Target reader Those 50 and up who are likely to be sent for medical tests.

Premise Your doctor recommends a lab test or diagnostic screening. You don't have a clue what you're in for or why. This is where the book takes over.

High Marks Impressive pedigree. Clear and accessible rundowns of more than 170 lab, home, screening and diagnostic tests (e.g., lipid profile, renal biopsy, scrotal ultrasound), presented alphabetically. Descriptions include test purpose, patient preparation, risks and concerns, cost range and more. Labeled, color illustrations of major body systems (cardiovascular, digestive, etc.) help pinpoint target areas.

Low Marks A "results" box in each write-up describes the diagnostic process and what tests or treatments may follow. But it offers no information on how to interpret test results. So if you're looking for help in questioning your doctor's interpretation -- or even knowing what "normal" ranges are - you won't find it here. Further, the index at the front of the book lacks page references, so once you find a test there, you have to turn to the index at the back of the book to get the page number.

Dr. Simeon Margolis' Consumer Guide To Medical Tests provides a detailed overview of the latest medical tests; from what to expect from them to how to interpret results. Unusual in this presentation are general costs, and tips on special health care requirements after the test.

Thorough, comprehensive, easy to use, with all of the latest tests explained clearly for the average person who wants to know what is being tested for, how much it will cost, and what to look for and expect after the test. An essential book for your health library.

this is an absorbing mystery (the solution is not telegraphed from the first page) written beautifully. the procedural aspect is realistic. the three main male characters are three dimensional and their interaction feels real. the only problem i have with it is: does the author really think women are this appalling? (second question: is the author really a woman?)

if i hadn't first read the author's third book,'house of women,'in which the female characters are varied, flawed but frequently admirable, i might not have been able to enjoy this book as much as i did. in 'simeon's bride,' the female characters are, with only one exception, horrid. with the exception of the victim, some of whose motivations are not explained, they are not unrealistic, they are well drawn, but they are definitely not women i would want to know. and the author almost seems to present them as the normal run of women. i will say that there is one male character who excels the women in sheer disgusting, contemptible nastiness, so there is some balance between the genders.

nevertheless, this is a book i would recommend. the author writes well, with some wonderful turns of phrase and descriptive passages. the dialogue is enjoyable, too. the plot is as twisty as any mystery reader could want. the secondary characters are well done. atmosphere is well conveyed. for a first novel, it is amazingly good.

This is quite possibly the best series of mysteries I have ever read and I wish Taylor would keep cranking them out. I can't remember reading a book where I was actually "there" for the entire thing--even SIMEON'S BRIDE which was my first experience with Taylor's writing. The characters are human and likeable and the plot never thins nor weakens in any way. I've read this book twice and intend to read it again. Superb!!!

This mystery will please fans of Elizabeth George. The main characters are fleshed out and interest you from the beginning. The plot is very absorbing and the setting in Wales only intensifies the air of "mystery" about it. I enjoyed this mystery immensely and look forward to reading more of Ms. Taylor's books and continuing to get to know DCI McKenna.

A careful and caring overview of the tragic life and times of the man who started the Hodag myth. Very entertaining, but a little dry at times. Vivid proof that truth is stranger (and more fun) than fiction. A must-read for any student of Wisconsin history.

It it a fun loving, re-creation of growing up in the great area of Rhinelander. Regardless where you go in the State of Wisconsin, every one knows about the HODAG. It is the only one in the entire World, let alone in the State of WISCONSIN. LONG LIVE THE HODAG!!!!!!

I agree with the other reviewers: this is an outstanding book and a must-have for anyone who is serious about programming in Java using the NetBeans IDE. However, it is not a book that will teach you the Java programming language, nor is it a book that will in any way extend your Java programming abilities into such areas as Java Beans, Servlets, or JSPs. The first ten chapters are really the core how-to. These cover 1) Installation, 2) Basic Concepts, 3) The Source Editor, 4) Debugging, 5) Compiling, 6) Customizing the IDE, 7) Using CVS, 8) GUI Building, 9) JavaBeans, 10) JavaDoc. Beyond that, there are two other chapters devoted to working with XML, JSPs, and Servlets. These chapters are meant to show programmers already comfortable with these technologies how to utilize NetBeans for implementing them; they are NOT for learning the technologies themselves. The rest of the book is quite advanced, and I'll admit that as an intermediate-level programmer I haven't been able to benefit from it. It consists of detailed analyses of how to create custom NetBeans modules, how to tune the existing modules for performance, etc.

