Excellent step-by-step guide for conducting a meta-analysis. It is definitely "practical" as indicated in the title. After understanding the theoretical framework of conducting a meta-analysis, this book is great for procedural guidance.

If you like to drive, read this book. If you like nature, read this book. If you like to look at the pictures, read this book. This book and $20 for a tank of gas has become my favorite wedding/etc. present for friends. A wonderful coverage of the roads, the state they wind through and the minds of the authors and photojournalists.

I'm a sucker for any anthology that ends with Richard Petty accepting the National Book Award. . . This one also has a lot of heart. The first of what promises to be an annual collection of stories promoting "a rebirth of beauty and life-affirming values," the Silver Rose Anthology offers a strong mix of voices and attitudes. Not every story here will appeal to every reader (the opening story, for instance, does little for me), but the collection overall is outstanding. Personal favorites (in addition to George Singleton's outrageous "Richard Petty Accepts the National Book Award") include Robert Olen Butler's seamless "Rafferty and Josephine," Julie Orringer's touching "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" Patry Francis'"Limbe," and Patricia Hackbarth's provocative "A Brief Geological Guide to Canyon County."
Move over Bill Henderson, Katrina Keneson, and Larry Dark. Watson's in the house!

When Kevin Watson gathered the stories for this anthology, he was doing us a public service. This is a hard world: hearts break, and lives are shattered. Stories that don't deal with those realities aren't true to life. But there's so much more to life--and should be to art. These stories are "life-affirming" in the best kind of way: They don't stay sunk in gloom, but they don't stoop to easy answers. Each one shows us a new facet of getting on with life, making things work, following the path. The individual stories are excellent--I especially like the story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler, although it's one of several strong stories--and in their cumulative effect, the collection becomes (and I mean this in the best kind of way) inspirational.

i only gave this book 5 stars because i could not give it more. i went to a reading of one of the writers and soon went on to read the rest. it has a good mix of voices, but by far the best writer is Heidi Shayla and her story "The Coffin Builder's Romance", it is a beautiful story of quilts, boxes, and of course, coffins. it is my all time favorite anthology, and i would definetly recomend it.

I found this book to answer the mystery of the Iran-Contra/Mena, Arkansas drug smuggling operation. Having read "Under Fire" by Oliver North and this book I find it quite obvious who's lying. Terry Reed, a CIA operative, who thought he was serving an honest government, is compelled to expose the corruption that he himself encountered. Whereas, Oliver North in his book COVERS it all up. We should be thankful for Terry Reed's courage to bring this information out. This book corroborates the documentary, "Mena Cover-up". A man who follows his conscience should never be bound to secrecy when that secrecy only hides corruption. May more COURAGEOUS men and women who have vowed "to secrecy" STAND up!

If you like Tom Clancy, here's the real deal. A former Air Force intelligence officer turned manufacturing engineer, pilot, and independent business man is recruited by the CIA (Oliver North) to assist in the training of Contra pilots in Mena, Arkansas. His name is Terry Reed, and does he have an incredible story to tell! This American patriot reveals everything after the CIA tried to screw him after Iran-contra. Plenty of very interesting information about Clinton, Bush, the Arkansas elite, covert CIA operations, CIA super-agent Barry Seal, money laundering, international narcotics trafficking, and CIA influence in the US political system.

Reed claims to be an eyewitness of collaboration in 1986 between Clinton and Republican CIA under Reagan/Bush/Casey. Claims Clinton was offered U.S. presidency in exchange for his continued cooperation in Arkansas contra training and drug smuggling. Offers good credentials. Reed's credibility has stood up in federal court. If substantiated, this book forces U.S. citizens to consider whether their own CIA is manipulating their elections and their media

In this historically wide ranging book, the authors overlook the large numbers of excellent programs on many of the cable channels. My understanding of the authors point of view is that the government has lost a wonderful outlet for its propaganda. Cable television has lead to the fulfillment of televisions promise, and has also rendered PBS obsolete.

If you are at all interested the history of television, and how it got to be the vast wasteland that it is, you need to read this book! It ultimately gives a glimmer of hope to those of us who think television is too far 'Down the Tube' to be redeemed.

