This book is very good although it may be a little hard for younger audiences to read. The Egyptian vocabulary and traditions may be a little confusing. If you get stuck on an Egyptian word, person, or place refer to the vocabulary list at the end of the book. Their it will tell you it's meaning and should help you along with the book. Other reviewers said that this book was boring and yes, it might be boring to readers who know nothing about Hathshepsut or are not interested in Egyptian history. I reccomend reading 'Hatshepsut, His Majesty, Herself' by Catherine M. Andronik and Joseph Daniel Fiedler {illustrator} which is a short straight forward history about Hatshepsut that basicly sums up her life and accomplishments before tackling this book. Anyways this book is very interesting. It provides a lot of history which makes the book even more interesting. You'll love this book as long as you read it with a poisitive notion

Some other reviewers considered this book boring, but they must a)not have a very good grasp of egyptian history, b)have a complete lack of interest in Egypt, c) be sans a diverse vocabulary. :) I love ancient Egypt, fact and fiction, and this book is wonderful for any history buff. I found it very exciting, beautifully written, and it described the atmosphere of Hatshepsut's time with rich clarity. Let me tell you, I read this book in sixth grade and loved it, and even now, years later, it is still a fabulously satisfying read. So boo yah, and go borrow/steal:)/buy His Majesty, Queen Hatshepsut!!!

...I love ancient Egypt, fact and fiction, and this book is wonderful for any history buff. I found it very exciting, beautifully written, and it described the atmosphere of Hatshepsut's time with rich clarity. Let me tell you, I read this book in sixth grade and loved it, and even now, years later, it is still a fabulously satisfying read. ...

This book is definitely not worth the money. I was so excited to read it only to be completely let down. If you take all of his e-mail correspondence out, between him and online submissives, the book would be less than 20 pages...and it's a 573 page book!!! You would be more pleased with the book BREAKING THE GIRL.

I just finished reading Galen's book, "The Sharp Edge of Love". I read it in a day and a half, because I could NOT put it down. I am a 34 year-old, married submissive that began my own sexual and soul-searching journey via the internet one year ago.

The submissive women in this book felt like sisters to me. They were passionate, smart, sexy, open and had very naughty imaginations. It was refreshing to hear women's voices in that way. Too much of our sexuality is still hidden or repressed. Galen's thought provoking prose and wonderfully lurid fantasies capture the true nature of the Dom/sub dance. He shows how important it is to discover and reveal one's true nature, and he invites us to revel in our own delightfully decadent sexual personas.

Definitely recommended reading for anyone who has had a D/s relationship blossom over the internet. I saw myself in the book in many ways. Kudos to Galen who exposes himself so utterly. His nakedness and vulnerability in speaking about himself let us know that it's okay, and even celebrated, when we do the same ourselves. By reminding us that he isn't perfect, he makes it okay for the rest of us to reveal our flaws (and our secret selves) without worrying what other people might think of us.

Thank you for lighting the way, Galen, and cheers to all who have the courage to be who they really are.

I have read The Sharp Edge Of Love. It was the most rivoting book i have ever read. It was thought provoking. As one who is in the lifestyle I can relate to the charcters as well as with Galen. As in the book I too have fallen victim to a fake person, I understand how Galen felt when he learned of the betrayal. I would recommend this book to all who are in the lifestyle or curious about it. I look forward to reading more books Galen chooses to write.

The reviewers who praised this book didn't check the facts and neither did the author. In fact, the book is highly inaccurate both in its facts and conclusions. The book merely applies the same pseudopsychoanalysis as the subject applied to his "patients," including me.

I was a source for the book and nearly everything in it about me is totally wrong. I shared considerable information with the author following a 1990 article in the Washington Post I wrote detailing Bettelheim's unsupported claims and physical and psychological abuse of his wards. The author promised that I could control anything that appeared in the book about me. But the book came out with all sorts of unsourced untruths about me that the author never bothered to check with me. From the looks of them, I suspect some she made up and some she heard from Bettelheim's defenders who worked at the school and broke their professional code of silence to reveal "information" about a "patient." It evidently never occured to the author that these people may have wanted to smear me to save their own reputations. The author even had the nerve to state as fact how I was feeling, which is amazing because she never asked me. In fact, I never felt the way she said I felt.

