As a graduate of Upper Merion--with Jay Smith's signature on my diploma and Bill Bradfield's loopy enthusiasm whenever I successfully translated Catullus still ringing in my head--this book was a "must-read." I CAN say that Wambaugh does his usual good job of capturing certain facets of the main characters and presenting the case, particularly from the viewpoint of the investigators, whom he lionizes. (Unfortunately, the intervening years have led to revelations about their mishandling of evidence and own character failings...which tarnishes their victory somewhat.) He also succeeds in pointing out the inverse relationship between intelligence and common sense that often exists among academics, and definitely existed here. I found his description of sociopathic behavior and how it forged the bizarro bond between these two men especially illuminating. However, it's what I usually like best about Wambaugh's books that forms the basis for my only criticism: there's no mistaking the fact he's an ex-cop. That means he forms his judgments about the perpetrators, followers, and even the victim early on and sticks to them. These people weren't quite so black and white. That being said, it's a good read that captures the gothic feel it strives for, and makes me extremely sad for the mother and children who were lost...and angry at people I respected who had so much potential.

The tale of Susan Reinert is one of the most riveting true crime books I have ever read. Certainly the story -- details about Bill Bradfield, Dr. Jay Smith, Vince Valaitis, Sue Myers, etc. -- was convoluted . . . and difficult to follow at best. But it just proves Bradfield's manipulation of everyone around him. The story becomes difficult to follow and almost unbelievable because the story itself is practically unbelievable. Bradfield told so many tales and lied to so many people that even he had trouble keeping up with it and remembering what he told and who he told it to. Dr. Smith proves to be a pretty sinister character himself -- someone who did a lot of terrible things (and was possibly involved in the disappearance of his own daughter and her husband! Frightening!). It is hard to believe that these people are real -- that they live(d) and breathe(d) and exist(ed) in Upper Merion -- it certainly makes for an entertaining and unbelievable cast of characters. But they are not just characters in a book -- they are REAL PEOPLE -- and that is the scary thing. It makes you stop and think and look around at your friends and neighbors and coworkers and wonder what is going on in their heads. Creepy!

What is most disturbing is the fact that Reinert's young children were unfortunately involved in this horrible situation, and that their bodies have never been found. Even more frightening is that Susan Reinert's body may have disappeared in much the same way -- except that there was life insurance money to be gained (by Bradfield) and therefore a body had to be found. The sad thing is that everyone seemed to be under someone else's "spell" -- for the most part, all these seemingly intelligent teachers (molding the minds of Upper Merion's youth, no less!) were so enthralled and entrenched in Bradfield's life, so willing to believe him, so willing to participate in his "cloak and dagger" games, so prepared to believe him until too many suspicions and too much evidence mounted against him. And Bradfield! His relationship with Dr. Smith -- whatever the extent of it -- was certainly not on the up-and-up. A frightening look at this disturbed group of people and the lengths someone will go to attain something (in this case, money). All I can say is, you have to read it to believe it. I was too young to remember the case when it happened, so I can't compare the book to any newspaper headlines or stories or actual experiences . . . but I was engrossed in the book, totally interested. Wambaugh does an excellent job pulling the reader into the lives of these people. The situations are chaotic and elaborate -- at times almost ridiculous and laughable, because everyone was so blind to the "charms" of Bradfield and Smith for so long. I only wish there had been pictures of the principle characters, so I could have put faces to the names.

Yes, I've read those other customer comments, but trust me, this is the best true crime book ever. First of all, Wambaugh has incredible access to all of the participants, which I believe is the most important ingredient of great true crime. (Haven't you ever read any of those cheapie true crime paperbacks and had the feeling that the author relied soley on the newspaper accounts and the trial transcript--there is a complete dearth of detail and character development? This book is the polar opposite--it's teeming with detail and fully realized characters.) Wambaugh tells you exactly what the characters were thinking and feeling, which allows you to understand how such educated people could get involved in such a horrific crime. Instead of feeling scorn for their gullibility you end up having great empathy for them. Secondly, the villians are FABULOUS--Dr. Smith in particular is so fiendishly sardonic I almost found myself cheering him on, despite the fact that he's (probably) done so many evil things. It's almost a Hannibal Lecter-ish effect--you know he's bad, yet there's something almost charming about his combination of intelligence and darkness. Finally, and most importantly, this book is laugh-out-loud funny. The author's metaphors comparing Dr. Smith to the Prince of Darkness make me howl, and his use of irony is truly sublime. I know it's incongruous to find such humour in a book about a terrible murder; please read it, and you'll understand.

