The new edition of this book fails to deliver in every aspect. I've used Lonely Planet books in the past, and they've proved to be reliable and useful, but not this one. I live in Banff, and so the observations are from this region.

Firstly, the "new" edition is terribly out of date. I purchased it after seeing the publication date was October 2002. It's accepted and understandable that things change, but there is information that was wrong well over a year before the publication date. A hostel that burnt down in 2000 (Hilda Creek, page 701), and reference to Banff and Jasper as "townsites" (Banff was incorporated in 1991, Jasper in 2001) are examples.

The description of Banff is laughable. There is no possible way anyone could describe the town as a "small, alpine-style village that consists of essentially one main street" (page 686), as this book does. The following history section doesn't get better: "The Bow River forms a class-distinctive boundary that is still evident today." In the first instance, the side of the river that LP tells us "caters to the wealthy crowd" comprises mainly of subsidized housing. And "Many people complain that the townsite is too crowded and argue that more hotels and streets should be built." Aside from the fact a 12 year old could have written the sentence, it's just simply not correct. In an effort to include an environmental slant, the authors have touched on current issues. Readers are informed that a convention center at Lake Louise is controversial because it's "in grizzly bear habitat-good goin' guys" (page 696). Bad goin' I say-it's controversial due to water issues, not bears.

The book is riddled with inaccuacies. Not information that is out of date, but straightforward mistakes. Page 688 talks of canoe rentals at Banff's Central Park. There has never been a canoe rental place here. How could a trained writer even imagine there was? Golden is "just outside the park" (page 692) No, it's over an hour's drive away along a treacherous road. There are literally dozens of similar mistakes in just the few pages on Banff. This is also reflected in the maps: Banff has no "Mamoth St." (page 687). As all Banff streets are named for animals, I guess they meant "mammoth" street, but there is no street of this name either. The mapmakers can't even correctly spell an incorrect name, or something along those lines anyway.

Most surprising for me, the good, solid travel information these books were once renowned for has been replaced by useless, fluffy text that serves no purpose at all. For example, the restaurants listed are not recommendations as such, but simply listings. And where there is a description it does little to inform. Four lines are used to explain the source of the name of an Irish pub (page 694) that has absolutely no relevance to Banff or the mountains, including that the original Guinness Brewery is still open and that it was "founded by 34 year old Arthur Guinness in 1759." The next listing is for Bruno's, named for one of Banff's most famous and respected mountain men. This name isn't explained, just that the restaurant has a "wide-ranging menu." There is an excellent reason why renting a vehicle in Banff, as opposed to Calgary or Canmore, is a bad choice (no unlimited mileage is offered, even by the majors), yet, this important and useful information isn't included (page 696).

My original purpose of buying this book was for travel around my own country, not so much to rely on every word in print but to get a feeling as how Canada is portrayed by these books. The litany of inaccuracies and uselessness seems to continue beyond the Rockies section. On page 34 readers are told brown bears are "actually a black bear but brown in color." I just wish I could ask the author how he came up with this unique theory.

I imagine picking a Lonely Planet book as the guide of choice is habit more than anything for many travelers. It's reflected in the attitude of those I meet on the road and the reviews I see here at Amazon. It seems somehow ironic that Lonely Planet has evolved from the likes of an Africa book I relied on for every word in the 80s, written by a guy whose biography had him living in a hut brewing mango wine somewhere I can't recall, to this worthless tome that relies on name rather than content to generate sales.

Lightbody, Huhti and Ver Berkmoes have produced the definitive travel guide on Canada. Up-front, this review is based on my trips to B.C. and Nova Scotia. To say that Canada is vast is an understatement, but, if these, to polarized Canadian provinces, are typical of the rest of the guide, this is a "must have" purchase.

Lightbody, Huhti and Ver Berkmoes' writing is both engaging and descriptive. "Lonely Planet Canada" has a solid introduction section that covers Norway's history, government, economy, ecology, climate etc. An informative practical travel section and, most important, a reliable and up-to-date listing of recommendations that each of the contributors has checked out (lodging, restaurants, entertainment, places to see and things to do). At the start of each section is a regional map, more maps, and a list of highlights or "must see" for that region. Great!

In my "must have" list to qualify a guide as "excellent", are easy to read maps. This book has the best maps found in a Canada travel guide. High marks go to the city maps that help the reader by numerically locating the recommended restaurants and accommodations on the maps.