I am the CEO of a public television station, so I read the book with great interest and in an informed and critical frame of mind. I found it intelligent, analytical, and very felicitous in its combination of fact and philosophical judgment. It's a pleasure to read, and should be enjoyable and useful to anyone nterested in television, whether as a viewer or as a professional.

I'll agree with the many other reviews that rate this book as an extremely knowledgeable reference on ASP, perhaps the definitive reference.

However, there are several points that make this book somewhat unappealing from a practical perspective.

First, note that it was written by 15 different authors. This incorporates many different writing styles, making it unwieldy. The previous edition was written by 8 people. Do not attempt to use either book as a cover-to-cover tutorial.

Second, the code examples are written almost exclusively in VBScript, although the book acknowledges that Javascript (also known as JScript) would work just as effectively. From a real-world perspective, I have found that many ASP programmers prefer to use Javascript for both server-side and client-side development.

The use of 2 scripting languages in one application is simply impractical. VBScript persists mainly because it is a Microsoft invention, as is ASP itself. However, Javascript (or ECMA Script) has become the industry-standard scripting language for web-based applications.

Another issue with the code examples is that they are not line-numbered. For short examples, this is not an issue. But for larger code modules (as one would encounter in the real world), line-numbering is considered part of best practices in explaining and debugging code before it is deployed.

For readers with any ASP background, this book would be a useful desktop reference. Carrying it around in your briefcase may cause lower back strain.

Professional Active Server Pages 3.0, by Alex Homer, is
a book on developing web applications using Active
Server Pages 3.0. This book goes in depth into
developing web applications with discussions and
examples on advanced topics such as, CDO/Microsoft
Exchange Server, ADO/Microsoft SQL Server, and
ADSI/Active Directory. Homer presents the reader with a
wealth of information on advanced enterprise level
topics based on Microsoft technologies. This book is
excellent for intermediate/advanced users who wish to
learn about Active Server Pages using Microsoft
technologies, however due to the fact Homer does not
goes in depth with fundamentals of programming Visual
Basic Script, this book should not be recommended to
novice developers.

Throughout the book, Homer discusses the importance of
COM/COM+ and what that technology can do for your web
application. He writes examples of a COM+ component in
Visual Basic and shows the user how to register/load
the component into memory along with utilizing the
functionality of them in an Active Server Page. Homer
further explores the features of Windows 2000 by
introducing the features of Active Directory and
explaining/demonstrating how ADSI can connect an Active
Server Page to the Active Directory. The book goes into
further detail on enterprise level topics by discussing
how CDO interfaces with Microsoft Exchange Server.
Using CDO, a developer can access all of users Exchange
account information including mail, contacts, calendar,
etc. The book ends with performance and security issues
for web applications running on a Windows 2000 Server
and how an administrator should configure a Windows
2000 Server for maximum performance and security.

The software/technologies the book uses are based on
products/technologies developed by Microsoft. Since
Active Server Pages is a Microsoft technology, it would
be reasonable to use only Microsoft
products/technologies. However, in the real world, many
businesses have heterogeneous environments with Oracle
database servers and JavaScript web developers. The
fact that this book only exposes the reader to vendor-
specific technologies could be a down fall, however
creates a centralized focus for the reader.

This book covers a wide spectrum of advanced knowledge
with Active Server Pages, however is completely based
around Microsoft technologies. Several other authors
composed this book, which helps the reader get a
dynamic flavor of knowledge from chapter to chapter as
one can see. Any intermediate/advanced web developer,
interested in enterprise web application development,
should purchase a copy of this book for reference
purposes.

Being an enterprise web developer, I found this book to be the absolute best in its field. It covers a very wide spectrum of fields any web developer working with Microsoft web technology should know, including ADO, ADSI, ASP, CDO, COM+, error handling, MSMQ, Windows DNA, XML, and a whole lot more (note that this book is primarily oriented at web developers who's target platform is Windows 2000 and IIS 5.0, but I also found it to be extremely useful for use on Windows NT 4.0 and IIS 4.0, since the authors clearly indicate features that are new to Windows 2000 and IIS 5.0). The writing style is absolutely excellent and gives clear tips on code optimization and performance. I have read literally dozens of different books on these subjects, and none has come close to this one. Although this book is not for beginners, it is, in my opinion, good for anyone who wants to advance their career on the web or become an web developer. This is definitely a book you will want to read from cover to cover, and use as a reference. At just about any price, it's a steal.

