the book was ok but most of the time the charectors were miserable which made the book boring and seem to drag on. it wasnt as bad as dogs life but not as good as sabrina goes to rome or showdown at the mall. it could have been a good book if it wasnt so plain, but it was ok

This book was really good and I loved how she went back into the olden days and discovered the colonial past of Westbridge. It had a lot of suspense in it. It was good.

I LOVED this Sabrina book, It was well-written and very suspensful. Salem was a riot! When going back in time for some serious studying, Sabrina and Salem are sentenced with witchcraft! Find out how they escape and what "Colonial West Bridge" was like.

but not something that I was looking for. Don't have real life examples in detail.......

Much of Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Application Development will be a discussion of technologies and ideas with examples to demonstrate specific techniques. Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Application Development will also contain case studies to illustrate real-world examples of specific topics. ColdFusion 5 is a massive upgrade, and it adds lots of new features, including some designed specifically for advanced and power users. Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Application Development will address these issues and technologies, including: using clustering and fail-over technologies to ensure server uptime, using the new archive and restore features. server monitor and benchmarking, creating secure applications and integrating with existing security system, extending ColdFusion using COM/DCOM, CORBA, and the ColdFusion C and Delphi API's, using the Java integration options, customizing and modifying the client environment, writing custom tags and functions, ISP ColdFusion hosting issues, and working with XML and XSL. User Level: Advanced, 600pp

Within 1 chapter, I was already able to increase performance and get a quality return from this book. A must for every Cold Fusion Developer. It's part 2 of the Cold Fusion Bible!

A delectable piece of near-non-fiction about one of the most evocative and emotive artists of the nineteenth century, Auguste Rodin. I came upon this book (original hardback with cover c. 1963) via the shelves of a former paramour just after graduating from art school, a happy coincidence for a dewey-eyed artiste! Not a lover of the biography genre in particular, I devoured this book nonetheless, in part because it is loosely-based fiction, but primarily because David Weiss has molded a remarkable figure in his story of Auguste Rodin.

From his birth in Normandy in 1840 and first crayons at age five, through his tumultuous entree into the world as an artist (he was born to a minor police official), to the development of his work alongside some remarkable contemporaries (Monet, Renoir, Hugo, Zola, Rilke and Shaw) and the tragic affairs with Beuret and Claudel, it's a book you'll find hard pressed to close long after bedtime has come and gone (note: bring home the film _Camille Claudel_ when you have finished the book to add a little color to your perspective).

A minor flaw, which I quickly forgave as the characters emerged, might be the slightly formal tone (hasn't he heard of contractions?) in which Weiss, scholar before bestselling author, constructs his prose. Otherwise as powerful, colorful, and unforgettable a glimpse at the artist as Rodin's own Balzac.

"NAKED CAME I" was a bestseller in many languages when it was published in the sixties, and I still expect that someone will have the sense to adapt it for film sooner or later.

Weiss's portrait of Rodin is vivid and moving, and remains one of literature's classic examples of the "historical novel," a format that inexplicably has declined in popularity in recent years. (Weiss, who continues to write well and prolifically, and Gore Vidal, are its principal practitioners at this point.) I recommend NAKED CAME I highly, and you can track it down at almost any good library.

Halivni's book will not satisfy those looking for a Holocaust memoir. He is not a professional Holocaust survivor or bad novelist like Elie Wiesel. Rather he is a scholar. He started out as a child prodigy in Talmud, but never had a chance to attend a real yeshiva. After the war he turned down such opportunities to get a doctorate in philosophy and develop academic textual criticism of the Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was a very big fish at JTS, but the water turned rancid when they abandoned Jewish law in favor of feminist correctness. He then went to Columbia University, but now every major university offers doctorates in Talmud.

He makes a heartbreaking admission to us at one point. He says he cannot transmit the highest level of his methodology to his students. I would like to be charitable to so long-suffering a man, but doesn't it mean he has failed? What use is a method that exists only in his own head?

Although he never says so, I'm afraid Halivni realized at some point he was not an adult prodigy. If he went to Lakewood with Rav Kotler or Yeshiva University with Rav Soloveitchik he would never have been among the first rank of scholars. He admits to the sin of envy, and that shortcoming drove him to isolation and failure. That, not Auschwitz, is the true tragedy of his life.

As another reviewer wrote, this is not just a Holocaust memoir. Halivni writes about his Holocuast experiences, but many others have done the same at greater length. What I got out of this book was:

1. His discussion of pre-Holocuast shtetl life: its scholarship, its isolation, its sheer backwardness in many areas (for example, when one relative told the author's grandfather that the boy was "turning modern" because he ate with a fork instead of with his hands, and read secular newspapers). Unless you eat with your hands and avoid newspapers, you will find it much harder after reading this book to believe that Jews should be bound by every custom of their ancestors.

