Extension Books

This is a handsome binding (for a modern book), with much useful information and many interesting pictures. A great browse for us "bibliopegists" (students and lovers of fine bindings). A delightful passage:

"Nevertheless, Sir, there are some things more fit to be looked at than others; for instance, there is nothing more fit to be looked at than the outside of a book . . . It is, as I may say from repeated experience, a pure and unmixed pleasure to have a goodly volume lying before you, and to know that you . . . need not open it unless you please . . . There is no place, in which a man can move or sit, in which the outside of a book can be otherwise than an innocent and becoming spectacle."

Thomas Love Peacock, Victorian

Don't get me wrong, this is a beautiful little book, and it's full of information. But it's British, and book-collecting in Britain (UK) has a very different slant than here in the U.S., and perhaps this should have been indicated in the title. I also mention "antiquarian", which is the field this handsome little reference seems to favor, whereas there are numerous fields of collecting more egalitarian which are untouched upon. So if you're into antiquarian books, and want to learn more about the British market, this is the book for you. An overview of the field in general it isn't. For a good introductory text I recommend Modern Book Collecting by Robert Wilson.

O'Doherty has researched his Viennese courts well, and his Mozart and Ben Franklin; the descriptions of Anton Mesmer seem so real, I'm pretty sure I've read them before. Not that it's a criticism to say he cribbed from contemporaneous descriptions; the blending of borrowed reportage with fictional text is actually done pretty well.

However, O'Doherty waxes much too purple for my taste when he lapses into streams of consciousness that seem to turn into whirlpools from which he cannot extricate himself. More unfortunately, while he has done tons of research on the details of say, seventeenth century Viennese table legs, he hasn't read too many diaries from the time. His prose seems awfully Victorian to me. Or pseudo-Victorian. Actually, there were times when it reminded me for all the world of Elinor Glyn.

His problem is that the novel isn't a seventeenth century form, and stream of consciousness, moreover, is a twentieth century construction. Still more incongruously, O'Doherty appears to have his eye on eighteenth century fictive diary prose such as Charlotte Bronte writes in Jane Eyre. However, he can't even separate the first person narrative of early novels from the stream of consciousness that readers today are familiar with. In addition, he uses three-point narration (Mlle. P., her father, and Anton Mesmer) and seems to be trying to do something along the lines of The Moonstone, yet another form that didn't exist in the seventeenth century. O'Doherty has set himself up for massive leaps of invention. Sadly, he never quite does what he sets out to do, and the thing shrivels in the bud.

I'm just addressing his prose style, though. If you can stomach it, then you have the pleasure of the devices he uses to work Mesmer, Mozart, Benjamin Franklin, Empress Maria Theresa, and most of the rest of the Hapsburg court, plus the French Revolution into 240 pages. They are actually pretty artful. So if you like that kind of stuff, and aren't fussy about the mode of communication, this might the book for you.

On top of that, there's sex, lots of it, and a blind girl Mesmer is trying to cure, and some neat messages about talent vs. function.

However, if you read for style and rhythm of language as much as plot, this will set your teeth on edge.

This novel may be technically out of print, but you can still buy it in many bookstores...There are probably lots of warehoused copies. Since it's on the Booker shortlist, there's a good chance it'll come back into print. Nonetheless, if you're interested, you ought to grab it while you can.

This is an absorbing little tale of an unorthodox doctor treating a blind, aristocratic young lady who possesses considerable musical talents. It takes place in the Austrian royal court at the time of Mozart's own prodigious childhood.

While there are horrific moments highlighting the destructive effects of ill-conceived parental control, O'Doherty sheds light on the mysterious penchant talented people have for falling into the hands of suppressive creeps. The doctor seems sincere enough, but even he cannot keep his hands off the lovely musician.

Chapters told by different characters, the story is a fine exercise in viewpoint and voice. O'Doherty sets his scenes with amazing conservation of adjectives. The language and syntax alone paints vivid pictures of court settings. This reader really got the impression O'Doherty did his research meticulously.

Now that the author's shortlisted for the Booker, we have good reason to snap up this out-of-print novel!

