The SeniorNet On-Line Book Club (http://www.seniornet.org/index.html) read High Tide in Tucson as its January 1997 selection. The following are selected review comments from our members based on the initial chaper are representative of the comments we made on each essay. Our overall rating was 3 on a scale of 4.

Among her many talents, Kingsolver is a Naturalist, and although her essays do not rival those of the author of "The Burgess Shale" she does cite him several times in this book and thereby earns my respect. Though this first essay is predicated on "Natural History", I prefer to discuss that particular area in subsequent treatises. I, too have done my share of "Beach-combing" and have raised Hermit Crabs (In the Caribbean). I think Kingsolver starts this series with observations and comments that immediately alert us to the fact that she is uncommonly perceptive and a "Real Human Being", one of "US", who has not become so enamored of herself as to lose the humility necessary to be, as she puts it, " A good animal, today ..........and take this life for what it is" (LJ Klein)

Content was good, but she was too verbose for me. She took too many words to get her point across. I'm not a big user of adjectives. Will reread and read others when I get book, but will have to withold my praise for now. ... I guess I couldn't get over style to enjoy content. I get that way sometimes--stubborn and opinionated. (Ruth Warren)

It is salutory -- and doubless fashionable -- to be reminded from time to time that humankind's animal needs are simple and basic. But I hold with those who value the trappings of civilized human society, without which, as Hobbes put it, human existence would be "...solitary, nasty, brutish and short." The human animal has a wonderfully complex brain, and is able--as Kingsolver is of course doing here -- to analyse its own drifts and instincts make comparisons and communicate these thoughts to others of its kind. Long live the technology that enables Kingsolver to return from her day in the desert, write down her experience, publish her essay by the thousands. (Carolyn Andersen)

I agree that this book expresses Kingsolver's understanding of her stages in life. Interesting to read because her experiences are so universal, yet with her delicious wording it relieves the heaviness of the lesson, and supplants it with wry snickers. However, she describes her enchantment with the desert beautifully. Her day with the caves and the former inhabitants is an experience we share, and the changed perception was certainly "life-changing". (Rhea Coleman)

...She is a great writer. I thought it was very interesting how Kingsolver opened this essay with a mini essay about hermit crabs and then through the following little essays wove a thread through her life similar to that of the crab's, ie, being uprooted from her Kentucky and the crab from the Bahamas, exploring her new land in Arizona and the crab getting used to his new surroundings in the aquarium. This lady has an astute knowledge of the English language and an uncanny ability to put her thoughts into words that seem to portray exactly what she is thinking and what we need to hear. She stirs my thoughts like a small eddy in a lazy mountain stream. (Patrick Mulligan)

I really liked this essay. I must point to my particular bias. That writers must not only have something to say it's important how they say it. I expected to be bored...who reads essays not me unless "driven." In this case surprised and delighted, laughing at her descriptions of the animals and able to envision her imagery. (claire read)

I knew I would love the book while reading through the first essay, because she and I think much the same way, only of course I could never express myself quite like that. What I thought about many times since reading that book is the fact that "life is made of frightening losses and unfathomable gifts." We all know that is true, but I've never read it expressed as well. My terminology runs more to "We were never promised a Rose Garden." If you make it.....it is because you have learned to cope, and in this life you have soooo many opportunities to try and try again to get it right. I also appreciated what she said about children learning discrimination from their parents. Reminded me of that wonderful song from "South Pacific","You've Got to be Taught." (Fran Ollweiler)

Barbara Kingsolver is a wonderfully adept writer who can describe things so well that you can actually see it. Her description of moving from Kentucky to Tucson and how the life in Tucson was so different from the life she knew really hit home for me. We all do start new lives over and over as Barbara said. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job or a limb or a loved one. Each new scary or nice happening in our lives forces us to gather our resources and face whatever it is that we are dealt with in life. (Ruth Levia)

Barbara Kingsolver not only writes in a very interesting style, but she also teaches a lot. I was amazed that while being very fascinated with the essays, I feel I learned something from each one. I knew nothing of the hermit crab and thought her descriptions were very interesting. I enjoyed her discussion in this essay about the effect of the lunar cycles and the tides in Tuscon. The tie-in of the internal clocks of animals in the Chicago experiment fit well with the theme of this essay. Her trek into the uncharted wilderness in western Arizona provided a very thought provoking experience as expressed by the wonder of finding the corn-grinding stone and her unwillingness to remove the stone from that location. Think it exhibited a reverance for the past that comes through very clearly in her essays. (Larry Hanna)

