This is a great book.

When I first saw this book I thought it seemed too basic. It starts out with pitch and moves on to rhythm. These are things I know about, I play piano. But soon, as I was reading the book, I found easy to understand discussions of Mixylodian Modes and I-V-vi-IV-V-I chord progressions. Its lucid explanations of tough concepts make this an easy 5 stars. A great book for beginners to music theory (like me).

This book is technically competent, but goes right past the two most important factors; if you are developing XML, then you will probably be using Java, and that if you are developing applications (even with XML) on SQL server, then you are probably using COM+. Sorry.

This book is an excellent addition to the documentation provided with SQLXML, especially if you are just starting to use SQLXML. The book helps you decide if SQLXML is right for your situation. If it is, the book will continue to walk you through some real examples, covering some of the pros and cons of different methods. Being a developer, I highly recommend this book if you are using or considering to use SQLXML in a Microsoft environment.

This is what a technical publication should be. The book covers all aspects of SQLXML, from programming to administrative issues (including security concerns -- everyone needs to do more of that). It even discusses some of the other technologies out there, such as Oracle's integration with XML and the native xml datatype. If you are using or thinking of using SQLXML, I'd consider this book to be required reading.

The title of this book is way out of the strike zone. You see "Who Invented the Game?" and you think this volume is going to be about the origins of baseball, a scholarly little attempt to separate the true history of the sport from the myth of Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown (certainly one of the greatest public relations stunts in history with regards to promoting a small town in the middle of nowhere). However, this book, based on the PBS documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns, is really a condensed version of what I watch every year just before opening day. Not that there is anything wrong with that; the companion volume to the "Baseball" documentary is a weighty tome and an abbreviated version written for younger readers is certainly a good idea. But then the title of the book should be something else (this has struck a raw nerve with me; as a teacher I require students to have a thesis statement that they prove in the body of their essay, which sort of requires them to be about the same thing, and I have the exactly same feelings when it comes to title). "Who Invented the Game?" will answer such burning questions as "Who played the first real game?", "Who invented the curve ball?", and "Why is the pitcher's mound exactly 60 feet 6 inches from home plate?" But the book is not organized according to such topics, instead following the same structure as the documentary series. Illustrated with dozens of photographs this book by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns with Paul Robert Walker might serve well to get youngsters who have not seen the entire documentary interested in checking it out. But for those who have watched all nine innings or read the companion volume, this is ground already well covered.