Portrait Of A Publisher And The First Hundred Years Of The House Of Appleton, 1825-1925

Book Description

"The subject of this sketch is Mr. William Worthen Appleton, the third generation of a famous American publishing house, but the circumstances compel me to try for something more. And this for the reason that Mr. Appleton lived to see a typical American transformation. When he was admitted to his father's and grandfather's firm, in 1868, book publishing, like most American businesses, was a success of personal initiative and private enterprise. When he died, fifty-five years later, although individual energy and ability were as valuable as ever, something large and impersonal had arisen that no individual could absolutely control. He understood that, with the wisdom of all those great hearts who know that nothing is created alone and who desire only that the thing created shall be greater than they and more durable than the days of a man."

Portrait of a Publisher and The First Hundred Years of the House of Appleton, 1825-1925

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Portrait of a Publisher and The First Hundred Years of the House of Appleton, 1825-1925
Grant Overton
Manufacturer: D. Appleton and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NUVW2M

Book Description

This biography of Charles "Commy" Comiskey is one of the earliest and most important—and, up to now, one of the hardest for baseball researchers to get their hands on—in the baseball canon. Comiskey spent half a century in the big leagues as a successful player-manager and owner, his clubs winning nine pennants along the way. But the dark cloud that hangs over him is the 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which he is inextricably tangled, fair or not. Comiskey's tight-fistedness is often cited as a principal cause of the 1919 World Series scandal. Commy suspected that the fix was on after the White Sox lost the first two games, and even implored his old friend, American League president Ban Johnson, to suspend the Series, but the tide of history could not be dammed.

Historians of the game will find much valuable insight here on the rise of baseball in the Windy City, Comiskey's playing career (as an innovative first baseman), his long stint as St. Louis Browns player-manager (which included four straight pennants from 1885 to 1888), his helping Johnson form the American League, and his keeping the White Sox a family-owned franchise for nearly 60 years.

Surprisingly, this is the only biography of Comiskey ever published. Fortunately, Axelson allows "The Old Roman" to speak for himself briefly in the last seven pages of the book. Here Comiskey comes across as humble and earnest, concluding his message with, "What I have tried to do [in baseball] has been my level best."

Customer Reviews:

What A Disappointment!.......2007-05-18

I'm a big White Sox fan, so I thought reading about the founder of the club would be interesting. Well I was so wrong.

Mr. Axelson is obviously a big fan of his topic. There is nothing in this book except what a great guy Comiskey was. Well that's all fine. But I wanted to read about the effort to place the new American League team in Chicago and the problems dealing with the National League team already in town, the building of Comiskey Park. Learn something about his family,especially his father the Alderman. All is covered in a few paragraphs and then we get back to how great a guy Comiskey was.The building of Comiskey Park is done in one paragraph, but I understand Comiskey was a great guy during it's construction.

Also this was written pre-Black Sox so nothing about that black eye to the great guy is mentioned. It is also written in a flowery some times overly descriptive style, which I think is due to the author being a newspaper man. By the way did I mention Comiskey was a great guy?

There is really little to learn here unless your interest is in baseball in it's very early years. And even then what you will mostly learn was the Comiskey was a great guy. Did I mention that Comiskey was a great guy?

Commy - The Life Story of Charles A. Comiskey

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Commy - The Life Story of Charles A. Comiskey
G.W. AXELSON
Manufacturer: Reilly & Lee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KRXB36

"Commy": The Life Story of Charles A. Comiskey, the Grand Old Roman of Baseball...

