The detailing information is fine but the recommnedations for detailing products is dated. This book should be revised to include improved products now on the market and exclude products you can no longer find.

Good for amateurs and too bad the pictures aren't in color.

This is a "must-have" for every professional auto detailer and every shade-tree detailer too. It's packed with tips you won't find anywhere else. And the tips are grounded in experience so you can rely on them.

With a minimal of original research, Sharkey relies extensively and primarily upon one of the biggest newspaper investigative projects in U.S. history, and gives it only a minimal acknowledgment. Dubbed "Profitable Addictions" and published in the Houston Chronicle, the investigative series comprised some 110 major stories over a two-year period and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Sharkey, the son-in-law of a psychiatrist who probably felt some pressure from the powerful for-profit psychiatric hospital chains, pens a near "apologia" for the industry, rather than laying out the full fascinating story as laid out by the Huston Chronicle, which impacted for-profit hospital regulation as far away as Australia, and resulted in the creation of a permanent healthcare fraud section within the FBI and a record (for the date) settlement of $375 million settlement for healthcare fraud..still the second highest fraud settlement in U.S. history. Unfortunately, the swift publication of Sharkey's book hurt the publication of other more thorough and less sappy books than Sharkey's, and thus did an actual disservice to menatal health and patient care and the reading public in telling a most fascinating yarn of pure corporate greed.

The focus of this book is on how corporate, for profit, mental hospitals put aside all ethical concerns and took advantage of distressed people that sought mental health, addiction treatment, or crisis counseling. As the author described it:

"These hospitals devised vast promotional programs -- aggressive advertising coupled with painstaking media manipulation and systematic kickbacks to counselors and others who might have access to troubled potential patients -- to create a whole new product niche: treatment in psychiatric wards for people who had never before been regarded as candidates for inpatient psychiatric care." (p. 11)

Much of the book is anecdotal. The accounts of various people that came into contact with corporate mental health hospitals is shocking. The reoccurring theme was that marketing was used to seek out as many people as possible and finder's fees were paid to those that referred people to the hospital. Then the hospitals would keep people in "treatment" for as long as their insurance would cover the expenses, even switching their diagnosis to extend their stay. Once the insurance money ran out, the patients were pronounced "cured." Occasionally, bounty hunters were used to "escort" people that were reported to be in need of mental health services, but only those with good insurance, of course.

One of the most important lessons this book provides is just how wrong the mental health system can get. This book serves as a reminder that even recently, psychiatrists can throw all ethical concerns out the window for money. Sadly, only treating those that had insurance coverage was a concern, and not those with genuine problems.

Joe Sharkey's view of the truth behind the medical insurance field is rivoting. I am proud to know this man

I have the c# version of this book too as I am
learning vb.net and c#
The vb version of this book has a corrupted database file
and other 2 missing database files.
That makes 3 chapters which you wonder if the code is going to
ever work in this beginner book
For a book from Karli Watson after his brilliant book
'begining c#', his reputation for quality is not going to
hold water for people making his purchase. Certainly
after anyone spending money on this vb.net or c# version

of this book finds out that they are trying
to sell you a book with questions with no answers
I see other people can give the book 5 stars without
testing the downloadables. Don't make any sense.

Web Services are such a hot subject these days, and everybody thinks you need to be a programming guru before touching this subject. Well, this books proves the contrary! After 300 pages of easy-to-read and easy-to-understand material, you'll have a good understanding of how web services work.

The book has plenty of code examples and the material is very well structured. The chapters I liked the most are "Exposing Data as a Web Service" chapters, since exposing database information is a very common task for web service programmers.

I highly recommend this book as an introductory course to Web Services using Visual Basic.NET.

XML and XML Web Services are hot subjects, I should know having technically reviewed many books on them and also this book. So a book that tells the XML & Web services stories from a VB.NET perspective has got to be hot property - and this book is just that!

Content varies from using VB.NET to enumerate an XML document to developing Binary & SOAP Serialisation class's - there is no "kiddie" dialog; it is full of real information & succinct step-by-step real-world examples to try out.

It's a small & convenient sized book and that requires it to be fast-paced, progressive & well written: there is no getting bogged down in 70 page chapters of pure rocket science that send you into orbit. Best of all are the authors: they are down-to-earth, working along side you & sharing value - which makes for a very friendly & quick learning experience.

The authors use XML Validator to define XML documents, which is cool, however Microsoft have a free download of Microsoft XML Notepad ... which I found much quicker to use to develop schemas structures, however.

