I should start off by saying that I have had previous experience with the Teach Yourself series as have used Teach Yourself: Beginner's German, German, and French. The book scores with German and as long as you have the tapes, with french too. But the japanese book is lacking... The lessons are well-thought out and extremely easy to follow, but there is absolutely no approach to written japanese. This is the one flaw of Teach Yourself: Japanese.

Before I got this book as a birthday present, I praised my Essential Berlitz Japanese book. Then once I got this book I just about threw that thing out the window. Teach Yourself Japanese is very complete guide in understanding Japanese. It explains even the hardest things to explain - like 'n and koto very well. I have worn my book out so much that the pages started comming out so Im here to buy another. This has been the most valuable book to me in all of my study of the Japanese language. The only thing I would say is that I would not reccomend this book for very beginning learners of Japanese because the first couple of lessons are kind of lacking on the basics, but if you are seasoned, get this book. Its excellent.

This is a clear and thorough an expose of the fraud perpetrated by Bruno Grosjean Dossekker, who falsely claimed, in Fragments, to be one Binjamin Wilkomirski, a child survivor of the Holocaust. Stefan Maechler proves beyond any doubt that Wilkomirski is no such person and that Fragments is a fiction.

The author pursued every possible lead. He compared each minute detail in Dossekker's narration of "events" with historical records from such leading Holocaust scholars as Raul Hilberg and Lawrence Langer, accounts of other child survivors, interviews with members of the Dossekker and Grosjean families and more.

The most damning evidence Maechler unearthed is the fact that in 1981, Dossekker/Wilkomirski contested the will of Yvonne Grosjean, whom, in a letter to officials in Bern Siwtzerland, he called "my birth mother." Dossekker/Wilkomirski received a third of her estate.

Other damning evidence includes Dossekker/Wilkomirski's use of Laura Grabowski to "corroborate" his story. Grabowski claims to have known him in a children's home in Krakow. In fact, Grabowski is an American citizen of Christian faith who has since her youth fabricated stories about her victimhood, the most well-publicized being a book called Satan's Underground. The Social Security number of said Lauren Stratford is the same as that of Grabowski, who subsequently used it to make a false survivor's claim. Furthermore, Satan's Underground and Dossekker/Wilkomirski's book contain startling similarities.

The one problem with Maechler's work concerns his questions about how such a fraud could be perpetrated. He concludes that the volume of Holocaust material made the fraud possible. Unfortunately, this amounts to blaming the victim. There is something tawdry in blaming the commemoration and documentation of the worst crime in history for the appearance of a single fraud, or two. Holocaust historians must guard against even the unintentional falsification of the record. But documenting the history is not a problem. The problem is that any evil of the Holocaust's enormity ever needed to be documented. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is the account of the real life detective work carried by the swiss historian Stefan Maechler about the authenticity
of Fragments, the (as it turned out, invented) childhood memoirs of a swiss musician claiming to be a survivor of the Nazi's
concentration camps. The "memoirs", which constituted a literary event in Europe and the US in 1995 and brought its author fame and
recognition, were first accused of being false three years later, and this report, based on interviews and official documents, definitely
settles the matter. But on top of this, it is also a really delight to read. It is organized in roughly three parts: a first one where the history of
Wilkomirski (real name: Grosjean) early years is presented, together with Wilkomirski own version, and the events leading to the writting
and publishing of Fragments, its reception, and its denunciation as fraud. A second one describing the author's historical research. And a
third part with a very perceptive and fair analysis of the whole affair. A discussion of important issues related with the instrumentalization
of the Holocaust, and references to recent works about this matter (Cole, Novick, etc) ends the book. A serious book on a real life event
that can be read and enjoyed as an excellent detective novel, with not a few surprising discoveries in the end. This english translation of
the german original Der Fall Wilkomirski also includes, after the main text, a complete text of Fragments.