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"Commy": The Life Story of Charles A. Comiskey, the Grand Old Roman of Baseball...
G. W. Axelson
Manufacturer: Reilly & Lee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LT13HY

"Commy": the life story of Charles A. Comiskey,: The "Grand old Roman" of baseball and for nineteen years president and owner of the American league baseball team "The White Sox,"

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"Commy": the life story of Charles A. Comiskey,: The "Grand old Roman" of baseball and for nineteen years president and owner of the American league baseball team "The White Sox,"
G. W Axelson
Manufacturer: The Reilly & Lee Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006AI902

Commy": The Life Story of Charles A. Comiskey (The Mcfarland Historical Baseball Library, 2)

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Commy": The Life Story of Charles A. Comiskey (The Mcfarland Historical Baseball Library, 2)
G. W. Axelson
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MUDR7G

Book Description

"Blood Read is a fresh look at an old form, offering lively, lucid insights into the contemporary explosion of vampire fiction. Nothing else like it exists. This book should set the terms for discussion about vampires for some time to come."--Brian Attebery, Idaho State University The vampire is one of the nineteenth century's most powerful surviving archetypes, owing largely to Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula, the Bram Stoker creation. Yet the figure of the vampire has undergone many transformations in recent years, thanks to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and other works, and many young people now identify with vampires in complex ways. Blood Read explores these transformations and shows how they reflect and illuminate ongoing changes in postmodern culture. It focuses on the metaphorical roles played by vampires in contemporary fiction and film, revealing what they can tell us about sexuality and power, power and alienation, attitudes toward illness, and the definition of evil in a secular age. Scholars and writers from the United States, Canada, England, and Japan examine how today's vampire has evolved from that of the last century, consider the vampire as a metaphor for consumption within the context of social concerns, and discuss the vampire figure in terms of contemporary literary theory. In addition, three writers of vampire fiction--Suzy McKee Charnas (author of the now-classic Vampire Tapestry), Brian Stableford (writer of the lively and erudite novels Empire of Fear and Young Blood), and Jewelle Gomez (creator of the dazzling Gilda stories)--discuss their own uses of the vampire, focusing on race and gender politics, eroticism, and the nature of evil. The first book to examine a wide range of vampire narratives from the perspective of both writers and scholars, Blood Read offers a variety of styles that will keep readers thoroughly engaged, inviting them to participate in a dialogue between fiction and analysis that shows the vampire to be a cultural necessity of our age. For, contrary to legends in which Dracula has no reflection, we can see reflections of ourselves in the vampire as it stands before us cloaked not in black but in metaphor. Joan Gordon is Associate Professor of English at Nassau Community College in New York. Veronica Hollinger is Associate Professor in the Cultural Studies Program at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

Customer Reviews:

A facinating read.......2000-08-05

While many readers are often hesitant to read a book of essays... this book is truly a facinating read. Ancient myths of vampires often revolve around evil and death, but these essays look at the familiar image in a new light, quite relevant to our modern society. Here we explore the many faces of the vampire going far beyond Stoker's "Dracula". Through these essays we see the vampire as more than just a stalker in the night, but as a symbol of our own human insecurities of sexuality, lonliness, and death. Readers of horror will love this book as a companion piece to old favorites as their eyes will be opened to a broader view of a facinating staple of both modern and classic fiction alike.

Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture. (Book Reviews).(Book Review): An article from: Studies in the Humanities

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Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture. (Book Reviews).(Book Review): An article from: Studies in the Humanities
K. E. Shryock Hood
Manufacturer: Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Department of English
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008JD6LS
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Studies in the Humanities, published by Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Department of English on December 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1229 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
Author: K. E. Shryock Hood
Publication: Studies in the Humanities (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2000
Publisher: Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Department of English
Volume: 27 Issue: 2 Page: 177(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Not detaled enough and has serious flaws

Not clear and not well set up

Good Checkmate information.

