As a huge fan of James Bond in all his various incarnations, I was interested to find a copy of this book the other day in a sale and purchased a copy. My doubts about its' value however began almost immediately, after all how serious can you take a claim that a book is the definitive account of a subject when the authors start by rubbishing their competitors. For the record there are a number of excellent "glossy" style books with flash pictures that are just as good, if not better reference books than this one. Also the number of different accounts of the James Bond phenomenon make it impossible for anyone to claim their version of events is right and everyone else is wrong. Top that off with the fact that the authors here give new meaning to the word "nitpicking", but ironically while they mention some totally pointless trivia connected with various stories and movies, they actually managed to miss a number of other more important details. At the end of the day this is a comprehensive, though at times patronising, account of the world's greatest secret agent. But don't be fooled, there are better books around if you want, and don't be surprised if "M" puts out a 'terminate with extreme prejudice' order on these two authors !!!

This was a quick pick at an airport one day and I was amazed at all the goodies inside. If you've ever wanted to know every language that Bond ever spoke, what gadget or gizmo he used in which movie, or all the aliases he's ever used, this is the book for you. "The Bond Files" is a great book with all kinds of facts, trivia, and information for each story, comic, and movie. The authors even review the opening title sequences and have a nice synopsis of each movie. They don't miss much with this book.

One of the best books to have on James Bond.

Just what makes him tick? Read and find out!

What a book..."The Book of life." Why it's a modern cartoon book of paleontology. Though its wonderful life-like illustrations and tree-of-life charts are delivered as scientific facts, they are simply graphic theories that illustrators doll up into hypothetical reality. If you like science and fiction, here is a book for you. The realistic pictures belie the text, which says: "We do not even know how to conceptualize, much less to draw the worldview that would place Homo sapiens into proper relationship with the history of life."

Its authors caveat is that "science can only operate as a work in progress without perfect knowledge, and we much therefore leave a great deal out from ignorance --- especially in a historical field like paleontology, where we must work with the strictly limited evidence of a very imperfect fossil record." It's that fossil record, that the book presumes is accurate in its layer-by-layer record through time, that requires scrutiny. The oldest fossils are found in the bottom layers and the youngest in the top layers of rock, but little or no evidence is presented to provide skeptical readers information they can decipher for themselves as to the accuracy of fossil dating by rock layers. Are we to believe, without exception, that the fossil record is progressive from bottom to top? What about fossilized trees that protrude through millions of years of time? They are conveniently omitted. Michael Benton of England's Bristol University, one of the book's contributors, says "All the periods in the geological time scale receive their names in recognition of obvious changes in the fossil record." Yet, to the contrary, Benton adds, "the history of Earth's crust has been far too violent to preserve much more than a random sample."

Its general editor, Stephen Jay Gould, is magnanimous in his promotion of a single theory of man's origins, from monkeys he and most other fossil hunters say.

There may be missing pieces to the paleontological puzzle, but the bone diggers cliam they have finally filled in the evolutional blanks and can conclusively attest to the idea that life evolved from simpler single-celled organisms into modern man. The book's most ardent opponents are taken head on by Gould: "The lack of fossil intermediates had often been cited by creationists as a supposedly prime example for their contention that intermediate forms not only haven't been found in the fossil record but can even be conceived." But Gould holds a trump card. He says: "a lovely series of intermediary steps have now been found in rocks.... in Pakistan. This elegant series, giving lie to the creationist claims, includes the almost perfectly intermediate Ambulocetus (literally, the walking whale), a form with substantial rear legs to complement the front legs already known from many fossil whales, and clearly well adapted both for swimming and for adequate, if limited, movement on land." Oddly, the book never shows a drawing of Ambulocetus, but does have an illustration of a skeleton of a 400-million year old fish with a small underside fin bone the authors claim "must have evolved" into legs in four-legged animals. Man's imagination is not found wanting here. Out of millions of fossils collected and stored in museums, is Ambulocetus the main piece of evidence for evolutionary theory?

Richard Benton says that Charles Darwin had hoped the fossil record would eventually confirm his theory of evolution, but "this has not happened," says Benton. Darwin hoped newly-discovered fossils would connect the dots into a clear evolutionary pattern. The book attempts to do that with its fictional drawings of apes evolving into pre-humans (hominids) and then modern man. Yet the book is not without contradictions. It says: "It remains uncertain whether chimpanzees are more closely related to modern humans or to the gorilla."

The horse is shown as evolving from a small, four-toed to a large one-toed animal over millions of years. There are different varieties of horses, yet there is no evidence that a horse ever evolved from another lower form of animal, nor that horses evolved into any other form of animal.

