Horn Book calls this book "a detailed, informative, and readable chronicle" of Chung's life, and I heartily agree. The book is very specific and has a good source of information about various political conventions and issues during Connie's years as a reporter. If the reader is searching for Chung's thoughts, ideas, or emotions during her life however, they will be thoroughly disappointed. Her wedding, probably the most personal event of her life, is briefly mentioned in the sentence "in December 1984, they were married in Connie's New York apartment. " The bottom life here is that the mediocre writing style and reservoir of trivial information about political candidates makes for a sloppy biography.

Synopsis: For the most part, this biography outlines the key achievements and milestones chronically in the life of Connie Chung. Beginning prior to her birth in China, where her parents are born, and continuing forward until about the 1990's when she began to disappear from the public eye.

This handbook is very useful for the purpose of roll-play in the application of theory. As a student of Dr. Chung's I have experinced first hand the usefulness of this practice method. Each of the scenarios were constructed from real situations so they are reality based.Yet each one was choosen carefully so that they are vague enough that any of the major theories and constructs of counseling psychology can be applied to them. It is useful for personal or group interaction in the study and application of various theoretical approaches to counseling clients.

Being a fan of comic book art, video games, and zombies, I figured this graphic novel would be a unique treat... but I have mixed feelings. The art in this book is very nice and interesting, especially in the action sequences. It remains faithful to the game, in that the characters randomly find weapons, ammunition, puzzle keys, and herbs... although this adds to the choppy storytelling. Overall, the story is bland and uninteresting, much of it being told through Claire's non-stop self exposition. If you're a huge fan of the game and comic book art, you will probably enjoy this graphic novel. But, if you are looking to be engaged in a great zombie story you should look elsewhere.

Since the publication of Mitchell, Ye and Wiseman's excellent Shang Han Lun translation, On Cold Damage, this version seems to have lost some of its appeal.

It does, however, have the merits of being much less expensive and much handier in the pharmacy. On Cold Damage's imposing stature makes it more approachable as a textbook than as a clinic manual. This is where Hsu and Peacher can shine.

The translation portion of this book is adequate for the versed practitioner. It would not be as useful to the student, since the terms used are non-standard and not well-defined. Unlike On Cold Damage, this book omits most glosses and textual comments; a loss for the beginner, but one that makes for brevity and better flow. That Pinyin transliteration was not used is disappointing, but this should not be an obstacle for the informed reader.

To its credit, SHL: Wellspring of Chinese Medicine does include some later Japanese commentaries, which serve to cast the original Shang Han Lun text in a different context. Since the Shang Han Lun is such a multi-faceted framework, with many intriguing applications throughout history and into present times, the additional context is a welcome gift.

SHL: A Wellspring of Chinese Medicine is most at home on the counter in the herb pharmacy. It is convenient for quickly verifying specific applications of the Shang Han Lun system in greater depth and detail than is possible using a general formula reference, such as Bensky's or Yeung's. Its low cost and small, softcover format make it a good companion in this setting.

In the editor's introduction to "A Time Far Past," we are encouraged to read this novel as a North Vietnamese perspective on the American Wars. Don't come here for such a story. Le Luu weaves a simple, heroic love story around life of a villager who refusal to submit to the fate of his childhood, arranged marriage. Going off to war to escape his wife, he still lacks the ability to define his sense of self. We watch his late-blooming after many failed relationships through the eyes of a somewhat moralizing and acutely critical narrator whose portrayal of shifting cultural values in Viet Nam is intimate and human. While this experimental, multiperspective narrative is sometimes unconvincing, I found I could not put it down. Among the few novels mentioned in the plot is Jane Eyre. My opinion is that if you like a good romance you will enjoy this.

I must disagree with many of the reviewers here. Certainly the book glosses over many important parts that were worthy of more development. In fact, I am pretty sure that whole chapters of Chung Kuo are sitting in a box in Mr. Wingrove basement because it looks like the editor decided to put an end to this series instead of the author choosing so. Let me tell you that the "suits" makes weird decisions sometimes, whatever the reasons.
Of course, twenty more books could have been written, with more wars and wars. Always more of the same.
I salute the courage of the author to take this direction for the ending of the series. After I have finished the story, I saw the previous books in a new light, thinking back over details that didn't seem important then but were giving hints at Devore and Tuan real signification.
I hope that you will pick up this book (if you find it) and conclude a great sci-fi epic.

