The background, the launch and the "accident" I found interesting. It was the tedium of the aftermath that I found dull. The lawsuits, the guilt, the lawyers, that followed...yawn.

I had high hopes for this book and was let down.

"The Return", is full of irony as it involves damage to a shuttle named Columbia. This is not cheap opportunism as this book was released a few years ago. This book attempts to include several large events in far too few pages. An event takes place and then is often resolved with little if any detail shared between the event and its resolution.

The work often has an annoying style that has a character involved in a dialogue and then commenting on what they are about to say, are saying, or have said. It leaves the reader feeling as those the same material is covered more than once. Meaningless issues like what type of fast food can cover more than a page or two, and in a book of 264 pages, that is an interminably long time.

I would be much more interested in reading non-fiction from Mr. Aldrin about how he feels America can effectively once again begin the exploration of space. I would like to know what he thinks about the Space Shuttle, The International Space Station, and whether these are worthwhile programs, and if not, what programs should be pursued.

Not many have the experience of Mr. Aldrin and I wish he was using the time that produced this book, to further the exploration, or at least the intelligent discussion of the exploration of space.

I have read the book front to back including introduction page. I just realized that the book was based on beta 2 of Visual Studio.Net, too late for a refund. Anyway, I went on to read it and found out that the book was not very much organised as tons of '...we'll discuss this on chapter xx ... ' appear no less than 5 times in a single chapter (on some chapters). Mispelled words also are catching enough to say that this book was in a hurry to be printed.

If you're looking for a book that covers thorough details on window forms and web form control howtos, this wouldn't give you enough detail on those topics. Web Services is equally a mere introduction, with about two pages of discussion on UDDI as well as WSDL. Not much on ADO.Net and XML.

I should have borrowed this book instead and skim through it or should have bought it for 20 bucks less. Besides, it's already outdated. I hope the same authors would come up with a second edition that has richer detail...and send me a free copy.

Contagion revolves around an outbreak of "The Clench", a fictional Ebola offshoot, in Gotham City. Batman and company attempt to contain the spread of the Disease, while trying to track down a trio of survivors of a previous Clench outbreak, with the hope of synthesizing a cure/vaccine from their blood.

The book is very choppy, especially the first chapter, which appears to be heavily trimmed from it's original presentation in Batman: Shadow of the Bat. DC hasn't taken any steps to make their collections new-reader friendly, either, which could be a very big mistake. Longtime readers will know Oracle, Azrael, Nightwing, The Huntress, etc.; A new reader browsing this in a store would no doubt put the book right back on the shelf. The story has a few compelling moments, but for the most part it seems unnecessarily padded. Did we really need the Native American tracker? What did Biis contribute to the story? The writing is average at best; Most of the stories in Contagion were written by people who had long since overstayed their welcome on the Bat-books, such as Doug Moench & Alan Grant; The art ranges from okay to sub-par; Kelley Jones' chapter seems especially ugly thanks to poor color reproduction which mars his intricate pencils. The ultimate revelation of who is behind the spread of The Clench is sure to be a head-scratcher to new readers, since no background at all is offered to explain who these people are and what their motives are. DC really needs to get on the ball with their trade-paperback program; Preaching to the Choir is nice, but they need to try for new converts. Junk like Contagion is NOT the way to expand their readership......

The only serious caveat is to beware the infamous back of the book. The description given by the publisher is misleading; there is no Sisko/Dukat alliance, for example. Moreover, the back gives away a major plot point that does not occur until page 200 or so (in a 270 page book). So, don't read the back of the book, but pick it up, read it, and enjoy it as it is meant to be enjoyed - as mindless, harmless entertainment.

In addition to text, this book catalogues eighty artifacts of the period. Each artifact has a detailed description and a brief summary of its significance to ancient Mesoamerica culture. Unfortunately, the photographs do not progress in a consistent numerical order and some listings do not have photographs, which makes it difficult to follow. A map, key to sites, abbreviations, and references add to my understanding of these Latin American cultures. These selections from the University of Florida Gallery give me a miniature but informative view of Pre-Columbian traditions.

For those that are unfamiliar with him, Scott Keith is most well-known for his "rants" on the internet, in which he reviews WWF Pay-Per-Views and television shows. Several reviewers have argued that Keith never writes anything positive about pro wrestling, that he just doesn't "get it" (a slogan the WWF has not used for at least a year). Obviously, such reviewers have not read Keith's review of WM X-7 (he called it perhaps the greatest PPV of all-time) or his glowing reviews of just about every PPV the WWF released in 2000.

Admittedly, Keith has been highly critical of the WWF's direction for the past year or so. Not coincidentally, however, the WWF has seen a major ratings decrease during that period. This week's episode of Smackdown! received a 2.9, a lower number than Raw put up at times when it constantly being trounced every week by WCW Monday Nitro. It appears that the fans who blindly defend the WWF against any criticism of the product are the ones who don't "get it."

Keith has shown an insight into Pro Wrestling that few exhibit, as can be seen by reading this book. After introducing the reader to basic wrestling concepts and "inside" terms, the author takes us through the early history of the sport, leading up to the 1980's, which begins the modern era that is Keith's major focus.

