Holden Village is perhaps the most remote retreat center in the contiguous 48 States. It was built as a mining village by the Howe Sound Corportation of Seattle and operated as one of the largest copper mines in the United States from 1937 to 1957. This book tells the story of how the mining village was donated to the Lutheran church and how it became a retreat center. The book chronicles the philosophy of Holden and how the village strives to find God and His presence in our daily lives. If you are interested in finding out more about a community with no phones, no television, and no radio, this book will give you a nice introduction at a very reasonable price.

In 1413 England, a person does not defy their liege without expecting dire consequences. Astronomer Galen de Cormer worries about the lecherous demands of their lord, Preston Claybourne, who nonchalantly decides to make Galen's gorgeous daughter his mistress. Desperate to protect his beloved child from their cruel master, Galen embarks on a dangerous scheme that ultimately propels Ailith into 1998 New Orleans.

Joshua Claybourne Kenley enjoys the live recreations of the medieval times put on by his club. When Ailith lands in his tent, he figures she is just another player, but he is irritated by her disturbing his serenity. A frightened Ailith manages to hide inside Joshua's large house, but ultimately he finds her. He denies her claim of time travel, but cannot deny his attraction to the young lady. As he begins to realize that Ailith is telling the truth, he falls in love with her. She reciprocates, but feels that she must return to the past in order to s! ave her parents from the wrath of Lord Claybourne.

Fans of time travel romances need to make time for Christine Holden's delightful debut novel, A TIME FOR US. Both eras are intelligently described and the characters are all interesting. Though, Ms. Holden falls into the common trap of this sub-genre of having the chronological traveler expeditiously adapt to a radically different world (after all this time, this reviewer still has not adapted to the net), fans will devour this novel and look forward to more works from a skillful newcomer.

Harriet Klausner

Mr Holden has found a remarkable means to convey the original intent of the founders of our country. He describes the causes for problemns within our society and how to fix them. Written in a challenging form, the book is a primer on civics in the United States today. it takes into account realities, perceptions and analasis of the representitive democracy that is the United States of America The basic tennant of this book is that individuals have been led to believe by the media and government leaders that they are irrelevant and inconsequential. By following the guidelines outlined in this book, one can begin to affecvt change in their community. This first step leads to awareness in the process of govenrment and through participation, readers learn that their involvement in the system is not only possible but effective. This book is a "must read" for high school and college students who are interested in persuing careers in government or politics. For older Americians, this book is a valuable asset in assessing government, it's relevance, control and how individuals can still affect change.

I really loved this book. I'm not exactly sure why, it was just the feeling I was left with.

This is my favorite opera guide and general reference. It contains brief biographies of the composers, detailed but not overly long synopsis of the plot, given act by act, a brief overview of the performance history, a critical appraisal of the opera itself, and a very thoughtful discography demonstrating excellent musical taste. The work is presented alphabetically by composer, and chronologically by work for each composer. The writing style is clear, advanced but not pedantic, and should be accessible to beginners as well as to opera buffs. As if this weren't enough, there are historic photographs of key performances throughout the years.

The vision of opera is open-minded and broad. Porgy and Bess is here. So is Gilbert and Sullivan. When an opera exists in different manuscript versions, such as Verdi's Don Carlo or Simon Boccanegra, all variations are discussed.

Since opera is somewhat expensive to collect, listeners will want to have some guidance as to which recordings to purchase. Here the Viking Guide is particularly good. Many of the suggested recordings are selected by Alan Blyth, author of Opera on Record and Opera on CD (both very highly recommended, by the way), as well as long time reviewer for Gramophone magazine. I don't always rank recordings exactly as Blyth does, but I find his taste to be the most reliable of any of the critics whom I follow.

This volume was originally published in 1993, but is now very hard to find. The publishers have printed an abridged version under the Penguin Guide series. I understand they are also coming out with a CD-ROM version of the full Viking Guide. I can safely recommend both these alternative versions as well as my trusty hardcover version.

There are other valuable opera guides. The series published by Norton of the Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera and to Opera Plots is excellent. But for a single volume reference work, nothing surpasses the Viking Guide. Amanda Holden and her team have done a splendid job.

Very highly recommended.

I find the character of Holden Caulfield so compelling, probably because I can identify with a lot about the character. He is obviously older than his years in many respects, but something of a Peter Pan type character. He strikes me as a person who doesn't really want to grow up, but also feels uncomfortable with being a child. His observations on people and their behaviour are just as valid today as they were when the book was first published. I'm sure we all know people who are very like the personalities in the book.