A fantastic book from a fantastic website. The stories from Europe seem strongest, including Bill Barich in Italy, Maxine Rose Schur in France, and Simon Winchester in Romania, but Wanderlust covers the entire globe, from 1st world to 3rd world, from the luxury of club med to the drug-fueled violence of Columbia.

While some stories lag behind, as should be expected with 40+ tales, there is certain to be something for everyone. One reviewer found Barry Yeoman's piece about lonliness in Spain and Karl Greenfeld struggle to stay sober in Thailand as two of the worst, but I would highlight the same pieces as two of my favorites.

For any wayward traveler forced to take a break from the road, salon.com's Wanderlust makes for a great escape.

"[I]f travel is like love, that is, in the end, mostly because it's a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity, and ready to be transformed."

So observes Pico Iyer at the end of his foreword to this magical collection, adding that the above is also the reason that "the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end. "Anyone who has traveled at least a bit, who has loved at least once, or who is ready to be transformed should read this book. High praise is due Don George and Salon.com for gathering such a stirring and tantalizing collection of writings together: in forty short pieces not one dull or sappy note is struck.

For romance, the standouts of this collection are Maxine Rose Schur's "Passionate and Penniless in Paris," about the time she spent with her husband living in a van by the Quai de la Tournelle; Simon Winchester's "Romance in Romania" where the Rolls Royce he happens to be driving brings both him and a young Romanian girl into a beautiful moment that takes its romance from its very fleetingness; Iyer's own short, musical "Bewitched in Bali"; "Fade Into Blue," written in the third person by Amanda Jones; and most memorable of all, Laura Fraser's "Italian Affair," one of the most personal pieces in the book, but written completely in the second person (let's just say it begins with "Let's say your husband leaves you" and ends with her discovery of "la bella vita").

Notable for their adventurous qualities are Bill Belleville's "Looking for Mr. Watson" in the heart of the Florida Everglades; Don Meredith's relaxed brush with death in "Sleeping With Elephants"; Jeffrey Tayler's not-so-relaxed brush with death in "Lost in the Sahara"; editor Don George's surprising fear of climbing Half-Dome in Yosemite while watching his 8- and 10-year-old children scamper up like squirrels--he not afraid for them, he's jealous of them; and Susan Hack's humorous "Tampax Nightmares."

Of course romance and adventure are not mutually exclusive, and many of the stories here exhibit both. The writers of SALON.COM'S WANDERLUST convey the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feel of the places they go--both externally and inside their own heads. The reader is transported to all seven continents and several states of being (drunk on absinthe, crashing a motorcycle while on heroin, eating the ambrosial sauces of the Memphis World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest). It will be hard to read just a quarter of these stories and not want to make your plane reservations, stuff a new notebook into your backpack and just go.

Salon's "Wanderlust" section was always my favorite part of Salon -- even more so than "Sex":). This book is a marvelous collection of authentic writing, and answers the kinds of questions good travel writing asks -- what is it like to be drinking absinthe in Spain? to be penniless and in love in Paris? to be a cynic at Club Med? to try to stay sober in Thailand?

This is armchair travel at its very best.

Halberstam, as ever, writes so well...I am jealous. However, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in this book. While it serves as a good overview of Clinton's foreign policy, it skimps on the first Bush Administration

First, the Persian Gulf War barely gets 20 pages, and it is almost all seen through the lens of the Air Force Colonel (John Warden) who planned the innovative air campaign. This is not really new or scandalous - Gordon and Traynor covered this in "The General's War" and you can find it in other sources. The only other mention you get is how tired Bush was from the Gulf War, and how it prevented him from tackling the Bosnia problem. Overall, Considering the subtitle is "Bush, Clinton and the Generals" Bush gets shorted.

Second, while the portraits of the personalities are vivid, there just isn't anything really new or insightful here. Indeed, there were many vignettes where I felt like I had read this somewhere before. Bob Woodward's "The Commanders" is still the definitive Gulf War decision-making work, Elizabeth Drew's "On the Edge" covers Clinton's decision making shortcomings, Ivo Daalder's "Getting to Dayton" covers Bosnia u1p to 1995; Daalder and O'Hanlon's "Winning Ugly" has everything about Kosovo.

