This book was an ambitious attempt to describe both a vision of what personal computing could be and to provide a much needed technical overview of Squeak. Although largely successful, the buyer should be warned that some chapters in this book refer to online software that has yet to be written or is not currently available online. In particular, Alan Kay provides an unintended joke with his forward to the book. He states that Squeak is a "dynamic medium for creative thought" and that the foreward to the book should be an online active essay in Squeak. Unfortunately, the essay, "It Should Be Active, But Where (and When) Will It Be?" does not yet exist!

As Squeak continues to evolve rapidly, this book may become obsolete in a few years, but it currently provides some of the best technical overviews of Squeak's Morphic UI, networking, 3D animation, and other fun topics.

This historical romance, set in 13th century England, is a well-written novel of a strong-willed, independent-thinking, and imaginative young heiress at a time when women had few rights and were considered no more than chatells. The author's considerabloe research gives the reader an excellent view of the life and lore of that volatile period of English history, as well as a good story. "The Sword and the Rose" is fast-paced and keeps one turning the pages and guessing until the final page, "Will Miriam, the deposed heiress of Whitgreave Castle, and Edward of Hyde, her one-time enemy, overcome their numerous obstacles and finally find true love?" A must read for anyone interested in early English history because of the many detailed, descriptive passages by this new author that enrich the novel and make it so believable.

This academic work is a worthwhile read for college students in Psychology 101, or for those individuals interested in exploring the basic issues of gender as it relates to the successes and failures of romantic relationships in Western culture and society.

While many psychology books and articles typically raise more questions than they answer, Gender and Close Relationships was quite unsatisfying to read, because much of the material was not terribly informative and it did not answer some questions on the general gender issues it attempted to explore.

The generic case study-type examples sprinkled throguh chapters one through five made this part of the book engaged the reader, making the book easy to read.

However, after five chapters of close scholarship, the book appears to lose steam going into a somewhat related sub-topic (although interesting, this sub-topic deserves its own book.) So, the authors don't totally get back on track for the issue at hand.

Ultimately, the 'Why' of the book did not satisfy this reader.

I checked out this book to help me on a report on Garlic. I also had two other articles as reference and basically what was in the articles (which is significantly pages shorter than this book) could also be found in this book. The information about Garlic in this book was bascially repeated from the articles I read on Garlic beforehand.

The greatest disappointment would have to be Garlic's role in Vampire tales. I was hoping to obtain information on this subject through this book. I know already that Garlic has an chemical that turns the blood of Porphirya victims acidic. Porphirya victims have been known to suffer similar symptoms as 'vampires'. The chemical found in garlic basically makes the Porphirya victim uncomfortable, resulting in a heated retreat from the plant.

I hate having to supplement material missed in this book in a review. This book has nothing I don't already know. The Garlic Lover's Handbook is basically a text with recipes and ... for joining a garlic lover's society forum. Perhaps the only good thing about this book was the history on Garlic and its uses.

Heck, I'll just paste the point as described by this very site:
"He advocates a constitutional amendment that would allow voluntary prayer if students initiate it and school districts accommodate it. "

This is already legal...so again, what's the point?

