Jack Worthing is engaged to lady named Gwendolyn and they are soon to get married. Jack had to find away to escape from Miss Prism because she disapproved of him so he created a brother named Earnest. While Jack was in London he feel in love with another women named Cecily Carden. Over time his fiancée's mother started to see that there was more to Jack than what he was letting on to. The only reason that Cecily wants the marry Jack is because she thinks that his name is really Earnest. Jack/ Earnest has a fiancée but is in love with another women at the same time.

This is a very short book but at the same time it is very easy to get in to because of the conflicts that occur. This book is very funny especially the conversations between Jack and Algernon. The story is a political and social satire and a look at the upper British society. I thought that the story was great because of the humor but at the same time the story was kind of sneaky which drew me into the story even more. I would suggest the book to anyone.

Perhaps it is my unique sense of humor, but I found this book incredibly funny. I wasn't rolling on the floor or anything, but it is funny in an Oscar Wilde way. My personal favorite is The Importance of Being Earnest, although all the others are very good also. Get this book. There are great quotes and good characters.

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
Is that clever?
It's perfectly phrased! and quite as true as any observation in civilized life should be."

This is just one of the many jocular exchanges and epigrams in this short but brilliant social satire. Wilde wryly and cleverly gets his claws into the upper caste and its twisted moral etqieuette, romantic relationships, and self-critically the propensity for sententious moral (and aesthetic) self-guidance.

Dispensing with politeness and social convention through his farcical dialogue, Wilde unleashes his comic criticism on all types of hypocrisies and spurious norms. The Importance of Being Ernest is always subversive and funny, but never crude or sophomoric.

All Dilbert books are funny. This one is no exception.

Some Dilbert books are funnier than others. This one is pretty much a mid-range Dilbert book; it was definitely better than some, but I didn't find myself rolling on the floor laughing as I sometimes do with some others. (Unless, of course, I'm just getting jaded, which is possible; after seventeen books, the style of humor is no longer as startling as it once was.)

This is one of those books you want read because you liked so must the previous. You will keep reading it waiting for that incredible funny smell of absurd reality. And you keep it reading until the end. Yes, you will find some thing to laugh about, some others to realy cry. But a really, really fun joke? It will be like digging gold.

Of all the dilbert books I own, I have not seen one which made me laugh as hard. This is definitely an excellent book.

Some good ideas from web site promoters but only a few good ideas. Buy it used.

This book presents short interviews with 21 professionals in the investment field, who share their investment philosophies. It is worthwhile to understand how these professionals make their living, as some of their ideas may give you insight for you own trading strategies. But, even if you do not come away with information pertinent to your own trading style, there is value in reading about the methods of others. The authors do a good job and the book is worth reading.

The best thing I can say about this book is every subject comes by his or her investment ideas honestly, and shares them openly. Most give them away, and the ones who charge formed their ideas for themselves, and only later decided to sell them. I think half of their strategies are foolish, and I think most other readers will agree with that, but we probably wouldn't pick the same half. That's okay, because between the biographies, track records and interviews in this book; plus what you can find by going to these Internet sites, you can make up your own mind. It seems like every other investment book either wants to sell you a predigested strategy, or tells you there's nothing better than putting all your money in a low-cost index fund. Bulls, Bears and Brains is the only intelligent alternative I know of.

I HAVE 17 "CAT WHO" BOOKS AND LOVE EACH ONE. NO VILE LANGUAGE, GOOD VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR. ALSO LILLIAN JACKSON BRAUN IS AN OUTSTANDING WRITER, PLUS BEING SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE DISPOSITIONS AND ANTICS OF CATS. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW MANY BOOKS THERE ARE AND IS THERE A SEQUENCE TO FOLLOW WHEN READING THEM? I HAVE READ EACH OF MINE TWO & THREE TIMES AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE NEXT ONE TO BE ISSUED. I AM CURRENTLY READING THE CAT WHO MOVED A MOUNTAIN AND FIND IT HAS MORE MYSTERY THAN OTHERS.

There is NO one who can tell it like Mrs. Braun! It's obvious she's a cat-person; she captures the many nuances of cats, their interaction with "their" human (in this case, Mr. Q), manages to throw in lessons for all cat lovers as well as tell one heckuva mystery in the process. I've been reading her books since the first one was published, they are like GOLD to own! I anxiously await each new adventure and pray for Mrs. Braun's continued health so we can all continue to enjoy her magnificant Cat Who series for many years to come.

