Fun book to peruse. I'd have liked more details about construction of props or pics of props being built. Also, more "Star Wars" than "Raiders" despite the title.

This book offers an inside look at the huge collection of the Lucasfilm Archives. Conceptual art, models, props, puppets, masks, and various other movie making elements from the original STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES trilogies are examined and the last few pages look at three or four items from other Lucasfilm projects including WILLOW and HOWARD THE DUCK. The text is more than just element descriptions and some of the information is interesting and rather fascinating. A great book for any STAR WARS and/or INDIANA JONES fan and a must for a Lucas buff.

This book is proof positive why George Lucas and Speilberg will always be superior to the Star Trek Franchise with their brand of movies. The pictures in this one are a must have for any fan of Star Wars or Indiana Jones. The complete story boards. Not just crude renderings. The masks, the designs that didn't make it into the movie. The characters in all their films are not by formula. All the Star Wars aliens and models from Return of the Jedi are in this volume. You can see how closely the story boards match what would eventually would become the movie.

This book is just mesmerizing - it is so beautiful. Mark Rothko took art to a spiritual level that has seldom been achieved. The beauty of his colors and the simplicity of his work mesh to dominate the field of art, and make him a true master of our times. This particular book is full of color pictures of his work. Highly recommended for any art lover.

American artist Mark Rothko's artworks represents the very foundations of the Abstract Expressionist movement, and his key works are here presented in full-page color, introduced by essays from his contemporaries. This superbly produced volume with its exquisite presentation considers all of Rothko's works and contributions and is an essential acquisition for any serious collection on the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Yes, the reviewer who commented on the quality of the prints needs to get their specs looked at. This book is wonderfully produced, from the quality of the printing to the quality of the paper. It will sit alongside Anfan's wonderful catalogue raisonee on my shelves. I only wish I had followed my urge to hop on the Eurostar train from London to Paris on a day trip to see the exhibition. The last full Rothko exhibition I saw was in London in 1987, a mind expanding experience. This book is a world better than the catalogue of that exhibition and is definitely a must for any Rothko admirer. I will be in the Rothko room of the new Tate Modern gallery almost every day.

Towards the end of tape religious imagery is used. Something about imagining yourself in the hand of god.

There is nothing wrong with that, but I felt that the tape should have had a warning on it for people who do not share the author's religious beliefs.

I just recently got this CD and I am pleased with it. It is just what I expected, calm guided imagery and affirmations. I found it very relaxing and plan to listen to it nightly to both relax from the stress of the day and to put positive life-affirming thoughts into my head. I have to admit, when I first heard Naparstek's voice I didn't like it but within a minute or two it grew on me with it's calming presence. For some people, the guided imagery and affirmations may cause strong reactions. I was actually surprised by this even though Naparstek forewarns the listener that this may happen. I think it is important to seek help (psychotherapy, medication) for depression outside this CD. This is not a cure for depression. I do think it is a wonderful tool that can be used in one's own home to help though. I highly recommend this. I plan to try some of Naparstek's other CDs in this series as well.

Belleruth Naparstek's soothing voice itself is a valuable aid to relaxation and calmness. The guided imagery is extremely helpful in centering oneself and in becoming relaxed. As Belleruth says in the introduction, you may find that it will ease you right into restful sleep the first few times you listen (especially if you listen at bedtime, as I do). It's worth the effort to stay awake, though, to follow the suggestions in the imagery and also to listen to the affirmations. I would highly recommend this audio CD, as well as another CD by Naparstek on coping with stress, to you if you are willing to take the time to be open to new ways of healing yourself.

