The one thing that Scott's biography of Callas has going for it is that he mostly sticks to Callas the artist, and avoids the gossip and speculation surrounding her personal life. However, what exists is a choppy, extremely opinionated, narrow minded repetition of all the same facts that are better found in other sources. He mentions that Callas "mistakes artfullness for artistry" about 100 times too. He basically feels that the deepening of her interpretation as her voice grew weaker was not real, and that her lyric and dramatic interpretation became more false as time went on. As the book plods on rehashing the same old information we have read over and over again elsewhere.

I own almost all the Callas biographies that have appeared in English, and I hated this book so much that I pulled out the photo section in the center to keep the pictures, and sent the book to the recycling center the day after I had the misfortune to purchase it.

Impresario Scott has done good research here. The book is a serious study of Callas the uncompromisingly committed musician, rather than Callas the celebrity or "tragic figure." In addition, Scott makes some important points about the nature of performance practice, including a brief evaluation of Toscanini's legacy, calling him to task for discarding earlier traditions--both good and bad--in the name of "textual accuracy": a bold and accurate statement. Yet Scott is harsher than necessary when discussing the work of the thin post-1953 Callas. Despite some losses in her post-1953 (and pre-1960) voice, his view is unnecessarily narrow, dismissing some of her most brilliant artistic achievements. Finally, the book is in serious need of editing. Many sentences are fragmentary and cryptic, the punctuation used in a rather haphazard fashion. There are also a number of factual errors and inconsistencies.

Michael Scott's book on the life and career of Maria Callas holds a strong appeal for the musician. Although he orders his study chronologically and includes quite a bit of biographical detail, this is not a book for gossip lovers. Instead, Scott dispassionately evaluates Callas' singing in general and major performances and roles in particular.

Scott's basic thesis is that Callas reached her vocal peak early, in the first part of the 1950s, and her great weight loss was in large part responsible for a general vocal decline thereafter, at first slow, then precipitous after her divorce from Meneghini.
At times his viewpoint provides a useful corrective to stories that have been handed down and repeated that are not exactly true--his take on the infamous Rome Norma of January 1958 is a striking example. His opinion that the root cause of many of the "scandals" that dogged her career was escalating vocal trouble certainly deserves serious consideration.

On the other hand, Scott is too quick to dismiss much of Callas' work from the later 1950s. By then, the early, prodigious vocal endowment had somewhat diminished, true; but for most opera lovers these years were the time when her still responsive voice was matched with her most exquisite musicianship.

Most readers will disagree, perhaps vehemently, with some of Scott's judgements and opinions; yet, by virtue of his firsthand witnessing of many of Callas' performances and determined avoidance of scandalmongering, his book joins a select company of work by Fitzgerald, Ardoin, Jellinek and a few others as one that sheds true light on the art of this much-discussed singer.

This book is just a copy of JMS tutorials from java site and has examples which are written using jmq which is no longer available as it has now become part of iPlanet group and they have broken compatibility (Interfaces have been changed) Not the worst book but certainly worst wrox book i have ever read

This book covers a lot of ground about JMS. However, the problem is that it is written by many authors, which results in repetition of some subject, bad structure of the book and more pages than necessary for explaining the subjects.

The first 5 chapters are on 250 pages and cover the basic about JMS, but I think "Java Message Service" by Monson-Haefel does a better job here. However, I appreciate that there are sequence diagrams in the first chapter that shows basic design patterns for MOM-based applications. The next two chapters is code example that shows how to use JMS from a web application and from EJBs. I'm not too found about this kind of lengthy code examples.

The chapter about JMS and Clustering is very technical, but still only scratches the surface. This is a subject that needs an own book to be covered completely. The next chapter called "Distributed Logging Using JMS" is again a lengthy code example, but a very useful one!

Chapter 10 is about XML Messaging with some XML code example. I think this chapter, like some of the other chapters as well, covers too little to be of some real value and too much for just being an overview. Chapter 11 is about Mobile Applications and the criticism against this chapter is the same as the chapter about XML.

