Ford Reviews

This book is easy to read and contains clear examples of how to use stella software to model the environment. The marvel here is the software, not the book. For the software timid, it might suppliment the software users guide.

A highly readable introduction to environmental modeling. What distinguishes the book from other environmental science and environmental modeling works is its interdisciplinary treatment. In particular, the models integrate the physical world and the world of human behavior. Far too many environmental models fail to close the feedbacks between human behavior and the state of the environment, instead taking waste inputs or resource use as exogenous. This book helps students learn to model human behavior (social and economic) as an integral part of the ecological system. The models and software mean the book encourages active learning, and enable students to explore important issues on their own if they choose.

While I have enjoyed this book (Excellent writing, what I would call real erotic literature), the general-sounding title implies that the story collection encompasses gay, straight, and bisexual tastes for women. This is not the case. The stories are, for the most part, lesbian in slant. This is fine, especially since the writing is so good. However, after a while, this focus starts to feel restrictive for those of us not in the know. I would have appreciated it if the title made the overall gist of the stories clear.

I thought this book was quite good. The descriptions are great and the storylines are wonderful. There's something for everyone in this collection, whether you're straight, gay or bi. I read this with my fiance and he loved it as much as I did!

I purchased this book looking for short simple poems to use for weekly poetry time in my first grade classroom. While the poems in this book promote phonemic awareness, they contain big words my first graders can't yet read and they are way too long for a first grader to try to read.

Perfect Poems for Teaching Phonics blends the teaching of basic phonics skills with delightful children's poetry. This teacher resource book is easy to use and adapts easily to fit any primary reading curriculum. The student-centered, age-appropriate learning activities require minimal teacher preparation and materials to implement in the classroom. Whether you're looking for a creative way to introduce a new skill or simply a way to extend your students beyond workbooks and drill sheets, Perfect Poems for Teaching Phonics is the book for you.

I really wanted to like this book. It has a lot going for it: two troubled main characters, an intriguing setting (an island on the Mississippi River), some sex, a crotchety old man, and some of the best descriptions of a place you'll ever read. Ford is definitely a writer of power. I felt the importance of the setting in his detailed attention to every tree and rut in the road, yet I couldn't find a strong motivation for the two characters to be there. Robard Hewes is a lost soul, similar to other Ford characters (a lot like Quinn in *The Ultimate Good Luck*, but less self-confident) who goes south for all the wrong reasons. Robard I can sort of understand, but Sam Newel, the law student from Chicago searching for meaning in his life so he doesn't become like his father, just doesn't fit, and once he arrives on the island, he doesn't really DO much, except go on a fateful fishing excursion with the crusty old Mr. Lamb. I enjoyed reading it, but I'd probably not read it again. A little more focus would've greatly improved this first book by a wonderful writer. It should be read by all first time novelists to see how well setting and characterization can be done (and also to see how much a writer learns in comparison to his later work).

Richard Ford's first book, A Piece Of My Heart, scored big with reviewers across the country, but has largely been ignored by the reading public.

All the more a pity, since this book deserves a large readership, perhaps even as much or more so than The Sportswriter or Independence Day. If there is a fault with this book, it is that it flows too easily. It is the kind of work that can be devoured in a few hours. It reads so smoothly that it's rich detail can be easily overlooked.

The cinematic quality of this work cannot be understated. The sometimes stark, sometimes lush and haunting landscapes of this novel are so rich in description that they are seen effortlessly and because they flow so easily, the unwary reader is tempted to speed ahead like a traveler on the interstate, driving at breakneck speed through breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

Ford's characters are quirky and so three dimensional that they rise up before the reader with startlingly familiarity. I suspect that Ford loses many of his more urbane readers with the grittiness of these characters--their down home rustication and the sense of danger inherent in their ferocious living of lives from moment to moment.

For those who plunge into this work with abandon (as I did on my first reading), one warning: slow down. Savor the power of each scene. Don't go crashing through from page to page like a tourist in New York with one day to see the Metropolitan Museum. Enjoy each wonderfully crafted scene and avoid the temptation to read through at breakneck speed.

The amazing juxtaposition of whimsy, darkness and doom are quite extraordinary in this work. The plot, ostensibly, revolves around the actions of Robard Hewes, an uneducated but shrewdly obsessed and compulsive character who drives from his dusty desert home in California to his past in Mississippi in pursuit of Buena, a wanton married woman whose siren call is enough to overwhelm Robard with an inexplicable burning desire.

Sam Newell is Hewes opposite. Newell, a severely depressed man down from Chicago on the suggestion of his lover for some ill-advised convalescence as a guest at her grandfather's island hunting camp, is filled with self loathing and unintentionally invites the scorn of almost everyone he encounters. Newell, on the verge of commencing practice as a lawyer has broken down and drifts rudderless throughout the action of this work. Nevertheless, he is an important character and his short musings on his childhood are remarkably evocative and superb and this along with the stark nature of his intellect give insight into the workings of Ford's mind and the detached alienated characters that evolve in his later works.