2. His attempt to describe his own ideological position: more respectful of traditional halakhah than modern Conservatives, more critical of traditional interpretations than some Orthodox commentators. You can find plenty of books by commentators to Halivni's right, and plenty by commentators to his left, but I would be surprised if you could find any by people who think exactly what he thinks (assuming there are any). As a result, his book is unique or nearly so - and for this reason alone, his book is worth reading and will probably challenge you whatever your views.

Another reviewer said that Halivni is not among the "first rank" of scholars. (I am not enough of a scholar to intelligently agree or disagree). But even if this were the case, I would recommend this book. I've learned quite a bit from people who weren't in the "first rank" of scholars - many of whom, I suspect, are not of Halivni's rank.

This small book covers an enormous range of subjects. Chasidic life in a shtetyl, the Holocaust, conflict within the Jewish institutions of higher learning in post war America, the personal psychological impact of being a Holocaust survivor, and the various modes of Talmudic scholarship - Halivin's great accomplishment is to bring meaning to this wide spectrum of topics in few words. This is a book by a serious thinker who is not afraid to risk revealing his innermost feelings and conflicts. A courageous work

I decided to look at the reviews at Amazon.com just out of curiosity and found some suprisingly low marks (1, 2 stars), but I actually found those reviews helpful. I have not yet finished the whole book but was dismayed to hear that the first part seems much better than the second. I think this book is popular because the first part is so good at getting new users up to speed with ColdFusion, and for that reason alone I think it deserves 4 stars. So many programming books don't spend 25% of the time Ben Forta does on explaining what a tool does and how it does it. Still, I do think the book would benefit from a chapter or two on common problems new developers face: Designing a login interface, design issues such as using CFINCLUDE vs. frames for site consistency, custom tags *in detail*, etc. I came at the book from the relational database side and still learned new things about databases, but I was surprised at not being able to find guidelines and examples for setting up a site login page and so on. I quickly scanned the Advanced ColdFusion 4.0 Development book by Forta and didn't see much about login frameworks there either. Otherwise, I think the book so far is great.

Although Forta's book is perhaps the best ColdFusion book that exists today (including those new 4.5 books), he fails to address some key issues that exist as part of Cold Fusion's syntax as well as some basic elements of web design.

The book methodically teaches readers the concept of database driven sites and how to create them. The general ideas are conveyed effectively, although there is a great deal of fluff for someone who already knows basic HTML. There are some problems in how thorough he is in explaining the syntax of ColdFusion. He may have mentioned on one or two occasions when exactly to use pound signs or quotation marks, but every reader of this book that I have met never seems to know what the exact syntax of ColdFusion should be. He needs to address these issues mainly concerned with cfif's and cfoutputs.

He also fails to deliver any tips on web design or how to build a "good" website. This is primarily a book on how to use ColdFusion to build web applications, but the lack of advice would lead to extremely bad web design by novice users.

Overall a good book to learn ColdFusion. Could be more thorough and should include a section on web design.

...but that's not to say it's perfect. There's a couple of things that I definitely found wanting:

* Forta fails to mention that in order to pass a variable from one page to another, you have to declare that variable name on the page to which you're passing * E-commerce should be its own book; I don't see much point in addressing it in the space of this one. * I think he should have included an appendix with a list of useful/helpful websites (ANYONE LOOKING FOR SOME, EMAIL ME AND I'LL SEND YOU A LIST) * That same appendix should have included how to find the nearest ColdFusion user's group (http://devex.allaire.com/developer/usergroups/).

Having said that, I think Forta covers functions pretty well, and does a good job of explaining MOST of the major tags. So I still think this is better than "ColdFusion for Dummies" or Danesh and Motlagh's book, "Mastering ColdFusion 4.5."

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn ColdFusion; if you're considering it, though, I would say it is WELL worth your while to learn HTML and SQL first.

it is really cool. Sabrina has to move this aquarium from the Mesmer mansion and carry it to her school. the principal, mr. kraft wants her to clean it so he can do some history thing. so mr. kraft helps sabrina start by pulling up some weeds. then sabrina sees little creatures and she goes into the aquarium and found the lost city of Atlantis. when the townspeople see her they think she's a conch queen come back to take the city back to the "Endless waters" Sabrina wants to but she doesn't know how to. and she doesn't know if someone wants the lost city to be found or not. it's really interesting so if ur gonna buy a book and u already have good switch bad switch or a dog's life or prisoner of cabin 13 then u should buy this.

This is a great book! One of the best in the series. I liked it from begginging to end. It's funny and interesting. Sabrina has to take care of this aquarium, and she finds out that mer-people are living in it. It's a great book. I highly recommend it.

