The anticipation of awaiting your mail-order Kay guitar are revived in the pages of Jay Scott's genial book. Many guitarists started with one of these affordable axes and it's a treat to have a volume with a full history, old ads, big color photos, and a humorous respect for Kay's instruments. If you are an owner or a collector, you have to have this book. Scott also has a fine book on the more up-scale Gretsch guitars; perhaps a book on those cool Harmony guitars, Kay's mass retail competitor, is in the works.

helen hardin was a sensational and troubled Indian artist. this book sketches her life and analyzes her triumphant mix of Indian and modernist motifs. many great 4C reproductions of her best work.

This is an excellent book. It is by far the best Twain I have read yet, and I give it four stars. In this novel, Mark Twain holds the glory and romance associated with Arthurian Legend up to the standards of 19th century society, and reveals defects in both the romantic ideal of King Arthur and the faith that Twain's generation holds in scientific and social "progress." Both funny and thought-provoking, this book provides the reader with a new set of eyes with which to view the barbarism and injustice that Arthur and his knights so valiantly fought to preserve. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is the tale of Hank Morgan, a typical 19th century man who is transported back in time to the days of Merlin, Guinevere, and King Arthur. After becoming aware of his surroundings, and deciding to ignore his uncertainty about whether King Arthur actually existed, this man uses the common knowledge of his time period, his practicality, and some perfectly timed arrogance to acquire a position of great power in this land that he finds repulsive and in need of an enlightened leader. The ensuing story is the tale of what happens when the two utopias collide and this man abuses his power in an attempt to bring the "great and beneficent" miracles of the 19th century to the Age of Chivalry. I would recommend this book to any reader in 8th grade or above, but I would discourage people with passionate faith in the purity and glory of King Arthur from reading this book if they do not want to be forcefully presented with demonstrations of chivalry's inhumanities. A fairly well developed sense of humor will help the reader to enjoy Mark Twain's subtle ironies and satirical situations, and some basic knowledge of science helps in understanding some of the scenes, however this isn't vital to the book. The vocabulary is moderately advanced, the subject matter is somewhat mature at times, and the philosophical reasoning is probably beyond the reach of most Junior High students, yet I would encourage anyone who is interested to give this book a try. This novel is also great for the general public because A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court provides the reader with a main character with whom they may identify. The main character, Hank Morgan is presented with situations in which he must deal with being a stranger in a new atmosphere, being a social outcast due to his uncommon beliefs, he must avoid physical confrontation, and he is forced to use his intellectual abilities rather than brute strength to solve difficult situations. Many readers will have faced similar difficulties in their lives, and this ability to identify with the characters will definitely add to the overall enjoyment of the story. With this piece of work, Mark Twain displays his true talent for excellent writing and story telling. He incorporates enough adventurous and action filled scenarios to make the reader want to continue reading vigorously, yet he also manages to discuss very philosophical and thought-provoking topics during the lulls in the action. This book reads very quickly near the beginning and end. The action tapers off during the middle of the story, but not for long, and once it starts to pick up again, Twain demonstrates his true potential for greatly entertaining writing in the very climactic and cleverly ironic ending that brings this all-around great book to an even better close. This is definitely a book worth reading.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an intriguing novel written by Mark Twain. This is a fantastic book for the high school level reader, but would be entertaining to adults as well. I am a freshman in high school, and I enjoyed many attributes of the plot and writing style. In this novel the main character, Hank Morgan, is mysteriously transported from the nineteenth century in Connecticut back to the fifth century in England. During his time in medieval Britain, he keeps a journal which is what most of this book is. The preface and afterwards are both the narration of Mark Twain who writes as if he has found Hank's journal, and is merely writing it down in a book. As the journal starts out, Hank is introduced to King Arthur and after narrowly escaping death and becomes the country's most powerful advisor. Hank introduces many modern wonders to this feudal society. He is hailed a magician, being able to perform wonderful "miracles" and "magic", when it really is only modern science. It is very entertaining to read about how the feeble-minded people of that time react to these feats. In the end, there is a tremendous battle with many exciting episodes leading up to it. If a reader is partial to battle scenes of high caliber, this is a book for him! Of course, Hank has many other battles as well. Once of his biggest enemies is the Church of England. The big question the reader asks themselves during this book is "Will Hank return to his time and if so, how?". It was exciting for me to ponder this question throughout the novel. During Hank's travels through medieval Britain, he meets many people. The people he meets who think a government ruled by the people in Britain (his ultimate goal) would be a good idea, he sends to Camelot where he has schools set up which teach people about modern governmental ideas. Schools were also set up to teach people how to produce his wonders of modern science. These few enlightened people remain loyal to Hank until the very end. I thought it an entertaining notion that people who were trained from birth to believe in one thing, could realize it's faults and begin to believe another things. I really enjoy this book because it brings a lot about human nature into question. It discusses the vast differences of beliefs, manners, and life styles between one hundred years ago and fourteen hundred years ago. I also thought the differences between classic Arthurian legend and Mark Twain's perspective of the time were very interesting. Hanks training of these idealistic people he runs across plays into the large political aspect of this book. Since Hank's ultimate goal is to transform Britain into a country ruled by the people, he starts factories producing modern goods which greatly changes the lives of the Britons. I enjoyed the descriptions of the people's reaction to these modern products of science thirteen centuries before they would be invented. Throughout the entire book commentary and philosophizing concerning the comparison of the fifth century feudal system of Britain and the nineteenth century democracy of the U.S. by Hank Morgan is common. This political aspect is typical of Twain's works. It gave me great pleasure to read this aspect of the book and to comprehend it's meaning. Through Hank Morgan, Mark Twain is able to depict vivid images in the readers mind. Whether it be a person, scene, or sensation felt by Hank Twain describes it in a way which puts a solid picture in the imagination of the reader. I have not seen the movie of this novel, but I have heard it isn't very well done and it is nothing compared to the book. I believe this is because Mark Twain paints such a realistic picture in the mind of the reader, it is nothing compared to what some director can film. From Mark Twain's great descriptions and writing style to the unique ideas presented, the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is a fantastic novel. There are so many aspects of it to enjoy, and it is just an all around entertaining book. I give this book four out of five stars and I recommend it to any one interested in fantasy, especially if they want a different perspective on King Arthur.