Ms. Braun's books are like eating peanuts--gotta read them all! Unlike some mysteries where the cat is a minor player, her cats share the limelight equally with their mustachioed "companion", James ("Jim") Quilleran. Koko, the male of the Siamese pair, has an uncanny sense for solving mysteries, for which he tries to give clues to "Jim". The stories are handled with finesse, no bad language, and not too graphically gory. I suggest you purchase them in order of publication date, to be able to follow the series better, although, they can be read independantly. A must-read for both the cat lover AND the mystery lover! You can't help but turn the "next page"....Absolutely enthralling!

A very enjoyable book written by one of the funniest comedians I know. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for clean comedy at its best!

When looking for funny yet CLEAN jokes this is the book for you!

Real wit is seldom gutteral. In this compilation of good, clean stuff, Adam Christing proves that beyond any doubt.

As I kid I listened to Bill Cosby and other clean guys, and they were always the best. And like Cosby has said, if you rely mostly on shock tactics, what happens when you audience is beyond shock?

I think this book will improve everyone's sex life who reads it. And if you've taken a vow of chastity, You'll be that much more chaste.

Often careless in detail; the small automatic featured twice on the cover cannot be found anywhwere inside.

Several illustrations are completely wrong; Beretta Model 84 shows model 81;, Colt Mk IV Series 80 shows an ancient M1911; Czech CZ27 shows CZ24; MAS Mle 1935S shows Mle 1935A; Mle 1950 shows M1935S; Star MD picture is mirror-image, and there may be others; Star M40 Firestar picture shows an opposition firm's Llama M87; Walther P5 (1975) shows a P38 (1938 design).

Countries of origin; Beholla (made in Germany) labelled "Spain"; Bergmann-Bayard principally made in Belgium, as evidenced by markings listed; and MANY sloppy errors in naming, weights, calibres. I mean to say; the FEG FP9 (950 g) "weighs slightly less than the Belgian pistol", which is given as 882 g!

Now, i don't need this book or the other Jan'es recognition Guides for work, its merely an interest.

With that said, i picked up this book for reference and was not disapointed. I didn't really notice any glaring mistakes(I'm no firearms expert) but it had enough information to satisfy me. It doesnt go deep into any guns, just a brief discussion of the specs, which is all i really wanted.

The only downfall is ee is the absence of a section on shotguns.

This is a very good reference book and though it does not include shotguns, most firearms are featured including some of the more obscure and exotic types. I was particularly interested in its coverage of heavy sniper rifles which are becoming very important in peacekeeping operations around the world.

This is a review I did for AustonJUG group. Since it is a long review (more than 1000 words), I only post the overview here....Working with other server side Java components, such as JavaBeans, EJBs and JDBC, properly designed custom tag libraries allow developers to encapsulate and reuse code. Custom tags create a tag-based content authoring environment and allow web authors to write highly dynamic web applications in HTML style without learning the Java programming language. So, architects, developers and content authors can all benefit from studying JSP custom tags.

Manning's book "JSP Tag Libraries" by Gal Shachor, Adam Chace and Magnus Rydin (ISBN 1-930110-09-X) is an excellent JSP custom tag text suited for both new and seasoned developers. This book covers JSP specifications 1.1 and 1.2.

One of the main strengths of this book is that it does not merely repeat API documentations. The authors put a lot of effort to show the readers the big picture, the philosophy behind JSP custom tags and how to apply them in real world applications. This book talks about "why" as well as "how".

After studying this book, the reader should be able to understand:

* What JSP custom tags are and why we need them;
* How custom tags work;
* How to use tags to perform common and advanced tasks;
* Steps to develop and deploy tag applications;
* Basic design patterns for tag applications;

The book is very well organized and well written. It is full of excellent code examples. Those examples put the techniques into context. The readers can learn effectively by playing with the examples. As added bonuses, the code examples can be easily adopted for real world applications. In section "Case Studies", the authors discuss two complete multi-tier E-commerce and M-commerce applications. They offer not only code examples on applying practical techniques but also insights and templates on how to design good JSP applications.

All the code examples in the book are annotated with in-depth explaining text. That truly helps readers to understand not only what the code is doing but also what the authors intended to do.

However, there are still things I wish the authors could improve in the next version:

1. The authors had excellent discussions on how to implement conditional tags, iteration tags and database access tags. But they did not mention similar tag libraries under development by the Jakarta Taglib project. I would really like to hear about their insights on the designs of Jakarta tag libraries and many similar libraries developed by commercial companies.

2. In the "Case Studies" part, it is quite easy to add a parallel WAP store front to the JDBC-driven WebStore through another set of custom tags. That would really drive home the power of separating business logic from presentation logic and highlight the flexibility of a JSP custom tag based solution. I wish the authors had done that.