I loved the images of water and tides in the essay. When we first voted to read it, I thought, essays?? Oh, no....boooooring. Boy, was I wrong. I'm trying to pay attention to what I know are themes in the essays- she herself says "my intent was to make it a book with a beginning, and end, and modicum of reason." I see joy and hope personified by the water images in the essay. She states," I have taught myself joy, over and over again, "and, "Let me dance in the waves of my private tide, the habits of survival and love." The message is coping, and hope: "High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is." I found the first chapter to be a wonderful blend of the "linear thinking" of the scientist and the far reaching imagination of the poet in the author. Huxley was said to be Darwin's Bulldog- Kingsolver, I think, is Darwin's bard- the singer of the verses of evolution- revealing and reveling in both its mysteries and its elegance. (Ginny)

I love Kingsolver's style. High Tide in Tucson expresses a wonderful way to live your life. We should always be in touch with our internal "tides" and acknowledge the rocks in the stream. (Sandy Bridgforth

I have only a few pages to go with the book of essays "High Tide in Tucson". It is written by Barbara Kingsolver who wrote a book on Oprah's list called the "Poisonwood Bible". That is still on my list to read. The essays are opinion of the author and she is of a very liberal political bent. (She actually left the country to live in Spain because she disagreed with the Persian Gulf War.I was serving in the military at the time of the Gulf War and honestly agree with many of the points she makes. )
I have really enjoyed this book although I do not agree with her all of her opinons. You can tell she puts much thought into her opinions before she makes them. I enjoy reading others opinions even when they disagree with mine if they really make me think and she does.
I wouldn't have picked up this book on my own, but my girlfriend sent it to me. I enjoy fiction but seldom am interested in essays. I am so glad she did. Ms Kingsolver has really made me examine my opinions on violence against women in the media and I think I will be choosing different movies and books in the future because of her. Having my mind "stretched" was a very positive experience.

Barbara Kingsolver's collection of essays, High Tide In Tucson, is a truly life affirming, touching, true, poetic, real, view of life, nature, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom, and community.

If you enjoy the novels of Barbara Kingsolver, you'll enjoy the essays in this collection. Well written, poetic-prose that is truly touching! As in all Kingsolver's books, even if you don't agree with the conclusions she comes to, it's ok. You don't feel preached at, she acknowledges the diversity of life, that we all have different, legitimate, opinions about all things. For example, I personally do not believe that science and biology are infallible, I am a Creationist. Ms. Kingsolver clearly believes in evolution and makes no secret that she believes that evolution is a "scientific fact." That's fine! It doesn't threaten me that we have different, legitimate, beliefs. The point is that we both, as she states, "risk belief." When she describes the glory of nature, the earth, and the Natural World, she gives credit to "Mother Nature," or "Mother Earth," or "Natural Selection," while I give credit to "God, the Creator." This is what life's all about. This is what this collection of essays is about, having an opinion and explaining it thoroughly, and listening to others opinions. It's "high tide" we must live this life we're given for the best, the best we know how, and not let another person's disagreement with us stop us. We must acknowledge and learn about the past, and honor the future as well. So, fill up the atomic bomb silos with concrete to be excavated later, collect shells on the beach, keep a journal, tell lies, honor life and nature and the earth, don't turn away from painful things in this chaotic world, look, acknowledge, help, believe, hope, it's high tide.

Richard Paul Evans is a gifted and talented author of inspirational and insightful tales. This book fulfills those goals. This is a story of two people in need of trust, faith, hope and love. A man who has lost so much in his life discovers a young woman who never had much to loose. Hunter is a preacher turned gambler. He has turned his back on God due to the death of his wife and child. Hunter is accused of a murder that he didn't commit. Quaye is a young girl from a starving Irish family, whose father "sold" her to a man, Jack, on his way to America. The husband turns out to be an extremely abusive man interested only in gold and money. Quaye accepts her life as the only possibility, no matter how horrible. hunter and Quaye are thrown together in a blizzard. They learn and discover things about themselves when viewed through the others eyes. The story was well written. The details of place and time were wonderful. The only disappointment was... this was the first novel of Richard Paul Evans that did not move me tears with it's lessons on life.

