This book is in an easy to read format. It has activities for the reader to do, so that he/she will gain a better knowledge of Microsoft Office 2000. Some parts of the book were difficult to understand, but overall it is a well written book.

I find "Redgauntlet" one of the less satisfactory novels in the Waverley series. Certainly, it has the local flavor, the dialect, the imaginative description of evocative landscapes all his novels have, but it is not a blast as some of the others are. The plot involves a fictitious third Jacobite rebellion, and it is interesting to see how Scott (especially in the notes from the Magnum edition, included in this edition) argues this time not for the historicity but for the historical probability of the events described. While Scott is often hailed as the inventor of the historical novel, "Redgauntlet" also shows him to be a forerunner in the historically probable novel--a genre practiced to great effect by our present-day history buff, Umberto Eco.

But probability alone does not a great novel make. Darsie Latimer's character is even less probable than his semi-historical counterparts, such as Edmund Waverley and Henry Morton. And this is strange, since moving further into fictionality, one could argue, a writer might allow themselves more latitude to make a character interesting, even if certain circumstances remain historical. Is this a conscious effort on Scott's part to show, after the fictionality of history, the fictionality of fiction?

Scott disturbs narrative conventions even further when the conspiracy against the Hanoverian King George III completely fails to materialize--ironically, for what seems to be the silliest of reasons: the Pretender (or the Chevalier if you're a Jacobite), Charles Stuart, refuses to give up his mistress. Thus, the main plot of the novel sizzles out and really not much happens in these 400 pages. Mind you, I personally don't need much to happen, but the 19th century novel did. Scott as a postmodern writer? That is pushing it too far, but this novel awaits a postmodern critique enlightened by a reading of Eco and Bakhtin.

That said, there are some really interesting things going on. Apart from the "regular" set of characters of Scott's Scottish novels, this one features an orthodox Quaker who is the epitome of anti-militant mercantilism. The form is also quite new for Scott--the novel is an epistolary, a set of letters between Darsie Latimer and his friend Alan Fairford. Thus, the novel's first-person point of view is split, and this provides for interesting contrasts.

For me, Scott sort of shot himself in the foot with this novel. His earlier novels ("Redgauntlet" is the last of the Scottish novels, written eight years before his death) lead one to expect a major action to happen before the denouement, and this one avoids that a bit too artificially. It seems that Scott was at pains to stick to history, and his own political convictions, a bit too much: a fictitious Jacobite rebellion is OK as a narrative vehicle, but it shouldn't interfere with the peaceful Great Britain (in which Scotland was in many respects subsidiary to England) that Scott himself inhabited and advocated. And so narrative excitement has to give way to Scott's pacifist politics--an honest choice, which Scott consistently maintains in all the Waverley novels--and character development and politics take precedent.

A final note: Scott has always proven himself a masterful and honest critic of royalty and nobility, especially of those characters he seems to love. "Waverley"'s Mac-Ivor is chastised for his political obstinacy, in "The Fortunes of Nigel" King James I (a Scot) is rebuked for his fickleness and corruption, and in "Redgauntlet" the formerly charismatic Stuart proves effeminate and tragic (dying an impoverished alcoholic, in the footnotes). And often enough, these tragic characters are of more interest than the somewhat ineffectual and sometimes foolish main characters: something for readers of literature to sink their teeth into.

We use this book in my sociology 101 class at USC. It is very easy to understand. Covering a little on all of the major themes in sociology, this book is very ideal if your professor makes sociology seem difficult through his/her lectures.

We had to read this book for our Survey of Israel's History class in Bible college. It does what it says; it provides an overview of the history of the nation of Israel from her foundation to the inter-testamental period. Both Wood, the original writer, and the editor for the revised edition, were theologically orthodox evangelical/fundamental folks who believed in verbal, plenary inspiration, and this true presupposition is demonstrated in their view of the history of God's chosen nation. Their commitment to Biblcial truth is demonstrated, for example, in their dating of the Exodus to the 1400's B. C., which accords with Biblical data correctly interpreted (and also fits the facts of history, as he demonstrates) while most of those who wish to have greater acceptability in the unconverted world opt for a 1200's date. Modernistic ideas about Israel's history, such as JEDP, alleged inaccuracies with archeological data, etc. are dealt with and refuted. Overall, it provides a fine introduction to its topic and is well worth the time of a reader. I did not give it five stars, not because it is not a fine book, but because it is not absolutely outstanding and one of a kind, which is presumably what five stars is for; in other reviews that I have read it seems that the entire spectrum of five stars is not much used, with the great majority of the books receiving either four or five stars. So, what I mean with my rating is that it is a very good book, but not absolutely field-determinative. Also, as a KJV/TR only fundamental Baptist, I disagree with their views on preservation and upon other details, but no book is perfect. Overall, despite these problems, it is a fine work.