This is a GREAT book for 2 scenarios:

1) You want a greater understanding of how to secure the NT/2000 operating system (without using 3rd party add-on software). It offers excellent ideas and suggestions on various services and protocols that can be completely disabled in most environments.

2) You run a stand-alone server. When Stefan Norberg says bastion server, that's what he means, NOTHING is getting in. This includes a lot of domain traffic. It would be a disaster to apply this to a computer sitting in a Windows 2000 domain. If you have a stand-alone web server that you want to lock down, then this is you book!

As for other observations...

A few of the extremely useful NT4 bastion server steps are not even given for Windows 2000 use. I was especially disappointed that he gave no description on how to disable the DOS subsystem in Window 2000 (because the NT4 steps sure won't work).

The author provides his email address, but don't bother. He doesn't reply to professional emails containing legitimate comments on his work. Next time, he better just leave the email address out.

I would prefer a 2nd Edition with the NT4 information removed (and even some of the information on the vastly unpopular IPsec) to allow for more in-depth material on Windows 2000 (and even the up and coming Windows XP).

I am a senior engineer for network security operations. I read "Securing Windows NT/2000 Servers for the Internet" (SWNS) to better advise clients on secure configuration of their Windows platforms. Stefan's wonderful book is a testament to the fundamental insecurity of stock Windows platforms. Luckily, his advice transforms vulnerable systems into bastion hosts suitable for deployment on the hostile Internet.

SWNS' key insight is the need to cripple many default Windows services in the interest of security. These troublesome "features" include NetBIOS, the Workstation service, the Server service, and others. In fact, after creating a bastion host, Stefan says "there's no way of administering it remotely!" (This is the case because NT's standard remote admin tools, like Event Viewer and Server Manager, require RPC using NetBIOS.) Thankfully, Stefan provides several options for secure remote administration, like pcAnywhere, Windows 2000 Terminal Services, and open source alternatives (Secure Shell, Virtual Network Computer, etc.)

I concur with an earlier review noting the lack of attention for Microsoft's IIS web server. Hundreds of thousands of Windows machines were recently compromised by the "Code Red" worm, demonstrating two facts. First, Windows is frequently used to host web servers. Second, IIS is frequently deployed insecurely. A second edition of SWNS should add a chapter on configuring IIS. I was also unhappy with Stefan's dismissal of intrusion detection technology in chapter six. He should try the Windows port of the open source Snort IDS.

Overall, SWNS is a must-buy for Windows administrators. The book is a quick read, but it explains many aspects of the internal workings of Microsoft's premier operating systems. As the title implies securing "servers" and not just the underlying operating system, future editions should discuss proper deployment of popular applications for Windows NT/2000, like IIS and Exchange.

Stefan Norberg wrote one of the first good securing NT documents that were available on the Internet. This book takes that paper to the next level. I have read and researched quite a bit on securing NT/2000 and from what I've read so far (not quite done yet), I consider this one of the best resources. The section on installing SSH on NT is extremely helpful for those who have not tackled that beast before. Norberg's original paper was considered by many (including myself) to be essential reading for anyone concerned with NT/2000 security. This book is even better and should be a part of the library of any responsible NT/2000 admin.

I have read a few of the Xenophobe's Guides, and this so far is the best and the funniest. Maybe because I have lived here for the last two years, and experienced all the wonderful quirks and traits of the locals that I could relate to this book, but really, it is for everyone who plans to visit or live here, and of cause for the Germans themselves.

Natually, I didn't agree with all of it, especially the working atmosphere... It's really not as formal as written in the book, at least not these days, but much of the rest runs true.

A bit expensive for only 64 pages, but worth it for the laugh.

I'm a German working from time to time abroad (often in the UK). The book is written by two Germans working now for decades in the UK and explains the culture difference from a british point of view. I think it is a great insight on the attitudes, implicit policies and main motivations of Germans. Furthermore, it is very funny (I had to read it in one session and was laughing out loud most of the time). A must read if you plan to go to Germany!