When I started in Web design I was using notepad as the editor, as things started to become more advanced I began using FrontPage. Now wanting to add Flash and multimedia, not mention JavaScripts I found DreamWeaver MX to be the application of choice. As such this book is one of the best in helping to fine tune the application and make web page design easier.

There are over 100 pages to work with and whether you are an experienced DreamWeaver developer or fairly new at the game, you'll find just about every topic or question answered within the pages of this book.

They layout of the book can either be used to run from beginning to the end or if you need help in a certain area then you can use the book for that particular topic. I also like the way this book is setup, as an instructor I have already been able to use several examples for the classroom.

It doesn't appear that the author missed anything, as there are breakdown of buttons, shortcuts, menus, drag and drop, and preferences and properties. About the only drawback is the fact that the coded pages are not in color, so for something you may not be able to see the result before you finfish.

The cd-rom include has trial version of the MX applications of DreamWeaver, Flash and FireWorks but more importantly over 300 extensions for you to work with, not only with this book but in actual web development. Overall Bible certainly describes this book.

I am not a hobbyist - I am a professional web developer with real cients, and I have been picking up the Dreamweaver Bible since version 2.

I read a lot of web development and programming titles, and for Dreamweaver, the Bible is hands-down always the best.

Granted, its a big book, and there are things in the book that I already know - there always are. But time and time again, I find myself going back to this book to remind myslef of something I forgot, or a tip or trick to make things easier.

This particular version - MX, has a lot of changes from version 4, and that was where this particular book really made a difference for me, as all the new features are called out with a special icon so I could pick them up quickly.

Since the book 'starts at the beginning' I could see where this would be a good book for beginnnig web designers or even developers who might want to use DW as their new editor of choice for PHP, ASP or the like.

Thanks Joe.

I feel that the last review is somewhat misleading; whatever you might think about the use of the word Bible in a book title (and that was a choice the publisher made for an entire line of books, not just this one), the important thing is that Joseph W. Lowery is almost undoubtedly THE authority on Dreamweaver and Fireworks.

Lowery has closely following the development of these excellent products for years and has been personally influential in lobbying Macromedia for much-needed improvements. Most serious web professionals will be sure to buy the MX editions of his books even though they already own the previous versions, simply because they know that they can reliably turn to them whenever they have a problem; in that sense, these books ARE bibles!

From the perspective of new-comers to DW and FW, Lowery entertainingly explains both the detail and the broader picture in a straight-forward and clear manner, step by logical step. He is a very good writer. In my case, the "Dreamweaver 3 Bible" made an important contribution to my path from beginner to skilled professional. Lowery's books remain, even now, an essential reference.

Don't be put off by the low ... score resulting from previous reviewer's low marking of this book. I have no connection to either the author or publisher but, in any case, ask around; Anyone who knows their stuff will recommend both the Dreamweaver MX and Fireworks MX Bibles. All of his previous books have scored perfect fives, this low score is an anomoly based on one persons' misguided objections.

This book is a good starting point for the newly revised Windows 95 (70-064) exam. I just took it and scored 857 (minimum passing score is 632). The book goes into detail on topics that are heavily covered on the exam (networking with NT and NetWare, printing, system policies), and this makes it a great place to start studying. However, the 95 exam is full of nitpicky questions that are NOT covered in this book; you need additional sources to be completely prepared. In addition to buying this book, I'd recommend downloading the Win95 Resource Kit from Microsoft's Web site and spending some time going through it, especially troubleshooting. Also search the web for "70-064" to turn up helpful links. This is one of the hardest exams in the MCSE sequence, but if you use these sources you should be in good shape.

.... to pass the Win95 exam. This book is like all others in this series: Each test objective is examined in a seperate section while numerous fairly difficult questions test your knowledge. In addition, there are hands on exercises to reinforce the material. There are no pretty pictures here but this obviously helps keep the price at a very reasonable $25.00. The other recommended references would be the win95 resource kit and your hands on experience. A highly recommended book.

The 70-64 Windows 95 exam is tricky, but this book provides a very good foundation for the success. It does cover much more than is actually on the exam, and as such serves as a reference for the OS. I do think you will need to supplement study with the Windows 95 resource kit, but all the objectives on the exam are covered in the book. While the sample questions are sometimes lame (and really do not mimic the exam) there is an appendix which provides GREAT last minute study tips. The section on troubleshooting is fantastic, written by a person who obviously has spent time in the field wrestling with the same kind of problems administrators see every day. All in all, it is well worth the money I spent.

