I agree! This book is terrific. I also saw it before seeing the movie and couldn't put my hands off it. it is such a great story that I think a lot of diverse people will enjoy!

I am six years old and I read this book before I went to see the movie. I liked the story of Jimmy trying to save the world. My most favorite part of the book is when Jimmy turned the teacher into a size smaller than a worm. I also liked it when they took all the amusement rides into space and when he bounces in the bubble to get to school. You should read the book before you see the movie.

for the reasons stated by another reviewer. But this book does beg a few questions. I think Halivni could have gone into more detail about his reasons for believing the Torah's text is imperfect - perhaps by discussing in more depth classical commentators' attempts to explain away those imperfections, and then responding to those attempts. And the entire argument begs a question: if the written Torah is imperfect, how can the oral Torah be any less so?

In this fascinating and provocative book, Rabbi Halivni is arguing that although the written Torah -- the Chumash or Pentateuch -- was most probably "compiled" by Ezra and his entourage after the return from the Babylonian exile, it is nonetheless still 'Holy Writ' because the work of Ezra was a successful "restoration" of the Torah given to Moses. Although Halivni probably does not mean that the structure and textual surface of the Chumash closely resembles whatever written Torah crossed the Jordan with Joshua, Halivni does most likely mean that the content of the Chumash reliably expresses the content of the Sinaitic revelation, and contains remnants of whatever writings Moses produced or had produced during the Sinai sojourn.

If there is some uncertainty about Halivni's views concerning the superficial similarity of the Chumash with the original written Torah, it is because Halivni's focus is on the evidence for and theological implications of the notion that the present written Torah is the product of a restorative project by Ezra and his entourage. Halivni argues that the very fact that the Chumash contains uncertain passages, self-contradictions, and laws at variance with the Oral Torah, means that the compilers were working with source documents that were already considered so sacred that the compilers felt they could not make any corrections to the text being compiled. They selected and arranged the scriptural heritage, but they dared not correct it or add to it. Their project was to "restore" a unified written Torah from the strands and traditions available to them. They operated more like those who restore damaged paintings, than as painters.

Halivni aims to show that traditional Judaism can survive the onslaught of critical scholarship because the probablility that the written Torah is a composite document compiled from strands and traditions doesn't mean that it isn't a trustworthy "restoration" of the Torah given to Moses. If the component strands and traditions were various reliable witnesses to, or remanants of, the original Sinaitic revelation, then a restorative compilation of those trustworthy witnesses renders a written Torah which is Holy Writ.

There are many interesting sub-arguments in this book, all insightful, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in Jewish Biblical Criticism or theology of revelation.

This book tops any account of Mozart's life. It is more of a historical novel than a simple time-line of the events.

Focuses more on the early life of Mozart. His early concepts of ALL sounds as music, and the joy of hearing that vast pallette of sounds he later used in his music. His inner thoughts and dreams about music develop as he gets older. His love of his family and his love of music at odds with each other, pulling him first one way then another, but music always his overpowering first love, ultimately leading to his premature death.

I am convinced. Mozart was poisoned. The experts of medicine and law can shout with the world their agreement with the Hapsburgs. Just as Mozart's music won't let me go, this book remains. I remain secure in my conviction of the accuracy, the truth as presented by David Weiss. He has explored every possibility with historical accuracy, leaving me grateful that I know, and sad for the world that doesn't care to see. You will see when you read this.

This hard to find book is written as an autobiography in the best story telling tradition. Mr. Weiss must take certain liberties in assuming the role of Rembrandt but the result is a facinating and engaging account of Rembrandt's daily life. This book creates a real person instead of the dry historical artist of other scholarly works. Perhaps it could best be described as a Michener version of Rembrandt's life.

It took me nearly four years to locate a copy of this book. Finally my son tracked a copy through Amazon. When it arrived it was a first edition in beautiful condition. I just love this book. David Weiss combines factual events with fictional and it is hard to tell where one stops and the other starts.

By writing a 'biography' of Wren in this way David Weiss enables the reader to develop a true feel for the man himself. If you only read one book on Christoper Wren - make it this one!

Thankyou David Weiss

I found this book to be a terrific conversation starter with my five year old son. The story is simple... A king, whom everyone loves, goes on sabaticle and leaves his son in charge. The people, no longer able to see the king, start to doubt if there really ever was a king. Then they start to question what is "good" and what is "bad." Much silliness follows, but a clear parallel to sin is drawn. When the son tells the people they are behaving badly, they become a mob and attack him. Dad (the king) comes home just in time to save his son, and the people realized that they had been wrong.