This book offers some good ideas for some different adventures in the San Rafael Swell but is somewhat confusing and deceiving. In some of his hike descriptions, Steve uses time instead of distance to detail his routes e.g. hike 19 minutes southeast to the wash, then turn east. This can be misleading because everybody hikes at different paces. If you hike especially fast or slow you may make a turn at the wrong landmark. He also described a route as turning at the E.T. looking rock. - Huh? We missed our landmark and had to phone home. His maps (though meant to be supplements for topo maps) look deceivingly one-dimensional, which give a false sense of easy, flat walking. If you're experienced in the backcountry, it's a good list of routes. I would, however, recommend Kelsey's San Rafael book for better maps, landmark descriptions, and distances though you do have to adjust his hike times as he hikes much faster than most. Add time and a half as a general rule.

The San Rafael Swell is a huge geological blister located in east central Utah. It is crossed by several creeks and has numerous beautiful canyons, cliffs, mesas, slot canyons, and grottoes. It is also marked by spectacular cliffs of white Navajo sandstone, particularly on the east and southeast borders. There are a few big arches in the Swell and a host of gargoyle rocks. It's a place that, were it anywhere else, would be a National Park or Monument. However, in the scenic wonderland that is southeast Utah, it's just another unexplored place for the most part. Up to this book, the bulk of the Swell's publicity has come from occasional uranium strikes.

Author Allen has turned out a masterpiece. The book extensively covers all the things previously discussed, and a lot more, too. Especially interesting is the history of the region. The maps and hikes/tours are clearly described, although I would have preferred measuring in terms of distance rather than time. Quite obvious is Allen's enthusiasm for the place, an enthusiasm brought out in the text. The pictures are good, but I would have preferred some of them in color, given the fantastic breadth of colorful formations in this region.

I used the book last May in a brief Jeep tour of the Swell, and found it to be very accurate. I recommend the book highly to anyone who wants to see/explore this magnificent region.

A great guide to a vast number of adventures in the San Rafael Swell, what really makes this a quinta-stellar masterpiece is Steve Allen's enormous enthusiasm for the wild places. A variety of hikes are covered and Steve has an amazing attention to detail. Anyone who's looking for information on hiking in the Swell will find this the best book. While most of the hikes are of the hard core variety, there are enough easy hikes to keep the less vigorous busy for a few years.

The book is attractive and details various professions within the art industry. However, this book seems to address a very narrow audience of young people who are trying to decide on which college and which discipline to pursue.

Those of us who can't transform ourselves back into 16-year-olds but who want to pursue and/or expand on our careers in art are completely left out.

This book is only for those under the age of 18 who know exactly what they want to do.

As both an artist and a former Director of a Career Center at an Art school, this is the best resource I have found to explain, not only the options available, but the necessary steps to be sucessful in those careers. Working professional are highlighted, typical job details are specified, and the necessary (appropriate) educational requirements are discussed. Perfect for anyone, of any age, interested in pursuing a career in the visual arts.

This is among the most outstanding and useful books I have encountered on this subject. It is visually appealing (very important for artistic types) and incredibly informative. It covers hundreds of visual arts professions and gives practical advice on which courses to take in college that will give you the necessary background. The information is personalized through a case study format-interviews with people who currently have this job description. One of the biggest questions career seekers have, and one that is not usually addressed in career books is: Which school should I go to? It is not a question that is easily answered because different schools offer different programs. This book provides some of the answers; in the back is a comprehensive chart of schools all over the U.S. and Canada detailing which courses of study they offer within visual arts professions. I wish I had had this book when I was starting my career!

It's quite obvious that Professor Fewsmith never left the clostered chambers of Boston University. His sources are chiefly those of speeches and reports of China's dictatorial rulers.If he had visted Beijing's universities and spoken with the students and instructors he'd have gotten a much different impression. For example he was of the eroneous opinion that the protest of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was a spontanious outpour of national sentiment. If he'd been at Beijing University he could have seen how government agents paid students to participate in a government orchestated demonstration at the U.S. Embassy.

The Taiwan issue is another of his numerous misinterpretations.
Thousands of wealthy Taiwan merchants and corporate magnets are investing millions of dollars into the Chinese economy. Their bribery has essentially gained control of the Chinese leaders. It is Taiwan who is conquoring China.

An impressive survey of Chinese intellectual development in the 1990s.

