I really thought that the story about cheating, "The Test", was a valuable lesson for all students, regardless of faith. The structure and craftsmanship was equisite. Over all, I am tiring of this series but have alot of hope for it now. Well done, Ms. Ayers and Canfield/Hansen of course.
Once again, this series has made an outstanding contribution to the lives of people everywhere. In these troubled times, it is truly a blessing that this thoughtful volume has been provided for Christian teens everywhere.
The reason why this series has struck such a chord with readers across generations is the feeling of authenticity it generates within readers. My only criticism is that some of the stories sometimes seem a bit formulaic. A striking exception is found in the story "The Test", which involves the dilemma of a student who cheats on a school exam. The narrative pulls off the rare combination of being impecably written while still ringing true with its audience. As someone who works with young people on a regular basis, I know it will inspire my students for years to come. Thank you.

I never write reviews, but everyone needs to know how wonderful and what an impact this book can have on a person. I am not a very religious person, but I picked up this book and found, that being religious or not had nothing to do with enjoying and appreciating this book. I LOVED IT and could relate so much thank you KIMBERLY KIRBERGER, once again.

The minute I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. As an reader of the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul series I was blown away by this particular book. I found it inspiring and moving, making me laugh and even cry. I recommend it to any teenager who wants to feel more connected to Christianity and regain their sense of faith.

Many mergers, acquisitions and alliances fail due to lack of preparation before, lack of care during, or lack of focus after the deal. Joining Forces is a sober, to-the-point manual directed at business leaders who want to provoke successful combinations, as well as managers and employees who have to deal with the burdens, both mental and physical, of combinations. For the past decade, corporate America has embraced M&A - often with mixed results - and the consolidation pace seems to be accelerating. But too few people inside and outside of the companies involved understand what the combination process means or how it should be handled. Organizations must be willing to focus on the psychological impacts of a combination on their employees. Joining Forces provides a rough sketch of how this can be accomplished - minus any unnecessary strategic details or legalese. We [...] recommend this book to executives, managers and employees at every level - all of whom probably will have to face the realities of corporate consolidation some day.

In 1998, Marks/Mirvis and Clemente/Greenspan set the M&A world on its head with two very different yet equally groundbreaking books. The former pair's pioneering guide focused on preparing for the transition, team building, and identifying psychological barriers, while the latter duo revealed the secrets behind successfully combining cultures, strategies and processes in their timeless classic-- Winning at M&A. I've read them both many times -before, -during and -after each of my firm's acquisitions, and while new copy-cats and rip-offs continue to be published, no books as effectively walk the reader through the problems, their detailed solutions, and most importantly -- the real-life examples that offer step-by-step guidance on how to succeed. Deals fail all the time and these authors explain why and what they've done to turn failure into success. After each read, the information is still fresh, relevant and insightful. Virtually every other book on the subject is either fluff, history, or a cheap imitation. This is the real deal.

Marks and Mirvis are veterans of the merger battlefield and report the action extremely well. The book is filled with examples and approaches to resolving some of the most common problems encountered when two firms integrate. The other plus about the book is its heavy emphasis on the people and cultural issues that so often get ignored in most corporate combinations.

This is undoubtedly an ambitious book, covering some of the most complicated (and neglected) topics in the world of Linux programming. Unfortunately, it suffers from some critical defects.

The first two chapters are the obligatory redundant recycling of Linux fundamentals that are the hallmark of lazy authors. Face it: if you don't know what emacs or a shell is, you shouldn't be reading this book; if this is the best opening you can come up with, you shouldn't be writing it.

The authors fail to cover their subjects in sufficient depth. Sockets receive a scant five pages and the examples only treat UNIX domain sockets. Who the hell cares about UNIX domain sockets? Why are there no examples of multi-threaded Internet domain socket servers?

To be fair, the coverage of the linux-specific material is decent, but doesn't justify the price tag. Bottom line: this is a good introduction to the subject of threads and Linux technicals, but will leave you needing more. Go to your favorite bookstore, get a cup of coffee and spend half of an afternoon reading the book in the store and saving yourself ...

