An Wang did okay. In fact, he did more than okay. He did great. He did work that he enjoyed, and he did it well. And he used his money to support a lot of good causes. No, when the company became huge, he didn't handle it well, but very few entrepreneurs are able to make this transition. The big strategic error was failing to pursue personal computers. This now seems incredible, but at the time, at the time, how many people did predict that a workplace would be filled with dozens and dozens of computers, networked together in various ways? For example, when I took computer programming in 11th grade in 1979-1980, we had one computer for the class (and we had to load a program using a cassette tape). This book generally takes a chronological approach, which I think makes any story better. At times, the author overexplains, so you might want to skip an occasional passage. All in all, a good read.

A gripping book focussing on the helter skelter developments at the computer company. Will bring tears to anyone who worked for any length of time at the Lowell Mass facility in the seventies or eighties. s. ganesh

When the Circus Came to Town is a quick, enjoyable read. The illustrations are well done and the setting of Whistle, Montana comes to life with Yep's vivid description of the people and the surrounding mountains. The story has two main characters. Ursula is a young girl who at the beginning of the story leads her friends in adventures and play. She calls herself "Pirate Ursula." Ah Sam is a Chinese immigrant who comes to help Ursula's parents as a cook for their restaurant and stage coach depot. Early on in the story Ursula becomes sick with the smallpox. Her face is disfigured, and she refused to leave her room. Her friends come to the window and beg for "Pirate Ursula" to come and play, but her fear of being stared at makes her stay inside. Ah Sam, who also endures taunts and stares for being Chinese and looking different, befriends Ursula and teaches her how to cook. As Ursula becomes more and more confident in the kitchen she begins to come out of her shell. During the course of the story Ursula and Ah Sam exchange gifts - the most elaborate gift comes from Ah Sam in the form of a Chinese Circus. To bring Ursula outside Ah Sam asks his cousins to come to Whistle to perform. The show is quite a hit, and the townspeople welcome the Chinese performers with open arms. When the weather turns bad the performers cannot leave in order to arrive in San Francisco for Chinese New Year. Ursula and the townspeople work together to put on a Chinese New Year in Whistle. When the Circus Came to Town is well written and the dialogue flows smoothly. Tom, the Native American stagecoach driver, is an interesting character. Yep wrote the story based on events that really happened.

When the Circus Came to Town
By: Laurence Yep
...

The story is about a girl named Ursula who has always wanted to see a circus. That is, until she caught smallpox, which made small holes in her cheek. Now all she thinks about and wants is to hide her scarred face. All this changes when Ursula's parents hire a Chinese cook named Ah Sam. He brings to town a magical circus and finds a way to give Ursula the courage she needs to face the world. After the circus Ursula confidently goes outside knowing nobody will laugh at her anymore. She sees that Ah Sam is unhappy and asks why. He replies with the blizzard he won't be able to go to China to celebrate Chinese New Year. Ursula decides to repay Ah Sam for his kindness and creates the biggest, best Chinese New Year celebration that Whistle, Montana, has ever seen.

I have many reasons why I liked this book. One of the reasons I liked this book is because Ah Sam taught Ursula that it does not matter what you look like on the outside.The second reason I liked this book is because Ursula knew that Ah Sam helped her a lot by giving her the confidence to go outside so she repaid him by creating the Chinese New Year in Whistle, Montana. The third reason I like this book is because it teaches you that you shouldn't judge a person by their nationality because in the story Ursula thought all Chinese people were bad, but Ah Sam proved her wrong with his kindness.

The fourth reason I like this book is because Ursula got to experience a different culture or style of life. For example on Chinese New Year they had to cut a little bit of their hair, do Chinese dances, parade around in a dragon, light up fire crackers, and feast. The fifth reason I like this book is because I like circuses, which are amazing and have things like acrobats, jugglers, clowns, animals, and animal trainers. If I had to grade this book on a scale from 1 to 10 I would give this book a 10.

My favorite part of the book was when Ah Sam's cousins came to town to put on the circus. Their names were Ah Bing, Ah Loo, and Lung. On the day of the circus Ah Loo stuck a sword down her mouth and pulled it back out without cutting her insides. Then she spit fire out her mouth. Ah Bing pulled eggs out from behind people in the audience's ears. Ah Sam juggled balls, knives, a boot, a turnip, and a hat all at one time. For the grand finale Ah Bing, Ah Loo, and Lung began to turn into letters. All together they spelled out "Thank You, Ursula."

