I never really liked Newt and I was hoping this book was going to be 200 pages of more reasons to dislike him or at the least more facts to sustain my current dislike of his politics. The tittle sure said to me that that was the focus of the book, unfortunately for me that was not what the book turned out to be. The authors decided to review 1995 and the battles between Newt and the rest of the world on policy. It was interesting and well written but the book Showdown by Drew did a much better job of covering the period of time.

With such a campy title I was looking for a lot of wit and humor and that really was not the strong point of the book. Overall the book lays out the facts in an easy to read way and it is well written, it just did not have the detail to make it the one complete record or the story and it did not have the sharp wit to make it satire.

From all aspects of the political spectrum left and right we should read this book and learn the cost of democracy. Newt Gingrich had a dream to spearhead a Republican Revolution and to bring it about as forcefully as possible. Unfortunately for him his nemisis William Jefferson Clinton knew how to counter him and how to do it well. The writing in this book is honest, and doesn't attempt to take sides. Anyone who truly wants to know why Congressman Gingrich exited from public life, you need not look further.

This book gives a good profile of the major figures of the Republican leadership of the 104th Congress. I have always enjoyed books such as this one, and Bob Woodward's "The Agenda," which give more insight into the personalities of their subjects than you would ever get from TV or newspapers. In the last two chapters in the book, which wonderfully describe the tedium of budget negotiations at the end of 1995, I could definitely feel some of the frustration that this group felt in their impasse with the White House.

This is an excellent book for those who wish to study the original language, and Anglo-Saxon verse. The editor does not include a lot of distracting material, nor are there deep discussions of the theological, allegorical, sociological, etc etc, implications of the poem.

Instead, what you have is a book which has the original text on the left pages, and glosses on right pages. Not 100% of the words are glossed, such as "and". The glosses are all standardized as nom. singular nouns and inf. verbs. This means that the reader should know, or perhaps will learn from reading, the grammar of the language.

A lot of people seem to know about Beowulf, but have no clue what it is. A lot people also consider Old English to be some quaint "high mode" of english, spoken by Knights in Shining Armor.

Some are "forced" to study the poem, in school. And there are those who want to study the poem, for whateve reason.

This book should be useful to all who are interested, or need to be interested.

Hi! I am a freshman in high school. I too, have suffered through countless reading the required books/poetry for Honors English. Beowulf really got my attention. It is a beautiful poem and the language is mellifluous to read aloud. The composer cut out a lot of fluff that many poets thrith on. It was short and to the point, but had strong themes to leave me spellbound afterwards. It is a beautiful epic poem.

Professor Alexander is quite simply the world's greatest authority on Old English Literature, and this edition of Beowulf brings the poem to life. I am not interested in the audio version - David Rintoul may be very good but all he did was read it. The only things to be praised here are the masterful editing skills or Prof. Alexander. All I can say is he must have gone to Oxford University.

I've read about a dozen or so soldier memoirs/diary accounts, and this one ranks as one of the poorest. I find most of these have a generic nature to them - seems like if you've read one, you've read them all! Mr. Holt wrote this in his latter years, so Goodness knows how the years have treated his memory of things, although a fine editing job by Cockrell and Ballard keep things on the straight and narrow. Much of the memoirs involve Holt's escapades that have little to do with the war effort. Lot of it reads like a Mark Twain tale, with Holt often relating some of the hijinks and sit-com like situations he experienced as a soldier.

Holt really conveys the attitudes, feelings, deep convictions, and courage displayed by those who fought in the war. (Not only on the Rebel side, but also on the Yankee side.) He also goes into some of the other reasons besides slavery, that caused the South to secede. Very well written and extremely interesting. It makes you feel as if you're right beside Holt following him as they go down in history. Also shows how life for the Confederate soldier was awfully harsh in the latter part of the war. Holt doesn't have shoes and is walking through snow along with men who are dying of starvation. Holt entertains readers by detailing what he and his group would do for fun, ie., sneaking away from camp to meet girls, etc.

I knew Holt was in the 16th Miss. Co. K. I was hoping it would mention Co. H where my relative fought, but it didn't.

Holt leaves for the war as a boy, but returns a man.

Great book. I highly recommend it.

