If you are new to GUI programming in general or Qt programming in particular, this book will get you off the ground and running towards writing your own Qt applications. It is clearly written with many simple examples that illustrate how to use the basic Qt tools. The book also has exercises at the end of each chapter as well as several "hooks" to get you to check the official online Qt docs. I would have given the book full marks if the author hadn't wasted chapters on specific tasks such as programming for KDE, using OpenGL, or programming Netscape plugins. If you are interested in these tasks, it's a 5-star book, but I would have preferred a couple of advanced chapters covering Qt's built-in threading classes or other less task-specific topics.

Note that this book is basically a "stepping stone" to get you going from scratch. After you've finished this book, you will likely not refer to it as much as the official Qt documentation that trolltech provides with most Qt packages. I recommend that beginners start with this book, and then move on to try the tutorial "cannon" program that comes with the official docs.

There are not that many books available for QT so I had to settle on this Sams Title. I usually dislike these "Teach yourself ... in 24 hours or 1 hour or 2 minutes..." books, but this one is fantastic. This book assumes C and C++ experience. If you only know C but also have a good understanding of Object Oriented Programming, then you'll be fine. The chapters are brief but very effective and there are great exercises at the end of each chapter.

I recommend this book to anyone who needs to learn more about QT.

Before I went out to buy this book, I visited the publisher's and Amazon web sites because I was feeling apprehensive about how trivial a 24 hour Teach Yourself series get. After I had gone through the review, I feel that there is hope in learning C++ GUI development after all. Qt and Daniel, the author give beginners as a programmer a chance to shine. I attempted Visual C++ with a couple of books, and nothing came close to a good concept as portrayed as Qt and Daniel as a wonderful writer. I agree with one of the reviewers before me, there should be a CD consists of Qt GUI tools software bundled with it.

I gave it 5 stars because it's easy to follow, which I presume people with some basic C++ programming background would be interested in purchasing this book and this book covers alot. I'm going to look into a more detailed book by the same author which is also on sale and listed on Amazon if I'm not mistaken.

"Half-Jewish" is an affirmation and celebration of children who are "Half-Jewish". This book celebrates, rather than denies, who they are, their heritage and unique contributions to the world. A mix of pop culture, humorous anecdotes and an intelligent argument for embracing the idea of a "Half-Jewish" cultural identity, this is a must read for "Half-Jewish" children AND their parents. As a non-Jewish parent of Half-Jewish children, this book has helped me think about ways in which to help my children embrace their "Jewish half." Besides, the book also celebrates Adam Sandler's "Channukah Song". :-)

I didn't want to like this book, since I don't believe you can be half-Jewish in religious terms, since religions have differing beliefs, and one may not believe simultaneously in philosophies with opposing world and cosmic views. But this book is discussing Jewishness as a pop culture, and I have to admit, that it is very entertaining and well designed. I will even overlook that it puts a stereotypical half-bagel on the cover, just as Asian American books use red or a bowl of rice, and African American books use bold colored cover art. According to the authors. in the United States, there are more half-Jews than "full Jews" under the age of eleven. Daniel Klein and Freke Vuijst live in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where they are raising their half-American-Jewish, half-Dutch-Christian daughter. Half Jewish is a new and rapidly growing identity (if we disregard the Biblical children of Joseph and Moses (Hebrews)). The Half-Jewish Book celebrates this unique identity that until now has been dissed and avoided. The authors fill this book with profiles, interviews, and quotes from half Jewish literary characters (Margaret Simon from Judy Blume's 1970 book, "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret"); cartoon characters (Tommy and Dyl Pickles from Rugrats); and real part Jewish personalities from American pop culture (Joan Collins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Irving, Paulette Goddard, Jayne Seymour, Lisa Bonet, Barbara Hershey, Michael Douglas, Michael Landon, Oliver Stone, Sean Penn, Kevin Kline, Douglas Fairbanks, Goldie Hawn, Dyan Cannon, Harrison Ford, David Duchovny, Noah Wyle, Alicia Silverstone, Peter Sellers, Geraldo, Ben Stiller, Fiorello La Guardia, Barry Goldwater, Dianne Feinstein, Roseanne Arquette, Boris Becker, Jose Bautista, Proust, Brad Ausmus, James McBride, Courtney Love, Xavier Hollander, Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, Carly Simon, and General Wesley Clark to name a handfull). The book is filled with entertaining quips, as well as serious topics on identity and life choices. The authors also include an essay on the history of half-Jews in the Holocaust and the Nazi laws about who was a Jew. Also included are holiday cards, some weird holiday menus, poetry, paintings and lots of celebrity photographs. If you're "half Jewish" and you ever felt excluded from both Sunday School and Hebrew School, sit a spell and read this book.

