"The Miller Masks" by Neil D. Isaacs is a good book for people who love short stories, but can also appreciate the fulfillment of a novel. It is also tailor-made for people who wear many hats within their own lives, since the main charcter, Jesse Miller, is many things to many other characters. But above all other roles, Jesse is a storyteller. Issacs reviews five-decades of Miller's life through a series of stories, including a majority told by the central figure, who is also a master storyteller. The tales do not link moment-to-moment, but are instead a collection of chronological episodes that capture the feel and the flavor of the life of the novel's hero. The stories are tragic, bittersweet, pathetic, cerebral, fulfilling, and humorous - sometimes very humorous. Also, it is a story about love which never falls into the traps of become a love story. In the end, Jesse Miller is a character with weaknesses, psychological defenses and self-deprecating humor. This makes him likable and, more importantly, very real to some readers. He is a character many readers will be able to identify with and empathize for.

His last novel, this is typical of those which preceded it. Set in the Highlands of Scotland, it contains a cast typical from the 1920's through to the 1970's: locals struggling with a harsh land and sea, the more able youngsters leaving the community, the rawkous, the well-to-do hunting and fishing set from the South, the effects of economic dependency on them, and the more sympathetic academic visitors. It is an action story, a psychological drama (with some scenes evocative of William Golding's later, more extended treatment in "Pincher Martin"), a detective story, and a social commentary all in one, containing impressionistic character portraits, dry highland mirth, and gripping tragedy. A stong line of metaphysical speculation, pithy philosophical discussion, and acute observation of personal and group dynamics runs through the sub-plots. The title refers to the first of these since he gives more attention to the "other world" and tries to incorporate its "presence" more fully here than he had previously in his earlier works. Whether or not his rather self-concious treatment successfully parallels the celtic story-telling tradition, this doesn't diminish the book's worth.

For those familiar with the Highlands at that time, the book will read like a nostalgic ride into the past given the radical changes which have taken place in the meantime. For those not familiar with the place and the people, it may take more effort to follow the allusion and the impressionistic sketches which he draws (a glossary for non-Scots is missing). The effort is worthwhile if one wants to understand the background to northern Scotland today.

This book feels like sitting with Neil Gunn and sharing a wee dram as he relates the history of whisky and extols its virtues. The reader learns how the manufacturing of good whisky is fundamentally at odds with modern means of production. This is a delightful read and a must for anyone with an interest in whisky, especially Single Malt Whisky. Gunn's writing is fine, though the conversational tone of the book may put off some fans of Gunn's fiction. The beautiful prose of Highland River is replaced by a warm and inviting conversational tone. Highly recommended.

I'm a user of 3D Studio R4, and so I thought that I could easily transfer the lofting skills into 3ds max without too much of a problem. This book, however, doesn't use many of the techniques used in the Inside 3DStudioR4 book by New Riders. It's definitely not for beginning users looking to learn the fundamentals of using 3DSmax. I was disappointed at its learning curve, but I assume if you're comfortable with 3DSmax1, then this book might be for you. If somebody knows a book for 3DSmax2 that is in the same vein as Inside 3DStudio R4, then please email me ;)

Many books on the market will give you step by step instructions how how to create a scene, or create certain effects. Although this is sometimes handy, it doesn't easially allow the user to incorperate the skills they learned into their own work.

Inside 3D Studio Max shows you the concepts behind how the program works, and allows you to apply these concepts, and skills to your own work, rather than a preformatted tutorial. It is this fact, however, that makes the book not extremely useful for modelers who are new to the program. This book often speaks of the manual which ships with 3DS Max, and the writer made it clear that this was not yet ANOTHER MANUAL. Inside 3D Studio Max explores how to expand your ability.

If you have no prior modeling practice, read the manual which ships with Max, then buy this book. If you do that, you will appreciate what is taught in this massive book.

This is an overall GREAT book, and it has really helped me to become a much better 3D artist.

There's a thing common to all classic books: even if you've read one from cover to cover you discover something new every time you open it. Things that you glossed over earlier suddenly start to make sense. This book is no exception. Since 'Inside 3D Studio Rel. 3' the authors have provided an unique insight into the world's most popular 3D programs. This book raises the standard even further, providing enough grip for the novice and a treasure trove of knowledge of the professional. The best thing about this book is the explanation of the PRINCIPLES behind 3D Studio MAX. Instead of the 'do this-screen shot-do that' methodology, the authors have concentrated in the core ideas behind every tool and procedure. If you want MAX to be an extension to your right brain, get this book. Read it all the time. Do the tutorials. Keep referring to it for ideas. You'll discover what you were missing with other books -- the real goods on making MAX dance to your tune.

