If you've seen the movies "Interview With the Vampire" or "Queen of the Damned," you've only had a taste of what Anne Rice's vampires are about. Whether it's the Brat Prince Lestat, human-like Louis, or wise Ancient Marius, you will come to love each one for their faults and strengths when you have finished these four books, as told by Louis in the first book, and Lestat in the next three. You will crave to read the other novels that come after-"Memnoch the Devil," "The Vampire Armand," "Merrick," "Blood and Gold," "Pandora," and "Vittorio the Vampire"-because you want to know the story behind all these characters that Anne Rice has painted only vague pictures of until given the chance to tell their story in their own words. Indulge and believe, for Lestat and Louis have strange tales to tell.

I bought the set along with the two books following in 1999. My husband borrowed the set before I had a chance to read it and my sister grabbed the two books...so I didnt get a chance to read them until later on...I have read "Interview with the Vampire" before I bought the set and I liked it very much...but it was the second book (The Vampire Lestat)which got my attention! I myself can relate to his character and I couldnt put the book down..I gave birth to my daughter and was reading the Vampire books during my stay in the hospital.. I am now on book 4... These books are really interesting and certainly a must read! I will continue to get more of Anne Rice's books... :0)

Why are Anne Rice's vampires the best? Because she has created characters and stories that almost convince you that her vampires do indeed live amongst us mortals. She has breathed life into characters that have become bigger than the books she has written and are likely to become part of folk art and tale just like that other famous vampire. But when you read about Lestat and his many adventures, you'll be thinking "Count Who?" If you are into tales of vampires then this is a must read and of course I recommend getting the Complete Chronicles because once you read one, you'll want to read them all.

The reader should note however that this is not the completed chronicles, since Ms. Rice has written many other books that chronicle the lives of her beloved vampires. Among these books there is "Memnoch the Devil", which continues to chronicle the life of our favorite vampire Lestat and his adventure that takes him to heaven, hell and back to earth again. Anne Rice went on to write a series of books that chronicle the individual lives of some of her more notable vampire characters, such as the vampire Pandora in the book by the same name, Armand in "The Vampire Armand" and most recently the vampire Marius in "Blood and Gold". There is also the book "Merrick" which introduces a new character to the chronicles and sees the beginning of new adventures for our favorite vampires. She also wrote "Vittorio the Vampire" which although not officially part of the vampire chronicles, it is still a must for lovers of Ms. Rice's vampire stories. I recommend getting them all but then again, like I said before, when you read one, you'll want to read them all.

I look forward to the continuing expansion of The Vampire Chronicles and to the wonderful writing of Anne Rice.

"You will be haunted by Three Spirits." So forewarns Jacob Marley's ghost to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser of stingy, unfavorable traits. And so begins the enduring Christmas classic distinguished by almost everyone. Come along on an erratic journey with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, all of whom attempt to point Scrooge onto a virtuous path. Meet the most notable characters ever introduced in literature: Bob Cratchit, angelic Tiny Tim, and good-natured Fred. With vivid descriptions of Victorian England and enlightening dialogue, 'A Christmas Carol' will enrapture both the young and old throughout the year with a vital lesson on hope and benevolence for humanity. This, I find, is treasured most of all in this brief story marvelously crafted by the creative Charles Dickens. No matter how many adaptations of the book one has seen on television or as films, the real source is highly recommended and should not be missed. For if you do pass the book up, you are being just a Scrooge (metamorphically speaking, of course!).

Master storyteller and social critic, Charles Dickens, turns this social treatise on shortcomings of Victorian society into an entertaining and heartwarming Christmas ghost story which has charmed generations and become an icon of Christmas traditions. Who, in the Western world has not heard, "Bah, Humbug!" And who can forget the now almost hackneyed line of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!" or his cheerfully poignant observation, that he did not mind the stares of strangers in church, for he might thus serve as a reminder of He who made the lame, walk and the blind, see. Several movie versions: musical, animated, updated, or standard; as well as stage productions (I recall the Cleveland Playhouse and McCarter Theatre`s with fondess.) have brought the wonderful characterizations to the screen, as well as to life. This story of the redemption of the bitter and spiritually poor miser, and the book itself; however, is a timeless treasure whose richness, like Mrs Cratchit`s Christmas pudding, is one that no production can hope to fully capture.

