This book is definitely worth it if you are just starting out with Pagemill 3 as the online instructions for the program are not great.

For me however I'm glad I purchased it as it is a great refernece, but having been using Pagemill 3 for two months,I have been left with more questions than ever.

I am a graphic designer who has "converted" to the web and thus my design skills are good but how does one learn to convert everything to HTML? This is a good basic start.

This book has helped in certain areas, and I would recommend it for most web learners.

Daniel Gray has produced a winner that is easy to read, especially for us newcomers. Mr. Gray is not your boring run of the mill computer geek. He livens the text with humor and wit.

The book is logically written and organized, and makes great use of sidebar commentaries. The CD that comes with the book is worth the price of admission! You get working versions of popular software, along with enough graphics to stock your library.

My only gripe with the book is that it doesn't explain Java scripting clearly enough for the newcomer, and this is picky, but the demo version of Jamba needs a serial number to run, while not provided. Otherwise, a must get book for Pagemill 3.0.

Dan is a rare exception in the world of people who write about software. He's entertaining, informative, and easy to understand. This is not a step by step manual. In many instances, Dan demonstrates concepts, and follows with an exercise to demonstrate what he's just explained. This is an excellent teaching method, and one I use in my classes in both web design and in PageMill. Too many times an author gets stuck on the what, instead of on the why. Then the student gets stuck when the time comes to exercise a value judgement. Believe me, you won't have that problem if you get Dan's PageMill in Depth. I use it in my classes, and recommend it to my students, something I don't do lightly. PageMill in Depth is an excellent treatment of a superior product.

If you're writing a personal statement for a law school in the top 14, stay away from this book. You can already write something more interesting than any of their sample essays.
The advice they give is fine, especially the general tips on how to organize your thoughts. But the book is 90% a collection of essays, and they are uniformly atrocious.
Almost all of the essays are variations on the theme of 'experience in my life that made me want to be a lawyer.' This is not the kind of essay the admissions committee at Harvard or Yale wants to hear. They want an interesting look at the kind of person you are, not a cheesy story about how working for a state senator made you realize the importance of community service. Essays are not the time to list your accomplishments. That's why Yale's application doesn't have you fill out any forms, but instead asks for a resume.
If you're looking for good essays to get your creative juices flowing, avoid this book like the plague.

This book is an excellent resource. It includes tips for writing your essay as well as 40 sample essays.

There is criticism from other reviewers that the 40 sample essays aren't that good. I liked some of them, but I will freely admit that many of them completely turned me off. But, we have to remember two things. First, these essays are not written by professional writers, but by law school applicants - a successful law school essay is not necessarily going to be a brilliant work of literature. Second, we don't have to like the essays or think they're very good, someone on the admissions board of a top school already read each of these essays and admitted the student. In other words, the essays target audience liked the essay and that is why it's a good essay. This book's first chapter is called "Assess Your Audience."

My essay was mostly written before I bought this book. But it's always those last finishing touches that are the hardest and take the longest. I was at the point with my essay were I wasn't really satisfied with it, but I didn't know how to fix it. This book has many tips - many of which are elemental and basic and many I chose to ignore. The decision to reject the books tips made me more aware of the structure of my essay and confirmed how I wanted to present myself.

I also found the essays very helpful. Your own essay can be too personal to analyze objectively. In reading the other essays, especially the weaker ones, I found aspects I didn't like and was then better able to review my own essay to see if I made the same mistakes.

When I finished my essay and finished this book I was very happy with my essay. I even sent it to a professional graduate school essay editor for tips on what was still needed and it was sent back to me because the editor said it was ready to submit. When you're preparing to apply to law school, there is so much going on and so many things to keep straight I found that this book helped me feel there was order to one aspect of that process. That, in itself, is useful.

I bought this book because at one crazy point, I actually thought of going to law school. I came to my senses eventually and I ended up applying to PhD programs in biology. I thought I wasted money on this book, but then I gave it a chance and it actually gives great overall advice on writing effective personal statements for ANY purpose. Graduate schools all look for the same thing ultimately, they want to know what you are about and they want to know why you chose your career path. This book is great because it gives you examples of people coming from all sorts of background and you can draw on all their experiences to put together your own essay. I even stole a line from one of the essays because it applied to my own life and I wouldn't have found a better way to say it. I'm going to Columbia University starting this fall, so I guess my personal statement wasn't half bad. This book made the job a lot easier, especially if you have writer's block like I did. It really gives you a starting point.

