Cooks' Illustrated, surely, is many things to many people. I like to think of them as cooking for the hard-core geeks; they slice and dice recipes as well as vegetables, and work the kinks out of them to make what is at least their idea of the best possible version of a meal. To the geek chef, their books are the technical flip side of the theoretical work of Alton Brown, Shirley Corriher, and Harold McGee.

Don't pick this book up thinking that you're going to get someone's Italian nonna's sunday gravy recipe; that's what the Sopranos Family Cookbook is for. This is very technical stuff that involves stripping the great recipes down to their bare essentials and rebuilding them from the ground up. Sacred cows of Italian cuisine, as in everything else they do, are scrutinized very carefully, and slaughtered as often as not. Only the most basic definition of the dish is taken for granted. The end result is sometimes minimalist; the Baked Ziti recipe, for example, has no ricotta in it and is almost vegetarian. The end result is a dizzying book that should be on the shelf of anyone who likes to cook Italian. Finally, the frequent sidebars on cooking equipment, a Cooks Illustrated staple, offer deep background on the techniques in the recipes.

Now with raves like that, why only 4 stars, you might be asking? Well, it's not perfect. The Best Recipe series presents itself as a bible of cooking, and it's not; glaring omissions in this book include meat lasagna (though the big bragging point on the dust jacket is the vegetable lasagna recipe) and cannoli. There is also a tendency to repeat articles from earlier books, an understandable but occasionally annoying situation that tends to leave the reader feeling as though the magazine people are trying to cut corners. And the appeal of this book isn't universal; the Cooks Illustrated style is, as I said, very technical, and a bit chatty at times. If you just want the recipes and don't care about the particulars, this book will bore you. Me, I like cookbooks I can read, so this isn't a problem.

So, in conclusion, I say this: if you like chomping data as much as you like chomping food, this book will rock your world. If not, the recipes are still pretty good.

The Best Recipe series have outdone themselves. This is the best one yet.(I am partial to cooking american-italian food at home). This illustrates great recipes that are tasty and user friendly. I especially love the risotto cakes. This book goes beyound recipes and teaches one about techniques and what to do or not to do. THIS IS A GREAT LAST MINUTE GIFT FOR THE NOVICE CHEF TO THE AVID COOK FOR THE HOLIDAYS OR ANY OCCASION. Definately a keeper if you like italian cooking.

Italian Classics is easy to understand and has great tips on everything from balsamic vinegar to meatballs. It makes cooking simple and fun. The recipes also include tricks the pros use as well as home style cooking techniques. It is a great addition to any food lovers library.

A few years ago I became interested in the difficulties in the former Yugoslavia--now Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and a few other entities. After reading a number of contemporary works about the causes of past and current conflicts in the Balkans, I decided none of the authors agreed on every point or many points for that matter, and most seemed a bit biased in their reporting and interpretation of events, probably owing to their inability to attend to the terrible events of the last century and not choose sides.

THE EARLY MEDIEVAL BALKANS is the most objective work available about what really happened all those years ago when the Byzantine Empire ruled what is now known as the Balkans, and Serbs, Croatians, Ottoman Turks, and others migrated and/or invaded and settled the area the Italian Romans called Illyria.

The book is part of a two-part work covering the Middle Ages in the Balkans. Part I THE EARLY MEDIEVAL BALKANS includes a critical survey of the area from the Sixth to the late Twelfth Century. Part II THE LATE MEDIEVAL BALKANS covers the period from the late Twelfth Century until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in the 14th Century. Fine was a Professor of History at the University of Michigan for a number of years, and his work is incredibly scholarly. He has been considered the leading expert in the world on this topic by his colleagues.

I came away from the work with two impressions. The first is that the various ethnic groups who inhabited or invaded the Balkans (and there were so many one loses count after awhile as they migrate or remigrate over and over) were so thoroughly mixed during the Middle Ages that the indigenous tribe, whatever that was, must have disappeared thousands of years ago. The second fact I deduced from Dr. Fine's work is that most if not all the animosity between groups today probably has a basis in religious conflict. Given that the three major religions involved -- Roman Catholic, Orthodox Serb, and Muslim advocate love as an organizing principle, one has to wonder what went wrong.

I gave this book 4 stars because it is difficult to read. For a more "fun" read try the series on Byzantium by J.J.Norwich.

I am from Bosnia, of mixed ethnic origins, and after 7 years of exile, I had only faint memories of the history classes dedicated to the Middle Ages (in the 6th grade). This book refreshed my memory, brought a part my past back to me, and helped clear up some misconceptions. It makes me very happy to own it!

This book is a great book for teachers. I learned a lot through it. And I know you will too.