Well, the perfect companion to La Morte d'Arthur...

Twain completely dissects the "good ol' days" of Arthurian Britain by exposing the vicious social practices of the time: white slavery, le droit de seigneur, confiscation of property in event of suicide, the complete lack of impartial justice, the degrading influence of the Church on the mass, etcetera etcetera etcetera...

The Arthurian legends are wonderful tales, but they are a mythic literary production; Twain deals with the brutal reality of daily living in the Dark Ages, and points out that the good ol' days were not so good, anyway.

As for its applicability to modern America, I am not fit to judge. Perhaps it's there. But "The Connecticut Yankee" is a wonderful tonic for those prone to romanticizing the past. Twain seems to agree with Tom Paine that the English nobility were "no-ability", and simply the latest in a series of robbers.

And, of course, the book is stuffed with wonderful Twainisms... My favorite is his observation that a conscience is a very inconvenient thing, and the significant difference between a conscience and an anvil is that, if you had an anvil inside you, it would be alot less uncomfortable than having a conscience.

Twain also mentions the beautiful mispronunciations of childhood, and how the bereaved parental ear listens in vain for them once children have grown.

You'll never look at castles the same again...

Talk about a tough (and HUGE) subject to cover! Well, I bought this book for two reasons (1) to get a better understanding of C#, and (2) to serve as a starting point for passing the C# for Windows exam. The book served both purposes very well. I read this text cover to cover with the exception of 4 out of 23 chapters.

I saw another review of this book that said something like "1300 page cursory overview" Well, you're probably right. But, I challenge anyone out there to find a book that covers every aspect of .NET that's less that 5,000 pages. Here are a few examples:

1.) There's a chapter on security (there are entire books on the subject)

2.) There's a chapter on ASP (there are entire books on the subject)

3.) There's a chapter on web services (there are entire books on the subject)

4.) There's a chapter on XML (there are entire books on the subject)

5.) There's two chapters on ADO .NET (there are entire books on the subject)

You get my point. This material adds up, and anyone expecting in-depth coverage of everything in 1300 pages should get a reality check. Unfortunately, to really get a grasp on .NET you're going to have to shell out for more books. (So far I have C# in general, web services, and ADO covered. The next purchase will be an ASP .NET book) Can you see where I'm going here? Professional C# is kind of an umbrella for all of the other books. Now, where I find this book does a nice job by itself (not requiring another text) is as follows:

1.) Nice job explaining the C# language itself (including some of the more advanced datatypes), as well as how it implements OO principles.

