A easy to read book. Short chapters, so as you can finish a chapter and mark your spot for latter. Easy to understand. Gives the reader a greater understanding of "Mary, the Mother of Jesus" and also Jesus the Christ. A very good BOOK!!

This version of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' is carefully and thoughtfully photo-illustrated by Bruce McMillan. The book's self-proclaimed purpose is to interpret 'a traditional verse in a contemporary manner'. McMillan therefore uses as his model for Mary an African-American first-grader whose loving lamb follows her to school. Special techniques were used to allow her glasses to be included in the illustrations, a rare depiction in children's books. The setting is much more traditional, including a schoolhouse with a bell and a Border Chaviot lamb who is captured well by McMillan's lens. A note at the end of the book gives a history of the poem, its original form, and it's use in early reading textbooks. McMillan uses colour and contrasts to draw the reader's eye. All in all, children should readily identify with this modern update, and it would be very useful when putting together a multicultural collection. Furthermore, the version I have is 9 by 10 inches, a good size for those sharing stories with several children at once. This could be a very special book for a child, for a storytime, or for a library collection.

Our daughter keeps asking to read this classic poem/song again and again. Mayor's illustrations are a masterpiece of three-dimensional textile work, combining many different techniques. She has also captured many historical details of the era in which the poem was originally written. The result adds depth and detail to a simple story, which makes it a pleasure to read again and again.

Mavor is a genius in using scraps of whatever to create a textural world that is as comfortable as this classic story poem. Look at each page, and look again, there seems no end to details that embellish these sewn illustrations. Yummies for your eye, and if only we could touch!

This book examines in detail Newton's solution to the direct Kepler problem: "Given that the planets' orbits are elliptical, what is the dependence of the force on the distance between the sun and the planet?"
Newton's solution is a triumph of mathematical astronomy (Euclid and Apollonius would be proud!). However, Brackenridge notes the difficulty for a general layperson to understand the solution. This book guides you step by step with only the prerequisite that you understand basic geometry. Brackenridge also emphasizes that we look at Newton's work from *his* perspective, not our modern one.
You'll know that you've touched something sacred when you make it through Newton's Preposition 17 (Problem 3 from _On Motion_ in this book). A must for anyone seeking to get an overview of how Newton saw celestial mechanics.

This book is well written and everything is explained well. This book, however, is not for the layman. This is a book that one should work though not just read.

I like to use this books for young children going through their parents divorce. I have parents read it to them to because it educates parents. Very Simple, good family activity.

Charmingly illustrated with black and white line drawings by Bruce Van Patter, Mary Field and Hennie Shore's collaboration result in an informative, engaging, highly recommended story for young readers told with human and sensitivity that will engage young reader's attention and provide a timely message that children must ultimately take responsibility for their own well-being -- a lesson that children and their parents will find has relevance and application well beyond the experience of a divorce in the family.

Making up to a third of our population, Baby Boomers have a major influence on our culture. But what, if anything, do they believe spiritually? Starting with a close-up look at the lives of seven specific individuals, the author goes on to examine the various religious and other institutions which appeal to the Boomer generation. The author makes the case that there is a genuine "boomer culture", giving details and examples to prove his point.He also illustrates the trends in religion and the subcultures that are emerging, including "loyalists" (those who never truly dropped out of a religious tradition), "returnees" (those who dropped out but later returned) and "dropouts" as well as privatized religions and alternative groups. The final section of the book discusses implications for the future of our society. Overall, a thoughtful, well-researched book with fascinating details.

One in every four of them say they can imagine God as a Mother. One in three are born-again Christians. Two in three support the ordination of women. Who are they? Whether you think of them as the Love Generation, the Now Generation, the Pepsi Generation, the Rock Generation, or the Me Generation, they are the "boomers," the baby boom generation of 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964.

Many people have speculated about the boomers' beliefs and higher values (or lack of same). Now the details of their spiritual worldview has received substantial factual representation in the new book A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation (Harper San Francisco). It's a massive study that tells us all we ever wanted to know about the spiritual lives of baby boomers but didn't have the means to find out. The research, involving surveys as well as in depth interviewing, was funded by the Lilly Foundation. The director of the research and author of the book reporting the results, is Wade Clark Roof, who is J. F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Roof compiled 80 questions to ask of a stratified sample of 1600 boomers, plus some comparative groups of older Americans. Among the questions: Do you feel God is personally involved in your life? Do you believe God is "within us"? How much do you think about why there is suffering in the world? What happens after death? Is it good to explore many different religious teachings and learn from them, or should one stick to a particular faith? The researchers followed up this survey with an in-depth telephone interview conducted with one third of the respondents. Then they conducted face-to-face interviews with 64 of these people. There followed several group meetings with respondents to discuss in still more depth some of the spiritual or religious issues that emerged in the earlier interviews. Clearly, the study was thorough.

The book contains so many interesting charts and statistics, it is easy to graze among the facts. When asked, for example, "For you, which is more important: to be alone and to meditate, or to worship with others?" 53 per cent preferred to be alone, and 29 per cent preferred to worship with others. 28 per cent indicated a belief in reincarnation and 26 a belief in astrology. These two figures were constant, regardless of level of education. In the older generation, belief in these two controversial areas existed mainly in the less educated. Sixty per cent prefer to explore a variety of religious teachings, while 28 per cent feel it is important to stick to one faith. The greater the amount of education, the greater is the desire for variety in religious exploration. There may be a pattern here.

