Attanasio is one of my favorite writers - constantly innovative, frequently lyrical, and until this book he hadn't disappointed me. It's not a bad story, but it falls far below the standard of work that I've come to expect from this man. The first two books in this series are delightful, and as good as anything Attanasio's ever done. I finished this one, however, only to keep up with the series. Rerad this book if you've been drawn into the series, but by no means let it be your introduction to the work of this talented author.

Attansio's interpretation of teh Arthurian legend is fascinating and well-written, but it took this reader nearly 100 pages to become acclimated to the author's bizarre shortened chapters. Attanasio abbeviates his scenes so that they last no longer than 1 1/2 pages at the most.

Interestingly, it doesn't appear that his work suffers because of it...yet it was still disconcerting. This was the first Attanasio book I've read. Despite what others have written, it is possible to use this as a jumping-off point into his novels.

The Wolf And The Crown is a beautiful weaving of the classic story of Arthur, except now the tale has an original factor to it. Attanasio is a very talented author; he combines legend with his own mythology. I loved it because Attanasio used characters from several beliefs; he didn't just focus on Christianity. You may believe this weird, but I think that his stories compare with The Wild Road, mostly because King's and Attanasio's details are similar. Such as: They both describe the weather, surroundings, features of an animal or person, and attitudes very thouroughly. I reccomend this book to everyone in the universe!!!

hyvä kirja jeejejeeee on todi hasukaa hello hello here's heikk

The authors present a whole new way of looking at vision and how it effects/impacts one's life. Visual implications in various types of learning/reading disorders, athletic performance, working at a computer, driving an automobile, and your personality are all discussed. Must reading for the insightful reader.

This book is EXCELLENT!! She is almost 10 yrs old and for almost 2 years, our daughter has been struggling in school. We've watched her grades and attitude plummet. We've tried EVERYTHING to get her help. On an annual, routine eye exam, our eye doctor found a problem and sent us to Dr. Arthur Seiderman. I watched as she was tested and was AMAZED by the results. How did she get as far as she did with this vision disability? Moreover, only being 2 weeks into her therapy, we see a dramatic change in her attitude and boost in her confidence level. We read this book and it says it all! I highly recommend this book to anyone who see a problem with their child's behavior. Many ADHD people are misdiagnosed and they really have vision problems. We are thrilled with this book and are lending it to all of our friends!

Part 1 (6 chapters) - Absolutely a waste of time, not worth a read. And the code examples are not related to JWSDP.

Part 2 (6 chapters) - Discusses on SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. The code discusses using a Older version of Apache SOAP and Apache Axis. The code needs a complete rewrite.

Part 3 - Discusses on JAXP, JAXB, JAXR, JAXM and JAXRPC. Good introductions but the JAXB chapter is based on DTD (which is obsoleted in the latest specs). JAXM and JAXRPC chapters just reproduces the Sun JWSDP tutorial...not much value addition.

Part 4 - Security, WSFL, WSIF (based on IBM Specs) currently these specs are obsolete no further releases.

It might've been a good book during 2002. The code and content needs an update to the latest specs and SOAP implementations.

Just as I stated in the title, it's a great book to start you with. It's written in a clear and precise manner where you could learn the basics of Java Web Services and not be intimidated by it.

It is a good introductory book to web services standards like SOAP, WSDL and UDDI but also goes further and talks about topics like WSFL, WSIF which are not covered by all books on web services but are essential to any real business processes exposed as web services where flow control and service unit(s) choreagraphy is as important as the single unit service request/response. Java specifications relating to web services are also covered like JAXM and JAX-RPC. I wish more examples and code was given, perhaps even a chapter or two, for ebXML which may not be a part of web services standards but still uses SOAP and defines industry standards for business to business collaborations especially dealing with supply chain commerce issues.
I agree with a previous reviewer (John Sfikas) that this book alone isn't exactly an eye opener for experianced professionals who have been dabbling with all the tools mentioned in this book like Apache SOAP, Axis, WSTK, Tomcat, Jetty etc. and know the challenges facing B2B collaborations on the internet quite intimately, but this book combined with "Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI" will give a much needed practical grounding to start making sophisticated web services in the real world. I highly recommend getting both these books but be prepared to use your brain and further what is presented in these books to deploy web services satisfying your needs. They will certainly not amount to spoon feeding you a near solution to your collaboration problems.

