A nice stand alone story that had me rivetted to finish it and to further explore the issues, hopefully, in subsequent editions.

The Ultimate Elvis Quiz Book is so creative, so unique, and so delightful! The authors have many different types of puzzles chock full of Elvis information. Other puzzles don't contain new information, but are just plan fun to answer, such as Letters to Elvis and Word Pictures. One quiz, If I Can Dream, speculates about what Elvis would be doing and recording now if he were still alive. There are even a couple of quizzes about other rock and pop stars who were Elvis' contemporaries. If you're a true Elvis fan, your book collection is not complete without The Ultimate Elvis Quiz Book! (This book is available from another publisher, but the Rutledge Hill book is clearly better because of the larger print and better quality paper.)

"It's Now or Never," "Little Sister" -- "Don't Be Cruel" to your "Tutti Fruiti!" If crossword puzzles, assorted quizzes and word scrambles are your game and Elvis is your King, THE ULTIMATE ELVIS QUIZ BOOK, written by veritable Elvis sighters, W. Kent Moore and David L. Scott, is the perfect "Good Luck Charm!" A ton of questions abound respective to THE KING in the form of word searches and scrambles, fill-ins and crosswords, pictures and 'your guess is as good as mine'...in this 70-quiz long masterpiece. If you "Surrender," the answers are included! So, "Doncha' Think It's Time!"

"Well make me a peanut butter and bananna sandwich, Priscilla, this is the greatest book I have ever read."

For anyone who truly loves the KING or needs a one-stop resource for all things Elvis, THE ULTIMATE ELVIS QUIZ BOOK is it! With the insight and depth of knowledge that only veteran EAP sleuths could provide, David Scott and Kent more take us on a fascinating, fun tour of the life of Elvis.

The pictures are great, the puzzles are creative, and the authors know their stuff. There are lyrics listed in this book that even the most diehard fan probably didn't know existed.

And the picture of the authors at the Elvis shrine is a classic. I think it should go on the back cover of the book, in color, when you print the next edition. Let me know when the next edition will be out!

Thank you. Thank you very much.

While this book didn't quite live up to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, it surpassed Xenocide and I quite enjoyed it. It continues about where Xenocide left off, with Ender's mind/force thing or whatever now controlling second incarnations of his beloved older sister, Valentine, and Peter, his long dead older brother as well as himself. While Ender tries to join his wife in the convent place she fled to, Peter travels with a young chinese servent girl, Wang Mu, and they try to manipulate the Star Ways Congress into calling off the fleet sent to destroy Lusitania. In the meantime, Miro and "Young Val" work to try to save Jane, the dying computer intelligence that is the only thing that allows intelligent species faster than light travel. Anyway, the plot is incredibly complicated, so I won't even try to explain it all, but rest assured that this series is worth reading. The one thing that really annoyed me about this book in particular was something that several other reviewers have commented on as well. Not only does Ender's choice to remain with his wife no matter what "bore him to death" but it is also implied that all relationships are like that! I find that offensive! Anyway, before I get off on a rant I'll just say that this is a great series, if you ignore a lot of implied sexism, which I certainly hope bothers some of you as much as it does me. Happy reading!

I think, personally, people are being a little biased against this book.

The books Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind are basically seperate from Ender's Game. It's a different story, more or less, with Ender as the main character.

The major difference between these two "series" is that Ender's game is more brash and fast paced. The next three are more scientific, moral, and focus more on what the right thing is to do.

But more about this specific book:

While many readers are mad that Ender does die a while before the book ends, the title, "Children of the Mind" implies his "children" will fufill his quest; also , read the back of the book; he is not meant to be the main focus in this book.

The reason I don't think people really understand this book (Although they are entitled to their own opinions) is that you have to be really paying attention to it to understand it. At the beginning of Xenocide, they started talking about "philoites" and souls, and what keeps bodies and people who know eachother "twined together" so to speak. It may seem weird at first, but once you read through the series, this book works.

