Much of the data, SAT scores and other info, was at least a year or two out-of-date. The preface stated the SAT scores would all be on the newly recentered scale, but were not.The narratives are often not changed much, if any, from year-to-year, so how up-to-date are they?The weighting system for evaluation favors Princeton U. strengths, so Princeton U. came out as best overall undergraduate experience (no surprise for Princeton grad editors!!) And, the book devotes as much space to schools of 500 as it does to schools of 50,000! There is a huge amount of variation between the academic experience of a P.E. major and a nuclear physics major at these big schools, and I'm sure one number rating for academic quality cannot do justice to both. But the book gives a good overall flavor, and I hope (presume) the numbers are overall reasonably accurate. If they gave one overall rating and publicized it, this would be more cited, I believe, than the U.S NEWS survey.

Of the 6 guides we used in our college search, we found this to be the most complete and useful with unbiased information about academics, quality of life and admissions. The Fiske Guide to Colleges was probably the second most informative.

I thought that this book was perfect!! I've seen others of its kind and there is no comparison because it offers how the students view the school

I enjoyed this story, read the next book in the series and have ordered the third. However, I have never in my life read a book that had so many glaring spelling, grammar and other editing errors. It's as if an early draft was accidentally printed or, if this was a final, it was proofed by a not very well-trained chimpanzee. There are errors on almost every page. It's very distracting. If you can ignore that and finish the book, the second book has fewer appalling editing failures. The protagonist in this series is a rather fascinating character - interesting enough to make me curious to read his continuing adventures.

If you like the ancient Rome centered mystery novels of Lindsey Davis, John Robert Maddox, and Steven Saylor and want to try a different locale, read "One for Sorrow". It takes place in sixth-century Byzantium and takes place in the streets, docks, cisterns, and Great Palace. Scenes occur at the Hippodrome, the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), and even atop a column with a stylite. While this ancient capital is officially Christian, Mithraism and Egyptian religions influence the tale. Details of life in the capital of the Eastern Empire include references to Kollyba, Liquamen, and even an early type of organ, the Hydra.

The hero is John the Eunuch, once a mercenary but now Lord Chamberlain in Justinian's court who seeks to solve the murder of the Keeper of the Plate. Bodies turn up and John seeks to find the answer that ties together a soothsayer, a red headed knight from Britain, and the victims while protecting his former lover (from before the incident that gave him the appellation) and daughter.

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer provide a great detective story set in a different time and place. The copy I read from Poisoned Pen Press was crisply printed with a very readable type setting. It includes a small map of Byzantium and ends with an 8 page glossary (in case you don't know who Zeuxippos was).

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer's One For Sorrow kicks off one of the most entertaining, thought-provoking new mystery series I've read in a long time. It takes place in 6th Century Byzantium, is rich with period detail and character. The main character, John the Eunuch, is the Emperor's chief advisor, a job that requires intelligence, tact and guile; many a chief advisor for the Roman emperor has had his head removed from his body for not accommodating his boss.

The second in the series, Two For Joy, is a treat as well. You don't have to be a fan of historical mysteries to like this book or this series. (I'm not, in particular). You just have to like well-written mysteries with terrific plots, even better characters and a depth of texture and detail that makes many, many other novels seem anemic by comparison.

Thumbing through Hammel and Lane's book one initially suspects that the pictures are the story. Contrary to this first impression, the book is an excellent telling of the battle for Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll. Augmented by literally hundreds of top quality combat photos the tale flows in a most easily understood fashion. The narrative recreates the action as it occurred on each beachhead and follows it along until a logical point occurs before switching to another beachhead. Progressing along the three initial beachheads the reader follows the action of individual men, squads, and remnants of platoons and companies fighting for a toehold. The confusion that occurred on all the landing zones is told in a most understandable manner. The slaughter caused by the low tide and the reef surrounding the island is well presented.