This book by Daniel J. Boorstin is interesting because it tells about the men that have had lasting impressions on this society. The book reads in a chronological order and it was enjoyable to see the development of mankind throughout the years. It is disappointing to see that the author varies the length of the chapters. Often, the chapters are too short and it only served as an introduction to me. Man's goal in this book was to search for an understanding of humans and their purpose on earth. It was interesting to see how men worked to achieve this goal and how their beliefs were shaped along the way. It was helpful that Boorstin used actual quotes from the seekers that he was discussing. He was able to give me a feel of what was going on in the minds of the men during this time period. Overall, this book was enjoyable, but the author presents the ideas in a way that illustrates to me that he did not spend as much time writing it, as he should have. Although he uses primary sources, I believe that there is a strong possibility that he is leaving out details about the subject.

After reading The Discoverers and The Creators, The Seekers may disappoint you with its lack of depth. What's written is a joy to consume (Mr. Boorstin has a tremendous may with the English language), but the deep analysis found in the first two installments of the trilogy is absent here. How surprising, considering Mr. Boorstin's obvious intellect and professed interest in the subject! To put it quite simply, I was left wanting more. I don't regret buying the book, but I do wish the author had spent more time writing it.

Boorstin's research and meticulous care have made this a classic introduction to Western ways of thinking. Although his preference for the atheist philosophy of Bertrand Russell is noticeable, Boorstin thankfully does not take any specific philosophical position. Dogma, especially repressive dogma, is the only position which is cast negatively. Toleration is essential in any history of ideas, especially an introductory history of philosophy such as this, and this toleration is maintained quite well in The Seekers. In addition, biographical details are presented in such a way that they add to the meaning of the documentation of the ideas without explaining the ideas away as the results of the life experiences detailed.

Since reading this book, I have begun to study philosophy on a deeper level, and have found that Boorstin slightly misinterprets Kierkegaard's book Either/Or (the first part of Either/Or, which Mr. Boorstin quotes extensively, is Kierkegaard's view of the aesthetic life, which Kierkegaard disapproves of; but Boorstin uses these quotations to represent the substance of Kierkegaard's philosophy). There may be similar errors which I have not noticed in the explanations of the ideas of other philosophers whom I have not studied extensively, but overall this is an excellent book and I would definitely recommend it to all.

Here we have 3 smart kids (nat, izzie & grace), The twins, Izzie and Grace are stratospherically wealthy. Nat is poor. When Nat's mother loses her job ending Nat's collage edu., the twins come up with a plan to pull a kidnapping on themselves? Yeah right, I don't think so. Given the two wealthy girls prior generous and forward behavior with money and people they would have just gone and paid Nat's (and his mothers!) bills whether he/she liked it or not. So for me the story ended on page 221 with this way-out of character kidnapping scheme.

I did read the rest regardless tho because I sometimes like the way Mr. Abrahams weaves his stories and characters.

But right away comes another glaring out of characterization. Nat, who has fallen in love with Izzie and can tell her apart from her twin sister -easily- suddenly fails in recognizing Grace when the girls switch places at the last minute (Izzie becoming the kidnapped instead of Grace).

I think Mr. Abrahams would of done this story a favor if he'd of toned down Freedy (the bad guy) with his Andro/speed/bodybuilding obsession and gone into and expanded on the Freedy and Professor Uzig connection. Professor Uzig being Freedy's "Father: Unknown".

Also, why would Nat be prosecuted for attempted extortion? The kidnapping wasn't his idea! He came down against it but the twins had acted before he saw them again. Why didn't Izzie come to his defense?

All 'n all this reads like an unfinished draft. I don't see how something like this could of made it past anyone! especially anyone in the business. Too many discrepancies. Too many
avenues left unexplored.

