This book really gets to the core of successful selling. It emphawsizes identifying and understanding the decsion makers wants which are personal, emotional, and under the surface. Too many sales people focus on the surface stuff especially customers needs. What we really should do is tie in want based selling into our successful needs based approache we are curretnly using.

This book is a very easy read. Key points are emphasized and repeated several times to make sure they sink in. The charts and exercises used really help you grasp the concepts.

The only downside is the first helf of the book tends to be very repetitive and you wonder are they having going to get to some other points. However the second half of the book is fantastic! It really gives you excellent ideas and techniques for identifying decsion makers wants and applying the concepts to your customrs.

Enjoy and Good Selling!

If you think that there is such a thing as the "science" of sales, this is the book you need. Easy to understand and apply to whatever product or service you sell. It helped me change the way I approach new clients and service existing clients. Worth the money and more...

This book was a good book.Even though I hate reading I still read it.This book is mainly about a boy named William Thomas Emerson.His parents die and he runs away to Boston.He gets a family at a motel and becomes a messager to find things out about the war.The only problem I thought with this book was they didn't tell about the war.This book told about what happened in the beginning,but at the end when everyone chose to leave Boston from the war Will stayed and that was it.This book had good titles for things,Interesting hook,and had a nice change of seasons and time.Overall I'd give this book an 8/10.

I liked this book because it tells a lot about what was happening during the revolutionary war. Its a book about a boy named William. When his family sits down to eat supper. They said that it has been storming all day and suddenly lighting stricks everybody but Will. The next monring Will wakes up and realieses that his family is dead. So then he gets adoped by the Marsh family. as he is taking some books back he hears some people talking about the British soldiers killed a dester by there ship now he worries!!!!

I read this book to my 6 year old who is interested in the Revolutionary war. It was hard to find a book to tell about this period of time that was fitting for a 6 year old child. He was on the edge of his seat though most of the story and begged me to read "just one more page"

It is written in journal form so you learn about the people he meets and everything that happens first hand. At the end it tells you what happened to each person from the story...the part my son found most interesting.

While the book presents a convincing technical case for survival on Mars, complete with a geography lesson and specifics on Martian weather, geology, and orbital mechanics, the characters are one dimensional and the plot predictable. The dialog between characters is, at times, as tortuous and "canned" as a high school algebra lesson. I found myself skipping pages of conversation between Denise and John who are unfortunately the most uninteresting couple ever to embark on a interplanetary voyage. The introduction of Zen philosophy into the equation is intersting, if not odd. The conspiracy aspects of the book are forced and an extreme stretch of credulity.

The book presents a good basis for survival on Mars; but as entertainment, leaves much to be desired.

Currently, I'm about 2/3 through this book, so I'm not saying anything about the ending! The characters spend the whole book speaking in pages of expository technical details on how to survive on Mars in a forced and stilted fashion. Their dialogs are about as far from "realistic" as you can get, so for me they fell flat.

The opening for the book was an absolute killer for a novel; two large chapters of Congressional hearings, after a 2-page prologue explaining some of the lead-in events on Mars. If I wasn't such a Mars fanatic, I wouldn't have made it past these chapters.

Technically, I'm enjoying the book. Most everything in it has been completely predictable, but that might be due in part to the fact I've read most of the other "Mars" books currently in print, so the way they set up their colony, such as it is, is old news to me. It's not a page-turner, but I'm not stopping either. It's a bit of a treatise on setting up a colony, in many respects, so some readers may get a lot of pleasure out of it for that.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the book are Cronin's insights into Zen Buddhism, perhaps because I know nothing about it.

If you've been reading the various "Mars" science fiction novels that have come out in the past 10 yrs or so, this is a really fun book to read. I enjoyed it much more than the recent entries by Zubrin, Landis, or even Kim Stanley Robinson. However, in addition to the criticisms others have raised here about typos and editing, one other thing Cronin would have benefited from is to have a real Mars geologist give the book a read, before it was published. There are some real errors in the geology. For one thing, no dunes on Mars move as fast as those in Cronin's story, and quartz is practically nonexistant. (dunes hardly move at all under the present climate conditions). Regardless, a really fun book that I only wish was taken to that next level (some editing for typos, and a *Mars* geologist's input).

