A great read for anyone with an interest in the history of the Bank of the US, or for US history buffs in general. Kaplan explores not only the patterns and general themes of the Bank's development and demise, but also some of the finer points of its history that add character to this intriguing story.

This is one of those books that falls out of print and causes mass panic in graduate student communities as we find ourselves hunting for copies with on-line rare book search engines with no hope for success. Can't find it used when no one will let go of it. Saints be praised, its back. Kaplan's essays 'demonstratives' and 'afterthoughts' are classics and need to be studied by anyone interested in the golden triangle of philosophy (phil. language, mind, and epistemology). Kit Fine's essay on de re modality is excellent, and with articles by Peacocke, Wettstein, Almog, and a host of other friends of Kaplan, no entry will fail to repay serious attention. Do not miss the opportunity to purchase this book.

Mr Villella in this book try really hard to potrait himself like Rocky Balboa, but instead to became a boxer became a dancer. 90% of the book he critizice Mr Balanchine, and at the end declare his eternal love to him, no wonder thanks to Balanchine he have a book out and an artistic directorship in Miami. He repeatedly mention his troubling relantionship with Mr Balanchine because he never like Mr Balanchine's classes, I wonder how the situation with classes in Miami City Ballet?

Although not a literary masterpiece, it is an easy read. It was important historically to write this book. It helped put much into perspective, and documented an impactful life. As a late babyboomer child, I adored watching him dance on television. He made ballet interesting and exciting. I also met him at Illinois Wesleyan University in the late 70s when he was on the speaker's circuit. Now I know why he was lecturing at that time. His openness about his own weaknesses was delivered well without being too specific or tacky. Villella's strengths, however, were very well portrayed. As a long-time fan, it was important for me to see that he grew/integrated into not just a talent, but a good man/husband/father/mentor.

I was so enchanted with the story of Edward Villella's life that I found it impossible to put the book down and it prompted me to write my first review! He not only tells you about an exciting time in ballet of which he was a part of - you also feel each moment with him. His hard work, the competitiveness, the disappointments, his success all flows into a story that leaves you no doubt of the love and passion that he has for dance. It's a fitting ending to know that he's now passing this on to other dancers. I'm just sorry I never saw him dance...

The power of Heschel's influence on the philosophy of Jewish America cannot possibly be underestimated. Dr. Kaplan's valient attempt to analyze and research the life os this great thinker is to be commended. His descriptions of the piety of the man he calls a Prophet, may be distasteful to some of his more liberal admirers, but remains the unadulterated proud truth. For the great liberal thinker and activist never swayed from his religous beleifs. Though considered a leader in the Conservative movement, he remained an Orthodox Jew. Though Kaplan's descriptions of Heschel's father, who was a Chassidic Grand Rabbi and miracle worker are lacking understanding in Spirituality and therefore rather inacurate, which is troublesome to his more knowledgeble Chassidic readers, I eagerly await Volume II, on Heschel's years in America.

Among the American intellectual community, Abraham Joshua Heschel is probably the best known Jewish spiritual leader. of the 20th century. This resulting from his activist stance on the issue of Civil Rights in the early 1960's and his active and vocal opposition to the Vietnam War a bit later. Yet as time goes by ,few Americans,Jewish and gentiles alike are aware of Heschel, the scholar, Heschel the particularistic Jewish activist, and Heschel, the spiritual seeker. This biography throws light on the youth and education of this prophetic figure. We learn about Heschel's Chasidic background, his "royal" lineage, his sojurn in Vilna among secular Jews, his education and activities in Germany as well as his foray into the world of Yiddish poetry, and his scholarly publications.The book is well researched and finely written, with many illustrations. I only feel that those parts dealing with Heschel the Chasidic Jew and Yiddish poet lack some authenticity. The authors seem to go overboard to stress Heschel's ritual observance in Vilna and Berlin, such as strict adherence to the Kosher code ,to the laws of Shaatnez and the like.Its ironic that at the same time that a number of books and articles have recently appeared about the Lubavitcher rebbe's stay in Berlin, subtly questioning his Jewish committment,this book about a future leader of the Conservative Jewish movement maintains Heschel's strict ritual observance in Berlin.All in all this volume is a fascinating portrayal of the life of an East European Jew seeking new horizons and an education in the West, yet never forgetting his roots. It is an important contribution to the study of European Jewish life and thought in the 20th century.

Even if you have intermediate Oracle knowledge, you can easily solve 80% of the "real life" problems in the book. A solid OCP knows almost all in the book. It gives you a basic subset from Oracle manual and adds little in explanation. The problems are routine tasks with no sense of "real life". Probably a reference for junior, but will not help you understand Oracle better. Oracle Online documents are much better.

It did a sloppy work in proof reading. Many scripts are misplaced. You should have a basic grasp of Oracle before using the book for reference.

I found this book extremely useful . I am still a beginner in Oracle and PL/SQL and I have found this book of great help in cases where your boss tells you : I want so and so for tomorrow morning and you don't have a clue of how to do it and you can't swallow an entire Oracle encyclopedia in one day (or night) . You 'll find the answer in the book quickly and easily . For example I was asked to make benchmark tests to compare the speed of SQL Plus and other oracle native tools with ODBC based tools when retrieving data and I didn't know how to measure the elapsed execution time using PL/SQL. Well , I just had to look at the index and see time-related entries , and look at the corresponding pages and I saw how to do it . However ,I can't really judge whether this book will be useful to experienced oracle programmers or not because I am still a beginner .

The Oracle8 How-To is a book which succinctly details the elements of Oracle pragramming. Not since J. B. Guthries' Oracle6.0-- The Next Step has programming in this langauge been justly treated. The authors have given excellent examples that cover everything from command-line macros to programming for networked environments. Also, an overview of the new features of Oracle8 will assist even the most jaded programmer. Never have I enjoyed reading a guide to programming as much. I think it is easy to see the influence of the fresh ideas of the new authors.