In the mist of today's worldwide events, where prejudice and hate runs free, it is encouraging to the human spirit to read the story of the kindertransport. "Into the Arms of Strangers" is a first person narration of some of the children (now elderly adults) who were saved from the hands of Nazism and given an opportunity to start a new life. This was all possible thanks to a noble attitude from the British government who was aware(as well as many other nations) of the final destination of the Jewish population. From this act of mercy, 10,000 children (most of them from Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany) were transported from their native countries just before the outbreak of World War II (1938) into England where they were temporarily adopted, until circunstances would allow them to reunite with their families. Despite the suffering these children went through, the unfair treatment some of them received, the psychological trauma, they are all thankful for the opportunity of being alive. Most of them were able to restructure their lives, set roots and build a family. Today they are witnesses to a dreadful chapter in human history and are here to give their testimony. Great merit goes to all of those who were involved in this humanitarian effort (Otto Hirsch, Norbert Wollheim, amongst others).
Sad though it may be to read the account of each of these survivors, even sadder it is to realize that many, many more children could have been saved where it not for the selfish attitude taken by many nations. For those who have had an opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, it is a consolation to know that the children saved by the kindertransport are not listed among the other 1,000,000 children who did not have the same opportunity. And history keeps reapeating itself... not much thinking is nedded to realize that at the present moment there are people in several parts of the world who would have their lives saved if the "kinderstransport spirit" were to prevail.
There is a film in DVD/Video version of "Into the Arms of Strangers," which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It is highly recommended, the book and the film complement and enrich each other.

I enjoy reading memoirs because by personalizing a part of history they bring history to life in a way that no text book can."Into the Arms of Strangers" is an example of just such a book. This book details in length the story of one of histories greatest resuces. (At least in terms of the numbers saved from an almost certain death) Before the British entered WWII thousnds of Jewish children were rescued from Germany by the British people and their goverment in an operation known as Kindertransport."Into the Arms of Strangers" tells the inspiring and ocassionaly heartbreaking story of theese children. While they were given a second chance at life in England most would never again see the parents who Heroicaly gave them to strangers in another country. If I have any criticisms of this book (and I do) It would be the way the story was put together. "Into the Arms Of Strangers " follows the stories of about a dozen kindertransport kids and thier families from the early days of the Nazis to present day. Each chapter covers a particualar time frame, for instance September 1st 1939 and tells the story of each child for that time period. then moves on to the next major event in the history of the holocaust.This format may have worked well if the story consisted of two or three kids and thier famalies but it became confusing when so many different stories were being told in the book. I Kept finding myself back tracking to previous pages and chapters just trying to keep the characters straight in my mind. The book would have been better off telling each childs story individually or having a narrower focus such as two or three kids.All in all though this is a book well worth reading and I highly reccomend it for history buffs and those who never heard the stoy of the kindertransport.

This was an illuminating and evocative book. Anyone interested in this topic should also read "Escape Via Siberia" and "The Uprooted" by Dorit Whiteman. Whiteman's books -- which expertly weave gripping personal accounts with historical context -- explore how survivors of the kindertransport and other Holocaust horrors coped with the legacy of their harrowing ordeals as adults. Whiteman is an expert in the field and some of her material was used in the movie, "Into the Arms of Strangers."

I found this book to be revealing and enlightening about one of my favorite singers. Nat King Cole had a voice like no other before or since. With his calm demeanor you'd never think that he endured so much hell in his life. No wonder he smoked as much as he did. This book is one of the best I've ever read about the life of Nat Cole, but like some of the previous reviewers, I found little errors, too. I also felt that it had a strong sympathetic bent towards Nat's widow Maria, as if she were the heroine of the story. That isn't any wonder; this book was written in full cooperation with the Cole family, so I'm sure Mrs. Cole would have had to come out of it looking good, or she wouldn't have cooperated. Also Epstein says that shortly before Cole died, that he and his wife reconciled after Nat's torrid love affair with a twenty year old chorus girl. According to many other sources, though, they never did reconcile their differences. But this is what Maria Cole wanted people to believe. But still this book is very interesting. It reads like a juicy novel, but it's better, because it's a true story. It's engaging and will definitely hold your attention. You will feel like you knew the man personally. For anyone who loves Nat and his music, this book is a must.

