This book is full of mistakes and very unclear.
Here's an example.. When he introduces the POP protocol, he tells the reader that it stands for Point of Presence as opposed to Post Office Protocol, come on now. I was looking for a book to help prepare me for the RHCE, but now, I don't trust any information that comes from this book, and I would not recommend it to anyone who is even the slightest bit unfamiliar with Linux or UNIX.
Since I have worked with Linux systems, I can tell the mistakes, and there are many. It is a waste to even try to get something out of this book. I have since purchased another book, so let's see how that one does.

Before I being, let me mention that I run the premiere websitefor people studying for their RHCE exam at ( )

Ireally like the book itself. It's very thorough. At the end of each chapter there is a "two minute drill" which summarizes the chapter, and a self test which helps you see how well you understand the material. The self-test at the end of each chapter has around 20 questions! This is much better than other books that only have 10 questions at the end of each chapter.

The practice tests on the cdrom are not usable under Linux. If they aren't going to make their software compatible with Linux, they could at least grant us the ability to do that in their licensing agreement. I invite people who want practice tests to visit my website.

But, despite the sillyness of relasing a book about Linux with software that requires Windows, I like the book.

( ) END

Those who have brushed on the RHCE test know that it is a pretty grueling test. Thankfully I bought this book. This should be the first book you read in preparation for this RHCE exam.

What impresses me about this book, is that it is concise, yet the information is always relevant. Ironically, for those who are new to Linux, and not taking the RHCE exam, this book is still very useful in that it doesn't inundate the reader with useful information. Rather, it gives plenty of useful information at a relaxed pace, that anyone can keep up with.

Some chapters were particularly enlightening. The chapter on kernel compilation was the best I had seen on this topic. Out of 3 or 4 books I had read, this one was the easiest to understand, and also the most thorough.

One complaint that cost this book 1 star, were mistakes in the practice exams. I found a few mistakes in a couple of the chapter tests that would frustrate the reader, or confuse him as to what was the right answer. I hope that in the 3rd edition, this will be cleaned up because otherwise, this book is terrific.

I find myself using this book in the workplace too when I need a quick reference, so I think the authors deserve a round of applause. This is the best guide on the RHCE around, and I consider it money well-spent.

Paul Vitz's *The Faith of the Fatherless* is a ship without a rudder. What is the point of this book? Is it simply to explain why some become atheists? Is it to psychologically discredit atheism the way Freud tries to discredit belief in God? Vitz is never clear.
Vitz proposes an interesting thesis; but he fails to provide any evidence in its favor and qualifies it half to death. He calls his thesis the Defective Father Hypothesis: atheism is a result of rejecting of the father or father-substitute due to absence, weakness or abusiveness. He explains this as a result of an unresolved Oedipal complex, only to later admit that the Oedipal complex is controversial without defending it. He also draws a distinction between male and female rejections of the father that admittedly relies on Carol Gilligan's work, though this time he does not acknowledge the controversy surrounding her work or its underpinnings in Kohlberg's controversial account of moral development. Also, he starts by indicating a rejection of the biological father, then expands his thesis in his "evidence" to include father-substitutes, including clergy and religious institutions. He also admits that there are other important causes of atheism, but only devotes 3 pages to them, which makes one wonder if he's really qualifying his thesis or just kidding us.
There are serious problems with his methodology, that, as a professional psychologist, he ought to recognize. The only evidence he offers for his theory consists of 1-2 page biographical sketches of some prominent atheists, contrasted with 1-2 page biographical sketches of some prominent theists. He rarely does more than quote a biographer's claim about what caused this person to be a theist or atheist, a bizarre kind of deference from a psychologist. In any case, his examples prove absolutely nothing. Examples are open to serious selection bias, and I think this has happened in this case.
The evidence Vitz needs to appeal to should be obvious to him: is there a positive statistically significant correlation between a "defective father" and atheism? This involves 2 things: are people with defective fathers more likely than not to become atheists, and are theists more likely than not to have effective fathers? Vitz is silent on what the empirical evidence has to say. The only evidence that would vindicate his thesis is never even *mentioned*, much less provided.
There may be a reason for this. We have good initial grounds for thinking his thesis is false. First, the rates of paternal absenteeism and abusive fathers is far in excess of the rate of atheism in the United States. In other countries, the reverse is true. Does Vitz really think that all Buddhists, Advaita Vendanta Hindus, Confucians and Daoists have defective fathers? (I suspect his all-too-brief mention of learning atheism from one's father is his way to try to weasel out of this blatantly false consequence of his view.)
Lastly, even if Vitz could provide evidence of correlation, he knows as well as I do that this doesn't prove much. A correlation of .5 (quite high), means that 25% of atheism can be explained by defective fathers. A more modest correlation of .2 would account for only 4%. Since most of his readers will know little or nothing about statistics, this omission borders on deception.
In the end, Vitz waffles on what his thesis is, evades massive evidence to the contrary, and fails to support his view. And sadly, even if he didn't, his thesis would be interesting, but unlikely to mean very much. Vitz's "thesis" is speculation; nothing more.
I want to end with my own undefended speculation. Vitz, on his own admission, once held atheism for shallow reasons. Because of this, he assumes that all other atheists must be similarly shallow. In the end, this book is one long ad homine argument, no different in principle from the Freudian argument he himself rejects.