You *must* read this book, if you want to learn more about the strange nature of the germans, because you will find most of it in no other book. The book is full of prejudices - but they are all true (I can assure you, because I AM one of these strange people).

There are comments to nearly everything which is different in Germany, e.g.: Polishing cars, drinking beer, order & discipline, "everything is forbidden unless it is explicitly allowed", why you don't have a german word for "small talk", ...

Some germans will NOT like this book, because they don't like that somebody laughs about them. But I think, everyone who reads this book will understand their (sometimes strange) behaviour better.

The Moon is often credited for a variety of events on this orb well beyond just moving the oceans about. During, "The Enchanted Night", of Steven Millhauser we learn what happens to one small town in Connecticut. The novella is extremely brief, and many of the pages are only lightly touched with the chosen font. The 109 pages that are used could have been reduced by a third without the white space.

If you look with a bit of care at the cover you will correctly anticipate much of what will be presented inside, and unfortunately it is not a great deal. The players and their tales are by necessity brief in the extreme, and as they are spread throughout the book the bits are so brief they only work, as the whole is so brief as well. Most of the story is harmless fun both real and imagined. There is one deviant thrown in for balance that seemed to act as more of an unwanted distraction as anything else. It's hard to pin down what the underlying theme here was supposed to be. However even as the dolls that awaken in some cases pursue another they admire, relationships and their variety are about the most prevalent idea.

This is the first work I have read by this Author, and while I will not rush to the next, I will not allow this volume to be the first and final.

This novella tells the story of one peculiar night in a small town that is having difficulty sleeping. Of course there have been other sleepless nights in this small town, but none until this one have been enchanted.

When the people of the town cannot sleep, they wander the streets, thinking that they are alone. Little do they know that the rest of the town is experiencing the same insomnia and are also wandering through the night. A girl longs for her beau to come to her lonely window; he does. A man lusts after a manequin in a window; she comes to life. The Pied Piper leads the children through the woods with his magic flute. A girl who decides to moonbathe in the nude is followed by a lusty man and rescued in the nick of time by a guy who lives in his mother's attic. A band of young female thieves enjoy lemonade in the most unlikely of homes.

The night is so fantastical that perhaps it was just a dream. Whatever it was, it makes for an enjoyable, short read.

Summoning the surreal white light of the past winter solstice moon, and having experienced the page turn of the century in Paris, Moscow, London New York - each like fast forwards and flashbacks to the viewing eye as the day rolled toward the Pacific ending - I found I had saved Steven Millhauser's ENCHANTED NIGHT for an eerily timed moment to savour. If ever there were a collection of images to share at such a promising time this little novella is it. Millhauser has deposited tiny thoughts like interrupted dreams that are so special that momentary awakening only pleads for us to return to the dreams. With an uncanny ecomony of words, a plethora of evocative observations, and a page-turning style of staccato images, he provides just enough literary seduction to allow the reader to fold close the book after a scant 100 odd pages, darken the lamp, and luxuriate in our own moonlight the myriad trails toward conclusions that our own dreams complete. And in Milhauser's far better words....O you who wait: this is the night of the opening of the heart.

This is an extended poem, a brief novella, a parcel of dreamdust to repeatedly read, at night, alone. Or better - to share with another child of the evening.

I'm a huge fan of Ben Bova, but this novel is simply not good. As a continuation of the chararcter Dan Randolf, I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the book really becomes nothing more than Randolf running around begging for money. I also think the book is missing any kind of real climax, it's really a setup for the next novel in the series (I assume).

I thought "Colony" was an awesome saga. "The Precipice" is aweful soggy.

I used to really enjoy Ben Bova's books. Examples such as "Colony" and "Millennium" spring to mind. Unfortunately his more recent works (including this one) tend to read like poorly written soap operas. The science is still good though in this world where hard science fiction seems to be disappearing in favour of fantasy. This will probably keep me buying his novels but I do it with more trepidation than before.