I finally got around to reading Nat King Cole, and like the previous reviewer, I, too, caught a few mistakes such as the one about Elvis. At least Mr. Epstein did have the family's approval to write this book, and to be interviewed by him as well. Like most baby boomers, I grew up listening to NKC's music but never really knew much about the man other than the fact that his wife's name is Maria, his daughter is Natalie Cole & that he died of lung cancer at age 45. This book enlightens us on Nat King Cole not just as a singer and musician but as a man. I really felt for the Cole family when they were subjected to prejudice while moving into their home in Hancock Park. I also felt anger while reading of how a group of radicals attacked NKC while performing onstage in Alabama, planning to kidnap him. Mr. Epstein also periodically mentions the warnings about cigarette smoking throughout the book, as it is heavy smoking(several packs a day)that eventually killed NKC. The book is still highly recommended for all fans of one of the greatest singers of romance, bar none.

This biography lets us view this gentleman and his music from his early days on the Chicago jazz circuit to mega star status as a pop singer, film and television artist. Daniel Mark Epstein, the author has been thorough in his research. We meet Maria and Natalie and a litany of Nat's friends, JFK, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Bobby Darin Buddy Greco and George Shearing. There is even an item about Marilyn Monroe. Nat's public image was one of poise and elegance. The author captures the hidden side of Nat's personal turmoil and anxiety. Nat died at age forty-five. So young, so talented, and very very unforgettable. I can still almost hear his trio and his smooth vocals crooning "Blue Velvet", "When Sunny Gets Blue" and of course, "Unforgettable". I liked this book. If you get a chance, listen to John Pizzarelli's version of "Straighten Up and Fly Right", a Nat King Cole favorite. It's on John's CD, "Dear Mr Cole." I liked this book and the CD

They were not content to do something as mundane as build a successful business. Rather, they were hell-bent on global domination. Along the way, they were afforded the stature of world leaders, idolized like rock stars, and treated like folk heroes." "When the history of the Digital Age is written, the story will be boiled down to the empires created by five men: Bill Gates, Steve Case, Larry Ellison, John Chambers, and Jeff Bezos." "They are The New Imperialists." "Yet, who really are they? Beyond the scores of cover stories, newspaper headlines, television interviews and biographies, their personal motives and motivators have remained a mystery." "Until now." "Mark Leibovich spent 18 months interviewing the men themselves and over 400 people who have known them best: family, friends, neighbors, former teachers, classmates and lovers, colleagues, employees and adversaries. Combining the information he gleaned with his own unique take on these men, Leibovich has written a fascinating collection of biographies emphasizing their little known and deeply personal quirks, motivations, warts, demons, and vanities

In case you are not familiar with the people who "virtually" rule our technology-laden world, according to Washington Post technology reporter Leibovich, they are Microsoft's Bill Gates, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, American Online (AOL)'s Steve Case, Oracle Corporation's Larry Ellison, and Cisco Systems' John Chambers.

Software-manufacturer Microsoft, of course, needs no introduction; Oracle developed the data management software used in ATMs and credit card terminals; Internet retailer Amazon.com, like most of its adversaries, uses hardware developed by Cisco to finalize consumer purchases of books, movies and CDs, among other products; and the world's most successful Internet service provider, AOL, recently became part of the world's largest media conglomerate when it merged with Time Warner.

Leibovich spent 18 months interviewing the book's subjects, and their families, friends and acquaintances, with the goal of looking at "what formed the desperate edges to their ambitions."

Gates and Ellison, at the time of writing, were the world's two richest people, respectively.

Ellison attributes his drive for success to the fear of its alternative. "I can't imagine anything worse than failing," he says. Also fearful of aging, he helps fund research on a hormone believed by some to slow the process.

Ellison is in the middle of building a compound near San Francisco which includes "an 8,000-square-foot main house; five guest residences [where guests will select food from a computer screen and have it delivered to them by boat], an underground network of basements and tunnels; a forest of cherry trees...streams, waterfalls, ponds, and a lake...a tea house, boathouse, amphitheater, indoor basketball court and recreation centre; a horse stable; three garages for Ellison's 14 cars; and a sprawling garden to be maintained by a staff of 20. The lake will be filled with purified drinking water."

Quite a step up from the apartments he lived in as a child where his adoptive father frequently told him he "would never amount to anything."

