Fascinating personal account of show business, racism, politics and famous personalities from the 40s to the 80s. Shows how excess (Sammy) or even the appearance of excess (Dean) is useful (necessary?) for the publicity that makes one a star.

I really enjoyed this book, I had no idea what the blacks in the US had to go through, having grown up in Australia. Sammy had a big chip on his shoulder which he carried throughout his life but it is understandable when you read what he went through. This isn't just a boring story of a star's life, it is a fascinating look at racism, politics, being rich beyond your dreams and in debt for millions - a great read.

Mr Davis'is revealed to be much more than performer. We find Sammy to be an activist, comedian, swinger, a great human being. His friendship with Frank Sinatra is shown to be pivotal in his giving up drugs. Another laugh and cry book.

If you're interested enough in Sammy to have read "Yes I Can" and "Why Me?" (or at least the compiled "Sammy: an Autobiography"), then this book is an absolute must. Any autobiography is bound to have a flattering slant, but this collection tilts the balance back to level.

Editor Gerald Early offers a lengthy foreward which, at first, I thought a bit self-indulgent until I began to grasp the depth of affection he feels for his subject. Don't skip this foreward; it gets better in the later sections.

The writings in the collection are taken from various autobiographies and other texts about the era, and are insightfully organized. This book is not thoughtlessly thrown together; this is clearly a labor of love. In the first 50 pages alone I had enough of my personal Sammy myths dispelled to recommend the book. I can't help but think how I would have felt had I been the editor. The book certainly doesn't try to slam Sammy, but it does offer the bad along with the good, and it can't have been a painless decision to include some of this material. The excerpt from his daughter's book is particularly revealing, and the bit from Linda Lovelace's autobiography is nothing short of disturbing.

Sammy's own tellings of his life story are far from entirely flattering, but this excellent book brings the legend down from even that level, down to where we all live. Sammy was not a perfect man. He was a masterful entertainer. He was a lousy father. He had a heart of gold. He was into some horrifyingly self-destructive behavior. If you love Sammy the artist as much as I do, you owe it to yourself (after reading the autobiography, I think) to read this volume. It's a real eye-opener. And despite the ugly reality it sometimes offers, it hasn't diminished my love and respect for Sammy one bit. Quite the opposite.

This is the easiest to use and probably most comprehensive book of human measurement, in my opinion. The data provided in this book is of extreme value to anybody designing anything that physically interacts with human bodies. This is the only complete source of anthropometric data, that I know of, for children of virtually every age range.

However, some of the extrapolated data in the book is impractical for real use. For example, children's furniture dimensions recommended by this book are generally too small as they appear to be based upon exact proportions of adult recommendations. This is inappropriate because children's bodies and minds are not exact scale models of adult bodies.

Overall, though, I still recommend this book highly, but also recommend very careful use of it.

Rich in visual and graphical material, calculations, diagrams and in-scale drawings of various humans (both sexes), in varous situations... Interesting and important reference tool for the industrial designer. (one of the very few available on the market today)

The buzz is all around. XML and all derivatives are attracting everyone. There are many XML books in the market but few are satisfactory. I like the books which can offer more than tutorials on the web. This is one of those. First of all, the book is well organized and easy to follow. Learn the idea behind SAX, DOM and then JDOM. Having a good understanding of these basics, go on with three main application areas of XML:"web publishing","interoperatibility", and "data binding". This is what XML developers should do, and author follows this order very well. In fact, I remember Brett's one article where he suggested developers not to forget basics of parsing while working with higher level APIs and protocols.

If we look at the details of book... After covering the basics of parsing, Brett introduces some -very good- real world examples: Cocoon(for publishing frameworks), soap, xml-rpc, and web services for communication or interoperatibility and Castor etc. for data binding.

What is missing or not intended in this book is XML data structure design and XSLT. This is understandable since both are very detailed topics that wouldn't fit in a single book. For XSLT there are the O'reilly Java & XSLT or Wrox XSLT books and for XML-Schema... I'm just waiting for a good one.

Especially for those intermediate level XML programmers with Java knowledge.

XML and Java, true to the title, provides detailed and broad coverage of XML programming in Java.

The chapters on SAX, DOM and JDOM provide a strong foundation for selecting and leverage these libraries at a practical level. The coverage of rapidly emerging XML topics including XML-RPC, SOAP and Web Services is timely and reasonably detailed, providing adequate information to allow these to be practically applied.