This book was a miserable waste of time. The main character, whom I imagine the author modeled on herself, as she has with her other work, was a completely self-absorbed hypocrit. I had to finish it for a book club but had to put it down on several occassions because I was so disgusted with the main character. Her children are developing various self injurious behaviors because of her ongoing affair with her remarried ex-husband, but does she care? No. She only stops when she manages to get another man, whom she only likes because he is good-looking into her bed. That is until she seduces her already married friend and breaks up his marriage without a twinge of regret. Oh and meanwhile Mattie puts her mother in a nursing home and forces her into a disassociative state with the trauma of living with her own husband's old lover so Mattie can continue stay in her mother's house rent free and not get a real job. Unbelieveably she also hits her mother up for repairs and improvments to her house right before she puts her away. Of course she is always sure to make it to church, except when she takes to the bed for a week because she is sick with the discovery her long-dead father's infedelities. What is even more amazing is that I belive the author expects us to sympathize with this cretin. She obviously can relate, I, for one, cannot. A study in self-absorption and not for anyone who values characters with some....character.Blue Shoe

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At times, I found it a bit dark and depressing, but in it I saw a bit of everyone I know embedded in its characters. As always, Ms Lamott's writing is hypnotic and poetic in a funny and sometimes melancholy way.

I've not read anything else by Anne Lamott, but I plan to. I bought "Blue Shoe" on a whim and didn't expect it to be a light, easy, fluffy read. To my surprise, I've read it again since. No, the characters aren't perfect, yes, they fail. But they are so very human.

Certainly, sometimes we want to read fiction which will provide us with characters so good, so lacking in imperfection, that we can try to aspire to their perfect heights. And sometimes, conversely, we want to read about real, flawed people, ones who affirm our own lives. Which of us has never - be honest! - wanted the wrong person (or the right one) at the wrong time? has never engaged in emotionally destructive behaviors? has not known the right answer? Ms Lamott tells the story with such kindness and generosity to her characters... I can only hope to aspire to be so loving to myself and to my own friends.

The S.F. Bay area's Anne Lamott is well known through her fiction (Joe Jones, Crooked Little Heart, All New People, etc.) and non-fiction (Bird by Bird, Traveling Mercies, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith). Both adored and distrusted for her outspoken faith and her hilarious candor about messy issues like sexual mores, abortion, divorce, Lamott's writings demonstrate that life is a bundle of contradictions for people like her, like me, like all of us who on the way but not there yet. A Guggenheim fellowship recipient, she has been a Mademoiselle book reviewer and a California restaurant critic. She has taught at UC Davis and teaches writing workshops across the U.S.

In Blue Shoe, Lamott allows us to eavesdrop and peek in on the tensions, struggles, and alliances made and broken by three generations of Mattie Ryder's family. She is a forty-something, perfect size 12, divorced mother of two young children, struggling to support her household, and to find her way forward amidst life's discouragements. Her narcissistic liberal activist mother. Isa, looms over the narrative as does the shadow of her dead father, Alfred. Mattie's is very much a stereotypical Marin County family, hedonistic, liberal, educated, free-living. The blue shoe named in the title is a vending machine trinket Mattie treats like a good luck charm. Tracing its origins connects Mattie and her brother Al to family secrets that will wound before they heal.

Despite Mattie's (and Lamott's) transparent Christian faith, there are no plaster saints in this book, but only gritty, real people. Lamott is a disciplined author, and knows it is best to show rather than tell. Like a sea shell left on the shore by a receding wave, the theme of this book emerges from the experience of its characters rather than being placarded and proclaimed. The theme is stated but not trumpeted as such in Chapter Ten, where Mattie tells her brother, "Yesterday I had an epiphany. I realized that all I have to do is to tell the truth, and let go of the results" (223). Her theme could be expressed in this wry version of a familiar New Testament text: "The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."

This is my first Lamott novel, so I can't compare it to others she has written. She succeeds here in opening her theme to us like leaves of an avocado, inviting us to savor the subtle flavors and fragrances arising from her narrative. The pace is slow-moving, and this too is a credit to Lamott's artistry, because real life is not a quickly dispatched explanation, but a slow process of experience and discovery sorted out from the tangle of the mundane.