Mark Lamb (the grandfather), his wife, and TVA (his cook and handyman), constitute an extraordinarily quirky and wonderfully drawn backdrop for a good part of the action in this novel. Lamb is one of the most endearingly cranky old men you will run across in any short novel. The odd domestic scenes that take place on the island are redolent with humor and are brilliantly drawn.

I cannot recomment A Piece Of My Heart too highly. It is a must read for those who appreciate good literature.

This book makes a great addition to anyone's GT40 collection. Friedman's pictures document not just the races, but a fair amount of the preparation necessary to get the cars in shape for competition.

As a pervious review mentioned, the coverage stops right after Ford's 1967 Le Mans win, thereby totally ignoring the JWA/Gulf era, but in all fairness, Shelby wasn't involved in those years. This is a book about the *Shelby* GT40 afterall.

I especially enjoyed some of the coverage of the GT40's competitors: Ferrari, Chapperal, and Porsche. This made the book just a little richer.

I became a fan of the Ford GT's on a sunday morning in June of 1966. I was 13 years old. Up early before my parents I turn on the T.V. to try to find some cartoons and lo and behold there in living color is the 24 hours of Le Mans. I did'nt really know much about it though the name Le Mans did mean something to me. I was enthralled. As the Ford Mk.II's finished 1,2,3, I became a Ford fan forever. This book recaptures those days and Ford's epic assault on Le Mans in pictures and captions. From the beginning of the program to the all-american victory in 1967 by Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt in the Mk.IV. My only complaint is that the book ends abruptly with that victory. Boom. But like the jacket says, "to take a look inside is to take a trip back in time." And what a time it was.

I haven't heard of Paul Steinberg before I read this book. The book is a gem and recollects the life of a camp inmate trying to survive the war. Steinberg was one of those people who helped
the inmate leadership run the killing camps. He was a chemist in one of the IB Farben complexes. His short but powerful story shows how stronger people were consumed, while a flexible youngster survived the camps by doing what he had to do to stay alive.
This should be required reading for those people who deny that the Holocaust happened. It is also a reminder that the general population should always remember these events. Steinberg found this book hard to write, but it was easy to read and conveyed a powerful perspective.

I just finished reading this great first-hand account of living through the Holocaust in Nazi death camps, by Paul Steinberg. What separates this text is that it seems less caught up with providing the reader with every single detail of daily life and more focused with the author's personal struggle, the friendships gained and forgotten, the death camp's social hieracrchies, and of course, his incredible task of survival. Paul Steinberg admits that he was an atypical Jew, uninvolved with Jewish ways and traditions, and he wonders why he survived and others perished; Jews that were more religious, possessed more wisdom, strength, etc. Truly, Steinberg's ordeal is almost unbelievable. He was able to do what he had to in order to survive. This book is great if you want to gain a good understanding of these historical events, a different time period in life, and the human struggle, all through the eyes of this remarkable man. He is honest and sincere, and holds nothing back.

The best thing about this book is the number of illustrations, mostly B&W, showing the T34 in its various models. The text explains the history of tank development in the Soviet Union which led up to the T-34, then provides a summary of WWII on the Eastern Front and some perspective on how the T-34 was involved.

However, this is strictly an introductory book. It does not provide detailed information on the differences between the variants of the T-34. If you are a modeler looking for reference material, this book has useful photos but it isn't the source to tell you exact differences in turret hatches between models. Similarly, while it covers the T-34's general employment in the war, it does not provide much in the way of tactical detail or low-level descriptions of combat.

The writing is stilted and poorly edited, but the authors' meaning can be discerned.

This book is a must have for any wwII armor enthusiast. As a crafter of wwII Russian and German military dioramas, I think it's a must have for detailed scale work. have fun.

I would like to give this book 4 stars or maybe even 5. I love tech tv and watch regularly, however note that the book isnt written by any of the familair staff like chris prillo, Leo Laporte, Patrick or any of the other well know gurus of tech. Hopwever because of it's association with tech tv you may expect a certain level of quality... does it deliver? Well, yes AND no.

Pros: The book is well written and is pretty comprehensive. It includes a TCP/IP primer which is great and a lot of good information and a well formated comprehensive exploration of netowrking as it applies to the home user. It keeps it simple enough that you wont be inundated with techno-dribble that will hurt your head, yet it tries to explore things as comprehensively as possible, not leaving out crucial details and making sure to put in advanced information for the curious as well as those who may need such info for trouble shooting. So the book is both practical and educational in nature. It's simple enough and practical enough to qualify as a how-to book, but it includes enough detail, and is well written enough to qualify as a great book for knowledge seekers, true geeks, advanced users, and those who like to know it all.