The FAITH OF THE FATHERLESS (Spence Publishing, 1999, and 176 pages) by Paul C. Vitz is an informative and popular read. The only reason I bothered to review this specific title is due to what I felt was erroneous and substantive errors on behalf of some of the people who gave the book a negative review.

The "a reader from London, England" comments that "Second of all, of course there is no actual evidence to suggest that every atheist had a bad father, or lacked a father." Similar comments concerning the book come from such people as: "Ed." The problem with this argument contra Vitz is that Vitz does not assume that "every atheist had a bad father, or lacked a father." Vitz argues that (contra to the Oedipus/Freudian theory) that people with a happy childhood with two both parental figures will have the choice to determine a theistic or an atheistic worldview, but that (especially) males who had either no father, an abusive father, or a weak father will have a psychological tendency to become atheists. The Vitz thesis is not "all atheists" had a father with any of the above descriptions, only the fatherless--Vitz's arguments are specified to only fatherless atheists.

A man named Mr. Rogers comments that "Paul C. Vitz joins the ranks of Michael Behe (Darwin's Black Box) and Michael Drosnin (The Bible Code) in his attempt to use science and reason to support his religious beliefs." This comment leaves me the inference that he (Rogers) is amazingly un-well-read. THere are literally thousand upon thousand of Christian apologetic texts, ranging in fields from history to philosophy to science to (yes) psychology. Rogers continues, "The premise behind the book is that adults reject atheism as the result of being disgruntled children, but instead of offering solid evidence Vitz results instead to misrepresentations, poor logic, and ad hominem attacks in which he characterizes atheists as being arrogant and immoral. " That is NOT the premise of the book. The premise is that people reject the Christian diety due to bad or absent fathers. Concerning Vitz's use of ad hominem arguments, Vitz himself recognizes this, as he writes, "...psychological arguments are all ad hominem; that is, they address the person presenting the evidence and not the evidence himself." (pg. 145)

Continuing in Rogers's erroneous review, he comments: "He then makes the enormous leap in logic that a child views his father as a god figure, therefore disliking an abusive or absent father will cause the child to become an atheist." Yet Rogers has yet to demonstrate that this is an "enormous leap in logic."

Rogers: "what we find is that only a few of Vitz's atheists share any one aspect of childhood." Uh, how about that all of them had an abusive, absent, or weak father, JUST AS VITZ CONTINUALLY ENFORCED AND FOCUSED UPON?

Rogers: "Does this NYU psychologist really believe that these are equal offenses to a child?" Where does Vitz state this? From my reading, it appears that Vitz is trying to demonstrate that the child's reaction to the offenses are similar, not that the offenses must be congruent in every-which-mannor.

Rogers: "What's interesting is what he considers abusive. In the case of Jean Meslier, Vitz claims that his father was abusive because he encouraged him to become a priest." Vitz himself almost directly commented on this that "There is not enough information to make an obvious case for Meslier's having had an absuive father--though any father who would force a son who felt no call to the priesthood to become a priest and a celibate could justifiably be called abusive." (pg. 37).