Despite her slow pace, too slow for some, I give Blue Shoe five stars because I believe this slowness is appropriate to a portrayal of life as it is, where the fragments of lessons learned assemble slowly before taking discernible shape.

I recommend Blue Shoe to anyone prepared to see life and relationships in full color rather than in black and white. Lamott calls us to openness to new information, and to willingness to seek out and face unexpected or uncomfortable truths. The rich web of relationships clustered around Mattie Ryder is transformed as a result. If our experience would reflect theirs, we will need courage, curiosity, and perhaps a lucky blue shoe of our own.

This was my first Anne Lamott read. What people say about starting with the first books and working your way up to the most recent, is often true. Anne Lamott is obviously a very talented writer, with a wonderful dry sense of humar and excellent descriptions of setting. However, something tells me that her earlier books are even better.
To begin, what I loved about this book was the dry humor (ie: feeling like pouring Draino over the pet iguana, etc) and the lovely descriptions. I also enjoyed the themes of self-discovery, and picking up the pieces along the way in life. Anne Lamott most definitely does a better job about writing of the trials of middle age, feminism, and discovery than some writers, who fill pages with a soon-to-be Lifetime movie script, but there are some definite flaws within as well.
I wish that more depth could have been given about the characters, or that other perspectives had been given. I wanted to know about the intertwining of lives and characters, not horribly depressing pages about dementia and drawn out-death scenes of the beloved family pet. To actually shape this story, she needed to go into the past, instead of the present.
But what annoyed me the most, was the ending. The whole premise of this story was about Mattie finding herself, discovering her father's secrets and the brother she never knew. But the story ended so abruptly, that you wanted to know more. You had a part of the story, but it seemed as if Lamott just got tired and threw in the towel.
I would have given this book three and a half, or even four stars if not for the ending, but I felt horribly cheated. In a way, the characters did as well. They didn't get to complete the journey either. The ending is everything to make a good piece of literature morph into a great one.
This is a fast read (I read it in two days), and a very good beach book. I will give Anne Lamott the fact that she is very engrosing, and makes you want to keep reading.
But, if you want some true feminist literature with amazing, plots, characters, and endings, read any one of Margaret Atwood's books!
I have not completely given up on Anne Lamott, however. I look forward to actually starting from the beginning, and then seeing what I think!

This is the first book that I've read by this author, and I kind of enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the premise behind the story is much better than what actually occurs. I love the idea of trying to solve a riddle mystery, and by making the riddles Celtic (or more particularly Irish based on old Irish legends) it was something I just had to read. I was also intrigued by the antique element in the book. But I found that the prose was a little hard slogging, and I just didn't connect with the main characters like I felt I should. The mystery itself was a good one, and there were a lot of surprises there. I was interested enough to finish the book, and I am considering reading other books in the series.

My 12yo daughter and I were in the library looking for books and I chose this one for her as the protagonist is a female anthropologist (as is my daughter's mother) and I saw it was part of a series which I took to be a good sign for the quality of the writing. Boy, was I wrong! My daughter is smarter than me as she couldn't stomach even the first few pages. I plowed through most of the book, hoping it would improve, until finally I just skimmed the back pages to find out what the writer had chosen to make the "treasure". As others have already mentioned, the way in which the "clues" are solved either makes no sense, happens offstage, or involve incredible coincidence. One might think of this as a novel to be enjoyed more for its "atmosphere" but that would be a mistake. Cottages on windswept cliffs are so trite as are smoke-filled pubs and besotted Irishfolk. What I felt was good about this book was that it's encouragement for anyone who wonders if s/he could be a writer. Absolutely! This is the publishing house for the writer who aspires to be a cut above the works put out by Harlequin Romance

This book was kind of interesting but had all sorts of unbelievable stuff in it. Like all these people in this little town in Ireland are getting murdered, one right after the other, and no one in town or the family is in the least bit upset or worried about it. They just merrily go on about their lives as if nothing unusual was going on and they never even mention it or seem to notice, in fact.

And the whole reason that this woman and her friends are there in the first place for so long, that the police are investigating one of the murders so she has to hang around, is ridiculous, especially since it stretches on for months and months.