The maps, placed in front of the book preceding the text, are excellent. The book's weakness lays in its lack of a significant discussion of planning, strategy and the then existing conditions in the Pacific. Tarawa played a key roll in the future invasions of the Marshalls, the Marianas and beyond. This was the first time an amphibious assault was made against a well-defended and contested beachhead. It also marked the turning point for amphibious assaults in that the LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tracked) were used for the first time as troop carriers instead of merely supply vehicles. As Admiral Hill stated, "...this operation was going to be a textbook for future operations." Although mentioned frequently in the text, the index contains no listing for the LVTs. Considering their all-important role, this is puzzling to this reviewer.

Having had a member of my family in the battle it was a outstanding adventure in the Best of Our Nation's Youth and the United States Marine Corps. The graphic pictures matched the historical and well researched commentary. I found that I could not read for long periods of time because of all of what was going on took time to digest and reflect on. You felt that you were crossing the lagoon along with the young Marines and you could almost here the action. There was courage on both sides and the book was fair as to that point. It truly gave a face to the savage nature, relentless, and cruel reality of this Pacific island invasion.

I found myself wondering about the faith and courage that were these young men. To keep their sanity and wits about them was truly remarkable. I also found myself wondering if this could be done again in our time. If the courage and singleness of purpose would be here today? It left me with a large amount of respect for the accomplishment of these men. We owe them our freedom and our sincere thanks.

Using newly uncovered archival photographs of the bloody battle for Betio Island, Eric Hammel and John Lane put the reader in the middle of the action. From the agonizing wade into the beach, up to the last neutralized pillbox, "Bloody Tarawa" is a fine update of a classic on this legendary campaign.

This book is good for people who have minimal experience with VB.NET and ASP.NET. It's very easy to read and understand and find what you need. With little background of VB.NET and ASP.NET, you will be able to write your first database driven web applications. This book is good as a starting point on the subject matter. The book goes through the items in short simple to understand paragraphs.

For experienced developers, you may want to skip the first two chapters. Chapter 2 gives an overview of realational database, how to use the database to retrieve and store the data. Chapter 3 covers methods for connecting to several different data source such as SQL Server, Excel, and XML. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 have lots of examples in reading and displaying the data using Data Reader and Data Set objects. All the examples in the book use Data Grid control for displaying the data. Later in the book, it discusses ways of using the data grid control for creating,inserting, editing, and deleting records. I tried several of the examples in the book and they worked fine. That is one thing I have come to like about the WROX press books is their examples are very understandable and easy to learn from.

Also, the experienced developer who is interested in learning the subject matter may find many other sections in the book boring because they will go through material they already know. It would be very nice to see a book such as this that can cover the subject for people who are already experienced as developers.

This book is well written and has the information that a junior programmer can use on his/her first programming language and the VB.NET/ASP.NET fundamentals for the experienced programmer to get a first look. ---Reviewed by Michael S.

This is a great book which covers most of technique to write an ASP.Net web application using VB.Net for database access. All the examples are quite easy to follow and understand. I highly recommend to any person who wants to learn and build web application.

Accessing databases and datastores via the internet is becoming commonplace today. This book gives developers the fundamentals of what databases are, how to connect to them with ADO.NET, how to access/manipulate the database information and, especially, how to present it in meaningful ways using ASP.NET controls and VB.NET. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to grow beyond static-content web pages and begin development of data-driven web applications.

Written by a team of 10 professionals with different areas of expertise, this book provides a solid foundation for creating web applications that rely on creating, modifying, and displaying information accessed from an SQL database, although the source can be any data repository that has an OLEDB or ODBC driver written for it. Filled with many rich examples, both in the text and in the hands-on exercises, the authors go beyond the "this is the code you need to insert" paradigm and explain what each section of code is doing, reinforcing lessons learned from earlier examples as necessary. The exercises can either be typed in or run from source downloaded from the WROX Press website, both are error-free. The book is full of tips and best-practice methodologies, with an entire chapter devoted to performance considerations. The exercises were tested on students in a school lab and common mistakes are presented in a section of each chapter. WROX Press also has multiple levels of support available to those who need it. The book finally culminates in a "real world" online-auction application that covers all the bases and gives comprehensive substance to the theory and examples previously presented. ---Reveiwed by William S.