The Light Beyond the Forest is a very "boring" story about knights that talk funny and have weird things happening to them. "Acts of God." Most of the time I didn't even think about the book while i was reading it.
The knights were from the Round Table in Camelot. If I rated this book I'd give it a 3 out of 10. ...If I were a knight I'd slice my hands, toung, and legs off before I read any other books in this series!

The Quest for the Holy Grail
The Light Beyond the Forest by Rosemary Sutcliff had an extremely interesting plot. The reader follows the quest for the holy grail in four different characters. Sutcliffe jumps back and forth between the quests of Sir Percival, Sir Bors, Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot.
The time of the setting is in the medevil age. It takes place in many locations throughout the story. There are a few suspenseful twists that will keep you waiting until the end. Throughout the quest many conflicts appear between the characters and the grail.
Finally, I would recommend this book for 13+. Although it is not very long it can be confusing and hard to understand at times. This book is great for adventurous readers because of its plot and conflicts

This story is about the many exciting adventures of a few of the main knights involved in the Grail Quest. It many follows Sir Lancelot, Bors, Percival, and Galahad. The stories tell of their journeys through unfamiliar lands, saving damsels in distress, and over all trying to find the Holy Grail the one thing all the knights' desire, but only one knight can recover it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Although at times I was confused do to the ever-changing characters and story lines. Things I really liked about this book were the excitement in the adventures and the wonderful characters. I would most definitely recommend this book to all young adult readers who enjoy a great suspenseful tale.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's acquired disdain for his own renowned detective creation is legendary, and 'tis said that when William Gillette wired him with the question, "May I marry Holmes?" (to a female character), Conan Doyle brusquely replied, "You may marry him or murder him or do what you like with him."

But one must draw the line somewhere. And notwithstanding Mollie Hardwick's excellent paean to the legend of Sherlock Holmes at the head of this collection of short stories, I wonder whether even Conan Doyle could have stomached some of these literary assaults upon it.

In "Sherlock Holmes and the Muffin", Dorothy Hughes presents us with a feminist Holmes and Watson who look forward to the day when women become doctors and scientists. Another swig of Women 100 Proof and Ms. Hughes would have had them lobbying from their 19th century perches for abortion on demand, free daycare, and a chocolate bar in the glove compartment of every SUV, a bottle of prozac in the pocket of every power suit.

And even THIS atrocity barely holds its own, as an atrocity, against the contemporary setting of Joyce Harrington's "The Adventure of the Gowanus Abduction", in which a delicate hippie-type Watson plays second fiddle to a ferocious liberated female Holmes - not only as "her" assistant but as "her " lover. Indeed, the story winds up with a broad hint of a rendezvous in the bedroom, but I think that this Watson will couple with this Holmes about as successfully as Tchaikovsky did with Antonina Milyukova.

This book also has its share of short stories that do considerably more justice to the Sherlockian tradition, and the best of these are Barry Jones's "The Shadows on the Lawn", Edward D. Hoch's "The Return of the Speckled Band", and Stuart Kaminsky's "The Final Toast". The Jones story, in particular, is very chilling.

But John Lutz's "The Infernal Machine" also deserves credit for craft and subtlety. The threat of an international conflagration and the new concept of the "horseless carriage" are crucial to the resolution of this story, and there's a passage in it where a young inventor asserts that in ten years, everyone in England will drive a horseless carriage. "Everyone?" Watson asks. "Come now!"

Holmes laughs and says, "Not you, Watson, not you, I'd wager."

How many readers realize that Lutz is paying homage to the last story in the Conan Doyle concordance, "His Last Bow", set on the eve of the first World War, in which Watson does indeed drive an automobile, in the guise of a chauffeur? Not many, I'd wager.

It must have taken a lot of commendable restraint for Lutz to simply rely on his readers' perspicacity and to resist the sore temptation of finding a way to directly point to the Conan Doyle story.

For that matter, Malcom Bell, the villain in the Kaminsky story, may be based upon Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Conan Doyle's medical instructors, who is said to have been the chief inspiration for Conan Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes.

Stephen King's contribution might be the cleverest, if not the best written. He apparently wrote his own Sherlock Holmes story in response to a challenge from the editors, but King's normal writing style doesn't quite click with the sober Watsonian chronicling presented by Conan Doyle.