Aggressive when it came to growing his business, Ellison reportedly ended meetings by chanting, "kill, kill, kill." In his personal life, he went on "Oprah" to make "a public plea for a wife" after divorcing his first three.

Envisioning a small but successful Internet bookstore when he conceived Amazon.com in 1994, Jeff Bezos quickly discovered he was onto something and soon branched out into other product lines. In a nutshell, he's the one responsible for turning "computer screens into the new store windows," as Leibovich notes.

Bezos is known for a laugh so loud and unusual "that his younger siblings used to refuse to sit with him in movie theatres." In grade 12, his library card was revoked for laughing too loudly in the library.

Bezos is well known for scrutinizing prospective employees and Leibovich shares a story about how, when Bezos was interviewing a candidate for the position of chief financial officer for Amazon.com he asked why she had placed 2nd instead of 1st out of 27,000 when she wrote her CPA exam. The candidate replied that it was because she hadn't studied.

She got the job.

As a child, Bezos read a lot of science fiction books and would say later, "It was a great way of expanding your ideas of what's possible and what's not." Meanwhile, his mother let him watch "Star Trek" and the "Three Stooges," which could explain both the laugh and his fascination with cyberspace.

Cisco is the primary manufacturer of the equipment people and businesses use to connect to the Internet, and Leibovich describes Cisco's John Chambers as being "the executive personification of all the Internet's promise and prosperity, a man floating on the new-economy balloon. Until it popped."

A fellow Cisco executive declares, "John will often say, this will be really challenging, but isn't it really fun?!"

In the year 2000, Chambers, who has dyslexia, was paid a total of $157.3 million for running Cisco. At their highest point, Cisco shares had risen 100,000 percent since their initial public offering.

It is here that we learn of the angst Bill Gates experienced during the recent antitrust trial which would give Microsoft the dubious distinction of becoming known as "America's most embattled company." He takes his work - and Microsoft's future - seriously, saying, "If I'm worried about something at work, it's there 24 hours a day."

When he started Microsoft, he resolved the company should not take on debt, while insisting it maintain enough money to survive for one year with no sales. Obviously, that year never came. Gates currently has a net worth somewhere in the neighbourhood of $54 billion. In an interview, Leibovich asked Gates if there is "a burden in being so wealthy and having everyone know it." Gates responded, "Sure. But there is an offsetting benefit."

Gates was born into a wealthy family in Seattle, and when his mother, via intercom, asked him what he was doing in his room as a child, he ignored her. If she persisted, he'd yell, "Thinking!"

The thinking would eventually pay off, especially when he started thinking about computers, an obsession that started when he was 12.

America Online founder Steve Case is reputedly called "the Wall" at AOL due to his lack of emotion.

Of Case's childhood, Leibovich writes, "These were the dark ages before chat rooms and instant messaging, when kids called one another together by bouncing a basketball on a driveway." Case spent so much time in his room his parents called it his "office," and getting mail (the old-fashioned kind) made his day. When he wasn't in his room, the basketball games he played with his brother and childhood friends were extremely competitive, and he was known for "a penchant for the board game, Risk, where the object of the game was world domination."

Strange that later in life he would come to dominate the world's Internet service provider market.

Leibovich's book is a powerful read, providing us with a critical look at these men and their companies, and what is most interesting is how their vastly different personalities each seem suited to success.

Leibovich's use of the word "imperialist" is apt to the extent that each of the five "restless kids" (Case, Chambers, Bezos, Gates, and Ellison) grew up to "virtually rule the world" and now preside over the 21st century's equivalent of an empire. Thus each can be viewed as a modern-day emperor. In that sense, they are (at least for now) among the "royalty" of the contemporary business world. Frankly, I find them much more interesting as ordinary human beings in most respects but who do indeed possess a few extraordinary talents which help to explain why each has achieved so much thus far.