If the authors are right about how they defined 'empowerment' and the three essential keys for achieving true empowerment, then leaders, managers, and employees of all organizations should read, discuss, and decide to apply this easy-to-read book's lessons. I am convinced this book has the potential to lead organizations to unheard of levels of effectiveness and productivity.

In typical Ken Blanchard fashion, the authors taught their important lessons through a logical and believable fictional story based on their years of research and experience. The story "guides readers step-by-step through one manager's struggle to discover the three essential keys to empowerment. By following the manager's odyssey to the Land of Empowerment, readers discover that they can take the same journey, which, like any heroic journey, is filled with paradox, challenge, and fitful stops and starts."

The authors defined empowerment as not giving power to people, but releasing the knowledge, experience, and motivation they already have. They then identified and explained the three essential keys for achieving true empowerment:
1.Share information with everyone
2.Create autonomy through boundaries
3.Replace hierarchical thinking with self-managed teams
These simple definitions are deceptively powerful when teamed with patience and persistence. I found the title of this book was most appropriate.

From my experience, the term 'empowerment' is frequently spoken, largely misunderstood, and rarely applied to its maximum extent. This book took the mystery out of the concept of empowerment and left me with a great appreciation for what true empowerment is and how it can be achieved. I am excited about what it could release in me and others who read it.

The author of The One Minute Manager switches gears and tells you not to manage your employees minute-by-minute. Instead, Ken Blanchard, along with John P. Carlos, and Alan Randolph, advocates and explains the notion of empowerment - giving your employees the information and authority to act and make decisions on their own, within a structured set of organizational goals and values. Presented as the story of a turnaround manager getting tutored by an empowerment mentor, the book establishes the fundamentals of the (now ubiquitous) theory of empowerment in a conversational and enjoyable style. We [...] recommend this quick, informative read, which will expand your management horizons in only a few short minutes.

If you are a new manager or a manager with outdated skills, this novel little book will have an absolutely positive impact if you follow the simple three keys to success. The book is based on a story of a real or contrived (who knows) manager and his adventure in discovering the importance of empowerment and why his technics have failed with his employees. Within the first week of reading this book, I used one of the exercises that was recommended. This simple exercise showed me that my employees are infact on track to becoming empowered. If your employees are struggling to complete everyday work because of a motivational problem instead of an ability problem, this book will show you how to get your team to respond. After you read this book, you may discover that the problem is supervisory and not employee related. However, this read gave me ideas of how to correct both!

If you don't have any security background then this book is a good place to start. Be ready, however, for most of the links to be out of date (the book was published in 2002). This can be circumvented by a little help from Google to find the utilities you need for the exercises. There are also a few inaccuracies in the syntax provided. These can be resolved with help from "man" (i.e. 'man ipchains') or the help for the particular utility.

I really liked this book. I liked how it did not just inform you about these tools but actually had you use them to gain understanding. Any good systems/network admin should be familier with the tools in this book. Both UNIX and Windows admins will gain great experiance and understanding of their systems weaknesses.
I have read many books on "hacking" and security and this one is the only one that actually has you use these tools.
It is setup in a very easy to follow and understand format. This book is a must for EVERY Admin, not just for preparing you for a test. Even if you never take a security exam, this book will give you great intro and experience with the use of the tools described.

The GIAC Certification: Security Essentials Toolkit (GSEC) is an excellent reference to use for the SANS GSEC certification.

The book is quite different from most other, if not all certification prep guides. Rather than simply provide the reader with reference material and acronyms to memorize, the book has exercises that the reader uses for their preparation.

Each chapter has a separate hands-on exercise that is used to solidify the knowledge required for the exam. The exercises are well laid-out and organized, and proceed in a methodical way.