For those of you who don't like Sci-Fi books (like myself) I urge you to try this one. I picked it up at the library by mistake and when I saw what it was about decided not to read it. BUT curiosity got the better of me and I did ENJOY it very much. As a kid I loved Flash Gorden but lost interest along the way. If you want good detail read the other reviewers who really understand the subject. I enjoyed the idea of living under the surface of the moon, the fast commutes betweenearth and moon and the idea of mining the Asteroid Belt for energy sources, That women were capable of piloting an exploratorytrip to the Belt (unauthorized ofcourse) had me thinking "Go Girl"just to prove it could be done.Ben Bova provided an excellent adventure and I think just maybe I will deliberately bring home another one of his books. Do give it a try if you have been avoidingspace travel or colonazation but remember there is always the bad guy waiting for you.

Pro:

*) Covers a lot of ground on up to date (01/2000) server side tech, Servlets, JSP, RMI, XML, EJB, JINI, CORBA, JNDI, LDAP, JDBC, Mime, cookies, Internationalization.

*) Lots of hands-on details with many examples.

*) Very fluent and usually clear.

Con:

*) Very little on theory, concepts, server architecture using these technologies or trends, goes straight to the details.

*) Many exercises don't work without some hacking (they could still fix it, the code is on their site).

*) So much is about Java Servlets you would think Sun published it.

*) Not all the chapters are in the same level, you can feel many people wrote the book.

This book is one of the must-have books for anyone serious about writing server-side Java programs. Sure you can find a lot of the information on the net, but I don't think that most professionals want to rely just on the net as their only resource now do they? I've had this book for many months now and it's the most popular book at work. It's jam-packed full of good server-side programming ideas and techniques. And it covers a lot of the bases with enough depth to get you more than started.

There are over ten chapters dealing with Servlets. There is only one chapter on JSP (29 pages), but anything you need to know about JSP you can get out of that one chapter. Servlets are what you should be concerned about anyway as you are looking for a hardcore Java Server Programming book right? The chapter on Smart Servlets is a better approach than JSP anyway.

The book isn't just about Servlets, however. There's also good coverage of XML, Distributed Computing with Servlets (using RMI), and Enterprise Javabeans. And more!

Want a big bonus this year? Get this book! Want to eventually lose your job and end up at McDonalds? Don't get this book. It's nice to know you have choices. :)

Everything you need to get started with server-side Java programming is in this book. It starts off with several chapters covering Servlets, then a solid chapter on JSP, followed by coverage of JDBC, and a chapter on database connection pools. This would have been enough for a complete book, but it doesn't stop there. There is also good coverage of XML, RMI, JNDI, EJB, and more.

To me, this book is an essential reference for anyone doing server-side Java programming. It has been an invaluable resource on my current programming project. I continually recommend it to my co-workers.

The book has a good balance of example code and explanations, and the authors generally have very good writing styles which make the technical material relatively easy to understand. However, at times you can tell that the book has many authors because not all of the chapters are of the same quality. In particular, I though chapters 5 and 6 were not as well written as most of the others.

One minor criticism of the book is that even though it is over 1,000 pages it is printed in a rather small font which made it a little hard to read. I would have preferred that one or two of the less important chapters be excluded so that a normal font size could have been used.

This book is also a great value for the price. Many technical books don't cover half as much material for the same price. I highly recommend it.