As I read Rogers's review through one more time, I found that there was too many erroneous statements for me to waste my time.

Is the thesis presented by Paul Vitz substantive? That is not for me to so -I do not know- but it seems clear that the reviews's arguments against it are not.

Paul Vitz is a professor of psychology at New York University and was himself an atheist until his late 30's. The simple but compelling thesis of his new book is that "the major barriers to belief in God are not rational but can be called, in a general sense, psychological" (p. 5).

Vitz turns Freud's projection theory of religion (belief in God is an illusion that derives from our childish need for protection and security) on its head, and argues that "the atheist's disappointment in and resentment of his own earthly father unconsciously justifies his rejection of God" (p. 16).

Stated in concrete social terms, Vitz's thesis is that absent or deficient fathers predispose their children to practical, if not philosophical atheism. A good part of the book consists of 20 biographical sketches of prominent post-Enlightenment atheists, focusing on their relationships to their fathers or father figures. This group includes Friedrich Nietzche, David Hume, Bertrand Russell, John-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and H.G. Wells. As a control group, the book provides biographical sketches of a similar number of prominent theists from the same period, including Blaise Pascal, Edmund Burke, Moses Mendelssohn, Soren Kierkegaard, G. K. Chesterton, and Dietrich Bonhoffer. Vitz finds that characteristically, the atheists had weak, bad or absent fathers, while the theists had good fathers or father substitutes.

For the purposes of this brief review, Vitz' thesis has been greatly simplified. The book is a good deal more subtle and nuanced. The author concludes, "Since both believers and nonbelievers in God have psychological reasons for their positions, one important conclusion is that in any debate as to the truth of the existence of God, psychology should be irrelevant. A genuine search for evidence supporting, or opposing, the existence of God should be based on the evidence and arguments found in philosophy, theology, science, history, and other relevant disciplines" (p. 145).

I tried to like this book, really I did. I went into it expecting a light read, not Shakespeare mind you. But light reads are supposed to be LIGHT! This book was either too conspicuously trying to take itself seriously or too conciously trying to be funny.

The main gist is that Sturm and Kitiara accidentally end up on another planet when the flying machine they are riding in with a band of gnomes breaks. Once on the planet it's a series of misadventures trying to get supplies to leave which eventually leads them to a brass dragon in an obelisk. When they finally get back to Krynn, Sturm inexplicably joins a group of herders to find his father, barely being saved by Kitiara before being done in by a magician warrior. Did I mention the deadend plot about a pirate ship? I won't even try to go into that.

The characters were strikingly bland. Sturm is such an over-pious, stuffy character it's hard to sympathize with him and Kitiara is just obnoxious, bemoaning how the world doesn't work out perfectly for her. The gnomes are interchangable and so annoying one wants to put them all in a box and sink them to the bottom of the ocean. The one chapter featuring Raistlin and Caramon was better than most of the other characterization put together. Raistlin is such a magnetic character it's hard to write him poorly.

Initially, if the authors had stuck to the later plot of the book, with Sturm looking for his father, this thing might have been a good read. But in the end, too much is attempted to be done and the book just runs out of gas. Oh, and where was the promised romance? I found none.

In the end, too many plot twists make an admirable rope to hang this story on.

This story, is indeed one of the more interesting works in the Saga. As stated above, it entales the story of Sturm and Kitiara five years before the War of the Lance. Traveling to his home land, in an effort to find his lost father, Sturm finds on the way, how very different he is from Kitiara, both in principle and action. Along the way, they meet with a group of gnomes, travel to the Red Moon, and engage a very real dragon. While this forshadows a part of Kitiara seen in the Chronicles, I find it hard to believe that Sturm would fail to mention to his companions that he had seen a dragon, even if the two had agreed to not speak of it. His honor as a knight, I guess. The story seemed detached from the rest of the Dragonlance plethora, and in doing so, left it somewhat unbelieveable (even for a fantasy world). Overall,however, it was well written, and very entertaining, thus making its good sides greatly outweigh the bad.