The only think I personally did not like about the book was its size, it is 11 x 8.5''. I found it to be cumbersome at times to use.

But its main point, content, is first rate. Anyone planning on obtaining GSEC certification should definitely invest the money- in the GIAC Certification: Security Essentials Toolkit, it is well worth it.

Fop Flop In the most elegant apparel Nothing but worm silks In the finest golden thread And superior king red velvet sashes

You'd think I would have known better? I couldn't blame them who wouldn't? cut air with scissors while sewing their needles into invisible cloth for the very low price of..... silk a loom golden thread a full bag of coins Oh those Villain Scoundrels! Now, I know not to buy such vestments with rather large investments Oh what a bratty gnatty I was For I thought I was cool but truly a fool Why emperor you look rather bare, that's quite rare! I was in such a pursuit For only a birthday suit I must admit now Me, My very own self yes indeed, your emperor himself have become a stupid and incompetent dandy All for the Imaginary Image! and now I live happily ever after, no more garb well, that is until the next apparel discovery (Now if you'll excuse me there's a clothier waiting at my door who says he's created the latest design in Pajama attire)

Generally, I do not care for audio books; many of the readers speak in a dull voice that rapidly drives me either away from the story or to sleep. However, there are a few exceptions; this is one.

Understand, that this is not the normal audio book; this edtion has a large cast of actors who collaborated to produce this item as a fund raiser for Starbright.

The result is an ensemble piece that is witty and charming. Part of the fun for me, was guessing who was reading before looking at the cast list included in the box.

Other folks feel that this isn't for children; I don't know as I don't have children, but I found that my "inner child" was highly entertained for 40 minutes with this tape.

If you are a fan of one or more of the actors in this edition or like puns (there are many here!), then you will probably like the Starbright edtion of the Emporer's New Clothes.

I had been given 2 of these books from a friend and I decided to see if there were anymore. My son loves this book. He's now working on reading the adult side. It's a great idea to have a page each, 1 for the adult and 1 for the child. We have several of these books now and I see my son sitting down and reading them on his own.

Vegan or carnivore, people are impressed with and love food prepared from these recipes. Sophisticated and complex, the dishes cover the globe in style. When I first bought this book I became frustrated, being unused to saucing my dishes and not having both blender and food processor. The time consuming procedures and multiplicity of steps were daunting and it sat on my shelf for a year. I went back to it when I started entertaining and, renovation of my kitchen complete, found that I could indeed handle the recipes. Some of the dishes are out of my range either because I don't have the means for smoking food or because in my rural Mid-Atlantic community there is not a farmer's market with the types of produce that San Francisco enjoys. I am, however, all about the culinary philosophy that undergirds this book, and many of the recipes have been fantastic. It is apparent that it was written in a restaurant kitchen but nevertheless it makes for superb holiday or entertaining meals. Big hits have been the Latin-style Torte with Plantains and Tofu, the Filo-Wrapped Spring Rolls, the Hot and Sour Soup (which is Vietnamese in style), and the Pureed Root Vegetables.

I first heard that the folks at Millennium were working on a cookbook over a year and a half ago, and I've waited impatiently until now. The results fully exceeded my (high) expectations -- the layout and photography are beautiful and all of the recipes I desire are there, including the divine (and surprisingly easy) plantain-cilantro torte. This should completely dispel the myth that vegetarianism necessitates asceticism and the corollary that animal products are necessary to create tasty food or even a decadent dining experience (ask my friends who've tasted the pumpkin cake with chocolate-hazelnut ganache). A good set of cookware and a craving for challenge are indispensable, however.

Some of the recipes are indeed quite complex -- even daunting in the sheer number of cross-references -- but making and serving them is pure joy, and the intermediary steps can be extracted for use in simpler dishes. The range of dishes is good, and the "Basics" section is very cool. Altogether, a nice counterpoint to the Green's style of egg & cheese laden vegetarian cooking.