As an elementary teacher and college math methods instructor, I have found this book to be an excellent resource for teaching children math in an engaging, meaningful way. The author includes lots of examples of useful activities for all areas of mathematics. A book I'll use over and over in the years to come...

'Fly-Tying Techniques and Patterns' is a wonderful book for beginners; its progression through concepts, tools, materials, basics, and fly patterns is perfect for a first timer. I found the step-by-step color photographs extremely usful and easy to follow, and I love the tips for beginners! All in all, I found 'Fly-Tying Techniques and Patterns (The Complete Fly Fisherman)' well worth my time and money!

This book has only come to my attention in the past week or so and as a Trout Fly Tying Instructor at our local Evening college it has proven a great hit amonst my Students. Some of the comments passed are, "Life cycle section" is clear consise and as comprehensive as a book of this size can be. "Materials and Tools" this section is clean clear and precise in its coverage of the subject and its photography. "The steps to tying and the tying sections" are also of a high standard or presentation with the unusual use of a dark background to highlight the subect. Followed by the individual sections for Nymphs Wets and Drys etc The layout of this Publication has obviously had a lot of thought and effort put into it and its Authors shuld be congratulated on a job welldone

What to do on those nights when only one player can play? This module is one of my all-time favorite casual diversions - it's a nasty, espionage-oriented gauntlet for a single player "facing off" with the DM. Even better, there's two different adventures, so after you victimize your friend, they can turn the tables and show you just what it's like to be a lone PC struggling for survival! A wonderful workout that will quickly improve your play skills, or wash you out, for thieves.

This module is unique since it is not only a two-part story but it is also geared towards having the Dungeonmaster and Player switch roles. The module is meant to be used with a pregenerated character, and in places reads like an Endless Quest book from TSR. Also, realize that it is meant for one player only. I bought this module on Ebay and was pleased with the content. I was able to modify the module for use with my campaign and the playing character who is a Rouge. The module is focused on a thief/rouge character who is blackmailed into taking on a mission to steal a staff and a gem. It's colorful, and there is ample opportunity for hack-n-slash as well as much needed role-playing and thinking encounters. If you can find a copy, check it out. You won't be disappointed.

This is a beautiful book of lovely photographs and tempting recipies. Great for summer parties & cook outs. Mango and guava are my favorites & there are wonderful recipies for these in the book. Could also be used as a "Coffee Table" Book because of the attractive photography.

Van Aken is lauded by the likes of Emeril Lagasse as being a true pioneer in a new cuisine which fuses American-Caribbean-Pacific Rim foods into exciting new taste combos.

Significant in this cuisine is the use of tropical fruit, so Van Aken has been experimenting. Here we garner the fruits of his research on fruits, with this guide. He also prepared the colorful posters which one can obtain, deatialing the two categories of tropical and sub-tropical varieties.

This is from a series of such works put out by Ten-Speed Press, one of my personal favorite cookbook pubs. They do Trotters, et al. This is another of their fine "The Great ... series," also I enjoy their one on pears and am awaiting the one on mangoes. They go through all the types and then provide recipes, here on drinks and salsas, and desserts, etc.

Fine reference work for those of us who like to find exotic, different components to cook with. This and his wonderful cookbook "New World Cuisine" will get a workout at my kitchen.

This book is published in association with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands and the National Gallery in London. It is accompanied by a small booklet that tells the story of his life and features some of his many pictures. This is not your typical pop-up book since "Van Gogh's House" opens up into a circular four-room house. The furniture from his pictures have been transformed into 3-D pop-ups ("Van Gogh's Chair" for example). In order to bring his house to life one can play with punch-out figures that depict Van Gogh and his friends ("Joseph Roulin" for example). It is also up to you to decorate the house with Van Gogh's flowers ("Vase of Irises" for example) and his pictures. The book is approx. 4"x5" and folded out it becomes twice the size. For older children it is a unique and playful introduction to this great painter. I like it because it brings together my love for pop-up books and Van Gogh.

This book is quite charming. As reported in a previous review, the little package one receives is approximately 4" by 5". A pocket on one side contains six punch-out characters, a few punch-out items (incl. vases of flowers, pictures and a pitcher) to be placed in the rooms, and a 32-page booklet about Van Gogh and his paintings. The other side contains the pop-up book, which one opens completely so that the covers touch each other, thus making a carousel of a four-room house -- kitchen, bedroom, study and living room. You can change the pictures that are hanging or place a new work on the easel, etc.

This is a lovely item, obviously assembled by and for those who share an affection for this complex painter.

I somehow finished this book because I felt challenged but I couldn't tell you one fact about any person described in this book with certainty. True, their names were alike, but the author jumps from one Duchess, Countess, Princess, Queen in the same paragraph and you can't tell who he is talking about. There was certainly research done, and I applaud that, but I still don't know who was what, when, or where. There were at least 10 people mentioned on every page, half with the same names so you just have to laugh and do the best you can.