Onion John is a great book for anyone to read. Onion John the town scavenger of the town. He does not have very many friends so he does what he wants. He does have one friend that is not imbarrased about Onion John. Through the story he discovers that all you need is one good friend in life to make it.

In a recent writing assignment, my son wrote the following about Onion John:

The events that take place in Krumgolds' Onion John would probably never happen today. For instance, if a homeless man dressed in a strange coat and reeking of onions approached me on the street and spoke in a foreign language, I would not stop to wonder, If I listened long enough, would he start making sense? No! I would walk away - quickly. Not Andrew J. Rusch, Jr. He stops and really listens to Onion John, leading to their friendship and, eventually, the concern and care of their home town, Serenity. I enjoyed the interesting ideas Onion John had; for example, making rain with a parade and driving ghosts and evil spirits away with smells. I also like the part of the story that dealt with the "race to space" and Andy's dad's desire for Andy to get to the moon. I tend to prefer more adventurous stories or stories with a little more "action," which is why I chose to give Onion John four stars.

This book just made you feel good. At first, it seemed like Andy was the only one who wanted to help Onion John. But then, the whole town teams up to build him a new house with electricity, a stove where he doesn't need newspaper to light. When his house burns down, you know the people care about him. It is sad when he has to run away from the town of Serenity.

The context in which this book must be read is given in the first chapter. The author says, and I paraphrase, "This book doesn't ask the question, 'Did Joseph Smith write the Book of Mormon?' This book assumes that he did, and addresses the question, 'How did Joseph Smith write the Book of Mormon?'"
In short, don't look for a fair approach to the first question. That's not what this book is about.

Anderson has a great handle on Mormon history. The insights that he offers into how certain traumatic events in Joseph Smith's childhood could have affected his personality are often enlightening, and always interesting. i.e. The trauma associated with the near amputation of Smiths leg, and the public humiliation of being on trial for being a glass looker. Anderson does a nice job of helping us reflect on Smith's humanity. He helps us see that these events are indeed difficult for a person to go through, and that they can shape how one views the world.

That said, I thought this book also had some fundamental problems. For example, at times Anderson uses the Book of Mormon text to help determine the order or details of certain historical events in Joseph's life. Other times he seems to claim to know exactly what motivated Smith on certain occasions, because of what is written in a part of the Book of Mormon. This seemed too speculative to me. Some of this speculation is interesting theory, other portions seem specious.

Nevertheless, an interesting read. A intriguing theoretical approach.

I wish I could give it four and a half stars. Dr. Anderson takes a fine point to the early life of Joseph Smith. With impeccable care and documentation, he leads us through the childhood of a man who would exhibit a type of genius rarely seen in charismatic leaders. Anderson wisely limits himself to the effects of Joseph's experiences in the composition and contents of the Book of Mormon. By the time the "semi-retired psychiatrist" gets to the end of the book, he barely needs to justify or explain his diagnosis since he's already done so from a variety of angles previously. My only criticism is that occasionally Dr. Anderson extends his theories and suppositions quite far, but he usually does so with qualifications.

Not for the initiate into the arcane world of LDS theology and history. Try "Mormon America" first. But for a guy like me who spent 40 years (two as a missionary) in "the Church," it's a haunting trip into the mind of a very famous, unique American religious leader.

The value of the insights in this book cannot be overstated. The author makes an extremely convincing case that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon himself, and in the process inadvertently let items from his [Smith's] own life color the narrative, providing a sort of "free association" setting during the dictation. Although the author uses these "colorings" to form a psychoanalytical profile for the Mormon prophet, the listing of parallels alone are well worth the price of the book.

The author's intent is to provide a tentative diagnosis, and he fully explains the inherent weaknesses in such an approach. Although there may be alternative diagnoses for Smith, the evidences themselves outlined by the author that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon are *not* so weak and will be much more difficult for the apologists to refute.

Much material about Mormonism, pro- and con-, has been hashed and rehashed. This book does not contain any of that. This book offers a refreshing and unique dimension to the pro- vs. con- dialogue. Often I caught myself saying, "Why didn't I think of that?"

I heartily recommend this book.

Schrecker's history of the anticommunist movement in America is an interesting study in to politics and personal liberty. She points out that many of these communists were persecuted by conservatives (professional patriots she sometimes calls them) but liberals as well. She does a fine job describing the history of the CP in the US, especially how "mainstream" it appeared during the early New Deal.