Here is a book which is interesting and unique, more for the circumstances of who the author is, and how he came to write it, than for the substance and quality of its argumentation. From the first pages, the book sounds a clarion call to our nation to wake up and realize that publicly-imposed school prayer is the panacea which will begin the healing of U.S. society, a society which is knee-deep in sin, crime, violence and depravity. Curiously we find out in the early pages that the author, William Murray (no, not the comedian from Groundhog Day and Saturday Night Live), is one of the sons of the late atheist pioneer Madalyn Murray O'Hair (believed murdered, her body never recovered). And wait, it gets better! Our author, was the very student around whom the 1963 Supreme Court decision banning state-sponsored and mandated school prayer, revolved! Since those days, Mr. Murray has become a born-again christian, and has devoted much of his time and energy to negating the atheist legacy of his deceased mother in every possible nook, cranny and arena...not the least of which is the court decision just mentioned. The book is an interesting read, mainly for the history of this rather eccentric family and the first-hand description of Mr Murray's odyssey from refusal to pray in class (at the directive of his mother), being called to the principal's office, the arrival of curious reporters, the ridicule on the playground, the commencement of legal action in the local courts, the appeals to higher courts, appeals to still higher courts and finally the culmination in the United States Supreme Court. After this interesting history, the book begins to fall apart at the seams. In failing to express to the reader the FACT that prayer in public schools is perfectly legal and always has been, but is a matter of doing so individually and silently, the author is being obviously disingenuous with us and plays a game of make-believe throughout much of his argumentation. Amazingly, he fails to draw a distinction between this private, silent prayer which is legal, and the REAL focus of his agenda...the imposition of christian prayer during classroom hours, on unwilling students of all demographics, all religions, not to mention atheists, agnostics, humanists, and people of all other philosophies and ideologies. The author throws up a flimsy smokescreen by indignantly attacking the "smug scientism" of the schools, the "secular agenda" of the courts, and "moral relativism" of society, and citing all of them as the evils causing the decay of the world. This sloganeering doesn't help Mr. Murray to obfuscate his patently false contention that school prayer is illegal! Only in the final pages of the book does he even give lip service to the fallacy of this claim. In a desultory and convoluted manner, Mr. Murray demonstrates a good deal of book-learning as he reviews relevant court decisions, invokes the founding fathers, and enlists De' Touqueville, Locke, and Paine, as well as many voices from today's cultural elite as unwitting accomplices in his strange attempt to marry church and state. Unfortunately for him, in almost every instance the examples work to his own detriment, because as we all know, our founding fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution for all of us, not just people of one faith, and certainly not to impose the prayers of one religion on others by virtue of a majority vote. And the same proves true for nearly every other source cited, each undermining the specious attempts of the author - the exception being quotes from several well-known individuals of the christian right wing who defend their well-know turf. Throughout the book, Mr. Murray seems oblivious to the commonly-accepted notion that the utmost failing in our society is in the HOMES of the problem children, by the PARENTS of the problem children. If Mr. Murray or any other citizen wishes to engage in religious prayer or ritual in their own homes for 10 hours per day, they are free to do so. Also omitted in the author's thinking is the obvious role of the CHURCH as a venue for one's religious observances - another fine place for prayer, prayer, prayer to one's heart's content. But no, prayer in the home, prayer in the church, these just won't do for Mr. Murray! Because he believes that HIS religious cohorts constitute a majority vote over people of all other backgrounds, he believes he must save the world by imposing HIS prayers on everyone else. How he thinks that a child whose HOME and CHURCH have failed in providing her with a foundation in religion, morals and ethics, would suddenly see the light and blossom forth in the bullying classroom atmosphere he outlines in this book, is unclear to me. Jesus Christ himself, in the sermon on the mount stated in no uncertain terms that the ritual of prayer is a most intimate experience and should be done in private. Perhaps the best thing Mr. Murray and his cohorts could learn is this vital lesson from the New Testament.

Jacqueline Rose has done some serious scholarship in literary criticism, but this work is dubious, at best. I'm not sure why she misses the mark so poorly in this extended essay on the link between children's fiction and the publishing industry. But the work is very un-focused and rather trite. The approach is a bit dated, and I can imagine that perhaps the book is more an extended discourse on the theoretical apparatus that she seems to be enamored with rather than a solid interpretation of Peter Pan. The book is really an odd one, and it left me feeling so disgusted that I did not wish to finish the tome. Although, the other reviewers are a bit too vituperative in their critique, this book really strikes me as somewhat immature.

Rose's analysis is dubious. She attempts to make the claim that Barrie created a new genre of fantasy with the publication of Peter Pan. The problem is that Barrie's books about Peter Pan are actually components of a genre well-studied and documented for hundreds of years. Even a cursory read of scholarship in folklore would have clearly demonstrated to Rose that Peter Pan is a Marchen, a genre of folklore in which a poor, obscure hero is called to complete acts of bravery in a land of fantasy and magic. There are numerous other problems with her analysis. Even reading this study as an essay on contemporary social issues is a confusing exercise, at best, because Rose's style tends to obfuscate rather than to provide any semblance of clarity. Sorry to be so critical of literary criticism, but incoherence and bad writing simply do not belong in scholarly discourse.

I am a high school student and I am not ashamed to say that i have an affinity for children's literature, particularly english, such as Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter (all of them), and especially PETER PAN. This literature contains a magic that this author proceeds to bash at every chance she gets. I mean, are children supposed to read about oil spills and war? Preserve the magic of childhood people!