And King is usually a good researcher, but this skill fails him on at least two occasions. He presents us with several images from the Victorian Era that Conan Doyle withheld from delicate sensibilities, including orphans losing all the teeth out of their jaws in sulphur factories by the age of ten and cruel boys in the East End teasing starving dogs with food held out of reach.

But the authentic Sherlock Holmes, having learned that Jory Hull was a painter and having deduced that he had no need of monetary support from his cruel father, would have further deduced - without asking Lestrade - that Jory probably gained his independence by painting professionally.

And the authentic Holmes, as Watson says in the Conan Doyle classic, "A Study in Scarlet", has a good practical knowledge of British law. Stephen King is surely wrong to have Holmes ask Lestrade what sort of treatment the murder suspects might expect to receive under it.

Still, we must be grateful to King for bringing to our attention the one case in the lexicon where Watson actually solves the mystery before Holmes does - and yes, it happens in a plausible manner. As Loren Estleman has pointed out, Holmes's brilliance wouldn't be appreciated by us as much if it were not for the buffer provided by the savvy but unremarkable earnestness of Watson's narrative. We admire Holmes, but we empathize more with his Boswell, and it's wonderful to learn of a case in which Watson has his moment in the sunlight.

This collection has its share of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the just plain silly (Peter Lovesey's "The Curious Computer"). The reader is advised to judge each story on its own merits. Don't be too impressed with Dame Jean Conan Doyle's endorsement of the volume as a whole. But do ask, as another renowned English author once did, "What's in a name?"

"The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" was like a breath of fresh air. Lately I have come across some anthologies which just aren't up to par as far as the quality of the plots. These stories I found to be entertaining and fun to read. Two which stood out for me were "Shadows on the Lawn" and "The Return of the Speckled Band". There's even a story in there for Watson lovers, "The Doctor's Case", penned by none other than Stephen King. Though there were a few which I didn't really care for, this is a worthwhile read.

I love anything about Holmes and Watson. These were well written stories that I truly enjoyed reading. It took me back to when I read all of Doyle's stories about Holmes and Watson. I recommend it highly.

I purchased "The Sands of Mars" years ago after I read another novel (The Songs of Distant Earth) which I adored.
I really enjoyed reading "The Sands of Mars". It was an unusual read since Mr. Clarke had written the novel many years ago - when many assumptions at that time about the moon and planets have been proven false today. In fact, Mr. Clarke mentions that in the preface of my book - and asks the readers to see how many they can spot (like plants that grow on the Moon and Mars, to name a few). These distractions should not at all take away from the novel. It's actually a simple and straightforward story. A writer (of Science-Fiction), named Martin, decides to go to Mars - which is still in it's infancy of colonialism. The story then relates of the colony's attempts at maintaining the colony on Mars as well as their attempt at terraforming the planet. It's a good story, that many should enjoy!

Although not one of his absolute best stories, The Sands of Mars is a classic work of science fiction and one which has held up well over time. It starts out a little slow at first, but once the story gets a bit into the Mars landing part of the book it increasingly picks up steam. Once again, in the climax of the book, Clarke has a seemingly impossible thing happen and describes it in such a way as to make it believable. Maybe that is the mark of a good science fiction writer. Also, the characters in this book, unlike some other works of Arthur's where the characters tend to be flat and somewhat dull, are quite believable and likable. Certainly you should read 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous With Rama, and Childhood's End first, but if you are an Arthur C. Clarke fan then you should definately pick up The Sands of Mars.

On a sidenote, ignore the reviewer below who refers to this novel as "Part of Clarke's one novel per planetary body pulp series". This is simply a ridicilous statement. First off, ACC DOES NOT have one novel per planetary body, and he, being of the leading and perhaps pioneering practicioners of hard SF, certainly does not write pulp. Indeed, if you read this book as part of the omnibus Prelude To Mars, you will read in the preface to Prelude To Space that that novel took Arthur 20 days to conceive and write, which is a record he has never since come close to equalling. Yeah, sounds like pulp to me. Sure. Forget the negative commentary and enjoy the book.