The superb information and recommendations are reliable and though the publication date is 1999 (thus the information is pre '99), I did find some restaurants and inns closed or sold. As a whole, accommodations prices have increased an average of 15% to 20%.

A weak area, which I am sure will be corrected in the next edition, is the sparse use of email/web site addresses (Halifax, N.S. had no addresses out of the 20 accommodations listings). As computer users know, website and email addresses are very helpful, especially for hotel quotes and reservations.

Lonely Planet Canada is comprehensive enough to have even if you are just visiting one province and, with its excellent introduction and reliable accommodations and restaurants recommendations, you find that this may be the best buy in Canada Guides. Strongly recommended.

I used this guide while travelling on the east and west coast of Canada. It's most complete and accurate and also fun to read. The recommendations are all very reliable and good. If you don't want to carry around a handful of guide books, this book helps a lot. Even if it might not go as much into detail as a guide that zooms in on a particular city or region. But you'll find everything a backpacker's (and budget traveler's) eye is looking for. Highly recommended.

This is a decent book, but...there are a number of errors in it. Be sure and get the corrections from the publisher at:

http://mercury.larkbooks.com/glaze/correct.pdf
http://mercury.larkbooks.com/glaze/index.pdf

Other than that, it is a good book on glaze materials, mixing, and application. Includes a variety of recipies for use at various cone temps.

Updated info...the second printing has corrected the errors that I mentioned above.

When I ordered the book, there was no reader's reviews. All three reviews appeared the next day after I ordered the book. I would not have purchased it if I had read those reviews. However, when the book arrived, I checked it against the corrections [website] and found that all but one error have been corrected (foot note for middle picture on page 118). There is no indication that the book in my hands is a second printing.

This book is well illustrated and extremely well organized for easy comprehension. The pictures of the test tiles for major colorants laid out in a modified 2 x Y factorial design is extremely informative. The format of having one illustration by each formula is the most inspiring and useful way of presenting the formulae. Get this book and Hopper's the Ceramic Spectrum if you want to start formulating your own glazes.

Our ceramics instructor and I (perennial student) found this book in a local library and our class loves it. We participate in a potter's guild situation, not an academic fine arts class, so the clear explanations in this book by Burleson help cut through the haze of what glazes are made of, how to take care of them, and how to experiment with them. We can't wait to get started.

"Whenever you read a good book, it's like the author is right there, in the room talking to you, which is why I don't like to read good books." -Jack Handey

No, this wasn't a good book, but it often felt like the author was there talking to me, which is why I found this book annoying. It seemed Mark Bego can't end a paragraph without verbally winking at the reader. Once he concluded with "Oh that Cher, always so practical!" Please, sir, just tell it like it is. This book could have done without the constant reminders that the author is there.

I love this CD and Recommend it to everyone who likes to have fun and dance. Cher is simply the greatest female performer since Patsy Cline.

I think this If you Believe is fantastic and recommend it to everyone who likes to feel good. Is fun fast and makes you want to Dance.

Jean Echenoz's "I'm Gone" is about a French art dealer who leaves his wife and engages in some international shennanigans, resulting in confusion and excitement, almost like a James Bond story for the average guy. The writing is polished, and the vocabulary good (actually, not so much "good" as overdone, like the author had just bought a thesaurus and was giving it a test-drive). The protagonist and plot both seemed interesting as the book went along, but ultimately both were pointless and superficial.

It was like riding in a fancy limousine, smiling happily and having a sip of champagne, but then being asked brusquely to step out, and finding you did nothing but go quickly around the block. The book left this reviewer with no afterthoughts whatsoever. It's actually quite forgettable. Unfortunately, I don't even remember having enjoyed it while reading it, I remember being relatively confused by the plot's believability and pointlessness, otherwise I might have recommended it as a good "beach time" read.

This short novel is a potpourri of genres--it's a mystery, a social commentary on life in Paris (with the requisite French digs at other countries, including the U.S.), a travel/adventure story, a meditation about love and lust, and a study of midlife crisis. Its main character, Felix Ferrer, a marginally successful gallery owner whose main preoccupation is his own ego, is interested in locating and then selling paleoarctic artifacts from a ship lost near the Arctic Circle long ago, when it became icebound. When the artifacts, his former partner, his wife, a succession of girlfriends, and his financial security all disappear within a short period of time, Felix rouses himself and sets out to regain the artifacts, and, perhaps, some control over his life.

