This book is a very helpful guide for those starting out in video production. I found it quite helpful and full of great ideas.

This book is well-known in academic database circles as "The Red Book" (in fact, the editors maintain a useful web site at http://redbook.cs.berkeley.edu/) and is a canonical resource in those circles. It's primarily intended as a reader/textbook for a graduate course in database systems and has a heavy emphasis on implementation issues. It contains a fair number of classic papers that should be read by anybody who actually works on database engines as well as a number of more recent papers that should be read by anyone who does research in database systems. The usefulness for end-users of databases (i.e., application writers) is unclear.

The 3rd edition, in my opinion, improves upon the 2nd edition considerably. Of course, it freshens the paper selection in some areas. More importantly, it prunes the number of subject areas considerably, resulting in a more manageable collection (in more ways than one!). For example, a great deal of work was performed in the late 1980s and early 1990s in areas such as extensibility and active database management. By the late 1990s, the SQL3/SQL1999 train had already left the station - work still goes on in these areas, but at a greatly reduced rate. Conversely, data mining and decision analysis have become hugely important areas, and the new Red Book has a section on it.

If there's a place where this book "missed the boat," it would probably be in terms of applications. The editors cut the section on user interfaces and programming models and have always ignored unstructured/semistructured data models. In these days of the Web, this choice is questionable; on the other hand, a lot of the most reasonable work in these areas has in fact appeared since 1998, so it's a bit hard to criticize with any degree of fairness!

A good treatment of the re financing process. Geared more for the investor than the individual home buyer, the line-by-line analysis offers valuable detail on the facts behind the numbers and builds the actual calculations nicely.

While I have some philisophical differences about some few details of the valuations the author proposes, I found it a useful counterpoint and good check-list for investing.

I found this book very helpful in understanding the human figure. It doesn't cover everything that I would have liked however, but it does cover a great deal of both male and female forms. With highly detailed drawings, practical techniques, and easy to understand text. This book makes an excellent addition to your drawing library.

Dr. Jackson takes a careful look at how black history has been neglected in the Church of God. The general overview of black history in this denomination is quite helpful. Being critical, the book fails to address why educated blacks in the Church of God have failed to fill this gap in the literature for so long. Otherwise, his book is a very incisive window into a major pentecostal denomination.

This is one of a series of books I have greatly enjoyed over the years. There are short (often one paragraph) readings clustered by theme in various sections. I recommend this for anyone interested in the themes of repentance and forgiveness, or for reading during Lent.

The best award for a textbook like J. Leach's is its constant and daily use in professional practice. So, I do as a senior registrar maxillo-facial surgeon.

This is a great new play for young people!

RELATIVES RAISING CHILDREN: AN OVERVIEW OF KINSHIP CARE provides the reader with excellent descriptions of the many issues found in the growing phenomena of family members raising their grandchildren or other relative children. Although written for the professional, the format is easy to follow and very thorough. The authors present the many possible prespectives of the child, the relative caregiver and the parent in this difficult situation. They also provide intervention techniques for the professional.

As a child care specialist, I have been approached by people looking for help and information as they deal with relative care. Since I am not a therapist, this book provides a base of knowledge and has given me some insight on what referrals might be helpful for these individuals. Additionally, I will be recommending it to families interested in further in-depth information.

Joseph Ungar puts together steps and thought processes that enable you (thru practice) to put your ideas down on paper efficiently. The important thing to note is that his techniques will become part of your work sense, and your style will emerge through practice. A strong and agile concept presentation style is a designer skill that Ungar clearly demonstrates, and, in turn: one that a learning designer can quickly grasp.