A sweet story for kids, Topsy Turvy Kingdom is a great introduction to religious allegory and also works well if you're looking for a resource that will help teach your kids that everyone comes under authority.

I hope your family enjoys its thought provoking discussions as much as ours did! God speed!

Excellent reference. Although aimed squarely at new ColdFusion developers, there is enough meat in this book to satisfy experienced developers. Well-written and easy to follow, Forta shows why he is well respected in the CF community. Note that many of the advanced topics present in previous editions have been moved to the "Advanced" book.

I've been using his books for a while and I can say without hesitation that they are the best and most complete ColdFusion books available. Although it is long, there are plenty of examples to keep one busy and learning. It is about 500 pages bigger than the last edition (ColdFusion 4). Great intro to Dreamweaver and Flash integration. Ben Forta writes great books. I recommend it highly.

I've been using ColdFusion for years, and this book (starting with the earlier versions) has always been an indispensable part of my library. The first seven chapters are essential to train beginners, and the complete reference section at the end keeps me picking it up at least once a week. While you won't be using the whole book forever, the completeness of this book will cover you in any situation. Some people that I've trained even say that the book makes for good reading; while it is less bland than most reference books, I wouldn't say that. If you expect to use CF on a regular basis, you need this book or something like it. Add the Advanced version once you're familiar with CF. Unless there's something wrong with you, you can train yourself in CF with this book. If you have previous programming experience, you'll breeze it.

The papers provide very clear explanations of a number of software fundamentals. The key ideas (information hiding, documentation methods, software structures) are covered from numerous different angles which ensures that they are well understood. Some of the commentaries are more useful than others, the ones that I liked the best were those that highlight the present day relevance of the ideas and details. On the downside, its certainly not bedside reading material, but at the same time its difficult to use as a reference because it does not try to pull the papers together. There are only a small number of core concepts - an incredible achievement for any one person, but limiting its usefulness for a reader. And despite the assurances of some of the commentators I think that some of the papers have dated.

The ideas presented in this collection of papers changed forever the way I think about developing sofware. These papers separate the men from the boys. If you understand the concepts layed out by Parnas in these papers you are well along your way to understanding the fundamentals necessary for developing quality software. The papers are clearly research oriented and don't have modern real world applications presented in the text, however, the ideas are timeless. The reader will need to make some connections with the modern world on their own. It is well worth the time and effort to read and digest what Parnas has to say.

The software world is full of "revolutionary" ideas that seem to be periodically rediscovered. Topics such as refactoring, data hiding, and "design for change" have all made recent rounds in the development world. However, most of these concepts have been part of the research literature for decades.

Much of the software development work done today is done by people lacking the requisite fundaments for the job. Very few are capable of assessing the true technical strengths of software products. Most are content to read the glossy sales brochures or shallow write-ups in trade magazines to maintain their knowledge of the state of the art. A careful reading of the collected papers in this volume go a long way towards protecting the reader from the modern snake oil salesmen of the software industry.

This book should be required reading for all software developers who strive to deserve the title "Engineer."

I enjoyed this book, but it was not as good as most Sabrina books. Sabrina is mad that Libby is making the prom unfair, so she uses a fair wind potion. But she doesn't read the fine print, and doubles the wind, making it twice as strong and unstoppable.

It wasnt as great as showdown at the mall or prisoner of cabin13 but it also wasnt as bad as dogs life. Reading the title of thebook makes you think its all about the prom when realy thats all talkuntill the last chapter, what the book is actually about is a fairwind spell. The fact that Sabrina keeps been taken out to buy dressesgets boring after a while, i think this book is actually at its bestat the beginning fading out as you go on. But i wouldent completlyrule it out its written very well and i like the story line. I thinkit was better than age of aquariums, i think all the Weiss' booksseemed to drag but this was a good one.

Sabrina thinks her prom night should be...well, magical. Just like anyone else's. But Libby is planning the whole show, & that means only one person will have a wonderful time: Libby. That's just not fair!

So Sabrina decides to fight back. She conjures up a "fair wind", and soon she and Libby are both on the prom comiteen. After all, it's only fair...

The fair wind isn't finished yet, though. It sweeps through every corner of every corner of school, then follows Sabrina home, with some crazy consequences. The way things are going, it'll even ruin the prom. Sabrina's got to figure out how to get things back to normal...before her prom night becomes a nightmare!