Set in 1970's Red China, The Lily Theatre is the first novel for author, Lulu Wang. It tells the story of a young girl growing into womanhood in a country torn apart by politics, philosophy and petty suspicion. The book takes it's title from the narrator's 'special place', where she finds voice - a pond inside the prison camp where the opening chapters take place.

The best scenes in this novel are those focussing on the narrators experience of the education system, and Wang creates a surreal picture of the rapid changes that it undergoes. She is able to tease out the narrator's discomfort, and the difficulties of going against the accepted norm in a system where the children begin to act out the politics of the nation in a microcosm.

The writing style clearly reflects the problems of translated text - it is translated to English, having been written in Dutch by an author whose first language is a Chinese dialect - but it has a handy glossary at the end and a few useful notes on linguistic style. It has a somewhat stilted flow (one of our readers used the word 'amateurish', but had the good nature to blush as she said it!) and it reads like a first novel.

The unfortunate ending, which had the potential to be very powerful, seems to be rushed, and ultimately it loses much of it's impact in it's haste. On the whole we were disappointed with the book, but fascinated by the discussion it generated - mainly centred on our own lack of knowledge of the Cultural Revolution in China. Although not as satisfying as other novels on Chinese culture (The Wild Swans springs readily to mind), The Lily Theatre is thought provoking and we recommend it for bookclubs who relish the discussion.

The story tells of Lian, a 12-year-old girl who accompanies her mother, a history professor at the Teacher's University of Beijing, to a pungent reeducation camp in 1972, the time when Cultural Revolution was at its full swing. Despite the horrid living conditions at the camp, Lian never imagined that she will receive an education from some of the most prominent scholars who were detained at the camp along with her mother. These teachers of all disciplines: mathematics, chemistry, language and literature, took upon themselves to share what they know with young Lian. Lian summarized what she learned from the scholars and delivered "lectures" to frogs and crickets at the pond which she dubbed "The Lily Theater" near the camp site. When she learned behind the camp walls opened her eyes to the lies behind political propaganda and helped her mend her relationship with best friend Kim. Wang's writing style is plain staright-forward. The novel tends to drag toward the end though nevertheless gives a closer look at life during and after the notorious Cultural Revolution. 3.4 stars.

I'm still reeling after reading this book about a young girl's experience of the Cultural Revolution. Unlike the commonly held view that Mao's revolution was about turning the unfair class structure on its head, Wang reveals that it was more firmly in place than ever despite accusations of "class enemy" and its condemnation of "bourgeois culture".

On top of which, the book is fun to read, with Chinese flair and shockingly outspoken, arresting language. If this was indeed translated from Dutch and not Chinese, my hat goes off to the translator for putting it in such a form that you are constantly reminded that you are in China, not the Occident.

Even though I found the ending just a little over the top, it did not detract for me from a very good read, almost as informative,in my opinion, though from a slightly different perspective, as Wild Swans.

This is a similar book to Deng Ming Dao's "Wandering Daoist" only the story of Wang Liping's training is not embellished in the manner of Saihung. Although I'm sure the average western practitioner of Qigong will likely shake his/her head regarding some of the 'training' methods used by the three old masters it is a good reminder of what one used to have to (and perhaps still should?) undergo before getting into serious practice. It is interesting how, right from the start, Wang Liping demonstrated many qualities essential to following the Tao including great patience and humility.

The book follows his initial training including stints in a hole in the ground and under a large cast-iron kettle. It then follows his journery with his masters into the mountains just as the Cultural Revolution began to sweep across China. Along the way many lessons are imparted including some interesting methods of cultivating with trees. The main portion of the story ends with Wang Liping's return to his village and subsequent marriage (!) as his masters admonish him to carry on the way in a form suitable for the new age.

The book finishes with some commentary on Wang Liping's present activities including some stories from his group training sessions - some of the first held in China as strict controls on Qigong began to be lifted.

I enjoyed the story as well as the information contained in here. There are some great views on meditation, including the aforementioned tree style, in addition to the overview of his training. There are also some very interesting tidbits about the location of the lower Dantien shifting in relation to the cultivator's distance from the equator. There is also an interesting comment that there are meridians within the body that are not terminated - that is, they are open to the universe.