Another evolutionary puzzle that goes unexplained in the book is the pollination of flowers. How did bees and flowers arrive simultaneously in nature? What directed the appearance of one separate kingdom of life (insects) with that of another?

The book describes 6 1/2-foot millipedes and dragonflies with the wing span of a seagull, but gives no explanation for them. Life was unusual in the past and not all forms fit evolutionary patterns. Consider the popular supposition that life evolved from the sea onto land. That would make more advanced forms of intelligence land bearing. But the aquatic dolphins defy that model, since they are among the smartest mammals.

The book maintains an "out of Africa" scenario for the geographical origins of man, but recent fossil finds in Australia challenge that theory and even the book's authors admit that "a single new skull in an unexpected time or place could still rewrite the primate story." Consider Java man (Homo erectus), once considered the "missing link" and dated at 1.8 million years old. Modern dating methods now estimate Java man to be no more than 50,000 years of age, a fact that was omitted from this text.

Creativity, invention and language are brought out as unique human characteristics. Yet the true uniqueness of man is not emphasized. Humans biologically stand apart from animals in so many ways. Humans can be tickled whereas animals cannot. Humans shed emotional tears, animals do not. The book does not dare venture beyond structure and function, beyond cells and DNA, to ask the question posed by philosophers --- does man have a soul? The Bible speaks of a soul 533 times, this "book of life," not once.

Gould's temple is science. He calls the scientific method "that infallible guide to empirical truth." Science works by elimination. It can only work from experiment to experiment, eliminating what is not true. It can say what is probable, it can never say what is true. Gould appears to begrudge the shackles of science by stepping outside its boundaries in overstating what it can accomplish. Whereas creationists await the day they will stand in judgment before God, for the evolutionists Gould says "Someday, perhaps, we shall me our ancestors face to face." Imagine, standing there looking at a man-like monkey skeleton.

One cannot fault the flaws in this book. After all, it was written by highly evolved apes.

You would have expected more time and detail to the ermergence of the nervous system and the Cambrian Explosion. A more up-to-date section on human evolution (no mention of Ardipithecus Ramidus) but on the whole the book is a good synthesis of the state of the knowledge in this field.

This singular book gives a very nice popular overview of the state-of-the-art in paleontology, chronologically covering everything from the Archean to the evolution of man. It is a beautifully illustrated and well-written book, although the text is perhaps sometimes a bit too technical and dense for the paleontological novice.
And please don't buy some creationists' claims that this is science fiction. The contents of this book is based on material from thousands of scientific articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as "Nature" and "Science", representing the fruits of the hard labour of paleontologists from all over the world. And the fossil record, even if it is convincing in itself, is far from the only support for evolution. Independent evidence for evolution can also be found in biogeography, development, molecular analyses (gene DNA, junk DNA, mtDNA etc), anatomical analyses, and even field observations of new species evolving. This large amount of evidence is why evolution is considered an established and undisputable fact. Of course, if one rather than facts wants comic book fantasies such as humans coexisting with dinosaurs and evil scientists conspiring to hide the truth, then one should look for creationist books instead. Or comic books.

I bought my first copy in December. Then it was stolen from my desk. I'm sure someone else in my office is enjoying it now. This time I bought a few copies. One for me and a few others as gifts. Good fun reading. ENJOY!

This book makes you laugh at some of the things in the corporate world that might normally make your day tough to get through. I like the idea of taking these everyday office events and turning them into little diddies we can all laugh at. (Note: Theres not a blank page in this book. Unlike other books that tend to waste paper with blank pages. I'm not a tree hugger, I just don't like the distraction.)

What a great book - plenty of laughs and situations I could relate with. My co-workers and I loved this book - read it on our lunch hour to each other. This will make a timeless gift!

