John David Webb presents an excellent overview of how images and communications processes play a major role in either enabling or disabling a congregation. That is to say, that symbols create symbol systems which create a communication story. The positive or negative nature of these symbol systems and these commication stories plays a defining role in a congregation's ability to thrive, regardless of external conditions. A very useful book for persons seeking to help their congregation become missionally effective.

Baseball Almanac ([website]) has the most extensive collection of All-Star related data on the Internet. This book has even more! Incredible research, great sources, tons of data, and an annex that by itself is worth the price of the book. Four stars instead of five due to a few inconsistencies between the rosters, lineups, & boxscores, but a must have resource for the hardcore baseball fan interested in our Midsummer Classic.

This book presents each All-Star game (1933-2000) with textual background, box score, rosters & starting lineups, complete play-by-play, and a photo or two. The book has great reference value. The text, though, is fairly wooden : useful but gracelessly flat - a real disappointment considering the colorful and often dramatic subject matter. Still, a highly recommended purchase for all baseball fans, not just historians.

I collect baseball reference books and this one is right on the shelf closest to my desk by my Total Baseball, my Baseball Encyclopedia and my Baseball Biographical Encylopedia. It contains wonderful leaderboards of all-star information and play-by-play of every all-star game. For instance, the area describing Pete Rose's mad dash home to win the game has the full inning summary: Torre grounds out, Clemente grounds out, Rose singles, Grabarkewitz singles (Rose to 2nd) and Hickman singles (Rose scores). Every inning of every All-Star game has this level of detail. Nowhere else is this information available.

My only complaint is the lack of pictures. While it kept the cost of production down, it does seem to be a feature you would want to have.

This book is alright, but it does not take into consideration all OS's on which the code might be running (xp users beware on the globalization chapter) and some of the end of chapter questions don't even seem to be based on data discussed in the chapter. That all being said, there aren't many other options exam prep books for 70-306 and this one is at least easy to follow along with although I don't think it is in depth enough for the exam.

I just passed 70-306. I attribute a great deal of my success to this book. It's comprehensive and nicely organized to help you build and retain what you need to know. They use a number of techniques to help you retain knowledge: Each chapter references what certification objective is being covered. There are frequent "Exam Watch" reminders - a one-sentence summary of a key point. Each chapter ends with around 10 test questions followed by well-done explanations on the right and wrong answers. Also, each chapter has a "two-minute drill" of key points and "Lab Questions". Many chapters have good code exercises, some, of which, are on the included CD, for those too lazy to type in the code. In addition the CD has a bunch of test questions that can be used many times as they are randomly generated. All these techniques give one a handful of ways to re-enforce the material.
I agree with other reviewers that several chapters were not up to the standards of the rest of the book. The material is covered but not quite as good as most of the book - obviously done by different authors that the editor failed to make consistent. Also the test questions on the CD were not as tough as what I found on the actual test. Luckily, after conquering this book I signed up for the MeasureUp web site pretest questions. The combination worked very well for me; proof being I passed.
Despite these criticisms I highly recommend this book to get the bulk of knowledge you need. Once you've conquered its material then use something like MeasureUp to fine-tune what you need to know. Overall, I was very pleased. As a point of reference, I'm a moderately experienced programmer, having worked with a number of languages over the years but am not strong on VB.

A good book overall considering the amount of information covered. It does cover just about everything needed for the test. Most of the book is well written with hands-on exercise, chapter quizzes, and chapter summaries. The sample exam on the accompanying CD is a nice bonus.

A couple chapters seem to be clunky and thrown together. These chapters point to the accompanying CD for source code examples instead of listing them in the book like all other chapters. These same chapters seem not to offer much in the way of hands on exercises. Unfortunately these seem to be the more difficult topics. Fortunately these are only a couple out of over 20 chapters.

If you work with VB.NET, then this book might be all you need to pass the 70-306.

If you do not have much hand on experience with VB.NET you will find that you need to supplement your studying.

If you just want to learn VB.NET then this is not the book for you.

A fictitious account of the year that Sparky Lyle operated the Yankees. It spoofs the first fifteen years of the Steinbrenner era. That's why it's dated. Steinbrenner was well known for ignoring his baseball people back then, and doing boneheaded things like trading Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps. It's funny because, his intentions to the contrary, Lyle likewise ignores his baseball people in the book. I think he ends up with six left-handed hitting first basemen.

Sparky has a unique talent for mixing fiction with real sports figures.I passed this book around to my friends and we all enjoyed it!

Not only was he a great closer for the New York Yankees, Sparky Lyle spins the most hilarious yarn that I have ever read.

For baseball fans, especially Yankee fans which I am not, this is a must-read. Rarely do I laugh out loud when I'm reading, but Sparky made me chuckle throughout the entire read.

I'm waiting for Sparky's second fiction to come out.

The author has a good many illustrations and history of masonry heating systems. I was slightly disappointed with the cover being the only color picture. The number of words, the history, and the well written form - make this book worth reading. I am sure it will give you new ideas about masonry heating.

I homeschool my children, and in order for them to grasp information, the presentation needs to be more exciting. I think there should be better illustrations in the book and I wish it was easier to read for the average child. All the historical information is there in the book. If one lacked a better book this would suffice.