There's another part where this lady and her friend get kidnapped and locked up, and instead of being scared or trying to get out, they sit around blabbing and making jokes for hours about his relationship with his daughter and the history of little huts in Ireland. Don't you think they might be a little bit worried and concerned for themselves, especially after several recent murders and the fact that they've been kidnapped??

There's also this teenage girl who talks backwards - give me a break! She would never be able to do that, and no one would be able to understand her either!!

At the end, a lot of the weird stuff that went on is left unexplained. But by then, you don't really care anyway!

Having read the previous books in this series, I was moderately excited for this one. I was more than pleasantly surprised. The writing has improved quite a bit. The whodoneit not that surprising, but that was ok. I loved the addition, here, of some more light hearted humor. I laughed out loud on a number of occasions. Ms. Hamilton is on the right track...I can't wait to read the next book.

THE CELTIC RIDDLE is the fourth installment in Hamilton's Lara McClintoch series. The first one was passable, but nothing to get excited about. I found the second one disappointing and decided, at that point, to give up on Hamilton. Relenting after a couple of years, I gave the third one a shot. Lo and behold, I liked it. Not great, you understand, but pretty good. I began thinking that Hamilton had found her muse.

Now we have THE CELTIC RIDDLE (and several more, actually, but I'm taking them in order). For me, this is something of a letdown. Not horrid, but not up to the standard of THE MOCHE WARRIOR. The premise is shaky (a wealthy man leaves a treasure hunt behind in his will, hoping that his squabbling heirs will cooperate to find an unspecified treasure. Now really, what could be more divisive?). The background mythology is interesting and Hamilton has done her homework, but the meanings hidden within the mythical poem are obscure and the connections drawn are often either solved outside the thread of the narrative or involve improbable leaps of intuition. And what's up with the silly device of speaking backwards? It is more annoying than cute.

I don't quite know what to make of Hamilton. Thus far, her stories have been inconsistent. THE CELTIC RIDDLE is a mediocrity, and it could have been a good deal better. If you're into the series, you'll want to read it. If not, you might want to try the next one. I haven't read it yet, but the more recent books in this series are getting better reviews. I'm hoping that the best is yet to come.

The truth comes out sooner or later, we hope. Here the record speaks for itself, deflating the strains of Yankee Doodle with some 'historical materialist' analysis of the facts of the case re the schizophrenia of our revered founder, Tom Jefferson, a man of fine words and a spastic record on the issue of slavery. 'What might have been' competes with the indictment of the lost opportunity to prevent the spread of the plantation system into the new territories of the emerging American system, especially in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase.
Between the Declaration and the Gettysberg Address we find too much American history sawdust.
Excellent piece of research behind the myth machines operating on a July Fourth schedule, 'whole cloth', like the commodity of empire in the British cotton kingdom that rapidly survived the blunder of losing its fiefdom in the soon reconquered South.
Yeoman farmers? Come on. My leg is pulled out of joint.

Roger G. Kennedy examines the steps that were taken by Thomas Jefferson to secure the Louisiana Territory from Spanish acquisition. MR. JEFFERSON'S LOST CAUSE: LAND, FARMERS, SLAVERY, AND THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE covers the pivotal years of 1802 and 1820 and other years connected to Kennedy's study. His main premise is to prove that if constrictions did not exist for Yeomen and slaves, if Jefferson's personal character, arrogance and pessimism, did not interfere with the decisions he made, concessions could have been made before and after the execution of the Louisiana Purchase that may have prevented the US Civil War and the issue of slavery.

MR. JEFFERSON'S LOST CAUSE is a unique examination that Kennedy narrates with extreme detail. But one of the unfortunate aspects of his narration is that some of the passages are so intense with historical data that one loses his point, or forget what the book is about. As Director Emeritus of the National Museum of American History and the National Park Service, Kennedy attempts to creatively intertwine his knowledge and fondness for biological, geological, ecological history, Early American and Roman history as it relates to the activities that occurred with the land. However, they appear out of place and somewhat disconnected to the main subject at hand - Jefferson, the land, slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase. For example, readers may become lost if they do not know about geology, and the different periods that existed, the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, which he uses as analogies to explain John Marshall's Dartmouth College decision of 1819 and how it ties in with the phases of capitalism and corporate growth as well as the introduction to chapter 13 where he begins his discussion with a short biology lesson about organisms. In addition, this is yet another book where the main character disappears amongst the immense amount of information. Kennedy dedicates a chapter or two on several key contributors to the Louisiana Purchase, Alexander McGillvray and Fulwar Skipwith.