For a science fiction book written in the late 1940s, this is an amazingly undated piece of work. Oh, sure, there are a few anachronisms ~ vacuum tubes and the possibility of vegetation on Mars are the most obvious to my non-scientific mind ~ and we are not as close to having a colony there at the end of the Twentieth Century as Clarke expected, but almost nothing else is out of place. The plot itself is impeccable; Clarke has created likeable, fun, believable, cogent characters of whom it is a pleasure to read. Martin Gibson is a Terran writer journeying to Mars to report on the successes there; his discoveries, including the major one that life on a frontier is what he wants. Mars is on the cusp of starting to make itself independant of Earth by the success of a secret project that Warren Hadfield ~ Chief Executive ~ has had scientists working on: Nothing less, in fact, than the complete reformation of the planet is contemplated. There are surprises a-plenty and mountains of pleasure in this, Clarke's first great novel. It deserves more renown than it has.

This book offers some very good information on the big cities but little else. The given information is helpful, but you really do not need any more than comes in a guide book like Lonely Planet. Save yourself the money and just buy one of the other books.

I found that this book was very helpfull but you need to update every six months. There are a lot of better places to stay that you can get from the tourist information desk at the train stations.I want to recommend the Hotel Cervo just outside Malpensa Airport in Milan. It is a great value with excelent friendly service and a free shuttle service to the airport!

This book is wonderful for the traveller who is doing the home base approach or who is going to primarily big cities. The advantage of making a big city your home base is that they are often hubs for rail lines and often offer a good dose of European art and cultural events. Although the rooms listed in Frommer's are a bit pricey, I found them to be safe and reliable. The maps are terrific and the book is very user friendly. This is one book where it pays to buy the new issue each year. The hotel/pensions listed change almost every year. I took the new book and pieces from the old book as well. All information was reliable.

A feature Frommer's contains that Î particularly like is a down and dirty list of what things cost. How much will a coke cost you in local currency? What is that in dollars? How much is a massage or a museum? Very useful!

The book has wit, and some useful info, but in an attempt to make it too cool it is virtually impossible to really find what you are looking for, and harder even to look for stuff you don't already know it exists. Skip the book, get a reverent guide that will give you more info.

Having lived in Boston now for 2-1/2 years, I was looking for a guide that could provide both insights on what I've been missing and good perspectives on what touristy spots would be best for out-of-town friends.

While it's refreshing to read both pros and frank cons of various venues, I felt the Frommer's Irreverent content wasn't as broad as I'd expect from guides built up over several years: my favorite sushi joint, Jae's Cafe, was mentioned six times in 20 pages as a great spot for Terminally Hip, Vegging Out, Global Harmony, Same-Sex, Thai, and After-Hours dining experiences. Additionally, I felt it lacked the benefit of a local editor (the John Hancock tower is referenced not as being on the well-known Clarendon Street, but rather on a fictitious Claridence Street).

I would heartily recommended the Irreverent Guide as a complement to another book to give any recommended itinerary a reality-check, but I wouldn't exclusively depend on this guide to plan a multi-day visit.

I go to Boston at least twice a year and always am interested in the nightlife scene. This book hit all the hot spots in retstaurants and bars. My friends who lived there were going through the book and saying, "yep, that's in," "that's still hot" If you're into that sort of thing, this is a great guide to have, especially if you're only going for a short trip.

This book is not for the beginners just like Leschetizky never taught any beginners. The more advanced pianist may not take much interest in it either-- as the pedagogue used to say, I have no method. His method instead concentrated on phrasing and interpretation and musicality, explained his pupil Moiseiwitsch. So even if this book is authentic, it is not very instructive.

Listen instead to his pupils, particularly Ignaz Friedman whom he observed to be technically better than himself. Simon Barere is perhaps even more awesome, but here Blumenfeld's and Anton Rubinstein's influence is equally strong though. Moiseiswitch and Horszowski are wonderful too, if Paderewski wasn't. We still have some fine historic recording of the padagogue himself which could tell you much more than any words or pictures could.

Nonetheless, there are dozens of pictures showing hand positions for various chords etc presumably they were Lechetizsky's hands. The fingers so so curved that at times that the knails would hit the key instead! Moiseiwitsch did play with rather curved fingers, though not to that extent. Anton Rubinstein on the other hand, preferred the flat fingers. But Hofmann from this school didn't play with very flat fingers.