Schrecker tells us how far reaching McCarthyism came to be in the US, and that it ruined individuals who were blacklisted or imprisoned. McCarthyism led to the silencing of political, artistic, and intellectual expression, as many were afraid to proclaim sentiments that might be deemed verboten by those with the power to ruin them. It was easy for anti-Communist sentiment to take root in the mainstream of American culture, she contends, as heightened insecurity and fear of the USSR made it seem plausible that evil agents were under every bed plotting to kill Americans or at the very least destroy our culture.

Schrecker's strength is that she shows how far the reach of the government was in finding the people it sought, and how strong was the public support behind it. It is clear that constitutional liberties were in some cases overlooked, though the author seems to overlook herself that we were at war with a powerful foe at the time. Lincoln resorted to the same measures when he was trying to save the Union from dissolving. Schrecker's failure to mention this (as well as her failure to compare McCarthyism with the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 under Pres. John Adams) shows a lack of historical perspective on her part.

While I would have to say that this thesis is plausible and that the book is competent, I am overall dissatisfied with it, and somehow I am not sure I'm getting the whole picture. To state on page ix that "for some reason, this book touched an ideological nerve" is either demonstrates an incredible naïveté on Schrecker's part, or a smug disingenuousness that makes me skeptical from the outset. When she writes that if she were writing the book now she would "acknowledge more conclusively than I did that the American Communists spied for the Soviet Union," she in effect admits that she is a poor researcher. Where was she looking when she first wrote the book? Although reams of documents are now available to researchers with the fall of the USSR, had Schrecker gone to the trouble of carefully examining what materials existed before this new cache of documents became available she would have found testimony, deposition transcripts, court documents, memoirs, letters, newspaper articles, etc., all showing that-surprise! -the Rosenburgs were spies, and so was Alger Hiss! I suspect that Schrecker did not find what she wasn't looking for-guilt on the part of Soviet agents. Nevertheless her admission in the new preface shows little contrition for such shabby research.

I bought this book for the research paper I was writing on McCarthyism. While I agree with her that McCarthyism was a time in our history where the government overstepped it's bounds and infringed upon the rights of many.

However, Shrecker's book is very left-biased and some of her conclusions and opinions are ridiculas. For instance, she basically claims that the fact that communist in the U.S. were in fact giving secrets to the Soviets (including nuclear secrets) is no big deal. She tries to soften it by saying that the Soviets would have likely had the bomb only 2 years later than they did if they weren't given nuclear secrets by American communists.

Besides that, the book is incredibly dry and boring.

I would NOT recommend this book. Try to find a more balanced, less biased book on the subject.

Notwithstanding the harshness of the title, I found this book to be a generally-balanced, thoughtful account of the intense and extensive anti-Communist campaign in the United States which flourished from the mid-1940s through the mid-1950s. Now 50 years after the fact, the study of McCarthyism remains worthwhile for two reasons: As author Ellen Schrecker shrewdly observes, McCarthyism both predated and outlasted the heyday of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, which lasted only from 1950 until 1954; and McCarthyism reached practically every aspect of American life. It is virtually impossible to understand the history of the United States during the first decade after World War II (which also, of course, was the first decade of the Cold War) without careful reference to the phenomenon of McCarthyism. Somewhat to my surprise, this book is largely free of ideological cant, even as Schrecker carefully recounts the various ways in which McCarthyism distorted American politics in the early years of the Cold War, and I found her concluding chapter on the impact of McCarthyism to be especially effective.

Much of the copious background material Schrecker presents is both useful and interesting, although it takes her 150 pages to get to the mid-1940s, which is the ostensible beginning of the era of McCarthyism. Schrecker's formulation is intelligent and straightforward: By 1946, the United States was engaged in the growing Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union; McCarthyism was the home front of the Cold War; and it took little imagination to make American Communists and anyone who was or ever had been associated with them the principal targets on the home front.....

The focus of this book generally is events within the United States, but Schrecker does not whitewash the horrors perpetrated by Stalin's Soviet Union, nor the threat it posed to the United States. To the contrary, Schrecker is candid in reporting that, even during World War II, when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were allies, the Soviets engaged in extensive anti-American espionage, the most egregious example of which was the passage of the secrets of the Manhattan Project, which allowed the Soviet Union to develop its own atomic bomb in 1949, "a year or two sooner than it otherwise would have." I believe that Schrecker's main premise, however, is that the dangerous international situation in the late 1940s and 1950s was conflated into a vicious hunt for subversives within the United States grotesquely out of proportion to any real domestic threat which might have existed. The record presented here of illegal conduct by the F.B.I. and its conscious exaggeration of the danger posed by Communism on the home front is what makes this book an important cautionary tale.