The Looking Glass is a welcomed addition to the literary works of Richard Paul Evans, a typically touching and emotion filled volume from this wonderful author. I was especially pleased to discover an album of piano music by the same name, The Looking Glass, which I found contributes immensely to one's feelings as the book is read. The music helps the memory and lessons of the book linger, well beyond the hours spent reading.

This is the first book I have read by Richard Paul Evans and can not wait to get my hands on his other books. You can feel deep down in your heart the agony and then love between Quaye and Hunter as described by R.P.Evans. I would love to see this come out as a movie and plan on buying the audio version of this book!

The Vatican calls it 'fanciful and absurd,' but Yallop's indefatigable journalist style of writing pushes this book along. Fascinating stuff, and quite probable. Two interesting areas: 1)the papal plans of John Paul I, and 2)the apparent submission of Wojtyla to the status quo. Of the first-- no less a thinker than Abbe Georges de Nantes considers Albino Luciani a martyr-saint, a pope whose plans to effect the Fatima-requested Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to re-instate the Roman liturgy, and his plans to clean up the Vatican Bank cost him his life. David Yallop believes Luciani was murdered because of his plans to allow Catholics the right to use artificual birth control and his plans to clean up the Vatican Bank. Murder figures into both these men's calculations of this extraordinary event. Of the second, who would deny that Wojtyla has left the Vatican Bank unchanged and uncleansed? He also has not, according to seer Sister Lucia, effected the Consecration of Russia, nor has he changed the Church's law on artificial contraception. He has, interestingly, restored the Roman liturgy to usage. The true face of Villot showed itself during the reign of Paul VI, and is captured unflinchingly in Yallop's book. Even Paul VI knew of Villot's clear submission to Freemasonry, but he cowered in the face of it for years before acting. This is the kind of book that makes Malachi Martin believable. I think an even more intriguing question than whether and by whom Pope John Paul I was murdered, is whether important decisions in the life of Catholics which would prescind from the pope alone, subsequent to Luciani's death either did or did not happen; to look at it from this angle brings Yallop's arguments, as far as they go, into an even sharper focus. It's hard to be disappointed with ideas this interesting, and serious.

David A. Yallop wrote four previous works (one caused the British government to reopen a twenty-year old murder case, another freed a man serving a life sentence for murder). This investigates the mysterious death of Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I. He spent three years of intensive investigation using various sources in Rome, New York, London, and South America; they cannot be publicly identified.

Luciano Albini opposed the looting of Banco Ambrosiano while Bishop of Venice. As Pope he would rid the Vatican Bank of swindlers, money launderers, drug dealers, and their allies. But these had connections with organized crime and certain intelligence agencies. Pope John Paul I was as doomed as President John F. Kennedy's attempts to curtail the military-industrial complex, and Big Oil.

In 1981 there was an attempt to poison the Foreign Minister of El Salvador: the poison was to be put into his alcoholic drink. Nothing would happen for a week, then he would develop a flu-like disease, and die the next day. This poison could not be detected unless the coroner knew what to look for. This plot was exposed by the double agent recruited for the job, and a US diplomat was expelled from the country. The newspapers did NOT compare this to the death of Pope John Paul I.

Pages 40-49 tell of a swindle using counterfeit bonds worth $635 million. They would be sold to the Vatican Bank, and the money used for payoffs, and buying control of a company. The bank would write this off as a loss. You can be sure of high-level corruption and collusion in the bank!

The murder of Pope John Paul I may never be solved officially. Perhaps another Pope would continue his proposed reforms; we'll see in the near future.

This book gives a terribly tarnished picture of the Vatican, even if the author is wrong and there was no murder or active murder (they could have let Pope John Paul I die, by not administering him his medicine).
A Vatican controlled by a bunch of corrupt, merciless, avid for power, 'holy' cardinals (Villot, Cody, Marcinkus, Baggio), implicated in a web of depraved banking, masonic and Mafia figures, like Calvi, Gelli and Sindona. (I recommend for the 'banking' part the book of Richard Hammer 'The Vatican Connection').
What is also intriguing, or should I say 'demonic', is the fact that the next pope didn't remove anybody entangled in these murky affairs from his office.
The author also gives very plausible hints why, besides personal career interests, there were moral (the issue of birth control, for instance) and financial (money laundering to help friendly unions and parties) motives.
A devastating book.