The book just amounted to the same type of Freudian nonsense I was subject to at Bettleheim's school -- someone else telling you that you don't feel what you feel -- you really feel what I tell you you feel. The book even managed to completely misrepresent what I wrote in the Washington Post. I have been quoted in many publiciations on this and other matters but I have never seen anything so far from the truth. The author didn't like my thesis and couldn't get me on the facts, so she apparently made up her own.

Immediately upon the book's publication, I notified the publisher by letter of the book's errors, but the publisher never corrected them in subsequent printings. And no one even had the decency to answer my letter. To this very day, the company continues to sell a book it knows is inaccurate.

I simply wish to say that there would no controversy if thoughtful, sensitive people were in control of their own emotions and were objective enough to put Bruno Bettelheim and his times in perspecitve. This is one of the implicit themes of the book.The author, a journalist, has study the facts and has the intuition to understand as much as any biographer can at this time a complex suffering personality. I hope only that the time will come when such a understanding can be objectively drawn. But meanwhile the biographer has made at least this attentive and by no means unskeptical reader understand the controversy and the facts of the case are not always one and the same...

This book moved me deeply. Not only did it tell me a fascinating story about a man whose life span the century, but it moved me deeply. It's not a funny book, but it is a riveting one. Rather than pretending to know it all, the author takes her reader on an investigative journey: Who was the true Bettelheim? She shares her doubts as well as her discoveries some of which I shall never forget. And in the end, everything seems to fall into place - the good, the bad, everything human, I guess.

I don't find this book very helpful in general. I am very disappointed in the content.

I have travelled extensively in Australia on three trips between March, 2001 and November, 2002, and purchased this book to fill in information about Australian culture, lifestyle and current happenings where guidebooks are usually pretty thin. It almost did the job for me.

The author, Ilsa Sharp who is an immigrant from Great Britain by way of Singapore, wrote this introduction to Australia for publication in 1992. She had only lived in Australia two years then. She has revised it four times since, in 1994, 1997, 2000, and 2001--or almost revised it in those years.

Unfortunately her comments on things that are subject to change jump around so that the reader cannot tell whether or not they are current. There are lots of phrases like "Here's the drum, as the Australians say, the latest on property, at the time of writing, in late 1991..."(p. 156) For anyone who wants to know about purchasing property, comments about 1991 are just too old to be useful.

This strangly "updated" edition stumbles over itself in this fashion on many topics, moves forward mentioning events in 1996, 1997 and even 2000 before slipping back into comments like "At the time of writing, the rule on importing aged parents is that..." without telling when this comment was written or whether the rule is still in effect in 2001. You may not care about the rule on "importing parents" but there are other issues handled the same way that you probably would care about. The book needs to be thoroughly up-dated and edited so that the reader will know what the current situation is.

That said, there are many well-written chapters on things that do not change much in a decade: Australian language and slang, how Australians see themselves and how they are seen by others, Aboriginal experience and how Euro-Australians have treated them, the "leisure ethic," mateship and machismo, tucker (food), attitudes about working and about the environment, etc. These are worth the exasperating confusion left by the other stuff.

The cover of the 2001 edition claims it is a "NEW EXPANDED EDITION." That may be, but what Culture Shock really needs to do is to get it all brought up to the present so the reader knows what's going on now. Would I recommend it? You bet. Much of the information is difficult to find elsewhere, and the author is on the mark in her witty commentary.

This book gave a feel for life in Australia. It is fascinating. "Customs and Etiquette" are more informative than facts and figures when understanding people from another place. Too bad our history and geography books aren't more like this book. Australia is a BIG place, so understanding the people is like understanding ALL Americans. Not so easy. I loved it.

Before there was ASP.NET, there was ASP. This book is clearly a "Teach Yourself ASP" book that has had the ".NET" moniker added to the title. All the code examples show embedded code withing ASP pages rather than the newer (and clearly superior) "code behind" model of Microsoft's Visual Studio product. I am most disappointed that there are no explanations of how to use the Visual Studio environment to build the web pages. The authors seem to be of the "I've got notepad to enter my code and that's all I need" school of programming. To be honest, the title did not say anything about Visual Studio, so I guess the joke's on me.

