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This book is really written for the sophisticated child or for an adult. If you recall your Mother Goose rhymes, you will laugh at the various outcomes, the strange actions that the dog takes.
"She poured him a cup
Of holiday cheer
But when she looked up
He was riding a deer".
Not a reindeer, but a deer. This fractured version of the ordinary nursery rhyme caused my seven year old granddaughter to constantly giggle, but my young grandson (only three years' old), was constantly asking, "Why is the dog blue?" and "Why are the Christmas Trees blue?" Certainly, this book was not addressed to someone so young, but it is difficult to read a book and exclude any of the near by children.
I only assigned three stars, because this book is a little too cute and a little too sophisticated, and aimed, I think, more at the adults who listen when the book is read aloud. Perhaps I prefer my trees the traditional green...
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Bill Pronzini's contribution is a tragic (and rather predictable) little story set in Glen Park and the Mission. Dashiell Hammet's 1928 Continental Op story, "Fly Paper" is the longest, and perhaps best fiction in the book. Hildegarde Teilhet's "Demon in the Belfry," which recounts a savage double murder that occurred in 1895 is interesting reportage, but pales next to Oscar Lewis' 1924 true crime article, "The Phosphorescent Bride." His retelling of a famous murder and legal battle is the most engrossing bit of writing in the collection. Joe Gores contributes an early story from 1966, in which two hipsters decide to go witness an execution at San Quentin for kicks. It's an effectively creepy story, but not as evocative of the city as one of his DKA stories (which are collected in the volume Stakeout on Page Street) would have been.
The editors note that Jim Thompson's story "Ironside", is one of his few that has fallen out of print. However, after reading it here, one can understand why as it exhibits a few of the harsh sentences he excelled at, but none of the coherence. Scenes from the 1958 film Vertigo are included, and although one may concede that Alfred Hitchcock "made" the movie, it's nonetheless irritating that the actual authors of the screenplay which is being excerpted, Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor, are buried. Ambrose Bierce's Poe-inspired ghost story is a decent inclusion, but Mark Twain's brief ghost piece is not. Marcia Muller's "Deceptions" is a so-so story set amidst the city's elite and the Golden Gate Bridge. The excerpt from Mabel Maney's "The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse" is atrocious, while those from Gloria White's "Murder on the Run" and John Lantigua's "Heat Lightning" are more interesting, especially the latter, whose action is set in the Mission.
On the whole, the collection is a very mixed bag, one I found rather disappointing. There's no real sense of the city to be gained from it, nor was I introduced to any outstanding talent I wasn't familiar with. Oh well, I guess I'll stick it in the guest bedroom.
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First of all, there is nothing advanced in this book! Each chapter tries to cover one aspect/tech with 75% basic features. The other 25% usually is sample codes which you may not be interested at all.
There are many chapters which should not be in this book. For example, the chapter covers "Visual C++ with SQL server" is full of ODBC API functions, nothing specific about SQL Server 7. Another chapter for "Microsoft COM/DCOM" is nothing but a bad whitepaper for COM/DCOM. You can get a lot better idea of COM/DCOM by reading the white paper by Don Box. And the list goes on...
This book has 13 authors - 1 from Canada, 1 from Australia, the other 11 are from at least 9 states of US! I don't think it's possible for readers to expect a consistent style/content from a book like this.
It does cover, or tries to cover, "integrating SQL Server 7 with VB, Transact-SQL, Visual C++, Visual InterDev, legacy system data from Oracle, Sybase, and Access", as stated by the editor/authors. With 30 pages on each topic, full of basic features/introduction, maybe a couple of tricks, it does not "offer depth and breadth of coverage not found in any other book on the market" (as stated by editor/authors) at all!
I believe the only usage, if any, of this book is for beginners to get an idea of some of the technologies people are using with SQL Server.
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