Keith separates the last twenty years into several distinct periods, providing biographies of the wrestlers that contributed most to the evolution of the sport and its popularity. Rather than simply a laundry list of wrestler stats and short stories, the book is actually a running narrative of the last two decades, conveyed by the stories of the wrestlers who stood out the most. He starts in the 1980's with Rock 'N Wrestling and Hulkamania, moving on to the WWF's down period in the mid 1990's and the corresponding rise of WCW. Finally, we meet the major players who contributed to the WWF's current (waning?) run of greatness from 1998 until the present.

There seem to be two major criticisms running through the negative reviews of this book. First are the grammatical errors. I had actually heard that the grammar was pretty bad before I read the book. However, whatever grammatical errors were present did not detract from my enjoyment or education while reading. There definitely are some errors, but not nearly enough to distract the reader or to merit (with no other reasons) a negative review.

Secondly, at least one reader argued that this book is "obsolete" because of the changes the industry has undergone since the summer of 2000. Since most of the book focuses on wrestling's history, I fail to see the reasoning behind this argument. Nothing Keith has written has been rendered factually inaccurate by recent events. While WCW no longer exists, of course, it is still both valuable and entertaining to learn about the careers of some of its performers, especially Ric Flair, who is still in the business. In addition, Bill Goldberg, also covered by the book, recently was released from his Time Warner deal, rendering it likely that he too will wrestle for someone in the near future. This book does a better and more objective job of covering the last twenty years in wrestling than any I know of. That it was written in 2000 does not change that.

I do have several criticisms, though. Firstly, I think Keith could have done a much better job documenting his information. He gives credit to Wade Keller's Pro Wrestling Torch and Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter as sources for most of his information, but never makes clear exactly what information was obtained from which source. It is impossible for the reader to independently verify much of what Keith writes, especially from the period before the rise of the internet. Even after that point, it is unclear what separates documented fact from unfounded internet rumor.

Secondly, this book was too bland. Scott Keith's greatest strengths as a writer are his sarcasm and wit. This book utilizes neither to anywhere near their full capacity, and this was a huge disappointment to me. The book is mostly just bland storytelling, which is especially unsatisfying for someone who is so used to Keith's wonderful humor. I highly recommend looking up his rants on the internet, especially if you enjoy this book.

Anyone knowing of Scott Keith (Netcop) from Rantsylvania will know what to expect of this book, as he covers a lot of the "inside" intricacies of the pro wrestling scene, from a historical perspective, to extensive wrestler profiles covering the major aspects and backstories of each individual's career, to the modern-day "sports entertainment" angle that has proven so popular. Almost being an unofficial "idiot's guide" to the behind-the-scenes goings-on for people who are fascinated with terms such as "workrate", "selling", "heat" and "kayfabe", The Buzz on Professional Wrestling is a great "primer" for those not familiar with the "fake" aspects of wrestling, and also a very good reference on wrestling in general, without becoming too pedantic. "Favorite move" hounds will enjoy Mr. Keith's treatement of standard and finishing maneuvers, though like me, they will probably wish it were longer.

From a critic's point of view, although the book *IS* informative, those who are "in the know" (or think they are) may think "Buzz" doesn't focus enough on this or that aspect of the business. While this might be a valid argument to purists, to accurately portray, perhaps even dissect professional wrestling and its history which stretches back hundreds of years, would take FAR more than one single volume - it would end up being an encyclopaedia (which, I'm sure most fans would agree, we'd happily buy); the Buzz on Professional Wrestling does its job quite efficiently, providing a very entertaining and nostalgic read, allowing you to see previous years of wrestling in a whole new light.

At the risk of sounding "markish", following Scott's lead, as a longtime fan of wrestling in all its forms (TV, PPV, games, books, collectibles), I would say The Buzz on Professional Wrestling deserves **** (four stars), with the only element really missing being one-on-one interviews with the primaries (wrestlers, bookers, managers) themselves.

One of my biggest beef with this book is the same beef I had with Microsoft's MSDN series of .NET books. It feels more like a mismash of articles that have been published before (in Microsoft's case, they had been). There is no real cohesion in the book, and, while the content is not bad, the lack of cohesion makes you feel more like you are sitting through a conference than reading a book on the .NET Framework. One last downside: The appendices in this book are largely useless.

Having knocked the book, there is good material here. While this book is not the best to learn to code .NET, there is ample information on how the Framework works. If C# is your language of choice, and you are an Internet developer, the chapter on Engineering web services may well become the most useful in the book.

I will this book as an addition to your library, although I but not as your first purchase. If you want a book to understand the .NET Framework, I believe .NET Framework Essentials is a much better tome (at a much better price).

There are people that need it. It is a prescribed textbook for Society of Actuary course 4 exam. Other than those guys taking this exam, DON'T TOUCH THIS BOOK.

P.S.: Many of those formulas in the books are wrong.

The above statement applies to this textbook more than to any other that I have ever read in my life. Each chapter reduces to nothing more than an inscrutable collection of formulas. The authors do not provide even the slightest beginning of an insight to a student attempting to learn the material from this text.