I think the text book Media Now is an excellent source for all types of media related material. It touches on the history of media, all they way up to the new, inspiring technology. As a Masc151 student, I definitely find it informative and easy to read. Also, the book comes with a compact disk, that encompasses all the information in the wonderful text book. It's an alternative study tool if you don't feel like opening the book. I highly recommend this book for any prospective mass communications major.

This book is good for it's purpose. It is very imformative with it's history on the media studies. It it very up to date with it's information and history on the internet and today's sources of information. I wasn't real keen on the reading it because of the lack of interest that the book keeps me. The imformation is interesting, but not very exciting.

This book is, as far as I can tell, one of the best information sources on the advances in the media today. It touches on anything you can think of that is concerned with the media. When I read it, I get everything I read. It's not complex but yet it is complete, which makes for an easy and understandable reading.

Since he wrote these stories during the several years he spent in Brattleboro, VT, we of the North Country have a particular affinity for Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books. The most familiar are the Mowgli tales, basis for the very good Disney movie. Mowgli is an Indian infant who is lost in the jungle after Shere Khan (the tiger) kills his family. Bagheera (the black panther) places him with a wolf family that has a newborn litter. Mowgli's new "parents" and Bagheera and Baloo (the brown bear) sponsor him for membership in the Wolf Pack and, much to Shere Khan's chagrin, he is admitted. Mowgli is raised according to Jungle Law, but all the while Shere Khan is plotting his revenge and ingratiating himself with the younger wolves. Eventually, he leads a rebellion against Akela, the pack's aging leader and attacks Mowgli, who beats him away with a burning firebrand. In these and the several other Mowgli stories--there are some prequels--Kipling strikes a nice balance between anthropomorphizing the animals and understanding Mowgli's natural superiority.

Also appearing in this collection is a story I've loved since I first saw the Classic Cartoon version--Rikki Tikki Tavi. It tells the story of an intrepid young mongoose and his life or death battle to protect an Indian villa from a couple of particularly unpleasant cobras. Rikki Tikki Tavi has always seemed to me to be one of the great heroes in all of literature.

These are great stories for young and old. For folks who worry about Kipling's potentially imperialist, racist or racialist overtones (see review), rest assured, these tales are free of such themes. They offer an excellent opportunity to introduce kids to the work of a true master storyteller.

GRADE: A

The story of Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves in the jungles of 19th century India, charmed me when I was young no less than it does today. Kipling wrote this to celebrate his love of India and it's wild animals as well as to show again some of his frequent themes of honor, loyalty, and perserverance. While his writing may seem 'dated' to some, to others the truths he includes rise above politics and 'current correctness'. Baloo the Bear, Shere Khan the Tiger, Bagheera the Panther, Kaa the Python were all childhood friends of mine, and reading these Jungle Book stories to your own children today will result in their exposure to such old fashioned concepts as sticking by your friends in adversity, helping your family, relying on yourself. Good lessons then, good lessons now. Mowgli learns the value of 'good manners' early on, learns that 'all play and no work' leads to unexpected troubles, learns that thoughtless actions can have devasting consequences. By showing Mowgli in an often dangerous 'all animal' world, we see reflections of modern human problems presented in a more subtle light. Kipling leads children down the jungle path into adventures beyond their day to day imagining and along the way, he weaves subtle points in and out of the stories, he shows the value of 'doing for yourself', of 'learning who to trust'. All of this in a tale of childhood adventure that's never been equaled. The book is over 100 years old now, and there are terms & concepts from the age of Empire that aren't 'correct' today. Parents can edit as needed as they read bedtime stories, but I've found that children learn early on that the world changes, and that some ideas that were popular long ago did not prove to be correct. Explaining this, too, is a part of parenting. Some of our current popular ideas may not stand the test of time, but I suspect that 100 years from now parents will still read the Jungle Book to their children. And the children will still be charmed, thrilled and instructed in valuable life-lessons.

The Jungle Books are usually marketed as juvenile fiction. True, this is essential reading for children, but it's even deeper when you read it as an adult.