Just to be clear, the book is NOT as straightforward as Ender's Game or Speaker for the Dead, but if you are willing to devote your undivided attention to Xenocide and Speaker for the Dead they are great reads.

Quite frankly, I don't think some people are smart enoguh to really understand Xenocide and Children of the Mind, but I can see how some people don't like the book. I respect their opinions. Although I hope you read this book regardless of whether you heard good reviews or bad reviews, because it is the conclusion to the series.

All in all, the book finished all the questions we had from the previous books and made some new ones come up that do not tie in to the story directly. Is another book coming? I hope so.

If you read the series up to Children of the Mind, don't stop there. It is a great read and a good conclusion. You'd be missing out if you didn't. It might turn out that you will hate it. But it's not a extremely long book anyway. I would dive right in.

While this is perhaps the weakest of the books in the Ender saga, that rating comes only in comparison to an awe-inspiring beginning. COTM perhaps didn't have the depth of the other novels, but Card did an excellent job of fleshing out some of the more minor characters from the previous stories.

Most of the criticism of COTM seems to concern Card's rambling style. This stylistic choice may be seen as a reflection of Ender himself in his final days, a skillful projection of the personality of the main character onto the frame of the work. Card's narrative didn't ramble all the time; observant reading relates Card's style to the "rambling" of Ender's soul. This book needs to be read with an open mind and an eye to the author's art as well as his tale.

I have a very basic background in Flash but there are many aspects to this book that make it difficult to follow. Several times it omits information in its example, such as labelling a script or instance. Terseness is not a virtue in a step by step tutorial. For action scripts you are just given the script and you have to figure out how to entered it. If you have a good flash background, I guess this is no big deal, but if not you will be lost and your final product will not work. After alot of backtracking through the examples I worked on and referring to other books, I managed to get through the tutorials, and I guess did learn the hard way. Nonetheless, more detailed explanations would have been very helpful and alot less frustrating. I looked forward to this book when I bought it, but it just does not explain how to use action scripts at all, even though this is the heart of the lessons. If you want to learn flash programming, look elsewhere.

This book is basically a compilation of fancy projects, most of which are useful, but with instructions that aren't very comprehensive. The introduction says that both advanced and new users can get a lot out of this book, but that's not true if you're latter. Beginners will find themselves following the book's VERY lean instructions without a clue as to why or what they are doing. Sure it gives you an idea of what is possible in Flash, but so can just browsing the internet for Flash oriented sites... and that won't cost you 45 dollars.

This book is really a set of examples of what can be done with flash and imagination. Once you look through the book you'll first be amazed by what can be done and then inspired to realize that you can do almost anything you can imagine using flash as a tool.

The instructions are very terse, but don't read this book for instructions on how to build the examples shown, read this book to see what can be done. Building the examples is of little value because they've already been done. Building your own dreams with ideas from the book is the point.

The book is expensive,... for the size. The explanation is that every page contains color graphics showing what the project looks like and demonstrating the results. This is an expensive printing process, it looks good but price is the significant negative for this book. In the twenty dollar range this would have been a 5 star book; if you are particularly price conscious you might want to reduce it to 3 stars.

A sample of amazing, great looking, flash projects to ignite your imagination.

Eyeball Wars is a real page-turner. Author David M. Scott captures the fast-paced, break-neck speed of the internet through fresh prose, intriguing dialogue and a cast of characters with whom I formed an incredible alliance over the course of the book. Filled with high tech, high-flyers, and high excitement, Eyeball Wars moves at an almost frenetic pace -- wholly fitting for an industry resplendent with gone-at-the-blink-of-an-eye start-ups and a constant quest for the "new new thing." In addition to being completely captivating and thoroughly enjoyable, Eyeball Wars is clearly written from someone who knows his stuff. Scott's incisive commentary on the dot-com world, coupled with his fine attention to detail, adds an incredible air of authenticity to the novel. In fact, Eyeball Wars is so engaging that I found myself on several occasions, genuinely concerned about the outcome and the characters. Eyeball Wars, in the end, is as the subtitle implies, intriguing.

Good book, a bit manic, but good.