As some other reviewers had mentioned, do not be intimitated by the "advanced" word in the title. The book goes through a lot of more advanced aspect of Linux programming, especially towards the end, but it gives such a good introduction to linux beginners and have such nice pace throughout the book that any newbie would become totally familiar with linux programming after finished reading this text.

First section: Getting started. If you've ever written program in Linux, you'd be familiar with things in this section. It acts as a good reference to things like using GCC, makefile, GNU debugger, etc.

Second 3 and 4 dive into processes and thread. The author spend decent amoung of time explainning the differences between the two, and how both of them work internally. Fork() system(), exec() pthread_create() and other functions are covered in details. The author also give enough word on how to clean things up.

Some system calls are discussed, as well as how linux interacts with devices (/dev) and the /proc directory. Security was given a full chapter in the book. Sure there could have been more on writing secured codes, but it really is out of the scope of this book.

The author gives simple examples as he progresses, and there's one big example at the end that would give you a extremely clear idea how all the things mentioned in the book can be integrated. The GNU http server is one of the best example I'd seen in programming books.

This book is one of the best written Linux programming book.

This book was a pleasant surprise. Not 700-1000 pages, but just above 300 pages and packed with information and small workable c-examples. I was walked through creating basic applications, shared & static libraries, sockets, pipes and security, forks/threads and detailed expamples on synchronization mechanisms. The book also guides you through creation of a relatively simple web server with plugin-modules. Quite fun !

So in addition to discover how typical intermediate/advanced programming tasks were handled in Linux I also learned a lot more on how the system works.

No shell programming here - only C. Keep your Linux box close by when reading!

Many of the stories in this book are distasteful. I would not recomend this book to anyone.

This is a wonderful book. Once I started it, I didn't want to put it down. I love a format of vignettes (short essays or stories). If you aren't a Christian, you may think these stories are too churchy or just can't be real. But if you ARE a Christian, you know exactly how the power of God carries us through everyday life. The theme of this book touches the soul of Christian women. Stories are either told by a woman of faith, or are about a woman of faith. Both men and women share real incidences from their life, covering nearly every scenario imaginable. The horrible: death, cancer, physical disfigurements, abuse, divorce. And the glorious: miraculous healings, new love, the wonder of children, God's protective hand. Though quite varied in content, each story testifies to God's grace, strength, and abundant love. The Chicken Soup people have outdone themselves with this uplifting collection to warm and heal the soul of the Christian woman. Blessings to them. And blessings to you from the MenopauseLady. Donna Rogers, author The Menopause Survival Guide.

We are blessed to have yet another collection of amazing stories to read and to share. Also of note is the tone of the book which is gentle and lovingly points the reader to draw their own conclusions - there is absolutely no offensive preachyness here! I would highly recommend this as a great gift or to read yourself! Thanks again to the Chicken Soup Team - you have done it again!

~The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a fascinating and adventurous book about a boy named Tom Sawyer. He has a major crush on a girl called Becky Thacker. In this book, Tom goes to an island with two of his friends, attends their own funeral, and look for treasure! Tom sees Injun Joe a killer with treasure. He wants it, but his only clue where Injun Joe hid it is that it has something to do with number 2. Tom is now lost in a cave all alone with Becky. Can he find his way out of the cave and~~ the way to the treasure? I agree with Mark Twain's decisions and ideas. I believe that I would be doing the same thing if I were in his position. His decisions are able to happen; yet The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is such a good book. I would recommend this book to people who like adventurous books, and likes classics. It leaves you at so many cliffhangers that you can help but read all of it at once, for the people who like cliffhangers.~

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of the best books I have ever read. The language,the thinking,the adventures-all of it was just incredible and enjoyable. The only thing this book needs is more pages! Mark Twain's skill in writing has created a book that all ages should read (or have it read to).Mark Twain reactivates the life and actions of a boy in the mid-1800's,and showed me that kids should be who they are- not what they will be. This is a classic for every generation to read and enjoy.