Although "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The White Seal" are just as good as the least of the Mowgli stories, it is the various tales of the boy raised in the jungles of India that are - and justifiably - the heart of the collection.

As a baby, Mowgli is found and raised by a clan of wolves and three godfatherly mentors who each teach him about life in different ways - Baloo the Bear, who teaches him the technical laws he'll need to survive; Kaa the Python, the nearly archtypal figure who teaches him even deeper lessons; and Bagheera the Panther, who perhaps loves Mowgli most of all but understands all too well the implications of the ambiguous humanity of the boy he's come to care for.

The stories have it all, from the alternately humorous and frightening "Kaa's Hunting", where Mowgli learns an important lesson about friendship and it's responsibility, to the epic "Red Dog" that reads like something out of Homer, to "Letting in the Jungle" which, without giving anything away contains a disturbing paragraph that's both glaring and a long time in coming if you've read between the lines in the previous Mowgli stories and yet at the same time so subtle you can almost miss it's importance.

If you didn't read it as a child, read it now. If you did, read it again as an adult.

This is a book of artwork and poetry written by someone who is using the loaded imagery of the Witch as a way to explore feminism, art, history, and the evolution of religion. It is a thoughtful book but does not pretend to delve deep into any of the issues it explores. It is a book for artists and poets who explore the world through the creative process, and as such I found it hugely successful.

Whether the book fits in the current trends of Wicca/Witchcraft is a side issue that is really up to each person who reads it. I feel it is absolutely a Wiccan book because it gave me tons of the spiritual inspiration I need in my creative pursuits.

As to some of the snarly comments, I don't think people should try to say in a blanket sort of way what is and is not Wicca. To me, Wicca seems more of a craft - a skill you create and develop continually. It's not some fixed set of rituals and beliefs that someone spoon feeds to you and then you practice (horrible word) "as is" for the rest of your life.

Very inspirational book!

Witches is the most beautiful book I own. It is not meant to be a treatise on wicca, but a labor of love that acknowledges and honors the herstory of women judged as witches, making an artistic connection with the misogyny that too many of today's women have yet to dis-cover, yet that certainly still exists, particularly when the word "witch" still retains the power to create havoc that it does. Erica Jong is not teaching witchcraft, what she is sharing is the attitudes about witchcraft that led to the torture and deaths of thousands of women in the Middle Ages. It is herstory that is not taught in school. It is herstory that any witch worth her salt needs to know.

Like I said, this books text might and will offend some people! Overall, i'd say this book isn't about wicca, but the witch trials. It goes in a large depth of detail, shows a few spells, the witches"tools", and soo much more!It has a lot of info you won't find in any other book! e.g.:the witch is put in your mind as someone evil, you know her, you've grown up with her, you've ate her apple, you've nibbled at her gingerbread house!It tells you famous wiccans, and it's really hard to describe this book! I highly recommend it to anyone!

Ellis' work focuses on the latter part of Adams' life. While it makes no claim to be a complete biography, the book serves as an excellent foundation for those seeking to learn more about our most underappreciated founding father. Through detailed comparisons with Jefferson - Adams' rival and close friend who has been treated more kindly by America's collective consciousness - Ellis begins to illuminate many levels of the New Englander's character. In doing so, he helps us understand why Adams was not, and probably never will be, adored by the nation he helped to create

I am like dspector -- I searched this book out after reading Ellis's "American Sphinx" on Jefferson. I am now a true John Adams fan. I have also read Ferling's biography of Adams, and agreed that it was more thorough, but not that it was as well written. Ellis has no equal in writing historical biography!

I'm now interested in knowing if anyone is working on a John Adams Memorial comparable to the Washington and Jefferson memorials in D.C. Why is he ignored? How about putting him on some of our money???