This book is a wonderful affirmation of those of us who are half-Jewish. As an adult child of intermarriage (Jewish dad and Catholic mom) who grew up in a secular home, I have struggled with spiritual and ethnic identity issues for awhile and have felt very alone in my mixed heritage. While the Christian religions are very welcoming toward us, Judaism is not accepting of intermarriage in general and is somehow threatened by our existence. Unfortunately many interfaith children, myself included, find that Judaism is their intrinsic "faith of residence." After all the muddling I have done and have yet to do to work out these issues I am so happy to see a book that validates us with humor and seriousness and pop culture references :) Another wonderful book on the subject is "Between Two Worlds: Choices for Grown Children of Jewish-Christian Parents" by Leslie Goodman-Malamuth and Robin Margolis.

If you've never used Scheme before, this book
is an excellent tutorial. And it is a
tutorial. Do not attempt to jump ahead or
skip sections. The authors build upon what
was covered in previous sections in a fashion
unique to this text. And that was it's big-
gest weakness for me. Once I have read some-
thing, I don't want to reread the entire text
to catch a small point I missed earlier.

10 for tutorial, 3 for reference.

This book was distributed to us, in a CS class, at Rice University in manuscript form. If you are looking for a for a great introduction to Scheme, you've found it. To summarize my reasons for liking this book:

1. It has an enormous amount of information packed into easily readable portions

2. More complex concepts are tied to the simpler concepts they depend upon

3. Material is organized in order of complexity

4. Each concept is described from many angles

5. When describing syntax, the sub-parts of complex syntax are explained well too, providing a fuller explaination. Thus, one develops a better intuitive sense of the language

6. Last but not least, it is excellently written, the style is entertaining but does not compromise profundity. You won't be falling asleep. It's a rivetting read!

I think this is a marvelous book.

The preface proclaims "Things You Need to Know to Read This Book" - The reader must be comfortable reading English, recognizing numbers, and counting. This perhaps understates the problem, but Friedman and Felleisen do an excellent job of introducing the reader to recursion and Scheme through the use of a formal methods. Concepts are built element-by-element and the reader learns by participating in the socratic "question and answer" style of learning. The examples train the reader to think recursively and present methods for developing recursive programs. Everything is built from first principles -- for example, a system of arithmetic and an equation interpreter is built only from number?, add1, and sub1.

I highly recommend this entertaining book. The material is straightforward and interesting, yet it hints at much more weighty computer science problems. I think it would an excellent text from which to teach college underclassmen (or perhaps even advanced high-schoolers), especially as a first computer science course or as an adjunct to an algorithms class.

Any person interested or already in med school should not hesitate in buying this book. The book is very well written, easy to read but full of useful information.

I am going to be a 1st year in the fall and I have had some trouble with my study skills. After reading the first half of this book(in 2 days),I am already comprehending and remembering more information. The tips and examples are specifically geared toward medical students and they really work! There is a sample study schedule, tips for how to study for different subjects, and pros and cons of all types of study approaches. A must read for any medical student!

The book is filled with great strategies for medical school courses. I particularly liked the chapters donated to the individual subjects. And it's an easy read too.

