I was vacationing with my family a few years back, at an old-fashion type mountain house in upstate New York. I was bored so my mom suggested looking at the small library they had, and I stumbled upon this book. I started reading it and I couldn't put it down. I cried after the first chapter and I cried at the end. I am a horror fanatic, so I usually read Stephen King books, but this book is just amazing. The story is captivating and beautifully written. My mom knew how much I loved the book and she convinced the mountain house managers to let me keep the book. I was estatic, since I knew it was out of print. I am entering college as a Cinema major and it is my secret goal to try and make this book into a movie. This book is just incredible and if it were to be made into a movie, then everyone could enjoy it and see just how wonderful it is. I believe this is one of the most amazing books ever written and I am so thankful I have a copy of my own.

This story is, well, brillant. It's a saga of brotherly devotion, high adventure, scary places, and glorious times. It's through the looking glass, over the next mountain and around the corner to the place in time where you most want to be, with the people you love the best. It fills a space in your heart and leaves an ache at the same time. And it's good. You know those books that you can't BEAR to have end? The ones where you want just one more page? Well, move this to the top of the list - because the ending, while absolutely perfectly satisfying, leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what happened next. That's one (of a long list) why it's such a perfectly brillant children's book - your imagination takes it from there. This is not a story to read just once, but over and over, and to share with the people that you love the best.

I am, with my 9 year old daughter, a member of a mother-daughter book discussion group in the U.S. Being Swedish, we have previously proposed the reading of Ronia, the Robber's daughter, which all our members truly loved. Now, we wanted them to discover Brothers Lionheart, which is, in my opinion, Astrid's very best (and believe me, I have read them all) and also one of my all time favorite books (including all the books I have read during my 30 years of reading).
It is a disgrace that english-speaking readers should be denied the opportunity to read this magnificent book....

This book is a must-have for the serious J2EE developers. For example, many teams realize in EJB development that entity beans are overkill and complex enough to really drag a project down, yet very few books tell you this. Bitter EJB is the exception - it gives tried and true advice from those that have really been there and worked through the issues. In my extensive J2EE development experience I have learned the hard way many of these antipatterns. Do yourself a favor and don't learn these pitfalls the hard way - let Bruce, Mike, Bob, and Patrick join your team and steer you away from common mistakes, and towards best practices.

If you are utilizing J2EE on your current project you owe it to yourself (and your project) to read this book.

I've spent the last several years consulting to numerous companies implementing solution using J2EE technology. This book covers many of the most common mistakes made in J2EE projects. Most of these companies had exceptional expertise in their domains but lacked experience mapping their business needs into J2EE. The result was many variations of the anti-patterns covered in this book, many sleepless nights for the development team and many missed delivery deadlines.

A few of my favorites anti-patterns are: Tangled Threads, Ham Sandwich; Hold the Ham, Application Joins, Rusty Keys, Performance Afterthoughts, Thrash-Tuning, Manual Performance Testing, System Loaded Application Classes, Running with Scissors, and Integration Hell.

Most projects contain at least a half dozen of these anti-patterns. You can rediscover these anti-patterns on your own or benefit from the excellent advice and experience contained in this book.

Bitter EJB couldn't have come at a better time for me. My development team is at a crossroads. Having developed a reasonably complex web-based model-view-controller architecture from scratch in Java, we thought we knew everything. Then it hit us: scalability problems, transactional integrity questions, database portability nightmares... we were in trouble. Ah, but knowing all, we determined that a simple migration of some of our logic to Enterprise JavaBeans would solve everything.

Or would it? We started thinking: Are EJBs really better than JDO? Or home-grown solutions? How about JMS? Does it let us scale too? And what's with these Message Drive Beans? If we go EJB, do we use CMP? Hey, we hand-tuned a lot of JDBC code... aren't we going to see a performance degredation? Why would we choose Entity Beans over Session Beans or the reverse? How do we tackle the complexities of building and testing these components? We read the JavaDocs and specs, but we still had lots of questions, and not a lot of informed answers. Suddenly, we didn't feel so smart. At all.

Thankfully Bitter EJB tackles these issues and more with humor and insight. There are plenty of good books that tell you how to build an EJB or use a message queue from Java. Instead of regurgitating the mechanics, this one tells you the why, why not and when to's of developing with EJBs and related technologies. You won't find a lot of EJB cheerleading in these pages, but rather a whole lot of unbiased, intuitive advice that will help you make the right decisions for your environment, product, team and goals.

Wonderful, silly book which will teach you the U.S. Presidents, in order, in 30 minutes. The book has a story which incorporates word associations for every president as well as some quizzes to help you memorize them. Also, has a short biography on every president. Great book for all ages.

My 10 year old sister was given this book as a gift. I'm pretty good at history, so I thought learning all the presidents in order would be really cool. I read the book for 20 or 30 minutes, took the quizes, and by the time I was done I could name all the presidents in order, and backwords. The book also gives you clues to help remember the 5,10,15,20,25,30,35, and 40th presidents.

When I picked up this book and saw that it claimed to enable anyone to memorize the Presidents in 20 minutes, I said, "Yeah, right." But I gave it a try and it works! I really did learn the Presidents in 20 minutes (not any less). It works by means of cartoons and key words that are similar to the President's name and connect the cartoons to that President (ex: money rowing for Monroe). The cartoons are funny and all link together. This is a great book; you should try it.

This is an incredibly written story about a family who suffers an extremely horrific tragedy that affects the lives of each and every member. It's a story about survival and maintaining one's sanity and developing the strength to move forward. It's about dealing with life long affecting issues up front and center and learning forgiveness in order to put the past behind you. The characters are so individual and lively that they engulf you from the first page.