High-tech professionals and amateur investors dream of catching the next hot stock before it takes off. Geoffrey Moore's latest book The Gorilla Game outlines a strategy for identifying and investing in high-tech companies. Geoffrey Moore's previous works Crossing The Chasm and Inside The Tornado serve as the foundation for the investment strategy presented. Individuals familiar with the author will find The Gorilla Game valuable as it applies Moore's ideas on product marketing to well known companies within the high-tech sector. One of the most interesting sections of the book is the three case studies which serve as examples of past Gorilla games and involve companies that most readers will be familiar with. The Gorilla Game is highly recommended for any reader with an interest in high tech industries regardless of their investment background.

Everyone has wondered how they could have latched onto a stock that would have turned a few thousand dollars into over a million. In recent years, EMC, Cisco, and Microsoft provided such opportunities. Yet few bought and held those stocks to get the full benefit of the ride. In this book, you will find some ideas for locating the next stocks that could do this for you. Keep in mind that the odds are long against you though. A lot of serendipity is involved.

A popular pastime for the past 50 years (and possibly before that) has been to look at the stocks that would have made you the most money in the last 10 or 20 years and then to devise an investment approach to find the next ones going forward that will do as well or better. I have lost count of how many books I have read that have taken this approach.

I found the Gorilla Game to be refreshingly above the pack in this area. The authors do an excellent job of describing some of the ways that technologies get adopted, when the stocks do well (and when they don't), and when to buy and sell stocks in technology companies. They also devise a fairly detailed, somewhat risk-controlled investment process, and detail how it would have done in a number of case histories. From the backward-looking perspective, the book is solid.

The weakness of such backward looking methods shows up in their new material in the revised edition (1999) on the Internet. Although some aspects of their model apply to the Internet, many do not. They are left needing to vaguely explain how so much money was made so quickly in Internet stocks (before they began to plummet to nothing in March 2000). Their explanation is actually pretty solid, but they never quite come out and say that their methodology will not get you all of the fast-growing stocks in technology. I doubt if any methodology could do that for you.

They needed not be defensive. No methodology is perfect. The main weakness of this one is that is designed around semiconductors, software, and computers. The technology patterns can look a lot different in future technologies. For example, what will happen with companies like Gemstar that lead in new television technologies that could disrupt the Internet for direct marketing? The reason this point is important is that the barriers to switching are higher in the technologies studied here than in many other areas. If you get into a low cost of switching sector (like business to consumer marketing on the Internet), you could invest in an industry leader and still lose your shirt. Although the book acknowledges these issues, it probably doesn't create a substantial enough warning.

The book is aimed at the medium knowledge investor (about the markets and technology). I hope they bring out a more advanced version. They decided not to go into specialized semiconductors like analog devices where enormous profits may lie in the future, because of concerns about not going over the heads of readers. A lot of the best run technology companies with enormous growth potential in markets with high bariers to competitors were not discussed in this book. I am sure most readers would be willing to spend some time learning about these other markets in order to make enormous gains.

Despite my quibbles, this is a fine book that will help all but those who are already quite knowledgeable about technology companies and technology investing. Good luck in capturing those irresistible gains in the future! Perhaps you will be the first person you know to identify the next irresistible growth enterprise that creates over a thousand to one gain! I hope you do.

May you be that one person in one hundred who outperforms the market over a lifetime.

Otherwise, I suggest you play the odds and buy indexed mutual funds. John Bogle's book, Common Sense about Mutual Funds, will be very helpful to you in this regard.

A popular pastime for the past 50 years (and possibly before that) has been to look at the stocks that would have made you the most money in the last 10 or 20 years and devise an investment approach to find the next ones going forward that will do as well or better. I have lost count of how many books I have read that have taken this approach.

I found the Gorilla Game to be refreshingly above the pack in this area. The authors do an excellent job of describing some of the ways that technologies get adopted, when the stocks do well (and when they don't), and when to buy and sell stocks in technology companies. They also devise a fairly detailed, somewhat risk-controlled investment process, and detail how it would have done in a number of case histories. From the backward-looking perspective, the book is solid.

The weakness of such backward looking methods shows up in their new material in the revised edition (1999) on the Internet. Although some aspects of their model apply to the Internet, many do not. They are left needing to vaguely explain how so much money was made so quickly in Internet stocks. Their explanation is actually pretty solid, but they never quite come out and say that their methodology will not get you all of the fast-growing stocks in technology.