Recommended...

After reading this book, I had the fortune to meet a long time student of Wang LiPing and to study with this student for two years. He taught many of the techniques spoken of in the book and demonstrated a number of them. My teacher is now studying with a Buddhist master and has no vested interest in supporting Wang LiPing, however he vouched that Wang LiPing in fact demonstrated to him and many other students in china many of the techniques discussed in the book such as the weather changing, dream control and so forth. There were also a number of other things not discussed in the book. At any rate, based on my experiences with the techniques and based on my teacher's abilities and his stories of studying with Wang LiPing, this book is a true account of what Wang LiPing went through.

As for the way it is written, I found it to be mostly fascinating but it doesnt have the prose that Deng Ming Dao's books have and so it is difficult reading in certain places. On the other hand, this account is a true story, unlike Deng Ming Dao's trilogy and so if you are truly interested in Taoism this book is a must.

I can vouch that this is a truly astounding and brilliant book, as you would only expect it be - (look at the other books Cleary has translated, and tell me that a man with his skill and judgement would waste his time on something worthy of a one or two star review.) It comprehensively covers Wang Liping's full training and in doing so thoroughly discusses the philosophy and principles of Taoism. Along the way it details numerous Taoist practices, some only in as far as is safe or possible. Wang's apprenticeship takes place on the road over the Cultural Revolution, and is also unusual in that Wang has three teachers from two generations - a grandmaster and two mentors. The narrative is rich with annecdote, explanation and detail, though if your feeling sluggish, keeping an eye on the scope and depth of what is being gestured towards can prove a little testing at best. As such it can in fact make for disconcertingly easy reading - (most of it was related to two of Wang Liping's students by Wang Liping himself over a series of meetings.) As a document of Taoism as it stands today this book is particularly valuable: it sets out the monumental tasks, responsibilities and difficulties facing a lineage holder during China's uneasy settling after a century's upheaval and, perhaps most importantly, it unceasingly places Taoist philosophy and practice in the context of contemporary knowledge and epistemology. What becomes abundantly clear on reading the authors' lucid explanations is that in its interaction with modern knowledge Taoism is set to become the science par excellence and that, in essence, it is just that already. anguspretty@hotmail.com

Richard John Lynn's scholarly edition of the I Ching appears to have been designed as a competitor to the Carey Baynes translation of Richard Wilhelm's deservedly famous edition. It has a very similar design and the same tall slim pages, though unfortunately the spine is glued and the book doesn't open flat.

Wilhelm wore his scholarship lightly, but Lynn seems determined to exhibit his. The numerous interesting footnotes are full, detailed, and unmistakably scholarly, but have been printed in a miniscule font that makes for difficult reading.

Apart from its inferior binding and minsicule typography, the main problem with the book is the extreme repulsiveness of the translation. Here is the opening line of Hexagram 1:

'Qian consists of fundamentality [yuan], prevalence [heng], fitness [li], and constancy [zhen]' (page 129).

Intelligible, perhaps, if you happen to understand the original Chinese, but hardly designed to make much sense to anyone else. Lynn's edition is very much one for the advanced student. Long-time students of the I Ching will find lots to chew on in his densely packed and heavily annotated pages (provided they can read them).

Beginners who are not so much interested in studying the I Ching as a document in the history of Chinese philosophy, but who want to try their hand at using the I Ching for divination, should most definitely avoid the Lynn. Their needs would be far better served by a book such as Stephen Karcher's 'How to Use the I Ching,' one of the finest available editions for beginners on the market.

The Lynn has its uses, but despite its pretensions I very much doubt it will ever succeed in ousting the Wilhelm from its pre-eminent position as the West's foremost edition of the I Ching. Among other things, I don't think people would be prepared to sacrifice Wilhelm's beauty.

What sets this apart from other translations of the Classic of Changes is that it is relatively recent work done on a relatively early collection of Changes-plus-commentaries. Indeed, Wang Bi's comments on the Changes, translated here, are the earliest known comments on the Changes, as Wang Bi lived just after the collapse of the Han dynasty.