Body>This book is a victim of the author's previous works. Once you've read other offerings, you come to expect dynamic chacterization, a rock-'em-sock-'em pace along with a surprises thrown in. Crying Wolf doesn't quite cut it in all areas. The characterization is there. First we meet Freedy, a swimming pool cleaner who just doesn't get it, an Abrahams' trademark. Freedy thinks he's smarter than he is; he thinks he's sexier than he is and in demand, and he doesn't understanding what the woman's (whose pool he's cleaning) problem is when he tries to have sex with her. On the other end of the spectum is Nat, the mid-west son of a single parent, basketball playing high school kid whose intelligence and essay wins him enough money to go to Inverness. While Freedy momentarily fades from the picture, Nat goes off to college. Because he can't afford to go home for Christmas, he must spend holiday on campus--until he meets the twins, Grace and Izzy. The twins, who are filthy rich, introduce Nat to a seductive new world he could not even begin to imagine. They take a jaunt to the Carribeans on the twins' family jet where Nat meets Leo Uzig, a philosophy professor at Inverness. From there, the plot thickens and the pace, which has faltered up to this point, picks up consideraly. Under the guidance of the professor, the twins and Nat become involved in a "harmless" plot that turns deadly very quickly.

I'd purchased "Crying Wolf" for a friend at work. Because he was out of the office and I'd run out of books, I borrowed this from his stack. I actually went to work half an hour early the day after I started reading it, so that I could finish the book before he came in to claim his prize.

I was looking for the suspense since, on the cover, Stephen King is quoted as having said that Peter Abrahams is his "favorite American suspense novelist." I really didn't find suspense. However, I found a good plot with likeable characters. While this book takes place in college - a boarding school, if you will - I kept thinking that Inverness was NOT Hogwarts...

Nat is a young man who wins a scholarship that takes him from his working-class town to Inverness College. Freedy is a young bodybuilder thug. Their paths parallel but never quite meet until...

Nat happens upon Grace and Izzie, very rich twin sisters who attend Inverness (and very different from Patti, his hometown sweetheart). The three students hatch a kidnapping scheme to try to obtain some much-needed money from the girls' father. However, as we learned as children, if you Cry Wolf often enough, when a crisis emerges no one will believe you.

While seldom actually "suspenseful," "Crying Wolf" was nonetheless a good book and a good purchase. I do recommend it; and I will be looking for more books by Peter Abrahams

"Barry & 'the Boys': the CIA, the Mob, and America's Secret History" is a book that will expand the audience for parapolitical literature. "Barry and the Boys" is written to appeal to the serious student of Deep Political arrangements as well as the "casual interest" reader looking for something to help him or her understand today's news while simultaneously being entertained.

This journalistic tour de force presents the story of Barry Seal's career in intelligence and drug and gun running - from its inception as a teenager working along side Lee Oswalld in the New Orleans CAP under David Ferrie, to its conclusion, "in a hail of bullets, with George Bush's private phone number in his wallet."

It is rare these days for a single work to offer more than a few minor details of new information to add to our overall understanding of cold war crimes of State. It is even more rare to find a book in this category that satisfies both the intellect's need for new information and the heart's desire for human interest and style. Hopsicker's work - the result of two and a half years of full-time field investigation, living out of suitcases and pushing the limits of his own personal safety in his quest for "the story" - delivers all of this by the planeload.

Hopsicker ultimately got his story, and oh, what a story! Though he obviously did an enormous amount of research on the body of work already available, the details are all Mr. Hopsicker's - hence, no footnotes. But what his work lacks in scholarly annotations, he more than makes up for in old-fashioned sweat and shoeleather. The book is filled with the product of interviews with the principle participants from both sides of the Barry Seal saga. And through the judicious use of primary documents (available in a 58-page appendix), many of which have never been made publically available until now, Hosicker provides corroboration and authentication for his human sources. Among those primary documents, the one on the cover is a doozey: a group portrait of Operation 40 members at a January 22, 1963 meeting in Mexico City. (I wonder what they could be talking about?)

"Barry and 'the Boys'" presents all of this material in a fascinating tapestry of new information and established facts stitched together with incisive wit. The result is an entertaining and illumitating whole, documenting 30 years of a man's life and a nation's peril.