Fewsmith has produced a truly magnificent book. For anyone interested in modern China, this book is a valuable asset. His new book is a detailed and thorough examination of the political and intellectual currents shaping Chinese society since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Few other authors so ably present the intellectual and social debates with China - conflicts over how should China view the United States, the international economy, its own political conditions, and China's conception of itself in a globalizing, yet unipolar world.

Fewsmith does accurately capture the different sentiments of average Chinese (contrary to another reviewer's estimation). There was a spontaneous outpouring after the 1999 embassy bombing, and understandably so as many Chinese were scared and uncertain by the event.

In short, Fewsmith has made an extremely valuable addition to our understanding of the complex and evolving social, culutaral and political aspects of modern China.

It is hard to know what to say about this book. The first fify pages were the most invigorating I have read in a long time, full of interesting characters and observations as well as tremendous wit. I could hardly wait to read on, but as I did, I began to grow disappointed and eventually ran out of enthusiasm. I plodded to the end but it was heavy going. The novel-within-a-novel concept can work under certain circumstances but this is not one of them. The excerpt from the character Garcia's novel added nothing and were an irritating distraction from the main event. Alfau would have benefitted from having a good editor. All in all, an idea with enormous potential that starts off brilliantly but fades all too quickly.

There are so many interesting things to say about Felipe Alfau and his novel, "Chromos," that it is difficult to decide where to begin. There is the novel itself, of course, a complex and sometimes difficult post-modernist narrative written years before the appearance of the so-called post-modernists (Alfau was, in other words, ahead of his time). There is the history of the novel's publication, a fascinating tale in its own right. There is the fact that Alfau, a Spaniard who came to the United States at the age of fourteen, wrote "Chromos" and his earlier novel, "Locos," in English, rather than his native Spanish. And there is, finally, the biography and the views of the author himself-the former enigmatic, almost mysterious, in its obscurity; the latter disturbingly reactionary, reminiscent of Ezra Pound and forcing the reader to separate the man from his work.

"Chromos" is a series of narratives within narratives of a coterie of Spanish immigrants living in New York City sometime between the two World Wars. Among the main characters is Don Pedro Guzman O'Moor Algoracid, also known as Peter Guz and the Moor, and his close friend, Dr. Jose de los Rios, whom the Moor calls Dr. Jesuscristo. It is the Moor who first tells the novel's unidentified first person narrator to write the story of Spaniards living in New York, of the "Americaniards" as he calls them:

"You should write a book about the Americaniards, somebody should-but you have not written for a long time-anyway you could not write any more about your people in Spain-have been too long away, forgotten too much-don't know what it's all about and you could not write about Americans-don't know enough-impossible ever to understand another people. I could not understand them when I first came and every day I understand them less. We meet, we talk, but neither knows what it's all about-total confusion. My English was abominable when I arrived and everyday I speak it worse-impossible; can't understand a damn thing."

It is this request that frames the narrative, the Moor mysteriously taking the reluctant narrator to an old, dark, cockroach-infested basement apartment devoid of furniture (except for a book-filled bookcase), its walls covered by chromos-chromolithographs-"depicting people and scenes that came to life, but more like things remembered or imagined."

From this place, the unidentified narrator of "Chromos" relates his close relationship with the writer Garcia. It is Garcia who provides two narratives within the larger framing story, reading aloud to the narrator from two different works-one the seemingly "corny" and salacious multi-generational saga of the rise and decline of the Sandoval family in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Spain, the other the cinematic narrative of a Spaniard named Ramos who, in a Mephistophelian bargain, is given the ability to skip through time and emigrates to America in the early twentieth century. All the time, while Garcia narrates the stories contained in his two novels, the larger narrative of "Chromos" provides a first-person account of the day-to-day life of the Moor, Dr. de los Rios, Garcia, and the narrator. And the narrator, too, provides another narration as he sees into the mind-sees the imagination and dreams-of the seemingly forlorn, hapless character Fulano. Indeed, one of the most powerful narrative sequences of "Chromos" occurs near the end, when the narrator details Fulano's sordid, obsessive, sexual and homicidal dreams of a female store mannequin.