Before the war of the lance, when the companions split up, after a promise to meet in 5 years time, Sturm decides to head north to look for signs of his father. Kitiara decides to come along, and together they head north towards solomnia. But along the way they meet a rag-tag group of gnomes, all of whom man a very gnomish invention, a flying machine.

Sturm and Kitiara end up joining the gnomes on the flying ship, but something goes wrong and they end up flying all the way to the red moon lunitari. One the moon they meet a dragon, some weird talking trees, and an evil marrooned human..can they do to get home? their ship is broken!

This books bring together the adventure of sturm and kitiara in the years preceeding the war of the lance. They face many things during this book, i will not go about telling you what all the face, you will have to read and find out, but this book is a must needed addition to any dragonlance collection.

I am not the biggest fan of kitiara, but in this book she wasnt half bad, maybe it was because she wasnt hanging over every single guy that she saw, but this book definately shows you the relationship between sturm and kitiara, and brings to life the pain that kit might have felt, after she realized that she killed sturm (dragons of winter night). They face many things on their journey, as well as something that they never expected...love.

Kitiara goes her way, and sturm goes his. But this book is definately a good read. full of adventure, and humor (thanks to the gnomes) as well as a precurser to the troubles that a brewing on krynn, troubles that will eventually lead to the war of the lance.

While others have pointed out that there is a few inconsitencies in this book, like the parts with the dragon, and the draconions, who sturm was supposedly not supposed to know about until "dragons of autumn twilight" this is still a good read, and will definately keep you interested from cover to cover.

I read this book a few years back in Korea while serving as an officer in the U.S. Army. I have always been fascinated with the French Foreign Legion and this was the first time I came across a firsthand account of what it is like to serve in the Legion. My feelings on the book are mixed.

It becomes obvious from the beginning that Jennings is a reject. He made a mess of his life in the UK. Things didnt get much better after signing up with the Legion. He is constantly complaining. Things are either too tough or not tough enough. By the middle of the book, our young alcoholic Jennings is totally disillusioned with the Legion and is either on a drinking binge, plotting desertion, or getting beaten up by his NCOs for being useless.

This is obviously not an accurate picture of the French Foreign Legion. But it seems like its the ONLY first hand account of life as a Legionaire written in English! I have seen many folks who are (or claim to be) former Legionaires rag on this book. My only response to such people is to put their money where their mouth is and write their own account! Jennings seems to not be in a stupor during initial training. This, combined with his blatant honesty about his shortcomings, leads me to believe his account of Legion training is probably not completely inacurate.

Again, I challenge those legionaires out there that constantly tell me "this isnt what its like" to write their own book. I would certainly be willing to buy a copy!

The one question that keep's running through my mind is, Why did this guy join the Legion? Reading "Mouthful of Rocks" is like looking into the mind of a little boy who, while playing "soldier", gets upset and decides to take his toys and go home. I enjoyed reading the book, but not for the reason's I had hoped to. The book has little to do with life in the Legion, but has everything to do with Mr. Jennings seeming life long quest to blame everyone and everything around him for the decisions he makes. From page one, he seem's to want us to know that he is irresponsibile, childish, and a drunk. It is no secret that life in the Legion is hard, but Mr. Jennings goes out of his way to make it even harder. Constant disregard of orders, joining a clique of racist's, and avid drinking all point to the only ending this book could have; the little boy running away. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone with an intrest in the Legion, but any intrested in a childish mind would find it a great read.

Christian Jennings gives you insight into one of the most mysterious group of fighting men ever assembled. From the mountainsides of Orange to the deserts of Djibouti you will face the harsh reality that is the Legion Etrangere. They didn't ask you to come, you volunteered for this! Travel, see the world, be part of an elite fighting unite; have your world turned upside down(literally), get punched in the mouth, kicked in the face. You deserved it you know, but hey look at it like this. Being a legionaire in the French Foreign Legion is easy. Being a civilian is easy. It's the transition between the two that Christian Jennings never quite figures out. Entertaining as the book is, it is filled with "out of the norm" occurences. For example, all of the Legions troops take their basic training at Castelnaudary and not outside of Orange in the mountains. Of all I've read about the Legion, Christian Jennings time their seems more the exception than the norm. And one last thing, even though I think this is a very entertaining book and well written, it IS written by a DESERTER!! That said, for an armchair adventurer, it is a must read.