As a student of international relations, my standards are a little higher. This book is useful to the extent it consolidates a lot of existing work, but it falls just a little short of being really deep or groundbreaking. Not even close to "Best and the Brightest."

I became a fan of David Halberstam's through his sportswriting, but since I have a longstanding interest in history and current events, I decided to check out some of his political writing as well. Having read this book, I'm glad I did. In "War In a Time of Peace" Halberstam attempts to summarize and analyze the key components of American foreign policy from 1989 to 2001 in a (relatively) brief and user-friendly five hundred pages. And it's a rousing success. Halberstam obviously has a profound understanding of the vast array of forces that shape modern-day politics, and he has an engaging writing style that keeps things moving right along.

The main thrust of the book is an examination of the effect the end of the Cold War had on U.S. foreign policy. Much of Halberstam's discussion focuses on two related themes: first, the decline in importance of foreign policy in American politics following the removal of the Communist threat; and second, the loss of clear-cut foreign-policy philosophies and objectives without the Soviets as an enemy. Halberstam proves his first thesis quickly enough with this fact: the first President Bush, despite his successes in the Cold War and the Gulf War, couldn't get himself reelected in 1992 in the face of the Clinton campaign's "It's the economy, stupid" logic because the American public didn't care as much about foreign affairs as it had even five years ago. The second theme of the book, regarding the ambiguity that accompanied foreign policy in the nineties, is reflected in the debates over just how and how much the U.S. should get involved in battles in faraway places like Somalia and (especially) the former Yugoslavia. Central to these debates was a fundamental question: should America, with its overwhelming military might, use its military as a police force in areas in which it lacked a vital national interest? In the wake of Vietnam, this was not an easy question to answer, and it loomed large over many of the Clinton administration's important foreign-policy decisions. Halberstam goes to great lengths to discuss the complex mix of factors that influenced these decisions in the Clinton years: American electoral politics, international politics, the internal machinations of the military, American public opinion, changes in journalistic practices, advances in military technology, Bill Clinton's personal problems, the legacy of Vietnam, and much more. Halberstam also gives the reader biographical sketches of many of the major American political and military players, as if to try to explain the impact their own experiences had on their views. He's sympathetic to these people, but at the same time Halberstam has a keen understanding of their weaknesses and how they worked against them.

I'm not really what you'd call a foreign politics or current events aficionado, but I think that may be why I found this book such a good read. It has enough detail to provide a comprehensive overview of American foreign policy in the post-Cold War period, without getting too bogged down in minutiae. At the same time, Halberstam demonstrates a remarkable perceptiveness in tracing the links between events and personalities that shaped America's actions. Highly recommended.

An essential overview of US foreign policy in the 1990s. Halberstam has crafted a well written, well researched account of the international policies and conflicts that shaped the 90s. He also deconstructs many of the major players -- Tony Lake, Dick Holbrooke, Colin Powell, Madeline Albright, Sandy Berger -- in great detail, exploring their particular leanings and, most importantly, the events that shaped their individual policies. For this group, shadows of the Cold War and of Vietnam are never far from the surface of their foreign policy.

I agree with reviewers who thought that the author has a liberal bias -- Halberstam tends to view the Clinton administration and the Democratic liberals as kinder, gentler, "aw-shucks" foreign policy doves, i.e. the kind of people who just "happen" to get caught up in nasty little international conflicts. Meanwhile, Republicans are portrayed as significantly more trouble-friendly and hawkish, to use a much-bandied-about phrase. Still, despite Halberstam's leanings, he does not hide the Clinton administration's obvious failings in the foreign policy arena. He is quite brutal at times in his descriptions of Clinton as a petulant man-child who doesn't like to be wrong and, more importantly, doesn't like anyone else to be right either.

The one flaw with this book, if it is a flaw, is simply that it was written before September 11. As such, it has a dated quality to it, like when you read about WWII or Vietnam. The world dynamic was significantly altered by 9/11 and it will be interesting to see if Halberstam picks up where he left off and writes the post-9/11 chapters of this book.

Overall, though, a must read.