Many wrox books are great, but this one was a disappointment. As an "classic ASP" developer I found the examples unhelpful and impractical, the information spread out, the request and response object - used constantly in classic ASP - were so poorly explained I still have no idea how they function in ASP.net. I am sure that ASP.NET has many important benefits that make it superior to Classic ASP, but after reading almost 600 pages (!) I feel I do not understand how to achieve the same result I can easily get in Classic ASP. Not recommended.

I wanted to create a simple web application with this book that would allow for authenticated users to add content and allow non-authenticated users to simply view content. The book was perfect for setting up the the database connections, and web forms. The book fell on its face with security. The concepts were included and some examples were included, but there was no information about user roles when using forms based authentication. One feature I think most ASP.Net applications are going to have is authentication so I found it distressing that it was given such incomplete coverage. To get more information you need to look at one of two other Wrox books - Beginning Web Programming with Visual Basic.Net and Visual Studio.Net, or ASP.Net Security. The first book covers mostly the same information as this book, but goes into more detail on security. It too though is not complete. With the inclusion of about five more pages in this book it would have been complete from my viewpoint.

First of all, a good number of my undergraduates like this book as it introduces the bare bones required to get something up and running quite quickly. The downside of the book, from my persusal of it, is that it is less even than it could be, or perhaps should be. In many chapters (especially the crucial early ones) examples are often introduced and developed before their key constructs are properly explained. This is simply confusing to naive readers and highly irritating. For instance, the earliest ASP.net script uses "asp:label" without explaining the syntax or semantics for a another few dozen pages.

Unfortunately this is a bit of trend throughout the book and at the very least makes it frustrating. However, once you allow for this, (and it's a big allowance to make) the book is very handy.

It has bundles of scripts that anyone involved in web work will find interesting and useful. You can quibble with some of these (the login scripting for example) contra other books such as Professional ASP.NET, but I suspect this is a byproduct of committee authorship.

The book is clearly aimed at the learner so don't expect Enterprise quality insights into server management. Given the huge range of architectures and technologies available to the developer, producing any 'true' learner book is a considerable challenge. If you need a book for coursework alone, then this will probably meet most of your needs. If you earn your living with the .NET and its companions, then you need some supplementary texts.

Once again Mr. Anderson ignores the fact that when we have accepted Christ into our lives, he heals all the problem areas in our life.

As a therapist, Neil seems to continue to direct people to his programs and workshops rather than Christ. In acts we start with 11 scared men who only 43 days earlier watched Christ killed. They hid in FEAR of losing their own lives. But once they were blessed with the Holy Spirit, they were transformed into bold, fearless men who carried the message of the gospel until their deaths. Peter, who denied Christ 3 times, healed the sick and performed miracles.

Got a problem with fear...seek Christ, not Neil.

I read this book and will continue to use it as a reference book as I grow in my christianity. This book is clear, concise, very easy to follow and is steeped in scripture and helpful prayers. This book covers all areas of fear and anxiety, including Fear of Death, Fear of Failure, Fear of Man, Panic Disorder, Anxious Thinking and worrying among others. This book points the believer toward Christ through prayer, building up of ones faith, and biblical scripture in an effort to break the stongholds of fear and/or anxiety over his/her life by building a stronghold of faith in Christ.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is dealing with strongholds of anxiety and/or fear.

My husband and I were blessed immeasurably by Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, the youth versions of each, the Steps of Freedom in Christ, and training videos by Freedom in Christ Ministry to help us lead others to WALKING in their freedom in CHRIST.

Neil, his wife and a number of his staff were in my home following a conference sharing how God has blessed them by helping believers realize what they have in Christ. They spent countless amounts of time guiding our church to establish an in/out reach to hurting believers. His books tend to overlap in theme, and repeat Scripture, intentionally. Most flailing believers aren't unaware of Scripture, most haven't processed and accepted the fullness of what Christ has done for them.

Neil's heart isn't to sell books, but to continually share with God's people what Christ has completed for them, so they can simply accept and live in His freedom.