Author David M. Scott captures the fast-paced, break-neck speed of the internet through fresh prose, intriguing dialogue and a cast of characters with whom I formed an incredible alliance over the course of the book.

Filled with high tech, high-flyers, and high excitement, Eyeball Wars moves at an almost frenetic pace -- wholly fitting for an industry resplendent with gone-at-the-blink-of-an-eye start-ups and a constant quest for the "new new thing." In addition to being completely captivating and thoroughly enjoyable, Eyeball Wars is clearly written from someone who knows his stuff.

Scott's incisive commentary on the dot-com world, coupled with his fine attention to detail, adds an incredible air of authenticity to the novel. In fact, Eyeball Wars is so engaging that I found myself on several occasions, genuinely concerned about the outcome and the characters. Eyeball Wars, in the end, is as the subtitle implies, intriguing.

It's all here: hysterical dot-com nerds, wacky tabloid journalists, evil venture capitalists, money-grubbing media barons and assorted hangers on including TV-starlets, PR spinmasters and even Bill Gates. Moving effortlessly through international settings such as London, Tokyo and Sydney as well as the center of the world's Internet economy Silicon Valley, Scott's Eyeball Wars is not only a great book on the Internet business, its also a fast-moving thriller-comedy. Richard Williams is an Internet business youngster who's trying to find a business model that works (I've been there! It's fun to root for Richard!). He fights for venture funding, media attention and of course for love. Through Richard's eyes and also through the eyes of the unforgettable Japanese heroine Mariko Suzuki, we encounter plot twists and humor in every chapter. The book works on every level, as great page-turning fiction, as a window into the world of Internet entrepreneurs and as commentary on life in the fast lane. Cool cover too.

I'm a long-time fan of Dr M. Scott Peck. Read a number of his books such as "The Road Less Travelled", "The Different Drum", "People of the Lie", etc, over the years ever since I was 18.

In this book, Dr Peck explores life after death, based on his theological understanding, what he imagines it would be and on accounts of people who had gone through OBE (Out-of-the-Body Experiences).

It's quite interesting. Initially, Dr Peck's analytical tone and non-literary style of writing got in the way of the story-telling - making it rather contrived and unnatural. However, as the story moves on, the possibilities get fascinating.

I don't agree entirely with what Dr Peck has portrayed through the story. But yes, it seems perfectly possible that the private hell/purgatory/heaven that one creates for oneself on earth could be carried forward even after death - and that in heaven, the kind of psychiatric support that one could get to be healed is simply divine and eternally patient.

And yes, instead of just floating around in heaven, playing harps or singing "Alleluia" endlessly, people in heaven might just find themselves working in committees! If that's what they want to and enjoy doing, according to the Principle of Freedom (in Peck's book and Christianity), that's what they'll do. The difference perhaps lies in the redemptive, enriching or crippling effects of whatever they have chosen to do. And yes, wonders of wonders, we might find ourselves literally working FOR God, WITH Him, and THROUGH Him!

SO, I would recommend this book to those who enjoys Dr Peck's psychoanalytic insights (along with his deep religious convictions), but not to those who are only looking for a literary story or a fun reading.

Dr Peck's book explores life after death, based on what he imagines it would be and based on accounts of people who had gone through OBE (Out-of-the-Body Experiences).

Initially, Dr Peck's analytical tone and non-literary style of writing got in the way of the story-telling - making it rather contrived and unnatural. However, as the story moves on, the possibilities get fascinating.

I don't agree entirely with what Dr Peck has portrayed through the story. But yes, it seems perfectly possible that the private hell/purgatory/heaven that one creates for oneself on earth could be carried forward even after death - and that in heaven, the kind of psychiatric support that one could get to be healed is simply divine and eternally patient. And yes, instead of just floating around in heaven, playing harps or singing "Alleluia" endlessly, people in heaven might just find themselves working in committees! If that's what they want to and enjoy doing, according to the Principle of Freedom (in Peck's book and Christianity), that's what they'll do.

The difference perhaps lies in the redemptive, enriching or crippling effects of whatever they have chosen to do.