Stephen, his mother, and cousin were living in London when the Germans bombed their home city of London. Stephen?s father, a physicist, had been in Los Alamos on a top-secret military base. After the German bombing raid, Stephen was sent to stay on the base with his father. At the base Stephen met a boy named Alexei, and they soon became good friends. Since Stephen had arrived at the base he felt something was going on and he took many chances to find out the truth. He narrowly escaped from an attempted kidnapping with the help of his friend Alexei. They eventually follow military trucks to a bomb testing area and experience the base?s secret first hand, an atomic bomb that the base physicists were working on. When Stephen heard that the war ended, he ran to Alexei?s house, which was off base, he accidentally finds out that Alexei and his family were spies. A chase ensues between Stephen and Alexei and his father; in the end Stephen is safe, Alexei is hit by a train and killed, and his father and associates are taken away. Stephen learned more than he bargained for in his quest for answers.
I enjoyed this book from the first page to the last. I found it interesting because it related to topic we were studying in school. The book, The Gadget, is a great story about a boy in search for answers and the struggles and hardships he faced along the way. The book is very descriptive and allowed me to visualize the events and settings. I felt the tension, worry, and other emotions along with the main character.
I would definitely recommend The Gadget, to anyone because it was suspenseful from the beginning to the end; I had a hard time putting it down. This book grabbed my attention and never let go. The story of Stephen and the chances and adventures he took to find the secret of the base fascinated me. The answers he found shocked me; the base secret was a hidden atomic bomb, and Alexei and his family being spies. If you are looking for adventure, suspense, and surprise in your reading, you should definitely consider reading The Gadget.

My Book The Gadget was a good book I would recomded this book to someone who like a action book. This book was about a 13 boy who was sent to the war to help his dad. His name was Stephen he was sent from war-torn England so he could help his father, his fathers is becomeing really obcess with the Gadget. What is the Gadget if you want to know what the Gadget is you have to read it a fine out.

I found this book a very interesting book. I liked how the author started off the story in London, showing the attack and all the information to get you caught up. Then when he moves the story to the military base in New Mexico, I found it easy to tell what was going on in the base, it was very descriptive. The author also made you wait a while until you found out what kind of project Stephens father was working on. Also when you meet Alexei you don't think anything is going on, just that he is an ordinary kid. So I like how he kind of hid things from you until he felt like he would let you know.
Also when he tells the historical events that are happening outside of the story it gave me a better sense of what time it was. And when you find out what the "Gadget" is you understand why the man in the hospital gave Stephen the sunglasses. Also, the author gave all the attacks on Japan and how effective the gadget was, which showed how many people were killed by only 4 men. The author also used foreshadowing when the maid told Stephen she thought Alexei was a spy, and he ended up trying to kill Stephen because he found out he was a spy. You also learn about the relationship the Stephen didn't have with his father so he found other people in the base that he could love.
He also she shows how the war was affecting everybody all over the world, even when the war was only going on between 3 countries. Over all I would recommend this book to people who like a good suspense or historical story. Go read this book and right a review.

This book serves the purpose (to attain DB2 fundamentals certification) very well. Some experience with DB2 and reading this book is all that is required to pass the 512 exam.

I have over 2 years experience with SQL Server 2000, 5 years experience with Oracle, 2 years with DB2 V2.x Common server in 1997 and about 8 months with DB2 V7.2 on clustered Windows 2000 and OS/390. I have MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, I-Net+, CIW and some other certifications. So, I am not a newbie in the field of IT.

I can say this book is a very easy reading for an experienced DBA because you can figure out most of the Db2 functionnalities with one reading pass.

The only weak part in this book is the SQL query piece that is at then end instead of at the beginning of the book. Poor newbie (or dummy) that have to figure it out at the end of the reading and not at the beginning.

Like the other reviews said, there are some mistakes with the questions on the CD. But they are still good for you to evaluate your level of knowledge to be able to pass the exam.

I recommand this book for anyone who wants to learn the basics of DB2, but you will still need the IBM DB2 administration guide and the IBM DB2 SQL reference guide to be really prepared for the IBM certification exams or just to be able to work with DB2.

Alain Gagne
Lead DBA
USA
...

P.S.: After doing most of the Microsoft certifications, and having a lot of books as references, many web sites with practices questions, It is kind of lame to just have a couple of DB2 books and the IBM certify web site with a few questions to practice and get used with the material (certify.torolab.ibm.com). So, all the questions we can get are good.

This book made passing Exam 512 fairly easy. Books & classes from IBM do not focus on passing the exams, but this book does. During 10 yrs. of UNIX sys. admin. I'd done almost no database work. I passed Exam 512 after 3 weeks of concentrated effort. Week 1 - 2 classes: DB2 UDB Family Fundamentals (2 days) & DB2 UDB SQL Workshop (2 days). Weeks 2 & 3 - Read "DB2 Fundamentals Certification for Dummies" cover to cover. I answered every end of chap. question, did every lab and took the practice exams on the CD. I'd never sat for a certification test and this book made me very comfortable with the process. I passed Exam 513 three weeks later using a 4 day class, DB2 UDB Admin. Workshop, and "All-In-One DB2 Admininistration Exam Guide" in the same fashion. I highly recommend this book for passing Exam 512. I would not recommend it as a reference for DBAs.