This book was actually written not by the famous Leschetizky himself, but by his student Bree, and then later endorsed by the master. In any event, it is solid in the sense that it provides some basic finger exercises that are still useful and presents some basic good advice. The commentary is probably quite correct but generally does not really reveal anything new, neither in content nor in presentation. Perhaps the best part of the book are the illustrations of various hand positions. At the end there is also a perhaps historically interesting article by Paderewski. For finger exercises, I think Hanon is better and more complete, and for a method as such, have a look at Seymour Bernstein's '20 Lessons in Keyboard Choreography'.

Reading this book was informative to some extent, but disappointing in gereral. The exercises are very boring, and are pretty useless for the beginner. Relatively advanced pianists (Grade 8 and above) will find little in the book. The pictures are of an excellent quality, and are a definite guide, especially the ones about passing the thumb.

A more well written book is "Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing" by Josef Lhevinne (ISBN: 0486228207). This book offers superior advice on improving one's playing, and can be used by all but the most competent pianist.

Many people would like to say that Shakespeare did not write this play. But this is hardly fair. Even with the world's finest writers such as Marlowe and Dickens, not every single thing they write can be a masterpiece. But what makes "The Two Gentleman of Verona" worth reading? Well, Shakespeare presents us with a valid theme. (Conflicts often exist between romance and friendship.) There is also beautiful language. Launce and his dog offer some interesting comedy as well as a beautiful and memorable passage in 2.3. The scene where Valentine is accepted amonst the outlaws is memorable. This is Shakespeare's first play where a woman (Julia) disuises herself as man to do some investigating. It is also easy to see that several elements of this play were used in "Romeo and Juliet." To be sure, this is not a masterpiece like "The Comedy of Errors," "Richard III," or "King Lear." But it is still an good study that is worth some interest.

Although few would claim that Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, it is well worth reading in order to serve as a reference for the best of his romantic comedies. In essence, Two Gentlemen of Verona gives you a measuring stick to see the brilliance in the best works.

The play has the first of Shakespeare's many brave, resourceful and cross-dressing heroines, Julia.

Shakespeare always used his fools and clowns well to make serious statements about life and love, and to expose the folly of the nobles. Two Gentlemen of Verona has two very fine comic scenes featuring Launce. In one, he lists the qualities of a milk maid he has fallen in love with and helps us to see that love is blind and relative. In another, he describes the difficulties he has delivering a pet dog to Silvia on his master, Proteus', behalf in a way that will keep you merry on many a cold winter's evening.

The story also has one of the fastest plot resolutions you will ever find in a play. Blink, and the play is over. This nifty sleight of hand is Shakespeare's way of showing that when you get noble emotions and character flowing together, things go smoothly and naturally.

The overall theme of the play develops around the relative conflicts that lust, love, friendship, and forgiveness can create and overcome. Proteus is a man who seems literally crazed by his attraction to Silvia so that he loses all of his finer qualities. Yet even he can be redeemed, after almost doing a most foul act. The play is very optimistic in that way.

I particularly enjoy the plot device of having Proteus and Julia (pretending to be a page) playing in the roles of false suitors for others to serve their own interests. Fans of Othello will enjoy these foreshadowings of Iago.

The words themselves can be a bit bare at times, requiring good direction and acting to bring out the full conflict and story. For that reason, I strongly urge you to see the play performed first. If that is not possible, do listen to an audio recording as you read along. That will help round out the full atmosphere that Shakespeare was developing here.

After you finish Two Gentlemen of Verona, think about where you would honor friendship above love, where equal to love, and where below love. Is friendship less important than love? Or is friendship merely less intense? Can you experience both with the same person?

Enjoy close ties of mutual commitment . . . with all those you feel close to!

"The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Maybe that's because it's one of the only one's I understand. My youth Theatre did a wonderful production of this play. I was not in it, but I saw it twice. It was set in the 60's, peasant-shirted and bell-bottomed. I think it's a wonderful story, although a bit unrealistic because of all the forgiveness that happens at the end of the play. But I think that it's a play everyone should read. This edition of the play is, I think, a very good one. If you are planning to buy a copy of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," I would advise you to buy the most current edidtion printed by the Folger Shakespeare Library. They have lots of information in the book, and many definitions of the more difficult Elizabethian words.