SO, I would recommend this book to those who enjoys Dr Peck's psychoanalytic insights, but not to those who are only looking for a literary story or a fun reading.

The most devoted Scott Peck fan on the face of the earth, I read the article about him in last years October issue of Rolling Stone and thought, "it seems Dr. Peck is preparing for the final step of his journey - death. It would be cool if he wrote a book about it". Sure enough, a couple months later my wish came true. Dr. Peck's books have meant so much to me and many others. He has the unusual gift of enlightening people through stories of his own life journey and even works of fiction. This book is no exception. After reading this book, I discovered that the closer I feel to God, the more I realize how little I know about He/She works and thinks. But paradoxically, I also realized even more how much we are loved and that death will only be the beginning of a new and exciting journey. Of all the theories of the afterlife, Dr. Peck introduces one of integrity and credibility. It is a must read for all who will die someday. Thank you, God, for another gift, and thank you, Dr. Peck, for being the messenger.

This fiction lacks page to page suspense. The reader is taken into a Jewish family, where the main character, Stern, does not know anybody except his colorful, scheming, affluent brother in law. His son, daughters, son in law and especially his wife of decades are strangers to him. So are his close neighbors. Yet Stern is a successful lawyer, must have a reasonable amount of intelligence, one should hope. An unlikely situation, but entertaining enough. It seems like he really doesn't want to know what makes his family tick but stumbles into their secrets. Rude awakenings! That would be a better title, because the legal aspects of the book read like murky morass. I think the author failed his burden of proof to convince me, that this is a good novel. His style is tiresome to read, however the proof is there, that fiction has no limits, because it demands no burden of proof. Rude awakenings for fans of this author, I assume! Gerborg

I thought the author slipped a bit with this book, not as good as some of his others. He constructed a good book with a step-by-step progress to the end and he can weave in a sub plot of two. I just did not like some of the writing; I found it a bit forced or dry. Overall he always delivers a good story, I would read his work over many others. You do need to pay attention with his books, they are an easy ride - he wants to keep you involved to then need. He is good at this form of book and if you like him you will like this one.

This is the second Turow novel I've read and I'm hooked. He's an excellent story teller and really knows how to take a plot through unexpected twists and turns. This book is solid evidence of his skills and I recommend it heartily.

I know how popular Grisham is and I've enjoyed some of his writing, but I'd rate Turow as easily the better writer. This book has plenty to help me reach that conclusion: family and business deceit, awkward romantic liasons, legal and personal grudges and jealousies, securities fraud, etc. Try it, I'll bet you'll like it.

I have been doing actionscripting in Flash 4 and it seems that since a lot of tags were deprecated (outdated) in Flash 5 so I have to learn new methods employing actionscript in Flash 5.

I am not a programmer but a web designer, employing programming knowledge in HTML including CSS and minimal javascript so my knowledge on the object-oriented model used in Flash 5 is minimal.

This book requires you to know javascript at least. It tells you to read the actionscript reference in case you don't know any, but even as I did read and tried to understand the reference so many times, the book wasn't as helpful. It leaves me in the dark because even though it explains what those custom functions are for, it does not explain why the order of the functions are in such a way such that you would require one to initialize first, etc. etc.

I'm thinking even if I'm an expert in javascript, I would not need this book because the methods employed would be the usual ones anyway.

So if you're a beginner in programming, you'll find that this book is not helpful at all, leaving you in the dark on the "whys" of the script. Or if you're expert programmer, you probably won't need this book because the methods employed are the usual stuff anyway.

I know the basic of Flash 5 and have been really wanting to learn the more complex areas but have had trouble finding a source that explained them well and most importantly gave solid, real life examples to back them up.

I umed and erd about buying this book, but from the moment i got it any reservations were dismissed. It if fantastically done, well laid out, colour is well used to make example text stand out. What is so good is that anything they try to teach you has a very solid, real life example to go with it, and you are given the start .fla files as well as finished ones, if you want/need to have a sneak peak at what it will look like. It is very usefull having the finished article available as if you don't quite understand what is meant from the text, being able to look at an finished example it helps it all fall into place.