Written with wit, charm, and a keen eye for historical detail, this book restores John Adams to his rightful place as one of our most intelligent, prescient forefathers. Dealing primarily with his post-presidential life, the author creates a fascinating image of an aging, yet mentally sound patriarch attempting to rehabilitate his image and settle old scores with former foes. In addition to highlighting the legendary correspondence with Jefferson (where Adams doubled the epistolary output of Mr. Jefferson), the author also brings to light his lengthy disputes with Mary Wollstonecraft and Mercy Otis Warren. Fortunately, Adams is neither belittled nor attacked with the unfairness of hindsight. Instead, he is presented in the fullness of his complexity; often self-righteous, obsessive, and grouchy, yet always believing that the principles of the Revolution were best served by a national, rather than provincial, approach. Few have disputed Adams' eloquence or dignity and now, thanks to Mr. Ellis, we can finally see that Adams just might be one of the most relevant.

From the first page to the last, this is a stimulating book. The author writes with a novelist's touch, meshing statistics, anecdotes, interviews, and history. Then he adds a touch of compassion and questions the validity of our prison system as it has evolved.

What's most amazing is the sheer immensity of the problem of making our prisons a business, a growth industry that won't die. Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the excesses of the military-industrial complex. Hallinan warns us of the consequences and costs of our new prison-industrial complex.

We may not wish to discuss prisons in a public forum, but this book demands that each of us look at this issue, which isn't going away, and see if this lock-em-up-forever road is the path we wish to take. Hiding our heads won't help us understand that no nation incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than the United States, that in the last 20 years our prison population has more than quadrupled, or that one in every eleven men will be imprisoned during his lifetime. We don't rehabilitate anymore; we assign long sentences and let prisoners rot. They become our long-term problem, one that is costing the United States in many ways. This is a public issue that needs addressing and this book succeeds in doing that.

One in four African-American men, one in six Hispanic men, and one in ten white men will go to prison in their lifetime. The severity of drug sentences is only surpassed by murder. The prison industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. This book delves into how this happened. It doesn't take on a simplistic "how to solve this problem" answer. It doesn't even try. Hallinan does, however, inform you of the facts of the prison system of America. He keeps his book localized, rarely comparing our system to other country's prisons. As a seventeen-year-old, my parents often questioned why I would read such a book. I read it because the content of this book is rarely discussed in the media - outside of the dry statistics, such as current prison population (1.3 million), reported every now and then. Hallinan, exposes not just the how and why we reached such an atrocious number, but also why it is important financially for us to keep the prison population growing.

The violence of the inmates, the incompetence of the guards, the overcrowding, and the racial imbalance are not really new facts - but the financial aspect was unknown to me. I didn't even realize that private prisons, essentially prison hotels, exist in the way that they do.

The different forms of rehabilitation efforts, and the current lack of, were fascinating.

Hallinan does form opinions, and he doesn't remain unbiased. This more an editorial than anything else. But, he does report many sides of the issue. Bipartisanship doesn't exist anyway, and it would be misleading to pose something in that manner - which Hallinan doesn't. This is an important read, and it should be done by anyone who wants to comment on the current state of the prison system.

This book examines the American prison system in an interesting and critical light. Mr. Hallinan discusses a myriad of issues relating to prisons and prisoners, from mandatory minimum sentancing to prison privatization, to the prison building boom. He doesn't pretend to be objective, and the book is not simply a factual discussion, but also a narrative of the journey he experienced in the course of his research. For some, this may make it feel biased and therefore less appealing; I found, however, that this personal commentary made the statistics and factual discussions more interesting and meaningful. Going Up the River doesn't answer the important questions about the American prison system, but it does raise and discuss them -- something that needs to happen more often.

Charles Black, a former investment banker and a tough-nut chairman of the Fed quits his job in a struggle with the White House over rising interest rates. But he's persuaded to stay on for a while as a special envoy to represent the Fed at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Swiss-based institution that serves as the industrialized world's clearinghouse for payments and monetary information.

So imagine Black's rude surprise when he arrives in Basel, Switzerland for one of the BIS's regular monthly meetings. Instead of the warm welcome he had been receiving for the past four years as a Fed chief, he is arrested, jailed, and charged with using his exclusive knowledge of U.S. interest-rate moves to mastermind the most audacious insider-trading scheme ever.

