Explosive

Introduction to the Technology of Explosives
$130.00
There are two negative things to be said of this textbook: I had trouble putting it down, reading well into the night; and, I wanted more.

For those entering the field of explosive engineering, this is an excellant first text. Having learned about shock waves from texts and reports written by those who created the field of explosive engineering, it was a task to learn on my own. Paul Cooper has written a book that makes the subject seem so simple and understandable I wonder why I had so much difficulty understanding these basics. This can only be explained by this text having been written by someone who knows the subject intimately, and has tremendous skills as a wordsmith. It is also obvious that Paul Cooper has put considerable of effort into this work, not letting it be published until it was truely ready.

It is well worth the price, and will be as great a value to the savant as to the neophyte in this field. An excellant predecessor to Paul Cooper's "Explosives Engineering."

The Preparatory Manual of Explosives, Third Edition
$49.95
This manual was a significant disappointment. While contains a good deal of technical information within it's pages, it is laid out in a manner that makes it difficult to access. There is no index that would allow you to look up subjects and it is generally difficult to locate specific info within the pages. Not the book I first grab off the shelf, it is also The Preparatory Manual of Explosives, Third Editionnot inexpensive and I would not recommend it to anyone.

Explosives
$260.00
I found the book little more than a disorganized glossary of explosives and related terms.
Yes, it does have hundreds of different explosives types listed, many of which are very esoteric and rare. And it does contain good thermodynamic data for many explosives.
But the explosives, terms, and safety data are all lumped together and only classified alphabetically in a single group.
Coverage is spotty. For example, black powder gets good coverage (relative to the overall superficial coverage of all subjects), while TNT is barely mentioned. Prills are covered in some detail while nitrification isn't even mentioned. Manufacturing techniques and intermediate reactions are at most just a few sentences, even for important commercial explosives.
All the information contained in the book can easily be found on the Internet or at your local library, and in much better detail.

The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children
$13.95
If you have a difficult child this is a must read. No book is an end all solution but this is an approach that definitly makes sense and has made a big difference in my house thus far. If you can identify with the children they describe then it is a good chance this could be beneficial to you. The book was recommended to me by my sons psychologist who has been to seminars by this author and saw a lot of similarities in the type of child it discusses.