For those of us who are still grappling with the enormous amount of study necessary in order to build a functional Java program, this book represents a good investment. But you will probably only use the first 200 pages, about 1/3 of the total book. So you must ask yourself, "Does the cost of this book justify the 200 pages I will probably only ever use?" The answer to that question is Yes, if you are truly serious about programming in Java. This NetBeans IDE is truly awesome, and it is a godsend for those of us who have struggled to code in Notepad or something equally as [bad]. For those of us who are not really serious but merely casual programmers, I would say, No -- there are much better ways to invest your time and money.

NetBeans, a free IDE available ..., is based on donated code developed by Sun. The NetBeans architecture is an open architecture that supports plug-ins for each function of the IDE. This book, which discusses the NetBeans IDE, is made up of two parts. The first part is a description of the IDE designed for the NetBeans user. The NetBeans architecture is described in detail. The book covers each of the different pieces such as editing, compiling, and debugging. The book also covers using the NetBeans GUI editor to design visual components. Integrating NetBeans with CVS and Ant is also covered. The book does a fairly good job in this section of providing a handy manual for NetBeans users. The second part of the book is aimed at those who wish to use the NetBeans open architecture to define their own modules to be added to NetBeans. This part of the book is very well written and will serve as a major resource for anyone interested in module writing. Several examples are demonstrated including building an IMAP email server and client to integrate into NetBeans. The first part of the book is for a general audience and will be useful but it isn't required reading to use NetBeans. The second part of the book has a more limited audience but will be extremely useful to anyone interested in writing NetBeans modules. Overall this is a well-written book with clear explanations and examples.

This book is the only available book on NetBeans I have so far found. All in all, this book is the best resource I have found on the subject. The book really helped me start developing with NetBeans. Thanks to the authors for a great work.< I read mostly the second part of the book, "Extending NetBeans".

I wish the book could provide more examples. I found the "English" text somehow difficult to follow. In addition, the text does not always directly point to the examples provided.

If you want to start developing with NetBeans, you should start here!

Having been to the Monterey area before, I was looking for information about where to stay/dine with our small kids. That guide does not seem to exist. Several restaurants this author mentioned were excellent, but one was a real dog. (Hint: Monterey is not the spot for pizza.) Our saving grace was when we found a copy of a local rag that listed Readers' Choices. Travel books should rely on these for restaurant reviews and also spend more time exploring accomodations.

The most complete guide from Monterey to San Simeon. If you are heading to the Monterey area this book is a must.

"Gates of Mitzvah" proves that Reform Jews were talking about mitzvot long before the "Pittsburgh Principles" were written. This book is a nice introduction and reference volume outlining the most common mitzvot in the Jewish lifecycle, such as brit, bar mitzvah, putting up a mezzuzah, get, etc. The most interesting reading comes at the end of the book, where several essays are presented which discuss the role of mitzvot in the lives of liberal Jews. This is only an introductory volume of course, and anyone who wants the mitzvot to play a more important role in their lives will quickly outgrow it.

In this third biographical study, Piper gives us three excellent sketches of men who persevered in ministry and righteousness in the face of incredible difficulty. John Newton, the converted slave-trader who penned Amazing Grace, is a model in "habitual tenderness" towards the hurting (most notably the manic-depressive poet William Cowpoer). Charles Simeon is lesser known, but proves to be a powerful demonstration of endurance in the face of almost unrelenting opposition and affliction. His endurance was rooted primarily in his high view of God and his low view of self (what a word for the self-esteem gurus filling America's pulpits today!!). Finally, William Wilberforce, the greatest instrument God used in the abolishment of slavery in Britain, is studied, along with the doctrine which gave him strength and moved him into action (the doctrine is justification by faith). This is a great book and very encouraging. Highly recommended.

I have had the AMA Encylclopedia of Medicine for about 10 years now, and love how it combines detailed explanations with pictures. However, that book is getting old and I can't find evidence that they have revised/updated it. So I was looking for a replacement for that AMA book, when I tried the John Hopkins book here. As one of the other reviewers stated, I was disappointed with the lists of possible syndromes accounted for by various symptoms. Some very common maladies were missing! My husband and I have some of the more ordinary, run of the mill maladies, and only about half were listed! I am returning the book and looking more closely at the reviews and descriptions before I choose another book. I want a book that covers more syndromes, has better pictures (this one has very few), and is written for the educated reader (like the AMA encyclopedia was). This was a case where I bought the book by name brand (John Hopkins) without looking more carefully into what I was getting. I was disappointed.