Well, I finally read it (instead of just watching it on the TV screen).

This is what you can call a simple idea, well told. A lonely, bitter old gaffer needs redemption, and thus is visited by three spirits who wish to give him a push in the right direction. You have then a ghost story, a timeslip adventure, and the slow defrosting of old Scrooge's soul. There are certain additions in the more famous filmed versions that help tweak the bare essentials as laid down by Dickens, but really, all the emotional impact and plot development necessary to make it believable that Scrooge is redeemable--and worth redeeming--is brilliantly cozied into place by the great novelist.

The scenes that choke me up the most are in the book; they may not be your favourites. I react very strongly to our very first look at the young Scrooge, sitting alone at school, emotionally abandoned by his father, waiting for his sister to come tell him there may be a happy Christmas. Then there are the various Cratchit scenes, but it is not so much Tiny Tim's appearances or absence that get to me--it's Bob Cratchit's dedication to his ailing son, and his various bits of small talk that either reveal how much he really listens to Tim, or else hide the pain Cratchit is feeling after we witness the family coming to grips with an empty place at the table. Scrooge as Tim's saviour is grandly set up, if only Scrooge can remember the little boy he once was, and start empathizing with the world once again. I especially like all Scrooge's minor epiphanies along his mystical journey; he stops a few times and realizes when he has said the wrong thing to Cratchit, having belittled Bob's low wages and position in life, and only later realizing that he is the miser with his bootheel on Cratchit's back. Plus, he must confront his opposite in business, Fezziwig, who treated his workers so wonderfully, and he watches as true love slips through his fingers again.

It all makes up the perfect Christmas tale, and if anyone can find happiness after having true love slip through his fingers many years ago, surprisingly, it's Scrooge. With the help of several supporting players borrowed from the horror arena, and put to splendid use here.

There are books that everyone 'knows' but hardly anybody reads any more. Reading these classics can be quite illuminating; they are not what you think. For example, do you really know how Dracula was killed? Or why The Virginian said "Smile when you call me that"? Read the originals; you'll be surprised.

"Tarzan of the Apes", the first of 23 Tarzan adventures by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is full of surprises. The Tarzan of this book is not the Johnny Weissmuller or Ron Ely that you might know. He is not raised by gorillas (as I had thought) but by mythical 'anthropoids', a sort of missing link between man and gorilla, with rudimentary speech and a social structure that includes ritual and dance. This is a science fiction tale, a sort of "Lost World" meets "Jungle Book". Tarzan befriends and converses with (and kills and eats) a variety of beasts.

There are aspects of the story that modern readers will find as hard to swallow as some of Tarzan's raw meat dinners. For example, this jungle is populated with lions, hyenas and elephants, creatures that in reality never go near rain forests. We are also asked to believe that Tarzan teaches himself to read and write from books that he finds.

Many modern readers will also find the racialism difficult to take. He boasts of being "Tarzan, killer of beasts and many black men". Coming on a village deep in the jungle, he immediately readies his bow and poisoned arrows. When his European companion admonishes him that it is wrong to kill humans, the hero protests "But these are black men". (Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe that scene was included in the Disney version). This is a 1914 American novel, with all the prejudices intact.

It's quite well written; Burroughs is very readable. The plotting is a strange mixture of ingenuity and clumsiness. There is a very clever device that involves Jane thinking there are two ape-men, one an admirer, the other her rescuer. But the plot also requires three separate mutinies, two of which just happen to involve cousins, to take place off the same remote African beach. This is beyond coincidence.