One of my friends recommended that I read Thomas Hardy, but she cautioned me: "Thomas Hardy isn't for everyone." I discovered while reading "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" that what she may have meant is that Thomas Hardy didn't write light works to be read and then forgotten about. Through this book, Hardy addresses issues that society in his day didn't want to face: the fate of the farm worker in the increasingly industrialized society, predjudices held against minority groups, and the inequality of women. All of this is not to say that this is a dry or boring work -- "Tess" is gripping, riveting, and almost overpowering in its emotional appeal. One cannot read this book without becoming involved in Tess's situation. I have never been so angry with a character in a book as I was with Angel Clare at a certain point in the novel. So, in conclusion, "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" isn't for everyone. . . but it should be for every thinking person, everyone who isn't afraid to face issues, think deeply about them, and apply them to life.

This book is tragic and wonderfully written. Hardy uses words to create a scene for you that creates the visual for you completely. I think that the sadest thing for me was to realize people did live like this, life really was that hard. As a 21st century woman I was outraged at the way that Tess was treated by men and by society. Who is the true bad guy, Alec or Angel? When we read it with our societies mores we perceive it one way, but if we were ken to the morals of that society how would we see it? Are they really dastards, or are they all just victims. I am not a scholar, I liked the story for being a good story.

After reading the book I rented the A&E movie. As I watched it, I realized how well the book translated into video, because I had already seen the exact same scenery in my mind. The only thing that surprised me was the bleakness of the trunip farm and Tesses horrible conditions. I couldn't imagine anything that awful.

There are a lot of words, similar to DH Lawrence, but I wouldn't get rid of a one of them. If you come to this book as a great story and not as a classic novel, you will hold Tess to your heart and never forget her tragedies.

Please ignore the immature high-school student reviews and understand that this book is a masterpiece. Hardy analyzes the relationship between human desire and society's mores to an unprecendented degree. The characters are multi-faceted and very life-like. Hardly aptly avoids the mistake of creating mere carciatures of the pure woman, idealistic intellectual, and spoiled playboy. Moreover, his use of religious allusion is excellent although this may alienate the modern, secular reader. And perhaps this is the problem with some readers. Finally, Tess is an admirable and strong woman who had difficult circumstances. How many people would act as admirably in her circumstance? Not many! The reviewers that criticize her actions should realize this and that they ignore one of Hardy's key points: Don't be so judgemental! This is one of the best books I have read and believe me, I have read a lot of the "good" books.

While the book is an interesting and entertaining read, most of it is untrue and horribly researched. The one star review lower on this page got it right. The facts that Mr. Allen gave as the boy's identity, his father, and where this all happened are all dead wrong. Nothing ever happened in the town or house that he said it did. It was apparent that Mr. Allen did minimal digging into the subject and just took what he found and threw it on the page with nothing to back it up with. What's even odder about this is how easily the real information(from the "Strange" Magazine)was found by that reporter. That Mr. Allen didn't take enough time to see that what was in front of his face was horribly wrong and what was right was not hard to figure out. When Mr. Allen was even contacted by the other reporter, he seemed to not care or answer any questions as to why he didn't go further to find the real truth. Everything he has stated about the boy and the location, is all wrong. Even the possessed boy himself stated that he never lived there and didn't know why people thought that. While the book is an interesting read, it can only be categorized under 'fiction', because that is what it is.

When I first read this book in its previous edition, I, too, was impressed with its supposedly accurate and dispassionate account of a true-life exorcism. That was before I read the extensive "Strange" magazine article debunking the case, which shows up the shoddy lack of research conducted by Allen. (In fact, Allen ends up looking like the Erich von Daniken of exorcism scholarship.) "Strange" magazine's investigative research discovered a whole lot that Allen apparently did not (or did not wish to reveal), such as the fact that the case did not take place in Mount Rainier, Maryland, as press reports stated, and the fact that the boy's father did not believe his son was possessed. The "Strange" magazine researcher not only tracked down the identity of the "haunted boy," but interviewed former neighbors, friends, and classmates -- basic research that Allen failed to do. The actual facts are quite different from those claimed in Allen's highly sensationalized and fanciful account.

I have always wanted to tell this story someplace, and here seems as good a place as any. I swear that what I am about to describe really happened. It was pretty scary.

Although we now live in Pennsylvania, my husband and I used to live in St. Louis. We know where the Alexian Brothers Hospital is and some of the other landmarks in the book. When this book came out it was released in St. Louis first, before it had a nation-wide release. I purchased the book with the intention of sending it to my father in NY State as he had liked the movie The Exorcist.

The first night I read 1/2 of the book. The following day while cleaning the livingroom I heard the distinct sound of rapping and/or scratching coming from a corner of the room, up near the ceiling. My husband laughed it off as either a mouse or my over- active imagination from the book, but later that night he heard it too. We had never in over 10 years had a problem with animals or mice in the walls, etc. In the book...the possession starts with rapping sounds.