Hagstrom's second book is outstanding, especially for anyone looking to develop and define a rational investment style and process for managing their own money. As a professional money manager, I have read many books on investing, and like to refer the better ones to my clients. This one would be at the top of my recommended list, because it is clearly written, logical in its approach (Hagstrom backs up the tenets of his "focused portfolio" approach to investing with good empirical data), and provides a consistent and rational framework for people to invest their money. Hagstrom advocates that investors own relatively few stocks (maybe 10-15), and concentrate their holdings in companies that have a high probability of enjoying financial success over the long term. He points out the risks of this approach (fewer stocks in a portfolio can result in higher than average portfolio volatility in the short run, which can be disconcerting to some investors), but also highlights the success that Buffett and other practicioners of a long term, focused approach have had historically. Hagstrom includes interesting discussions of the math underlying his strategy, and the psychological factors that predispose a person to embrace or reject the principles of investing he recommends. The beauty of the book, and the focused portfolio approach to investing, is that it is logical, supported by solid mathematical principles, makes sense intuitively, is relatively easy to apply, skews the odds of outstanding absolute and relative total returns in the investor's favor, and provides a solid framework against which to invest in a world that is fraught with risk and dominated by a media culture that probably hurts more individual investors it helps (CNBC, internet sites, mutual fund advertising, etc). Hagstrom's approach is obviously not for everyone--despite its simplicity and logic, few professionals or individuals, in my experience, have the patience or discipline to concentrate their investments and stay with them over a period of years. But for those people looking for an approach that cuts through all the clutter in the investment world, this book is worth a read. For what it is worth, the best book on Buffett himself is Lowenstein's "The Making of an American Capitalist;" other must read or own books for do-it-yourself investors would include "Investment Policy" by Ellis, "Against the Gods" by Bernstein, "The Gorilla Game" (for technology stock investing) by Moore, "Classics" and "Classics II " by Ellis, and "When Genius Failed" by Lowenstein.

In "The Warren Buffett Portfolio", author Robert Hagstrom devotes an entire book to debunking the greatest misconception prevalent in the investment world today: the myth of "diversification". Hagstrom sets out to prove that Mark Twain was a market wizard when he said "put all of your eggs in one basket, and guard the hell out of that basket!"

The heart of this book rests on the premise that a proper portfolio must be "diverse" (i.e. must include 40 to 100 different companies) in order to remain "safe" and avoid a loss of capital. However, while such a notion may decrease short-term volatility, it does not necessarily increase returns. Hagstrom examines investment guru Warren Buffett's ideas on the subject, such as "knowledge decreases risk, not the number of stocks in your portfolio". Such an approach makes sense. Which is better, to own a few companies that you know everything about, or a lot of companies that you know little or nothing about? The less you know about a company, the more likely it is that an unforeseen event will sneak up on you and hammer your portfolio.

The book also addresses the fallacy of "re-balancing a portfolio". Again, Warren asks, why are you selling off your best company to buy a bunch of under-performing companies? Such a line of thinking is akin to saying "Michael Jordan takes too many shots and makes too much money relative to the other players on his team, so he should be traded to another team for three players so as to decrease the risk of an injury hurting the team... or we should give more shot opportunities to players of lesser talent so that the team doesn't become dependent on Michael Jordan to win." Nobody ever won an NBA Championship with run-of-the-mill players, but the Bulls won six NBA titles by relying on Michael Jordan.

It's this stalwart advance in the face of conventional wisdom that separates this book from most in the stock investment genre. Give it a try. You may find it's the most profitable book you've ever purchased...

Britt Gillette
Author of "Conquest of Paradise: An End-Times Nano-Thriller"

I read this book the week before the annual meeting and hoped Warren or Charlie would comment on it. Charlie Munger did not disappoint. He recommended it even though he did not care for Hagstrom's first book. As someone who enjoys reading Charlie's ideas and philosophy, which are usually published in Outstanding Investor's Digest, I found this book to be quite interesting. New and different ideas are covered which may inspire the reader to investigate further. The topics of probability and psychology are discussed as they relate to investing and some actual data is presented instead of the usual anecdotal evidence. If Charlie recommends it, it must be worth reading. Other books he recommended at the meeting were Ron Chernow's "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr." and David Landes' "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations." Warren Buffett recommended reading Washington Post Chairman Katherine Graham's autobiography "Personal History" and John Bogle's "Common Sense on Mutual Funds."