Cons: Regretfully, I cant give this more than 3 stars. I thought about a 4 star rating, but it went against my conscience. Why? Misprints, mistakes, typos, and other problems. Let me take this moment to warn you now:

WARNING: Facts in this book are sometimes questionable and it contains many misprints and typos. Verify all specific information elsewhere before relying on what it tells you.

Let me elaborate. Im almost through chapter 1 (not very far into the book), and have already run across a number of erroneous information, facts that are wrong, and typos! Let me give an example. Table 2.1 on page 40 has a list of IEEE Networking standards. It lists fast ethernet (100mbps-100BaseT) as being 802.u. WRONG! The correct answer is 802.3u... they left out the 3! This may seem minor, but when you are in a networking class and almost use this misinformation in class, you look dumb. And this isnt an isolated incident, there are a number of other typos, misprints and some paragraphs where a sentence coompletely contradict the preceding sentence - making for very akward situations.

What all this adds up to is it forces you to question any individual fact in the book for it's validity. For instance they claim 802.11b functions on a 2.45GHz frequency, and I have only ever heard of it as being 2.4GHz even. At first I thought they were being specific whereas other sources and the rest of the industry just rounded off (I was like "oh, so it's actually two point four FIVE GHz to be exact?!"). But after these little errors and misprints I am more inclined to believe this is simply a mistake on the part of the author. Subsequently, I now have little faith in the information provided by the book... and it's too bad.

You may still want to buy this book. It's a very good book, just make sure you check the facts before memorizing them. And if you just want a how-to book or a primer into the networking world at home, then this is still a pretty good choice. But dont use this as a refrence material or for a class, and dont rely 100% on the validity of specifics of the information inside. Because of the errors, 3 stars is the most I can give in good conscience. Come on Que Publishing and TechTv, do a better job editing and double checking your facts!! We expect more form you!

Working in an administrative capacity for a computing infrastructure projects and services group at a national laboratory I have learned just enough from the helpful staff to be dangerous. Struggled though setting up my home network earlier in 2003 with their help (I wanted to learn and do it myself) but there were glitches in the system that I knew could work better. My wireless network connection to my laptop was fair at best.

Bought this book on a Friday evening with the hopes that I could learn enough to redo my network over the weekend. I gained so much understanding from this book and would rate it as one of the best investments I have ever made. Home networking is the only way to go if you have more than one computer and have a broadband connection. If you are still using dial-up this book would not be of use; however, if you are planning to change to broadband I would strongly encourage you to get this book first.

It is a little outdated as the 802.11g routers are available now, but the author includes enough explaination about the new Wi-Fi routers that you will realize that is the router you should start with if you do not have one already. Also, I will agree with the other review, there are many typos in this book and one in particular that needs to be corrected to explain why an IP address belongs to a Class B range of network.

Aside from those *minor* flaws, by Sunday my home network was more secure than it had ever been, printers were shared on all workstations without a printer port needed on the access point, specific file folders are shared among the members of my family, and administrative rights have been changed to secure the computers of those inexperienced members in my family. To me the most impressive thing about this book is that I can go back to work, in the computer guru environment I work in, with a much broader understanding of networking and wireless.

Scholastic didn't re-invent the wheel with this one but it is a good add-on. The book states a level of 4th to 6th grade although it might be narrower or wider depending on your child. Probably 4th grade is a minimum for most children and because word problems tend to be difficult I can see this being helpful for some children into 7th grade. Frankly, I'm not a math-whiz...the book is billed as a think-aloud book and I did a bit of head scratching (the answers are in the back)

The problems are written out so that the stages are spaced. Nice visual clue to pause and think about the math process going on. The book takes advantage of several different fonts to suggest alternate thought processes, but I think they could be using more as I have seen them do in other books.

The book is set up so that children can do one a day and it isnt overwhelming, that is nice. The cartoons are very cute. There is a certain amount of implied knowledge with this book. Its more a book of exercises than explanations. That isnt a problem, just a caution.

I wish the problems had more *sparkle*...more fun and punch to them. Instead of wondering how many waffles earnie ate all week based on his daily waffle consumption... wouldnt it have been more fun to ponder the mess in Earnie's room (complete with a cartoon of Earnie's drowning in a pile of clutter)? Or how many times Earnie's mom could possibly serve broccoli this week (with a cartoon of Earnie at the table as his cheerful mom puts down yet another gargantuan plate of roughage?) Or even how many times Earnie's baby sister can annoy him (with a picture of Earnie's adorable yet annoying baby sister?) I don't know, maybe its me....but teaching my son...or maybe it's getting him willing to learn, has always been easier when he is having alot of fun. And the more laughs, the more it sinks in.

This book is quite good. It will give good solid problems to solve daily, I just wish it were a bit more to look forward too

This book i read was an ok book i gave a 4 star rating, its reallly not theind of book i have ever read before.