This is a delightful, little book. An educational novel for pre-teens and adults alike. I picked it up out of curiosity and read it from cover to cover with a smile on my face.

Set on Long Island, the story is that of a single-parent, Jewish family with a live in care provider from the Old Country who is also the spiritual and instructive medium in the children's lives. Most of the adults depicted, as well.

Covering just about every aspect of Jewish life in such a funny, informative, and realistic way, I began to wonder if the author, a Rabbi himself, had not been a member of my own congregation. I think all readers will feel the same way. His grasp of the internal dynamics of the Jewish community and synagogue life is incredible.

Almost every word describing Conservative Jewish religious practice is included in the narrative. There is a lesson to be learned on almost every page, from anti-Semitism to internal prejudices, few if any subjects are left unexamined in a positive, thought provoking way.

Comprised of a story about vandals motivated by a former Nazi officer with several intriguing subplots, at no point does the reader get lost or chance being overcome by one subplot or another. The reading experience is thus very enjoyable.

Comprehensive and utterly charming, the only drawback is it is obvious this was meant to be one of a series of mysteries. Mysteries to be solved by the Lazarus family and their cast of colorful, supporting characters. Sadly this appears to be the only edition published.

Very young readers make take notice of the era the book was set in, the mid 1980's, but other than a few dated chronological references, this book is timeless.

The author not only takes a stand and expresses an opinion, he backs up his views with specific examples. He dispels many myths about individual liberties and makes a convincing argument why liberty is so essential to our existence. It is somewhat frightening to learn about the very real errosion of our liberty. This book brings all of this to light is a very readable and interesting presentation.

This story is about a family that leaves a stressful, overly scheduled life in Philadelphia to run a small motel in the Black Hills of South Dakota. As the story opens the children have no real friends in their new town. They're exploring the hills above their motel when Kip, a 9 year old, has an accident while climbing a tree. Their doctor recommends that he exercise his leg after it's healed, so Kip, Clarity (10) and Joe (16) look into swimming, but the Black Hills Sports Arena only has time for them if they belong to a swim team. That's when Claraty, the crazy sister, comes up with the idea of forming their own team with Joe as their coach. They gather a motley crew of kids from their area and start a swim team. The plot takes them from an unmotivated bunch of individuals out to get some pool time to when they take on the Granite Swim Team at the region's swim meet... So many lessons on teamwork, discipline and social dynamics are incorporated into this exciting read! My 8 year old had a sleepover and at 11:00 p.m. she wanted me to read the last two chapters aloud at bedtime. All the girls listened in suspense and loved the book! My daughter also learned to swim that summer so she could be like Clarity. Get it, it's good!

This book is a great example of the "Choose Your Own Adventure"-type books, although it is definitely targeted to a more mature reader. The illustrations are lavish and full, and the storyline is very engrossing. I spent countless hours with this book when I was younger, and it is a shame the series is no longer in print.

Dr. Williams' CD is one of the most attractive, easy to use, and functional brain atlases I have seen. The quality of the images is outstanding and the concept unique. Too many CD authors are like new cooks...they over spice! The senses are bombarded with every computer bell and whistle available with the mistaken notion that this overload will keep the users interest or differentiate the CD medium from text. In contrast, Williams has used a elegant but conservative palate, a minimal but sufficient user interface, and intuitive program flow. I highly recommend this atlas to anyone trying to teach or learn the basic gross anatomy of the human brain.

Who enjoys the work Mark Borthwick does for 'Purple' magazine and has followed his photography with passion, will certainly love this wonderful book. He is an amazing photographer and writer, without a doubt. Always conceptual, always romantic, always raw. And of course, we must not forget Olivier Zahm anf Jeff Rian - the very best, as we are used to.

Systemantics is a humerous look at the world of systems and how they don't work. It is a book of tongue in cheek rules that are not only funny but true. John Gall used humour to point out the fatal flaws in our approach to systems of every sort.

This book is technology-focused with an emphasis on software-to-business alignment from the perspectives of quality and fit. It's a collection of papers that cover the range of related topics, including systems dynamics, object-oriented business process modeling, exploiting knowledge in adaptive workflow systems and modeling and metrics techniques.

Process improvement strategies are related to software quality and are highlighted in two chapters: (1) ISO 15504, SPICE (Software Process Improvement Capability dEtermination) and FEAST/1 (Feedback, Evolution And Software Technology), which was sponsored by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The material on FEAST/1 has been superseded by FEAST/2, but is still valid. Both SPICE and FEAST/1 chapters provide evaluation frameworks for determining software processes, which in turn is an indicator of how well systems modeling aligns to aspects of business processes.

The chapters which I felt were especially useful dealt with requirements and modeling, including:
- "Information Systems Specifications within the Framework of Client-Led Design"
- "Developing a Business-IT Co-Evolutionary Change Plan"
- "Relating Organizational Symbiotics, Process Modeling, and Stakeholder Viewpoints to Elucidate and Record Requirements"
- "Modeling Organizational Communication: Top Down Analysis & Bottom Up Diagnosis"

These reflect my current professional interests; however, I also gained insights from the chapter on FEAST/1 and "Modeling Information System Requirements for Complex Systems", both of which were thought provoking and addressed subtle issues that I hadn't previously thought of.

This book is not a primary text on business process modeling. It is most useful to experienced process improvement and requirements analysts and modeling professionals. Also not that much of the material needs to be force-fit to approaches such as UML, but does supplement UML and Unified Process methodologies if you keep an open mind and extract the key ideas presented.

David Brown does an amazing job at showing the issues of addiction that is dragging the Christian community at large down. He uses an amazing mixture of his own life, scripture, poetry, and common sense to show us where we are falling short. I enjoyed the openess and honesty of this book!

The book tells a lot about what it is like to go to camp. I enjoyed the part about the ropes course. I liked the end,too, because it was exciting.

I have seen the towns that they talk about in the book, and Shining Rock, because I live near the place where Camp Hampton is supposed to be.

This is a good book.
Try it.

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