This is a handy if somewhat eclectic little collection, with works by some poets who are hard to find elsewhere, such as Henry Howard. If you don't have a copy of the long-out-of-print Hebel and Hudson anthology of English Renaissance Poetry, pick up this.

Sons of Darkness is a titillating, entertaining volume for the cerebral sensualist. Both charming and naughty, each story is a guilty pleasure. Featuring some of my personal favorite vamp auteurs, such as Poppy Z. Brite (Lost Souls, Exquisite Corpse) and Nancy Kilpatrick (Power of the Blood trilogy), the words 'blood' and 'lust' could not be more at home together than in these pages.

Imagine hearing sweet Ann Marie of "That Girl" swear, uttering the word "F--K" in every other sentence? Imagine "That Girl" mistreat the help and never clean up after herself, ever?? Her house manager Desmond Atholl debunks the carefully honed image created by Marlo Thomas in this dishy, tell-all book. Poor Danny Thomas must be rolling over in his grave over this one. As a child, Marlo Thomas grew up spoiled and indulged, a privileged little princess whose every whim was catered to by servants. Such odious pampering resulted in an adult woman who is an immature, selfish, self-absorbed, flaky, scatterbrained control freak, used to ALWAYS having her own way. It's sad to see that, because the public Marlo Thomas tries to do good, lending her name to good causes, rubbing shoulders with liberals and feminists, but apparently it's all for show. She claims to be an advocate for the disdvantaged and the poor, yet she treats her own servants and staff like dirt. In spite of being in charge of this difficult woman and her Household from Hell, Desmond Atholl manages to retain his cheeky humor and outrageousness. I supposed he had to, in order to survive Hurricane Marlo. You'll never be able to watch old re-runs of "That Girl" the same way after reading this hilarious book. It should be entitled, "Free to Be...ME ME ME!"

This book was on my reading list and as usual I thought it would be a boring book. To my surprise, only the first couple of chapters were boring and the rest was all extremely exciting. The detail that the author used also helped me in picturing what was going on in the story.

When professional soldier William Tecumseh Sherman brought his military experience and organizational skills to Pineville in November 1859 as superintendent of Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, the seventy students who greeted him found him strict in discipline but approachable and able to put them at ease. The University is now home to more than 31,000 students and it?s doubtful that the chancellor knows many of them by name. A great many graduates, however, will want to peruse this gorgeous volume, both for the well-written text and for the scores of glossy photos. From the Civil War and Reconstruction and the school?s frequent moves to new locations, to black-stockinged coeds dancing during halftime at a 1920 game, to streaking and Tiger Stadium and Mike the mascot, you?ll find it all here.

"World Security" is a book that seeks to introduce readers to the main issues that currently dominate the field of international security today. A selection of some of the topics included in the book are; arms proliferation, ethnic warfare, criminal violence, human migrations, etc... There are 19 different chapters each written by a different author. As such, each chapter does not go into too much detail on their specific topic. Instead, offering the reader only a very introductory survey of the issues.

Given this structure I think the book will be most appealing as a textbook for an introductory university course on the issue of international security. But if you are someone looking to gain a cursory understanding of what is at issue then this might be the book for you (although, maybe at softcover prices!)

I have 4 years VB programming experience, but after read 7 chapters of this book, I'm still feel confusing. Everything are talked a little bit, but nothing is discussed in detail.
Each chapter is not well connected, this not like a book but like a huge magazine with a bunch of articles -- too many authers can mess up a good name book. They seems never talk to each other before and after writing this book. for examble, in beginning of chapter 9, it says: "By now you have learned how Active Server Page (ASP) use components." -- False! I never learned, at least in this book!
In chapter 6 -- DHTML Application. The example application is only working in VB IDE even after making the package. It's either the author's problem or Microsoft's problem.
As a "Professional VB Web programming book", it neither explains how to deploy a Web application well in general, nor teach you programming in detail.
This book turns me to read other ASP book.

Having purchased many other WROX books, I was eagerly awaiting this one for a current project. When it arrived I read through it like a mad man. Soaking up everything I possibly could. The examples are very clear and there are plenty of them! It covers everything from IIS, ASP and ADO to RDS, SQL, DHTML, MTS and WebClasses. All in one book! Plenty of examples with detailed descriptions and tables explaining the various methods for each function. I definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about using VB6 for web development.

I rated this 5 stars because it has the most useful writeup on writing Server Components in VB for use with ASP - chapters 9-11. I wanted to do this and had trouble getting working samples and explanations. I feel that industrial strength ASP is very ugly and unweildy if you don't encapsulate the code into components. MSDN has lots of reference material about this but little, if any, useful "how to" stuff that i could find.

This book showed me how to do exactly what i wanted to do.

Other than that, it is a good introduction into a good number of web concepts, old and new. The first 3 chapters were a good overview of Microsoft web concepts and techniques. The writeup on web classes, if you like them, is good. I really liked the CGI case study including how to implement standard input/output via the win32 API.

The relatively free use of various win32 API functions in VB help overcome a general fear of mixing VB and CC++ functionality.