So is this genre classic still worth reading? I think so, for the same reason "Dracula" and "The Virginian" are still worth reading; this is the book that started it all.

This is a great book for youngsters. It is a classic adventure story. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a great tale of adventure. I read this book in junior high school and then again in high school. I recently reread it again now in my thirties. It is still a compelling read. One grows to care for Tarzan of the Apes. The movies do not do it justice. The original is the best. A lot of the subsequent Tarzan novels do not measure up to this one. It is a bona fide classic of adventure fiction. It deserves a place next to works by Rider Haggard and Zane Grey. I find myself waxing nostalgic for youth gone by and Tarzan of the Apes is right there. A fun read at any age.

Listed in Cawthorn's and Moorcock's "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books".

The Weissmuller movies didn't get him right. The TV series haven't got him right. And the Disney movie CERTAINLY won't get him right. Burrough's original narration of the story of Tarzan is a mix of bloodthirsty savagery and unrestrained suspension of disbelief that few would attempt to capture these days.

The Tarzan series is unique among his author's body of work. Where the Barsoom, Pellucidar and Caspak series concern modern men travelling to exotic lands and falling in love with native women, this time around it is a modern woman who comes to the wilderness and steals the heart of the savage protagonist, who must now step up to her civilized ways.

The tale is laced with bloody scenes of man-against-man and man-against-beast rampage. The great apes among which Tarzan grows are a cannibal species, who eat the prisioners of raids against other simian clans. The king ape kills Tarzan's father in a moment where he is caught off guard, mourning the recent death of his wife. When Tarzan first encounters men (an African tribe), he hunts and kills one of them to steal his arrows (killing being the way of the jungle, since Tarzan knows nothing of human behavior). Also, these men turn out to be cannibals too. And when the white men finally arrive, they raid their village and kill almost every one in an attempt to rescue a captured comrade.

After growing wild among beasts, Tarzan (whose name menas White Skin) realizes that he is different from his ape family. And through a series of inventions of his own (like making a rope) and fortunate coincides (like the use of a found hunting knife), he steps up the evolutionary ladder by himself. The moment he learns to read and write from illustrated primers and a dictionary is among the most improbable in the whole book. But if we have kept up with it until now, allowing ourselves to accept that a human child can be raised by apes, then his ascension to superiority isn't that hard to embrace.

Tarzan turns out to be the primeveal lovesick nerd. After the first time he sees Jane Porter (the first white woman he ever casts his eyes on), his heart is all for her. He writes her a love letter, which smacks of the most pityful puppy love ("I want you. I am yours. You are mine... When you see this you will know that it is for you and that Tarzan of the Apes loves you"). Yet our hero is true and noble, and he holds the upper hand in his homeland. The girl can't do anything but be carried away by her primeveal pretender.

I recommend you get this edition I'm reviewing, the one by Penguin. Besides the introduction which gives a valuable background to the place of Tarzan among popular literature and some details on the life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it contains a series of notes that signal where he took some liberties with his story's setting (like placing American plants in the African jungle).

The English is a little bit archaic, the characterization tends to cartoon and stereotype, but the story is powerful and nothing captures the beauty of the original like the original itself. Read Tarzan of the Apes, and meet again for the first time an archetypical hero of timeless charm.

