gives some biographical details of the Pope. This book paints a complete and true-to-life portrait of a Pope who has made a remarkable impact upon our times.

This book is beautiful from several perspectives. As a Catholic, I delighted in the glimpses of the Holy Father's journey through time and around the world. While certainly not a photography connoisseur in any sense, I thought the photos themselves were works of art and their large glossy reproduction enhanced their effect. I really enjoy the weight and texture of large 'coffee table' books printed on such good paper. The text accompanying the photos was a great, if (necessarily) short, history of the Pope and the Vatican up to 1996, which does not stray too far into debate over politics / theology / Church policy, without making the mistake of avoiding mention of controversy all together. I find myself going back to look at particular images, as they convey a great sense of the Church alive, even in countries where she is persecuted. The book as a whole left me with a much more visual sense of the Pope's mission and a greater respect for him as a man and a pontiff. I loved this book and while I don't, unfortunately, own it yet, I will buy it if I get the chance.

i got this book for my dad, it arrived promptly and he enjoyed it. thank you.

Florida's Great Ocean Railway: Building The Key West Extension by former college professor, professional boat captain, environmental guide, editor and writer Dan Gallagher is a meticulous study of the construction of a railway line that required extensive logistics, meticulous planning, as well as more than a decade of labor from 1905 to 1916, before it could be put into service. Black-and-white photographs fill the pages of this fascinating historical account which presents the impressive story of shaping dream into reality over the course of years and back-breaking effort. Florida's Great Ocean Railway is very highly recommended reading -- especially for railroading buffs.

This book is a shock and awe book. It will shake and rattle your core beliefs and for sure will make a better individual. I did enjoy the book lack of adornments but it is in need of footnoting and a bibliography. Why? These two elements will give the book authority.

Not everyone who will read this book will have enough scope in history, religion, politics, psychology and anthropology to really accept the contents of the book.

This is an excellent cultural philosophy and memetic re-engineering book, chock full of ways individuals and the idealogical constructs they blindly follow assault you every hour. It will help you break out of sheeple mode if you are brave enough to try.

For nearly 30 years, Padberg has been a leader in computational integer programming and in combinatorial optimization theory.

In practice, Padberg has helped to design and implement "branch-and-cut" methods for finding exact optimal solutions to large traveling salesman problems, and this approach is a method of choice for finding approximately optimal solutions to tough industrial problems. The book provides the mathematical and computational background for understanding branch-and-cut; the established mathematical texts by Nemhauser and Wolsey and by Schrijver are less detailed and more condensed, and omit numerical issues. The treatment of modern simplex algorithms for linear programming---updating LU factorizations and using column- and constraint-generation and -purging---is excellent, and a large bibliography contains recent references. Besides industrial and Berlin-airlift scheduling problems, the book contains TSP examples of circuit-board wiring, U.S. state capitals, and Odysseus!

Three more highlights: The double description algorithm receives a complete description, and this is useful for combinatorial geometers. The discussion of integer-arithmetic and complexity theory is very readable, and these technical topics are slighted by interior-point books (besides Wright's quickie), despite their importance in integer programming and combinatorial optimization. The discussion of interior-point algorithms emphasizes projective geometry, a beautiful theory that has inspired so much of optimization theory---besides Karmarkar's interior-point algorithm, Dantzig's simplex algorithm, Fenchel duality, Davidon's conic algorithm for nonlinear optimization, etc.).

The book is not a comprehensive survey of linear programming,
and lacks a treatment of Nesterov's theory of self-concordant barrier-functions. Also, no treatment is given of pivoting algorithms besides Dantzig's (e.g., Terlaky's criss-cross method, Todd's oriented matroid algorithm).

This book is certainly a very good reference for theoretical topics of linear programming. It covers the Simplex method and the Ellipsoid algorithms. It also covers the geometry of linear programming (polyhedra and polytopes, etc). It certainly covers more topics than most other linear programming texts. As expected, a book writen for theoretical topics is certainly not easy to read, especially for people with no training in doing rigorous mathematical proofs. Also, not many examples or illustrations are given in this book, and this might be a problem for some readers.

This book can definitely help the Michigan collector find and identify butterflies. Pictures of both the front and back of the butterfly are show for each species, and interesting variations (differences in male and female, hybrids) are shown as well. In addition, a map of the state divided into counties accompanies each butterfly, so you can figure out where that butterfly can be found. Finally, notes are given about the rarity of the butterfly--some have been recorded in Michigan only once, and others are considered strays. The great details given in this book have helped us correctly identify many butterflies that a more general guide to butterflies couldn't help us with. This book sets a high standard for all regional books on butterflies!

Very well done! The photos are excellent and clear. The information is concise and well written. 'Mo' Nielsen is well-respected in the field of Lepidoptera and has produced a publication worthy of his reputation. The only fault in editing I have found is a photo of a living butterfly misidentified as Edward's Hairstreak (it is actually the very similar Banded Hairstreak). A long-awaited work!