The translator describes Wang Bi's approach as a blend of Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism, although Daoism as we now know it had come into being barely 100 years prior, and the Changes has never been a particularly Daoist work to begin with, although it was finally admitted into the Daoist Canon centuries after its adoption by the Confucians. I would characterize Wang Bi's sensibility as predominantly Confucian. Indeed, Lynn acknowledges that Neo-Confucian interpretations of this classic would be much different had it not been for the legacy of Wang Bi.

This translation serves scholarship before all else, and is accordingly rife with footnotes, glosses, and annotations, which can make it rough to read. Nevertheless, this is one of the Five Classics, extremely important in the Confucian Canon, and Lynn has worked hard to bring us a complete translation of the Changes as read by Wang Bi. There is no doubt that it was a worthwhile effort.

For a neo-Confucian take on the Changes, the work of choice is still the Wilhelm-Baynes. For a pre-Confucian view, Whincup's translation is fascinating. By all means, avoid Ritsema and Karcher if what you desire is a translation of the Classic of Changes. As an introduction, I'd recommend the work at hand or Whincup's.

Richard John Lynn's translation of the I Ching has become one of my most precious books. He has found the style that brings back a very distant voice of ancient China: Wang Bi, a philosophical geenius who died at the age of 23 after having written the most outstanding commentaries ever of the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. R.J.Lynn brings out the taoist touch of Wang Bi's philosophy by keeping the word "dao" in the English text. Some of his expressions are fun, like when someone's situation has come to a point of decline, Lynn translates Wang Bi with: "this one's dao has petered out". Somehow Lynn has brought Wang Bi's thought back to life.

I bought this book on the recommendation of the early reviewers. Bad choice. I think the reason why one reviewer recommended this book after data structures is because it was so poorly written as a introductory textbook the reviewer was able to fill in the gaps himself.

The preface states that no C programming is assumed, so it should be for a beginner. I would submit that this would only be true by re-reading the text several times and parsing the information into more natural categories for better understanding.

The information was there, possibly, but why waste your time.

C++ Primer Plus is an excellent book, with appropriate humor, carries only about 10% bloat, and more reasonably priced.

For beginner, it fail to explain clearly; for professional it too simple. So got my average point. I never recomend such book.

This is a great book for a student who has completed a course in Data Structures. Warning... do not even attempt to open the book if you are not familiar with Data Structures. One might attempt to read this book without first learning the basics of C++. I must say that I am glad that I was familiar with C++. The book is complcated and does go very in-depth. But if you meet the prerequisites... it is excelent! I read it about a year ago and am now going through and reading it again. I must say, it is just as great the second time.

The Chinese language text seems to be "politically correct" hack retelling from the People's Republic, filled with jingoistic sentiments. I would not want to read the Chinese version to my kids. The English language version softens and rephrases some of the more irritating parts of the Chinese text, the artwork is OK, and young children actually seem to LIKE the simplistic rhyming, so I'm assigning three stars. If you want a close translation of the original poem with wonderful illustrations, buy Jeanne Lee's book. If you want a good prose retelling of the story with lots of details added (the original poem is somewhat elliptical in phrasing and short in detail) then buy Robert San Souci's book.

This story is told in the format of a song. The song is the re-telling of the legend of Mulan. The story is close to disneys version of Mulan, but has several differences. One difference is that Mulan and her family decide together that Mulan shall go in her fathers place. Mulan fights in many battles intead of just one. No mention of her being hurt and then her gender being discovered. She is discovered when she returned home and another soldier who was traveling with her finds out her true gender.

Prior to reading this to my 5 yo, we discussed how this was the original story. It sparked a discussion on how sometimes a book and a movie can be very different. It was a hit with my child. One that I expect to read again and again. A nice addition to any Mulan fans library.

This is actually one of my favorite books. I have owned a copy since it first came out, and keep having to buy new ones because my student's also love it. I am a 4th grade teacher, and when a student leaves my class, I allow the child to pick a favorite book - any book I own - to take as my gift. The kid's usually choose either China's Bravest Girl, or El Chino by Allen Say. That says a lot for a book! The story and illustrations engage the students strongly - they love the images, the poetry, the Chinese character. The story gives them hope that they too can be heroes and change the world. Please get yourself and your children a copy - in fact get two - you will end up giving one away.