I couldn't put The Catcher in the Rye down, I was gripped. Mr. Salinger has done an excellent job of exposing the psyche of the adolescent.

To the person who said Holden "talked too much" duder .. that was the point! I'm a female in love with that book and it's like, sometimes all you do is sit some where and ramble on and on about nothing of any importance. I think THAT was what made Holden so real. He over-analyzed quite a bit, which I think a lot of self concious teens do. I don't think this book so much describes all adolescents, just like Siddhartha doesn't speak the view of every Middle Easterner. You can't write a book and say "This here story is one that every (-fill-in-space-) can identify with." I personally DO agree with a lot of things he has to say but some of my friends think he is full of s***. Anyway ... thats my review :P

This is one book which is close to reality, a book which relates to you ,as if i would have written this book if i ever had the guts to run away , to stay alone depressed and all . its hard to forget what your past was all the kids you meet may be good may be bad may be some you hated but its like you remember certain moments of certain days not that somthing special happened that day may be nothing happened but still you can picture it . Holden's character is one to which all the youths can identify with . I did not get the meaning of the title till Holden tells Phobey about what he wants to be , "THE CATCHER IN THE RYE".I probably want to be ,i don't know what but somebody different somebody good , a person who has certain amount of "HUMAN TOUCH". It is just that i seem to lose my way like holden. Holden was a dreamer , a child depressed by the circumstances . Its the best book i ever read or probably will ever read , definately no.1 book of all times.

Though the title makes it appear more limited, this volume "is intended to be a suitable introductory Python book", an all-in-one reference to not only web applications, but also general client-server networking, relational databases, XML, and Internet protocols like POP and NNTP. Though not the best introduction to Python (I would instead recommend O'Reilly's Learning Python) it does a good job of gathering together disparate information and presenting the topics clearly and with well thought-out code.

However, this is not a good book on CGI, HTML form handling, templating, and other common web application tasks. Holden chooses as his major example to extend an asynchronous web server into a web application framework. Thus he does not deal with Apache (or any other pre-existing server) and Python integration issues.

The coverage of Internet protocols given here is only slightly extended from the standard documentation. IMAP4 gets one paragraph, in which Holden notes its superiority to POP3 but laments the lack of space to cover it! However, non-Python topics like client-server architectures are explained at a nice level for beginners.

There is a balance of code and exposition in this book, both presented clearly though in a rather formal tone. The layout is excellent, being very easy to read and pleasing on the eye. The index is great.

This book is recommended for inexperienced programmers but lacks enough original work to make it of value to those already coding for the web.

This book covers a great deal more than python web programming.

You obviously get a nice view of the Python programming language, but also gain some good insights about python database API, as well as the network programming API available in python (both client and server, including the asynchronous socket module), not to mention XML processing.

There are lots of "tricks" in this book, which clearly shows that the author has hands on experience on the topics covered, and has had to deal with Real World problems. In this perspective, I especially enjoyed the extensions proposed to help decoupling the SQL queries from the database backend used.

This is a great book, and I present it as such to the people attending python courses at Logilab.

If you are going to be using Internet protocols, doing network programming, or web programming with Python, and these are new topics for you, I would highly recommend this book.

The book starts with a brief overview of the Python language. The author's intention is that someone with a fairly extensive programming background in other languages would be able to pick up enough Python from this overview to be able to do the rest of the programming in the book. Perhaps so. I already know Python, but did find the summary in the front informative.

I really like the fact that nearly every page has a code snippet on it. Examples are brief and to the point. The author explains each line of code and has a very direct and clear way of explaining things. I found the explanations easy to read and understand.

After the brief Python Language overview, comes an overview of sockets and socket programming. I've been trying to learn a bit about the whole topic of sockets by searching the web and nothing I found on the web explained it as clearly as this book. I now appreciate the difference between TCP and UDP protocols and have an idea of the situations in which I would want to use each. If you want to learn low-level sockets, or how to write your own socket protocols, this is not the book you are looking for. This book basically assumes you will go with either TCP or UDP (and ignores the other types of sockets available in the Python socket library). However, these will probably suit most people's needs.

The author then walks you through each of the Internet data-handling libraries in Python, such as the telnetlib, ftplib, poplib, smtplib and so on. He gives examples of working code for each library, showing first how to implement clients, and later on how to implement servers. If you want to work with these libraries, these explanations should be very helpful.