Chung Kuo book VIII wraps up the massive series with just the right touch. Too often a series like this ends with a fizzle or a whimper. Wingrove manages to go out with a bang !

Many seem let down by this book, because it is so different from the previous books, but that is the nature of SF, and the mark of a good series. The whole series is about change and growth overcoming artificial controls -- why should the final book cover the same ground as books 1-7 ?

Books 1-6 are about the conflict between 2 groups of humans: those who want to control, and adapt humanity to the strange 'city of levels', a concrete expression of the confucian culture; and those who wish to allow humanity the freedom to grow, change, and live as they like. Within those 2 factions various groups strive to be the ones in control. In story terms we get a lurid, complex historical fiction, set in the future with technology playing a minor role as demon or savior. Basically this story ends with the end of Book 6.

Book 7 is the attempt to translate the same structure from the vertical to the horizontal. The reformers are now in control. But by the end of book 7 it is clear that the reforms have failed.

This sets up book 8, and the amazing job Wingrove does in showing how humanity must change to survive. He weaves it all into the story, but all the terrors under the bed come out and must be dealt with: homosexuality; the idea that one needs to pick or be limited to a specific gender to be human, and worthwhile; sharing of body and mind in a loving manner with others inside or outside of marriage; the need to let go of the the childish crutch of god and the devil to become fully adult beings who take responsibility for who and what they are; the idea that maybe we can be too 'green' and plants may not be our friends; that we are the top of the heap, and have a right to dominion over the earth.

While the series has mostly been dark and violent, the positive ending does work, because it shows the result of the suffering is learning to be an adult species.

Great series! Last book? Nice try to finish a titanic story, and I guess it had to end somehow, but the last 200 pages take some wild gyrations, completely alien to the wonderful Chung Quo universe. These wild plot developments, long with major characters being snuffed out willy nilly, what? dead, just like that? made me think that the author got overwhelmed or over edited. I bet about 300 pages of story were chopped or the author was told to re-write and abbreviate. Where is the rest of the America story? Now don't get me wrong, if you enjoyed the last seven books you must read the finale, but giant spiders? Indeed!! Kan pei!

I looked forward with great anticipation to this book. Koolhaas' "Delirious New York" was a fascinating work, and "S,M,L,XL" was both interesting and a great argument against hard drives. This book was a major disappointment. It doesn't delve very deeply at all into it's subject matter (the Pearl River Delta area of China) and most of it's "important ideas" are sophomoric. I would say the most irritating thing about this book (other than the totally artless and pointless photographs that litter the book) are the code phrases (highlighted in red) that read like a grad student's compendium of inanities. Don't waste your money.

The previous reviewer was disappointed with this volume after reading Koolhaus' books. While the 3 volumes of the Project of the City are under his (loose?) direction, these are actually all anthologies of writings by individuals connected to the Harvard Design School, each book on a separate theme: metropolis (Mutations) shopping (Guide to Shopping) and the Pearl River Valley, this volume. I knew nothing about this region of the world until reading an article in Mutations about it.

Did you know that just one of the cities in this region went from a population of 30,000 to 3.9 million in 15 years? And this growth was accomplished basically without any city planning department? Or that architectural plans for a 40 floor high rise take less than 2 months to complete?

All of the Project on the City books have many similarities, which you can consider a strength (my opinion) or a weakness (previous review). Take a huge subject (PRV, shopping...) provide millions of factoids about it, present those fact in a cacophony of words, graphs, photos (and with Mutations, there is even a CD of avant electronic music). I liked that about S,M.L.XL and I like it in this series. A treatise on architecture and urban planning in the PRV I never would have read. Just too obscure and potentially boring a subject. But after reading and carefully studying all the photos in this book, I'm left with a large, jumbled set of distinct impressions about the PRV, which raise all sorts of questions about the role of architects and planners in developing countries (or in the US, for that matter).

To me the revolutionary things about S.M.L,XL was its insistence that architecture is not best discussed in articles. Even articles with accompanying photos. That is way too static, too two-dimensional a method of transmitting information, and not well suited to how we absorb information in the 21st century. Rem's recent books gives us a cacophony on information simply jumping off the page. The Project on the City books continue those ideas, and I think do a good job of it.

