A great read. The authors' dynamically combine history and conventional issues while telling the story of a misfortunate man and his family in the 1800's. This book does a fabulous job of examining the politics of law and their relation to capital punishment.

My 11 month old boy/girl twins love this book, it is their favorite. The pictures are clear, bright and well organized. When I start to read it they come crawling over to look and listen. It has started to come apart, but it is on their wish list for their birthday. My only negative comment is that I would like to see a larger number of photos in some of the groupings.

The watercolors of JMW Turner have the concise, simplified vision of contemporary art even though they were painted in the mid 1800's. This survey shows the progression of this master of light and delicate color from tightly delineated landscapes to the atmospheric , nearly abstract vistas of his late career. The reproductions are supported by quotes selected from writings contemporary to the paintings. This book provides an inspirational overview of the work of Turner and belongs in the library of the serious watercolor artist.

Since I am bilingual and am bringing up my daughter to be the same, I bought this book about 4 months ago. My daughter was 20 months old at the time and became fascinated with it. The illustrations are very colorful. Now that my daughter is 2 yrs old, she knows all the words in the book and we discuss what is happening, not only the objects in the book.

We don't know why, but there's something endearing about Nicky. Our three-year-old loves him and so do we -- even though we're not cat people. Although she's not yet reading for real, Nicky Upstairs and Down is one of her favorites for "reading" aloud to her stuffed animals now.

An illuminating miniature on a legendary house that was almost destroyed by the New England hurricane of 1938 and succumbed to fire in 1973. It was NeutraÕs grandestÑand most unlikelyÑcommission: a summer house for a famous Rhode Island family on Fishers Island. John Nicholas Brown picked Neutra after seeing the MoMA exhibition on modern architecture that included the Lovell Health House. Neumann, a professor of architecture at Brown University, recently curated an exhibition on the house that may eventually be shown in LA. Meanwhile we can enjoy his entertaining account of how the patrician client and progressive architect corresponded and faced off, and the camel that resulted from the collaboration of this odd couple. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

This is the first, and to date the only, book that attempts to tell the 19th century legal history of the Mormon Church. The book is divided into three parts. The first section basically gives the legal history of the church during the life time of its founder Joseph Smith. The second section details the intensive persecution of the church by the federal government over the practice of plural marriage. The third section describes in detail the ecclesiastical court system that basically served all of the judicial needs of pioneer Mormons. This section in particular is fabulous. Firmage and Mangrum had incredible access to confidential church court records and the detail and scope of their treatment dwarfs any other work on the subject.

However the book is not without flaws. There are some gaps in the research. For example, the landmark Reynolds decision is dicussed in detail, but one gets the impression that the only documents consulted were the published legal ones (opinions and briefs). What about journals and letters by the participants? These sorts of gaps abound.

On the whole, however, this is a wonderful work. Law is one of the hitherto neglected regions of Mormon studies, and Mormon perspectives are among the hitherto neglected possibilities of legal studies. Despite a facinating legal history, Mormon historians have done compartively little on the subject. Likewise, despite Mormons at the highest levels of the legal establishment -- e.g., Rex E. Lee (Solicitor General) or Dallin H. Oaks (Dean of Chicago Law School) -- there have been compartatively few attempts at sustained and scholarly Mormon perspectives on the law. Anyone interested in providing such perspectives should read this book.

This memoir reminds me of many of the ideals as in other books like Poetry like Bread, etc.... Interestingly enough in this memoir there were many thoughts that were valid and everlasting.

This memoir's style reminded me of Edward Al-Kharrat's Alexandria's Girls. The fact that you can pick it up and put it down and still not be lost is present.

I found this book in the Latino studies section. As Rodriguez does say that books are often labeled as are people. His book although talks a lot about race, brown vs. black or white, etc.... he also talks generally about American, Canadian, Mexican and other cultures. Also he talks about religion, etc... This is interesting to explore throughout the memoir.

The many references were hard to follow, but inspiring. The memoir is multifarious in terms of allusions. Sometimes I felt that Rodriquez was trying to overdo it. He had to show how well rounded he was by making a myriad of electic references and using a lot of literary terms that were far out there.
Who is his audience? One finds his memori in the Latino cultural section.... If I am reading literature from that section, I am not trying to stick up for "brown" people and see how smart they are by reading how intellectual Rodriguez is!

The book was hard to follow in the beginning with the references, but for me it really picked up and was hard to put down before the Hispanic chapter.

The ending made you think about it being a semi-dream, the whole memoir...but that is a bit odd...

Richard Rodrigues provides an excellent case on the creation of a somewhat mythical category of race that has come into common usage. While race is generally reserved for the major blood lines associated with the continents of the world, here in the United States we have made a complete mish-mash of our categorizations of race and ethnicity. Anyone who has recently filled out a form has likely been surveyed on the Race. We are provided with a check list. It appears to work it's way out of a very "white" (or more properly Caucasian" world-view.

While we represent ourselves to be a melting pot and were founded on the principles of equality and freedom, we memers of the U.S. society too often responsible for efforts to continue to divide and categorize.

Richard Rodriguez offers a clear argument on the fictive notions of "brown" and "latino" and uses his own personal life examples to illustrate his case.

I have found Rodriguez writing to be much more engaging in his past two works. While he has always had a tendency to try to sound overly erudite and this has been an onstacle to enjoying his intelligent observations and beliefs about life, I found the writing in Brown to be too often strained with the "intellectualizations" that we often associate with tedious academic texts. I encourage Richard Rodriguez to allow his writing to stand on its own without the artifice of the scholarly tone. More than in his previous works, I found this to be a major distraction to his writing. Mr. Rodriguez is a brilliant man who is well-educated and articulate. He is also a man of passion and controversy. His best writing shines through the personal stories he tells.