In a perfect world, "Barry and 'the Boys'" would be a best seller. In this world, it is still going to do very well.

An amazing story. Barry Seal was just a kid who flew well, That talent lead him straight into the arms of the shadowy world of "clandestine services." Daniel Hopsicker has really brought an amazing story to the American public. This book exposes the underbelly of corruption and assassination that has run rampant in our republic. This book has much to tell about the JFK assasination major players. Seal met Lee Harvey Oswald at Civil Air Patrol summer camp—along with David Ferrie. Hopsicker's revelations about Ferrie's involvement with intel agencies and extracircular activities are astounding. The whole book breaks much new ground. Barry Seals's photos and documents tell a story all in themselves.

It seems that Barry Seal was getting ready to talk and through Barry and 'the boys', Barry gets his wish.

Barry and 'the boys' lets the chips fall where they may. Hopsicker takes swings and lands on corruption no matter what party.

A must read!!!

I find few such books that are really worth the time and effort to read and understand. This is one. It is a roadmap to understanding the Faustian bargains made by our government. It is thoroughly and accurately researched from primary sources, and not just a compilation of newspaper clippings. Hopsicker may not be a finely polished writer and the prose can be a bit irritatingly awkward. But he worked hard, is well-informed, righteously enraged, irreverent and even entertaining.

The reason I bought this book was because I wanted to get a taste of what St. Tropez was really like. I wanted to "go" there in my mind. What I got was a book about three late middle-aged couples and the various issues in their relationships. I suppose there is an audience out there who would appreciate this book, buy I am 40 and was bored to death. I did catch the names a few places to visit in St. Tropez (if they are real), but I couldn't really tell you much of anything about the French Riveria other than it is on the Mediterranean Sea and rich people go there to vacation.

Danielle Steel has done much better writing in her former days. I feel like she got lazy on this novel and threw something together to sell a book.

The ending is so ridiculous (even for romance novels) that I hope somebody stops Ms. Steel, before she stikes (writes) again.

Danielle Steele's books are all the same, just different characters. I don't know why I waste my money on them. The story in this book is light, and very predictable. I figured out the story line half way through the book. If you need something to read just to pass the time...then go ahead and purchase this. But if you are looking for a deep romance book or something than keep on looking. Boring!

Usually I don't read too much, but since winter is coming, I have been reading more than ususal. This is only the 2nd Danielle Steel book that I have read and I must say that I liked it. I will admit she repeats herself quite a bit, but the reader is able to overlook that and appreciate a good book.

D.S. is real descriptive about the setting of the story and even added a little humor about the owners of the house the families rented in St. Tropez. It added just enough comedy to mix well with the plot. As the story unravels, D.S points out to her readers that even though accomodation conditions are not the best, you can still have a good time. I really enjoyed the ending.

This book only took me 2 days to read.

I will definately be reading more of her books.

I usually don't write book reviews unless I get paid for it. So why this exception? For two reasons:

First and foremost, I want you to read "PAN AM 103". The authors are the parents of Theodora ("Theo") Cohen, a then twenty-year old performing arts student that was on board the airplane that exploded over the little Scottish town Lockerbie on 21 December 1988. 270 people were killed. The Cohens try to put into words the agony they have been experiencing from the moment they first learned about the crash up until this minute. They describe how various victims groups, "the grief industry", pills and psychobabble, and the justice system frustrated them, and demonstrate how nobody in the travel industry or in four US administrations "gives a damn what happened to [their] daughter" whenever the possibility of large profits appears on the horizon. Nobody having read this book will forget the face Susan and Daniel Cohen have put on the PAN AM 103 tragedy, Theo's face.

The second reason is to comment on some of the themes of other reviews.

"It is a pointless rant with no technical, operational, or analytical detail."
That is how you make yourself look like the sharp analytical mind you wish you would be, if you only could understand context and contents of a book.

"Hatred, vengeance, and bitterness are emotions that are more poisonous than cyanide. And the Cohens certainly prove that."
Of course, there will always be people who put on a smile after their head has been dipped into a toilet bowl - a North-American tradition. There are times, however, when the only thing that is left is being true to oneself, no more need to conceal emotions, to work out compromises.