Buy this book and throw a dinner party for a group of omnivorous foodies- then tell them no animals were abused in the process - they will be amazed. I'm devoting the year before the calendar millennium to mastering the entire collection of recipes - one Sunday dinner at a time.

The layout of the book was lovely and crisp -- nice photos,roomy margins for notes.

The recipes are delicious and since thereare few vegan cookbook collections out there, vegans will LOVE it! For entertaining or more elaborate menus it's a real treat!

For the average cook or the average palate -- it's going to be hit or miss. I would not suggest this book to a new vegetarian or a non-vegetarian trying to incoporate a few vegetarian meals a week into their diet. For them I'd point to 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes by Sue Spitler or The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook by Mary McDougall, John A., M.D. McDougall

Most of the recipes in Millenium rely heavily on fresh, quality ingredients and herbs and spices that will be difficult to find in a "regular" grocery. If they are there, they might not be fresh, because they don't sell as often in a regular store and this will affect the resulting dish. Ingredients that sit on the shelf gathering dust and losing flavor, particularly herbs and spices that these recipes rely on, are NOT going to yield tasty results.

While vegans/vegetarians with experience shopping at other places will have no problem, the average person will be a little puzzled as to where to find shiitake, miso, tofu, anise, fennel, nutritional yeast, Rice Dream, etc.

The busy person will also not have time to deal with making these recipes -- they require more effort, skill, time. Those with more experience will find the recipes easy to follow, those who work primarly from cans, pre-made mixes, and 5 or less ingredients might find the recipes daunting and they might find cooking gourmet fare from scratch a challenge.

While the rewards are delicious, this isn't the cookbook I'd head to on a tiring Monday night after work!

The recipes are also generous with 6-8 servings -- in my 2 person family, it's too much food for us. You can expect to have to adjust the numbers if you are a small family.

Overall I think it was a wonderful book, and a welcome addition to my collection. I'd still put it towards the "advanced" end of the spectrum though.

Disney Mouseworks seems to be moving to smaller books and it looks like the end of the line of the Disney Classics series. The new Read-Aloud Storybooks are shorter (by about 20 pages) and smaller (by an inch here and there). That's too bad for those of us who have been collecting the old series. The paper is nicer and the artwork is very good, though, so it's not a total loss.

The Edgar Rice Burroughs books are full of suspense, a perfect bedtime story. The best thing is that many (if not all of them) can be downloaded from from Project Gutenberg. Try reading the first one, Tarzan of the Apes, to your child as a serial bedtime story. They'll be begging to go to bed.

This version of Disney's Tarzan is clearly written and has accurate drawings true to the film's content. Rarely do you find a smaler version of the big books so well presented.

"Blood Wolf" is a slightly gory book about the second son of a king who has died. The older son feels that the best way to protect the throne, which is already rightfully his, is to kill his younger brother.

The book is loosely set in a Medieval wintertime, though not historically so. Included in the cast of characters are a shapeshifter and a goddess.

While "Blood Wolf" is a bit gruesome for my adult tastes, I can see many a teen liking this tale.

To the young adult who does enjoy this book, in addition may I respectfully suggest Stephen King's "The Eyes of the Dragon." It's longer, but it's a very good story that you might just love!

This book has a lot of blood, but there's other stuff too like blood, and also blood. There's truth to it too, like evil kings with unjust rules and laws. I really liked it because the main character was strong but human. The end was totaly fiction and totaly unique. The bad guys got what they deserved to say the least.I rated it four stars because it wasn't perfect. This book was a real thriller.Pennsylvania

Although this book had a lot of blood, it had a lot of other stuff too, like blood, and more blood. There was some truth to it though, like the part when the king wanted his brother dead so he could not be overthrown. The end is totaly fiction. He should have just given into the godess. Although the story wouldn't have been half as good because there would be no justace for him. Even though hois enemys did succeed they also failed. They failed more than they succeeded.The book was a real Thriller.