They needed not be defensive. No methodology is perfect. The main weakness of this one is that is designed around semiconductors, software, and computers. The technology patterns can look a lot different in future technologies. For example, what will happen with companies like Gemstar that lead in new television technologies that could disrupt the Internet for direct marketing? The reason this point is important is that the barriers to switching are higher in the technologies studied here than in many other areas. If you get into a low cost of switching area (like business to consumer marketing on the Internet), you could invest in an industry leader and still lose your shirt. Although the book acknowledges these issues, it probably doesn't create a substantial enough warning.

The book is aimed at the medium knowledge investor (about the markets and technology). I hope they bring out a more advanced version. They decided not to go into specialized semiconductors like analog devices where enormous profits may lie in the future, because of concerns about not going over the heads of readers. A lot of the best run technology companies with enormous growth potential in markets with high bariers to competitors were not discussed in this book. I am sure most readers would be willing to spend some time learning about these other markets in order to make enormous gains.

Despite my quibbles, this is a fine book that will help all but those who are already quite knowledgeable about technology companies and technology investing. Good luck in capturing those irresistible gains in the future! Perhaps you will be the first person you know to identify the next irresistible growth enterprise!

Almost, if not all, philosophical debates on the subject of 'time' center on a few questions which repeat themselves quite obsessively. The most frequent ones remain the simplest and the trickiest: What is time? Did it have a beginning? What makes it appear to flow? Why is there a directionality, or "arrow", of time, and can it ever be reversed, or stopped for that matter? Is time travel possible? And might the universe be older than we thought? These are but a few of those fascinating questions addressed in the book. Davies, writing with a nurtured and cultivated passion and characteristic wit, confronts the tough questions, those that still resist any explanation, including the weird relationship between physical time and our psychological perception of it. Several touchy subjects are tackled, such as the quantization of time, time travel and whether time really exists or is merely an illusion, besides giving straightforward descriptions of topics such as the theory of relativity, time dilation and Hawking's imaginary time. With his usual clarity and flair, Davies argues that time in the 20th century is Einstein's time and sets out on a thrilling discussion of why Einstein's can't be the last word on the subject. Davies concludes that despite decades of progress in unravelling the mysteries of time, the revolution begun by Einstein remains tantalizingly incomplete.

This was such an enjoyable and lucid book I was sorry it wasn't even longer! Although I've come across many of the concepts in other books on quantum and relativity physics and cosmology, this is the first book I've read that was specifically dedicated to time itself. I was amazed at the number of ways there are of analyzing time. Among a myriad of other topics, Davies discusses it: as an historical subject of conjecture among the early Greeks, a subjective experience of the human mind as a byproduct of consciousness, a possible artifact of the "big bang," a possible reversible process in the event of the "big crunch," a vector quantity exhibiting directionality, rate of movement and even possibly a rate of change, the multiworld hypothesis and the possiblity of different types of time in these other worlds, and so on. Although some of the book is a little dated--the information from the Hubble orbiting telescope is mentioned in future tense--on the whole almost everything that can be said of time is included in the book in a clear fashion. I'm not a math-physics type person really, but I found the Davies book quite understandable. I especially enjoyed his insertion of a "devil's advocate," so to speak, who could point out problems or ask pertinent questions of the author. It was like attending a class with a particularly gifted student in its midst. Very much worth the time!

When I initially read of experiments that measure stray gravity waves from outer space, I was not only interested in measuring and studying these waves myself I was interested in learning more about their origin and cause, this book has been a great source of information to help me get started on my quest!

This book is great for anyone looking for a 'one stop shop' so to speak on many scientific theories based around 'time' ranging from Newton law, relativity and quantum physics!

In his book he puts many theories in perspective including Heisenberg, Bohr, Einstein and other scientists and observors of the universe. Davies is not biased in anyway and only attempts to summarize how while many studies of theory fit together, some do not!

One of the things you will get out of this book is an explanation of how gravity itself affects light and time. It explains why clocks run differently on earth's surface versus out in space, and how the massive gravity force of our sun bends the surrounding light of stars that we observe here on earth.

I think of this book as an encyclopedia.