This book blew me away! I had always heard of the Pan Am 103 disaster at Lockerbie, but until I read the Cohen's account of the disaster, I never understood exactly what happened. The book details the anguish of loosing a child, the incompetance of the United States government and its leaders, and the persuit of "justice" by the Cohens. I say justice, but the Cohens, in actuality were really attempting to "put a face on the disaster," and that face was the one of their daughter, Theo.

The book did drag at parts, and that only occured when either Dan or Susan would overload on information, but that happened only two or three times. My favorite part of the book was Susan's last entry, which she wrote as a letter to her beloved Theo. Congratulations Dan and Susan, you succeeded! I will never be able to forget the disaster, or your daughter, the face you have now associated with the disaster.

The Cohens, parents of a daughter lost on Pan Am 103, have written the best and most comprehensive book on the tragedy to date. In addition to coping with their own personal grief, the Cohens had to withstand government reluctance to pursue the Libyan sponsors of the Pan Am sabotage. And they had to confront conspiracy nuts and frauds who sought to profit from the tragedy by purveying their own theories. The book clearly describes the shock of the disaster itself, and documents each development in the investigation that finally led to the conviction of a Libyan intelligence agent in a Netherlands court. Read this book to clear away the fog generated by Libyan propagandists and their surrogates in the West. A fine read.

To say this work was a disapppointment is not really fair. I purchased it with high expectations that it would supply me with insights and answers, but I did not get that. Instead, it allowed me to not believe everything I read of this type, take it with a 'grain of salt', and continue to seek my own guidance from within from my Higher Self. I felt that it was a good work of 'creative writing' and was not intended to clarify the afterlife, only allow us to form our own conclusions, and see a lighter side of the subject. To say that is was given as in a dream, and a whole book was down-loaded into his memory is a little preposterous; but many people may have believed this. I think the thing that truly bothered me the most is the grey, dark side feeling that the work portrayed. It projected a less than "Light and Love" vibration. There was no mention anywhere of spirituality or anything leaning to a higher awareness or Supreme Being. Nor was there mentioned that in the next level or density we further learn and grow spiritually to increase our vibrant frequency. All in all...a thought-provoking read, from two very good story-tellers. Perhaps next time they will have a Revelation to take it up another level.

A diabolically wild collaboration between Daniel ("Ishmael") Quinn and one of my favorite science fiction authors Tom ("Roithamer's Universe") Whalen. I've never ever seen a book like this one. It's a compendium of the Afterlife, but an Afterlife unlike any I have read about before. There are "do's and don't's," concerns concerning Zeno's paradoxes and particle physics, and even summaries of books written in the Afterlife by Asimov, Nabokov, Trakl, Arthur Godfrey, Lucy Terry (the first African- American poet), and Nikola Tesla. Also, check out the great photo-collages by Greg Boyd (of Asylum Press fame). A weird and wondrous book. How in the world did the authors trick Bantam into publishing such a delight!

I am more familiar with the works of Tom Whalen than Daniel Quinn, and I find in this beautifully designed book much evidence that Tom's vision prevailed or at least persisted. Not one to follow a straight line when a crooked one ambles into delightful junctures, Tom explores whimsically our perplexedness in the face and certainty of the beyond. After we shuffle off this mortal coil, what happens to our spirits? And so Quinn and Whalen imagine a book that provides such answers. All in all, it is a brief work, perhaps owing some of its approach to similar guides to one's finances or health. But such guides are never as elegant as the "Little Book," to say the least. Finally, I will observe that this work, while offbeat, somehow manages in its humor to possess an elegiac quality. Thus the reader is not meant to read the book through like a novel, but to leaf through it slowly, pretending along with its authors that these slightly or extremely odd answers make sense. Why not these as much as some others we have already been told? Knowledge as charm or the charm of knowledge. Clutch this little book close. While the meaning of life may be elusive and the meaning of death equally inexact, what to do while "engaged" by it is another matter!

I have been an Oracle DBA for more than 15 years, and certified in multiptle Oracle versions. I have read a good number of the Oracle Press books. It is as if this book never went through the editing process. The content is there, but the explanations of the new feature are so poor in some cases that it was easier to go to the Oracle Online Documents.
I should have waited for the Oracle9i Exam Cram to come out!