Linda and Scott Gardner have hired an instructer from a tutoring service, Julian Sawyer, to privately tutor their son, Brandon, and help him improve his SAT scores. Brandon is all set to dislike Julian right from the get-go but never gets the chance. Hey, this guy is cool! Linda and Scott fall for the tutor's charm next, relying on him for car rides, business and financial advice, and tennis tips. Brandon's little sister, Ruby, age eleven, an outgoing little Sherlock fan, shares Brandon's feelings as well. But she's also brighter than her brother (or parents) and soon deduces that Julian is not everything he appears. While the rest of her family is cuddled in Julian's palm like a sparrow in the hand of the neighborhood bully, Ruby is sniffing along for clues in a manner even Sherlock Holmes couldn't knock.

THE TUTOR starts out strong. The pace is fast, the details interesting, the characters memorable. The middle isn't so bad either. But the ending bombs inexcusably -- perhaps because as the story progresses it becomes more and more out of this world. Peter Abrahams has created here a portfolio of surreal characters, more caricatures than flesh and blood people. Each one represents a certain weakness which Julian exploits to the hilt, although Julian himself has weaknesses, as every good villain must. There's a blurb on this book's jacket from Stephen King praising the author, and while Abrahams's style may briefly remind you of King's in the way it comes across as not quite on the level, Abrahams doesn't hold a candle to King's way with words. THE TUTOR is reasonably well written and contains some excellent descriptions, but most books are reasonably well written. Little here stands out.

Horror fans, be warned. You may not be horrified (unless snakes deeply upset you). But THE TUTOR is a stylishly crafted if skewed nailbiter tale, and as such should have a case with suspense fans.

Peter Abrahams must be a scary,scary man. "Crying Wolf" was a brilliant, intense suspense thriller in a class of its own. Now he's given us "The Tutor", outdoing himself by far, notching up the intensity to the n-th degree, creating a page-turner to beat all page-turners!

The Gardners are a typical upper middle class family, striving to be better. Husband and father Scott Gardner is jealous of his brother, who seems to have everything Scott doesn't. Scott pushes his family to excel and succeed...but is hampered by the memory of his dead son, Adam. Brandon Gardner, Scott's next-oldest son and still living, must survive with the pressure of Adam's ghost hovering over his world all the time. Scott is certain that Adam would've grown up to become the perfect uber-son, had he not succumbed to leukemia at a relatively young age. And now Brandon is beginning to show signs of failure.
Enter Julian Sawyer, an opportunistic man hired as tutor to Brandon Gardner. Think Norman Bates here. The tutor is a skillful sociopath with evil intent on his mind.
Throw into the mix a precocious young daughter who idolizes Sherlock Holmes, and you have a brilliant thriller that makes ones pulse pound to the very end.

Abrahams has written an intelligent, wonderful novel in "The Tutor". Well-portrayed characters, and a believable plot make this a must-read book!

Like Stephen King, Peter Abrahams has the literary skill and imagination to tap into our worst nightmares and bring them chillingly to life. His special forte seems to lie in exploring the nature of obsession: the monster that lurks beneath a mask of normalcy until circumstances suddenly combine to put its prey within reach. Julian Sawyer, THE TUTOR, is a man obsessed with a meglomaniacal desire to create a living novel out of the raw material of ordinary people's lives...to first learn their secrets and then exploit them at his will in order to destroy them. The Gardner family is his chosen target. Scott and Linda are doing their best to achieve today's upper-middle class dream of 'having it all', but their sand-castle world is a sadly dysfunctional one. Scott, desperately competing with his more effectual brother, has never been able to achieve the quick-fix financial success that he craves; Linda is career-driven to the point where she has become oblivious to what's going on with her children, and both teen-age Brandon and his precocious eleven-year-old sister Ruby are in trouble. That trouble becomes grim reality for his shocked parents when Brandon's SAT results are far below their expectations, although only Ruby...escaping parental pressures to become what she is not into a dream world with her idol, Sherlock Holmes...realizes the full extent of his rebellious, anti-social behaviors. In desperation, Linda calls a tutoring service, and Julian Sawyer enters their lives. In the tradition of "Kind Lady" and "Night Must Fall", he slowly gains their confidence and trust which, in turn, also exposes their fears and weaknesses. When circumstances combine to place Julian in charge, the stage is set for an increasingly horrific series of life-threatening confrontations that beggar description.