The book was a bit large but was well organized. In general it gave me a much higher opinion of Wrox books.

This book highlights the typical extremes that are found in the host of English language Islamic publications that have cropped up in recent years from Saudi Arabia. Nicely produced books (the best money can buy!), but written by people who have little idea of Western culture and mindset. This title is no exception, it is written clearly "for the average American to understand Islam" and we will review it from that angle.

This is really a book of two parts, the first half (40 pages) presents the miraculous scientific phenomenon mentioned in the Holy Qur'an. This first half about the Quran is EXCELLENT, a great great presentation, beautifully illustrated and explained.

The second half is a disaster to say the least. It starts off with some statistics showing Islam as the fastest growing religion, and then the authors write "This phenomenon indicates that Islam is truly a religion from God."!!!! So what does it mean that Chrisitans are the largest religious community in the world?? Does that make Chrisitanity the true religion also? Clearly, there is some mishap here in reasoning.

The rest of the 30 pages in this second half detail what Muslim's believe, and here are some major goof-ups. "What Does Islam Say About Terrorism?" is a section among the various other Muslim beliefs!!!! Clearly, there is no need for us Muslims to get so defensive about Western pop media potrayals that we start including them in our Religious Beliefs sections.

The myopic Muslim viewpoint of this work is again apparent as things that Americans really care about are glossed over in half-page paragraphs. Family and Women Studies is covered in one page whereas there should be atleast 4 pages detailing this aspect of Islam, as Americans could learn from Islam here. Racism is discussed adequately but there is no chapter called Racism, one finds it under "Human Rights & Justice in Islam." This is just poor editorial work. And lo! there is NO mention whatsoever of the daily Islamic morals and manners, another aspect Americans could learn a lot from Muslims. Nor is there any mention of Alcohol, Abortion, Interest, the Mosque as the Community Center, and finally JIHAD (against evil)!!! Of course, insofar as Jihad is concerned, i can sympathize with the Saudi publishers, as they hire the Americans to do the fighting for them, so technically absence of Jihad from such a book would not be considered an omission.

Right at the end, there is a paragraph entitled ISLAM IN THE UNITED STATES, and I will reproduce it entirety here. "It is difficult to generalize about American Muslims. They are converts, immigrants, factory workers, and doctors. This varied community is unified by a common faith, unerprinned by a nationwide network of mosques. Muslims arrived early in North America. By the eighteenth century, there were many Muslims in North America. Great Numbers of Americans have entered the fold of Islam. They are from different classes: the rich, the poor, the educated, and the illiterate. Today there are about five and a half million Muslims in the United States." Thats it! I am not sure what more I can add to this thoughtful description.

Then there is a page on important Islamic contacts in America, and as usual most of the major Muslims organizations are missing, (including the mythical "network of mosques" mentioned the page before). What one finds are a bunch of small obscure Saudi offices listed with P.O. Box addresses.

All in all a totally shoddy work on the back half of this book. The ironic thing about this title is that there are 5 "General Editors" listed inside the cover, all with Western names, and in paranthesis the publishers have tartly added their Muslim names, to give us the impression that they have done their homework and hired American-Muslim homeboys to produce this book!!! Which I suppose is the biggest tragedy of it all.

In conclusion, I would simply tear off the book at the 40th page, paste the back cover back on, and lo! I have an excellent book that should more accurately be titled A BRIEF ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE QURAN. I would NOT give the last 30 pages to an American friend!!

This is a brief, concise, but rich summary of the essence of Islam. I recommend the book for Muslims or non-Muslims, casual or serious reader, layman or scholar. A challenge tonon-Muslims who want to examine Islam objectively without prejudices of Islamic misrepresentations and to professed Muslims who do not know much about the message of Islam.

I agree with the reader from Chicago that Islam must be shown from a scientific point of view. Afterall, there is no conflict between religion and science in Islam. On the contrary, the Qur'an invokes believers to observe, and reflect, for understanding. That is also the scientific method.

I disagree with the "Khalifornia" reviewer on two points: One, as brief as this book is, it is not the place for explanations of beliefs and practices. Two, it is a misconception that this book modernizes Islam. The Qur'an, which has been preserved in the way it was revealed and no revisions allowed or done, has always been modern. It is the professed practitioners who let their cultural influences intrude into their "Islamic practices" to return Muslims to the era of ignorance that prevailed before the advent of Islam. This book is just a revival of the true spirit of Islam.

The book is a rich, healthy, mouth-watering appetizer. It is up to the curious reader to follow up with other more in-depth books written by authors who know what Islam really is, such as 'Abd al 'Ati, Badawi, Esposito, Lings, Haneef, Hofmann and others.

To the authors, God bless the "pen" you write with.

As an American Muslim, I am always asked by non-muslims to explain to them about Islam. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America and there are billions of Muslims world-wide. This book brought tears to my eyes when it clearly explained the words of God as written in the Quran. I had once recommended Suzanne Haneef's book, "What every Christian should know about Islam and Muslims." It is also a good read that is more in depth. But this one was brief and more inspiring. It is clearly written, illustrated and has an excellent reference section. I feel it to be the most excellent Dawah gift to those seeking to know about Islam. Or even an excellent Eid gift for those who do.