The versatility of this book did not just advertise its over 1,500 pages; it covered everything. "Visual Basic .NET: How to Program" is one comprehensive introductory text, which should serve as a good reference manual. It covered topics that ranged from the more traditional Visual Basic Windows programming to the relatively new Object-Oriented, Component-based world of .NET Frame-work programming.
This book brims with excellent chapters, accompanied by practical examples. It embraced every aspect of the Visual Basic .NET, and included issues like: web services, general networking, multi-threading tasks, and client server utilities.
Other components include: Data Abstraction, ASP .NET, XSLT, HTML, XHTML, and XML. There are as well, comprehensive discussions on both Session Tracking and Cookie-related issues. Also, the use-flexibility qualities of its attached CD-ROM is worth mentioning.
This is a well-featured, well-versed introductory textbook, but I must add that non-advanced learners may be overwhelmed by its overflowing information. Again, I noted that its listed price is high: well-above what most intending users may be willing to pay. There are lots of cheaper alternatives out there in the market.

Visual Basic.Net How to program series by Deitel is a second book that I had been long looking for since I had bought e-business & e-commerce How to program by Deitel. I had experienced the first book written by Deitel and it has never disappointed me. Now, the second book, VB.NET is the best of all. I found the book is too useful to strengthen my knowledge and skill. With this book I could do self-study very effectively just because the book has well clearly and carefully written to present its points. If I want to compare to any other books, I feel that VB.NET by Deitel, the author is much more understand our needs in our learning process. As the result, the book offers a great deal for helping me to get good grade. I have borrowed some other books of VB.NET. As, my judgment, I found that VB.NET by Deitel is much more updated, established and experienced than any other book. I have more confident and fun to learn programming if there is a guide by Deitel's books. The book is so diverse to cover many topics and yet all written comprehensively for each topics. Yes, the book worth more than its price. Finally, it saves my time, money and energy to search for a better book of VB.NET.

This is a book for people who want to master VB.NET at a professional level and are willing to spend the time and energy that it takes. It is hard to find a VB.NET topic that isn't covered well, but for my purposes, the chapters on XML, Web forms, ASP.NET and Web services are very valuable so far. The excellent code and the walkthroughs are well done, although the listings are sometimes longer than they might need to be and sometimes force you to flip back and forth several pages.

Even though this seems (and weighs!) like a textbook, Visual Basic .NET How To Program is nicely illustrated with colourful screenshots and attractive graphics so it isn't *too* stuffy. It will take a while to thoroughly digest this big book but from what I've seen so far, it is going to help me a lot.

I love baseball and minor league baseball especially, and I love Bill Murray, who is one of the owners of the wacky team the St. Paul Saints this book is about. So when I heard this book when the Casey award for best baseball book of the year I got it. This team is nuts, but there's a point to all the nuttiness. They have a pig that delivers balls to the umpires! It was kind of amazing to read about the 3 foot tall second basemen with no legs, and really sad about Darryl Strawberry, especially when you know what happened to him. And all the women in the story seemed to fit in too. The writer kind of bugged me for the first 50 pages, but when I figured out he was looking for something in his own life as much as the players, I thought he was pretty cool and brave to be so upfront about his life. I'd rather see a game then read about it usually, but this really isn't even about baseball in a ton of ways. I gave it to some friends who don't even like baseball and they really liked it too.

I picked this up at my boyfriend's house, read the first few pages, and stayed home on the sofa for an entire weekend because I couldn't put this book down. I'm not a baseball fan, and not from the Midwest, but Karlen's hilarious and equally moving tale of his two years following around this team of wanna-bes, has-beens, and dreamers (some who "made it," some who didn't) had me chortling out loud and even getting teary-eyed at times. This is really a book about Karlen's own search not just for material for his Rolling Stone article (how this book began), but for his own soul as well. Karlen's writing is always entertaining, leaving you wanting more. I'm buying a bunch of these as late Christmas presents -- it's the best gift I can think of. Uplifting, thought-provoking, and one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. You'll never find characters like this in fiction -- what's amazing is they're all real. It should be a movie.

I learned A LOT more than I bargained for when I purchased this book. What started out as a hatchet job on Bill Murray by a writer employed by a vindictive Jann Wenner turned into a beautiful story about how the lives of people can still be positively affected by the power of sport. One couldn't ask for a more unusual cast of characters or a better person to tell their story. Mr. Karlen, as a result of this book's publication, I truly hope that you'll no longer need to drive your "Northern League" car. And as for Mr. Wenner and his all-too-cool publication? I will certainly have doubts about the objectivity of any article, profile, or review printed in "Rolling Stone" from now on.

Well written book but too much fluff:

* History of Linux - 20 pages ???

* Complete runthrough of RedHat install

* Finding and Using Resources ???