This book is the best of the countless George W. Bush biographies that are appearing all over the place. Minutaglio does a great job providing a well-balanced book about the ups and downs of our President's life and how his family has played apart. It clearly shows Dubya's attempts to move away from his father's shadow in order for him to make a name for himself. It is a great book, full of interesting stories and minimal political jargon that you will find in so many of the other books being written about Bush. If you want to read about our President, I suggest this book.

What an enjoyable, informative read. I didn't know much about George W. Bush other than he's raised a lot of campaign money as a Republican presidential candidate. But like Richard Ben Cramer's classic WHAT IT TAKES, or David Maraniss's FIRST IN HIS CLASS about Bill Clinton's early years, this is a terrific, broad look at the man and where he came from, his family, his personality, his accomplishments and failures. I feel like I know "George W" after reading this book. The author of FIRST SON deserves a tip of the hat, not only for putting together a biography that provides great background on this politician, but also for writing a very entertaining book.

If you are looking for tabloid like Bush Bashing, don't look here (you might try The Father's Son, that one is quite good at trying to instill some what outdated class war fare dribble). This particular book is extremely well balanced. If you love the Bush clan, or hate them, you will find something within. Personally, I found it an insightful and interesting tale of one of our nations most powerful pollitical families. Is George W qualified to be President? Well that is a question that only time will answer. My thoughts are he is as qualified as the guy we have recently given the nod to twice, except, maybe George will actually care more for the country than himself. He does seem to learn and grow. Now that would be a pleasant change. However one thing is for certain, the Bush family is a political dynasty (now more impressive than the Kennedys) and the people of Texas sincerely love both of their Georges.

As a Republican, I was excited to hear that a former Clinton insider was writing a book which he represented as being a balanced and fair assessment of the campaign and first term, which (paraphrasing) 'Clinton may not like, but hopefully will consider a fair recount of activities as seen through my eyes". I found the book to be insightful into the arena of "Spin Control". I was suprised at the depths to which George detailed his own personal failures and struggles to win the admiration of the President. The book reveals two sides of Clinton, some good, some bad, and depicts the salesmanship of a staunch liberal democrat - GS. His perspectives on the events were balanced, yet I found he did not use this same fairness when speaking to the issues. There are positive things coming from both parties, yet no credit is given to the Republicans on any of the issues. I found this disheartening considering his ability to point out both Clinton's and his own personal shortfalls. The book is light and reads more like a diary.

Stephanopolous has indeed smacked Clinton hard with this tell-almost-all tome, and his future credibility with employers -- if there is anything to karma -- will suffer. However, given Clinton's staggeringly consistent ability to tell lie after lie after lie, I'm happy to watch a former staffer or two who feels that their time was not well spent by ardently and repeatedly defending a dishonest man.

I am a former campaign staffer and a former administration worker bee -- neither at GS' level -- but his detailing of the trials of those endeavors ring very true, are entertaining, and well crafted. He's a good writer, he's as hard on himself as he is on others (harder, perhaps), and he seems to have written something that the much-vaunted Clinton attack team (that GS once staffed) hasn't been able to knock down. Remember when Robert Reich wrote Locked In The Cabinet? The Clintonites did a great job of tearing apart several of his recollections, casting doubt on his story of a President eager to discard his values.

This hasn't happened here. It probably won't. This rings true. Laced with betrayal, but true.

Nicely done, George.

In a year painfully short of acts of political courage, George Stephanopoulos has provided one. Those reading this book for an "insider's" view of the Clinton White House will find one, but hopefully they will stay for a fascinating journey of self-discovery and growth. It is a rare thing when a public figure is this open, this honest, and this willing to share the hopes, pains, and dilemmas of being a public figure. The book caught, and held my attention. It will do the same for other readers no matter what viewpoints they bring to it. In a parallel that I'm sure was intended by the author, his title "All Too Human" applies to each of the individuals that share this story -- and of the electorate they hope to serve. It raises interesting questions for every voter. What do we expect, and what are we willing to accept from our politicians? How do our expectations mold the political process? Mr. Stephanopolous' book is the type of primary source material that historians in the future will salivate over. It's balanced, readable, and interesting. Let's hope this is not the last we will hear from him as an author.