Holt's memoirs are entertaining as well as informative. This book becomes hard to put down as you read. Very good details of life in the Army of Northern Virginia. He gives the "personal" side of the war so often left out by other memoirs. Reading this book was like having Holt tell you the story himself. Excellent.

I read this book after reading MDA Explained by Anneke Kleppe and found it wandering into many areas but not deep enough in any one of them. While this book is a decent attempt to bring forth the impact of MDA in enterprise computing, a reader looking to understand "what" MDA is and "how it" works would be thoroughly disappointed. MDA Explained is a far more useful (and thinner) book that is not only more readable but also lucid in explanation.

This has got to be one of those books you will see on your computer shelf for years to come. Frankel has taken a seemingly complex topic, model driven architecture, and reduced it to straight-forward explanations written in an easy to understand style. His command of the topic is astounding (as were his contributions to MDA itself)! I highly recommend this book to enterprise architects, senior analysts and IT professional consultants.

This is a seriously good book. If you're at all interested in MDA, get it! Not only does it provide a comprehensive introduction to MDA - with detailed but simple examples, not only does it set MDA squarely in its industry perspective, not only is Part I an excellent overview that stands by itself, not only does it put the discussion in the context of a typical scalable enterprise distributed architecture, not only only is it authoritative, but it's also easy to read!

There are respected practioners in the industry who say that MDA will eventually turn out to be the thing that moves the effort and intellectual property involved in applications away from being embedded in code, and into design - just like in most other industries. In other words, MDA will be the catalyst for a fast evolution to a much higher level of application development - equivalent to the move from Assembler to 3GL (and a few say Assembler direct to 4GL!). Certainly the tools vendors seem to be jumping on the bandwagon, and not just in their hype, but in the MDA capabilities their products are providing. Whatever side you're on, if you want to equip yourself with the facts to better assess MDA, then this is the book to buy.

THis book is very good. Schumache portrays Clapton as a musician and man, nothing going into the cheap way of focusing the book around gossips. Even the subject of Conor's death is treated decently. Also, he gives a good portrait of Eric's band mates along time, all his influences, a brief analysis of each album recorded, etc. It's a shame that Clapton didn't give any personal interviews for the book, that I think is best than Ray Coleman's offical biography.

Amazing reading for thoso who like to read about music and rock. The writer (Michael Schumacher !!! - not the F-1 Champion, of course, hê, hê...) did a stupendous job and I read the book fast as hell.

This biography is indeed very informative. The details on Eric's life are very complete. One can see how Eric's small stature and limited coordination stunted his confidence at the beginning of his music career. In the Yardbirds, Cream, and Blind Faith, Eric was content just to be a part of the band. I especially enjoyed Delaney Bramlett's influence on Eric's vocal development. And of course the Layla stories are always a joy to read. The feelings behind many of Eric's signature songs are a joy to read over and over again.

The only slight drawback in this book is the fact that the author discounts the There's One In Every Crowd CD. Truthfully, I find it an underatted gem. Otherwise, Michael Schumacher does an excellent job.

When they burned down the library at Alexandria, The excuse was if it is in the Koran than we already have it; if it is not, then we do not need it. What was true for them is true for us; if it is not in this book, then we do not need it. Or as Ed McMahon would say on the Johnny Carson Show "everything there is to know is in this book"

I will not give you a blow by blow description of all the features in this book, as it would weigh as much as the book. Let's say it covers everything you need to get off the ground or expand your existing knowledge. One usually overlooked feature that is well covered is [Connecting Using ODBC (with Microsoft Access)]. What I really want to do is tie this back to my Unix applications, as this is the only program I use that is not UNIX at this time. My best guess is that AutoCAD can not afford to keep their UNIX experts. That is no excuse for lack of information in this book. So five stars for coverage of almost everything and minus one for lack of UNIX information.

The book itself is an amazing tool to have at ones side while learning this complex program. However, I see I'm not the only one who had problems with the CD. Most unfortunate as the files that do work are an excellent match with the scripted tutorials.

I have found the book to be an excellent source of information. The only problem I have found is that the CD that comes with the book locks my computer when autorun is turned on, and will not let me access the CD.