Ok, my background (recently) is CJ Cherryh and Iain M Banks. Both very hard-sf type people, with exceptionally deep characters and far flung plots that are complex on a macro and micro level.

This is not that kind of book. The story is told in the same sort of way that Joe Haldemann wrote _The Forever War_. The story is intriguing, but the author is trying to tell it in far too little space. At only 258 pages, it is a very short read. However, the 258 pages encompass 16 years of time. There are jumps in the book that literally gloss over 3-4 years at a time.

The people in the book are not very fully developed. In fact, they are developed to a level I'd expect from Dean Koontz or some other pulp author. There really is only one main character, and you couldn't really call him a protagonist. The story meanders on, holding up this character as some moral lighthouse, some metaphor for humanities need to "explore the stars," as it were.

It is a very cheery novel, with the darkest parts of the book passing in what could be just a flicker of dark compared to what you'd see in Banks' _Against a Dark Background_, or even Cherryh's _Downbelow Station_.

I guess where I'm going with this is the book is as shallow as the characters. It tells a fun, Buck Rogers kind of story, and I'll admit I got attached to it the same way I might get attached to a channel on TV I mistakenly flipped to (and felt compelled to finish the show).

Not an excellent book. A fun (and thankfully short) read. Good plane or car material.

Ah, one final note. The subtle little pokes at society (such as mentioning "Lawrence Livermore/Microsoft Labs" in the beginning of the book) really ruffled my feathers. They come out of nowhere, they're not justified, and they just serve to irritate the reader.

Buy used.

Levinson's second novel is so different from his first, that I had no idea what to expect. I was surprised and delighted. Borrowed Tides starts off as an old-fashioned, cosy, first flight to the nearest star. But there are oddities at the beginning -- the flight is based, implausibly (yet Levinson pulls it off) on a combination of the boomerang effect (as in Apollo 13) and a Native American legend about star currents. As the novel progresses, the very fabric of space and time unwinds. One of my favorite themes -- not often explored this well or as cosmically -- is art as a best hedge against dissolution of memory. It's hard to explain in a little review -- read the book (the art part is near the end) and see if you agree. The themes and fascinations of this novel will stay with you for a very long time.

Paul Levinson has a gift for turning the genre coin on its edge and giving us something new and unexpected. In BORROWED TIDES what looks at the beginning to be a somewhat typical space exploration adventure is quickly transformed into a thought provoking discussion of time and the nature of reality.

Upon reading the book flap I thought that I had figured out the entire story, but as I began to realize how wrong I was and began to glimpse the directions Levinson was taking his novel, I found myself truly captivated.

I won't pretend that the ending is fully satisfying. But then, I don't believe Levinson wanted it to be. He sprinkles the whole novel with the "helpless" flavor of the horror genre, and the ending capitalizes on that ambience quite successfully. There is a lot of angst and frustration in that ending which I, as the reader, shared fully with the cast of the novel.

I'm looking forward to Levinson's next work.

OK. It's a small thing. The point of all of the folks getting together in the lawfirm of his deceased buddy's employer, the evil senior partner, the hot trophy chick-wife, the tired but savage ex-wife, the wise-cracking partner, is the division of the "key man" policy of insurance, a cool 2 mil.

Savage ex-wife will lose it all to her lawyer to prevent the blond size 5 from getting a cent. And the blond, blue-eyed 'whatEVER' current wife feels the same. Tension. Witty arguments. Insurance executives who laugh too hard. Points and Authotities on 'accidental death.'

So it's a small thing and probably to Steve Marrini fans, of which I am one, it will make me appear petty. But you see, so much is made of this "key man" insurance policy that you wonder if someone didn't tell Mr. Martini . . . wives, ex, future, current, sizes 5 to 25, these folks don't get key man insurance benefits. They are not the beneficiary. Or husbands for that matter. Or beautiful, obedient children.

