Figes goes against the grain with this book. In opposition to such scholars as Richard Pipes (author of another huge tome I own but have yet to read), Figes believes that the Russian Revolution was in fact a "bottom up" revolution. Figes proves that the peasantry in Russia were sick to high heaven of a system that degraded them to a status of barely human. To the peasant, the most important thing was land and freedom from the state. All government forms, from the tsarist state to the Bolsheviks, were judged by how much autonomy the peasants earned under them. Figes actually seems to measure the success and failure of each government according to how the peasants received them. Not surprisingly, the tsarist system was a dismal failure. It's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback with history, but the tsarist regime was pathetic. The list of the problems confronting Tsar Nicholas is too numerous to list here, but what is important to note is that this regime failed them all. Land reforms were desperately wanted, but the Tsar denied them. Nationalism in the peripheral states around Russia was not only denied, but a program of Russification was instituted that caused more problems than were necessary. The list could go on and on. The problem was power. The tsarist state refused to give any ground on the autocratic principles that the Russian tsars loved so much. Figes spends a good portion of his book discussing the failures of the tsarist system and shows how that system could have averted problems and maintained the throne (although as a constitutional monarchy akin to England).

The other elements of government, the Bolsheviks, the Provisionals and the Whites, failed just as badly. The Provisionals were forced to tread the line between extremists and failed to reconcile both. The White regimes failed because the conservative elements that made up the bulk of the movement refused to budge on principles they enjoyed under the Tsar. Even the Bolsheviks failed, but their failure wasn't as pronounced because they were able to retain at least some semblance to the revolutionary principles that the peasants loved so much. Even here, the Bolsheviks had to make some concessions to retain power. The examination of the Communist regime is probably the most interesting aspect of this book.

The Communists are given heavy treatment in this text. Not only do we see how they came to power, we get huge doses of their philosophy. Figes gives a detailed examination of the intellectual currents that gave rise to the Communist movement, as well as their actions once they attained power. What emerges is a bleak picture. Communism is death to all it touches. The Bolsheviks sought to not only rule by dictatorship, but to change the very essence of man into an automaton subservient to the state. Figes shows the reader the Red Terror and some of the other methods the Bolsheviks used to try and bring about this subservience. It is a horrifying picture made worse, of course, under the rule of Stalin.

Figes states in his introduction that it took six years to do the research for this book. It is beautifully done and, I should mention, done by Figes himself without research assistants. I am amazed at how much information I have retained from this book, something that can't be said about many history books. I'd love to take a class from this scholar. His insights are fresh and his writing is erudite. Buy this book!

A People's Tragedy is a long book, but most definitely, worth the time it takes to read it. For any student of Russian history, it will shake up your dry and academic notions about the revolution. Figes' book places a distinctly human face on all of the events of the revolution, and the faces and stories are ones that you will not soon forget.

The style is very accessible, with little stories about the dogs and then capsule reviews with the salient points of treatment. My only problem with the writing is that Dr. Dodman's ego manages to shine through on every page.

Definitely, this is not one of Dickens's best novels, but nevertheless it is fun to read. The characters are good to sanctity or bad to abjection. The managing of the plot is masterful and the dramatic effects wonderful. It includes, as usual with Dickens, an acute criticism of social vices of his time (and ours): greed, corruption, the bad state of education. In spite of everything, this is a novel very much worth reading, since it leaves the reader a good aftertaste: to humanism, to goodness.

The social axe that Dickens had to grind in this story is man's injustice to children. Modern readers my feel that his depiction of Dotheboys Academy is too melodramatic. Alas, unfortunately, it was all too real. Charles Dickens helped create a world where we can't believe that such things happen. Dickens even tell us in an introduction that several Yorkshire schoolmasters were sure that Wackford Squeers was based on them and threatened legal action.

The plot of Nicholas Nickleby is a miracle of invention. It is nothing more than a series of adventures, in which Nicholas tries to make his way in the world, separate himself from his evil uncle, and try to provide for his mother and sister.

There are no unintersting characters in Dickens. Each one is almost a charicature. This book contains some of his funniest characters.

To say this is a melodrama is not an insult. This is melodrama at its best. Its a long book, but a fast read.

The book is virtually two stories in one, bouncing between its two main characters. It exploits the writing concept of "suspension of disbelief," where the reader is left to either challenge the likelihood of story events, or go along for the ride.

Magic realism aside, the story ultimately is a traditional one, but the creativity Christopher exhibits and the many fine details in this book make it a very worthwhile investment.