If not for its minor typo errors in the text and code, I would have given this book 5 stars.
If you're a bedroom Java programmer like me, then you can repair the code easily. Also the code examples weren't "perfect" implementations of Object Oriented Programming concepts but I believe this was intentional considering the latter would have been an additional layer of complexity and would have detracted from the book's instructional value.

The chapter on Servlets could have been longer by providing simulated web-based transaction (i.e. two-player tic-tac-toe or even against the server, or a simple business transaction using a non-database source -> text file).

The bonus JavaMail chapter was superb! If you excel in AWT/SWING, then you could make a GUI-based e-mail client with this chapter!

In my opinion, the RMI and CORBA chapters could have provided a little background on distributed computing theory. While the book overall is clear and well-organized, those without distributed computing theory background (like me) would have trouble understanding these chapters (i.e. where did the words stub and skeleton come from?) I bought this book for the networking and not the distributed computing chapters, anyway, so don't let my inexperience with distributed computing make this book any less worthwhile.

I'm just being my own opinionated self but I found this book to be truly excellent and personally give it 4.5 stars!

Most of my experience in network programming comes from W. Richard Stevens' "UNIX Network Programming", where there's lots of detail in the TCP/IP protocol, and using C to implement it. At the time, the professor teaching the course tried to provide us with comparable programs in Java, but not having a good Java networking book to consult from was a drawback to those segues.

This book serves as an excellent companion to Stevens' book, so that you can get the feel for how Java accomplishes networking capabilities. I still prefer the TCP/IP detail that Stevens' book provides, but that's mainly because I like the language independent concept of networking.

I created a small client2client messaging applet, sent it to a couple of friends for testing, and enjoyed how quickly and easily it was to get it working. Java abstracts a lot of the detail away from the user, since it was designed from the get-go to include networking capabilities, and this book uses those abstractions to its advantage. I'll probably want to get my hands dirty and see how much hands-on control I can get with Java sometime later.

(Reilly*2)'s book is a great way to just jump into network programming without getting your head too tangled with TCP/IP intricacies. This is not to say that the book doesn't cover those details, but it doesn't delve into them as deeply as Stevens' book does. In my view, that's a drawback to it being an absolute reference, but for many who just want to start developing client/server apps, this may be just what you're looking for.

One of the best books I've purchased.

I bought "Java Network Programming and Distributed Computing" for Sun's Developer certification exam which requires knowledge of the information given in every chapter, for example RMI, sockets, serialization, and threading.

The book progressively gives you information you need to understand how the different protocols work, when, where, why, and how to use them and gives good explanations of its source code examples.

I feel I received more than my money's worth and will be looking for more titles by David Reilly and Michael Reilly.

This book is the first of the Swords Trilogy, part of the Chronicles of Corum, which in turn is part of the Eternal Champions cycle (Michael Moorcock is very prolific!).
The book follows the adventures of Prince Corum, who seeks vengance on those who murdered his family, and destroyed his race, the Vadagh. He finds that his quest is part of a greater struggle; between Law and Chaos, and that mortals are just the pawns of the gods. Along the way, he makes a bargain with a sorcerer, finds true love and confronts the ruler of the first five plane: The Knight of Swords.
Not bad as swords and sorceries go, but the pace is very rushed. Better than Moorcock's Sci-fi stuff though...

The Knight of Swords is a good book. This series is dark, but not as dark as the ELric books. Unlike the albino, Corum is able to find some peace with Rhalina. Of course, knowing Moorcock this will probably be shattered as the series goes on.

This book is what good fantasy is all about. Moorcock's imagination is unlimited, and he has created a huge world in which to set his characters. The depth of his writing is quite admirable.

'The Knight of the Swords' tells of Prince Corum, who is the last living member of his race. He suffers from a burning desire for vengeance on those who killed his family, and his adventures are fraught with danger and more importantly, meaning.

Moorcock is an exceptionally intelligent author, and he juggles the concepts of good and evil with ease, weaving them into a dazzling and complex tapestry. His style of writing might be seen as slightly archaic, but the story is ever-changing, and dynamic enough to capture the reader's interest and hold it.