This book will not teach you C#, there are better books for that. However it is probably the quickest intro to ASP.NET with C# as the programming language on the market today. However it will not teach you everything you need to know to make real world applications, but it will get you started (at least it got me started). True the Visual Studio 7.0 is quite complex and I would have liked to know more about the user interface, but there is enough in the book to get you going. PS the code is available for download (some reviews say its not).
Only negative point is that the application examples are kind of boring :-(

:-) This book actually took me nearly forty (40) whole days to read! O.K. Poor humour aside, I'd recommend this book for several reasons...

Firstly - and this is the most important one - when you invest the time to read ~600 pages of book you need to be sure that the time is being well spent. I purchased this book to get a heads-up on the constructs of the C# language having come from a VB background. I wasn't disappointed -

THIS BOOK WILL TEACH YOU C#!

I learnt quite a lot of stuff about *languages* that I simply did not think that I had the time to learn just by reading this book. For example, the author takes the time to teach you about polymorphism and inheritance and also the simple things such as reuse and how to lay out your code modules.

The author - Bradley L. Jones - obviously has a very strong command of languages and that comes through by reading this book. He shows you those little language *tricks* that you only get from someone who knows, and obviously enjoys, programming.

IN SHORT
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This book is obviously aimed at someone either new to programming or somebody looking for an introduction to the C# language and I would heartily recommend it for that purpose. If you're serious about .NET, and you enjoy programming, take the time to read this book - I couldn't do it in 21 days, but, I'm glad I did it :-)

I'm not "in love" with this book, but I certainly liked it. A sort of crunchy find-yourself-in-the-Nevada-woods narrative that borders on overly optimistic (while hiding out in the woods to escape her old life, Luna finds, naturally, a wonderful and off-beat man that just happens to live in a tent nearby. Oh, and a son of course. Who, despite his cavities, may just fit in just fine). Despite all this, however, Doris Betts managed to keep my interest with strong writing and interesting observations from the characters.

I stumbled upon this book and now eagerly anticipate reading every word Doris Betts has ever written. Thanks to a cast of fascinating characters and a plot with more twists than a tornado, I was completely enraptured. This is one of the best novels I've read in my life: unique, satisfying, and absolutely unforgettable.

Betts has to be one of the best authors to ever come out of North Carolina. Her writing has a touch of realism that is seldom matched by writers. Her wit is brilliant. Her characters are moving. The story is hypnotic. Take a look at this book. A+

This book is geared for the person who is either a novice programmer or is new to object oriented programming. Anyone who is migrating from another language such as C++ or Java would be better served by choosing the Microsoft Press Core Reference book. This book takes a leisurely pace through C# and Visual Studio. Each chapter introduces a concept and then takes you through a step-by-step demonstration in Visual Studio of a program using that concept. Beyond the basics of C#, the book also covers such topics and ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and web services. It includes a brief tutorial on XML as well. The book does not cover each topic in great depth and some topics are left out (I/O, for example) but for someone with little or no experience the pace and the material covered is about perfect. Overall the book is well done. The book makes it easy for the novice to learn C#. The lessons are well designed to help the reader understand the material that was just covered. The authors' pace is perfect for a self-study course and should allow you to learn the material without much struggle. If you have experience then you will probably want to look elsewhere, perhaps to the Core Reference or the O'Reilly book. You should note that this book is very much a "hands on" book so you will need a copy of Visual Studio or Visual C#.NET to make it worthwhile.

Actually, first half the book has a very nice step-by-step progression for someone starting C# (somewhat painfully slow if you have had some programming background, however). Then you had better be holding on to your seat because it jumps into some advanced topics like OO and delegates and (in my opinion) does a poor job of explaining them. I got totally confused reading this books explanation of delegates and after reading a few sentences in my other C# book (Mastering Visual C#.NET) on the subject, it made perfect sense. In fact, although this is not a bad book, I think that Mastering Visual C#.Net is much much better...maybe one of the best I have read, in fact. (and I have read most of about 15 .net books so far)

Anyway, it you like are very very gradual start then it may be worth getting for the first half, anyway...but there might be better, even for that...

EarlT777@Hotmail.com

I have not been a fan of the Step By Step series in the past. If this is the direction they are going, I may have to re-examine by own personal bias against them.

Admitedly, this is a beginner's book, rather than a book for people who have already gained quite a bit of experience in C# through the betas. But, that is not all bad.