Overall, I think this is an excellent book and would like to HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to anyone working with JavaServer Pages technology.

There are now quite a few JSP books around and some of them mention JSP Tag libraries. In a typical n-tier web application, JSP tag libraries enable the presentation layer to be cleanly separated from the business layer. This allows simple scripted pages to call complex Java code without confusing the HTML web page Developer. By using JSP tag libraries, the developers have reusable code that can provide easy access to different J2EE services.

This book starts of with a quick introduction to dynamic web servers, Java servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP). We recommend that readers new to JSP should read a book dedicated to JSP before reading this one. Chapter 3 begins with an explaination of JSP custom tags, setting up the environment (Tomcat) and creating a simple Hello World tag. The authors provide enough information to explain the example without confusing the reader. They also suggest solutions to why the example might not work, providing a useful insight into what to check if something goes wrong.

Chapter 4 gives an overview of the tag API (interface and methods) and Chapter 4 explains how to create a tag lib descriptor (TLD) and how the JSP runtime uses this information to produce a servlet. Chapter 6 and 7 present some coding techniques to build a tag library and use an example of building a tag library for sending email. This is a simple and effective example that describes the process of developing and using JSP tab libraries.

Chapter 8 is important because it describes in detail how to use JavaBeans with tags. Starting off with information about the Reflection API, the authors show how to create a JavaBean and use Tags to present the information. This technique allows the developer to remove a lot of Java code from the JSP, making the page easier to understand and maintain. Chapter 9 and 10 show how to develop condition and interating tags.

Chapter 11 focuses on designing a database presentation tag library. This chapter answers many useful questions such as, Why not just wrap everything in a JavaBean? Again the authors give an exellent explaination of a very important topic. Realistically many readers would not be accessing a database directly from a tag library so the next chapters present J2EE and how to access Enterprise JavaBeans using tag libraries.

Chapters 13 and 14 are very interesting because they explain two case studies; a JDBC-driven web store and an EJB driven WAP store. The authors go over the design and development in quite a bit of detail and it is useful to all readers wanting to use JSP tag libraries in their projects. The last chapter covers tips and tricks, showing how to generalize tags using the Command design pattern and discussing maintainence, performance and debugging.

Suprisingly, the Apache Struts project is not mentioned in this book, however many of the concepts found in Struts are explained here. The authors have done an excellent job in explaining how to develop and use JSP tag libraries. We found the authors' insight very useful and on the whole the book is easy to read.
visualbuilder.com

I have written several custom JSP tags and I wish this book had been available when I started, it would have saved lots of time. All of the issues I ran into during my development efforts have been clearly outlined in this book. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in JSP custom tags. This book would be a great resource for those with some experience with custom tags. But it also provides a great introduction for those that are new to the topic.

The book is full of wooden exegesis. The twisting of God's word to make it say something that it doesnt say. No doubt this book will be embraced by all those that seek to get out of a marriage commitment that they dont want.

Pastors increasingly are facing questions from parishioners regarding how the Bible itself defines marriage, divorce and remarriage. Offering answers based on church tradition is not sufficient -- persons want to know what God's Word has to say. In this book, Jay Adams provides a very concise summary of the Biblical understanding of marriage, divorce and remarriage.

I commend Adams for his loyalty to the Scriptures in this volume. On the one hand, he departs from the ultra-traditionalists who would say that any remarriage after divorce is sinful. On the other hand, he doesn't join ultra-progressives who would imply that divorce really isn't a major theological issue in today's society. While I do not agree with his interpretation of the Matthew 18 passage as applying to divorce proceedings among two Christians, he offers many other excellent, helpful points.

This small yet substantial book is the best treatment I have found to date on what the Bible itself says on this knotty church issue. Every church leader's bookshelf should have a copy. This volume is well worth the price!

Mr Adams has done a fine job in dealing with the issue of divorce and re-marriage. He elaborates somewhat on the issues John Murray does not, and that is why I say that this book is a great suppliment to Murray's work on divorce.

Unlike the X-men's "Dark Phoenix Saga", I missed this story as a kid (Avengers were for popular kids -Spidey, the Defenders and X-men were for misfits like me), but I was a fan of that era of Marvel, plus I loved cosmic stories and even liked old Mar-vell (Cpt. Marvel). Despite all those things going for it, including me wanting to like this story, I was greatly dissapointed. There are plenty of graphic novels out there, both old ('Dark Phonix Saga', 'Dark Knight', 'Crisis') and new ('Astro City', 'Planetary') which are money better spent then on this cosmic flop. I'd easily take "The Morgan Conquest" or "Avengers Forever" over 'The Kree-Skrull War' anyday.