Mark Twain's,The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, tells about a boy loving and living his life to the fullest. Tom Sawyer is the kid that the world has seemed to forgotten. He is the kid who always get in trouble but continues to have fun with life. In this book, Tom does everything from being engaged, to watching his own funeral, to witnessing a [death] and finding treasure. Twain's creative character finds fun everywhere in his little town in Missouri, as do his friends. The storyline is basic, but it is a piece of the past that everyone should hold on to.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, I learned mainly two things. The first thing I learned was that you can make life fun with just about anything if you use your imagination. Life is too short and precious to be wasted. I also learned that where you least expect it [help or protection], you might just get it. This book was just amazing-filled with unique characters, exciting events, and how a town can pull together to help those in need.

Set on the 19th century river banks of Mark's Twain hometown, the Adventures of Tom Sawyer takes you on the raft ride of your life. It is starts by a synopsis of the character of Tom and his friends, by cataloging a few of the queer things that they involved themselves in. Nonetheless as the story unfolds it deepens into a more serious nature. Tom and his friend Huck witness a murder. Moff Potter the town drunk, is accused of the crime and only Tom and Huck can save him. However, they fear that the real killer Injun Joe,will exact his vengeance on them. The story ends in the last scene with a dark rendition of finalty in the cave with wild Injun Joe. Tom and Huck end up rich with more than a dollar a day for the rest of their life.. " More than a body can handle".. This is a truly a remarkable book and a must for every young boy. It is filled with laughter, suspense and cheer for those of all ages and gender..But don't think it ends there.. Just wait till you read the adventures of Huck Finn!

In terms of sheer facts, this book has them all. What is missing is any sense of what attractions are best for what age kid or any tips on how to manage your times in the park. Since the guide is official, the idea is that everything is perfect. I love Disney World - and agree it's a great family vacation place - but I could have used more guidance and fewer factoids.

This book gets you very excited about your trip to Walt Disney World. It has many "hot tips" on when the less crowded times are, also you find out things the "uninformed" person would not know about WDW, like the "e-ticket" and the best times to visit your favorite rides. It can truly make your vacation the most magical experience of your life! On the down side, Birnbaum's books are the "official guide books" of WDW and they tend to have a positive outlook on everything, like the hotels and food. Our family found the food overpriced and tasted the same at practically every restaurant we ate at! It over glamourized the hotels also. But I would recommend this book for first time Disney visitors, It is very helpful.

I alaways look forward to the summer weather becasue that is when I know it is time to go to Disney World. I have been getting this book for the past 10 years. I was 12 when I got my first guide. I have been to Disney WOrld 16 times, and I can't get enough.

This book is amazing.. If you want tips, and hints, and behind the scene things this is the best place to get it! It takes you though the "world" telling you about places to eat, and what rides have lines when, and hints. This is a great book for those who have a family or travel alone. It will help you with planning out your trip. One thing that I thought was great was the hint in the books about the monorail! You'll have to get the book to see what I mean! But it's worth it!

They have lots of pictures, and lots of information. I HIGHLY suggest this book for disney fans, and personally everytime I get a new one. i can't wait to walk thru the turnstyle into the magic kingdom. I love that disney air!

thank you :)

I was prepared to love this book, based on the reviews posted so far and my general love of travel and books about other cultures. While it is written well, I found it disappointing - the characters weren't fully drawn, the situations weren't interesting - overall, it just didn't grab me. And it's a lot of money for such a slim volume. If you want a good read about buying a house in Italy and adjusting to life there, try Extra Virgin instead.

The book was enjoyable. I would have loved for it to be a little longer. Some topics or stories could have been expounded on longer. I also read "Extra Virgin ... " by Annie Hawes and it sounds like Maremma is close to the small town she wrote about. From the description of the house, it sounds like it turned out to be gorgeous, they sould have included a picture of some of the decor of the house. I enjoy reading this genre of books, please keep them coming. I will be reading "Pasquale's Nose: Idle Days in an Italian Town" by Michael Rips soon.