Intrigued yet?

As the conspiracy begins to unfold, Black finds himself no more than a fall guy for a shadowy Sardinian financier, a conniving Swiss lawyer with a desk full of secret bank accounts, and the real inside trader--a corrupt president of the Swiss National Bank. In this mix of characters lies the potential for a Hitchcockian drama of a victim mixing it up with his tormentors as he tries to clear his name. The Set-Up journeys from San Francisco and Washington to Switzerland, Sardinia, and the wilds of Alaska, where the plot against Black falls apart.

On the good side, Erdman keeps things moving with his descriptions of shady Swiss dealings, and prison life. Big Swiss heads come off as men of impeccable social standing but a flexible moral character. That's an all-too-common shortcoming among the Swiss big-money set that Erdman seems to have studied closely during his life as a doctoral student and banker in Basel.

But this is also my minor grouse with the book that is supposed to be more of a thriller than a treatise on global finance. Expect a fair bit of digressions into the minutiae of international banking including an introduction to the innards of derivatives markets. Which was great for me personally, but these are in fact slightly piquing in terms of the novel's flow.

Nonetheless this is all worth the ride if you are in the market for a financially inclined thriller. Recommended.

I was a young GI in Germany in 1969 just learning to appreciate "the Trib." I remember one article that caught my eye: a young American banker working in Basel at the sub of a California bank was arrested for trying to corner the world cocoa market! He failed miserably, and in the process wiped out his employer's equity base. As if the young banker, named Paul Erdman, did not know enough about Switzerland already, he was to learn more, from many months inside a Swiss jail. I next noticed Erdman several years later. He had written a novel, "The Billion-Dollar Sure Thing." I read it and liked it, and later learned that he had begun his novelist's career in that Swiss jail. Erdman's subsequent novels have never disappointed. He is the master of the financial thriller, an unfortunately under-populated genre. "The Set Up," like all of Erdman's fiction, takes place largely in Switzerland. Charles Black, former Chairman of the U.S. Fed, is arrested at the Basel airport as he enters Switzerland. (Erdman reminds us, as he never fails to do, that Basel's airport straddles the Swiss/French border.) He finds himself in the maws of the Swiss power structure, comprised of a hundred or so rich and powerful Swiss men who are, in Erdman's eye, as amoral and as slimy as any in the world. No Swiss Heidi-types here. (Had Erdman been successful in cornering the cocoa market he would have been hailed, not jailed, by this group for furthering the cause of Swiss chocolate!) To divulge any more of the plot would be cheating. Suffice it to say, there is lots of (1)German- Swiss bashing,(2)Deus ex machina that stretches credibility, and (3)untranslated "Schwietzer dooch" and other languages. There is also a woman/mate of the male hero who is sharper than the hero himself. This theme is present in most Erdman novels. Erdman has produced eight novels in a quarter of a century, about one every three years. When I haven't seen one for a while, I start looking in book stores. This year I did something different: I searched for Erdman at amazon.com. Sure enough, he'd written a new book which I ordered immediately. The several days it took to arrive in the mail was an eternity as I anticipated reading a new Erdman. It arrived, and did not disappoint. Erdman remains at the top of his form!

I love financial thrillers and have read most of Paul Erdman's fiction, but this is by far the best. Not only does he expertly take the reader through the world of derivatives investing and international banking, he paints a picture of Switzerland from Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse to the most remote parts of the Alps that makes you long to get on a plane and go there (and I have been there--it's worth it). The plot moves fast, from the point of view of every character; his knowledge of German, Swiss-German and Italian is impeccable, and the story culminates in an around-the-world chase that keeps you from putting the book down. I can't wait for his next one.