"Chromos" is, in short, a complex novel that reminds the reader of the post-modern writings of Borges, Calvino, Coover, Pynchon, and others. It is, in this sense, a remarkable achievement since it was written in 1948, long before such fictions became prominent. And this leads us to the next part of the story, the fact that while "Chromos" was written in 1948, it was not published until 1990, when it was nominated for the National Book Award. For this, we have an editor of the Dalkey Archive to thank. As related in a 1990 article in Newsday, reprinted at the Dalkey Archive web site (http://www.centerforbookculture.org):

"In 1987, Steve Moore, [an editor at] a small publishing company, Dalkey Archive, found a copy of "Locos" [Alfau's 1936 novel] at a barn sale in Massachusetts. He paid $10 for it and after reading it, immediately found Mr. Alfau's number in the Manhattan phone book. Mr. Alfau, living alone in Chelsea, told them to publish the book if they wanted to; he didn't care what happened. When "Locos" did reasonably well, Mr. Alfau told them to use the money for somebody else's unpublished work. He had no use for money. Moore asked Mr. Alfau if he had written anything else. Mr. Alfau took "Chromos" out of the dresser where it had been since 1948."

While a native Spaniard and Spanish speaker, Alfau wrote in English and, for this reason, he has been compared to other writers who adopted another, non-native language for writing their fictions, writers like Conrad, Beckett, Nabokov, and Brodsky. Indeed, the first paragraph of "Chromos" adumbrates the theme not only of the immigrant living in a foreign country, but the way that immigrant experience is further occluded by language:

"The moment one learns English, complications set in. Try as one may, one cannot elude this conclusion, one must inevitably come back to it. This applies to all persons, including those born to the language and, at times, even more so to Latins, including Spaniards. It manifests itself in an awareness of implications and intricacies to which one had never given a thought; it afflicts one with that officiousness of philosophy which, having no business of its own, gets in everybody's way and, in the case of Latins, they lose that racial characteristic of taking things for granted and leaving them to their own devices without inquiring into causes, motives or ends, to meddle indiscreetly into reasons which are none of one's affair and to become not only self-conscious, but conscious of other things which never gave a damn for one's existence."

So what is a reader of "Chromos" to make of all this? If you believe Alfau himself, not too much. When asked in an interview about the sale of his first novel, "Locos," which departed drastically from the commercially accepted novels of the time, he replied: "I got $250 for 'Locos.' But you are right. In fact, I don't see how anybody could like my books or could even understand them. They are unreadable."

In that same interview, published in the Spring, 1993, edition of Review of Contemporary Fiction (and reprinted at the Dalkey Archive web site), Alfau-ninety years old at the time and demonstrating his reputation as iconoclastic, opinionated, curmudgeonly, and politically incorrect-is quoted as follows: "I think democracy is a disgrace. Machiavelli was absolutely right: the difference between tyranny and democracy is that in tyranny you need to serve only one master, whereas in a pluralistic society you have to obey many. I always thought Generalissimo Francisco Franco was a trustworthy ruler of Spain, and thus supported him. Since his death, the Iberian peninsula is in complete chaos. In fact, at the time of the Spanish Civil War, I championed Franco's cause in this country as much as I could."

While Alfau's politics and personality may seem anathema, "Chromos" is a remarkable work of literary imagination and narrative structure that should be read by anyone interested in modern and post-modern writing. While perhaps "unreadable," as Alfau says, by those looking for a traditional linear narrative with an unvarnished plot, "Chromos" is a joyride for those who like experimentation, complexity and intellectual pyrotechnics.

I'll post a longer review of this work when I have time here. I once wrote a glowing book review about this book 10 years ago. This is one of these rare finds by Dalkey Archive press, which (admittedly) publishes esoteric and hard-to-read fiction. Out of nowhere, it was nominated for the National Book Award in 1990 or so, propelling this old man to some fame and notoriety.

I remember Proust's metaphor in one of his books about one's literary works existing as separate creatures from the author, like little girls dancing around the death bed of a dying author. I think Alfau was interviewed as saying something like, I wrote this book decades ago. Why all of a sudden this attention?

I used to give this book as the answer to the question of "what is your favorite book" because no one has ever heard of it (though I imagine university readers at the writing program where I taught, Johns Hopkins, would be sympathetic to this writing). Actually, although parts of it are long-winded, in general the narrative is conventional and full of old-fashioned storytelling. The characters engage in multiple philosophical conversations about time,reality and a lot of other things. I would compare this to Dostoevksy (in terms of the philosophical plane it travels on, not the plot, which is rather lackadaisical). Although there certainly is a tinge of European postmodern fiction here, unlike the fiction of Barth, there are not narrative tricks that distract from the story at hand. The end kind of wanders, but how fun it was getting there. You read for the set pieces, not for the overall plot. For variety, check out his short stories in Locos: A Comedy of Gestures. They are priceless gems.

You have to be in the right frame of mind for philosophical digressions and plot that advances mainly through conversation, but if you are, you won't find it difficult to get into this book at all.