Roof puts the facts together to present a picture with many complex patterns, and offers some startling conclusions. For starters, the boomers are spiritual seekers. Almost without exception they believe in God. Although they picture God in different ways (and many are struggling to find an image they can accept), they all seem to have an instinct for spiritual commitment, something that will take them beyond themselves. They have, however, an apparent deep division in their ranks.

Roof describes as a "spiritual divide" the split between those boomers who are of a fundamentalist Christian orientation and those who pursue less conventional spiritual paths, from Native American spirituality to Zen Buddhism. He finds several points of divergence in these two groups: the self orientation of the less conventional vs. the Jesus orientation of the fundamentalists, inner authority vs. outer authority, individualism vs. uniformity, mystical vs. theistic, letting go vs. mastery and control, spiritual vs. religious, and being influenced by the "sixties" vs. "sheltered" from that influence. Billy Graham, of an older generation, and speaking from one side of the issue, summed up the essence of the difference when he said, "The locus of the conflict in the world today rises from the battle between the absolute and the relative." The boomers are split over whether the spirit is sought within oneself, where in might appear in many guises, or in outside authority, where it would appear in a more uniform fashion.

The tension between unity and diversity is archetypal. The One and the Many: one God, the Creator, yet many Creatures, all of whom experience a certain autonomy. This tension is at the heart of our country: E Pluribus Unum, out of the many, one. It's dangerous to allow either faction to gain the upper hand. If individualism were to win the day, there's the danger of chaos. If the forces of uniformity and control were to become dominant, there's the danger of a dictatorial, soul-murdering society. It's hopefully possible and definitely fruitful to hold the two factions in creative tension.

Roof himself suggests a possible tension bridge over the spiritual divide within the boomers. For one thing, he found ample evidence that the fundamentalism of the boomers is quite to the left of earlier generations. There are many concessions to individualism, most notably the premise that having a better life is the prime motive for being a good Christian. He concludes that the self-improvement ethic, regardless of the images or vocabulary used, unites all boomers. Self-realization, whether focused through an external ideal, or inwardly through the prompting of one's own heart, would seem to be the boomer's common search. Roof also found that as that search matures toward self-fulfillment, boomers are uniformly committed to sharing the fruits with others. As self-fulfilled becomes self-transcended, boomers become

There isn't enough good examples or SQL specific knowledge contained in this book to be really useful to anyone other than a beginning to average SQL user. Most of the book is just general database concepts. For a survival guide one would expect in-depth troubleshooting and lots of specific real-life examples pertaining to SQL server...you'll find very little of that. A better title for this book should have been "Overview of relational database concepts and practices".

I found this book to be weak on specific details. It spends far more time discussing generalities like Client/Server, RDBMS concepts than it does on running MS MS-SQL Server. I ended up buying sqlserver6.5 unleashed to fill in the very considerable gaps left by this book. Better, would be a combination of sqlserver unleashed or dba survival combined with the MS documentation. Also, there is a very good newsgroup at www.dejanews.com that has been invaluable

This book has lots of helpful information that is not otherwise covered in the SQL Server manuals or online documentation. There are plenty of facts and tidbits regarding how to configure SQL Server and use the RDBMS as an application platform, as well as info on how the various configuration parameters play off one another.

The section on replication is pretty sparse, though, and doesn't quite jibe with the product itself, since SQLServer's replication is really hard to keep up and running.

All in all, found the book to be pure gold, with a wealth of information. This is not a substitute for the manuals though, some experience is assumed. Not a books for novices, not is it a substitute for RTFM. Rather, a complement to the manuals.

The majority of the discussion in this book revolves around the history of Hollywood. It repeats itself often discussing the McCarthy Era and how it affected Hollywood. It also provides useless lists of big names in Hollywood. If you are any kind of movie lover you already know the works of Spielberg and Lucas and how the McCarthy Era affected cinema.

The book also promised to provide an in-depth look at the process of making films. The concepts were provided however, they were not given in-depth. Lists of movies were provided to illustrate the concepts in the book. However, if I had wanted a list of movies to watch, I would have found one on the net.

Basically this book is a waste of money to anyone that has a basic understanding of Hollywood and show business.

A great introduction to the entire world of film -- not just Hollywood, but a host of world cinemas from European to Latin American to African and Near Eastern. The examples used are well explained and are always pertinent to the points at hand. My favorite chapters were one on film theory (which made obscure concepts accessible to the beginner) and one that used all the concepts introduced in the book to explain the German silent film "Nosferatu." I had just seen the new movie "Shadow of the Vampire," which is based on the making of "Nosferatu"; this book made me understand for the first time what a complex piece of art that early movie is. I highly recommend this book as an affordable intro to film criticism that, while accessible and fun to read, does not talk down to its audience.

Better mind your momma ! You might just get lost in that big barnyard. Can LITTLE CHICK survive all alone ? Meet all the neighbors as LITTLE CHICK explores and learns a life lesson.