So in essence, what can be learned from reading MR. JEFFERSON'S LOST CAUSE? Kennedy emphasizes that Jefferson was the "father of the land," but did use his experience of Plantation management to the best of his ability to provide balanced relations with the Yeomen. The story and analysis of this historical event was told from a different angle, but may have been enriching if the narrative moved laterally. While reading the book, memories of the past come to mind when I used to have to write and revise papers for my history classes, and had to constantly remind myself what my thesis was. Otherwise, the bibliography is a helpful source to understand the foundation of Kennedy's research.

If you want a good book regarding the Founders and slavery, look to Paul Finkelman's Slavery and the Founders, not this disappointing mess. The organization is poor, there's not a logical flow to the information provided, and the author has a tendency to ramble. We know the Founders failed to implement the Declaration and Jefferson was a hypocrite on many subjects. Don't waste your time hearing it over and over again in this book.

Roger G.Kennedy is a man on a mission: to embellish, lie and slander Thomas Jefferson. Kennedy is the typical modern biographer,always ready to destroy another one of America's heroes. In the sad and cynical fashion of today, Kennedy does his best to paint Thomas Jefferson as a lousy President, slaveholder and racist. The book is deplorable, just as most modern American history has become. I am sure the modern left, postmodernist, deconstructionist crowd loves this piece. It has all of the nihlism, lies, and propaganda one would expect from a "profession" laden with Marxists and Leninsts who would like nothing better than to see another American icon destroyed. A real piece of garbage.

I found this book fascinating on many counts.

First, the description of how the plantations east of the Allegheny Mountains were viewed as disposable by the men who ran them, since it was cheaper to buy new land on the frontier than properly maintain the land they currently possessed. Also, how these same men for various reasons and led by Jefferson resisted the industrialization that would diversified the economy of the south.

Second, how Jefferson and his allies catered to the land gluttony displayed by those early planters as new land was acquired for the United States. This was largely accomplished by dispossessing the people inconveniently already settling the land, and handing large swathes of land over to slave-holding planters emigrating from the lands they had exhausted.

Kennedy in fact dwells for much of the book on the territory of Florida (expanding beyond the current borders of that state across much of the South) possessed by Spain and settled prior to US acquisition by a mixture of Indians, whites and blacks who out of neccessity practiced sustainable agriculture on a small scale. I found the picture of Florida in that period to be one of the particularly interesting parts of the book. The relationship between the US and the people already settled on lands it wished to acquire (especially Indians), using Florida as a case study, was enlightening.

Kennedy provides some critical information for evaluating Jefferson's political leadership on the most compelling moral issue facing the young republic-the endurance and expansion of slavery within its boundaries. First, although the debate in Congress during his presidency over the expansion of slavery into new territories was very close, Jefferson refrained from using his influence to lead in this controversy. Thus, his anti-slavery rhetoric was saved for moments in his life (early and late in his career) when it was unlikely to influence policy, and perhaps as no coincidence his self-interest and the interest of his landed friends. Indeed, once Jefferson's agriculturally impoverished land would no longer yield a profit, rather than join other planters heading west, he decided he could support himself most easily by breeding slaves to be sold to those emigrants. In this way, the man who despised the merchant and industrial classes for their supposed lack of moral character, supported his own extravagent lifestyle. In this, as on many other issues, Jefferson was an impressively self-indulgent hypocrite. Sadly, this supposedly great president was striking for his lack of will and vision on how best to establish a republic in which the AVERAGE citizen would have a reasonable opportunity to pursue happiness.

I would have liked to have given this book 4 1/2 stars, because there was a certain lack of organization, and some parts were confusing, so I can't say it was perfectly written. But I found the subject matter truly eye-opening and heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter.