Just don't like it

An obvious Pot Boiler and Embarrassment to the Publisher

The Chess Kid's Book of Checkmate (Chess)
David Macenulty
Manufacturer: Random House Puzzles & Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Beginning Chess: Over 300 Elementary Problems for Players New to the Game

ASIN: 0812935942
Release Date: 2004-07-13

Book Description

The latest in the McKay Chess Library for Kids

Checkmate is the ultimate goal of chess. In The Chess Kid’s Book of Checkmate, chess teacher David MacEnulty teaches the rules of checkmate to players between the ages of 6 and 10. The big idea in The Chess Kid’s Book of Checkmate is that many checkmates fall into well-known patterns. The player who remembers common checkmate patterns will have an advantage over the one who doesn’t. Step-by-step, with more than 100 diagrams, The Chess Kid’s Book of Checkmate reveals:

·How to train the brain to recognize basic checkmate patterns
·Special circumstances involving checkmate with one piece acting alone
·How to come up with your own checkmate patterns

Customer Reviews:

Not detaled enough and has serious flaws.......2005-03-27

I am reviewing several books that teach checkmates including Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, Art of Checkmate and 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate.
I am placing this book side by side Fischer's book. The Chess Kids Book of Checkmate at least attempts or organize the types of checkmates by pattern. There is simply not enough explanation to go along with the examples. There is not enough material to cover the most important types of checkmates in a comprehensive matter.
Most sadley the book doesn't always show the most efficient way to checkmate. For example: taking a look at the King and Queen versus lone King mate. The book takes about twice as long as neccessary to do this simple checkmate! In an endgame the King should be used as an active fighting piece. Instead the Queen does the work then the King is brought in at the end. When the actual material being covered is incorrect then there is a serious problem. It is a wonder why someone didn't point these flaws out before it got into print.

Not clear and not well set up.......2005-01-05

I returned this book after getting it when it came slightly damaged in the mail (a good excuse to get my money back). This book does not compare in how it covers checkmates to THE ART OF THE CHECKMATE. Get that one instead because after spending an hour trying to read the kids book of checkmate I did teach me very well. So I ordered THE ART OF THE CHECKMATE that is just great.

Good Checkmate information. .......2004-12-20

I've read some of the other reviews and I would have to say this book is just not that bad. First of all this is not for the absolute beginner, but for a beginner who at least knows basic rules and how to move the pieces. It has a nice easy feel to it; information is to the point and never drags on. It is basically as the title says a good review of checkmate information that the beginners should know. Some of the various mates reviewed are Anastasia's, Morphy's, Pillisbury's, Lolli's etc. There are just a couple of mistaken answers that didn't bother me one bit. The chess board diagrams are not quite 2"x2", not over sized. I give it 3 1/2 stars, with a little more details and a few more examples this would have easily been a 4-5 star book.

Just don't like it.......2004-09-01

I agree with the other reveiwers. I have some big issues with the way the writer of the "Checkmate" covers the material (which is lacking for starters). As a 4 grader and a good player at my school chess club I got this book to help me. But, I became confussed by the explaining of things. I did read the other reviews and it is absolutely true that the writer does not know how to checkmate with the King and the Queen against a lone Queen properly - he doesn't teach using the king to make it fast. I could teach this to the writer of this book and improve it. The writer must learn to play chess good before trying to teach kids or he will teach kids wrong like he does in the book. I looked the writer up on the chess federations website and he is not a master or even a chess expert. Very sad and probabably one reason why there are so many mistakes in the book. Chess books should be writen by good players. You should not buy this book and make the same mistake I did.

An obvious Pot Boiler and Embarrassment to the Publisher.......2004-08-24

"How could the David McKay Chess Library Publish this?" is the first question I asked after getting this book?
Super OVERSIZED diagrams in an obvous attempt to "cover up" the obvious lack of material. Poor organization, inferior ways to accomplish what should be made simple for kids and a lack of telling the how and why of what is going on charactorized this "masterful work" of duping the public. I can recommend this book to noone.

Average customer rating:

A must read for any developer

Extreme Programming: The evolutionary approach!

Nice intro to XP

Become a Better Programmer

Controversial - started a whole new generation of thinking

Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (2nd Edition) (The XP Series)
Kent Beck , and Cynthia Andres
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321278658

Amazon.com

Kent Beck's eXtreme Programming eXplained provides an intriguing high-level overview of the author's Extreme Programming (XP) software development methodology. Written for IS managers, project leaders, or programmers, this guide provides a glimpse at the principles behind XP and its potential advantages for small- to mid-size software development teams.