"Somethin' Extra" by first time novelist Patty Rice is another familiar yet addictive story about African American men and women. Male/female troubles, chummy sister-friends, and childhood demons seem to be the common ground that many authors seem to tread. One of the items that makes "Somethin' Extra" stand out is the academic background of the two main characters: David Lewis is a 50ish professor of English and Genie Gatlin is a 20-something caterer/secretary who works in his department. David's marital woes and Genie's romantic farces create the road on which they first meet. The author uses humorous dialogue, flashbacks, mental musings, and sophisticated descriptions to tell her story. I liked how well the author characterized David, making him a convincing married man who worries about aging and maintaining a relationship with his sons. It was also refreshing to see David admit that even though all isn't perfect in his marriage, he still has feelings for his wife. And Genie is a true character. Boy does she eat a lot (there are a ton of eating scenes in this book - don't ask me why I noticed). Genie seems strong yet vulnerable, outspoken, yet afraid. Even still she's genuine, touchable, a woman with whom many readers should be able to identify. If there were any criticisms, I would have loved to read more action, drama, or tension between the husband and wife or Genie and the wife. With extramarital affairs an issue, this novel is ripe for constant bickering and knockdown drags out. Nevertheless the story is enjoyable, funny, and includes a couple of nice surprises to keep the reader on edge. An overall, wonderful first effort.

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Somethin' Extra'. I couldn't put it down. The words flowed like liquid. This book was well written and seasoned with flavor by the talented Ms. Rice. Rather or not you fit Genie's stereotype, this book applies to you in some type of way. Fear; love; pain; all those emotions have gripped us at one point in our lives. This isn't just a good read for women who prefer married men; it's also a good read for any woman or man who places themselves in dead-end relationships. Why do we waste time when we know all along? Nevertheless, the storyline was raw, earthy, and emotional. I came to tears near the closing. I've been there. I also liked identifying with the locations mentioned, since I live near those areas. My hat goes off to this first-time novelist. From reading her material, it is hard to comprehend this is her first-novel. I am anxiously awaiting your next, Ms. Rice.

I must start by saying, I had no real desire to read about a misguided young women in crisis who some how can justify dating another woman's husband. I was surprised by what I read. I read a very insightful novel, that was well written, entertaining and also taught real leassons about choices. In Genie I found a young women who was the product of a very unhealthy upbringing that caused her destructive behavior. I found in David a typical vain male person who needed reassurance that he was the same man he had been over two decades ago and in his quest to find himself he fells to consider how his actions will affect others in his life, which is usually the case when an indiviual is running scared. And after all was said and done. Who will pick up the leftover's David didn't need anymore. This book is a must read. Because we all can benefit from the lessons to be learn when one is blinded by self doubt and all the others his actions affect.

Mummies awaking,a pretty girl we have all seen a movie or read a book with a plot that is almost identical. What is different is Anne Rice's very unique perspective;she puts a very special touch on a very played out subject.The story begins in Egypt in the 1920's with an archeologist named Lawrence Stratford and his assistant Samir. While on a dig in the barren hills south of Cario they come across a great tomb and written upon it in three different languages dating thousands of years apart is "Robbers of the dead, look away from this tomb les you wake it's occupents whose wrath cannot be contained, Ramses the damned is my name!" A little bit of foreshadowing don't you think? It turns out Ramses took an immortality elixir and is now destined for a museum in London. Ramses still exhibits human natures and qualities and even falls in love with Lawrence's daughter Julie. Even though Ramses is enjoying his time in London there are two things bothering him. First he must avenge Lawrenece's death. But Ramses also feels he must say his final goodbye to Egypt before Julie and he can run off together. But will Egypt bring a horrible end for Ramses and Julies Love? Read the book and find out. This book is great if you're sick of the avaerage mummy story. We highly recomened this book.

Anne Rice gives us a new twist on the old mummy horror stories. She gives us "Ramses the damned" a human who is doomed to walk the earth alone forever. She explores the concept of being the only person with immortallity, the power to grant immortallity and the tremendous burden this secret carries. Ramses lives for 1 thousand years without sharing immortallity. The fear of this power causes him to lose his true love. He then locks himself away and sleeps for 2 thousand years only to be awakened in the early 1900's.

I couldn't put the book down. My wife also read it and she too loved the book. This is an excellent story but not a true horror story. It's more a human interest fiction. The Mummy is highly recommended.