This book is a mess. Really disorganized. Nothing is clear. Important information is thrown together haphazardly in places it doesn't belong. It makes you wonder what other tidbits he left out, or what he hid somewhere that you didn't notice. There's no way to use it as a reference, and it's certainly not an entertaining read.

I have most of Richard Grime's books and have been a fan of his for some time. However, his last couple of books have been of extremely poor quality. It's as though the author simply took the Managed Extensions documentation and rushed out a book just to have a book on the subject. For example, there are less than 20 pages on multi-threading while there are 70 pages on interop! Since there are already tons of material on interop why so much material devoted to this - especially when 25 pages are PInvoke?! The book is very uneven and really provides almost nothing beyond what you can find in any MC++ literature. I would recommend instead MS Press' Visual C++ Step By Step or APress' Essential Guide to Managed Extensions as they are much more in touch with delivering unique content.

A bit dissapointing.
This book is more about what not to do than about what to do or how to do it right. With the recently released new 2003 version of Visual Studio's the C++ compiler for the NET, it might, even, be a bit outdated.
If what you're looking for is a kind of tutorial book on managed extensions( such as myself) this isn't the right book.
Later, I got "Microsoft Visual C++ NET professional projects" and this is it. more than 1000 pages of practical advice, consistent and easy advice C++ and the .NET.
Maybe, after i get to know C++ more deeply "Programming with Managed Extensions for Microsoft Visual C++ .NET" would become an interesting reading.

The organization of this book is terrible. It is full of forward references to topics not yet discussed, information is presented without any proper structure.

I will trust the judgement of others who know c++.NET better and say that the content is technically sound (I personally will reserve my opinion). As far as I am concerned, it all goes to waste due to its unreadable and incoherent organization and presentation.

It should have been titled "Random thoughts on managed c++".

I cannot say it better than another reviewer "This book is typical of Grimes work...focused, lucid, and complete". This is a great book for learning Managed Extensions for Microsoft Visual C++.Net.

Thorson's comprehensive guide includes more than 150 accredited bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs that require little or no time on campus. This study guide will show you how to earn the degree of your choice from an affordable, accredited institution. This is an excellent reference for adults who are thinking about returning to school. This relatively small book of about 250 pages would be excellent to have in your hand as you surf the web for up-to-date information.

Save time & money, learn from home! Get a Degree and possibly earn more! Good Read!

I just received the "revised" 1999 version and find it is the 1998 edition (went to press in late 1997). There are NO new schools or NEW degree programs. The old edition was good but it needs to be updated. Get Peterson's at Amazon (updated annually) or Distance Degrees at www.collegeathome.com (updated every six months). Thorson has 31 schools offering MBAs, e.g. Distance Degrees has over 85! Peterson's have over 60. If this book was updated annually it would be great. Good info on too few schools.

The title of this book is very misleading! The overwhelming majority of the programs listed require some time on campus. Although the program descriptions are good, the title doesn't deliver what's promised. If you want a guide that delivers spend your money on Bear's College Degrees by Mail & Modem instead.

Thorson details hundreds of programs from AS degrees to Ph.D. offered by approximately 200 regionally accredited institutions. Generally, program descriptions, entrance requirements, credit transfer policies and credit hour costs are included for each entry. Residency requirements, accrediting body, Web address and email contact address are all given prominence. A very detailed piece of work. A separate section covers higher education institutions that are DETC accredited. No unaccredited schools are documented in this book. No foreign schools are listed. Overall, this is a better package that John Bear's offering even with the absence of institutions and programs outwith the United States. This is high praise indeed because Bear's book is very, very good. Those considering the distance learning route to an undergraduate or graduate degree will be well served by this eighth edition of Marcie's well regarded work. (John Bear's book is "Bears' guide to earning college degrees nontraditionally" and is well worth the price for the dry humor alone.) : An honorable mention should also go to Peterson's "Guide to distance learning" a lot of information but alas, no humor.

Dr. Bear has delivered another excellent book. This book provides a good, general introduction to some of the programs available through distance learning in many fields.

Above I said that there are two best books. The other book is also by John and Mariah Bear. "Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning" is the seminal work in the field. 400,000 buyers can't be wrong!