Echenoz is an immensely skillful writer. He creates a fast-paced narrative in which Ferrer ranges from his Parisian art gallery, to the Arctic, where he lives with a seal-hunting family (nice contrasts here), and back to Paris and Spain, and Echenoz makes these transitions seamlessly. His imagery is often striking, and there's a good deal of sardonic humor and light satire about Parisian life. His ability to make the reader see the world through the eyes of Ferrer, and his observations about people, are sometimes startling and original.

Unfortunately, the "hero," Ferrer, is so blasé and so obnoxiously self-satisfied that it's difficult to care much about his world or what happens to him, and the whole novel feels smug. The unnamed narrator's snide and self-important asides degenerate rapidly from cute to annoying ("Personally, I've had it up to here with [a certain character]. His daily life is too boring."). The characters' casual cruelty toward everyone in a subordinate position, their universal lack of "engagement," and their treatment of women as objects further distance the reader and reflect the feeling that becoming involved or caring intensely about anything at all is somehow unsophisticated or bourgeois. Although the author is hugely talented and his book did win the Prix Goncourt, it lacks the vitality and sense of commitment I've come to associate with this prize. And if it's satire, it somehow rings too true.

I love to read (trite, right?). I got wind of this book throught the Times Literary Supplement in which they said that M. Polizzotti got an award for translating a Prix Gouncourt awarded novel called "I'm Gone" by Jean Echenoz. So I ordered it....and read it within one sitting and it reinforced my behavior of seeking out "that one book"...the book that makes you read past your bedtime...because of the plot. But also because of the writing and the way the novelist arranged the piece of fiction. Luckily you do not have to take my word on this...just read the reviews from France and look at this author's stellar history (every book he writes seems to get an award). It frustrates me that I in the USA am often not privy to brilliant fiction writers throughout the world merely because their works are not tranlated into English. I thank Mr. Polizzotti for translating this work. What a wonderful read.....one reviewer ahead of me (on amazon.com) said he knew what what was coming before it was read. I pride myself in being somewhat intelligent (Univ of Chicago Professor) and did not see the major "punchline" coming. So maybe the other reviewer knows more than me but I wanted to say from my perspective, this was one of the best works of modern-day fiction I have read ever.

Part 1 (6 chapters) - Absolutely a waste of time, not worth a read. And the code examples are not related to JWSDP.

Part 2 (6 chapters) - Discusses on SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. The code discusses using a Older version of Apache SOAP and Apache Axis. The code needs a complete rewrite.

Part 3 - Discusses on JAXP, JAXB, JAXR, JAXM and JAXRPC. Good introductions but the JAXB chapter is based on DTD (which is obsoleted in the latest specs). JAXM and JAXRPC chapters just reproduces the Sun JWSDP tutorial...not much value addition.

Part 4 - Security, WSFL, WSIF (based on IBM Specs) currently these specs are obsolete no further releases.

It might've been a good book during 2002. The code and content needs an update to the latest specs and SOAP implementations.

Just as I stated in the title, it's a great book to start you with. It's written in a clear and precise manner where you could learn the basics of Java Web Services and not be intimidated by it.

It is a good introductory book to web services standards like SOAP, WSDL and UDDI but also goes further and talks about topics like WSFL, WSIF which are not covered by all books on web services but are essential to any real business processes exposed as web services where flow control and service unit(s) choreagraphy is as important as the single unit service request/response. Java specifications relating to web services are also covered like JAXM and JAX-RPC. I wish more examples and code was given, perhaps even a chapter or two, for ebXML which may not be a part of web services standards but still uses SOAP and defines industry standards for business to business collaborations especially dealing with supply chain commerce issues.
I agree with a previous reviewer (John Sfikas) that this book alone isn't exactly an eye opener for experianced professionals who have been dabbling with all the tools mentioned in this book like Apache SOAP, Axis, WSTK, Tomcat, Jetty etc. and know the challenges facing B2B collaborations on the internet quite intimately, but this book combined with "Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI" will give a much needed practical grounding to start making sophisticated web services in the real world. I highly recommend getting both these books but be prepared to use your brain and further what is presented in these books to deploy web services satisfying your needs. They will certainly not amount to spoon feeding you a near solution to your collaboration problems.