My own personal reason for picking up this book is the large amount of time I have spent on Visual Basic .NET, as of late. The fact it was free made it worth even more to me.

My personal love of this book comes from the fact it is the first one I have sat down and read that covers more than syntax. Okay, Wrox did have a book that went beyond, but it was rushed and not as well designed for learning a new language and paradigm.

From the first chapter, you are encouraged to get into code and start developing with C#.NET from the first chapter. The book also covers a variety of types of projects. Parts 4-6 take you through Windows Forms and WebForm applications, as well as working with ADO.NET. Sweet!

The book is broken down into nice bite size chunks, each with its own projects. Overall, I wish Microsoft was still putting the ebook on the CD, as I like to carry the CD instead of the entire tome, but that is a minor knock.

There is one potential downside to the book. You can easily develop with C# using notepad. Much of the book, however, relies on Visual Studio .NET. While I don't consider this a major negative, those that are not using Visual Studio .NET will not get as much value from the book.

I am a bit reluctant to give this book 5 stars, as I, as an advanced developer, do not get as much value out of this book. However, it hits its intended target and makes a wonderful book for someone just learning C#. And, with almsot 600 pages of content, and a reasonable font size, it packs quite a punch. The fact that the layout looks rather nice and makes it easy and enjoyable to learn is an added bonus.

There is no Biblical proof that angels are protectors or companions. If one reads the Bible, it clearly states there roll. They were only sent to Earth as messengers. That's all!

I picked up so many tips for POSITIVE living from this book. I also learned so many beautiful ways to communicate with my own angels. I look forward to going through the book again for myself, one page a day, and giving it as a gift to friends.

This is much more entertaning, healthful, and sensible than my previos mistakeful readings of L.Ron Hubbbard's entire works

I hope I can get away from these people, God Help me (And will I be listning for my Angel because of them they talk sweet but I have bee nturned from ther ways of wickked ness!!!)

J.

The comments below from Stupified and Jason (the Editor)are both regarding the wrong book. This book is C# and not C++.
How can I purchase this book now knowing the editor is less than detail oriented? I must assume the other readers comments are true if the technical editor cannot respond to the correct text.

I am using the first edition of this book and there are so many errors that by the time I was half-way through the book I no longer felt comfortable with any of the sample code. At times I wasn't sure whether I was having a hard time grasping the subject or I just couldn't make sense of it because there were so many errors.

...

I find this book does a great job to teach me C#. This book clearly explains some of the concepts like boxing and unboxing by using useful diagrams. The chapters are very short and concise (around 15 pages per chapter) but provide enough details to cover the topics and explain them with small pieces of sample codes. There is also a complete sample program at the end of each chapter.
One thing I didn't know before buying this book was this book requires Visual Studio .NET 2003 to run the sample codes and if you have previous version of Visual Studio .NET you will not be able to open the samples.

I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the basic of C#.

I had been looking for a C# book which also took care of teaching to exploit all the benefits of the .Net framework. I had stumbled with some books that were too inclined to either the language itself or the .net framework, but this book keeps a good balance between these two topics.

I purchased Professional C# from Wrox, but I saw too many typos in the text and even worse in the code!, so I went ahead and returned it later. I decided to spend some time at the bookstore comparing books and after much deliberation this one won me. I think it was a little bit expensive but it was worth it since it includes clear explanations, visual representation of what the samples do and how they work and best of all, it covers may topics I was interested in like XML, SOAP, Web Services, ASP.NET, etc.

I even liked the two color schema (red and black) in which it is printed.

Superb. This book shows how it should be done. It covers just about everthing you need to know about C# - web services, XML, database access - it's all here in one book.

The many examples illustrate the concepts very well, and I particularly like the useful tips, 'common programming errors' and 'good programming practice' advice.

Surprisingly, the material is also accessible to people new to programming. There's sufficient introductory material (which experienced programmers can skip over) to allow program novices to start programming with C# - no need to start with Basic in a DOS window!

I have a few other books on C#, but this is easily the best.

Having had no programming experience at all, I am now confidently written an image processing application for a digital xray device. The MSc student who bagged this book so much should seriously think about whether or not he is on doing the right study course. If you cant understand this book, you should consider euthanasia