2.) Nice job explaining what and how the framework is constructed, as well as how a .NET application is constructed.

3.) Focuses mostly on the client-server (windows as opposed to web) side of development.

4.) ADO coverage is enough to get you productive.

There are a LOT of other good features of the book. And most of the subject areas covered provide an adequate presentation of the material. A couple of exceptions are ASP and security. I realize that a book on C# must at least touch on these topics, but it probably could have just left those chapters out. Buy another book. (35 pages on ASP .NET? Don't bother!)

I can't say if it's too advanced for some users. I've never purchased a "beginning" series book by Wrox, I alway go for the "professional". The only thing I would have expected them to do a better job on beacuse you can't really get a separate book on the subject, is deployment.

Anyhoo, I think this is a great book for the purpose for which it was intended. If it was 5,000 pages long, I would have given it 5 stars. For the most part, Wrox usually does a good job. Remember, there are NO silver bullets with .NET books. Unfortunately you're going to have to get at least 4 titles to cover everything well.

Bottom Line: If this is your first .NET book, it's worth it. It was my fourth, and it's still worth it. If you need to take it to the next level, you'll need more than one book - no matter which one you get first.

This is a big and heavy book (I just love this kind), and it covers more apects of C# than any other book on the market. No matter what you want to do with C#, you'll find something useful in this book.

I learned C# from the first edition of this book, and bought the second edition to use for reference. If you have some Visual Basic, C++ or Java background, this is the best book you can find to learn C# (you should also have the basic concepts of OOP programming, although there is an appendix that focuses solely on that subject). After you have learned C#, this is the best book to keep on your desk when you get into trouble and MSDN can't help too much.

If you're new to .NET, the first chapter ("C# and the .NET Arhictecture") will be really enlightening. Chapters 2,3,4 (C# Basics, Object-Oriented C# and Advanced C# topics) cover all you need to know about C# syntax and basics. The book also contains valuable material and plenty of code examples about Windows Forms, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, XML, File and Registry Operations, Working with Active Directory, Web Services and .NET remoting, COM Interoperability, COM+, GDI+ and so on. It doesn't try to cover exaustively each of those subjects, but it's enough to get you started.

Have fun with this big red book. This is definitely one of my favourite programming books, and the price is so low compared to the amount of quality information it has inside.

This book is packed with knowledge. Every page is worth its weight in gold. I read it from cover to cover. Re-doing EVERY exercise manually. Trust me, I know what I'm saying.

I worked with the 1st Edition. Took me 8 months to finish the book thorougly. Yes there is some mistakes and typos. But if you understand the text, you can correct these mistakes easily. As a reward, the exercises I redo is always better than the book's ones.

Some persons complaint that there's too much authors resulting in style discrepancy and the chapters slightly overlap their introduction. Yes it's true. And I found that it's rather a GREAT advantage. Just because each author gives you the best of their expertise. Do you think an author of ASP.NET could give you detailed explanation all the intricacies of the C# & .NET runtime environment?

The repetition of some concepts is not really a waste, this book is advanced. I found that it's rather good. Actually, I found this book doesn't have enough pages. Sometime I can't do better than 3 pages a day.

The chapters related to the .NET and C# language fundamental (Chapter 1 to 10) and advanced techniques (File IO, ASDI, COM+, GDI+, .NET Remoting, Windows Services and Security) are simply wonderful. They represent +80% of the book. I rated the ADO.NET and XML chapters 4 stars. The weakest part is ASP.NET, Web Services. I wish the author had choosen a simpler example and add may be few more chapters. The chapter on Custom Control is OK. In anyway, I can't blame the author, to get serious on ASP.NET, you'd rather buy a specific book.

I particularly like the side notes and the Appendix giving a background comparison C# and traditional languages (C++, Java, VB).

If you expect from this book a collection of recipes of code ready for cut and paste, then you will be likely disappointed. This book is for those who are willing to LEARN. The C# language and OOP concept itself is not that difficult. It's rather the .NET Framework itself and how to use wisely the wealth of its base classes.

One reviewer said "too many authors who don't know their stuff". Not true, while I was redoing the exercise, I perceived the style of each of them. Generally they're good. And when needed, the authors answer to my emails. I'm an experienced programmer, when something is bad, I can see it easily.

I come from a VB + ASP background, thanks to this book, I now have a pretty solid knowledge of .NET and a pure style C# programmer. I have had hard time to grasp the whole stuff but now I can tell you that I'm happy to leave the VB world.

