If you should wish to kidnap someone, in Scotland, and be reasonably certain of getting the ransom money without police interference there is a quite detailed description of how to do it. Also a very safe way to launder money. I was interested to read about the role of the collator, I had known about them before but this story showed how important the meta-data really is as the pieces fit slowly together.

A satisfying book to read.

From the dust cover of the Ulverscroft edition...

When a man is found in Glasgow's prosperous West End district, his face blown off by a point-blank-range shooting, the P Division detectives quickly establish the identity of the Man with No Face. Establishing an identity, though, is easier than penetrating the mystery surrounding this killing - a mystery that deepens at every turn. Amid all the murkiness, the only thing that seems clear is that P Division has become involved in one of the most complex cases it has ever come up against - and the most dangerous.

MYSTERY

Four years ago in Glasgow, petty thief Ronald Grenn is convicted of robbery and arson of Cernach Antiques in a crime that seems way beyond the ability of the criminal. Within a few hours of being released from prison, Ronald is found dead in the opulent West End district of the city. His face was blown off by the point blank range of the shot.

Questions soon abound. How could a no-talented bum like Ronald commit the crime? What was a lowlife like him doing in the wrong side of town? Why did the owner of the antique store visit him while he served time? Even worse, why is the supposedly destroyed inventory of Cernach appearing in other antique stores? The Glasgow police begin their inquiries into these questions, hoping to learn who killed Ronald.

THE MAN WITH NO FACE is a fantastic Scottish police procedural that will imbue fans of the sub-genre with an intense need to find the series' previous eight novels. The police investigation into the murder mystery with its link to two other crimes is cleverly developed by Peter Turnbull. The characters provide much depth to the profound plot. However, what makes this book so good is Mr. Turnbull's homage to Glasgow, which, in turn, provides the impetus to a terrific tale that adds luster to an already stupendous series.

Harriet Klausner

In presenting an indispensable road map to protecting any organisation's reputation, Glen Peters clearly identifies the practical steps that any company can take to achieve, monitor, and maintain a solid reputation as well as the various pitfalls to avoid.

The first step is listening to the wishes of the wide constituency of institutions and people who inhabit the world market. It would be reckless, for example, to launch a new product without detailed market research. Similarly, it would not be safe to take management actions and make decisions without a careful consideration of the wishes of a company's various stakeholders.

Finally, the framework promotes corporate accountability to society as a whole by contributing to the economic power of its citizens, promoting human rights, disclosing relevant information, and respecting at all times local culture and laws. Once companies learn and practise the steps, they will find their reputations the envy of all.

Reviewed by Azlan Adnan. Formerly Business Development Manager with KPMG, Azlan is currently Managing Partner of Azlan & Koh Knowledge and Professional Management Group, an education and management consulting practice based in Kota Kinabalu. He holds a Master's degree in International Business and Management from the University of Westminster in London.

His appendix of activist non-governments also displays an ignorance of many of the groups mentioned. Peters would do well to go back and do some proper research.

The book is typical of many tutorials that have been available for several years, although with above average formating, clarity and print quality. I found it a tad uninspiring -- I prefer more context/background/hints/insights -- although there are a few interesting and unusual snippets. My teacher was less inpired (probably because he can pick licks off of any CD I present him with) and was reluctant to work from this sort of book. I have quite a few guitar books -- so I may be a little jaded on this, and if this is your main book I suspect it will provide good service. The licks I have tried in this book seem quite good, re-usuable and the approach seems solid. Although switching key when establishing licks for a certain scale position seemed counter productive to me -- I would have prefered to stick in one key initially to make the patterns solid.

The Tablature Symbols section is unusally clear and useful (e.g. good description of tremolo picking -- something I had come across before but my teacher hadn't!). Decent scale diagrams for minor pentatonic and blues scales (CAGED) although I much prefer the more complete and better formatted scales in "Essential Blues Guitar" by Celenato (which I highly recommend).

I still don't understand the sections on 6ths and 3rd and Dominant 7th Arpeggios (and I am quite bright - no really!) -- no context or explanation is given. I found the explanation of Call & Response lacking -- but I have yet to find a book that covers this adequately.

At the end of the day you are probably better off getting a few lessons, listening to a lot of CDs and picking up licks from your favorite tunes (I know, easier said than done but this is what all the greats had to do and it will save you money and train your ear, which is priceless).

In conclusion, a respectable book, above average of its type and reasonably priced. I prefer a similar but more interesting book called "Blues Essentials Guitar" and would recommend getting that one first.

Dr. Barry York
Canberra, Australia

But until now I haven't seen a book that combined the concepts of process, modeling, and platform architecture and described the implementation of a non-trivial application using industry best practices. "Building J2EE Applications with the Rational Unified Process" does this.

J2EE architects, developers and project managers will all get value out of this book because it sets the context for building enterprise class applications on the J2EE platform. Software development is still hard - we need to consider what we're building, how to capture and communicate that, how to structure it, and ultimately how to design and implement the system.