* X-Windows ????

But this isn't what really upset me about the book. What really got to me was that the example LAN had a static IP as if you are setting up a network for a business.... But it doesn't mention NT! What about Windows 2000? Thats based on NT networking right? The 9x stuff is going away, anyone can setup RH Linux and get Samba working with a 9x machine. How about a 2nd edition minus the fluff with some more realistic examples (i.e. a home network with a surfboard and Linux as a proxy for 9x and NT machines, wireless LAN, a real toolkit). Those may be the small business networks of the future anyway.

Let's start with the down side first. The only real reason I rate this book 4 instead of 5 stars is that it has a number of significant inconsistancies in it. Specifically, a number of the diagrams and listings did not match what the text was describing. A second problem I found was that the author mentioned that paralleizing modem access to the net would be covered (explained) and this was not covered other than to mention that it could be done. Finally, it seemed that the author got a little overzealous with the cut & paste feature of MS Word, and repeated the same text a few times too many in the begining of the book; however, this quickly dropped out as the author got down to the more meaty subject matter.

I have made note of the problems I found & will be forwarding them to IDG when I register the book.

Now to the good part -- I found that the book was excellent overall, and the timing could not have been better. I had just finished setting up a linux computer to do just what the author was doing. I found a number of better ways to do things in his book, and promptly implemented them.

I was also impressed by the inclusion of the firewall setup description and howto. This is something that should be covered.

Overall, the author demonstrates thorough knowledge of the material and a clear writing style that makes this book an easy read. A major plus in the world of 1000 page computer manuals.

A reccomended read for anyone considering networking at the home or office.

I purchased this book for two reasons, firewalling and samba. Both areas are covered quite well at an introductory level but the books is beginning to show its age. All of the firewalling and masquerading information is dated because it utilizes the usage of ipfwadm and since the book was published, ipchains has become somewhat of the standard for ip filtering under Linux.

But don't get me wrong, the book is well written and if you are using an older distribution of Linux, it will be quite handy.

Also, there are some great sections on beginner level functions of linux as well.

Overall, I would say it is a must have for the libraries of Beginner to Intermediate Linux users.

Comedy, in the strictest sense, is concerned with ultimate forgiveness and reconciliation. In Shakespeare's play, "The Tempest," the protagonist, Prospero, must come to terms with his brother Antonio, who conspired to have him driven from his duchy in Milan, and with the world of social interaction in general.

Magic, Power, and Conspiracy are the foundational thematic elements through which Shakespeare effects Prospero's reintegration into human society. Thrown into a boat with his infant daughter Miranda, Prospero comes to live on a nearly deserted island in the Mediterranean Sea. Prospero's concentration on developing his proficiency in Magic caused him to become alienated from his political and social responsibilities in Milan, leading to his expulsion. His brother Antonio conspired with Alonso, king of Naples, and seized the power Prospero forsook for book-learning.

Prospero hears of a sea voyage undertaken by his enemies, and, using his Magic, whips up a storm, a great tempest, which causes his enemies to be shipwrecked on his island. On the island, Prospero exercises total power - over the education of his daughter, his slave, the deformed Caliban, and now over his enemies. He engages Ariel, a sprite, to orchestrate the division of the traveling party, and to put them through various trials to exact vengeance and ultimately, submission from them.

"The Tempest" is a fine effort from Shakespeare, but the power relations in the play are problematic. Prospero's insistent dominance over the action of the play is extremely troubling. Although he is presented as a benevolent character, Prospero's relationships with Miranda, Caliban, and Ferdinand, King Alonso's son, complicate his overall worth as a man and an authority figure. The dynamic between the slave Caliban and the drunks, Trinculo and Stephano, is also very unsettling.

Overall, "The Tempest" remains a whimsical flight of imagination, while exploring intriguing themes of education, political intrigue, and romance. Certainly, it is still a well-constructed and entertaining play after nearly four hundred years.