It's for the company who has a really important Doctor or Lawyer or Salesperson or Broker and will suffer if that man or woman becomes unexpectedly (aren't they all?) deceased.

See. It's not for the wives of Nick Rush, gunned down by accident on a San Diego street corner in a hail of automatic rifle fire. It's for his employer for whom he, the deceased Nick Rush, was a "key man."

So this is kind of irritating. And so much swings on this. And subsequently it seems like a lot of effort wasn't put into the groundwork.

And for me, again liking Mr. Martini, it went downhill from there. Paul Madriani lacks the history of wisecracking of Elvis Cole or Spenser so instead he comes up scripted and shallow. And as a character he lacks the painful introspection of John Connolly's characters or James Burke's Dave Robicheaux.

So overall, a disappointment. I'll read him again. But this story was a let down.

If you are a Steve Martini - Paul Madriani fan, this latest book is worth your time but not up to his best work. If you are a new reader and are looking for legal mysteries that involve complicated cases and courtroom strategies, I would suggest that you read some of Martini's other books first. If you like action adventure with some legal twists, then you will enjoy this book and probably rate it four stars.

Nick Rush, friend and lawyer at a prestigious San Diego firm, approaches Paul Madriani to take on Gerald Metz, a client who supposedly poses a conflict of interest for Nick. After a conference with Metz, Paul declines and Metz and Nick are soon gunned down in front of the courthouse prior to Metz's grand jury testimony. Dana, Nick's trophy wife, requests that Paul investigate her insurance benefits, and interesting legal manueuvering ensues between Nick's employer, the insurance carrier, Dana, and Nick's former wife. This is vintage Paul Madriani (and Harry Hinds, his partner), clever and interesting. It also intoduces us to Adam Tolt, managing partner of Nick's firm whose apparent attempts to protect the firm's reputation and replace Nick lead to several interesting developments.

For various reasons including loyalty to his dead friend and inconsistencies regarding the events concerning Nick's death, Paul (with reluctant help from Harry) decides to supplement the police homicide investigation with his own efforts. Eventually additional violence ensues, and Paul and Adam follow the confusing trail of Metz and Nick and the other assorted unsavory individuals that Paul has unearthed to Mexico. While any of the individual incidences of violence and danger might be believable, the cumulative effect defies belief. Of course, almost nothing is what it appears, and misdirecton is rampant, both for the reader and the participants. Paul repeatedly and often unnecessarily puts himself in incredibly perilous situations, and often his escapes defy belief. This seems totally out of keeping with his character in previous books, especially given his concern for his role as sole parent for his daughter since the death of his wife. It almost seems as if Martini was writing this book with the goal of maximizing it's potential as a movie project and wanted to create additional complexity and action a la James Patterson.

While almost all the loose ends are tied together in the final chapter, and while the action and several clever plot twists kept me totally involved, my final reaction was one of disappointment. Steve Martini can undoubtedly write a good altough implausible action-adventure story, and the major elements of this story were well thought out. But I was in the end let down not just because it was not what I expected as a Paul Madriani fan, but because the result of the attempt to meld the two genres (legal mystery and action story) was less than the sum of the parts. It suffered from the conclusion being both unbelievable and complex, and my reaction upon finishing the book was disappointment even though in some ways justice and right prevailed.

I have enjoyed all of Steve Martini's novels. I would rate this one as very average.

The first quarter of the book is compelling. However, it quickly gets bogged down in insurance payments, that neither wife is actually entitled to.

This is light reading at best. If you put down this novel you may not pick it up again for a long time.

Do not waste your time reading Ralph J. Acampora's book. It is another way Mr. Acampora is trying to make money is today's world. When will he have enough?

I read a lot of investment material and this is the first time I have heard of the concept of a "mega-market". Mr. Acampora provides interesting comparisons to prior mega-markets with very brief lessons in technical analysis. He has made a boring subject interesting and uses a lot of personal examples. I think it takes guts to go out on a limb to highlight a phenomenon and to have in print that you predict that this bull market will run through 2011. This is even more corageous considering he finished this book during the present market turmoil. I don't find this to be vanity but more of a desire to share his knowledge with others. You are not going to learn all the details of technical analysis, but reading his book gave me the confidence to contiue investing in this bear market.