My first Wilson title starts out with an great idea about the President legalizing drugs and the Drug Lord's response. I can feel the terror that Dr. John VanDuyne experiences in the choice between his kidnapped daughter and his old friend, the President of the US. The story is flying along well until it peaks with a major disagreement between the kidnappers. It quickly runs downhill after that with the adding of a crazy ex-wife and hillbilly relatives. It becomes predictable and unbelievable at that point. I was sorely dissappointed at the end.

This book started off really interesting and compelling. For the first 100 or so pages, I was really involved and the story was very imagaginative. However, as I continued reading it, it got mired in so many silly and ridiculous subplots and frankly deteriorated from a really exciting beginning. While I was anxious to finish and find out the ending, it was not at all what I expected. The book had the makings of a great story but Mr. Wilson got sidetracked into creating amateurish situations that defied credulity (How many times does "Snake" return...enough already. It was like eating a meal with a great appetizer, a so-so main course, and then a really lousy dessert which leaves bad taste in your mouth.
The bottom line, I would "dessert" it after 150 pages and just read the last 30 pages or so.

Wilson weaves a tale like very few writers can. The believability in the choice the Doctor faces, to kill one of his oldest friends, the President of the United States to save his childs life is gripping and tense and you feel in the middle of it all. You are taken away and left emotionally drained as you can't stop turning pages. I find myself recommending everything Wilson writes!

I am often leery of memoirs published by University presses as they tend to be filled with stoic facts, are often boring, display little emotion, and reveal very little of the real person being showcased. This book is certainly an exception in every way, as it reads like a novel, and is filled with fascinating, intimate details of Ricardo's life. Ricardo J. Brown's memoir offers us an exciting look into gay life of the late 1940's. Brown was discharged from the navy for being a homosexual, and returned to his working-class life in St. Paul, Minnesota. Most of this memoir centers around a bar called Kirmser's that catered to working class men during the day, and at night became a hang-out or underground club for gay men. It's Brown's own personal observations, feelings, and experiences he shares with us of the friends he made during these nightly visits to Kirmser's that are so enlightening, fascinating and fun to read. Some of the stories are sad and tragic, too. It's the honestly in the telling of these stories that will captivate you. A few personal photos have been included in this memoir.

If you want a glimpse into what gay life was life in the time before Stonewall, then this book is an excellent choice. It's a small book that's filled with the life of a time most of us know little about, but would like to know more about. Gay life in the 1940's was quite different than today and certainly very closeted. What will always remain the same whether it is 1945 or today is the love, emotions, and personal intimacy that people share and have in common. A remarkable memoir!!

Joe Hanssen

I couldn't help but feel empathy for the author in facing the difficulty of his life, but at the same time the stories seem somewhat disjointed. There is no compelling narrative- only snapshots that illuminate various characters and traditions- like taking a figurine from the shelf, inspecting it, and putting it back. Each segment underlines the reality of gay existence before stonewall, but I also felt a certain lack of emotion in the writing- more of a filtered look at the past, than an open examination of what constructed the being. But perhaps the detachment I felt in the author's telling was what makes the book poignent- even after so many years, he still couldn't face the emotions he kept so dutifully bottled thanks to society's conventions. I can only imagine the pain, the loneliness, the heartbreak that was excised and lies obscured under the text.

One of the best books, I've ever read. This book deals with working class gays,who are not int the closet, nor are they self hating stereotypes. This book should be given to every young gay male, starting out in the world.

Simply put this is typical "non-Christian" cultist trash written by a dead heretic and should be regarded as such. A King James Bible and a good concordance are all one needs to see just how far-fetched most of the ideas V.P. Wierwille "audibly" tried to pass off as Biblical truths. I would recommend this book for research on cults or to start your fireplace.

First of all, I would like to inform readers that contrary to one reviewer's comments, I am not involved with The Way International. I have been a researcher/student of the Word of God for over 26 years. I found this particular work a tremendous blessing in dispelling many erroneous beliefs concerning death, life after death, resurrection, etc. This is a marvelous work in regard to Biblical accuracy concerning this subject from God's Word. In the occident (Western cultures) many times the beliefs do not align with the Word of God as in the Near East or do many times our "texts" contain 'pure' translations. This work will definitely help clear up much confusion and help you understand the importance of THE HOPE OF JESUS CHRIST'S RETURN and our gathering together unto him.