I thought the author did a remarkable job of writing about so many princesses and queens. I didn't find it hard to read at all and for those who did the family tree was very clear, all you had to do was turn back a few pages.
I was very impressed and delighted by the amount of information you recieved without making it dry. One of my favorite books.
Definately buy this book because you'll never see other books on some of these Queens. When was the last time anyone saw a biography on Queen Adelaide?
If you liked this book you should read Victoria's daughters to pick up where this one left off by Jerold M. Packard.

I have read many royal biographies and no one has as good a feel for them as this author. In this book he takes on the much overlooked wives, sisters, and daughters of the Georges. He brings these nebulous princesses to life changing them from background shadows to real people. The women are every bit as interesting as their royal brothers. I had always heard about the much pitied Royal Nunnery as the daughters of George the III were called. Those that married, did so fairly late in life, and those that didn't certainly seemed to do quite alot of living as soon as they were out of their parents' sight. There were many other brave, eccentric and/or scandalous women in the family and Van der Kiste does his best to describe them all.

This is NOT a book for beginners who wish to learn JSP/servlets and EJBs and the techniques of J2EE. On the other hand, if you already have some knowledge with these techniques, the book may help to improve your background of J2EE and its components.

1.The strong points of the book are:

- the book does a wonderful job in explaining different key points of J2EE techniques especially at the beginning of each chapter; although the discussion sometimes becomes pretty vague and less clear at the end.

- the book's code examples use j2sdkee1.2.1, orion and jboss which are available for you free with unlimited time.

- the book looks quite impressive, 1600 plus pp. hardcovered.

2.The weak points of the book:

- all the code examples are fairly easy. In fact, too easy to do much help to the readers who need a better workout to pay attention to some key points of the techniques.

- Since only half of the book is devoted to really J2ee techniques, people who already experienced with jsp/servlet may find the other half of the book unecessary.

In conclusion, you may want to check this book out if you alread know jsp/servlet and j2ee( through the Sun's tutorials and examples and wish to have a better understand of this popular but pretty complex technique.

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.

This book is one the most comprehensive ones that I've bought. It provides you with most of the possible technologies that you could use in a basic J2EE application. I love the section on the J2EE architecture. For newbies I typcially request that they read that section first. It does justice to basic topics like JDBC & Servlets & tag libraries, and the concepts about them. As well as introduces EJBs and other technologies. I am a long time java developer and I use it as a constant reference. Great job WROX!

For undergraduates in the physical sciences (Physics, Astronomy, Engineering, Computer Science, Math, and Chemistry), this book is great. If someone has a good math background in Trig and Calculus they should be able to understand almost everything. Where I think it may fail is in its application for undergraduates in the Life Sciences (Biology, possibly Psychology if they are hard-core enough to take a physics class). Half of all science majors are Biology majors, and it's not fair that they have to read the same text that physical science undergraduates read. Most biology programs do not require trigonometry to be taken, so a biology major will quickly be lost reading this book.

Also, life scientists like me can easily figure out things like optics, but are very confused by the terminology of Physics. For example, in Biology a "cell membrane" is a very understandable term. It's the protein-lipid bilayer that surrounds a cell and is semi-permeable to small molecules. It's common sense---anyone can understand it. But in physics, the terminology in this text is anything but common-sense. I will give you two examples. First they define torque as "the moment-arm of rotation about an axis". I understand rotation about an axis, but what the heck is a "moment arm"? Define that please! Second, they define magnetism as the flux force through a charged area. I understand charges, areas, but flux force? This is why lay people and life scientists hate physics, because the terminology is deliberately arcane. Don't just define the terms, explain them!

Being familiar with other texts by Hecht, Halliday-Resnick-Walker, and Giancoli, Serway gives a far superior explanation of physics and its applications. I used this book in highschool for AP Physics and greatly miss it while stuck with Halliday-Resnick-Walker(A book supposedly good enough to be used at Harvard). Serway's Physics for Scientists and Engineers is a definite must for any Engineering, Math, or Physical Science major.

Most of us engineering students started physics in high school, which is algebra based. Then we go onto college and the physics classes there use calculus. Now unless you are a math and physics super student, then you should probably buy this book. To me, it seems to just give enough calculus. Some other books - the one used in my school for example, gives too much calculus and confuse the heck out of me. But this book puts concepts as the number one priority, and caculus as the secondary priority. Once the concepts are conveyed to the reader, the calculus seems to fit onto the concepts kind of naturally almost. I like that approach, plus the fact that the author can really explain things really well makes this a great book for all students struggling in college level calculus based physics classes.