Previously, all Anne Rice books were tedious and extremely difficult to read. Yet, suddenly, I discover a copy of this book and read the back cover--lo and behold, here's the perfect novel for me!! As an ancient Egyptian history buff, I could appreciate the way Rice writes in characters like Rameses the Second and Cleopatra herself, and as a romance/Stephen King fan I could appreciate the twisted love story of Julie and Rameses--and the rebirth of the remains of Cleopatra. I have read this book about 20 times, and the story NEVER gets old to me--the characters are perfectly developed, and all of the events are well plotted and thought out by the author. It is a rare case indeed when one person can find their favorite book of all time and posess it--and I must admit that The Mummy has fully fulfilled my wishes when it comes to the perfect book. Anne Rice--you deserve a big shout out and an adamant THANK YOU!! PS--Why doesn't Ms. Rice write more novels like this??? Books like Pandora and Servant of the Bones bore me to tears, but this jewel of a book is absolutely spellbinding!!!

Anne Rice has managed to write the best, most historically correct piece of historical fiction about the free people of color of Ante-Bellum New orleans that I have ever read. This coming of age story about a young man coming to terms with himself, his culture, and the world in which he lives is at times both beautiful and disturbing. Anne Rice has atrue understanding of these people and this period of New Orleans history which indicates hours of research. The characters truly come alive and the story is heartbreakingly real. You'll love it! You have to read it!

This has to be the most beautifully written book I have ever read. Anne Rice vibrantly brings to life the community and lives of the Gens de Couleurs in New Orleans, a part of American history I have never heard of prior to reading the novel. All characters are well portrayed; you really get to know them, their passions, their dreams, their flaws, their opinions, their personalities.. all main characters are given a voice and a window through which the reader can look into their soul. The descriptions of New Orleans and its culture throughout the novel are breathtaking and mesmerising as if the reader has been transported there physically. This book will make you laugh, cry, become angry, excited, nervous, and extremely happy as it takes you through the journey of the story. The Feast of All Saints has become my favourite book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a deep, moving story with plenty of substance. If you are expecting the supernatural just like in Anne Rice's other novels - forget it. This story is human to the core.

Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice has almost too much descriptive detail, and made the beginning slow reading, yet it was these details that made me feel I was actually there in the story. The character's physical descriptions were so vivid I could see them in my mind. Their thoughts and emotions were so well described I felt their dreams, their triumphs and their despair as my own. This book was written so that I lived through each of the characters.

This book is written about the "gens de colour" in New Orleans before the Civil War. Though descended from African slaves, they were also descended from the French and Spanish who enslaved them and then set them free. They could own property and pay taxes but couldn`t vote. The laws made them inferior to the whites but they could and did own slaves. They were considered socially inferior by their own relations yet in turn they felt superior to the slaves. It was a complex world and Anne Rice lets us see it through the eyes of the people living it.

Through her characters I also learned to look at things differently. Through Jean Jacques, who taught himself everything he knew, the term "self made man" has more meaning to me now. When Marcel explains the spiritual and material, how he felt all things are alive, I look at material things differently.

I enjoyed this book and while at times it seemed wordy and hard to read it was this wordiness that made it worthwhile. I could read it a second time and get even more out of it. This is what I consider a good book. Every time you read it you learn something new from it.

How can you search for imaginary friends when you can't see them? I think that Kellyanne would tell you that you just have to believe. But it ends up being her unbelieving brother Ashmol that gets the town to believe when Pobby and Dingan get lost at the mines. Pobby and Dingan is a sweet surprise, a fun story book that you might read with your older kids or a gift for a friend who has gotten ....... into the corporate world without air. It's short, it's imaginative and unpredictable even given it's length. I loved that the book was set in austrailia and utilizes aussie terms like pom and fairdenkum and that I could listen to the accent between the pages. It's a story book, nothing more nothing less. I wouldn't anxiously await a next book by Ben Rice, but, fairdenkum, this one was a super surprise.