Life after death before the return of Jesus Christ is ONE of the most poisonous teachings that has infiltrated the truth of Christianity. This erroneous belief opens wide the door to the un-Godly non-biblical lies of parapsychology, psychic readings and other such dangerous spiritual darknesses. This rare and extremely valuable work concisely presents the truths of the scripture for all those who have "eyes to see and ears to hear".

You can buy Bob Dylan's LIVE 1966 in any self-respecting record store, and it comes with liner notes superior to this book.

For some reason this was a disappointing read. Of course any information about Bob Dylan and especially this concert is great, but the way it's processed in this book is distracting. The best parts are the stories of the people who were there. The least effective were Lee's cultural analyses and song analyses. The more he writes the more he gets further and further away from Bob Dylan, it seems. The music from this show is so great, and deserves better. That those great songs are trod through local cultural suppositions is distasteful. Scrounge around for Eat the Document, listen to the Live 1966 album, leave this book in the dustbin.

We are often told of how musicians and singers touch their audience with their work. But this book puts that sort of insight into a historical context which is quite compelling. We learn much from oral history and the author's own experience, but the author obviously did more than scholarly homework for this project. There is an authoritative command of the subject matter. I would recommend this book to any Dylan fans or those studying popular culture in general. For better and for worse, Dylan is a historical figure and shaped a generation with his move from folk to pop. His contribution to popular music should not be underestimated. Dr. CP Lee of Salford University gives this subject the serious study it deserves.

Hansel and Gretel is a classic story about a family that lives in the woods. The father is a woodcutter and the family is very poor. The mother convinces the father that they should go out into the woods and leave their children there. She says that it is the only way they will survive. Hansel heard his parents talking about this one night and he told Gretel. The next day, their parents told them that they were going into the forest to chop wood. Hansel took a handful of pebbles and dropped them a little bit at a time on their way. This was so they could find their way back home. The idea worked. The mother and father decided to try again. This time Hansel dropped breadcrumbs, but the birds of the forest ate the breadcrumbs and the children were lost. They started walking and came upon a house made of candy. Little did they know, a witch lived inside. The witch tried cooking Hansel, but Gretel managed to shove the witch into the oven. Hansel and Gretel found lots of pearls and diamonds in boxes in the witches house. They shoved them into their pockets and left. They finally found their way home and when they got there, they found out that the mother had died.
This book has always been one of my favorites. When you add Zelinsky illustration's it is a literary success. Rika Lesser did an incredible job of retelling this classic. The umbrella theme of children's literature of, "if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything" is hidden in the fairy tale book.

Hansel and Gretel is a book about a family of a wife and a husband who have two children. The father is a woodcutter and at the moment they are very poor. The stepmother convinces the father that they should go out into the woods and leave their children there. She says that that is the only way they will survive. Hansel heard their parents talking about this one night and he told Gretel. The next day, their parents told them that they were going into the forest to chop wood. Hansel took a handful of pebbles and dropped them a little bit at a time on their way. This was so they could find their way back home. The idea worked. The stepmother and father decided to try again though. This time, Hansel dropped bread crumbs, but they fell asleep and when they awoke, the bread crumbs were gone. They started walking, at last they found a house that was made of candy. Little did they know, a witch lived inside. The witch tried cooking Hansel, but Gretel managed to shove the witch into the oven. Hansel and Gretel found lots of pearls and diamonds in boxes in the witches house. They shoved them into their pockets and left. They finally found their way home and when they got there, they found out that the stepmother had died. The children and their father lived happily ever after though, and they had plenty to eat!
I think that it was a very good children's book. the detail was understandable for children. There were pictures on every page, so that also helps the children to be able to understand the story better. I liked how creative the author was. I liked how the story ended happily, but there was one thing I did not like about the book. I did not like that the stepmother was so mean to the children. I think that will make children think that adults (especially stepmothers) are always mean. I am glad though that the stepmother was the one who died at the end, and not the father.

By, Tasha (...)

As a 5 and 6 year old, I recall reading this stark version of the fairy-tale. The illustrations here are simply beautiful! I remember talking to my mom about the issues in this tale -- famine and starvation, abandonment, cannibalism, supporting, being supported by your sibling, and returning/reunited to your family after being through everything.
My mom helped me understand the mom's behaviour in this story, and I hope I can do that for my son some day. Like all fairy tales, this simply looks at some of the worst that could happen, and lets you see a way out. I read it without these gorgeous illustrations too. You can't disney all of life, though I admit, I'm a sentimental soft-hearted person who cries when the cats get rained on when I'm watching the Aristocats :-) Enjoy, and think too ...