If you're a Mark Doty fan, there's no reason not to have this book - its contents reveal the younger poet working his way toward the greater expanse of his more mature poetry. It lends a neat perspective to Doty's later work. Is by no means his best, but hey. Neat anyway.

Fans experienced in Doty's unique vision of our world will appreciate this early collection combining his first two volumes (now out of print). Certainly lacking the later intensity which would define this celebrated poet (Atlantis' "Homo Will Not Inherit" and Sweet Machine's finest: "Mercy on Broadway"), these poems account for the poet's youth, a topic later dismissed following the sucess of My Alexandria. The artist here is very much in development yet still images describing genuine affection for our decaying world prevail (a theme consistently "Doty"). Turtle, Swan's title poem introduces Wally Roberts, though it's hardly a lamenting cry that we'll see later in Heaven's Coast. Beauty exists here. From an ancient Egyptian headdress to a senile old neighbor, Doy examines his world in scientific detail: a talent which not only inspires delicate, lyrical poems but also heals a breaking spirit, focusing the voice on anything lustrous. Isn't that why we read Doty? To, if only for an instance, see the world as he does: fashionable and redemptive--"our miracle / our hour"?

My desire was to have a coffee table book to show the glory of the heavens (and especially their Creator). Despite a great looking cover, though, I was disappointed to find that this was not a coffee-table book. I wanted good pictures but found most of the ones in here to be kind of blurry, not striking like those presented (more briefly) in Nightwatch.

I think that anyone who rates this book on its "coffee table" worthiness, is doing a disservice to this excellent book. While maybe not qualifying for the coffee table, this book provides an amazing assortment of pictures taken not only from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), but also contrasting them with pictures available only from Earth-based telescopes prior to the existence of the HST. Almost every page of the book contains spectacular pictures from the HST, along with clear descriptions of what is occurring within each photograph. The book begins with a brief description of the history of the HST, then onto exploring our own solar system, and then outward to the stars themselves. This book is a welcome addition to anyone interested in seeing and learning about our amazing universe.

If you know nothing about VRML, this book is very useful. If you know a little, this book tells you more. But you can't get into the core of VRML with only this book.

I am a heavy reader of computer programming/WWW books and, naturally, this book caught my eye. It is great. It gives a lot of tangent facts about 3d graphics modeling on the whole, the web, the history of VRML, and gives examples of common VRML nodes. You will learn a lot more than VRML from this book. However, you will not learn enough VRML coding to really get you satisfied, and should find another more "hardcore" VRML book to supplement this one.

I thought this book touched on the basics (syntax, methods, variables) of web programming but does not go into too much detail of anything else (array splitting, shopping cart, etc). It is for complete novices.

Great book if you're looking for an introduction to what programming for the web is all about, and want to get a good feel for web programming languages. If you're looking to become an expert in any one of the many languages presented, you will need to get a book for that specific language(s). However, if you are looking to see how Perl and Java and VBScript and all the other web languages really come together, this book is perfect for that. In general, I would say it is a great book to have on your shelf cuz. even if you're a master at one language you will sometimes need to understand other languages, and this book can serve as that occasional reference.

You will not learn anything new in this book that you don't already know. The book consists of 4 or 5 different essays written by 4 or 5 different authors. It isn't a clear book describing the civil war. I was looking for a book that described each of the reasons for the start of the civil war. This book didn't do that. Each essay tried to make a different point - but it was not clear. The book was too scattered for me. So if you want a more in depth, and more straight forward book about the start of the civil war - try another author.

In the face of recent debates over the Confederate flag flying over South Carolina's capital, a lot has been said regarding the author's subject. Some contend that the war was over state's rights and others contend it was over the issue of slavery. It has even been suggested by many sources that Lincoln came to oppose slavery late. I bought this book hoping to read an author who both knew history and could examine the facts impartially. I clearly found both.

The editor explores pre-Civil War history through the voices of the main figures and groups. In the process I discovered that both states rights and anti-slavery contentions are correct. However, these two are so closely tied that it hardly matters, as you will discover through the eyes of the players. Please read this book. This book should be required reading in every high school history class in America.

I found the book to be the best slice of easy reading history I've ever read, and highly applicable to related debates of the 21st century.

Incidentally, if you are interested in the unique origins of the Republican party, the formation of our two parties, the demise of early parties, the early black leaders, the early womens' movements or even early trends in women's literature, this is an amazing read regarding those topics alone. Can't put it down, highligher in hand stuff.

I think all the Neo-tech authors should try to be a little more versatile in their writing. They start becoming monotonous in their wording so much that it becomes more of a hassle than a joy to read it. The funny thing is that most of their reason for writing seems to be from their personal conflicts with the IRS. What works for them definitely does not necessarily work for everyone else.

With this change of attitude, there will be a breakdown of the old way of disastrous thinking, and a new way will develop to replace the old that is founded in life and happiness.

I'm very disappointed: I've bought this book hoping to find the advertized help about Win2K policies but all I've got about this subject is ONE chapter, 30 pages or so over 500 in the book. It looks like this chapter has been put into the book after the book itself was already done: infact, except for the specific chapter, the book always talks about the forthcoming Windows NT 5 operating system... Don't call it Windows 2000 System Policies, call it Windows 9X and NT with a quick and incomplete look to Windows 2000.

Well ok, it is also the first book dedicated to the subject I've read as well. Having always dug through Tech Net articles or the one or two chapters most books give to system policies and profiles (and don't even get me started on the lousy Resource Kits) it was very refreshing to have such a well done book on the subject.