To be honest, I've never met another person who has actually read this book, and it would be interesting to read responses from others who have read this book.

I should point out that I am writing these impressions about 10 years after reading the book. I remember almost nothing, and yet I remember how I felt reading it and the impressions it left on me. Does this count as a legitimate review? It will be fun knowing that the book is there waiting to be picked up again.

At best this is a tall tale, at worst slanderous. As a student of Native American studies, I was looking for reference materials on individual Cherokee Chiefs. This book is certainly not a source to site. Just not a very good book over all.

I read Cherokee Rose and enjoyed the anecdotal trip through the early history of the Cherokee nation. The novel was action-packed and had great attention to detail.

Last summer I bought a painting of "The Spirit of Stickball." It is quite beautiful, but I couldn't understand how a sport could inspire someone to such a work of art until I read the description of the game in Cherokee Rose. I fully understand it now.

This is truly a saga of the American spirit. The author's description of people and places is worthy of Louis L'Amour. This story is filled with action and true drama of Native Americans. It tells a truer story of American History that what is taught to our children in school. If you liked Lonesome Dove you will like this book. All characters were real people and the facts are a matter of History. This book is highly recommended .

DiLeo appears to have enjoyed writing this book. I wish I could say the same about reading it. In looking for a source to help in assessing children, I found this book diagnostically and theoretically, garbage

Although the book is almost 300 pages, most of it is full-page illustrations and white space. I learned only a little bit, but that was because it took only a few hours to read the book.

I would advise obtaining a copy through your local library or through interlibrary loan, but not spending too much money on buying a copy.

While you're at it, get 0876308337 and 0876300549.

If you view this writing as a catalyst to ponder using your own experiences to interpret, like an experienced counselor would do, and not approach the reading as an end-all resource, you will find correlations and new thoughts devloping a deeper insight into the minds and emotions of children

We read every children's book on the subject of trains that we can get our hands on, to satisfy the obsession of my 4 year-old. This is the biggest disappointment yet. The illustrations are gorgeous (hence 2 star rating rather than 1 star), but there is just too much fantasy for our taste. The blend of fantasy with reality just doesn't flow. The boy uses his bubble blowing solution and has the elephant's blow up the circus train like giant balloons. As explained in the summary (above) the human cannonball acts as the engine for this now-floating circus and tows the train up and over the broken down train bridge and on to the circus. The next shot is the boy at this same circus, with his parents. In the end the clowns reappear for the lonely boy to play baseball with, along with some real children. This is so fantastical in nature it confused me and my son, making me wonder if all or part of this escapade was a figment of the lonely boy's imagination. I guess we prefer more realistic books on trains, we save the fantasy for other subjects. My conclusion was that the boy imagined the part about helping the circus train to ease his boredom and loneliness, and later did really attend the real circus with his parents. I also assume he is again entering the fantasy world to play a baseball game with imagined clowns and imagined children.

Anyone who likes fantasy, circuses or trains should love this book.

The story line is a little bumpy, but the gorgeous illustrations carry it through. A child who moved into Yonderville worried about where he would find friends. Then the circus arrived in town. Well, not actually in town. It arrived across a field from the boy's house, and had come to a dead end. The engineer had taken the wrong track, and was forced to stop by a collapsed bridge. The train could not make it into town, across the river, to set up the show.

The boy used his imagination. If you appreciate imagination and good illustrations, the rest of the story and it's fold-out watercolor will take your breath away. Alyssa A. Lappen

Circus Train, by Joseph A. Smith, is a delightful book about a young boy, Timothy, who recently moved to the country and found himself without any friends. A train soon appeared on a nearby track which was no longer in service. Taking the wrong track, it was the circus train that had come to a complete stop because the bridge had long been collapsed. Hearing the commotion, Timothy and his dog felt the need to investigate.

The engineer, worried because he could not put the train in reverse, was perplexed by his dilemma. He was stuck. He could not go in any direction. Timothy arrived on the scene and creatively solved the problem allowing the circus train to arrive on time at the fairgrounds in Yonderville.

The book gives children an opportunity to try their hand at problem-solving. What are some of the ways they could resolve this crisis? Allowing children to use their imagination and try their hand at predicting the outcome, they soon come to realize the difference between fact and fantasy. The story concludes with yet another opportunity to predict the outcome!

The beautiful watercolor illustrations give one a sense of nostalgia and excitement for those old days of the circus train. The vibrant use of color brings the pictures to life. It provides children of today a glimpse of one aspect of the "good ole days of years gone by."