Although the later volumes of James Lees-Milne's diaries have been criticised for showing him as somewhat misanthropic and decidedly politically-incorrect individual, there is much of interest in this latest volume. It may lack the enthralling spectacles of the early volumes (particularly those during and immediately after the Second World War)but 'Through Wood and Dale'does have some wonderful moments. For those who enjoy Lees-Milne, these later volumes of diaries have one distinct advantage: we learn much more about the man himself. This volume sees him rage against the Labour government and the general decline in society but still combines wonderful moments of frustration and anger (as often as not directed at his neighbours the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort).

For admirers of Jim Lees-Milne this is book is compulsive; for those yet to experience his writing, this could be a welcome introduction.

This is one of the best books that I've every used. I had it for 5 years and I use it all the time. it's great for beginnners, and professionals. I own my own video productions company.
I'd recomend it to anyone and everyone!

When Iain Softley's 'The Wings Of The Dove' was released in 1997, critics predictably complained that it was impossible to recreate on film the interiority, ambiguity, complexity or elusiveness of Henry James' late novels. An exasperated and mischievous Robin Wood suggests these citics bluffed a cultural knowledge they didn't possess, failing, for instance, to notice that the film was in no way a literal adaptation, but a radical reworking of a difficlt novel: 'the film's brilliance lies in its ability to stand as an autonomous work, and an intensely CREATIVE one, while remaining faithful to what might be called the novel's core'. With the exception of three scenes, every sequence in the film is the inspired invention of screenwriter Hossein Amimi, and even these three are very different in context, content and meaning to their originals.

Wood prefaces his typically enlightening monograph with a cri de coeur against dullards who moan about the lack of 'fidelity' of films taken from classic books. Their idea of faithfulness is a synoptic replication of the plot. Softley's film offers a more interesting alternative. Wood starts with a helpful introduction to the characteristics of James' late style, and the difficulties it presents for any adaptor; followed by a brief look at other 90s James films (Jane Campion's 'Portrait of a Lady'; Agniezcka Holland's 'Washington Square'). The bulk of the study is a minute scene-by-scene analysis of the film, showing how Softley and Amini tried to find cinematic equivalents for these characteristics, for instance by displacing psychology onto mise-en-scene, or by the invention of pregnant set-pieces that don't make immediate narrative sense, but which catch the Jamesian intuition of shadowy, unconscious forces manoeuvring seemingly (self-) conscious behaviour.

Wood is an enthusiastic and attentive guide, his analysis that of a patient teacher, pointing out important details or the meaning of particular stylistic choices. Wood, one of the first great auteur critics, famously rejected the move of film criticism in the 60s and 70s into the jargon-filled realm of theory, so his is a humanistic interpretation, firmly centred on character and narrative. He gives a greater centrality to the film's actors in the creation of meaning than more rigidly theoretical writers would allow. Because Softley is such an unquantified persona as an auteur, Wood is free to concentrate on text text text, a freedom he clearly relishes.

Because his empirical method is so focused on what is on the screen, it is easier to argue with his interpretationd and to point out the surprising errors of detail. With endearing modesty, he admits that he finds it increasingly difficult to pin down for the reader precisely the merits of the film, and acknowledges his uncertainty whether his own interpretations are correct. His main aim is to convey his own enthusiasm and love for this under-rated film - which he calls a 'flawed masterpiece', the imprecise role of Merton Densher being the film's least satisfactory element - and to look for ourselves. A film lover can ask for no greater gift.

I just saw this coffe-table book while snooping around a bookstore, and had to thumb through it: beautiful wood boats -- of course there's ChrisCraft, but many others I had never heard of.