The book intends to describe what XP is, its guiding principles, and how it works. Simply written, the book avoids case studies and concrete details in demonstrating the efficacy of XP. Instead, it demonstrates how XP relies on simplicity, unit testing, programming in pairs, communal ownership of code, and customer input on software to motivate code improvement during the development process. As the author notes, these principles are not new, but when they're combined their synergy fosters a new and arguably better way to build and maintain software. Throughout the book, the author presents and explains these principles, such as "rapid feedback" and "play to win," which form the basis of XP.

Generally speaking, XP changes the way programmers work. The book is good at delineating new roles for programmers and managers who Beck calls "coaches." The most striking characteristic of XP is that programmers work in pairs, and that testing is an intrinsic part of the coding process. In a later section, the author even shows where XP works and where it doesn't and offers suggestions for migrating teams and organizations over to the XP process.

In the afterword, the author recounts the experiences that led him to develop and refine XP, an insightful section that should inspire any organization to adopt XP. This book serves as a useful introduction to the philosophy and practice of XP for the manager or programmer who wants a potentially better way to build software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Extreme Programming (XP) software methodology, principles, XP team roles, facilities design, testing, refactoring, the XP software lifecycle, and adopting XP.

Book Description

Software development projects can be fun, productive, and even daring. Yet they can consistently deliver value to a business and remain under control.

Extreme Programming (XP) was conceived and developed to address the specific needs of software development conducted by small teams in the face of vague and changing requirements. This new lightweight methodology challenges many conventional tenets, including the long-held assumption that the cost of changing a piece of software necessarily rises dramatically over the course of time. XP recognizes that projects have to work to achieve this reduction in cost and exploit the savings once they have been earned.

Fundamentals of XP include:

* Distinguishing between the decisions to be made by business interests and those to be made by project stakeholders. * Writing unit tests before programming and keeping all of the tests running at all times. * Integrating and testing the whole system-several times a day. * Producing all software in pairs, two programmers at one screen. * Starting projects with a simple design that constantly evolves to add needed flexibility and remove unneeded complexity. * Putting a minimal system into production quickly and growing it in whatever directions prove most valuable.

Why is XP so controversial? Some sacred cows don't make the cut in XP:

* Don't force team members to specialize and become analysts, architects, programmers, testers, and integrators-every XP programmer participates in all of these critical activities every day. * Don't conduct complete up-front analysis and design-an XP project starts with a quick analysis of the entire system, and XP programmers continue to make analysis and design decisions throughout development. * Develop infrastructure and frameworks as you develop your application, not up-front-delivering business value is the heartbeat that drives XP projects. * Don't write and maintain implementation documentation-communication in XP projects occurs face-to-face, or through efficient tests and carefully written code.

You may love XP or you may hate it, but Extreme Programming Explained will force you to take a fresh look at how you develop software.

Customer Reviews:

A must read for any developer.......2007-09-23

I believe the basis in software development for business is in this book.
You can have the technique, the skills, and the money, but you will need the human side for any agile way of working.
This is not the silver bullet, but you NEED to read this book.

Extreme Programming: The evolutionary approach!.......2006-09-10

I came across this book in the Bibliography section of Scott Berkun's "The art of Project Management".

First, the structure. Well, this book is under 200 pages. So when Beck talks about keeping what is essential, he is surely applying it while writing books.

Second, the content. The book takes the reader from understanding business risks associated with software development, to understanding the changing economics of software development & why XP can fit the demands of an ever changing business scenario. The book then establishes what XP is, what are its features, what are the activities, who are the X players & then links the roles, activities, & features together across each phase in a typical XP project. While Beck is persuasive about the usefulness of XP, he has also included a chapter at the end of the book which talks about projects where using XP may not be advisable. And yes, such a project is an outsourced development project.