I just Passed the OCP-9i Upgrade Exam .
I Mostly relied on this book.
After the exam i'm realising that,i should have read Documents parallely.
So if you are planning to take OCP,put equal or MORE effort to read the Documents...
About OCP : You will get More multiple choice questions than earlier exams...so time will be a costraint...
Best of Luck for the exam...

If your going to Fairleigh Dickinson University and your taking up Oracle New Features will need this book

I was drawn to reading Keneally because of his authorship of "Schindler's List". As a result, I am grateful for becoming acquainted with Dan Sickles, which otherwise would never have happened. Sickles' life touched with and on many notable persons and events of the pre-civil war and civil war era. As a result, the reader is given the opportunity to see the period from a perspective which otherwise would not be afforded

Sickles definitely was a first class scoundrel and a third class person. His murder of Francis Scott Key's son is not the reason to classify Sickle's as a scoundrel. It's sad how one man could continually ruin other peoples lives and still come out smelling like a rose.

Keneally is an excellent writer. I often felt I was reading fiction, which made the book that much more enjoyable.

Keneally has offered us a roller coaster of a biography of one of the most controversial American figures of the 19th Century. Dan Sickles rose from Tammany Hall politics in New York through a London posting to Congress. While a representative his lovely, but often abandoned, wife Teresa became involved with the widower son of the composer of the Star Spangled Banner, America's national anthem. Ignoring this heritage, Sickles slew Barton Keys on a Washington Sunday in view of several witnesses. After a bizarre trial, in which the then novel plea of "temporary insanity" was invoked, Sickles left the courtroom free of guilt. Almost fortuitously, the onset of the War Between the States allowed Sickles to redeem whatever reputation he lost. As one of the Union's "political generals" Sickles proved to be a popular and capable leader. Gettysburg, that icon of American military history, proved his salvation or disgrace according to which account you follow. Did he risk another Union defeat by ignoring his superior's orders?

Keneally uses Teresa's lonely existence as the focal point of this biography. Although Sickles was hardly a paragon of virtue, Keneally is perplexed at his long-standing avoidance of Teresa. He muses over why Sickles kept separate habitation after the killing when Teresa clearly would have welcomed his return. Later, he mourns the lack of her presence at Sickles' various Army encampments when other generals had their wives visit, if for no other reason than troop morale. Meagher, a favourite of Keneally's, is held up in contrast. This Irish ex-convict's wife "Libby" graced the camp frequently. Libby, however, hadn't taken any lovers to arouse her husband's ire. Even after a thorough analysis of the mores of the times, Keneally can't forgive Dan Sickles failure to forgive.

This book is strangely structured. Keneally provides a long build-up to the murder, then dwells over the details of the trial. No particular is overlooked, from the courtroom temperature to the malodorous spectators. Forced to limit his description of one lawyer's two day long presentation to eight pages, Keneally manages to convey the role of oratory in the United States at mid-19th Century. Sickles' role as a general is well-presented, but is over-focussed. Sickles' ability to deal with Mary Lincoln is given more space than military engagements or the war environment. As a biography, there is some rationale for this, but the reader best consult some other works for a fuller picture. The post-war years, with Sickles postings to the Reconstruction South and his escapades in Europe slide past rapidly. His bizarre second marriage and later life could use some analysis, no matter how far-fetched, but Keneally simply rambles through the known information and leaves the reader to work out the motivations. At the end, he frankly states the book was written in honour of Teresa's memory. An unusual approach, but one likely to find favour with today's audience.

This book tells the story of the Congressman and Civil War General Dan Sickles, who was acquitted in the 1850's of murdering his wife's lover. ...(the son of the man who wrote the Star Spangled Banner), Sickles had many negative character traits which portray him in a less than positive light to modern Americans. That being sad, he was generally adored by many of his contemporaries, particularly by those who served under him in the Civil War. Highly readable, this book is difficult to put down once started. Some reviewers have given this book low rating, and perhaps that is because it does not read like a typical history book. Instead, the book almost reads like fiction and is highly enjoyable, instead of being the typical dates/places/events format of many history books. Highly recommended!