In addition to some case histories, we see something about how a men's group for this purpose works. Worth reading.

In my personal struggles to overcome homosexuality, no other book short of the Scriptures has brought the issues I deal with into such clarity. Dr. Nicolosi describes six men and their recovery from the hurt, confusion, and struggle of same-gender attraction. It is easy reading yet contains life-changing ideas in a single sentence or paragraph. The book clearly helps men who love other men see why they are succeptible to homosexuality and gives sound, empowering, and true methods of overcoming that which saps many men of their masculinity. Unlike other books which treat symptoms, Healing Homosexuality gives a cure for the sickness.

I am not a recovering homosexual. I am a recovering heterosexual. Mr Nicolosi's book convinced me of that.

I don't believe there is anything in any way wrong with being gay and I am quite agnostic on where gay-ness comes from. I am inclined to believe that there are a fair number of gay men who just are, and were always going to be, gay. On the other hand I believe there are very many gay men whose sexual orientation can very plausibly be explained by looking at their childhood environment.

If there is any major criticism I would have of Mr Nicolosi's analysis it is that he doesn't leave enough room for the possibility that many gay men just are gay full stop; nothing to do with environment; no question of it being any other way.

On the other hand his collection of case studies highlights the other side of the coin - the men who could have grown up quite differently - in a way I have never seen elsewhere. Reading the stories I heard many of my innermost feelings e! xpressed by others for the very first time. No particular case fitted my own exactly, but most contained some insight which made me smile or weep with recognition.

The overriding theme is the role of fathers in boys' gender identity and what can happen when fathers are absent, weak, laughable, violent, demanding and more, and when sons are timid, introverted, weak and, crucially, alienated from male life.

Nicolosi backed up, to an extent I could not have imagined possible, my own analysis of my sexuality. Almost all my life my primary erotic impulse was towards men. Why didn't I simply accept that I was gay? Quite simply, because I became more and more aware as time went on that my gayness wasn't a joyful sexuality. It wasn't just a preference for the male form and male company. More than anything it stemmed from a chronic failure of gender identity which also denied me self-respect. Becoming non-gay is just a side effect of what I, and Nicolosi's patients, really need to ! achieve: to take charge of our lives, assume our sense of o! ur own maleness and thereby learn to love ourselves.

but it just didn't.

While Girzone's earlier "Joshua" books left no doubt as to whom Joshua really was, neither were they the forward, subtle-as-a-ton-of-bricks parables this one is. Perhaps that was Girzone's intent: to make this millennial Joshua more of a "Gospel of John" character [who boldly asserts his identity], rather than a "Gospel of Mark" character [who guards his true identity, only to be revealed upon his resurrection]. It's hard to reconcile the two Joshuas, but, again, maybe that's the point.

I was not so much offended as distracted by the very topical themes of the book. Earlier books in the series stayed away from using references to specific religious or cultural figures; this one names names (Pope John Paul II and the Church of God in Christ, for example). I found this unfortunate, as it seemed more a negative statement about them than a positive statement about the work of Jesus in the world. Prior books were fun to read over and over; I barely made it through this one the first time through.

Though I appreciated the messages offered, this was not a pleasant read (as the prior books were) for me. If this is the first of the "Joshua" series you read, I would encourage you to immediately read any of the earlier ones. They are a cut above this offering, both in reading enjoyment and in the message presented.

I have read all the books in the Joshua series and a couple other books Joseph Girzone has written. My favorites are JOSHUA and JOSHUA AND THE CHILDREN. JOSHUA AND THE CHILDREN really moved me and affected me deeply, giving me a deeper appreciation for the finer things in life. I was really looking forward to reading JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING, the latest book in the series.

What a huge disappointment! The Joshua of JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING is not the same Joshua who appears in the other books in the series. The author says he is, but he's not really. No, the Joshua in this book is really just a puppet that the author uses to express his own beliefs and philosophies, some of which are not even Biblical. Now, there's nothing wrong with an author using a character he has created to spew forth the author's beliefs. However, Joshua isn't just some character. Joshua is supposed to be Jesus. Jesus isn't just a character and he shouldn't be treated as such.What made the first few Joshua books so enjoyable, memorable, and meaningful is that Joshua was Jesus. Girzone seems to have forgotten that. Instead, Joshua has become a mouthpiece of Joseph Girzone.