All and all this is a book that covers a lot of subjects related to JMS, but it does it in a boring and verbose way.

I expect that with introduction of JMS and Message Driven Beans which are based on this technology we will see very big movement towards implementing various application scenarious based on JMS. This book definitely could help you to decide what should be taken in account. I also like chapter on Clustering and Scalability - each enterprise (and you as developer for this enterprise) should think about this during design stage. List of various JMS providers (SonicMQ, IBM MQ Series, FioranoMQ, WebLogic) and implemented by them features could also be helpful.

I really enjoy the Using Series, and look for them whenever I want to learn more about a certain topic. However, this book is deplorable. It is not made for anyone looking to write their own code, or anyone who actually wants to program. All this book tries to do is show you how to use someone else's code. I do not mean another module, such as the infamous CGI.pm moudle, but rather using another script and "tweaking" it for your needs. It also does not seek to explain the theory behind the code. I was also quite disappointed in how it was organized. The Using Seies are good books, but this one doesn't belong in the family. There are much better books out there that will serve your needs.

I found this book to be hard to read and poorly written. The examples are very difficult to follow because most are only code segments not the full code. This makes it very diffcult to follow. As any experienced programmer will tell you "Nothing helps more than a good example.". This book is highly lacking of good examples. I have several years of experience with programming in several languages, which allowed me to fill the gaps in the examples, how ever a beginning programmer would be lost. In conclusion I do not recommend this book to a programmer of any level.

I found this book to be hard to read and poorly written. The examples are very difficult to follow because most are only code segments not the full code. This makes it very diffcult to follow. As any experienced programmer will tell you "Nothing helps more than a good example.". This book is highly lacking of good examples. I have several years of experience with programming in several languages, which allowed me to fill the gaps in the examples, how ever a beginning programmer would be lost. In conclusion I do not recommend this book to a programmer of any level.

One star is too many.

I am a long term fan of Michael Powell and The Archers and was horrified when I read this book.

I've never seen a book so full of inaccuracies.

I wrote to the publishers listing about 30 or so of the most glaring factual errors. They wrote back saying that my comments had been noted but didn't say they intended to correct any of them.

Having spent nearly three years researching this book, it is the most detailed look at the career of Michael Powell and his work with Emeric Pressburger. As Steve Crook correctly points out, a number of spelling errors made it into the final manuscript, but this book serves to introduce fans of The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, Peeping Tom, and I Know Where I'm Going to their other work. In addition to the most comprehensive filmography and bibliography available, it takes a detailed look at most of his films that are available. Thanks to the cooperation of the British Film Institute, many of his lesser-known works were analyzed in detail, including some that were thought to be long lost.

"I'm tremendously impressed by your book on Michael Powell. Well written, very interesting, not dry and tedious. Excellent work. Thomas Gifford, New York Times Best Selling Author, The Assassini, The Wind Chill Factor.

"A conscientious, well-documented account of Powell's work." Sight and Sound Magazine.

"Reliable study along currently orthodox lines, with sagacious observations and some nicely disconcerting insights." Raymond Durgnatt, Cineaste.

"Describes and analyzes of Michael Powell the work and his partner, Emeric Pressburger, who released 16 films in 15 years, from the beginning of their partnership until its end in 1956." Booknews.

"Its great to see Powell receiving his due, and this is a welcome addition to the literature of his very special talents." George Turner, American Cinematographer.

"This author has already written well on one British director. This new volume is a thoughtful consideration of the work of the Archers and Powell in particular. . . Salwolke writes with style and grace. . . Anyone interested in British cinema, particularly thinking of researching the subject, should be aware of this excellent book." Graham Roberts, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television.

"A scholarly study of the legendary Red Shoes director and his writer Emeric Pressburger." Howard Maxford Film Review.

Beware those Adobe-endorsed books. While there are some useful examples herein, most of this is just one long diatribe on the virtues of Adobe and their pivotal place in developing web content. If you're looking to this book to discover how to publish for the web, there are precious few really useful pointers. While the Adobe Classroom in a Book series is instructive, their other titles are of very limitted usefulness (and often very expensive). This book is no exception. Lacks any real discussion of the intricacies of web design. Say nay. Docked a notch for being so expensive.