THE TUTOR walks an extraordinary stylistic tightrope between spine-tingling suspense and dark horror...a tour de force combination of taut plotting and brilliant characterization that captured and held me spellbound. Peter Abrahams careful attention to the 'whys' of their behaviors made me not only understand the Gardners as fallible human beings, but care deeply about them, especially young Ruby who is probably one of the most enchanting fictional children that I've encountered in my recent reading. His talent makes the bizarre seem believable, and I found it impossible not to accept the complete plausibility of his nightmarish premise. This is not an easy novel to read, but it is one that the reader will not readily forget...a totally gripping literary experience and a benchmark for the genre.

I must say upfront that this book has very little if anything to do with science besides some obscure inferrences drawn between creation and religion. Considering the title I was certainly disappointed. However, trying to move past the title and the contents one finds a belief that man is essentially evolving past the need for an omnipotent God much less a personal one. To make matters worse, his attempts at Christianity and attempts at reducing Jesus to man with a vision come right out of the late 19th century with more recent vocabulary. This book lands squarely in the Ba'hai faith without much imagination. Drawing some teachings out of Kabbalism, I strongly believe that this book would disappoint even most Kabbalists.

I took Danny Matt's class in "God and the Big Bang" in Berkeley. Matt in person is witty, intelligent and educated. In print, he is even more so. His science is strong, his kabbalah is flawless. There are parallels between this book and Capra's Buddist/science books, but where Capra is trying to prove something, Matt is just pointing out interesting facts. Anyone interested in science or theology would enjoy this book.

In our times, it's important to enjoy ourselves, and feel that we are in a beautiful and neverending world. You can feel it, when you raise the point between science and God, and you can see that, day by day, we are integrate our technology and our souls in one, and now we can realize this, seeing that with science, we can find our mind, body and universe toghether. With this book, you will feel more unit with the Divine and with the whole universe. !Don't miss it!

A very interesting book that will appeal to anyone who has ever looked at an old ship and wondered what stories it had to tell. I agree that the focus and tone of this book are satisfying -- it is far more an emotional journey through the rusting relics of history than it is (or, in my opinion, should be) a review of the policy or technology of the mothball fleet. The author's obvious love and respect for these ships gives the book its considerable appeal. However, I opted for four stars instead of five because I thought the organization of the book was a little shaky, moving from the end of World War II; through the mothballing process; to later conflicts and reactivation; then back to World War II through the ship's histories. I also would have enjoyed more photo coverage, including some pictures of the interiors of mothballed ships (the author makes several, tantalizing remarks about the interiors of the mothballed being time capsules of the end of World War II) and pictures of the ultimate fates of mothballed ships (photos of the scrapping of the Enterprise and the listing, rusted hulk of the light carrier Cabot would enhance this book's wistful view of the subject). These thoughts aside, it was a very good book that made me fondly recall looking at one of the mothball fleets years ago with my father.

I'm not sure what book Bonner was reviewing, but it wasn't this one. And it wasn't much of a review, though he's entitled to his opinion and comments, of course, however baseless they are. Perhaps Bonner ("Naval Historian and Author") was influenced by the fact his own small mothball fleet book is coming out soon and Madsen's is competition.