I have been using this book for help when I have been unable to pick up the concept or "nuts & bolts" of using a Qbasic command and have never been disapointed with Mr. Wang's explaination. As an adjunct to the textbook we are using in my Qbasic programming class this book has been a great help. Examples in the book are practical and concise. When the programming problem revolves around a,b & c Wang gives examples using a,b & c not x,y & z as my other textbook does. Furthermore, the chapters at the beginning and end of the book have helped me decide what other languages will be most beneficial for me to learn as I plan my future education. Connections to professional associations,practical career advise, this book has much more than just good programming instruction. I think this book does a great job of teaching Qbasic by itself but as an additional reference it has been invaluable to me.

I highly recommend Wallace Wang's Beginning Programming for Dummies to anyone looking to learn programming for the first time. I'm a technical writer who is terrible at math and not very bright in general. Fortunately, as Mr. Wang assures me in the first chapter, you don't have to be a math genius to be a good programmer. You just have to be curious and willing to spend a lot of time practicing. One thing that sets Dummies books apart is their ability to make the boring part of a subject (its dullness or seeming difficulty is why you need the book in the first place) seem fun. Wang employs his extensive gifts as a comedian to make memorizing terms like "REM," "CLS," and "FOR...NEXT" feel deceptively fun. After finishing this book (it took about a month of daily to semi-daily study to digest), I have a good grasp of programming in general, and QBASIC in particular. I'm making my own QBASIC program to master the language (it's a psychologist who asks you questions and then belittles you). And, because QBASIC comes free with every PC, you don't have to buy anything extra to learn it. Once I master QBASIC, I'll easily be able to move on to Visual Basic, and then maybe dabble in some C, Java, and HTML/XML.

This book is excellent for anyone who wants to start programming. Im fifteen and I read it in 2 days, and (remarkably) understood all of the book's key points! It goes over the various popular languages, and explains the pros and cons of each one (C/C++, java, basic...), and explains them in English, not assuming you know the programming world's "lingo". It also has a great QBASIC section to get you programming fast with tons of sample programs. This is truly a great book.

Visual Basic for dummies is more suited for revision of VB Basics. This was the first VB Book I bought and frankly, I could not make much out of it. The book did not show us how to apply the concepts to real world applications and as a result, I bought a Step by Step VB Book from Microsoft and this book was much better. However, I stopped programming in VB for some time and I needed to refresh the basics before going on to more advanced topics. This is where I recommend Visual Basic for dummies. Its short code and explanations effectively refreshes my mind. I will recommend this book for people who have mastered the basics and just want to revise the basics of VB again. For true novices, I recommend getting VB Step by Step from Microsoft Press.

I own the VB 6 version of this book. I thought that overall it was great; the book offers excellent examples, esp. with the CD enclosed, it's kind of funny, in a corny sort of way, and it does a good job of explaining things in easy-to-understand english. This book is divided into two sections; the first explains how to make interfaces, and the second explains how to write the code that make the interfaces work.
Unfortunately, at the end of the first section, the author gradually slides into using a lot of BASIC code. Granted, BASIC is the only way to make some of the user interfaces, and he uses good examples. However, the author seems to have forgotten an important detail, that almost by default, the reader does not have much previous experience in BASIC. Thus, it can make things somewhat confusing when attempting to understand the construction of the menus AND deciphering the code.
In many examples later on, the author simply says something like, "In order to make so-and-so type of box, you'll need to use this..." and follows the screenshot up with several or more lines of code, without really explaining what any of the code does. Except for this apparent lapse in logical order, the book is otherwise great. Chapter 14 begins with "the basics of code", which is odd, since a lot of code had already been covered in Chapter 13.

If you know nothing about VB and are an absolute beginner, then I highly recommend this as your first book on the subject. Yes, it is extremely basic in terms of how much it exposes you to VB as a whole, but that's what it is intended for. And it was an easy read. At then end, you will be able to write simple programs (i.e. mortgage calculator, etc...). I used this book to get past the intimidation of learning a programming language, then I moved on. Because I am a DBA, my next purchase was the VB6 database programming for Dummies (which was a perfect continuation because this book ends on a discussion on databases). I then purchased an advanced book to help me with my MCSD which I am currently pursuing. BTW, I found the VB help to be extremely helpful as well with lots of sample code. There are also TONS of reference materials and tutorials (an example is johnsmiley.com) available on the internet. I gave this book 4 stars because.....well...just because nobody's perfect (sorry Wally).

Good Luck!