I was searching for Bachelors in Accounting degrees ---I already knew of several Internet Schools offering them. The book listed 2 out of the 15 I knew of and didn't mention they offered that degree. All I can say is if it was my only source I'd be majorly SOL.

Mr. Bear's book on distance learning is one of the finer books on distance learning institution if you want a biased, uninformed opinion on the value of distance learning as opposed to traditional residential learning. Mr. Bear fails to address the fact that distance learning schools do not become less valuable because they are non-regionally accredited. Student purchasing this book should realize that curriculum based, faculty mentored programs are the just as effective if administered via distance learning as traditional residential programs. Mr. Bear himself has been associated with a number of non-accredited distance learning program. I'm sure the book's original intention was to drive enrollments away from his competitor. Nevertheless, Mr. Bear trys very hard to be objective. I just wish that he would address the fact that there are distance learning program out there that are mentioned in his book, that have outstanding programs to help the life-long learner achieve his/her academic goal. It would be nice if Mr. Bear had done his research and actually visited some of these distance learning programs which he is so quick to misrepresent. I have been a student at one of the schools mentioned. The education I received was outstanding. I learned more there than I did in my State operated undergraduate university. However, Mr. Bear's review of my alma mater is less than favorable. Little does he know that I have been able to honestly show the work that I have completed at this university and have gained the respect of my professional colleagues. My advice is: Help John Bear make more money so he can afford to visit the schools he is so quick to judge by virtue of his bias toward non-accredited programs. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

I purchased this book along with another by the same author. The thing that I liked about this book was that it was to the point and laid out in an easy to use format. It also only listed accredited schools, which is helpful for those interested in a degree that has true value once earned. My only criticism is in regards to how he explained pricing. Average to one person may be out of reach to another. Some actual dollar ranges would be helpful. Good info about clep tests and the like.

I purchased this book along with "Bears' Guide To Earning Degrees Nontraditionally" Both books are quite helpful, especially to those who have only considered on campus programs in the past but for whatever reason were not able to make it work. My only reservation about this particular book "College Degrees by Mail & Internet" is that it is very much an abridgement of the larger volume "Bears' Guide To Earning Degrees Nontraditionally". The main difference being less general information about nontraditional education and the authors decision to only include Accredited schools in this work. In "Bears' Guide To Earning Degrees Nontraditionally" the Non-Accredited schools are clearly noted and separated so there is no chance you will be confused as to which programs are or are not Accredited. The greater depth of information available makes the "Bears' Guide..." well worth the extra money and you DEFINATELY won't need to buy both books as I did. Thanks to Amazon.com for the chance to share this.

This could have been a brilliant book - the subject certainly has spectacular prospects - but it was not to be. Fifty years on there are few survivors of the legions of the Kempeitai, and even fewer survivors of their victims. It could have been a timely piece of scholarship. Instead we are treated a poor collection of anecdotes which lack suffcient breadth and analysis to be evidence of anything other than the incidents they describe, not the Kempeitai as a whole, nor their operations. More disappointing is the author's unconcealed antipathy towards his subject, as a result of his father's wartime experiences. If you need a book on the subject then consider buying it, but otherwise look elsewhere.

For reasons that are very difficult to understand, when the subject of war crimes in World War II comes up, it almost always involves the actions of the Germans. Even though the Japanese were just as brutal to the population of the areas they occupied and even more brutal to enemy POW's, it is a subject that is rarely discussed. In Japan, formal acknowledgements of the war crime actions of the Japanese during the war are rare and tepid.
The Kempeitai were the Japanese version of the German Gestapo, feared by all, including their fellow Japanese. While it is impossible to thoroughly chronicle their actions in only 167 pages, Lamont-Brown gives a good overview of the role the Kempeitai played in the war. They routinely executed civilians and captured allied personnel and on occasion even ate their flesh. Japanese medical personnel carried out horrific medical experiments on humans and were later granted immunity by General MacArthur in exchange for the records of their experiments.
This book is an example of one that should be read by more people. It is sad and unfortunate that more people do not know and appreciate the actions of the Japanese during the Second World War. Those who suffered through it remember it well, but shortly they will be gone and it is up to historians to keep the memories of their suffering alive.