If you are looking for a detailed history of the reserve fleet, its policies and practices, and instructions on preserving and reactivating a ship, then this book is not for you. And probably wasn't intended for you. If you are looking for a book that instead uses the mothball fleet as a link to the past, that views the ships as pieces of Americana that one could reach out and touch as tangible, rather than abstract, history, then it is a book you should look at. A few pages use the ships of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard reserve fleet as symbolic naval history books while others show the battleship Missouri as a time capsule during the long years she spent in mothballs. The book is nostalgic, but not morose. Veterans will understand the tone. The San Francisco Examiner did too, in a January 2000 review (which caused me to buy the book. Read it on-line). The book isn't without flaws. There are a few small factual errors, but they have apparently been corrected in subsequent reprints. Forgotten Fleet is not a recitation of facts, but a look back from old age, as veterans like to do, to a time gone by. It is obvious that Madsen knew exactly what he was writing about.

The New York Military Affairs Symposium winter 2000 review of this book said it for me. "To call this a history of the mothball fleet...is to miss the point...the book is much more than that. It is a meditation on the nature of history and the historical memory...". Some of the reviewers apparently did miss the point of this excellent look at the two lives of some of the well known and obscure ships of the fleet. No, it is not a look at policy, nor is it full of countless pictures of long dead ships. Instead, it is all about what these ships meant, both in service and in mothballs. It is precisely the look at the parallel lives of these vessels, active and then in mothballs, that makes this book unique.

It might be fun to speculate about what history might have been like if .... . But this book is different. It confirms all - mainly British - prejudices about Germany and - this is unfair - makes the US part of it. Only Great Britain seems to be the root of democracy. It might have slipped Easterman's mind that the English invented the concentration camps when they fought against South Africa's independence. And they fought against a lot of peoples who wanted to be independent from the Great British Rule. I have always been a fan of Easterman's. But this novel is really bad, its plot lousy, its characters ludicrous. And his German is even more ridiculous. His worst novel.

The Premise of Daniel Easterman's Alternate History novel 'K' is wonderfuly eerie. In 1933 Charles Lindbergh, backed by the Ku Klux Klan, becomes the President of the United States instead of Roosevelt. Under his naive leadership, Fascism explodes in America. Lynchings are legal, concentration camps flourish, and by 1940 the possibility of America entering WWII on the side of Nazi Germany is very real. Easterman succeeds brilliantly in creating this nightmare world where neighbors spy on neighbors and anyone who doesn't fit into the Klan's narrow view of the world is expendable. But despite this wonderfully creeepy background, Easterman really fumbles the ball on the story. He loses quite a bit of credibility describing, (or not describing), the way in which characters slip away from the secret police, meet, and escape at various points in the story. Also, the basic plot seems muddled, as though Easterman himself wasn't quite sure where to take his characters to build suspence. The climax is less than exciting, but by this point the reader isn't expecting much. Another reviewer mentioned a glaring historical error at the end of this book. That oversight only serves to again undermine the author's, and thus the story's, credibility even further. Still, if you're a sucker for a decent AH story with some really good historical twists, (J. Edgar Hoover becomes America's Himmler as head of the Federal Bureau of Internal Security), you may very well enjoy this book. It's just too bad such a wonderful premise was wasted on such a lackluster story.

The premise is plausible: A depression-era America electing a Fascist government, leading to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and a possible alliance with Nazi Germany.

However, the author of the novel is British, and it seems he failed to do much research into American History. Some of the errors include (without giving away the story):

1. Charles Lindbergh is elected President is 1932. This is impossible since Lindbergh is only 30 years old in 1932. It is a constitutional requirement that the President be at least 35 years old.

2. The book takes place in October-November of 1940. No mention of a 1940 Presidential election is made, or an explanation of why there was no election.

3. The author probably did not research Joe Kennedy's religion, which causes the ending to make no sense at all.

If you want an interesting story, then read this book. If you want plausable alternate-history reading, I suggest you look elsewhere.