Later in the book, Holden addresses using databases in Internet programming, using XML and writing your own web-application framework. I haven't yet had a chance to go through these chapters in detail (I've skimmed them only). But there is a LOT of stuff there. One thing the author does at the beginning of each new section, is give an overview of the topic (such as an overview of why you might want to use a database, how databases work, or why you might want to work with a web framework). For me, I really appreciate this type of overview. It helps give me a context for the new information, and helps me to make better sense of it. I read through some of the database chapters where he explains how the SQL query language works, and again, I have to say it is one of the best explanations I've read. (Most explanations I've read about SQL have just convinced me I wanted to steer clear of it.)

Another nice thing, is how he sort of "works you up to" SQL. He starts out with regular Python code, and shows how parts of it are similar to working with an SQL database, and then eventually transitions into the full SQL language. He also addresses database design and efficiency.

Overall, I'd say if you want a good overview of the topics mentioned here, want to understand the reasoning behind their use, and want to be able to understand good design and efficiency, then this book should really help you out.

Not only the best poker book that I have ever read but one of my favorite books regardless of the topic. Mr. Holden is a professional biographer of the British Royal family that loves poker enough to devote a year of his life to experience what it is like to be a professional player. This is not an instrucional book but an enjoyable account of a year of poker written by an excellent author.

As good as it gets! Anthony Holden takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey, allowing us to peer in and see what it would be like to just leave your job for a year to become a professional poker player. After reading it the first time you will be calling your travel agent for the next available flight to Las Vegas. I have found that re-reading it about a week prior to taking any subsequent trips to Las Vegas will put you in such a festive mood, that by the time your plane is descending to McCarron airport your excitement has reached a fever pitch. The only thing to do at that point is to head right over to Binion's Horseshoe and make your own story come to life along the green baize. It is marvelously entertaining, and very informative. Reading this book is the second best thing to actually playing in the World Series of Poker!

Anthony Holden, the author of many biographies including Olivier and Prince Charles, decides to leave his day job behind for an entire year to become a professional poker player. In his journeys he travels to Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisiana, New York, Malta, Morocco, and the Carribbean to play the best in the world. He sits down with several former World Champions, and he busts a few along the way. Ultimately you learn what goes on inside the head of a man who lives to play the game. He begins and ends his journey at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas at the World Series of Poker.

As a narritive, it is the finest book on poker I have yet to read.

This book is both insightful and inspiring. It offers a new perspective on office politics - how to make it work for you! It is clear that the author has experience in the game of office politics, and provides some very real (and recognizable) examples. A good read and a highly recommended survival guide to all!

As an IT Business Manager who has worked in the UK, the US and Australasia, I was surprised at how little I really understood about politics in the various environments in which I have worked. The book 'Positive Politics' enabled me to step back and, for the first time, come to understand that there are clear signs and indications that can be read, interpreted and used to improve the way you and those around you operate. The author, Mark Holden, uses simple, clear and easy to understand examples and case studies to present his ideas. This book will now take a permanent place on my office bookshelf!

From chapter one, I practiced the advise of the author. I stated feeling better about myself and started getting ahead at work.
A must read.

Greg did a find job of writing in the rapidly changing sphere of how to start a business online. He's found excellent advice from seasoned experts, and gives a tremendous amount of resources.

The CD that comes with the book is packed with useful programs for small biz owners, & he gives URLS for each program, plus well-written descriptions.

Starting an Online Business for Dummies offers great tools for a solid foundation. If someone is seriously considering an online biz, they'll do well to buy this book.

I instruct E-Commerce classes at a local junior college, and I will recommend my students buy this book. After reading several books on starting an online business, I found this one pretty much covered the major points that I discuss in my classes. Since starting up my own web design business, I find I use this book for ideas for my own company. It's a book you can constantly reference. Accompanied by a Web page design book like "Web Pages that Suck" (It really is good!), most of the bases are covered. Also, the cd had a lot of useful information on small business links and sample software.

This book is truly incredible. I cannot even absorb all of the information in it! This is a MUST HAVE for ANYONE even thinking about starting an on line business. This is such an easy read and you can go on line and check out all the different web sites he has listed in the book. There is more information in this book than I ever thought possible. It is EXTREMELY helpful and written very well. It is the kind of book that you keep on your desk to constantly look up things. This is the best investment I have made in a long time. = )