No longer does Joshua hide the identity of who he is, but now he lets people in on the "messianic secret" sometimes even telling them point blank who he really is. Not only that, but this Joshua claims that the Bible really isn't God-breathed but is an embellishment made by men. According to this Joshua: the claims of Christ about when the world would end aren't true and a prophecy might never reach it's fulfillment; macro-evolution is a fact of life; and we should all be blindly listening to scientists because they are the new prophets. This is just a sample of the teachings from the new Joshua.

I enjoyed reading all the other Joshua books, but JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING was a struggle to get through. The book isn't very long and the language is simple, yet it drags. Instead of caring what was going on with the story, I found myself wondering how long the book was going to drag. What a disappointment.

My family gave me a copy of Joshua, the Homecoming, for Christmas. I read it twice in one week. It is one of the best Joshua books thus far. It came at a time when I was searching for answers - answers to why some churches are not meeting the spiritual needs of their families. It made me realize I was not alone in not having my spiritual needs met at church. Fr. Joe has such a strong insight into each of us and knows how to tell us how Jesus would respond. I would strongly recommend the book for anyone in search of answers about their faith.

This is a well done book but the title is misleading. Jewish parents will especially want to take care, as this book is really written for non-Jewish children to learn about the Jewish Bible. THe book references the Jewish Bible from a Christian point of view, and references historical characters as to their distance in time to Jesus. I wish they had been more explicit about this; in fact, by prominently featuring the name of a rabbi who wrote the FOreword on the book's cover, the publishers seem to be purposely misleading potential buyers as to the nature of the book

First off, there is nothing distinctively Jewish about this book
except 1) a six-pointed star on the cover and 2) a foreword by a Rabbi.
However, in looking for bible story books for my child, it is the
best collection of Old Testament bible stories that I have come
across. The stories stick close to the actual bible stories
with little interpretation or fictionalizing. And the photos showing the landscapes and archaological finds are nice. ...

I teach fifth-grade Sunday school at my (reform) synagogue. Every week I struggle to bring these stories alive. I have a shelf of books to help, but none does a better job of providing clear and beautiful illustrations, and organizing things so I can help the kids make sense of all this.

So, the book is repackaged. Who cares? It helps me do what I need to do: present the Bible to kids in a way that keeps them interested. I think it helps me as I try to launch them into a lifelong relationship with Tanakh.

So, the book mentions Jesus. Good. This way I get to explain Jesus, the historical and cultural phenomenon, to the kids. It makes no sense to try to ignore the dominant culture of the United States, even (and maybe especially) in temple. I think Jewish kids could use some perspective, and I welcome the chance to provide it.

Can we relax a bit? I appreciate the "heads up," but prefer to take a pass on the hysteria.

If you are looking for a book to help you study for the MCSE core exams, this book is of dubious value. Being an MCSE certified on NT 3.51, I wanted something that would give me a quick review to pass the 4.0 tests. The organization of the book is good, but the many errors I encountered have led me to say that I would never recommend this book. I did not find many errors in the actual text of the book, but when it came to the sample tests, look out. Repeated questions, answers to questions that weren't asked, questions about material not covered in the text, questions about non-existent menus. After a while, it got to where I couldn't trust what the book was saying - not very valuable as a review tool.

I am an MCSE (NT 4.0 - SQL Server 6.5 track). I have 2.5 years of experience not only with NT but with most of the Back Office Suite. Until recently, I was also a Webmaster. I believe this gives me some authority to give some high marks to the book. Yes, some of the questions were miserably phrased, some of the answers had either no relationship to the question asked or were flat out wrong - but we are talking about 1% of the instances. I believe, if you know your subject - this book is a great tool for making sure that you know what you are supposed to know in order to either pass the technical interviews or be successful on the job. The catch is - you have to know the subject before you read the book, and you have to test EVERYTHING you are being taught, and that you are not familiar with.

Read some of the other reviews here and yes - this text has got quite a few errors in it.

That's inevitable in a book this size.

Most importantly, the subject matter is covered well and enough questions are given to make your memory work - or at least that's the way questions help me in my study efforts.

I bought the New Riders books before and there's nothing in them, (well very little), which isn't here.

Worse still when I first started my MCSE 'endeavour', I paid £1500+ for a course by a certain large education company which came nowhere near the usability and quality of this book.

If this sounds like I'm a fan - then YES I AM.

My only regret is spending money on other study aids - because they weren't necessary.

Congratulations QUE - you have a winner - but you need to spend a bit more time proof reading in the future. Keep it up.

Mark Hodgkinson - MCP - CNA