I thought that the book was interesting. I liked how it was set in 1965 and learned about everything about that time period- Vietnam War, Civil Rights, etc. I thought an awful lot of things happened to the main character, Eric, in the time frame of this story and couldn't relate too much with him.

I felt that this book was amazing. I am only 14 and I chose this book for my book report. A lot of thnigs happened to Eric but I thought that the author, Rick Book, did a good job portraying life in 1965. I think that you will enjoy this book! :-)

I mostly agreed with Eric Ma. There are some areas that Wrox needs to review the whole process of publishing Java-related books. Here are some drawbacks that I can draw from reading recent Java-related books:

(1) Repeated Contents: Materials about Servlet, JSP, EJB, JNDI, JDBC, XML, etc are repeated over and over many books. This could waste time, money, and papers for both Wrox and readers.

(2)Books or Articles?: I asked myself: is Wrox publishing books or articles? Each book is written by many authors and the book's flow is inconsistent. The assessment that it is not a book but a collection of articles may partially true. It is true that a book if written by a team of authors could speed up the process of releasing it, but if Wrox editors and coordinators have to do their better jobs.

I suggest that Wrox should review its strategy of publishing books to avoid the repeating of materials over and over and thus bring down the cost associated with publishing the books. The final result is: readers and publisher will both save time and money. Otherwise, readers will loose their belief with Wrox.

For the past 2 years Wrox has been publishing books dedicated to Windows-based data access (ADO etc.), but the same cannot be said about their Java/database collection. Although you find chapters on JDBC scattered all-over almost all server-side Java related books by Wrox, there was no single volume from them that teaches JDBC first, and then show how it is used by the newer dependent technologies, until this book arrived. After looking through this book, I must say the authors and editors have done a rather commendable job.

Why do I make the above conclusion? Let me give you my general impression of the book first. A theme repeated in several of my recent reviews on books from Wrox is about the problem in coherence associated with multi-author books. Well, having more than a dozen of authors for a single book seems to be a fact of life (for books from Wrox at least) now, as the publication cycle gets shorter. I was rather surprised to find out that the organization and coherence is very good in this book, i.e., there is very little overlap among chapters. Also, this books uses JDBC cleverly to tie other pieces of J2EE together, making smooth transitions from one chapter to another. If you want to know, this factor alone prompted me to add an extra star to the overall rating of the book.

Let's now run down the chapters of this book quickly. The first 115 pages deals object-oriented and database modeling, and can be skipped by any "Professional" developer. Then after your obligatory intro to JDBC API, the next chapter covers the JDBC 2.0 optional package. This is the best treatment of this topic I have seen. Then another chapter is all about SQLJ, another first. The effort of having a chapter on database performance should be lauded, where connection pooling, prepared statements and stored procedures usage are demoed. The reminder of the book is about applying JDBC in various J2EE components, such as JSP, servlets, EJB, JMS, and XML. For this part of the book, even though I accept the fact the proper stage has to be set for each one of them, I still don't believe the book found the right balance between focusing on JDBC and showing what these other technologies are about. A large number of pages are used to teach basic JNDI, servlets, JSP's, and EJB's stuff (remember there is already a book on J2EE from Wrox!). Therefore, it is up to the reader to discover the real nuggets of gold hidden in this pile, which are far and in between in places. I found that some critical issues are not highlighted or details are lacking, such as how to use connection pooling/data sources in servlets, JSP's, and EJB's, the threading issues related to sharing database connections, and good database practices in BMP EJB's. However, the one thing I cannot complain about is that the book did not forget to teach the transaction aspect of EJB with a good depth (there is a short ans sweet chapter on using JTA/JTS inside EJB). There is also a chapter on the brand-new JDO framework, even though the spec is still in a state of flux. Finally, there are 4 case study chapters in the book - although the design and implementation are limited in scope and as a whole those samples do not teach all you need to do know about enterprise scale J2EE system development, they do provide a flavor of how JDBC is used in real world, together with setting up Tomcat, JRun, Orion, and WebLogic to access MS SQL Server and Oracle databases.

Now my overall take of this book. For VB/SQL and pure back-end PL/SQL developers who are eager to jump on the Java express train and need a suitable platform (especially for the ones who learn best from playing with actual code), I recommend this book as one of several you should own. Compared to other JDBC books from say O'Reilly and Sun's JDBC Tutorial, this book is the most up-to-date, contains the most source code, and has the broadest coverage of related topics. But keep in mind some of the advanced topics such as EJB and JMS can be intimidating for new-comers. On the other side of the coin, people who are advanced in various server-side Java technologies are unlikely to benefit a great deal from this book and should look elsewhere for info (for example Wrox's J2EE and upcoming EJB titles).

This strategy guide is an exclent start for the intimidated newcomer to the game (Newbie; Newblood), and offers a good range of tips and hints when it comes to starting out. Now as nothing can be better than experience, this is a great way to get into the game and know what button you are pressing.

With this wonderful strategy guide, you will be conquering bases across the Wilderlands in no time! From tips on finding the best armor to the most useful strategies (strafing, jump pack usage), this guide has it all.

Do not confuse the 3 star rating with a negative evaluation. Quite the opposite is true. However when reading a series like this one must put them all into perspective.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book. It was just too short, it was overpriced for the length of the text and it is simply the tip of a much larger iceburg of political, social and historical thought that makes you close it saying "is that all there is, I want more, give me MORE!" Very well done actually, because it draws you into the other eight books in the series, and if you do not have them I highly recommend getting them all before you start.

I began by reading Mr. Maybury's "Are you Liberal or Conservative, or just confused?" Which I rated at five stars and was instantly hooked. I ordered the rest of the collection (the other eight) in one batch so as to get them all together so I could get started reading them in his recommended sequence as soon as possible.