Two US writers conclude their charming account of life in a non- chic Tuscan town with the insight that though they moved there "... to capture a dream less of Italy than of being foreigners in Italy, figures in a Forster novel," they have become Tuscans despite maddening bureaucracy and cravings for peanut butter. One wishes for a map, farmhouse remodeling photos, and observations on how they are viewed as an apparently gay couple.

I mostly agreed with Eric Ma. There are some areas that Wrox needs to review the whole process of publishing Java-related books. Here are some drawbacks that I can draw from reading recent Java-related books:

(1) Repeated Contents: Materials about Servlet, JSP, EJB, JNDI, JDBC, XML, etc are repeated over and over many books. This could waste time, money, and papers for both Wrox and readers.

(2)Books or Articles?: I asked myself: is Wrox publishing books or articles? Each book is written by many authors and the book's flow is inconsistent. The assessment that it is not a book but a collection of articles may partially true. It is true that a book if written by a team of authors could speed up the process of releasing it, but if Wrox editors and coordinators have to do their better jobs.

I suggest that Wrox should review its strategy of publishing books to avoid the repeating of materials over and over and thus bring down the cost associated with publishing the books. The final result is: readers and publisher will both save time and money. Otherwise, readers will loose their belief with Wrox.

For the past 2 years Wrox has been publishing books dedicated to Windows-based data access (ADO etc.), but the same cannot be said about their Java/database collection. Although you find chapters on JDBC scattered all-over almost all server-side Java related books by Wrox, there was no single volume from them that teaches JDBC first, and then show how it is used by the newer dependent technologies, until this book arrived. After looking through this book, I must say the authors and editors have done a rather commendable job.

Why do I make the above conclusion? Let me give you my general impression of the book first. A theme repeated in several of my recent reviews on books from Wrox is about the problem in coherence associated with multi-author books. Well, having more than a dozen of authors for a single book seems to be a fact of life (for books from Wrox at least) now, as the publication cycle gets shorter. I was rather surprised to find out that the organization and coherence is very good in this book, i.e., there is very little overlap among chapters. Also, this books uses JDBC cleverly to tie other pieces of J2EE together, making smooth transitions from one chapter to another. If you want to know, this factor alone prompted me to add an extra star to the overall rating of the book.

Let's now run down the chapters of this book quickly. The first 115 pages deals object-oriented and database modeling, and can be skipped by any "Professional" developer. Then after your obligatory intro to JDBC API, the next chapter covers the JDBC 2.0 optional package. This is the best treatment of this topic I have seen. Then another chapter is all about SQLJ, another first. The effort of having a chapter on database performance should be lauded, where connection pooling, prepared statements and stored procedures usage are demoed. The reminder of the book is about applying JDBC in various J2EE components, such as JSP, servlets, EJB, JMS, and XML. For this part of the book, even though I accept the fact the proper stage has to be set for each one of them, I still don't believe the book found the right balance between focusing on JDBC and showing what these other technologies are about. A large number of pages are used to teach basic JNDI, servlets, JSP's, and EJB's stuff (remember there is already a book on J2EE from Wrox!). Therefore, it is up to the reader to discover the real nuggets of gold hidden in this pile, which are far and in between in places. I found that some critical issues are not highlighted or details are lacking, such as how to use connection pooling/data sources in servlets, JSP's, and EJB's, the threading issues related to sharing database connections, and good database practices in BMP EJB's. However, the one thing I cannot complain about is that the book did not forget to teach the transaction aspect of EJB with a good depth (there is a short ans sweet chapter on using JTA/JTS inside EJB). There is also a chapter on the brand-new JDO framework, even though the spec is still in a state of flux. Finally, there are 4 case study chapters in the book - although the design and implementation are limited in scope and as a whole those samples do not teach all you need to do know about enterprise scale J2EE system development, they do provide a flavor of how JDBC is used in real world, together with setting up Tomcat, JRun, Orion, and WebLogic to access MS SQL Server and Oracle databases.

