List price: $24.95 (that's 30% off!)
List price: $24.95 (that's 30% off!)
I especially would have loved to have more parallels drawn between characters in the Silmarillion and Christianity, such as the female Valar Aratar, each of whom bears a trait of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Nienna, Lady of Sorrows; Varda, Queen of the Stars (and therefore Heavens); Yavanna, Queen of the Earth. Such things would have added greatly to my enjoyment of this book, and I think to its value. Also wonderful would have been a chapter on Beren and LĂșthien and their descendants Aragorn and Arwen, though as it's rather short - the actual text, excluding foreword and glossaries, is only slightly over 130 pages - this book obviously hasn't the room to attend to everything.
However, its somewhat concise format aside, this book should prove of interest to all Tolkienphiles, as it has some very fascinating quotes from Tolkien and his contemporaries on philosophy, the place of religion in our world, and the march of modernity. I give it 4 of 5 stars because it could have delved much deeper into its subject material: perhaps a series could be published?
I especially liked the depiction of Sam Gangee as the true hero of "The Lord of the Rings." Frodo is important, of course, but he remains somewhat in the abstract as "The Ringbearer" or "The Hero on a Great Quest." I instinctively liked Sam and admired the qualities of loyalty, honesty, common sense, and affectionate humor which Sam displayed throughout all three parts of LOTR.
Gandalf is also explained very well as the saintly emissary of Eru/Iluvatar/God-a Christlike figure "dying" and coming back to life to serve Middle Earth with new powers.
I think Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth is profound and very relevant to our time of secularism, Islamic Jihad, moral distintegration, and crumbling traditional morals.
I hope everyone gets a chance to read this book.
I think he doesn't like him because he's Catholic, plain and simple.
Mr. Birzer, however, focuses on this master of the English language and his work, and does an excellent job. Tolkein has been critically lauded not for his association with Lewis, but because of his own artistry. I'd recommend Birzer's book for anyone who wants to truly understand this classic writer.
[Perhaps our evangelical friend would be more happy reading such "excellent" (cough) pieces of fiction (cough) as the expertly written "Left Behind(cough)" series? ;)]
Leave this book on the shelf...
This book covers the tuning tips and techniques in using newest features in Oracle 8i as well as the original features in Oracle 7 or 8. As Rich's first sentence indicates, "Oracle is a symphony and you are the conductor, with an opportunity to create a world class performance", his book will help you to achieve this opportunity and to become a great tuning conductor of Oracle performance.
The first chapter of the book serves as highlight notes, which sets up five quick goals to instantly improve performance. Through the rest chapters of his entire book, readers will gain detail tuning knowledge about disk I/O, init.ora parameters, OEM, Explain Plan, table joins, hints, PL/SQL, parallel query, using V$ views, accessing x$ tables, new features and many more tips and techniques for reaching the best performance. After reading this book, be sure to share your thoughts with others in your review.
List price: $49.99 (that's 30% off!)
Very well drafted for a beginner/intermediate level PL/SQL developer.
Highly recommend it.
Aside from this, the book is excellent reading for DBAs and developers and is crammed with information. It includes a history of Oracle and PL/SQL that some may not be aware of, as well as the major features of each version of PL/SQL, from version 1.0 through 8.1. For me it was a brief trip down memory lane, for I cut my teeth on version 1.0 of PL/SQL. The index could be improved a little for better cross referencing, but the coverage of Oracle topics is first rate.
As a DBA and developer, I found the book invaluable and it is one of the books that I recommend to clients and associates. (Here's a tip: Tell your associates to get their own copy.) The book is written in a near conversational tone and far from the dry, antiseptic tone of Oracle's own manuals. Maybe Oracle should get the TUSC guys to write their manuals. The books is nothing less than what I have come to expect from the people at TUSC.
This is an excellent adventure book that takes a Conan like hero and plots him against all sorts of evil (and good), including some Cthulhu creations as well.
Originally Ghor was an unfinished story by Conan creator Robert Howard. Upon finding this unfinished story, a magazine decided to finish it. What they did was have a different chapter every month written by a different top fantasy writer. It made the reading interesting.
While most of the chapters were great. Some were excellent. Unfortunately there were a couple chapters that I just wanted to get through to reach the next writers' chapter. Overall a really good read.
List price: $44.99 (that's 75% off!)
I am using this book very extensively at my office and home. I very highly recommend this book and would purchase all the books written by the author.
This book is terrific. It highlighted the various personality types, their needs and patterns in the classroom. More importantly, it armed me with some specific strategies I plan to take to her teacher.
I highly recommend it not just for teachers but for parents looking for insights into how their children learn.