The author's writing style is easy to read and has a code-centric focus. The numerous examples were intelligently explained without providing detail that someone already familiar with the Java programming language would find verbose and boring.

This title is best suited to for those with some background in Java and a general understanding of XML. Assuming this background, this book can help bridge the gap from being a Java/XML programming novice to being a Java/XML programming expert.

The first edition of this book was considered one of the best on the subject of Java and XML. This new edition has expanded to include the developments in Java and XML over the last year. The author gives a little less handholding on the basics of XML reducing a three chapter introduction in the first edition to a one chapter summary. SAX, DOM, and JDOM all are covered in detail with each topic getting an introduction and an advanced chapter. JAXP 1.1 is covered in sufficient detail. After the introduction to the basic Java/XML APIs, the author moves on to some other interesting topics.

The chapters on web publishing frameworks and XML-RPC haven't changed much since the first edition. New chapters on SOAP, Web Services, and content syndication are welcome additions. The book ends with a look at data binding and JAXB.

The examples in the book are extremely clear and concise, explaining each topic well without being overly simplistic. As with the first edition, the author assumes that you are familiar with Java but unlike the first edition he assumes you have a basic understanding of XML.

If you are a Java developer and you are going to be working with XML then this book is required reading. The coverage of the Java/XML APIs is excellent. As for the other topics, it is a good introduction but for anyone working with SOAP or Web Services, other books will probably be required.

The sometimes touching story of a girl who wants nothing more in the world than her famous and utterly neglectful father to just love her and recognize her. Much of the book is a pathetic story of this sick alcoholic father doing just about everything humanly possible in life BUT give her what she needs. The odd thing about this book, though really not odd considering how common it is, is that this girl goes through her life so utterly proud of her failure of a father, proud of all his accomplishments, proud of the famous people he hobnobs with, proud of how much time he gives them, proud of how fancy and star-studded his parties are, proud of how much he loves his audiences and spares them no attention, proud of how much money he has, and vicariously proud of herself for just being the daughter of one so awesome.

It's really a sad book, its saddest aspect being that the daughter, while writing, doesn't even realize that though she felt her father "came around" in the end and really learned to love her and treat her well, it never really happened! Sammy David, Jr. DIDN'T come around in the end and learn to love his daughter, his daughter simply matured and learned to relate to him more on his level, thus meeting more of his needs and making a relationship with her that much more palatable to HIM.

The reason I found this book worthwhile enough to plow through was that it gave a strong inside view into the life of an extremely wounded and self-centered man and showed now just how much his neglect affected his child, but also how distorted HER thinking could be as a result of this neglect, allowing her to mistake his few crumbs of love far too late in life for the nutritious meal she once deserved.

This book is really a daughter's tribute to her famous father. My question, really, is her motive for writing it. I suspect that she had grandiose motivations of her own, and wants to bask in the sunlight of her father's glory. I'm always suspicious of tell-alls like this, especially ones that tell "dirty" secrets of still living people who are close to the writers, such as things like the alcoholism of her step-mother, her brother's drug abuse and homelessness...and her own suicide attempt. Although I'm not a puritan by any means, I feel some of these things, for the author's own personal and emotional safety, would be better left told to a therapist...

The reminisences of her childhood as Sammy Davis Jr.'s only bloodchild is interesting "remember, you're a Davis" and adds interesting insight. However, this book is marred by her obvious hatred and long tangents against Altovise, the third Mrs. Sammy Davis, Jr.(which is clearly due to the fact that her mother was the second Mrs. Davis) If you over look this, it makes a good read.

I enjoyed Tracey's book. I have always admired Sammy Davis, Jr. and have read all of his books. His daughter's book provided another opportunity to get a glimpse of the great soul that we knew as Sammy Davis, Jr. I also admire Tracey for her insight as she described coming to grips with the relationship that had existed between herself and the parent who was so often absent and preoccupied elsewhere for most of her younger years. This book accomplished its goal as far as I'm concerned; Tracey paid a tribute to her famous father, while admitting the downfalls and heartaches along the way. Yet, despite all, there developed a loving bond between father and daughter - it occurred late in the day but nevertheless, did occur. This book is obviously not meant to be a literary classic. But it definitely ties up the loose ends for those of us who loved and remember Sammy and wonder about how his passing affected his family and those closest to him. In the last few pages, Tracey writes about how her father 'visited' her and reassured her that he would always be there for her, to watch her son and daughter grow up. You are left with no doubts.