This was an interesting read. Savvy McKinnon is a reporter for a gossip paper much like The Globe. She has been doing an artice on Count Yorga, a self-porclaimed vamipre. Savvy get's a call from the Count, and he's not pleased. The next thing that Savvy know's is that she's on her way to do an "interview with a vampire". Then the Count drops dead, and bites her in the process, Savvy's life will change. She is getting pale, and smack dab in the middle mystery. Savvy had to find out who killed the Count, why he was killed, and how can she stay alive. Alls in a days work for a reporter.

The char were weak and not really developed. I felt that most of the char's could have been in a Film Noir movie, complete with the cheesy dialouge and the predictible (in the Film Noir world) situations that the chars found themself in.

This is a shrt book of just under 200 pages and is a quick read. If you're looking for a detailed vampire book, this isn't it. Granted, this isn't a bad read, just don't expect to much.

Condider this as a book that starts off as a watered down vampire book with an X-Files ending.

You might want to give this book a chance. There was a lot of toung and cheekness to it.

Savvy (Savannah) Mckinnon is a reporter for the tabloid "Global Query". As such, she often finds herself pursuing bizarre events barely qualifying as news. In this installment of the NEWS FROM THE EDGE series, Savvy is on the trail of a self-proclaimed vampire. When she travels to meet Count Yorga, she expects a quickie interview and easy story; what she finds is a murder mystery and conspiracy with herself smack dab in the middle of the action.
This is a light, quick read and at just under 200 pages, I was able to finish it in one sitting. I truly enjoyed the wry humor laced throughout the story, but I never felt as if the characters are fully fleshed out. This might be a good one to finish up by the pool or on the beach. But if you're looking for hard hitting vampire fiction, skip this one.

If you have been watching The Chronicle on the Sci Fi Channel then you know that these are the books that the series is based on. What you may not know is that the books are different than the series! The books have a girl reporter named Savvy and the paper she works at is not the World Chronicle. In this book Savvy investigates a story about a vampire. The story is exciting with some violence and a lot of strange things happening. but dont expect to see Tucker or the other people from the Chronicle! I can see how they got the idea for the tv show from these books but they changed a lot of things. The book is funny and I will read more of them.

You get 6 cassette tapes, recorded on ONE SIDE ONLY. Each recorded side is 30 minutes long. That's 3 hours of tape, not 6 hours as advertised. You also get a 4x6inch 47 page center-stapled booklet which DOES NOT COORDINATE with the tapes. The booklet refers to Tape 1 Side 2, etc. throughout, BUT THERE ARE NO "SIDE 2"s recorded. The tape refers to the booklet, which is useless if you're driving. Completely disorganized. The training jumps levels: in one tape, the listener is taught to pronounce the alphabet and exposed to a 20 sentence dialog. Astoundingly ill conceived. The only nice thing one could say is that the voices and personalities are pleasant, but there's a lot of chatting, which becomes tiresome on the 3rd or 4th replay.

I have tried several car Italian courses including 'Learn in Your Car Italian'. I must say that nothing quite compares to the speed and simplicity with which I learned to speak Italian with 'Behind the Wheel Italian'.
'Behind the Wheel Italian' taught me not 'to say' but 'how to say' not just one or two phrases; this course actually taught me how to create MY OWN SENTENCES in Italian.
Please note just how important that is. In a 'one size fits all' world, a few stock phrases work just fine. But in the real world you want the flexibility that expressing your own likes and dislikes, what you are going to do, what you need, etc .. can give you.
I can understand why some people would be shocked at a course such as this because it is so creatively arranged. In fact, I didn't know 'how' I was learning to speak Italian. I just learned naturally. I would have been willing to pay ten times more than the price of this course for the results I have gotten.
Last but not least, I loved the way the course 'moves around' in a spontaneous fashion. Just like real language in the real world. And all of my tapes were recorded on both sides and came with a great learning guide and tapescript.

True to it's reputation, Behind the Wheel Italian is fast, it's easy, and I got excellent results from it. The course was relevant, the vocabulary was useful and the sentence building techniques were brillantly simple. I have tried Learn in Your Car Italian Three Level Set and I like Behind the Wheel Italian much more because you actually learn to speak Italian sentences (not just a few words) and express likes and dislikes almost immediately.