If you don't have a sense of humor, don't enjoy satire, or can't bear the thought of Ludlum, as a "serious" writer, having some fun with his readers, do not read this book. In "The Road To Gandolfo", Ludlum takes on the military, the U.S. government, the legal profession, and organized religion, and spears them with irreverent, acid-tipped satire that at times reaches levels of pure hilarity. But he's also, quietly and subtly, satirizing himself and the genre of fiction he made his name in: espionage thrillers. Many Ludlum fans probably won't be amused: it's a different Robert Ludlum who's mugging and cavorting behind these scenes.

When General Mackenzie Hawkins, a Pattonesque commander of the old-school variety, is summarily drummed out of the military by the mealy-mouthed, politically motivated bureaucrats who have wormed their way to the slimy top of the Pentagon-Washington heap, he embarks upon a personal mission of vengeance, and plots out an intricate military-style "black-op" plan of his own: kidnap the Pope, and demand a ransom of one American dollar for every Catholic in the world.

The setup for this caper will be expensive, and there are lengthy side-operations along the way, involving the extortion of money -- LOTS of money -- from various "investors" (i.e., shady characters Hawkins has been able to get the goods on through his military intelligence background). And as a patsy front-man, whom he can manipulate from behind the scenes via his four very mammalian ex-wives, Hawkins selects Sam Devereaux, a lawyer who merely wants to count down his remaining days in the Army and return to private practice.

The resulting story, unfolded in fine Ludlum style from the viewpoint of Sam-the-Patsy, is blazingly fast-paced, unpredictable, intricately woven, and, well, downright funny. The satire is broad, but sharp, and the plot line, in proper intrigue-novel fashion, is doled out carefully, one piece at a time, always keeping you interested in what will happen in the next chapter.

Readers looking for, and expecting, a standard Ludlum novel might well be disappointed or critical ("What the heck is THIS?"), but if you're looking for a witty, intelligent, satirical, fun, page-turner of an adventure, this is it.

This book was a very pleasant surprise. It's not the usual Robert Ludlum but instead a light entertaining read. The characters are funny but lean towards unrealistic. It is very difficult to believe that the characters can maintain the same forceful personalities throughout the entire book throughout all circumstances. It ended nicely without a rushed feeling and also avoiding seeming like all the ends got tied up in the last chapter. A very readable book even though it lacked the fast pace and did not have the level of suspense of other Ludlum books.

If you've read Robert Ludlum's other books, you know to expect violence, intrigue, cloak and dagger, as well as excellent prose. If you pick up this book you can expect some of that, but you will be stunned when you find yourself on the floor rolling with laughter. Robert Ludlum a comedy writer? Robert Ludlum dabbling in farce? Yes, that's right the spymaster himself will lead you through a kidnapping of the Pope, a befuddled Army lawyer shamelessly taken advantage of by a shunned U.S. General and his bevy of beautiful ex-wives. An excellant read which you really won't be able to put down.

I read this book and still didn't come away with a clear understanding as to why some people are anti-semites. The authors put forth the theory that anti-semitism exists because Judaism (the religion itself) follows it's own set of peculiar customs and rules that are immutable; that is, no matter how hard one asks, cajoles, discriminates against, or tortures a Jew they will never truly conform to the edicts of any other religion besides Judaism.
This theory is all well and good if you are an intellectual who understands that the Jews have been immovable in their customs and their belief that they are "God's chosen people" since the beginning of time. This theory does make sense as to why people could hate them. But this theory is lacking to me, in the sense that NON-intellectuals (i.e. anti-semite Joe Sixpack) doesn't know (mostly) jack about the Jews religion and could probably care less that religion is what makes a Jew a Jew.

I have tried to understand why such hatred against Jews exists. From what I have gleaned on my own, the causes seem to be jealousy over the Jews uncanny knack to be prosperous, an unpleasant demeanor, oh, and a secret Jewish cabal intent on taking over the world. I have never had cause to feel anything towards Jews because I have never really been around them. But a lot of other non-intellectuals sure do seem to dislike Jews. I have a stereotype of Jews - does the anti-semitism that emanates from other people based on just the Jew stereotype, or do these people have a real reason to hate?

(Having read this and "The Nine Questions People Ask about Judaism", I say, read this, skip 9?'s.)