I disagree with the earlier response to not show Islam in its scientific view. I say why not? This view was presented for a reason to show evidence that Islam is truly inspired by God. Other views were presented as well; such as the benefits of Islam and general information on Islam. I can guarantee that any Muslim that reads this book will be more than impressed and any non-Muslim will be inspired. All praise is truly due to God!!!

Tom's Hardware Guide website is well known for its devotion to detailed information and reviews of the latest technology and even business trends in the PC industry. This book also goes into great detail over each of the subsystems of your computer, from the motherboard to the keyboard. It explains how each subsystem works and how the choices of each type of component will affect your system. It has up-to-date info on the very latest technologies, including the 3D video chipsets of 3Dfx and Nvidia, as well as explaining the benefits (or not) of AGP. However, its very up-to-date nature will not last. Anyone who has paid any attention to the PC industry knows how quickly current technology is outpaced by bigger and better stuff: my new PC with a Pentium II 400 MHz processor was superceded by the 450 MHz version within only a *month* of its purchase! Thus the information in this book, while accurate, fully detailed, and intelligently written, will be outdated or obsoleted within a year. Much of the information on the basic technologies, such as SCSI vs IDE, may remain stable for longer, but for the more volatile areas like 3D video and CPU chips will certainly not. The guide seems to recognize this fact, however, with section titles such as "Currently available network cards" and with a timetable for emerging CPU chips from Intel. As well, the bookcover is paper and the photographs are dark and hard to distinguish at times, as if the authors recognize the time-sensitive nature of its contents and knew they didn't need to print it on anything of long-lasting quality.

In other words, this is an excellent book if you are trying to decide between currently available technologies for your current system, or if you want to understand how each of the subsystems in your computer work in detail. If you're looking for a lasting tome of info for your bookshelf, this ain't it-- though there probably won't be one from anyone anytime soon.

If this is an effort to reach the "average" computer user and help them to better understand some of the mysteries of the hardware and operating system Tom Brandt has succeeded admirably.

Tom's Hardware Guide falls between those offensively named "Dummy" books and the multi hundred page manuals that only someone with a computer science degree can understand.

The narrative is readable and fairly easy to understand and in those cases where the information gets somewhat technical every effort is made by the author to break it down into simpler concepts and explanations. It is written and organized is such a way that one is left with a thorough understanding of how each piece of hardware used in today's PC works and how they integrate to form the whole.

I think it would be a mistake for the person who wants to have a better understanding of a computer to ignore this book simply because technology books by their nature are obsolete even as they are being written. With the widespread availability of information on the Internet it is a fairly simple task to keep oneself informed as changes take place. Whether your want to do some serious upgrading, tweak your computer for better performance or simply educate yourself about the "how and why" of a computer, Tom's Hardware Guide will not disappoint you.

As one who uses my computer a great deal I found this book to be just the answer to the question....what makes it all work? Each hardware component (and 1 piece of software, the OS) is meticulously described, examined, shown how it works and then explained how it fits into the overall system. The pros and cons of the various technologies available are discussed and refreshingly one is left with the impression that Tom has neither an axe to grind nor a favor to repay.

By far my biggest gain after reading this book is coming away with the knowledge that I am no longer at the mercy of the "hype" so prevalent in most of the computer hardware sold today.

Kudos Tom!

Not only does this book serve as a decent reference/guide to "tech junkies", but to the average person, it is also completely understandable. In my opinion, "Tom's Hardware Guide" is not only a superbly accurate advisory for the computer expert, but is also serves as an informant to those who are still naive to the technical world.

I found the third edition to be an improvement over the second edition in terms of the prices of cars listed, but still off in many instances. As a price guide, it allows the reader to see the relation of different colors and variations to others, but the prices themselves are not, and cannot be expected to be, current. If it takes about a year to revise and publish a book, how can that price guide have "current values" in it? Before criticizing this book, and it's author, I think Hot Wheels collectors should consider the huge effort of time and organization in producing a book of this type. It is a massive undertaking. As a general guide to the world of Hot Wheels, this stands as a great example of a fairly complete, authoritative manual to this ever-changing, (usually appreciating) toy collectible. No matter how you slice it, this is THE Book for Hot Wheels collectors. I like the layout, the photos, and the historical information that introduces the book. As a collector I am intrigued by the history of this legendary toy brand! It is easy to criticize, but I'd like to ask the collectors that are overly critical of this book: "How knowledgable would you be WITHOUT the Tomart guide?"

This book is loaded with valuable information. Lots of pictures & needed specs, but as in previous editions, the incomplete index leaves much to be desired, and the pricing is out of this world. However, that said, it is a great addition to a collectors library.

I have an interest in older Hot Wheels, and was looking for values and prices. This is the only book that differentiates between the various colors of the early cars, and those colors make all the difference in value. As a result this book is almost indispensable. The color guide itself is only so-so, being particularly difficult to match up with some of the brighter colors. There were so many shades that sometimes the guide is only so-so too. But since this is the only book that even bothers to attempt to divide the cars by color, this is the one to get.