The author talks more about atrocities than the counter intelligence role that the organization played. The only intelligence type stuff they discuss is the Ricard Sorge(Soviet Master Spy in Germanys Tokyo Embassy) capture and interogation. The author does catelouge the atrocities committed by this organization well though(Hence the title Japan's dreaded military police). The author explains the disgusting things that this organization did like make sex slaves out of Korean and other Western Women captured by them during the war, decapitating allied airmen, biological experiments on POW's, stuffing prisoners in Bambooe baskets and liteing them on fire. He also explains the sickining fact that many in this organization went unpunished.

I'm all in favor of books like this. As time goes on and memories fade, more and more Americans have come to regard the Japanese as victims of World War II. Sure, they bombed Pearl Harbor, but was that any reason we should have dropped an atomic bomb on them?

In fact, Imperial Japan and especially the Imperial Japanese Army (it's worthwhile to distinguish between the two) ran a killing and torture machine that in many respects was the equal of Hitler's Germany. The Kempeitai did much of this work. Officially, it was only the army's police force, but it was feared by Japanese civilians, by the captive populations of Asia, and especially by prisoners of war.

Unfortunately, Lamont-Brown is a professional writer of books, with 50-odd to his credit in a bit more than 30 years--a British Martin Caidin, if you like. Nobody can turn out books at that rate and spend the necessary time in research. As a result, this is mostly a collection of anecdotes and unrelated themes--whatever Lamont-Brown turned up, he shaped the book around that, or so it seems. So it fails both as a serious history of the Kempeitai and as an indictment of the Japanese way of making war.

But it's the only one we have, and therefore worth reading. However, if your interest lies mostly with the fate of Anglo-American prisoners of war, then a better book to start with is Gavan Daws, Prisoners of the Japanese.

Japan's military police were as evil as the more well known german geatapo. The daily lives of the military police and their prisoners is glossed over. More detail is put into the administration and organization of the military police. The book is very dry reading and not much of a story. Time moves quickly in this book, with not many pages devoted to any one area or incident, but with only 168 pages i suppose that is to be expected. An interesting title, reduced to very boring reading, i am disappointed.

These truths I hold to be self evident:
1) It is unacceptable to provide equations without explaining all the symbols in them.
2) If you explain something to an intelligent person and they still don't understand then it is your fault not theirs.
3) Laziness is the right of the reader, not the author.

In practice you assume your audience knows some things, ellide from previous equations for space and fluency, and provide a glossary. But I have a degree in maths (not stats) and still I can't make head or tail of the first two pages of chapter 2 in the excerpt given. So I will look for a book, article or course that assumes less knowledge on my part.

I tried to read the whole introductive chapter a couple of times but I couldn't understand what is EM about, the used terminology and the basic definitions. The authors say that the book is for theoriticians and practicioners, but I do think it is not appropriate for both categories, unless the reader has been involved in writing papers on this topic. I have enough background knowledge in probability theory and in mathematics but it seems that I have to read all the relevant literature before going a step ahead. In my opinion this book is wide useless for people who do not know EM algorithm.

Geoff McLachlan is well known for his books on discrimination and mixture models. He is an excellent writer who is very thorough in his description of the literature. The EM algorithm is a great invention which dates back to the seminal paper in JRSS by Dempster, Laird and Rubin. It was originally devised to handle likelihood estimation in the face of missing data. Standard applications also include truncated and censored data. Clever application of the missingness in the data structure have allowed it to be applicable to mixture model estimation and other problems where the missing information is not so obvious. It is used for Bayesian estimation, image processing, in random effects models, latent variable structures and log linear models. The technique and its applications are covered in parts of various books on specialized statistical topics or on statistical computing. However, this is the first and only text that is dedicated to the algorithm itself and its wide variety of applications. It is a perfect reference source for the EM algorithm and its various modifications. It provides a thorough and unified treatment for the subject.

Excellent text on the EM algorithm. Covers theory as well as a number of applications. Clearly written. Historical accounts and examples make reading delightful. I would have found it sweeter if it covered applications in time series. It was only inevitable that everyone's favorite application couldn't be included because of their sheer multitude.

I guess this is also the only text available on the subject, as of now!