Now my overall take of this book. For VB/SQL and pure back-end PL/SQL developers who are eager to jump on the Java express train and need a suitable platform (especially for the ones who learn best from playing with actual code), I recommend this book as one of several you should own. Compared to other JDBC books from say O'Reilly and Sun's JDBC Tutorial, this book is the most up-to-date, contains the most source code, and has the broadest coverage of related topics. But keep in mind some of the advanced topics such as EJB and JMS can be intimidating for new-comers. On the other side of the coin, people who are advanced in various server-side Java technologies are unlikely to benefit a great deal from this book and should look elsewhere for info (for example Wrox's J2EE and upcoming EJB titles).

I'd be kinder with the stars if the title were "Learn Database Administration using SQL-DMO". But I am already clear about that. The only reason I went with 3 was that some of the scripts are indeed useful. But what I was looking for was a good succint overview of SQL-DMO. Rather than focus on the SQL-DMO object model and how best to employ it, the book is a series of tasks DBA's might typically want to accomplish with example code. What I needed was answers to how do you know to use such and such method over some other alternative. Or even a discussion on the pros and cons of techniques employed woud have been more helpful.

I had to do some SQL DMO scripting and could not figure out how to do it using MDSN, so I purchased Wrox's book and found it to be merely a re-write of online docs.

Then I discovered this book and was so overjoyed to find some authors who had actually taken the time to write useful code samples and to go well beyond where MSDN leaves off.

Their code is very well laid out and designed. They have taken the time and care to turn out a quality product.

I work in several Microsoft languages and have needed to explore VB.NET just like all the others. Ever since PDC I have been programming in C# as much as I can and have explored VB.NET so make sure that anything non-specific to C# can be accomplished in VB.NET. I also read books for recomendation to others. This book is not one that I will recommend. Not because VB.NET is less of a programming language, but because this book does not cover the amount or topics needed, IMO. A super sound knowledge of OOP is needed because it's maditory in VB.NET. You can not get away from this and you need to understand this first. This book covers these topics so minimally that you don't really have any real-world application and looks sort of like someone explaining the Impliments keyword in VB6. My recommendation is to NOT get this book. And if you are determined to go to VB.NET then please get a book dedicated to OOD (Object Orientated Design) and/or OOP (Object Orientated Programming). The last few chapters are interesting but so high level that it's difficult to get full understanding of how to really use the material. I rated this book a 2 instead of a 3 because of the lack of meat on OOD and OOP. The syntax is there, but the knowledge is just not expressed to where you know why or when.

This book was not meant to teach VB.NET. It gives a very nice overview of the new VB.NET. You have to be a very experience VB developer to rip the benefits out of this book. Chapter 5 explained OOP and how it works in VB.NET. I expect when Wrox writes VB.NET OOP or VB.NET Professional, it will delve deeper in the concepts of OOP. So far this is the only book I’ve read that explains VB.NET and how it works with the .NET Framework.

Overall, this book is for experience VB developer who is not looking for VB training but the changes and how to deal with them. Good Book.

I was very skeptical of this book, as WROX has dropped the ball before, with their "intermediate" type books.

Fortunately, this book did a nice job of presenting the new concepts, that we all have to look forward to, and backing them up with concrete examples of how we will have to change our current "code thought" to make them work.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of discussion about some of the larger issues that may present themselves in .NET, like late-binding not being supported; however, all in all, the book covered most other "rumors" that I had heard, and questioned.

One other plus, was the coverage of Object Oriented Programming with VB.NET. Having never programmed C, I was glad to see a good deal of attention given to explaining concepts like "encapsulation" and "inheritance", which I, for the most part was unfamiliar.

I'm very pleased with this book, and have recommended it to several co-workers, who also purchased it and were happy with it. It's a good buy, and it's good preparation material, for what's to come.