A very important contribution to the ongoing debates we continue to wage on cultures, race and ethnicity. Highly recommended.

Anyone that things that race relations as an issue has fallen by the wayside or is somehow is a moot point will be enlightened by the eloquent, poetic point of view brought forth by Richard Rodriguez' latest book. Rodriguez does not forgo the often oversimplistic Black-White issue but suggests that they were always a hybrid issue of 'Brown'. America as a dynamic hotbed of ever-Westward expansion; and once the West was won of expansion of a more global nature. Selling the 'American Dream' in an effort to conquer and re-conquer in a never-ending quest for collective conciousness. Rodriguez suggests that the issue of race is not a physical one, but rather how one responds to this conciousness brought about by assimilation.

His anecdotes brings things down to a very personal level without which 'Brown' would come across as speculative and academic. Rodriguez paces things so well and his words are so graceful that one is moved not only by his observations and experiences, but also their self-awareness in a historical context.

Though I'm happy to say that I've read this book as a member of the English-literature canon, it has been a dry read. Inspired to approach it by the movie Castaway (Note however that the film is not based on the novel), I'm confronted by a overwhelming need for a modern interpretation of the stranded-isle genre.

Slow in action; ponderous with 18th century circuitious, flowery and repetitive prose; haphazardly concerned with supportive plot details -- it wasn't a long read, but about as enjoyable and juicy as a Mexican pastry.

I'd be surprised if this is still on school reading lists today considering it reflects an appauling stance on slavery and white supremacy (though true to the era). Furthermore, it openly espouses a fundamental, Calvinist theology that most school districts would altogether avoid.

Crusoe's spiritual journey is the sole theme of the book that addresses any sort of intellectual character development. Even though it grows distastful in some respects, expunge this topic from the novel and your left with a comic book. And if reduced to a characture, why wouldn't you opt for something like Stevenson's child-friendly Swiss Family Robinson? Something filled with adventure, intrigue, humor and drama?

To make this novel more enduring it would certainly have benefitted to analyze Crusoe's enduring lonliness and its effects on his psyche. Until the character Friday appears, Defoe barely mentions solitude even being an issue for Crusoe. Is not man a fundamentally social creature? Would there not be painful, enduring mental extirpations to work through?

Sigh...what else is there to say but it's a book to check off the list and move on.

Robinson Crusoe is one of the first English novels. Written by Daniel DeFoe in the early 18th century during the rise of economic theory, this book chronicles the struggle of an economic hero shipwrecked on an island. He takes advantage of people, always looking to make money or increase economic value. Although Crusoe has religious experiences and gets preachy at times (DeFoe was of Puritan stock at a time when Puritanism was a significant force), Crusoe is a practical man. He does not let morals get in the way of carving out a prosperous life -- there are scenes where the main character is no role model. The novel is episodic, with Crusoe hopping from one scene to another. The narration isn't smooth. However, the "flaws" when compared to later writings may be forgiven because Robinson Crusoe is an early novel. Writers had not worked out the fine points of the genre. DeFoe is an important early English novelist who cobbled together economic theory, religious opinion, travel writing, and borrowed material from a contemporary shipwreck victim to create a work of fiction. Robinson Crusoe is often mislabelled as a childrens book. Perhaps in a watered down abridgement, it is a good children's book. The original, complete, unabridged work is a literary classic that should be read by any student of English literature.

Robinson Crusoe is best taken at two levels, the literal adventure story of survival on an isolated island and as a metaphor for finding one's way through life. I recommend that everyone read the book who is willing to look at both of those levels. If you only want the adventure story, you may not be totally satisfied. The language, circumstances, and attitudes may put you off so that you would prefer to be reading a Western or Space-based adventure story with a more modern perspective.

Few books require anyone to rethink the availability and nature of the fundamentals of life: Water, food, shelter, clothing, and entertainment. Then having become solitary in our own minds as a reader, Defoe adds the extraordinary complication of providing a companion who is totally different from Crusoe. This provides the important opportunity to see Crusoe's civilized limitations compared to Friday's more natural ones. The comparisons will make for thought-provoking reading for those who are able to overcome the stalled thinking that the educated, civilized route is always the best.

One of the things that I specially liked about the book is the Crusoe is an ordinary person in many ways, making lots of mistakes, and having lots of setbacks. Put a modern Superhero (from either the comic books, adventure or spy novels, or the movies) into this situation, and it would all be solved in a few minutes with devices from the heel of one's shoe. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I liked the trial-and-error explorations. They seemed just like everyday life, and made the book's many lessons come home to me in a more fundamental way.

Have a good solitary trip through this book!

The book wastes too much time with webalchemy. It is a bad idea to build your development strategy on a tool that is not supported by a major vendor. Oracle products are moving forward too quickly to depend on a tool that probably will not keep pace. Using this book as a reference is difficullt at best. Examples are too complicated for use in presenting a new topic. The author should use the 'hello world' concept that so many other authors do. Prospective buyers should say 'goodbye book'. I have as yet been unable to discover a good reference book for OAS.

Granted, there is a lot of good information in this text, however, it's presented in a format that is neither intuative or flowing. Even the examples are overly complicated, almost like the author(s) are attempting to obscure the very point that needs to be made w/ extraneous code. It's a same that the documentation on this subject so poor.

I am fairly new to the IT World, specially the Web technology. This book gave me a clear understanding of the Web concepts. The book is written very meticulously. The explanations are very clear and to the point with very good examples. Truly, it is a Toolkit Reference and can be used to develop any kind of Oracle Web Application. The book covers all topics from the Installation of the Oracle Web Server to the Development of Oracle Web Applications.

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.