What I especially like about this book is its wide coverage that touches on each of the most important elements of awareness and prevention, including an objective assessment of cyber fraud as a threat, an approach to analyzing risks and vulnerabilities, and how to implement controls and policies. In addition to these basics, the book also goes into the technical aspects of security (written so that a non-IT professional can understand the fundamentals), and related topics, such as information protection, and legal issues associated with web site content. While the latter are not specific fraud vulnerabilities, they represent business risks that are loosely related to fraud.

Other material that I found useful and informative included the chapters on internal protection controls and conducting audits and investigations.

This book is a valuable resource for any IT security professional as well as corporate security, auditing and internal controls, and general business professionals (especially marketing). If you are new to fraud I also highly recommend "Fraud 101: Techniques and Strategies for Detection" by Howard R. Davia (ISBN 0471373095) which provides a solid foundation for understanding fraud management from a wider perspective, and "The Computer and Internet Fraud Manual" by Joseph T. Wells (ISBN 1889277363), which goes deeper into detection and response techniques.

While his style is exuberant, Williams never slips into the holier-than-thou stance that has become all too familiar amongst rock scribes. In fact, reading "Miracle Factory" is like hanging out with an older sibling or friend who has an amazing record collection and who, instead of making you feel stupid, wants to share the wealth with you. Sifting through an eclectic mix of artists including Pavement, Neil Young, Liz Phair, Uncle Tupelo and the Grateful Dead, Williams digs deeply into the music. He encourages the reader to open his/her sense of awareness and to discover a freshness even in songs which are more than familiar to most ears. Case in point: his bubbly portrayal of Smokey Robinson's "Bein' With You" cleverly picks out nuances that, no matter how many times you've heard this particular tune, causes you to go back and really disect it. And that, afterall, is precisely what good rock writing is all about -- it's supposed to make you WANT to listen.

The knockout punch, as far as this reader is concerned, is the mesmerizing account of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" box set. Williams doesn't miss a beat while covering all five discs and gives an especially passionate read on the illustrious "SMiLe" tracks included in that package. (Yep, after finishing the book, I went back and listened to all five discs with headphones. I'd be willing to bet some of you will do the same.)

Overall, "Miracle Factory" is a wonderfully refreshing book which harkens back to the days when great rock critics (Bangs, Marcus, etc.) were almost as famous as the stars they wrote about. A time, might I add, when reading the articulate ramblings of such crits was nearly as fun as listening to records.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to put some more harmony in their inter-personal relationships, success in their investment portfolio, and balance in thier lives. But it is also for those who already have an organized life and just need an ever so gentle amount of pushing to re-prioritize once in a while.

Most important, Ropp has written an engaging study of Shuangqing which demonstrates impressively what an innovative methodological approach could mean to the general public and the scholarly field. Instead of following the conventional way of academic writing by routinely presenting an analytical argument with a supply of copious notes, Ropp creates a lively narrative throughout the book which offers its readers an exemplary interplay of literary history and personal observation. He begins his narrative with his trip to Jintan and Danyang with Professors Du Fangqin and Zhang Hongsheng, two of China's leading scholars, in search of information about the vanished worlds of Shuangqing and Shi Zhenlin. In retelling and reconstructing the story, he has skillfully introduced the various themes running through the book, namely (1) his reading of Shuangqing's story in Shi Zhenlin's Random Notes; (2) the poetry and song lyrics of Shuangqing and their place in Chinese culture; (3) the evolution of Chinese opinion on Shuangqing and her poetry from the mid eighteenth century to the present, including debates over whether she really lived or was just the fictional creation of Shi Zhenlin. Parallel to Shi Zhenlin who prized the opinions of like-minded people, Professor Ropp also documented his discussions with many scholars and friends, so that his is an extremely interesting book with a fresh perspective. It tells the readers not only the result of his research but also the "process" of the long search for the "mysterious" Shuangqing. Needless to say, its implications are numerous and rich. I believe readers are bound to learn more about Chinese culture from this book than from a conventional academic book. For Ropp writes like a literary detective, and the book has a message about the joy of constant discovery. As he explains in the "Preface," the most interesting part of this project has been the process of discovery along the way. From this book readers will learn how a scholar can study and examine the past of an alien culture, how one can use a book such as Shi Zhenlin's Random Notes as a window for learning about a significant aspect of traditional china, and how people (of all cultures) are inclined to mingle history, fiction, and legend in recreating our remembered past. Moreover, the fact that Professor Ropp has experienced firsthand the dust and dirt of farm work in his youth (in a small town of Illinois) certainly enriches his many close readings of poetry by Shuangqing, a peasant woman poet in 18th century China. Ropp's translations of Shuangqing's poems are generally accurate and elegant, and so far they represent the most comprehensive and meticulous treatment of this body of texts in English. Again, rather than providing a conventional book of translation with notes, Ropp has incorporated his many discussions of poems with informed people like Liu Laoshi of Taipei's Stanford Center and Zhengguo Kang of Yale University , thus creating an interesting account of the translation process which would make fascinating reading for general readers and scholars alike. Indeed, in terms of the study of Shuangqing's poetry, this book is hard to match. Truly this work by Professor Ropp will make a significant contribution to the fields of cultural and gender studies, China studies, anthropology, and even other branches in the social sciences. One of its strengths lies in its innovative methodological approach which I have already mentioned above. It is obvious that the author of this manuscript has read a vast quantity of materials in a wide variety of fields, and many of the primary texts he read in the original Chinese. In particular, this is the only book (in any language) which discusses in such depth the history of reception regarding the story of Shuangqing. There is no doubt that Professor Ropp's scholarship is both sound and solid. Moreover, he writes in an elegant and powerful style that holds the reader's attention to the subject amidst highly detailed descriptions and discussions.