A good book for beginning students of Jew-hatred. Though it reads as a somewhat less than academic survey of antisemitism throughout history, it is possible for a conscientious reader to appreciate the arguments presented. Teluskin explores pagan, Christian, Muslim, Fascist and Leftist antisemitism, giving the reader a nice balance between a pure history lesson and the author's thesis.

Teluskin's thesis is that Judaism itself is responsible for Jew hatred throughout history. This contrasts with the various explanations that I have heard in the past...Jews were hated in medieval europe because they were money lenders...Hitler hated the Jews because he was crazy, and the Nazis used antisemitism to gain political advantage...etc

Teluskin argues that each group/society that promoted and practiced Jew hatred was motivated by its own personal hatred of Judaism. Some examples:

The Romans hated the Jews because allegiance to God and objective morality questioned the legitimacy of the secular government.

Christian antisemitism was ineveitable, as Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, and Judaism's continued existence cast a shadow of illegitimacy upon the new religion. By refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as The Messiah, Jews implicitly denied the validity of Christianity.

Islamic antisemitism mirrors Christian antisemitism in cause, and to a lesser degree, in practice.

Leftists placed the good of man above all, accordingly, Jews' insistance on the Supremacy of God's moral law above man threatened to deligitimize Leftist doctrine.

Nationalist-Fascist antisemitism had its base in Christian antisemitism and was the familiar result of Jews allegiance to God, rather than to the state.

As I noted earlier, this book is not very academic in tone or (in my opinion) in substance, but it still serves as an effective introduction to this subject.

If you are curious and seek some real knowledge on the subject, the book is a must read. The book goes well beyond what is commonly said and written about Antisemitism. The authors do an excellent job explaining the root cause of hatred against Jews in a way that both Jews and Non-jews can digest.

Admittedly, the book can be "trying" at times as it describes atrocities and documents what, unfortunately, intelligent and influential people have said to spread hatred against Jews. It offers little about those who have condemned the hatred. Also, I wish the last chapter "What is to be done?" could be more definitive and uplifting. I'm not asking for a happy, feel-good ending, just some hope. The book left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. The feeling is that the hatred continues in the wake of post-September 11th rhetoric against the West, Americans, and, big surprise, the Jews.

Like most great horror literature, the evil at the heart of Joseph Nassise's Riverwatch springs from the dark regions of the human subconscious. In this case, it's a demonic winged beast, whom an intruder unwittingly unleashes and which then preys upon the denizens of a small mountain town, dropping down upon the unwary at night on wings of velvet. The novel is well-crafted and fast paced, with a dark Gothic feel to it. Unlike so many recent horror novels, whose protagonists are drunken slobs or other unsavory characters, Nassise's "heros" are likeable characters with whom one can identify. The novel has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, and it has elicited interest from some film production companies. Beware the skies above!

Riverwatch is a fine debut novel containing elements from several genres, including horror, dark fantasy and mystery. It is a novel of good vs. evil, the fight between two ancient races and the contemporary lives disrupted by the feud.

The thing I liked most Riverwatch was the glimpses into the lives of its characters. Nassise spent a lot of time crafting them and it shows.

The late Richard Laymon once said, "Every writer's secret sauce has a different flavor." For this reader, Nassise's sauce is a delicious combination. Blending rich literary integrity, spicy thrills and poetic descriptions, Nassise's writing is something to be savored.

"Riverwatch" delivers the chills and thrills most horror novels don't. His description of something as simple as silence drew me into the world his pen created. But that's not all that Nassise has to offer. The plot is a cerebral teaser.

To say that this book is just about an evil gargoyle reanimated, or, the struggle of the ancient races of our ancestors, would be a discredit. I highly recommend "Riverwatch" to anyone, including those who claim that they don't read horror. Not only did it raise the hair on my neck, it raised questions in my mind. And that is, to me, the hallmark of a good book.