The author covers Win NT4, Win 9x and Win2K. He's documented all the exceptions and changes the Resource Kits do not. Mr. Wilkins even manages to write in a style approachable to both the new administrator as well as the seasoned one. If you are going to roll out policies/profiles get this book.

Since I loved Crazy in Alabama, I thought I would go back and read earlier novels by Childress. This was his first, and much different than I expected. The characters were much less defined, often to the point of being ambiguous, and the characters were used to create emotional states, or sensory images, rather than a fleshing out of real people. This novel was laden with allegories, metaphors, sensations, and juxtapositions that were often incongruous and disturbing. Heavy use of a very rural Creole and Cajun vernacular and frame of references which were often to the point of excess. I had trouble following dialogue because of the language.

Unlike Crazy in Alabama which was a funny, human (albeit implausible) adventure depicting the variances in human nature and a real sense of history and it's impact on our socio/cultural development, this novel was steeped in a surreal aura, almost out of time and place, with characters who were very disjointed and disturbed. There was nothing funny, and the storyline was not fluid. However, the author does show that he can create incredible imagery with words and sounds, and give you a sense of "being there" at a given moment. The images linger with you.

I can't believe that the reviewer below so totally missed the point of "A World Made of Fire." It's rather silly to criticize an allegory for being allegorical .... and to complain of the use of "Creole" and "Cajun" dialects in a novel very clearly set in Alabama shows us where he or she is coming from.

My advice to Childress fans: check out this remarkable first novel. It contains the seeds of nearly all his themes: tragedy, family, religion, and the supernatural. A wonderful book.

Having written several Java books myself and being a self confessed design pattern addict, I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately I was immensely disappointed with the content. I agree with most of the negative comments written here about both Vols 1 and 2 and only add my own voice to the crowd to ensure the weight of numbers prevails.

The big problem with this book is that it is _so_ inaccurate, both syntactically and semantically, you cannot _trust_ the content.

Some of the text is accurate: for example the description of the Visitor pattern is semantically fairly accurate although there are numerous typos and diagramming errors. However, the accompanying code is not a Visitor pattern. Since the key benefit of this book over other design pattern books is that the code is in Java, the usefulness of the book is lost.

The net effect is that the beginner will not learn design patterns correctly.

Given that a major benefit of design patterns is the common understanding of certain coding idioms, this is a very damaging book. It is like learning to play the piano the wrong way - once the damage is done to the technique it can take years of hard work to repair. You are much better off learning to play properly from the beginning. In the context of design patterns, this means reading the GoF, Siemens, and Doug Lea books.

If you are a hands on Java programmer and want the design patterns explained as you can understand them in code, this book is worth it. I notice other reviewers slate this book, picking up on what they consider to be "errors". Well, ultimately GOF4 is always going to be the authority on patterns but GOF4 is very dry - this book gives a practical java code explanation of the patterns. I often browse through it looking for ideas.

Here's what I did to evaluate design pattern books: Read GofF and then sat in a B&N bookstore with every design pattern book they had. This was the one I found to be the most useful. Some caveats: First of all, if you're not at least an intermediate java programmer, you probably will have a hard time reading this book. Buy Volume 2 first (kind of strange but it's actually not as advanced) which is less about design patterns and more about fundamental design principles. Second, even if you are an intermediate to advanced Java programmer, it can be difficult to understand. But then, the subject matter is by nature abstract. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything more useful, including GoF. It's written for C++/Smalltalk and sometimes the multiple inheritance allowed by those languages makes it difficult to translate the pattern to Java. I have found this book to be the one I end up getting the most out of when I'm doing Java design work. It makes a great reference.

(I can't believe that I bought & read this book)

The book is written as journal of the producer's forty days on the island. It seems as if no editing took place beyond this time as spelling and factual errors are peppered throughout the pages. This is the main problem with the book - whereas the show was masterfully edited to maximize the engaging storyline, this daily account leaves much to be desired.

The book is a Burnett love letter to the older, meaner Tagi tribe and he seems to take pleasure in any failure of the Pagong tribe. Further, he seems obsessed with nicknames and characterizing behavior in terms of primate dominance (silverbacks, alpha males).

After seeing the show, I hoped that the book would provide further details about the interactions between the castaways that did not make the final cut. Instead, the book mostly glorifies the crew and regularly ignores most of what was covered on the show. Often the challenges and councils are mentioned only in hindsight.

The hasty manner in which the book was put together and lack of new information leave a quick, but mostly uninteresting read.

I thought this book would be a bit spicier than what can go on TV, but I found details and stories to be a bit thin. It was as though the book was an after-thought to the hit show; another piece of merchandise not quite up to snuff. Not a bad book, but I think it could have been better.

Well, it sure is obvious, after reading the Survivor: Ultimate Game book, that Mark Burnett has his favorites. For the Colleen, Kelly, Jenna, Gervase fans out there, ignore this book. It seems to dwell mostly on the strange personalities of Sue Hawk, Gretchen Cordy, Greg Buis and Stacey Stillman. Not who I would have picked to write a book about. The troublesome thing about this book is that the same parts seem to be rehashed over and over again, the characters are painted in a light I would have never pictured (nor were they edited that way in the original series) and frankly, the book has about ZERO dialogue, because it was all Mark Burnett chatting about the Survivors.

I'm a hardcore survivor junkie and I was disappointed with this. If you're looking for tidbits on the 1st season, get the DVD. I found it alot more entertaining than the book, and I'm a voracious reader.