The novel intertwines the tales concerning two families whose grand patriarchs are warring with each other over ancient issues. The story alternately weaves the tales of Enzo (the kidnapped child) and Mala, his aunt who is also his adoptive mother for a very short period of time.

I won't go into further details to avoid spoiling the complex interactions between all characters except to say Christopher extends his theme from "Veronica" of the major role synchronicity and chance play in human relations. In this novel I believe he has carried off this theme in in a very poetic manner.

I suspect those who didn't enjoy this novel did also not enjoy "A Winter's Tale", "Fool on the Hill" and just about anything by David Foster Wallace or Charles De Lindt. That is, Christopher plays up the "strangeness" of ordinary life that so often makes it magic; those synchronistic moments that make living so rich.

I particularly enjoyed Christopher's style and had a hard time putting this book down. I'm sure if the above-mentioned authors appeal to you then you will likely enjoy this novel.

Christopher has a melodic voice and an imagination that does not quit. Readers will find themselves transported from New York, to the desert outside of the Las Vegas, to New Orleans and Vietmam and to the mysteries of the extraordinary Hotel Canopus and somewhere in between they will fall in love with Enzo and the unique characters that inhabit his world, a world
that the reader will not want to return from.

Much like Neil Gaiman, Christopher is unique with his novels, not an easy feat in this day and age where a good idea gets reproduced in a hundred different ways. I highly recommend this book - it can be read over and over again and the reader will still feel the excitement and wonderment that they felt the first time they discovered A Trip to the Stars. If you purchase
this book - I promise that you will not regret it.

At first glance at this book, I thought it was trying to be too many things to too many people. It seems to contain every buzzword: Opensource, Extreme Programming, Java, JSP, TagLibs, EJB, etc.

However the book focuses on applying Ant, JUnit and Cactus to J2EE development.

The book is very J2EE and web application centric. A small part of the book had very choppy flow--a few rough spots. Mostly (95%) the book is well written. Generally the book is easy to follow.
My favorite chapters are the ones on JUnitPerf and Cactus.

The case studies are a little long, but they can be skipped and returned to later.

The source code on the website is hidden in plain site. It took a while to find it.

The description above and title miss an important point. The book is J2EE/Jakarta centric. J2EE testing and continous integration can be very difficult without the use of Ant, JUnit, HttpUnit and Cactus.

The description of the book on the companion website clears up the missing points well. I found the description while searching for the source code.

From the companion website:

"Java Tools for eXtreme Programming describes techniques for implementing the Extreme Programming practices of Automated Testing and Continuous Integration using Open Source tools, e.g., Ant, JUnit, HttpUnit, JMeter, and much more."

"The book contains small examples and tutorials on each tool. The examples cover building, deploying, and testing Java and J2EE applications."

"In addition to small examples, there are larger case studies. The case studies are larger more realistic examples. We have case studies involving XSLT, EJB, Struts, JDBC, etc."

"Each case study is complete with an ant build script and several tests, written with JUnit, HttpUnit, Cactus, JUnitPerf and/or JMeter. The case studies focus on building, deploying and testing J2EE applications with Ant and JUnit."

"There is also a reference section for APIs. Instead of rehashing the API documentation, the reference section has example usage, i.e., code examples for the important classes and methods."

"Although this book speaks from an XP perspective, you need not practice XP to benefit from it. For example, you do not have to adopt the entire XP methodology to get value out of this book. Automated testing, for example, can help you refactor code regardless of whether you are doing pair programming or not. Continuous integration can help you detect and fix problems early in the lifecycle of the system regardless of whether your customer is on site or not."

The book is divided into three major parts. Part I presents a foundation for the ideas in the rest of the book, exploring the philosophy behind XP, J2EE project development and deployment, and demonstrating the process with a simple Model 2 Web application. Part II spends its first three chapters (4-6) looking at ANT, first with a high-level look at continuous integration practices and then at more concrete examples. Chapters 7-11 look more closely at testing, with chapters on JUnit, Cactus, HttpUnit, JMeter, and JUnitPerf. Part III is a series of reference chapters for ANT, JUnit, Cactus, and HttpUnit. The coverage is exceptionally good and the material is comprehensive.

There's no question that a book like this is unlikely to stimulate readers to suddenly adopt these techniques. Instead, you should consider applying those things that make sense to you and focus on those chapters. The book is written well enough to make that possible, in part thanks to the flexibility, modularity, and effectiveness of the tools being discussed. Serious projects need to take testing seriously and few books approach the topics with this kind of practicality and experience.