First two books in Ender series are wonderful reads with a gripping storyline and excellent writing. Well, the third book has the same excellent writing but lacks the storyline.

No wonder Mr.Card is a great writer; whatever he writes he writes it good. Unfortunately Xenocide serves the purpose of bringing up a number of muddled ideas rather than telling a story. As a matter of fact there are so many ideas (overcoming an intelligent virus, how to save Jane, the Godspoken, Novinha's frustration against Ender, Ender's "split" personality, piggies' rights, virus rights, Bugger's way of thinking, Inside and Outside, faster-than-light-travel and some more minor things) that all comes to frustrating complexity and since the author does not have enough "time" (number of pages) to devote to each idea, almost everything except a few becomes muddled.

At the end, since the author creates more problems than necessary for a book - that can be handled in a single book - in order to neatly tie all that mess up, he has to resort to deus ex machina by means of hard sci-fi. Well Mr. Card is a great writer of characters, but he's not that great in hard sc-fi; thus his attempt makes you feel kinda cheated.

Overall this is an inescapable book. If you've started Ender Saga you'll have to read this. Thanks to Card's writing, it is still a fun read but especially with its ending it is unsatisfactory.

First off, this book is the second sequel to Ender's Game, so I suggest you go read the other two books first. Second, Xenocide follows the story of The Speaker for the Dead, so don't expect a story similar to Ender's Game.

But with that over, lets get on to the good stuff! Xenocide is not a direct sequel, instead, Card takes another of his twists and makes it take place 20-30 years later, once the children are grown, and Ender is an old man.

(For those of you who have read the series) it's interesting to see how everyone has changed over the years, to see what fields each has entered. Card built a person out of each name, and with this book, the personality grows for all of them.

On top of that, the series also sees the return of Valentine, Ender's sister. Reading this book is like looking at your highschool yearbook, it's fun to see how everyone's both changed and stayed the same.

Concerning the plot, this book has gained some respect. I don't read too many sci-fis because of the fantasy involved. In Star Trek, if a ray-gun is needed, there it is. It is assumed that they were made a long time ago and are as common as pants now. But this series, and especially this book rejects that theory. Everything exists for a reason, and Card does a fantastic job at explaining "histories" and describing theories, then BUILDING on those theories to make more. I'm sure it was time consuming to Card, but it has an excellent effect on the reader.

A word of caution though. Some of the theories (especially the ones involving space) get, to say the least, confusing. On more than one occasion, I needed to put the book down because I either had a headache, or needed to work out the words in my mind. But nothing written is too confusing to figure out. The benefits of the explanation outnumber the time it takes to figure it out.

It's a good, long story with realistic characters and just enough science fiction to satisfy the crowds. Enjoy!

Let me just start by saying that the Ender Saga is by far my favorite book series, just as Ender's Game is my favorite book, and Orson Scott Card my favorite author.
While "Speaker for the Dead" is technically a sequel, I see it more of a new beginning than a sequel. The only connection it really has with Ender's Game is in the last chapter of the novel, and with two of teh characters. The rest is a copmletely different story.
What I like about this new trilogy (Speaker for the dead, xenocide - which I think is the best one, and children of the mind) is that it almost becomes philosophical and intellectual. Not that sci-fi generally isn't, but it has something that Ender's Game lacked. Real issues. Though-provoking ideas. Intellectual points. This series made me stop at several points and just *think*. Not necessarily about the storyling, but about the points the book made.
Orson Scott Card proves not only to be a master at sci-fi, but also quite an intellectual guy.

Ender's Game is to this series as The Hobbit is to Lord of the Rings. Not all that much to do with it, but it really immerses you into the story.
This trilogy is truly a magnificent one, and I recommend it to absolutely anyone who enjoys Sci-fi, intellectual ideas, and Ender's Game.