Although there is something in this book for all levels of users it is more aimed at people who already know the basics and who want to leverage Flash more effectively in the production process. It covers basic to advanced levels of object-orientated scripting, Flash application development, client-server interaction, rich media content development and of course animation.

to quote,'It is built around projects and intergrated techniques, rather than individual techniques of Flash..'

ActionScript is the heart of Flash, and the power it has is the big reason why it destroys any of its competition, so if you are wanting to learn Flash, ActionScript is a must, and if you want to learn ActionScript you could so alot worse than this book. Well done to the authors, a brilliant example of what other books should be like!

I don't normally write book reviews, but when I saw all the bad reviews for this book, I had to speak up. I've gotta think that the majority of one star reviewers on this book are either from competing book authors or their friends. This book has been out and away the most valuable Flash 5 book I purchased this year. The code on the CD, alone, has paid for the book probably a dozen times for me. I did do differently than the authors intended though. Instead of starting each chapter with the unfinished or "start" files (I think), I just followed along with the chapters using the finished files because I usually didn't have time to do it the other way.

I've checked out most of the Flash 5 books available and with the exception of parts Colin Moock's book-which is more of a technical reference book, Flash 5 Magic is the only real world application book available. I don't know what I would have done for several of my jobs this year if I didn't have Flash 5 Magic.

After reading Ender's Shadow, I had high hopes for this tangent series about Ender Wiggin's sidekick Bean. Unfortunately, the subsequent installments have been getting progressively worse. Now, after the dull and plodding Shadow of the Hegemon, we readers are being treated to a tedious and repetitive heap of self-righteous drivel.

First of all, the somewhat forced "romance" between Petra and Bean just gets annoying after awhile. It is never mentioned why either of them suddenly loves the other, it's just sort of squeezed in there as a convienient plot device. The entire relationship is cold and without passion, and a little out of character to boot. If you ask me, Card needs to stay as far away from writing romance as he possibly can.

The characters, while I'm at it, are barely recognizable. You would never guess that the lovelorn, sappy schoolgirl of this novel is supposed to be the tough, snarky Petra of Ender's Game. Or that Ender's weak-willed, slow-witted parents are actually political geniuses in disguise, ready to plot assinations any time the need for one pops up.

And is it just me, or did Card do an annoying amount of preaching in this novel? After his umpteenth religious discourse, I was about ready to throw the book into the fireplace! He's trying to use this book as a platform for his LDS beliefs. As a fellow Mormon, I'm all for missionary work, but when I pick up a sci-fi novel, I want to see some sci-fi. If I want a sermon, I'll read something from Deseret Book

If you're a hardcore fan of the Ender/Bean series, then I suppose this book might be worth the money. Otherwise, I'd advise you to save your money and buy yourself a hat or something. Or, if you're new to the series, perhaps Ender's Shadow or Ender's Game would be a better jumping-off point for you.

Ok...let's get something straight from the start, this is no Ender's Game. If you think that it will be don't read it. Each book that Orson Scott Card writes (with the exception of Ender's Shadow) takes him farther away from the same theme of Ender's Game. This is not necessarily a bad thing...its just the way it is.

Basicly, this novel is a direct continuation of Shadow of the Hegemon. It was a fun and exciting and served to tie up most of the loose ends that Shadow of the Hegemon created...and then create another one.

Loose ends tied up:

How does the rest of the world deal with the new Chinese empire.
What happens when Bean and Petra "hook-up."
What is Achilles final fate.

The problem is that it was very easy to see how these three teasers would be resolved. The Chinese would get worked, Bean and Petra would indeed hook-up and Achilles would get killed. There was little tension as to if these things would happen. Just how. The how was fun though.

There is one loose end that has not still been wrapped up from Shadow of the Hegemon:

How does Peter gain credibility as Hegemon?

This will need to be resolved in Shadow of the Giant (the next book.) I was hoping to see that in this book, but Card choose to show him go through a humbling phase as he prepares for him to emerge as the great leader that we all know he can be.