Last May (1999) I finished my fifth year of Spanish. For two and a half years my class used Destinos. After the AP exam, of the 7 Students who took this years exam, 4 non-native "4's" and one non-native "5". I myself and a much stonger speaker now that I am in college. Destinos promoted speaking from day one and it gave real results. I am exceling in my cuture classes and also with different Spanishes (mex, castilano, argentinian) Destinos gives a well rounded look on the Hispanic Culture. I enjoyed following the charaters through their journeys (video series). I highly recommend this text/video series too all.

I'm using Destinos in a telecourse, and am having lots of fun with it, and even learning some Spanish. My listening skills have improved dramatically, since the video is the main learning tool, which forces one to sharpen up and really listen to what's going on. The workbook that accompanies Destinos is really detailed, making it possible to learn a considerable amount of Spanish grammar on one's own. Overall, the best Spanish textbook I've used yet! ¡Adiós!

okay, if you don't like Destinos, then you just aren't with the picture. Its the best, its the bomb, and if you don't like it, don't diss it! Go back and do your own little fancy thing! Forget the world around you and sit on your couch!

i'll just repeat everything everybody else already said for emphasis. cuz this is a poor quality collection, and it didn't have to be. i don't know whose stupid idea it was to shoot photos of monitors showing the videos rather than just printing from the negatives, maybe romanek himself thought it would somehow be conceptually "neat" to photograph his work as it plays across the screen, but of course the quality is reprehensible. it's like when you were 8 and you tried to dub a tape by sitting one tape deck next to another.

it's no suprise that romanek has werked with madonna several times, since they are both consummate rip-off artists - i mean "appropriators." if you like his videos, check out the brothers quay to see where he stole all his ideas. not that i think that invalidates his werk...well ok it does a little, but it's still fun to look at. "closer" is one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures. BUT...it takes looking at a bunch of horribly digitized stills to understand how important it is to see his werk in motion as it was conceived and executed. it would be cool if they'd release a dvd collection of his videos - and then you could freeze-frame and get out your canon and make your own "video music stills." seriously. in that case you'd also be able to select your own favorite stills, cuz another problem i have with this book is that it leaves out some of the most interesting shots from the videos while including a lot of redundant filler.

it looks like they were prepared to spend a decent amount of money to produce a quality coffee table book, but the harebrained "video still" idea blows the whole thing. and sadly, i doubt whether you'll ever be able to purchase that mark romanek music video dvd, cuz the record labels have too much money to make hawking those videos in individual compilations.

My main problem with the book is the quality of the pictures. I read in another review, that the picture quality was great, but it isn't. Instead of doing the pictures for the book, by scanning the original 35-millimeter prints, as they should have done, for a good result, it looks like they've used video-images. yes, that's right: Video. There are those pink and light-green distortions at the edge of white areas. Pixelation happening all over the place. No clear, sharp edges. Very dissappointing. I love Mr. Romaneks work, and this book does not do his images justice, I'm sorry.

There was much abuzz for music video and film fans when highly respected director Mark Romanek announced the release of a collection of stills from his videos. I, myself, checked Amazon for a release date every day as soon as I heard it was going to be published.

The day came and Romanek's book arrived in the mail. The packaging was even impressive, with odd dimensions and a rough green fabric to coat the book's covers. On the front page was the unforgettable still of Madonna in her "Bedtime Stories" video.

As I read through the fascinating foreword by Mark Alice Durant, I turned the page and was greeted by a still from David Bowie's "Jump, They Say". I then realized the burden of a book that seemed too good to be true.

The title of the book doesn't kid when it says "Music Video Stills". The pictures are slightly blurred from actually being captured off a screen, so as that the pixels of the picture are thick and in horizontal lines. On most occasions, this minor defect doesn't affect the reader's viewing pleasure, but it is noticeable.

In any case, the book remains a fine collection, sporting key snapshots from all of Romanek's well-known and unknown videos. Highlights of the book include Nine Inch Nails' "Closer", Michael Jackson's "Scream", Nine Inch Nails' "The Perfect Drug", Madonna's "Bedtime Story", and Janet Jackson's "Got 'Til It's Gone". Others covered are videos by Lenny Kravitz, G. Love & Special Sauce, David Bowie, En Vogue, Keith Richards, and Iggy Pop.

Fans of music videos, cinematography, or Romanek's work in general will love this book and it is a recommended buy if you can stand picture quality that isn't 100% crystal clear. The book is also recommended for fans of realist (a la Andreas Gursky) and portrait photography.

Despite the blur, the book is a showcase of a cinematogrphical mastermind's diverse work and I'm proud to place it on my bookshelf.