While cleaning up the school's new aquarium, Sabrina notices some rather unusual inhabitants. Transforming herself into a tiny mermaid, she discovers the lost city of Atlantis...inside the fishtank! The shrunken city is home to a merrace so old it doesn't even remember it's own origins. But the Atlanteans are sure that Sabrina is one of the legendary Conch Queens, come to take the city back to endless waters.

Sabrina wants to restore the city to its rightful place on the planet, but how can she do it without exposing her magic powers to Mr. Kraft and her mortal classmates? And what is someone doesnt want the lost city to be found?

The title of this book tells the story, except that it should probably include the word "Overview". It is an easy read that provides solid information, but it is by no means a reference. It offers a nice, quick description of several aspects of Java and XML development, but I kept waiting for the meat. If you are new to XML in Java, this book will bring you up to speed on the APIs and uses of XML.

It starts with a review of J2EE architecture and XML development, which is helpful because the authors' perspective on these topics sets the stage for how they suggest using XML in a J2EE project. It covers the various XML-related Java APIs (JAXP, JAXM, etc.), and these are the parts that I found most useful. It also discusses some architectural options, which I expected to be quite helpful, but they needed more detail and discussion.

Although the coverage of XML is good, I found myself needing much more information especially in light of moving to web services technology. I found Java, The Complete Reference combined with this title as a good blend to get me where I needed to be.

What I like on this book is that it really is about what the title says: J2EE and XML and do not forget: the development with these techniques.

A lot of books out there are dealing with J2EE and also a lot of books are out there that deal with XML, but this one is really focused on these two things: J2EE AND XML togehter. If you want to learn J2EE, than buy another book (and maybe this one too, because of the price). If you do not know what XML is, go and buy another book, but if you want (or need) to use J2EE AND XML (because you start with WebServices, or you wonder how you could use XML to do appl. development and deployment) than this is the one you should look for. It just gives you new ideas (or did you already look at Cocoon, servlet filters, appl. integration, web publ. frameworks or design patterns?).

If you want to open your mind look at this book. Keep in mind that if you want to specialize in one of the mentioned areas than you have to buy an additional book, but that's the interesting part specially on J2EE.

I can recommend it, because it showed me some things I was not aware of.

This book is an excellent "do-it-yourself" CGI reference, but it has a few minor flaws that prevent it from being the ultimate Perl book.

First, this book is not intended to teach Perl or CGI scripting. Any novice would encounter serious difficulty trying to piece together the code fragments that make up this book.

Second, an experienced Perl programmer may find that the "code fragment" approach to creating general functions often requires extraneous code and added complexity. Still, the incredible comprehensiveness of the book make it a useful reference for generating new ideas and new approaches.

If you already have a basic Perl book, this book would make a great addition, helping to problem-solve more complex dynamic web page requirements.

This book is clear, well-organized, and has many useful examples, but the authors did not check their examples on Windows 95 systems. For instance, and this is not a minor point, they say that you can run command lines under DOS in the same way you can under Unix. Not true! Even something as simple as perl -e 'print "hello";' will not work. Because of this, the book would be far more useful for those working on Unix systems than for those using Windows. I am not sure if there is a better book available, but "Perl 5 Unleashed" does have the correct information on command lines.

This book covers the more popular and usefull areas of Perl. The book contains great examples of how to use/do various things within Perl. Also all examples are real-world based. This is my most used Perl book in my collection, by far

It's been said that the ultimate compliment you can extend to a tv writer/producer is to do an adaption to his material. Well, "Close Encounters" does that to Steven Spielberg, Chris Carter, and the filmmaking team behind ID4. First the timing and premise of the book struck me as peculiar. The story of alien encounters was obviously written in response to the popularity of INDEPENDANCE DAY. The fact that the story takes place in the California desert close to the infamous Area 51 seemed to contrived. The male/female duo of FBI agents who investigate paranormal phenomena is straight from Carter's X-FILES. And at last, the title is lifted from Steven Spielberg's monumental 1977 film. In short, the story was a quick, fun read; but it needed a good dose of originality---beginning with the title!

One of the best alex mack books! I especially liked the part where the ravine flooded!

Has some factual and historical information, but now dated. Borrow it from the library.........

If you manage to stay awake then you too can learn about securities processing from start to finish. This is a great book about how the sell-side brokerage firm works, although much of the information here is outdated; electronic systems have streamlined the process and made it more efficient. Still, this book has a great wealth of information in it. This book impressed me in its clarity and at the same time, its magical ability to be so boring.

Consider yourself warned: this book is really, really boring. Astonishingly so. I do this stuff for a living, and it still put me to sleep.

The reason it is so dull, however, is that it explains securities processing with great clarity and precision, without any mistakes or digressions. It is slightly outdated, so if the advances of the last seven years are very important to you (they won't be, to most people--the back office doesn't change as quickly as one would think), get Michael Reddy's book "Securities Operations" instead.