It's true, this book focuses exclusively on Adobe software, but it IS called Adobe Web Design & Publishing. The warning is right there in the title. That said, it's a tome of useful tips on using Adobe software to create professional quality web sites and graphics. If you use Adobe software to create web sites, consider buying this book. One caveat: Adobe Web Design & Publishing does not cover Adobe's latest and greatest web site design software, Go Live. Hopefully the next version will.

This book is very basic, written in textbook form. There are even tests at the end of each chapter. This book is written for high school students, and doesn't have alot of technical info

This book contains many description of auto bodies repairing...easy to understand in general...

This text is poorly put together and laden with typoes. White tries too hard to be witty, as are most of the other writers of the series, and loses focus in the meantime. White completely omits the first act of Twilight of the Gods as well in his overview. Only the experienced Wagner fan can go back and use this as a nice reference piece.

There are three unavoidable truths about Wagner: that he was one of the most repellent men who ever lived; that he was one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived; and that people either love him or hate him.

Michael White's highly entertaining introduction to this horrifying figure concentrates mostly on the first 'fact' - it is, after all, easier to list someone's biographical failures than explain why the closing symphony of the Gotterdammerung sounds both like the terrible end of the world and the unaccountable essence of sublimity (I'm afraid he gets you talking this way).

And so, amusingly, we are told about Wagner's cruelties, caprices, infidelities, and, of course, his anti-Semitism; and given an interesting guide to some of the more sensible influences (eg Schopenhauer, Proudhon) on Wagner's loony philosophies, and a sound cultural and political background.

This proper emphasis on the man rather neglects the artist, and while White quite rightly argues the impossibility of separating both, you don't get much sense of the sheer magnitude of Wagner's achievement (using the odd big word isn't enough), or what it means for us, the listener, to be entranced by the works of such an ogre.

That said, the sheer readability and cheek of this book, as with all others in this series, is great fun, even if it doesn't achieve its aim (to make you master of the subject) as the book on Post-Modernism did.

The chief joy of this series, however, is the illustration, and Kevin Scott keeps up the remarkably high standard, fusing dada, colage, pop art, with some astonishing pastiche and cartoon work, which means every page, even if you are dissatisfied with its contents, is a pleasure to read.

Totally disappointing - it is nothing but a cartoon book. Avoid!!!

Some readers may not see the importance of a book that tells a story in "comic" or sequential art form, but this tale is a great way to introduce youngsters to the history of the Irish. For a teen, this "comic book" might spark the curiosity to want to learn more. Both the story and artwork are excellent.

Horton's book seems a little bit less than intellectually honest. While purporting to be a general sort of overview of Christian theology, particularly on the themes of salvation by grace and justification by faith, the fall of man, etc., it develops into a thinly veiled attempt to paint these doctrines under the banner of five point calvinism as if there exists no understanding of grace apart from TULIP. Rather than recognize that there is serious scholarly debate between the camps of calvinism and arminianism, Horton spins his explanation of salvation by grace as if it were a unique posession of reform theologians. In dealing with opposing views, horton frequently appeals to ad hominem slanders and insinuations rather than dealing with the real theological issues. Arminians "limit the power of the atonement". Those who believe men choose to trust in Christ of their own free will are secretly hoping to merit salvation by their works. Wesley is shallowly analyzed as having rejected the calvinist position on election because it took away the motivations of "fear of punishment and hope of reward". Non-reformed evangelists approach unbelievers as "targets, consumers, numbers, and converts" rather than human beings.

...

Horton hits the nail on the head with this book. His bold yet non-judgemental writing style captures your attention, and his sound theology is sure to change your perspectives on grace. I can't express enough how valuable this book is, pick up your copy today! This book is a must read for all Christians.

Me encanto el libro, me intereso sobre todo como relaciono el tema del contexto cultural con las practicas administrativas.