I subtracted a star because of Rem's highly annoying joke of "copyrighting" words that contain key concepts in his writings. This is particularly annoying since some of the writers in this anthology are clearly puzzled by this requirement and lack even the minimal style and humor with which Rem unfurls this trick in his own writing.

This author knows as much about real taoism as peter pan....don't waste your time or money

This little booklet contains a well done translation of two classic Taoist teachings. Unlike the authors other books (original works and translations of classics), these teachings were made for the barely literate Chinese peasent. The language is very simple - on par with what the booklet "The Daily Word" is to Christian teachings. While it's overly simplified teachings may rub some the wrong way, these classic teachings are essential examples of how Taoism was passed on to the common Chinese.

This book is awful! I know the fundamentals of programming in Flash and ASP.NET so regardless, if you are advanced or know the basics this book is still AWFUL!!! Trust me do not buy it! The Poll in the first chapter does not even work. I went to peachpress to find the updates for the book and the Poll sill will not work. The book constantly points to the CD and the CD is missing the files the chapter is pointing to. The Poll.XML on the CD does not match that in the book, I mean come on! This was all before I even got through the 1st chapter! ...

... I am sure that some of these examples worked, but only in the head of the author who authored the chapter. I am so upset about this one; ...

I couldn't agree more with the reviews that have already been posted. This book assumes WAY too much knowledge and leaves large chunks unexplained (like the #include .as files that don't even get a mention...)

The layout is sloppy and poorly thought out - eg they have 2 pages of code and THEN they describe what is happening in the previous 2 pages, requiring you to be costantly flicking back and forth. Simply repeating each line of code with its explanation would have made it so much easier to read (authors should check out "OOP with Actionscript" to see how it SHOULD be done).

The code that is included is full of stuff like

gotoAndPlay("whatever");//used to be gotoAndStop

making it obvious that the author hasn't even bothered to clean up their code before slapping it in the book. When covering a complicated topic like this, having comments that reveal the "mistakes" that the author made along the way is confusing, annoying and inexcusable (not to mention very revealing about the amount of effort [or lack thereof] that went into this book).

Save your money

cheers

I came into reading this book with very little Flash experience. All I'd done was simple timeline based flash movies. I chose to read this book to help get an understanding of Flash's capabilities and how to further the skills I had, enabling me to create dynamic content in my Flash movies.

I thought this book was unique in that it didn't get into the hows and whats of Flash, but straight into some very interesting example code. It also doesn't focus purely on Flash, but integrating flash with web application server products like ColdFusion and ASP.

While I'd never be able to create any of these examples on my own, it was quite cool being able to walk through each code example and see how everything works. Some of the Flash code was a bit hairy to follow, but they did attempt to explain it. Rather than learning what the code meant, I just read the comments stating what the code does and moved on. Unless you're experienced in flash, you won't be able to follow the code line for line. However, wading in example apps above your capabilities is a great place to learn.

Each chapter is a different example application, focusing on a dynamic backend. Some use ASP, some use ColdFusion, etc. So you can pick your middleware of choice and they'll be an example here for you where you can view both the Flash code, as well as the code it interfaces with to achieve dynamic content.

I wouldn't recommend this book as your soul source of Flash instruction, but it is a unique book rich with very usable example code. I didn't learn much Flash actionscript from this book, but I did come out of it with a good understanding of how Flash can be dynamic, using XML to communicate back and forth to your scripting language of choice. If that's what you're after, this might be a good book for you.

I remember this ghastly nightmare from my undergraduate days. It was the only math textbook that I really struggled with. Part of that was probably due to having an inordinately lousy professor, but part of it is because the book reads more like a quick review for people who already know the subject matter than as an actual tool for learning.

As a contrast, check out what people are saying about "A Book of Abstract Algebra" by Pinter -- they're right, THAT is everything a math textbook should be. My class never quite finished it, but I had no trouble reading the later chapters on my own. I still have a copy of Chung's book, but it only has one remotely interesting thing in it that I remember, which was Laplace's calculation of the probability that the sun will rise tomorrow.

Bottom line: if you're unfortunate enough to end up with a professor who is still using Chung's book (I used it in 1997) ... run!