This book however was no more than an hour read or so and left me starving and anxious to get into the rest of the soup.

His books are actualy fun to read and easily pull you into the world of "Uncle Eric." His considerable talents to educate, fasincate and bring the subject down to a desktop level of understanding, helping you to contemplate what was, what is and what should be in poltics, the economy, morality, education, justice and many other subjects is refreshing.

I have since moved on to "What ever happened to penny candy?" and am just as captivated by it as the last two. This first book sets the basic foundation for all his others, which is that there are models out there that we each react to. Regardless if it is moral, social, poltical, educational, family life, community standards and the like. There are good ones and there are bad ones. There are historically proven models and there are new age individuals who want to tear many of the existing models down and rebuild them sort of speak in their own image or opinion of how things should be. This can be good or it can be devistating on our citizenry and our children. So it is vitally important to understand models in general and to create beneficial models for ourselves and society. Needless to say we are not doing very well in many areas, but fair in others.

In any case this is the starting line and the finish line is eight books away. I highly recommend Mr. Maybury's books for anyone from any background, persuasion and/or political party. If nothing else they make you think. Aristotle said, or was it Socrates? In any case one of them said, "an unexamined life is not worth living," so read these books and ponder his simple assertions against your own beleifs and ideals.

I understand he is writing more books along this same line about the world Wars and such, for our future enjoyment, I will more than likely order them as well.

A great series to read and enjoy. Good job Mr. Maybury.

This is the kind of book you'll want your kids to read. It's short, sweet and simple. Maybury points out how we build mental "models" to understand the world. The two best ones for economics and law (and the ones that Maybury uses) are the Austrian School of Economics and the British Common Law. Essentially they're two sides of the same coin, so they reinforce each other. If you understand the basics of both of these models, then you'll have a leg up on 99% of the people in the world in understanding how things work. You'll be doing your children a great favor by teaching these models to your them. They certainly won't learn them in public schools, which pour masses of facts into students heads but don't tell them how to related them to each other, and the world. Maybury shows you how to correct this major--and tragic--error in education.

I had been looking for a book about Hanukkah for my 3-year old son to take to pre-school to share with his non-Jewish friends. I have looked at many and this one was perfect. It simply explains the story of Hanukkah and several of the traditions (lighting candles, eating latkes, playing driedel, etc.). The flaps also make it fun to read.

The nice thing about this story is the element of family togetherness. Josh's mom and dad teach him the story of Hannukah, help him light the menorah, recite the blessing and play dreidel. Grandma and Grandpa come over for a family dinner that includes latkes n'applesauce. Modest gifts are exchanged and the book ends with the kids singing, "I Have a Little Dreidel". Lift up flaps make the story even more fun.

This book Accuratly tells about the parts of Batman Returns with the Penguin in them. It contains lots of action. All in all, the book was good.

This is the very last look at the lifestyles that people lived prior to the end of the USSR. Covering the entire 15 Soviet republics and 11 time zones on May 15, 1987, the book shows how many Soviet Citizens lived their lives. Though lives in rural areas remain very similiar today, major cities as shown in these pictures have changed dramatically. The merits of this book lie in the faces of the people and their aspirations at the height of Gorbachev's push for glasnost and perestrioka.

Pictures vary from Gorbachev himself to workers at a collective in central Russia. Importantly, this book shows how many nationalities of Soviet (Russian Speaking) citizens lived in harmony under the communist system. The reader is taken aback by the simple, even primitive lifestyles of the people. Yet remember, in this society there was no pressure to invest in volatile markets or fear of being laid off without pay. Most people lived under the assumption that the state would provide for them. See if you can notice this feeling in the pictures! This is a good look back at their lives. Enjoy!

I have read this book about 10 times and I did not want it to end each and every time. I have just found this site only recently and I plan on ordering every other book in this series soon. I recommend this book for science fiction lovers.

I used this book while teaching a unit on biomes in my High School Special Education Resource Science classroom. Discovering Deserts has exactly the right mix of factual material and hands-on activities needed to appeal to a wide range of ability levels, ages, and learning styles. The materials totally engaged my students' interest. This is a really useful resource and I plan to purchase other books in this series.

I have continued to read Mr. Maybury's books and the first five have filled me with knowledge and wonder at how uninformed I have been in the past about simple and basic issues that touch, influence and determine the coarse of a persons life each and evey day.

I have learned a great deal from his obvious intellectual prowess and his all encompassing views on many subjects and how they mesh together to form, affect and manipulate this world we live in.

One gets a sense of awe at how little they can trust those in power but how immensly important is it is that those without it stick together and ensure we be ever vigilante in our observations of elected officials. Those people we used to call public servants but who hav become nothing but self-indulgent life lont politicians. In other words they have become exactly what our Constitution and Bill of Rights were designed to prevent.

In this book, "What Would Thomas Jefferson Think About This?" I have found yet another source of knowledge that I must thank Uncle Eric for. Yet after reading the great book "John Adams." I do not find that I have the awe and inspiration that allows me to make Jefferson my number one hero. Yes, he is a great man and I believe he was one of the greatest founders, however I find that I still place him behind George Washington and Adams on that account.

It is my philosophy just like it was Reverend Johathan Mayhew's and John Adam's that "The people, are required to obey their government's law only when it is in agreement with Higher Law. And if the government violates that charge, it is our duty, and we are bound the fight it with every resourse at our disposal."

In a related topic Mayhew was a true Reverend, and it is unfortunate that the term has been turned into such a basphemous title today for those who use and claim the name are anything but Reverend.

In any case this 6th book in Mr. Maybury's series is yet another collectors item and gives the reader a sound foundation by which to judge the literature they choose to obsorb and contemplate in creating their own ideological awareness and positions of items of critical importance to our country and our people.