That night I read the rest of the book, although by this time I was a little frightened. The following morning my mother in NY State called to tell me of an odd occurrance. The phone had rang the day before and when she answered it the person asked for "Sadie", my mother's name. When she said, "This is Sadie" the person started talking, according to my mother, "gibberish". She couldnt understand what they were saying or even if it was a male or female or what language they were speaking. When she asked who it was the person stated "Emily" which is my name. My mother said, "This is Emily, my daughter?" to which the person said, "yes" and then started speaking gibberish again. My mother hung up.

What is odd is that the phone number at the time was listed only in my father's name and I hadnt lived at home for almost 10 years. How did this person know BOTH of our names?

Because this freaked me out even more, that day I wrapped up the book and sent it to my parents. I didnt hear anything about it until about a week later when I asked my mother if she had the book, she said she did, and that my father would thank me for it but he wasnt at home. I asked where he was and she said that he was at the hardware store buying mouse traps as "We have heard scratching in the walls for a week now, so we must have a mouse."

This incident happened about 10 years ago. Nothing else happened after that, my parents never caught a mouse, the scratching stopped, and the book appears to be lost as I havent seen it when I have been over there. But it was very odd when it happened.

So...read the book, it is a fascinating story. But if anything odd happens to you or your family, please write a review and let me know. Thanks.

This is a great book. It provides a excellent foundation for learning the basics of: WSH, vbscript, jscript and provides useful real-world examples for scripting: IIS, MS Office, ADO, ADSI, etc. The author even devotes a chapter on how to deploy scripting solutions.

After you finish reading this book get the MS help files on: WSH, vbscript, jscript, ADO, ADSI, other COM, and MS OLE/COM viewer and you'll be ready for scripting in the real world.

I am really new to WSH but this book made it really easy for me to grasp the concepts. It strarts from the basics and moves to harder material. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to learn not just WSH but VBscript and jscript.

For a programmer who has used VB, Java, or any ASP, this book will boost your skills incredibly with a minimal learning curve. It shows the basics of the WSH objects and an overview of VBScript and JScript within the first few chapters- it is worth buying the book just for those chapters alone.

If you are not familiar yet with the concepts of OOP and looking at object models, you might need a primer found in another book before looking into WSH. It is built purely on objects that your code will refence and it can be a bear to take on unprepared.

It will be interesting to see how the .Net framework will integrate the objects in WSH- there is a significant chance that little in this book will be completely valid after Windows XP and Visual Studio .Net have become standard. Nevertheless, this book is an invaluable tool to the Windows programmer who wants to simplify life by automating as many tasks as possible.

A nice quick read that will hold your interest when you have time to kill. It took awhile to get used to all the character points-of-view but it all came together nicely in the end.

I have currently read four of Mr. Simpson's books. The Gypsy Storyteller is my favorite so far. His last two books (Caretaker and Hancock Boys) are quite different from his previous work. It seems that Mr. Simpson has switched to a lighter reading, thriller format. Despite the lack of depth in either of these latest novels, they do not lack in readability and enjoyment. The Hancock Boys is as good a quick-read thriller as I have read in years. The story never grows dull, and the quirky characters never fail to entertain. I hope that Mr. Simpson someday returns to writing books that have substantance as well as great storytelling. But either way, this thriller is well worth the read. Its the kind of book that flies by so fast that you are disappointed just to find it has ended. I can't say that about many of the paperback thrillers that line the walls of most stores. If you enjoy this book you should try and dig up some of his earlier work. Its worth it.

This is a powerful book, filled with intriguing stories, characters, dynamic situations and, with all the thrill and psychological terror that could be mustered, "The Hancock Boys" really delivers. Who is the smart twin? The mad twin? Who's the killer? Who's the husband? Does the wife know? Who will exact revenge? How does fate intervene? All of these questions are answered. All of the stories merge. And the ultimate lesson is learned: is brotherly love all that powerful, or is man his own universe, yearning for acceptance, for power, for identity? The book moves quickly, the characters develop even quicker. An easy read, but a thrilling one, Mr. Simpson sure knows how to write. This reader has ordered four more of his books, as I've found one of my new and favorite authors.