If you're doing rapid development, and who isn't these days, this books is well worth a look. It goes beyond simple solutions and may be of interest to QA or testing groups. The philosophy behind this material is modern and forward thinking. It captures some of the best practices and clarifies the application of current tools in the Java community, and has the potential to make you a better programmer and better able to deliver higher-quality code on a shorter timeline. It's not a panacea, but it is a good investment, and inexpensive considering the book's content.

Regardless of whether you subscribe to the practice of Extreme Programming (XP) or not, you're likely to be interested in tools that can help you perform better unit tests and improve your build environment. Good unit tests can make the difference between discovering problems at an early stage (when debugging is least expensive) and less flexible, more expensive projects. If you make heavy use of Java, the ANT build tool is also important, enabling you to do much more than merely build classes. ANT has facilities that range from simple builds to sophisticated interactions with protocols, packaging, and much more.

A Rebours is the late 19th century French companion piece to late 20th century English / American books like High Fidelity. If Huysmans were alive today, he would undoubtedly be in a neon-lit bedroom somewhere, listening to the latest Bjork album, ingesting hallucinogenics, watching a Wong-Kar Wei movie with the sound off. Instead, living in a society bereft of what we now call pop culture, he had to content himself with jewel-encrusted turtles and the paintings of Gustave Moreau -- which, thanks to this book, I am now obsessed with. When worlds collide.

What separates A Rebours from its shallow latter-day successors is that Huysmans was an honest-to-God misanthrope, and as a result, his work has an unimpugnable authenticity. There's no pandering to trends here -- Huysmans was his own madman. His major gift, however, was for extreme ornamentation of language ( the French would call it "tarabiscote." ) In the original French, this book seems to take on an almost three-dimensional quality, to spin like an orb in front of your disbelieving eyes.

Of course, there's no story to be found. Just a lot of free-associative ramblings about how, for instance, the sense of smell has been criminally neglected throughout the ages ( think this influenced Harold and Maude? ) A Rebours, it can't be denied, takes a lot of patience to complete. It's often downright dull. But Huysmans was truly prophetic -- he anticipated our entire generation of indolent sensation-seekers.

Huysmans was literature's great complainer, capable of finding the misery and ennui in any situation-- even bachelorhood in late 19th century Paris. And while the book is regarded mainly as a manual for decadent living (Dorian Gray kept it by his bed), full of recherche and recondite indulgences, Huysmans' depiction of the unending quest for novelty and sensation is also drolly funny at times-- as in the scene in which an impotent des Esseintes takes up with a ventriloquist in the hopes that she can get a rise out of him by impersonating her own husband threatening violence outside the door while they copulate

Setting aside the historical inaccuracies covered by others who have already reviewed this book, in general, this is an overinflated hodgepodge of a few quotes from primary source materials taken out of context and tarted up for inclusion in a sort of "DIY" modern Druid training scheme mixed with the New Agey men's group sexual agenda of co-author Mann--most of which has nothing whatsoever to do with the sexual politics of the ancient British Isles (for which readers would be better off starting with SEX AND MARRIAGE IN ANCIENT IRELAND).

Though this book is nowhere near the level of idiocy to be found in books like THE 21 LESSONS OF MERLIN or WITTA, it is still rarely better than silly.

...And don't fall for the "Ph.D." after co-author Sutton's name...it apparently stands for her self-bestowed title, "Practicing Holistic Druid."

All in all, certainly worth the read. A great story! I recommend it to anyone interested in LTCM.

While there is useful information to be gained from the reading through the whole book, by far the most compelling chapter is the last one, which describes the architecture of the Pet Store application.

Although I haven't fully grasped it yet, the model seems on the surface to be quite elegant and simple. For example, the sequence diagrams describing the front-to-back/back-to-front processing comprise only 10 or 12 method calls altogether, which is pretty good considering some apps I've worked on. Also, it is set up such that all requests are funneled through a single, uniform series of calls. The implication is that the framework is so flexible it can handle a variety of requests via this one path, thus making the whole application easier to understand, configure, and maintain (hopefully).

This is the one of the few books, maybe the only one, that I've seen which is really based more on modeling of the recommended overall deployment strategy for a distributed app, rather than a more low level description of the various technologies. The fact it is written by Sun gives it a great deal of credibility.

The minus one star is give due to the uneveness and rather one-offish nature of some of the chapters.

If you don't want to buy the book, read the last chapter online and download the Pet Store app.

I wish I could have read it long time ago, before I started dig into all the details of Servlet/JSP/EJB! While, after understanding all these building blocks, come back and read this big picture blueprint is still a very nice treatment.

High recommended for serious server side Java designers / Architects !

Looking forward to the upcoming 2nd edition of the book.