Neil took the challenge to address the difficult issues when a good portion of conservative christendom calously folded their arms and hurled cliches.

Pictures are good and the lucid explanations for the seemingly difficult aspects of the subject are striking points of this book

This book is a good beginner textbook for both Ophthalmology and Neurology residents. It leaves some questions to be answered for those interested in more detail. However, this is what the book is intended for. It is after all a companion book to the full series.

I have been a faithful consumer of Lonely Planet products for the last five years. However, this collection does little more than offer superficial information on every country in Central Europe. If you want to go anywhere besides the capitals and most well-known tourist "traps", forget it. I was particularly dissapointed with the book's treatment of Germany and Switzerland. Very vague, very minimal. If you want to visit any of the countries in Central Europe, buy the Lonely Planet Guide to that country or look for a different publisher. Sorry guys, this one doesn't go in my travel bag.

This book is fantastic. I was amazed at how thorough a book could be. These authors also have a great sense of humor. Lonely is an oxymoron. This book is very comforting. I highly recommend this book.

I purchased this book because I was looking for a leg up with creating data driven web pages with C#. (I found the C# books light on the ASP side.)

This book clearly has some value about ASP.Net using C#, but it should really have been titled Introduction to programming using ASP.Net and C#.

The author spends way too much time educating the reader about topics like how to declare a variable and that SQL means structured query language, and to retrieve data you use the SELECT command. There is actually a whole chapter on what a variable is, and how you declare them. (boring). The first 4 chapters are pretty much useless to anyone but a person learning how to program for the first time.

(note: too many Access database examples..)

That said, there are some valuable topics, and I did get something from the book. There is a pretty good review of Static Class Members and Class relationships. (for those of you moving to Object Oriented programming). Chapters 12 - 17 are really the meat of this book. Covering Database Driven web sites, Server Controls (very valuable), Component building and Debugging/Error Handling.

Bill

The books content on ASP.Net is excellent and provides the reader with a good foundation to start developing on the .Net platform. The range and depth are good for the beginning series that Wrox(The Red Book) puts out. The book progresses so that even a novice web programmer can learn the fundamentals of ASP.NET. However, I was unable to give the book 5 stars due to some lack in details in typos. Even with a few mistakes, (authors are human), the content of the examples is excellent. If you have any problems with an example it's always good to check or post new entries to the book errata section on Wrox's own site. Also, if you are trying to learn all about C# you would be better off purchasing a book that deals only with C#. This book's title gives you exactly what it says and then some.

The best book currently out on the subject as of July, 2002.
has good database access examples.
is generaly very good.

This book collects some of the stranger Spider-Man adventures and features some good stories by famous creators. While not all the stories are great they are mostly solid works.
The first storyline has Spider-Man heading to the Savage Land in order to find the man known as Karl Lykos (formerly Sauron) who is no longer controlled by his pterodactyl-counterpart and wants to lead a lonely life in the Savage Land. But with Spider-Man and Angel mutated into monsters can Ka-Zar save the day? Perhaps, if Lykos is willing to do something no one hope he would do. This story is forgettable but fun. Nothing worth noting really, except it marked the return of Sauron.
The second story has Spider-Man trying to remove his powers but instead gaining four more arms. Taking refuge in Curt Conners lab Spidey runs afoul a new foe: Morbius the Living Vampire! Who is he and what happened to him to make him a vampire. And will Spidey survive when the Lizard shows up? A cool Stan Lee and Roy Thomas written-tale that features a great first act, as well as a great moment in which Spider-Man tries to picture his new life with six-arms. The story slips a bit with the introduction to Morbius but overall is a great Spider-Man tale.
Next is a Howard the Duck tale by Steve Gerber himself, one that will hopefully make you forget about the Howard the Duck movie. This romp features Howard one of the series main characters as he has to acts as a warrior to assist an evil wizard to save his new friends neck. While not the best Howard tale, it does have it's moments as well as some great art in certain points. The introduction of Spider-Man to the story, however, feels really forced.
The last tale has Frank Miller art but is probably the least of the bunch. Still good though. Spider-Man is called upon to save Dr. Strange from a villain who emerges from the team-up of Dr. Doom and Dormammu. But how can Spider-Man succeed where the sorceror supreme has failed?
Overall a good set of obscure Spider-Man stories that's good for trade paperback fans who don't by back issues with good stories.