What a lovely, quirky, touching book. I read it in a couple of sittings and have already started buying copies to give to friends. Here are the basics. A girl in an Australian mining town has two imaginary friends named Pobby and Dingan. One day, her dad asks if he can take them out for the day--and he loses them! The girl is so overcome with sadness that she starts getting sicker and sicker. So her brother begs everyone in town to help him find Pobby and Dingan before his sister winds up in the hospital. Soon absolutely everyone is looking high and low for two kids who don't exist. There's a lot more to the novel--a court case, a funeral, etc--but you're better off coming to it as clean as possible. "Pobby and Dingan" is spare, funny, poignant--and wonderfully childlike. The novella's only 90 pages or so, but the publisher was right to print it alone, rather than as part of a short story collection. No one who reads "Pobby and Dingan" could ask for anything more.

Ashmol Williamson lives with his family in the harsh climate of Lightning Ridge, Queensland, the capital of opal mining in Australia. He is a bit of a loner as would his sister, Kellyanne be, if she didn't have Pobby and Dingan. They're her imaginary friends. It is quite normal for the town to include Kellyanne's friends in conversations, infact Dingan even came third in a competition! Kellyanne is often seen with three lollipops, holding hands with her two imaginary friends.

Then one day they go missing. Kellyanne is distraught. Before her family's eyes she begins to fade away, unable to eat.

Ashmol figures that he needs to do something to help Kellyanne and organises a search party to try to save Kellyanne from disappearing before their eyes.

This is an absolutely beautiful story, funny, heartbreaking, small in size but perfectly written. This book can't fail to move you in some way.

How did I miss this book in hardcover? It's exactly the kind of story I love--full of emotion, beautifully but simply written, totally romantic, and so TRUE in feeling that every single character comes fully alive. This isn't a pretentious story and, yes, it's a tearjerker but of the best possible sort. I felt so good when I finished reading it--despite the fact that I wished it would never end. So, for anyone who loves good women's fiction, who loves a good love story, who loves to read about families and their complex relationships, this is the PERFECT choice. I can't wait to read more by this author.

As an avid reader and almost always a lover of Luanne Rice's books, I never thought I would ever find another title by this author which I enjoyed as much as Blue Moon or Home Fires. Now after reading Cloud Nine I am happy to say I have have another Rice title to add to those I loved the most. Despite that parts of this book were fairly predictable, I found myself moved by both the story of the main characters and their joining together as they race against time. I also found the plot had many of Rice's signature themes such as the love of a mother for her child and parent, the love of a man for a woman and a budding romance between two young people. If critics feel that Rice's books are too sad and sappy at times, I say while this may be true at times, nobody does these emotions better. Now I can hardly wait to read her latest book, The Secret Hour, inwardly hoping that once again I have another title to add to my best loved books by Luanne Rice.

I just finished reading Cloud Nine and could not stop crying, nor could I put the book down until it was finished. Be sure to keep plenty of Kleenex handy, as you will need them for this book!

This was one of the most beautiful love stories I have read and Luann Rice is quickly becoming another favorite author of mine. I just finished reading Home Fires by her the night before and now Cloud Nine - what an emotional ride!!

Rice writes stories that grip your heart and soul and she does not let go until the story is over. Her character portrayal, especially of teen-agers, is so realistic, that you feel that they are your next-door neighbors and closest friends! Cloud Nine embraces all the nuances of family life, which has experienced death and familial loss, and the heartache that that causes. It embodies tragedy in multiple scenarios consisting of divorce, remarriage, cancer, and several deaths, yet, contained within all of these facts, there is a ray of faith and hope that life can and will get better. There is hope of reconciliation and the miracle of love working its magic. The character's live are not portrayed here as "perfect", but are wrought with dysfunction and pain, due to real-life experiences.