At first glance, this book seems excellent because it describes Win32 with a lot of details. The biggest problem is that, the code in the book and the one on the CD-ROM are not the same. For example, while the book describes raw Win32 wonderfully, all of the code on the CD-ROM is 100% Microsoft Visual C++ biased. Just to start, all classes use the MSVC naming convention; of course, that's not a big deal. The real problem is that ALL examples were written using MFC. For example, the combo boxes, list boxes, edit, property sheets, etc, use MFC objects and their code is not transferrable.
This book was supposed to let people using any Windows compatible compiler to use its code. But the code doesn't work. All the manipulations of controls highly rely on how MFC implements them. Therefore, if you are using MSVC and are a Microsoft fanatic, like the authors, this is a good book. If you are using another compiler, you will be extremely disappointed. What a shame? There are not enough books on the subject. The only one I can recommend is Windows 98 Programming (which is out of print, unfortunately).

Anyone who currently programs in the Win32 environment or wants to learn how to do so needs this book. It exhaustively details the thousands of widgets (i.e. functions, manifest constants, structures, etc) that make up Win32, and provides detailed intellegent discussions of the concepts behind those widgets. These discussions are conducted in excellent English. The examples are mostly in 'C' with some 'C++'.

As a consequence this book is not for beginners. You must have a firm grasp of 'C' in order to follow the thread of the model program which is developed in the book. Since this is some of the most difficult programming imaginable, it is not a good place to start learning 'C'.

Some of the conceptual discussions are outstanding. I particularly liked the section on coordinate transformations. I had orginally consulted Windows "Help" and Petzold trying to get a handle on this elusive and difficult subject. I found that the explanation in this book was by far the most accessable and exhaustive.

The index is particularly well arranged and useful, and add immeasurably to the utility of the book.

This book is unique in its structure, in that it serves as both a reference and a teaching guide simultaneously. If one merely needs to refresh the memory or one encounters a new concept that need elaboration, this book will almost certainly fill the bill in the most efficient way possible.

I will use this book for many years to come, and wish that I had known about it earlier as it would have saved me an enormous amount of labor.

It is one of those rare computer books that is written for the ages, rather than the current release of the software.

(the author of this review is a software engineer of over 30 years experience, most of it non-Windows)

I am an experienced software engineer with a Unix/X Window System background and needed to get up to speed on the Win32 API without being coddled like a child or taught how to program. I looked at Win32 books for several months before I found this book on the shelf.

I like the organization of the book which starts with the core of a well-behaved Win32 application and moves on to bigger and better things with each chapter. I learned many good Win32 programming habits, such as the proper use of Unicode and , proper message loop structuring, and so-on from this book. These lessons in Win32 programming were learned the hard way (from the school of hard knocks also called "experience") by the authors so that I didn't have to suffer the same torturous fate.

The authors start with the core of a Win32 application and then move through the core GDI objects: device contexts, fonts, windows, etc. Then they proceed to examine all the common controls one by one with an exhaustive reference of all their messages.

Along the way, the authors point out places where porting from Win16 to Win32 might be a problem, as well as pointing out known bugs in the MSDN documentation and the Win32 implementation, referencing knowledge base articles for more detail. I also found the advice for those transitioning from a unix background helpful.

This might not be the best book for a beginner that has never written a GUI application before, but if you're familiar with the basics of event driven GUI applications from other window systems (AmigaOS, BeOS, MacOS or X Window System), then this book will teach you what you need to know about Win32 without wasting your time explaining things that you already know and understand.

If you are a complete beginner, you might be better off with a different book to start with, but still might enjoy this book as a reference once you've got the basics down. When I asked around on usenet about Win32 books, many people suggested Richter's book. I looked at Richter's book many times but it just didn't move me to buy it because I wanted a book that was a more exhaustive reference and one that didn't assume I was a beginner programmer.

Several people said "Yeah, I learned from Richter, but /Win32 Programming/ is the book I keep on the shelf. Once I read through Richter, I didn't use it anymore." Another factor is that /Win32 Programming/ is hardback, which makes it stand up to lots of use on a day-to-day basis.