Get this book for yourself, and/or your favorite "captain" and "crew": in my case, for my father-in-law, who owned such boats, and for my wife, who continually spins yarns about growing up with these beauties.

With the introduction of the Swing graphical toolkit to Java 1.2, developers now have the freedom to write applications with rich graphical user interfaces (GUI). Swing gives Java applications the professional edge that has long been shared by their C++, VB & Delphi counterparts, and goes further with a huge range of new components and controls, and customizable "look-and-feels". But while Swing may be the way of the future for developers, its a steep learning curve because of the complexity of the Swing toolkit. That's where "Java Swing", published by O'Reilly, comes in.

Java Swing, at a whopping 1200+ pages, is a fantastic reference that you'll keep within arms reach as you program in Swing. But the book is more than just an API reference - its a combined tutorial and book of examples. Aside from the first few chapters, which provide a basic grounding for the rest of the book, you can skip from chapter to chapter as your needs dictate. It covers all the major component groups, as well as providing useful examples and code snippets.

My one complaint about this title is that it appears to have covered the entire swing library, and in doing so the authors tried to put just too many topics into it. Perhaps it needs to be split into two volumes, but while working through the book as part of a programming project, I found that there were some areas where a more thorough treatment should have been given (in particular, the chapter on trees which provides not enough detail, and only very simple examples). That said, "Java Swing" is a fantastic resource, both as a reference and an overview/tutorial of Swing, and is the best Swing book available to-date  (as of February 1999).

"Java Swing" is an in-depth look at the features and components of Java's popular Swing API. The much-anticipated second edition of O'Reilly's classic brings the book up-to-date with the changes made in SDKs 1.3 and 1.4. Each Swing component is covered in detail, providing information on constructors, methods, and properties. There is of course a plethora of example code clearly demonstrating how to use the various components and features.

While "Java Swing" is quite a hefty book, it does not cover the Java event model introduced in JDK 1.1, the AWT layout managers, or relevant AWT components such as Component that are subclassed by Swing components. Instead references are given to pdf files containing chapters of O'Reilly's out-of-print AWT book. While this may have been an acceptable omission for the first edition in 1998, where it might be assumed that developers had some experience with AWT, I do not feel this is a valid assumption today.

If you can look past the book's omissions, or if you have a companion reference covering those features, "Java Swing" has much to offer and will serve as a treasured reference. If you are unfamiliar with AWT and looking to learn how to develop user interfaces in Java, you may wish to look elsewhere first.

Pavel Vorobiev and I are currently finishing up an 'advanced' Swing book consisting mainly of examples ("Swing", Manning publications). We have referenced the Swing source code nonstop. Apart from this, we feel that Java Swing is the best Swing reference money can buy. This book is not an API docs dump. It is a high quality reference book for GUI developers who are prepared to do their job professionaly, not blindly. If you are looking for a hand-holding tutorial this book is not for you (for this I would suggest Up to Speed With Swing).

Java Swing is very well organized and full of original explanation. I encourage potential readers to disregard other comments claiming that this book is API repetitive or doesn't explain enough. No book can cover every possible situation that can arise in the creation of a GUI, and no book will fully explain all of the inner workings of each Swing component and UI delegate. Swing is a very complex and extensive library with some very interesting and powerful mechanisms working behind the scenes. Without a doubt, Java Swing is the most informative and rich reference available. I recommend it highly.

Matthew Robinson
"Swing", Manning publications
Swing "Tips and Tricks", The Swing Connection

Silly me. I thought perspectives meant more than one view. This book, while claiming to be an indifferent look at the New Age Movement, obviously is written by staunch backers of the Movement with too few exceptions to be considered balanced. People shouldn't pretend to be scholarly when they're simply being cheerleaders for an idea.

The essays in this book provide scholary insight and terrific references for the religious/spiritual side of the New Age movement. An essay drawing strong parallels between Christian Charismatic Movement and the New Age Movement to be impartial and very enlightening.

Although it is not a comprehensive work (compare with Marilyn Ferguson's "The Aquarian Conspiracy"), it is a great place for a serach for the more responsible features of New Age mysticism and spirituality.

This is not a review. The Jim Melton interview you run in relation to this text has nothing to do with J. Gordon Melton. Two different people. It would be a good idea to do an interview with J. Gordon Melton, one of the foremost academics on modern religion, cults and the New Age