This punchy little bit of pulp crime follows the schemes of Alicia, a Cuban prostitute looking to rope a millionaire husband, and Victor, a bank-robber turned executive in Dutch conglomerate. The two gold-diggers meet and forge a mutually beneficial arrangement based on her providing live sex shows for him and his wife. Their partnership takes on a new dimension when a Dutch millionaire dies, and they figure out a plan to make a cool $4 million out of it. While Chavarria is reputedly a scholar of prostitution, Alicia's character comes as more of a Hollywood construct than a real person. She's the independent hooker who loves sex, is strictly upscale, and is always in control of her rich men. She's only in it to rope a wealthy husband who will take her and her mother (who is her practical assistant) out of the country. Let's be clear, this is pulp, not noir; the book is lively and farcical, the story flows with many a nod and a wink, with none of the nastiness and evil characterized by noir. And although the book is set in Havana, the setting doesn't figure very prominently, one gets the impression the story could have taken place in any large city in the world. The book is fast-paced, full of explicit sex, and ends with the requisite twist-and is fun, though unlikely to be all that memorable.

Daniel Chavarria's Adios Muchachos is a fun little book exploring the world of prostitutes, unseemly businessmen and death in post-revolutionary Cuba. Uruguayan Daniel Chavarria seems mostly known for more literary work, but according to the bio on the inside flap he is said to have two passions: "classical literature and whores". Well, it shows.

Chavarria's main protagonist is Alicia, a high class prostitute who gets wealthy foreigners to buy her beautiful, expensive things so that she and her mother (a pre-revolutionary Cuban socialite) don't have to deal with the infirmities of life in Castro's Cuba. Alicia has an elaborate scam involving a bicycle accident that she works, along with her body, into an act of perfection. The precision timing is hilarious, as is the strategy her mother and her have worked out to squeeze the maximum sympathy out of their clueless (yet sexually aroused) victims. The crux of the story happens when Alicia's latest conquest, Victor, is not who he seems. Death and mayhem ensue.

The subject matter could easily be salacious, but Chavarria has a neat trick of using beautiful prose to describe people doing less-than-beautiful thing. He has a writing style that is simultaneously sophisticated, but not elitist. He's just telling a good story, and doing it in the best way possible.

I'm only 1/3 of the way through this but already I know that I'll be buying this for lots of friends. Simply outstanding. There are no great shakes here but as a book to simply amuse and enjoy it can't be beat. Adios Muchachos is so well writen that I have lost all desire to look for deep meaning. It's that rare book that can be simply enjoyed just for the craft that is displayed. Lots of laughs everywhere and quite informative if I'm ever looking for a hooker in Havana. ;-)

I'm looking forward to trying something else from Daniel Chavarria and I feel very sorry for all the folks who gave this book only 1 or 2 stars. I suspect they were offended by some of the setting.

I loved this book. It kept me laughing and interested right to the end. There are so many great characters that I lost count of all the fascinating people - plus Jeffreys offers insights about America that maybe only someone from another country can see. Much better than Bryson. A good read. (GQ in the UK said Jeffreys makes Hunter S. Thompson look like a self mythologising wuss and they were right.)

This book is like a wonderful movie. I didn't want it to end It is a wonderful antedote to the soft centre humor of Bill Bryson. The author offers a marvellous journey through the strangest parts of America to many places I would be too scared to visit. The effect is dazzling and I had great fun whilst learning a lot. The book is also noteworthy because it does not neglect the American Indian. Jeffreys uses a navajo tour giude to constantly remind viewers that much of what underlies America's darker troubles is the genocide against Native Americans. There is nothing heavy handed about this - he just uses humour and irony to wonderful effect. GQ said "Jeffreys makes Hunter S. Thompson look like a self-mythologising wuss," and they were not exaggertaing.

I read this book because of a review in the London Guardian which said Americas's Back Porch was "an exquisite morsel of post-modern Americana". But it is even better than that. I read it laughing very hard when I wasn't fascinated by the many insights. There is a Native American theme woven into the delightful accounts of American wackiness, which made me far more aware of the persecution the original Americans suffered. That is when it wasn't making me crack my ribs with mirth. Like the Guardian in their review I loved most of all the chapter about a short airplane ride taken in the obese company of two neo-fascists from America's corporate underworld.