I found this story's ending to be bittersweet and wish that it did end differently, but once again, I am reminded that life is not perfect and life sometimes does not play out as we want it to - it is just fe being life. Rice expertly captures that feeling with Cloud Nine and conveys it so beautifully to her readers. You are swept up into the emotions of the drama and you cannot help it.

I absolutely loved this book and once again Rice demonstrates to us that love has a powerful and healing effect, on both the young and the old. Her message is of embracing life each and every day as a gift to yourself and to your loved ones, as one never knows what the next day will bring.

This is certainly a very good reading about building enterprise applications. I like that the author gives samples for the most currently used software platforms, such as Java and .NET. Anyway, the author treats more the specifics of Java than those of .NET, and that shows the patterns he discusses don't always have such a general applicability. A certain thing not well covered is related to the table module. I have a compelling question about it and if any readers of the book are willing to help me with that, please let me know. I suppose questions aren't to be posted in a book review.
To conclude, I liked reading the book and I'm sure it's worth the money.

This is the best book I've found on J2EE and .Net patterns. I think it's destined to become a classic. I found the discussions on when to distrbute ('sell your favorite grandmother first'), Unit Of Work, Domain Model and Data Mapper patterns extremely useful. It has changed the way I think about enterprise applications.

I think it fits somewhere between the original 'Design Patterns' book, by Gamma, et al, and a book like 'J2EE Patterns' in terms of its scope. 'Design Patterns' describes existing patterns that are applicable to any kind of application. 'J2EE Patterns' describes patterns in terms of one platform (although many of them apply to other platforms as well.) Fowler's book describes a set of patterns that work with a certain kind of application, business apps, but that are applicable to more than one platform.

It's better than the 'J2EE Patterns' book, which doesn't do a good job explaining which parts of J2EE to avoid, and which 'patterns' are in fact workarounds for problems in the platform itself. (For example, the 'Composite Entity' pattern.)

I have to strongly disagree with the first reviewer. Fowler does explain which patterns work best on which platform. The first section of the book gives a good road map for deciding which set of patterns to use for your app. He mentions explicitly that .Net pulls you in the direction of Table Module, but that with J2EE you would be less likely to use that pattern.

As far as the patterns being available in frameworks, I still find it useful to know about the patterns the framework implements. That way you know which framework to select. We recently went through an O/R mapping tool selection process. Reading the Unit Of Work, Data Mapper, Repository, Lazy Load and Identity Map chapters helped *immensely* in that process. Likewise reading the Front Controller pattern gave me some new ideas on how best to utilize the Struts framework. I totally disagree with the notion that "learning about the patterns that are associated with these frameworks will provide little value". Ignorance is definitely not bliss here.

Finally, the idea that because the book 'just' collects and names patterns that already exist somehow decreases its value is hogwash. These are tried and true patterns that many developers have found useful. Naming and clearly describing common patterns is very helpful. This is exactly what the original 'Design Patterns' book did. By this logic, I guess the original reviewer would have given 'Design Patterns' only 3 stars.

It's a great book.

This book gives a catalog of patterns for enterprise solutions based on layered architecture(he has not covered the filter/pipe pattern). It provides multiple probable solutions(In C# and Java) for many enterprise related issues/problems. Most of these issues are shared by J2EE/.NET/CORBA framework based applications. If the user has already read J2EE Design Patterns, Design Patterns(Gang of Four) books and worked on 3-4 Enterprise multi-layer applications, then this book makes a lot of sense. The solutions can be put to practice fairly easily , atleast in the J2EE app server based solution space.

BTW, this books is out of stock at Amazon, I ordered my copy from Barnes and Noble and got a good discount too.

The book was on the net for a while on martinfowler.com site and only after it was published at OOPSLA 02, was it removed. Going through the June 02 snapshot of this book provided for interested reading. The final version has been edited for easy reading and comes out pretty well.

CONS :
1) Does not come with a CD :-)
2) Does not use all(advanced) language facilities (to make it readable)