XP presents many interesting features. Traveling light - or code & tests together being all you need - sounds like a dream; nano-releases - or doing a daily or hourly build so that at any time you have a full system working, no matter the completeness of desired functionality - , building a system story by story, & going back & revisiting scope ever so often are all features that can be immensely valuable to the business & to the project team.

As a result of all this, & more such practices, XP resembles to an extent Darwinian evolution in some ways. Trying many things & keeping what works, designing for today's needs & changing that with tomorrow's requirements tomorrow but not today can be seen as interesting commonalities between Darwinian evolution & XP!

Overall, I think the book is great introduction to XP. I'd have liked case studies as well to understand how well good theory fits general projects of any kind, but this book does not cite too many such projects. Nevertheless, pick it up if you want to understand what the XP evolution is all about.

S!

Nice intro to XP.......2006-02-20

This book is a good introduction to different aspects involved in extreme programming.

The author is the initial proponent of XP. First part of the book explains the present day software development realities(like deadlines etc) and the pitfalls that take place due to these time sensitive expectations. Author moves onto explain the necessity for XP and what are the basic guidelines of XP.

The author should be commened for covering where XP is impractical and should not be used. The book explains the life cycle of a XP project and different roles that are part of this radical process.

XP is not suitable for many present day organizations(due to age old approaches that are already implanted in the system); but should be considered for time sensitive deliverables. This book will definitely give a headsup on how to approach XP.

Small negative: The book takes too much time on what is wrong in other traditional approached to software development(for the size of the title:about 200 pages)

Become a Better Programmer.......2005-11-12

This is an excellent book, short, concise, and well-written. To derive the full benefit of the book, I recommend reading it three times.

The first time you should just try to grasp the concepts of XP and adapt your attitude to be willing to try XP on a real project. If you are a heavy-weight methodology old-timer, this might be a big step for you. Approach it with an open mind.

Only having read the book completely, should you attempt an XP project. That will prepare you for the second reading. Now you can begin to fully grasp the power of its concepts and their implementation. Reading the book retrospectively will shed new light on most of the books contents. Much of what was previously fuzzy or abstract will become lucid.

The third time through should be when you teach using XP. I found more benefit when teaching a formal course than when performing OJT, especially when training those who have more historically traditional development attitudes.
The reason Beck has experienced so much success with XP is because XP works. This book truly explains how to embrace change.

Controversial - started a whole new generation of thinking.......2005-10-28

Now this is a controversial book that has caused a lot of heated debate among developers. It starts out innocently enough, by stating the goals of XP which most everyone will agree on: correct, flexible software that adapts well to change in requirements and user-feedback, short development times and happy programmers and customers. It then goes on to explain how the techniques of XP try to help archive these goals. The practices include widely accepted ones, like a rigorous testing process, coding standards and continuous integration. But it also breaks quite radically with common programming wisdom by requiring things like an on-site customer, refactoring as a major component instead of a complete up-front design, pair programming (two developers sharing one keyboard and one screen) and collective code ownership (every one on the team is responsible for the whole codebase and allowed to modify every line of it). It is this mix of proven techniques taken to the extreme and new approaches presented in the book that Beck claims creates a special synergy which leads to a more successful and less strenuous software development process. The author puts forward very convincing arguments for why and how these synergetic effects occur and presents his personal experience using XP on one team as supporting anecdotal evidence. The book is written in an easily readable style and contains lots of sometimes funny anecdotes and quotes. And although it obviously is about the author's pet idea I didn't find it preaching, but rather refreshingly enthusiastic and energetic.
Unfortunately I have to admit that I haven't yet personally experienced all XP techniques in practice, main reasons being that it's very hard to convince management of it's merits ("What?! Two programmers on one keyboard?! No way!") and to get all team members willing to try something new. Maybe if they'd all read this book it would be easier...
In the unlikely event that the ideas don't intrigue you, you still have to buy this book to know what all the hype and controversy is about.

Extreme Programming Explained Embrace Change

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Extreme Programming Explained Embrace Change
Erich Gamma
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7EEPW

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Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
Kent Beck
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP0DZ8

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