Leibovich organizes her excellent material with five chapters, each dedicated to one of the "new imperialists." Having just read Florence Stone's The Oracle of Oracle: The Story of Volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the Strategies Behind His Company's Phenomenal Success, I was already well-prepared for the first chapter. Stone's comments about Ellison are remarkably;y consistent with Leibovich's, both agreeing that Ellison is one of the most complicated, sometimes contradictory, and on occasion infuriating people they have as yet encountered. Consider Leibovich's account of a conversation with Adda Quinn, to whom Ellison was once married, years before the founding of Oracle: "Quinn calls Ellison the most charming, brilliant, and non-boring man she has ever known. He also gave her an ulcer, she says, with his deceptions, darting interests, and changing moods....He had an explosive temper and Quinn said she feared for her safety as their marriage was ending. The couple kept guns in the house -- they lived in a rough part of Oakland and had been burglarize -- and she thought that Ellison was becoming increasingly erratic." There are many other similar comments by whose who had direct and frequent contact with Ellison. Obviously, Ellison is an exceptionally intelligent man but also "volatile" and, when it serves his purposes ruthless.

The chapter which interested me the most is the one devoted to John Chambers. He and the other four "achieved their dominance seemingly overnight. and to a degree that has exploded any previous notion of commercial scope and scale. Moreover their wired age goals go beyond mere geographic expansion; they incorporate a kind of lifestyle imperialism in which traditional lines of media and commerce are constantly being pushed." However, to a much greater extent than any of the others, Chambers has helped Cisco Systems to achieve its dominance through aggressive M&A initiatives and strategic partnerships. His preferred approach is collegial rather than confrontational. I also find it significant that Chambers' personality and leadership style are far less flamboyant than those of Ellison, Bezos, and Case. Also, based on the information provided, he conducts himself in a manner which suggests that he is much less competitive than Gates. However, it is important to remember that this may well be a skillfully cultivated perception rather than a reality.

What we have here are mini-biographies, albeit more substantial than "portraits," of five uncommon men, all of whom are distinguished by "their quest for social ubiquity, a sense of manifest destiny that is captured in America Online's corporate mantra, 'AOL Anywhere.' It's a poignant statement, not just of one company's voracious aims, but of the kinds of boundless goals that the networked economy now allows for." Thanks to Leibovich, we have in a single volume what will help us to understand "one of the most transforming and tumultuous eras in American history." Leibovich has rigorously examined where five of its greatest leaders came from and "what they've grown up to be"...at least so far.

I'm working on a web services project using Java and purchased this book. There wasn't any coverage on web services. I supplimented this title with Java, The Complete Reference that covers web servers. Otherwise, this book is OK

The book is written with a good outline on each subject, however, it does not follow-up the same for each subject. For example, the section on JavaMail is good with multiple examples (except for a serious error in one of those examples). While they somewhat duplicate the examples in that chapter with a few variations, another chapter in the book will have much less supporting information. What I would criticize most about this book is the level of information written on each subject differs between chapters and within chapters. There is no real consistency of detail or emphasis. I also would expect a revision in the near future because of a few errors in the book (mostly typos). In defense of the book, I must say that about 75% of all programming books seem to do the same thing... that is being inconsistent with their level of information.

"J2EE Unleashed" covers the major aspects of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition. The three main pieces (servlets, JSPs, and EJBs) are each well covered with good examples. JNDI, JDBC, JavaMail and JMS are each given a chapter and XML is also covered. The strength of the book, though, is its coverage of designing J2EE architectures. For example, servlets are explained but then the authors go beyond the explanation to show how servlets fit into an overall J2EE architecture. Model 2 controller architecture is covered and Apache Struts is discussed as an example of using servlets as controllers. According to the publisher, "The goal of this book is not to teach the J2EE specification but to illustrate the best practices for developing J2EE applications." In fact, it does both. The example application which is used throughout the book is well designed to cover all the pieces of J2EE. I do have two complaints about the book. First, it concentrates too much on the SilverStream Application Server getting down to the level of showing screen shots of deployment wizards. Second, the book could have used some editing to give it a better flow. J2EE architecture is explained before any of the pieces that make up the architecture are discussed. EJB session beans are used to demonstrate how to use JDBC before EJBs are covered. Overall, however, the book is well done and can stand up against any of the books covering this complex topic.