One new loose end was created:

Where are Bean and Petra's children that are still embryos?

This will doubtlessly be the focus of Shadow of the Giant.

The final question that we all want to know is: Will Bean die of his genetic condition or will he be saved? With the reintroduction of Volescu I am beginning to think that Bean might be saved.

All in all, the book answered some of the questions that have been lingering in an unoriginal but entertaining fashion. There are still enough loose ends in the Enderverse to warrent at least one more volume.

The Battle School Children keep growing up in the continuation of the Ender's Shadow series. Ender and Petra mature into adults and struggle with the ramifications of having children. Peter deals with reality as a politician, not just an essayist. Achilles returns and is working for Peter? As the time moves on, child geniuses are teen geniuses running the world that is in political turmoil. The book mostly focuses on Bean and Petra and their running away from Achilles, convinced he is going to murder Bean for wrongs he committed (All are Achilles killings are people who have made him vulnerable). We learn more about Bean's past and his inevitable, distressing future.

Thing that impressed me most about the book was Orson Scott Card didn't pull any punches; no cheesy easy ways out and no infuriating extensions the series (there is another book coming, but has the potential to be a very good book with a real story to tell). If you can't get beyond genius children manipulating world politics, then the books won't be as interesting. Political machinations make this more than a horror book with the evil villain pursuing the virtuous couple. The USA isn't the focus of all the political force that is effecting the world, but merely a reactor to other more powerful countries (which is odd for an American writer to do). Overall, Achilles has depth and deviousness in his character and Bean isn't always likable.

A Good read with engaging characters and plot lines. If you haven't read any of the previous books, I suggest starting with Ender's Game or Ender Shadow (Ender's Game is best read before Ender's Shadow but is not necessary).

Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets.

I bought this book as a required text for my csc class last semester. As a begginer in programming , Java is the first language I've learned. And to be honest, I don't think this is a very good text for new programmers who don't any prior background in programming. Most of the time I used other books to learn Java myself.

If you're a beginning programer looking for good Java books, I recommand Bruce Eckel's "Thicking in Java" and Deitel & Deitel's "Java: How to program".

Much like the "introductory" computer science course I took in Spring 1999, the meaning of the word "introductory" seems to be unclear. We begin the book with a very comforting foray into object-oriented programming with the authors telling the students to keep up with the readings and examples in order to be well on their way to solid programmers. And, these words are kept in the initial chapters as real-life examples meet their computer program counterparts. The examples are worked nicely and are somewhat easy to follow.

Once we hit Chapter 3, though, there is a whiplash transition in terms of the material covered. Before the student knows it, he or she is coding their own Java class with instance variables, interfaces, subclasses, reference variables, boolean expressions, arrays, vectors, enumerations, iteration, lists, searching, sorting, stacks, queues, exceptions, overloading, overriding and not to mention recursion. And, this is all before the half-way mark.

If the authors wish to promote a solid introductory book to the Java language, the first thing is to eliminate recursion. This is not introductory material. Even though the authors try to simplify the topic by constantly comparing example code to a dishwashing chore after a meal, recursion is as difficult as it sounds. Also, searching, sorting, stacks, and queues best fit a book on data structures. Overall, though, I must commend the authors on the use of English when writing this book. I have read too many books where the psuedo-code makes less sense than the actual code itself. Thankfully, this is not one of them. But, if the book were trimmed down to just the basics, then it would truly fit its title and serve as an excellent welcoming to the expansive library of the Java programming language.

Rating: B-

I really enjoyed this book. I am an unschooled "practical programmer," and OOP has been pretty much a mystery to me. I understand the concepts and examples when I see them, but haven't really thought in an object oriented way when I write my own code. This is the book that finally got me actually thinking and designing in objects. The explanations are splendidly clear and thorough. (The section on "recursion," to take one example, is inspired!) I recommend this book highly. It would be a good introduction to Java, or, as in my case, a great way to learn more about programming principles even if you have some experience with Java already.