Normally I dislike "reality TV" sorts of things- I feel as though I'm enjoying other people's misery- but I found this in the book section of a second-hand store (always a good sign) and grabbed it. It's basically a collection of stories of how a group of people spent the years 1965-1975. Despite the fact that these are real people and it's dangerous to use such a small group to make generalizations about a time period, I think I can safely say that it was a lot more action-packed than things are right now (or maybe I just lead an especially boring life). My only complaint was that so many of the stories were about the more popular or well-known students; I would've liked to see what happened to some of the other students. I'm not sure what this book proves, if anything; I get the feeling that there are a few great truths in it, if only I knew where to look. Whatever it is, it's a great read.

Written in 1975, What Really Happened to the Class of '65 is a compilation of interviews with 30 members of the 1965 graduating class of Palisades High School. Most of those in question grew up in very affluent households and most of them, in the course of their interviews, seem to have an almost astounding ignorance of the fact that their teenage lives were hardly the norm. However, that's not a major problem or concern. Instead, what makes this book interesting is seeing just how much time has changed -- both in the ten years between their graduation and the book's publication and, even more so, in the decades after the book came out. On the whole, everybody in the book represents a certain type -- popular jerk, pretty boy, quarterback, nerd, bully, cheerleader, ect. However, in the course of some remarkably candid interviews, they're all given a chance to establish their own unique, for-the-most-part fairly likeable individual indentities. Reading it made me wonder what was really going on in the heads of those people I knew in high school who I simply assumed were bullies or jocks or cheerleaders or geeks and nothing else? It actually made me want to get in touch with people I barely knew just to find out who they were now.

Most of the interviewees share in common an amazement at how much times had changed between their high school graduation and 1975. All of them, for the most part, are quick to point out that they're now totally different (read: better) people. Most of them, as well, sound like almost stereotypical creatures of '70s -- i.e., the quarterback becomes a bisexual, new age minister, quite a few have made fortunes of their own but still proudly wear their hair long and seem to believe they were personally responsible for ending Viet Nam and forcing Nixon to resign. While reading, I found myself wondering what happened to these folks once the '80s hit, much less the '90s. On the whole, you could imagine most of them probably voted for Carter in '76 and then spent the next decade pursuing the same basic life styles that they seem so quick to attack their parents for doing. Its a shame that Medved and Wallechinsky didn't follow-up on these people in 1985 and 1995. (Though Wallechinsky did write a sequel on his own, for some reason he decided to interview a new batch of people!) Of course, the most interesting change to be found amongst the people profiled is that of co-author Michael Medved. In the book, he almost practically boasts of how, once in college, he dedicated all of his time to "liberal politics." (Though, of course, he doesn't mention it, he was a friend to Clintons while at Yale.) Of course now, Medved is better known as one of the most outspokenly right-wing film critics out there. Many will enjoy this book for the nostalgia but for me, it'll always be wonderful proof that nothing -- be it your politics, your bank account, the length of you hair, or whatever else -- is ever as permanent as you might think.

The mid 60's was a very confusing time in the 20th century. Drugs were a new experience to be tried, the Vietnam War was about to reach its peak, and the new activity was rebelling against the older generation. This book tells about what it was like and how each person lived in those times. But it also relates the people and their stories to generations after it.

The authors interviewed 30 people ten years after their graduation from Palisades High School in 1965. The interviewees are examples of every extreme; the quarterback and head cheerleader, the gang leader, the surfer, the intellectual and everyone in between. Interviews are not held in the usual question/answer form, but instead are written like a lecture or story as told by the interviewed person. This minimizes breaks and gives the reader a better feeling for each character so that by the end, you WILL feel as if you know all 30 of them.

Each interview is different and similar in their own ways. Most male interviews mention avoiding the draft to fight in the War. Most women comment on their views of the housewife, and everyone mentions drug use. But in the same ways that they are similar, I found them to be different as well. A few found religion in their travels, while others only found poverty. Many of the stories are surprising, and a few are just as you would assume such a person would be 10 years later. But no matter what the outcome, they are all entertaining (except for Jamie Kelso's, but you can find that out when you read the book).

This book gives an interesting, but true take on life. Those who were bound to fail end up succeeding, and those with the 4.0 GPA wind up owning a farm. It will give you a refreshed feeling after reading and most likely, make you curious as to the fates of those you once knew in school.