This book was obviously written at the peak of the internet "Boom". The majority of the companies cited as examples of the onslaught of the new economy are no longer in existence. Earnings are barely mentioned. Companies cited as the movers and shakers of tomorrow are now penny stocks. The total lack of balance relative to other sectors is appalling and in retrospect is by itself educational. Everyone bought into the hype including the entire VC industry. This might explain why they all sat on the sideline in 2001 trying to regain their sense of direction. The entertainment value is a 5 and the educational value a 1. It is your choice.

This book is a must read for every entrepreneur and VC. The snippets of information in it are very valuable even after the downfall of the Internet economy-most of the text is more focused on timeless vc/entrepreneur related issues. I would highly recommend this book...

I was very impressed by the knowledge in this book. It has a ton of useful information for everyone from entrepreneurs to investors to other financial professionals. In addition, the content is fresh and much more applicable to the "after the shakedown" landscape than other venture capital oriented books such as eBoys, Confessions of a Venture Capitalist and Done Deals. This is a great book that has a ton of useful information straight from some very accomplised venture capitalists.

The book is technically well written. BUT...it's about as dry as burnt toast. And the author insists on using non-standard phrases like "contention domain" to describe "collision domains". How about writing a book in plain English? This book has useful information, but the author seems to put too much energy into writing in a style that says "Hey, look at me! I'm so smart that I can make even simple concepts sound confusing!". Keep it on your shelf as a reference. You might need to take it out and blow the dust off of it every few months.

Sheesh, half a chapter and it is lights out! Just kidding. The book is very good, but like one other reviewer said, it could be half as thick and still have the same info in it. Alot of reviewing and repeating of stuff already talked about (I guess redundancy is not all that bad). But it is not light reading- very dry writing that is at times tedious to read. But the subject is well covered and gives a good background into the principles of routing and IP.

I don't understand why this book deserves so many 5 stars (which was the reason I picked up the book). While it provides sufficient introductary material on the subject, the book should really be half thick at most -- the layout wastes lots of paper, and also there is simply too much repeating and redundency, in some cases repeating the same diagrams, paragraphs and sentences. Added to that is the existence of errors, some of them in the examples.

James Carlysle "Carla" Murdock refuses to let life get her down. She may have just lost her father in World War II, she may be recovering from a debilitating illness, and she may have slightly misled her new guardian into thinking that she was a boy, but she refuses to leave her beloved dog, Merlin, alone in a cage on the train. So begins the story of The Mark of Merlin, a murder-mystery romance from Anne McCaffrey, best known for the Pern series. When Carla arrives at her destination, she has to explain to the gruff young Major Laird her minor deception and figure out what to do from there. The Major instantly realizes that it is improper for Carla to stay with him, but where else can he take her in the middle of a blizzard? As more guests surprise Carla and Major Laird with their appearances, Carla becomes more and more suspicious about her father's death and eventually realizes that he was murdered. But why? Her father was a highly respected officer and all of his men loved him. Determined to find out, Carla lets nothing stand in her way - not even her growing feelings for the handsome Major Laird...

I felt that the story itself was fine, a little blah, like I said, but it moved along at a good pace. The part that was the most lackluster for me was the characters themselves. I simply could not identify with any of the characters and found that I didn't particularly like them either, especially Carla. As Carla is the only female in the book and the main character, this didn't make me enjoy the story any more. Carla waffles between being a spoiled brat, a great housekeeper, and a growing young woman. How someone like Major Laird could have fallen in love with her in just a few days is simply beyond me. The story is well written, the little details about World War II provided good background information, many of the secondary characters, particularly the villains, were great, but I would only buy this book if you find it for a very good deal in a used bookstore.

This is not a new book but it is a good one, very different to Anne McCaffreys current style as it is a fiction novel not Science Fiction. An enjoyable light read.

This gothic romance/ mystery is one of my all time favorite books. This book was originally published in 1971, and even at this early in Ms. McCaffrey's career, her talent and maturity as a writer is already apparent. The characters are vivid and well balanced. The plot does not drag or falter. All in all a very good read!