Unlike several current books about the stock market that I've read, Mr. Acampora chooses not to make incredible Dow predictions but rather presents an excellent historical and technical argument for investor optimism. He explains the social and technology backdrop of prior robust market eras and shows the reader why everything is in place for a grand future. Bear markets and the periodic deflation of speculation are a natural occurence in the course of a bull mega-market. If anything, this book will build your confidence as a long term investor and support a committment to stay in the market during the current severe stock correction. Mr. Acampora addresses the current market and puts it in a historical context and that I found very informative. The book is very well written and I have no doubt this is due to the collaboration with Michael D'Antonio who put his Pulitzer Prize winning writing skills to work here. You don't have to learn much technical analysis to enjoy this book. Mr. Acampora makes a solid and easily understood case for it but, in my mind, his inate integrity, sense of history, and long experience find an intuitive expression through that venue. At first I was going to rate this book a 4 but after some thought upgraded to a 5 because the book's understated style truely provides a thoughtful and informative experience that will benefit the investor. Highly recommended.

This book is excellent historical information that places each pope into the historical context of the secular world. It gives the reader a general sense of each popes accomplishments and try's to infer each popes personality traits based on those accomplishments. I did find it lacking in things more spiritual and humane. The book leaves me wondering what sacrifices did these men make. How much did they truly suffer for their faith. In many cases Popes are made out to look like power hungry spiteful old men whose whole pontificate was spent making life miserable for everyone else. While this might be true of many popes I am convinced we don't get the whole story. Only the more sensational and controversial elements that sell books. It was overall a very enjoyable book. Well worth reading for those interested in Papel history, but take it with a grain of salt and realize that there might be more to the story than meets the reader.

This is a great book if you're curious about the basics of the life of a particular pontiff, or about papal statistics (i.e., shortest reign, longest reign, dates of reigns, etc.). It is not a history, and does not advertise to be one. It is a reference book from which history can be extracted (there are sections on papal history and the book is divided up into sections or epochs). You can literally pull up the name of a pope and get a glimpse of what his rule was like, as well as the highlights and relevant dates for each pope.

This book was perfect for me, coming from a non-catholic background. Since it does not read like a book laden with catholicism, I wasn't turned away by the language or structure of the book. Not once did I feel the author was trying to proselytize me (something sadly lacking in some other books about the catholic church). What I found was an honest, objective look at the papacy: there have clearly been good and bad popes (some, though very few, have been downright loathsome people), and there have been popes who were incredible men. This book is honest in its appraisal of the men who held the highest earthly order of the catholic church.

There is a slant, and the author hits you in the face with it, but not until the very end of the book. It is not laced throughout the text. Depending upon your perspective, it will either horribly offend you or surprise you with its candor. I personally found it refreshing.

In short, if you're curious about the papacy from a historical perspective, this is a good place to start.

Apparently the author is a dissenter in the catholic church, unbeknowngst to me. I picked this up in Italy to read about all the popes(most of which I knew nothing about). This book, with its short synopsis on each pope is a great read. It also illustrates the marvelous variety of personalities that inherited the throne of peter. From the smiling Pope John Paul I to the warrior pope Julious II. It details the roman persecutions and shows how few popes were killed in the period, details the schisms and also the sexual adventures of the popes. Shows how many popes were murdered, and how many had short periods in power. It also details the papal election process and its developments. A must read for those interested in a history of the Popes without the usual tenderness associated with some publications and the usual wordiness of academics.

I received this book as a gift because I am fascinated by the mentality behind conspiracy theory but I am not into them. I think the only people who would take this book seriously are those who are already mentally dysfunctional and really just looking for an excuse to plant a bomb. If they would'nt find the excuse in this book then they would surely find it somewhere else. Apart from that this really is just for pure entertainment. It just doesn't have the thoroughness about it which would set it up as one of the more convincing publications on conspiracy theory, not that they are ever very convincing. The only reason I don't give it more stars is because it presents itself as fact instead of comedy fiction. I particularly enjoyed the reveiw of Om Shiva at Bonkersville, Alabama. I laughed more at that than I did at this book and I think it summarises perfectly the mind set with which this book should be digested.