One of the best works by Shakespeare and also his final full play (most likely), The Tempest draws on many elements that Shakespeare used in his earlier works and adds a comic twist. Shakespeare doesn't spend much time on character development in the Tempest, other than Prospero and possibly Caliban (e.g. Miranda is the ideal chaste woman, Trinculo & Stephano are lowly schemers). However, Prospero is extremely well developed and the simple aspects of the other characters do not detract from the story at all. There are many different levels of meaning at work in the play...some see it as a pro-colonialist diatribe, others see it as Shakespeare's own swan song, where Prospero himself is based on the Bard, and Prospero's surrendering of his magical powers is representative of Shakespeare giving up his craft. I read it as both, and a million other things, and that is one of the great things about the play...it can be read in so many different ways. The structure of the play seems almost chaotic at first, with so many things going on at once. However, if you read the play over again, or read some of the essays contained in the Signet Edition, it becomes much more clear, although still open-ended. The Signet Edition is excellent, and Signets in general are. Buy this over the Folger Library editions...the footnotes here are much easier to work with and make the reading much smoother overall.

Yes, there is once again murder brewing in the play of Shakespeare but only in a comical way. Not able to claim to be a Shakespeare expert, I have only read four of his other plays. However, it is in my opinion that this be the best one, most likely because it is a comedy and is much lighter that his other plays. This classic play tells the story of the former Duke of Milan who was wrongly dethrowned by his brother. Using his magical power that originally expelled him from Milan, he is able to bring the King (Alonso), Alonso's brother (Sebastian),his own brother (Antonio) and other servants to the his mostly vacant island. Ordering about the spirit Ariel, he manipulates his way into an interesting and funny situation. There is much to gain from reading this wonderful play which is one of Shakespeares last. I recommend this book to Shakespeare lovers and even more so, to variety readers such as myself. You won't be dissapointed by the plays light mood which is much better than Shakespeares serious murder stories.

As always, you have to be very careful with the 'Dummies' line of programming books, as most of them turn out to be terrible. This one however, is terrific. It did a great job of simplifying the sometimes arcane syntax of Perl, and explaining (at least at a beginner level) how some of the Perl features differ on Unix systems and Win32 systems, and even on Mac systems.

No, the book won't teach you everything; a Dummies book shouldn't be held up to that. When I was done with this one, I moved into the O'Reilly books to go further with Perl. This book will get you going in Perl much better than the O'Reilly Perl books of fame ('Learning Perl' and 'Programming Perl'), though. Popular opinion says everyone should be able to learn Perl from scratch from the O'Reilly books and that's just not true. They are colder, more rigid texts that will do fine when one is more advanced with Perl.

I've only come across a couple of great 'Dummies' programming books, and this is one of them ('Active Server Pages for Dummies' was the other). Get over yourself - you're not too cool for a Dummies book. Buy this one.

For those who frown upon Dummies books, you should ease up a bit and give this one some serious thought. Perl for Dummies is strictly for beginners. When I say beginners, I mean people with absolutely no programming experience in any language. I compared this book to Learning Perl and found that Learning Perl is written primarily for seasoned non-Perl programmers who are trying to learn Perl for the first time. If you are like me, with no programming know how, this is a more appropriate beginning. It explains such simplicities as scalars, arrays, adding and removing list elements, conditionals, etc. It even goes (lightly) into CGI and regular expressions. It does so in a language which understands that the reader is a "dummy" when it comes to programming and most importantly, it keeps it simple. Simplicity is the primary teaching strategy when dealing with a topic at the novice level, and Perl for Dummies does this well. The weakness of this book is that it does not do a good job of teaching you how to install Perl from the CD provided. In fact, the instructions provided were downright wrong. I had to ask a Perl programmer how to install and run Perl programs on my Windows 98 system. Another weakness, if you can call it that with a book at this level, is that it lacks program examples which would allow me to see what exactly can Perl do in the real world, such as system administration in a UNIX environment. I recommend this book as the starting point, with Learning Perl and Elements of Programming Perl as your next logical step. After you have mastered these books should you go on the Programming Perl and the Perl Cookbook.

I bought this book hoping to expand my knowledge of Internet programming. Having never read a Perl tutorial before in my life, I was clinging to the concept of luck that I would come out with a great book rather than one to take the hassle of returning.

Not only did I come out with a great book, but I came out with a great introduction, explanation, and tutorial of the Perl language, but also a VERY useful reference source. I would never have regretted purchasing this book for an instant. The author covers many of the necessary aspects of the language thoroughly, leaving me with a clear understanding of this great programming tool.

The only part that could have been covered better was DBM and relational databases, although I know that that was not one of the targets of this book as a tutorial, it would have come in handy as a reference.

I strongly recommend this to any one looking for a solid introduction/reference to this great language, and also to any one with previous experience in Perl. It comes in great as a reference, and you might even learn something new!