This book is a good reference for looking up symtoms but one shouldn't use it as their only source for information regarding the remedies. I must disagree that using a wrist-support while typing should be used to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). All that will do is simply prolong and worsen the condition. In summary, by restricting the movement of the wrist while typing you are allowing muscles in a small area to be overused one way while allowing other muscles to relax.

The book is divided into two sections: symtoms and disorders. The first half of the book on symtoms is a three column table of Associated Symtoms, Possible Diagnosis and Distinguishing Features. The second and last half of the book on disorders gives overviews on each disorder. The information is far from replete but does a good job at summarizing the disorders into relatively simple terms.

The reviewers who posted negative reviews seemed to have missed the point of this book, that it is SPECIALLY WRITTEN and DESIGNED FOR people OVER 50. So common ailments are not going to be in this book; I would recommend The Complete Home Wellness Handbook for the reader under 50. For people over the age of 50, or people who are acting as caregivers for people over 50, this is a terrific book everyone should have in the house.

The coverage of WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI is clear and thorough. Even though the book has a number of authors, there's a nice flow between chapters and the writing is consistent and coherent. However, I gave the book only three stars because it has just a cursory review of Sun's Java Web Services Developer Pack. That's not surprising, considering JWSDP was in still in a larval stage when the book was written. But if you're a serious developer, you'll need to download JWSDP from Sun and go through the tutorial to learn the APIs.

I've been thoroughly impressed with this book. It throws a wide net over most of the current web services standards and technologies, and gives you at least an understanding of where they all fit, while still providing you with enough depth on the crucial ones (SOAP (with Axis), UDDI, etc.) so that you can get started with real projects.

I particularly liked the way in which the authors have created an all-in-one reference book on the most important web services technologies. For instance, I've never been able to read SOAP messages without having a reference on XML namespaces and XML schemas handy -- no more -- it's all here in this book.

The coverage of the new Apache Axis project is especially good; not only does it explain the advantages of the new architecture for handling SOAP headers, but it gives code examples for making use of these new features. This is to be expected, since many of the authors of this book are major contributors to the Axis project.

I also found the chapters on Web Services security and UDDI to be helpful and enlightening. While all of the chapters in the book don't live up to the promise of these excellent chapters, it's still overall an great introduction to this new set of technologies.

And by the way, the guy that gave the book 1 star because it has "no source code downloadable" should have first tried going to www.samspublishing.com and done a search on the author's names -- the page for the book CLEARLY has a section for "downloads" where you can get the source code.

This is by far the best book on Web services I have read! There are so many good things going for it. Let's start with the authoring team. I did some research on the Web: three members of the W3C Working Group on XML Protocol (next-generation SOAP), two co-authors of the UDDI specifications, two architects of the next-generation Apache Web services engine (Axis). These people know what they are talking about from both a theoretical and practical standpoint. The book addresses all levels of the Web services technology stack with amazing focus and depth. This book does not just regurgitate the specifications--it goes well beyond them to cover adjacent domains that are relevant. With the knowledge that I have gained from reading this book I feel I am in a much better position to analyze my web services needs, design a service architecture and implement the services necessary to bring it to life. Most importantly, I feel like I have learned how to evaluate the inevitable trade-offs I'll have to make doing real-world development. There are so many examples of this... Chapter 3 does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting RPC-oriented Web services with document (messaging) oriented Web services. This is the kind of out-of-the-ordinary material that imparts truly valuable knowledge on the reader, stuff you will not find while reading the bare specs or one of the quickly hacked together books on Web services. Chapter 5 talks a lot about security, an otherwise missing topic in the Web services space, and about enterprise-quality Web services. I learned some things about configuring application server security that I had missed after two years of J2EE development. In short, this book is a must-read for both beginning and experienced Web services developers and anyone interested in better understanding the space. If you're a pro, you will learn a lot from the realistic examples and the authors' real-world experience. If you're a beginner, do not despair. Chapter 1 makes the drive towards Web services easy to understand by exposing the technology and market forces behind the rapid change the industry is going through. Chapter 2 is the best, simplest, most focused introduction to data-oriented uses of XML I have ever seen. After these two, you'll be all set for tackling the rest of the book. As for me, I'll go study the example code now...