This book takes AD&D too far for it to handle the situation properly. Each of the rules is tweaked to such absurd degree that I at times lost all recognition of what exactly I was reading. Unlike Skills and Powers which expands on the previuosly available data, Combat and Tactics adds far too much of the new and the unexpected. The mix of the combat rules is almost intolerable if you know of a game that used these rules first. It is as if TSR is trying to capture the popularity of other games by mimicking them. On the other hand, Combat and Tactics contains many useful materials - the much-needed critical hits table which allows for detailed damage, updated weapons tables ( sadly, these are less extensive than those in the Arms and Equipment), and several interesting variants of the initiative rules are explained in greater completion than they are in PHB or the DMG. But by the time the book is finished you will feel that now the combat is too drawn out and it becomes so much more of a chore - nothing of the elegant simplicity of the original rules. My advice - give Combat and Tactics a try, borrow it from a friend, copy the tables into your little notes folder, and use your judgement during combat.

This is a very good book, I believe that everyone who wants more realistic Combat Rules and new Strategies, Proficiency's and Tatics will enjoy a lot this book. Many things is incluided like the new Critical Hit's System and table's of critical Hit's Severity. Ignore The guy that gave 1 star to this book, he probaly never read it or even have played AD&D because if he had, he will not say a stupid thing like a Goblin with a dagger taking off a arm from a Human. So if you want good and realistic Combat to your campaign you should already had this book! GET IT!

This book has everything that I already have implemented in my campaigns. The critical hit system is a bit extensive but the unarmed combat rules are fantastic. They could expand a little on the martial arts but they left that to DMs to do. I thought the book was one of the best new AD&D books I have read.

Interesting that you basically ignore native XML DBs. They are the definitive choice in most XML Document Centric environments. While RDBs remain quite strong in XML Data Centric models, they must resort to BLOBs or risk an order of magnitude of sluggishness compared to native XML DBs, such as our GoXML DB. Even with BLOBs, you cannot create a new document from multiple existing documents because of the columnar structure. The lack of a full table of contents when your title is 'Professional XML Databases' is disappointing...

Concerned XML Enthusiast

this is very well written book. the material presented in this book are exhaustive and gets you good insight on how xml would be used with dbms. the chapters 2,3 and 4 are very informatiove as they list ou tthe steps required for converting db table to xml and vice versa.

I read through this book at more of an advanced developer level, so I'm going to treat it from that level.

The chapter on XQuery was great; it answered many of my questions concisely. There is very little information on the web about XQuery outside the W3.org site, so I was surprised to find such high quality information in a book.

XPath is also a newer API that is covered well in this book, giving you enough information to get your project going.

If you're planning to do any kind of development with XML coming in or going out of a relational database, this is an excellent book to buy. I also recommend Professional XML from Wrox and O'Reilly's XML in a nutshell.

Every now and thena very, very special book comes along with a "aha" and this is such a book. Many people are spending their way through high incomes---keeping up with the "JONE'S" high profile lifestyle's encumbered with high debt and zero savings. I worked for a millonaire one time who said"Money buys clothes, clothes don't buy anything!" He advised us to buy our "toys" clothes, cars, vacations etc. off profits of profits and never spend principal! This mans nt worth was well in excess of $350,000,000. I would also recommend three other books; "RICHEST MAN IN BABLYON" by George Clawson, "WEALTH WITHOUT RISK" and "FINANCIAL SELF-DEFENSE" by Charles Givens. Remember, it's not what you make, it's what's left over that counts. If you spend all of your money on your lifestyle, guess what? You'll always have to! Good reading, excellent book.

I used to be one of those people who spent all or at least most of my money and thought I was doing okay with the little savings I had in the bank earning 2% (wow).I always bought brand new cars, new clothes, went on vacations 6-8 times per year and partied. I had a great time! One day my company shut down and I was forced to live on 50% OF MY INCOME. My savings dwindled to nothing and I had a hard time making car and credit card payments. I came to the realization that I was "renting" my "lifestyle" all of which was encumbered with debts and false belief in "job security" A friend loaned me a copy of "The Millionaire Next Door" and I had to painfully admit that I had been a fool. I met a really nice old couple in their '70's who never made much over minimum wage in salary, but were debt free and had 100's of thousands to retire on and were living better than the flamboyant fools like me who spent through their incomes. This book turned me around. I would also recommend "9 Steps to Financial Freedom" and 'More Wealth without Risk" to add to your library, or at least borrow from a library. I am now living better, earning 20-25% in mutuals, contribute to my new companies 401 (k), have a IRA and am DEBT FREE with the exception of my mortgage which will be paid off in five years (or less).

I look at this book as a modern version of the timeless classic "The Richest Man in Bablyon" Frugality and Delayed Gratification are difficult disciplines which is probably why so few people, irregardless of their incomes, have any real wealth! For anyone interested in actual action techniques, I highly recommend 'Wealth without Risk" and "Financial Self Defense" by Charles Givens. also "7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness" by E. James Rohn.