Combining discussions of the software lifecycle with J2EE implementation choices, the latest thoughts on design patterns, and building a J2EE system in a regular/repeatable way is not an easy task and I am happy to say that this book accomplishes the goal admirably.

After brief introductions to J2EE and the Rational Unified Process (RUP, which is pretty much a de-facto process standard for developing software) the reader is walked through the development of a fairly complex online auction application. I was pleased to see that the authors haven't taken the easy route of discussing a trivial application; the example used ensures that all of the "tricky" questions that would arise in a typical project are answered.

A chapter is dedicated to each of requirements, analysis, design and implementation. It was great to see the use of the Sun J2EE patterns throughout. I was also pleased to see some discussion of user-experience modeling, something that I've been struggling with in real life.

Even though there is a lot of information to absorb such as J2EE, RUP, UML and J2EE patterns, this isn't a lengthy book. At just over 250 pages I was amazed at how much useful information it contains in such a small amount of space. It's also interesting to see that this book has two forewords. The first is written by Philippe Kruchten, Director of RUP Development. The second is by John Crupi, one of the authors of Core J2EE Patterns. This tells me that the authors have done their homework, and it shows.

THE ONLY BOOK OF ITS KIND FOR THE CANCER CAREGIVER! Includes sections on cancer treatments, managing care, emotional and physical conditions associated with cancer, and living with cancer and cancer treatments. Provides step-by-step instructions on how to deal with situations or conditions that may occur when giving care to a person with cancer. Contains a comprehensive list of resources available to the caregiver that will make his or her job easier.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone striving to pass the above CIW exams.

But it is more than simply a discussion of one man's spiritual journey, it is a good introduction to process theology and the way creative and deeply centered humanism is taking ideas and weaving them with the idea of evolution and progress to build new theologies.

Now i do not share the authors viewpoint nor his basic theology, but the ideas he shares are clearly and forcible stated. Well backed up with current explanations interwoven with the authors own carefully analysed life experiences. The writing is presented as a dialogue, an offering to the reader of wisdom, hard won in struggles of the soul on dark nights. You sympathize, you understand, he shows you what he believes without trying to persuade or convince, this is the book's great strength.

The tone, the spiritual journey, the relevance to modern evolutionary thought, all make this a good recommendation for an introduction to evolutionary process theology, as explained in terms of a dance:
pg 46 chapter entitled "darwin and the dance of tao". "The best kind of dancing is when no one leads, when the leading is a back and forth sharing, when each party responds to the subtle movements, touches, gestures, and words of the other.... Dancing with no one leading, with no goal or purpose but the dance itself, is a good metaphor for portraying our contemporary scientific understanding fo evolution on our planet. If one follows strictly the philosophical implications of neo-Darwinian theory, there is no overall purpose to evolution."

Thanks for reading this review and i hope you enjoy the book as much as i did.

richard williams

It would be hard to imagine that accusation being made against Karl Peters's book "Dancing With the Sacred." Page after page reveals the sense of struggle, and ultimately the sense of joy, that Peters has experienced in terms of making sense of his own life and that of friends he observes.

The result is not a syrupy story, however. It is a deeply emotional and satisfying, but still deeply rational and objective, treatment of issues that have traditionally been dealt with supernaturally. Peters shows in sensitive detail why supernatural treatments have not worked for him, why he thinks (accurately, in my opinion) that they have not worked for large segments of modern persons, and most importantly how a more natural approach CAN and DOES work.

The subtitle (Evolution, Ecology and God) gives a hint of the approach Peters takes, and the Table of Contents gives other hints (with Chapter titles like "To Err is Divine," "Morality and Meaning for our 'Big Selves'," and "Seeking our Sacred Center."), but it in only in reading the actual paragraphs, word by word, that the full impact of his message comes through. Don't worry, it is a slim volume, and Peters is a gifted writer, so it will NOT be hard reading.

One final comment. Some of those chapter titles may seem like "New Age" titles. And indeed I suspect what Peters says would dovetail with at least some New Age approaches. The overall message goes much deeper than that, however, because it is a message about sophisticated science and sophisticated religion, showing in ordinary and even friendly language how they can come together. Peters comes at this endeavor from a lifetime of work in the Science/Religion field - he is co-editor of the premier journal in the field "Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science," and he has written frequently in the area. This book, however, is the most complete treatment of his ideas to date, and those ideas are presented exceedingly well. I will predict that many readers will find it the most exciting thing they have ever read.

The original text by Dave Tresemer has not been re-edited. It is still a good introduction to this wonderful tool. The core of the new edition is the addendum by Peter Vido. Peter is extraordinarily dedicated to the scythe as both a practical tool and as a model of wisely applied human engineering. Peter shows us how complex and subtle this simple tool can be. The depth of his knowledge may overwhelm the uninitiated on first reading, but as your experience grows with this tool, Peter's commentary becomes increasingly valuable. There is a lot of important information packed into this addendum and any scythe enthusiast will learn much from this master.

The European scythe accomplishes more than the mundane job of cutting grass. It offers us an opportunity to step away from the craziness of American lawn culture. It gives us the space in which to breathe, listen and explore our own rhythms without burning gasoline. This book is the place to begin.