I personally enjoyed Xenocide the most because I found it to have the most content (note: not especially due to the fact that it's the longest of the books!). It is one of the most inellectual and thought-provking novels Card has ever written. It brings up such brilliant topics of ethics, physics, time, and such things, it is truly not for the weak of mind (although they will certainly enjoy the storyline nonetheless).

You may have noticed two other books classified under Ender's Saga: Ender's Shadow, and Shadow of the Hegemon (also coming soon: Shadow Puppets). These are basically of a different series (and with the third coming, I suppose it could be classified as a new saga). Which one would you prefer? To answer that, ask yourself this question: which part of Ender's Game thrilled and stimulated you the most: the part at Battle School, where Ender was climbing to the top and reigning victorious over everyone else with his brilliant mind and strategy -- or the last chapter of the book, where Ender found the cocoon, wrote his book, and moved onto a different planet. If you prefered the first, then I recommend you first read Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon before the other trilogy. If you really enjoyed the last chapter, and it left you breathless, then by all means, move onto Speaker for the Dead and this brilliant trilogy. You will NOT be dispapointed.

The content of the book is a great way for Java programmers to get an overview of the J2EE APIs and Java-based Web applications with reasonable hands-on depth. I can't say enough in that regard. More depth requires more specific books, but that's just due to the size of J2EE. However, the editing on this book is just short of awful. There are numerous typos and non-grammatical sentences. Part of this is obviously insufficient attention given to the writing of non-native speakers. The approach differs radically from chapter to chapter, ranging from elaborated regurgitation of the documentation (useful due to its experienced commentary) to teaching almost solely by example. In one chapter, the author's coding style is full of distracting peculiarities. If he were consistent in their use, it may not be so distracting, and his at time really strange departures from common control structure idioms leaves you guessing. If the chapter weren't so strong from an architecture and design perspective, you would wonder about his command of Java. All in all, I recommend this book as in introductory cram course on J2EE, but the Wrox multi-team approach broke down somewhat here.

This is one of the earliest J2EE 1.2 book that hit the market and it does a decent job. Coverage on individual topics such as servlets, JSP's, and EJB's are good and coherent. I especially like the EJB topic which spans 6 chapters that gives a lot of details and guidance in architecting your apps using EJB's. Other J2EE topics like JDBC, JNDI, RMI, XML, JMS, and JavaMail also received adequate coverage in the book. Compared with the book by Perrone et al. (Sams), this one is more focused and more in depth.

However, I am somewhat disappointed by the lack of substances (i.e., code, code, code to a developer like myself!) in the later chapters that deal with design strategies. It will have been a lot better if the book used an integrated sample to illustrate how to implement the design principles layed out in chapters 24 and 25. Instead, we have a chapter (30) which basically borrows a canned sample from Orion Server release, which in itself is OK but is not tightly related to earlier chapters. So if you already have servlets and JSP experience and would like to add EJB/JMS to the mix, I wouldn't recommend this book. Pick up the new book from Wrox on BEA WebLogic Server instead.

Each topic is covered very well. But if you do not know the topic already then it is a little too much detail. In my opinion this can be used as a good reference to all the individual topics covered. For example, I worked with RMI before and found the chapter on RMI broadened my concept significantly. Similar size chapter in other books was good for beginners but the concept was not conveyed as well as in this book.

So here is my evaluation:

1. Read a tutorial or two from Javasoft on a given topic (including EJB). Then go through this book on that topic and you will find it much easier to follow.

2. Once you know the absolute basics you will know which sections to skip or read in detail. You will notice that they try to cover every little detail even though in some cases it may require a little more explanation.

3. Understand the fact that each topic can be a book of its own size.

4. I have seen some grammatical errors but given the difficult subject matters and the recentness of them I can definitely ignore them.

5. The book would have been better if a quick introduction was given with a simple but good example then if it went into the detail.

6. They probably should have given a bit more examples as they dove into the details but as it is the book is too thick to the point that it is bit difficult to handle. I wish they made it a multi-volume book and not a hard cover.