The Spirit of Dark Angel called "Deccal" will born in a human body with order of God after the last saint is dead. And Deccal will born in China and speak Chinese. He will bring the supreme destruction (I guess it is 3rd World WAR)and blood will be one till a powerful saint called "Mehti" reborn to destroy Dark Angel and bring peace to humanity. But as u can guess billions of organisms will die because of Deccal. "Mehti" The saver will reborn as a king of an Arabic Kingdom after Deccal. The point is the last saint in the world has born and alive for now. When he dies, Deccal will born and I guess only about 100 hundred years left to total destruction so start to pray for your souls and if you are interested in , to learn more about read the holy book of muslims called "Kur-an'i Kerim".

This book is excelent and it cunningly fits right into the crevise between my cheeks. I would recommend it to anyone and would also suggest some other reading - "Beelzebub - My true Story" - J R R Phartley, "That God guy, what a wuss" - B L Zeubb , "How to succeed in Life (by getting your head out of your nether parts)" - W R T Gubbins, ", "How to get rid of piles using execrable reading material" - Big Black God.

I honestly have never read anything quite like this book and I can honestly say that it opened my eyes! This Satan guy is one twisted s.o.b. though not half as wired as the doomsday twins from Wackedoutville. People believe this stuff, some of them might even be able to read. Oy-oy the world is truely coming to an end. Well, hopefully for some of these nutters.

I was very disappointed in this book after having looked forward to its publication. The book seems to have been hurriedly put together and shipped before it was completed.

Example 1: Page 898. The book refers to Appendix E which is supposed to be on the CD - it isn't.

Example 2: Page 898. The book says the transcations.sql file, used to set up the database required to run the example is on the CD - it isn't.

Example 3: Pages 1165. The authors attempt to show how to set up Bea WebLogic server to run an EJB example. The instructions are incomplete. The authors end the section with the statement "you are almost ready to deploy".

I could go on but I think you get the idea. I would have preferred a book that was more focused, with complete examples, and a book that was *finished* when it went to press.

Unfortunately it seems the Deitel and Deitel folks are more interested in creating many titles with many pages while letting quality slip (...).

Check out the new book by Gittleman entitled Advanced Java: Internet Applications and published by Scott/Jones. In about half the pages, Gittleman covers many of the same topics as Deitel and Deitel. I really like Gittleman's style.

I love the Deitel books. They are very thorough in their explanation on how to produce working code in the software. Their examples are well explained and documented. Plus, the CD that comes with the book has the examples available so you can copy and run the code to can see the it perform.

I've purchase C++ and now two Java books from Deitel. I will continue to purchase other topics because of their quality.

Book Review:
Java How to Program, 4th ed.
Advanced Java™ 2 Platform How to Program
Deitel & Deitel

I finished three java programming courses at Santa
Monica College two of which required the Java How to
Program, 4th ed., the other was a java w/data
structures course and I used the Java How to Program,
4th ed. and the instructors lecture notes. I bought
the advanced book to learn more about java and the
net, java 2d, 3d and j2me since I am into pc and
online video games development, and data base
connections with jdbc since I know sql. Design
patterns and enterprise java case study give
industrial strength business applications.

The authors packed and packed java into these books.
The books are easy to follow, and everything works. I
found the exercises challenging but not overwelming. I
have not ran across an exercise I cannot do, although
some require in depth study of the topics covered. And
when if all comes together it's fun. The chapters

build on each other very well, and the materials moves
fast and stays interesting.

The cd's have everything I need to get started: what
to install, how to install it, how to set the
environment. The forte community edition is packed
with java building and debugging tools that make java
programming faster and easier to follow. Try the
Reformat Code tool, and check out the text coloring.

I cannot say enough about these authors and their
materials. Anybody getting into java programming will
be more than satisfied for a long time.

Thank you Deitel & Associates