Those who read the original and remember it fondly (and maybe your childhood to) might enjoy this. Otherwise, I suggest looking elsewhere - there's too much good stuff out there to waste time here.

With the exception of the much more recent "Avengers Forever" by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco, this yarn is the pinnacle of Avengers "big" storylines. Marvel's most popular -- and infamous -- interstellar races, the Kree and the Skrulls, are going at it yet again, and this time Earth is caught square in the middle (literally -- it's at the midway point between both empires, although astronomy buffs know this is actually silly!)

The Kree Supreme Intelligence, even though a captive of the malevolent Kree Ronan the Accuser, has used his mental might to maneuver one Rick Jones into his possession. He unlocks Jones' "Destiny Force" (whose effects are played to much greater detail in "Avengers Forever") to ultimately quell the cosmic war and become the rightful Kree ruler again.

Featuring guest stars out the wazoo (Captain Marvel, The Inhumans, Super Skrull), this compilation also showcases one of the greatest artists of all time, Neal Adams, as well as one of the premier scripters, Roy Thomas. This is easily in the top three Avengers stories of all time, if not THE best.

Marvel is starting to release bound volumes of their classic issues. Neal Adam's artwork is stellar, however his interpretation of the Thing is somewhat lacking. This is a great story, marred only by the issues that Adams did not pencil. This is a perfect companion to the Avengers: The Celestial Madonna volume just released. If you like the Avengers now, you would have liked them then. No angst, no beserkers, minimal teen presence; just great storytelling and a sense of adventure.

Some of those who failed in dotcom enterprises would have done well to heed the ideas and inspirations of this master entrepreneur who has been building global enterprises for over 30 years, and writing books about it for over 25 years. It is experience and insight that is valuable in all economies at all times. I especially liked his suggestions on using travel businesses as leverage to build other international enterprises, such as import and export. The chapter on finder's fees was worth the price of the book alone.

Starchild is making an excellent point in this book -- if only enough people are listening. He is trying to move people away from packaged offshore companies and trusts into developing real offshore businesses that are unquestionably tax free instead of just being holding companies or trusts that might be subject to challenge by the big country tax authorities.

If you live the international lifestyle and build a real offshore business -- perhaps tourism or import-export -- you have a much higher income and don't have to worry about problems.

This book was years ago and I am delighted to see that he has now followed up the concept in some of his newer books on places to retire and on places to put an international tax free business.

It seems like most of the reader reviews are talking about the privacy and tax haven aspects of this book. The author included "profits" in the title, and there is much solid offshore investment information to be found here.

Due to recent political, economic and technological changes, the world economy has entered a very dynamic and exciting era. Today's savvy investor no longer just limits himself to the opportunities he finds in his domestic marketplace but rather looks all around the world for his investing opportunities. Formerly stagnant economic systems of the excommunist bloc countries like Russia or Poland and the developing nations of regions like Latin America are all embracing the free-market capitalistic system and are opening their doors to global investors. Access to capital is critical for these economies to grow. This is not a short-term fad but rather a long-term economic need and a growth opportunity for the astute investor. Clearly, if your portfolio is not invested in foreign markets, you may well be missing out on significant investment opportunities from around the world. Furthermore, if you look overseas for investment opportunities, you can invariably discover that you have a vastly greater basket of funds, markets and interest earning, tax-deferred possibilities than those on offer to the domestic investor. That means that there are many exciting, dynamic investment opportunities not currently available in the US. They are only available offshore. Thus, an international component may actually increase your portfolio returns, reduce overall portfolio volatility over the long term through diversification and take advantage of market capitalization outside the United States since international investing can take advantage of equity performance demonstrated during various stages of foreign economic development.

For those who are not familiar with international investing, global or international equity funds can be divided into several broad categories, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive and are rather easy to distinguish from each other. Emerging Markets Funds are those funds that invest in those countries that are evolving to a primarily industrial economy. Global Equity Funds invest in both foreign and US securities, with the ratio of domestic to foreign securities varying from fund to fund. A Global Index Fund invests in a portfolio of foreign stocks that is designed to yield a return closely approximating a benchmark foreign stock index. International Equity Funds normally invest in the foreign stocks of "established markets" such as those of Western European countries, Japan, Australia, etc. Regional Funds are those that invest in the stocks of a particular region, such as Latin America or the Caribbean. Finally, as opposed to Regional Funds, there are Single-Country Funds, which invest solely in stocks of a particular country, such as Mexico or Japan. Of particular interest are emerging market funds and the opportunities these funds present to the international investor.