I wholeheartly recommend this book to anyone who want to learn C# _AND_ how to make useful application with it. Be courageous, spend some time, you won't be disappointed.

This collection of short stories is written by some of the best legal thriller writers around and Scott Turow edits the book. Unfortunately most of the stories are formulaic and very predictable. The book is good as a tool to discover authors one might have never read and hopefully finds one who is a great novelist. The best stories in this collection is Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone case KNIVES AT MIDNIGHT and the underrated master of the mystery short story Ed Gorman with THAT DAY AT EAGLE'S POINT.

Although I usually see the worst of books wonderful because of some inherent habit of being positive, but no matter how I look at this book, I am sorry to say I can not call it excellent. Some stories are very interesting and offer a lot of new information but many of the stories are dull, pointless and divert from the topic which is a legal thriller. I guess this book can be called a good book if some of the stories were deleted or made more suspenseful or interesting.

I very much enjoyed the 2 audio tapes set and hope that you will do the same

I really don't think that changing my voice mail will help me succeed in my corporation. The author talks about mixing two forms of language (Edge and Center) to have a perfect communication with the people you work with (employees, employers, boss, etc) and never tells you how to mix these concepts... and besides, if a certain form of language works for me, center or edge, I really don't see the point on changing the way I speak.I never close a book forever before finishing it but after reading a couple of pages after the middle of the book and realized that I could be reading something else so I decided to stop with the torture.

This book was full of everyday scenarios, which were interpreted in a very narrow way to show the author's point. The connections between the examples and her points were vague at best. The real problem with this book is that it would only appeal to those with very little self-confidence, and if that person took the advice to heart the result would be laughable.

This book made a profound difference in the way I conduct my business. I was an "Edge" person to the extreme. I had always been taught that asking questions and constantly probing was the best and most powerful way to deal with clients and prospects. Not so! There's a time to stop asking and start "telling."
My clients want confident advice from me. They don't want to sit around and explore options forever. I do not understand some of the negative reviews of this book. I found it to be a great help.

This is a cheap book with lots and lots of sample exam questions, but many, way too many errors -- dozens! Wrong answers. Answers that contradict the text on its own pages earlier in the book, and repeated questions on the same topic (at least once with two different answers!) And explanatory text on the various exam topics is nearly non-existent at times and very erratic in its depth of coverage.

This book is a good starting point for the newly revised Windows 95 (70-064) exam. I just took it and scored 857 (minimum passing score is 632). The book goes into detail on topics that are heavily covered on the exam (networking with NT and NetWare, printing, system policies), and this makes it a great place to start studying. However, the 95 exam is full of nitpicky questions that are NOT covered in this book; you need additional sources to be completely prepared. In addition to buying this book, I'd recommend downloading the Win95 Resource Kit from Microsoft's Web site and spending some time going through it, especially troubleshooting. Also search the web for "70-064" to turn up helpful links. This is one of the hardest exams in the MCSE sequence, but if you use these sources you should be in good shape.

.... to pass the Win95 exam. This book is like all others in this series: Each test objective is examined in a seperate section while numerous fairly difficult questions test your knowledge. In addition, there are hands on exercises to reinforce the material. There are no pretty pictures here but this obviously helps keep the price at a very reasonable $25.00. The other recommended references would be the win95 resource kit and your hands on experience. A highly recommended book.

This book has at least 10 authors and is fun to read for the first few chapters. Then I really got annoyed to read the same things over and over again and at the same time I missed some more in depth explanations. A lot is done with the framework itself. This is probably due to the very early delivery date of the book. Though I really enjoyed the C# example (game of life) I think you be better served with Hollis, Lhotka "VB.Net Programming". Also there seem to be quite a few other books out by now.

This is a good introduction to .net, as the cover says, but me thinks it was just a ploy to make money. Not very useful at all, but if you are a beginner to .NET, then you might want to browse through it to get a general feel for the framework.

I have purchased several Dot Net books as of late. I thought the book was very thorough as an overview. This book was not intended to be a programmers guide to any single language in the Dot Net suite. But if you want a book to give you some insight as to what Dot Net is all about, this is a great place to start. I also purchased Wrox "Programming C# with the public Beta", although this book is being replaced with Professional C#, I still learned much from this title as well.

Book is laid out well but the advice is humdrum. You'd be better off going to your local bookstore and thumbing through current investment magazines. Save your nickel!