Creatively written, MY BROTHER'S KEEPER is a real true page turner that is bound to leave readers in "AWE" of the authors ability to sweep you in from the very first sentence!

A definate "MUST READ" that deserves more than 5 stars.

After reading My Brothers Keeper, I find it hard to believe this is a debut novel. ReShonda Tate Billingsley is a name that literary readers will come to know and love. This novel is by far one of the best debut novels I've read to date and has been placed thus far as one of my best reads of 2001.

ReShonda takes us inside the lives of the James' clan, at one time the picture perfect family with a loving father, doting mother and three carefree children. That is until the patriarch of the family loses his job and with that his identity as a man. Their father's only sense of self-worth is in the nearest bottle of alcohol, a dime bag of ... and the bruises he leaves on the woman he promised to love 'till death do us part'. One night during his tirade Gerald (father) goes too far and forces his children to come to the aid of their mother. Their son Eric and youngest daughter Jada comes to their mother's rescue while Aja (pronounced Asia) stands by and does nothing. The course of events that happen that night will change their lives forever.

Meet Aja who thirteen years later has taken on the role of Eric and Jada's keeper. Aja seems to have it all; great looks, a job she loves and a best friend that personifies the true meaning of sisterfriend. However, Aja uses her siblings as a crutch to hold onto the past, avoiding all future happiness with handsome sportscaster, Charles Clayton. Charles is the epitome of the perfect man, willing to stand by Aja as she deals with her ghost from the past. Their romantic attempts are continuously interrupted by Eric, who's anger has become parallel to that of their father. Eric is an NBA hopeful who's so concerned with not being like his father that he becomes him anyway. Aja and Eric complement one another's anger as they continue to wallow subconsciously in the past, harming all those who love them emotionally. Jada is the only one who seems oblivious to the incident that occurred so many years ago, as it has left her mentally handicapped.

Mrs. Billingsley does a wonderful job of teaching us the pitfalls of harboring hatred and anger. She immediately pulls you in from the very first page and holds you captive until the end. I found myself laughing out loud, wanting to shake the characters but she threw me for a complete loop as I got near the ending of the story and cried as if I had lost my best friend. My Brothers Keeper is a wonderful read, full of every emotion known to man. If I learned one thing from this book is that a child should be protected, but that's not always the case. We may not be responsible for the things that occur to us as a child, but we have to find a way to overcome it or it will destroy you in one way or another.

Reviewed by Tanya

I received a review copy of My Brother's Keeper and read it in two days. A well written novel about domestic violence and how it affects the family. The author shows how a once happy family can become an abused one. It's about forgiveness,but you can't release the pain and be happy and at peace until you do.My emotions went from being sad, angry, happy and holding my breath. I felt sorry for the abuser at the end. I'm recommending this novel to my book club.

Paula Martin and Karen Tate have created an excellent guide for those transitioning to the role of project manager. This book is well organized, well written, and presents the complicated topics of project management in a straightforward and easy to understand fashion. The CORE Project Methodology (CORE PM) presented in the text differs from most mainstream methodologies in its simplicity, yet it provides all of the key functionality needed to manage the project life cycle.

The authors emphasize four of the five PMI project process (initiation, planning, execution, and closure), and embed the fifth (control) as a thread running throughout the other four. As most project managers would agree, planning is the key process in a successful project, and this is where the authors have focused their attention. Their treatment of the planning process, from identifying scope through building the project schedule, is presented in a step by step manner which is quite easy to understand and follow.

The text presents several tools and techniques that the new project manager can employ to involve the project team in the planning process. These tools and techniques will help develop a sense of ownership in the project by the team.

All in all, this book is an excellent introduction to all aspects of project management, and provides some simple, yet effective, tools and techniques for managing the project life cycle.

Whether you are a project manager, someone who manages project managers or the poor soul picked to "manage" that career-killing, out of control project, this book is for you.

Breaking down the practice of project management into easy to learn steps, Martin and Tate take you through the basics of project management.

Using the principles defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Martin and Tate take you through each step, from assembling your team and assigning roles through to completion (and celebration!).

If you are uneasy about managing projects or simply don't know what is entailed, this book will put you at ease. Once you understand the basic principles of managing a project (any project!) and lay out the steps defined, it is easy to bring your projects under control.

Whether you take the Martin-Tate class on Project Management or not, this book belongs in your library. As with any good reference book, you'll find yourself referring back to it over time.

If I had to recommend just one book for the novice project manager, this would be the book. Nicely designed, easy to read and well organized. This book has a practical orientation so it will not be satisfying to the academically inclined but if you are starting your first project and are looking for help then GET THIS BOOK AND READ IT.

As anyone knows, the key to learning is repition. The book is straightforward. THere are no cute cartoons, etc. here. Just verbs and worksheets. I even do the work on notebook paper, so I can go back and do the sheets again. After just completing one page of drills, I have learned a lot. She only introduces one skill at a time, so it is not overwhelming. And the added benefit is learning, of course, the meaning of the verbs. I would even suggest this book for teachers of Italian because of the way the book is set up.

I am currently living in Italy. I want to be able to speak with my Italian neighbors, so I bought this book. After just doing the exercises in the first chapter (only -ar verbs), I am able to converse with them better. My Italian neighbors (who speak no English) like the book so much that they asked me to buy one for them so they can learn English. The exercises are excellent. I do them on a separate piece of paper so I can do the exercises over and over again. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn Italian.

This book is great to use a few minutes a day. In no time you'll be much more aware of verb meaning and conjugation. I find verbs to now be one of my strong suits in the language. You can even do it in pencil, then erase it and start over (it's in workbook format). Combine it with a few other sources of Italian learning for the maximum effect.

This book is only for office issues with w2k, this is not suitable for issues which a rise with the advanced home user. My bad.

This is an excellent book for those new to the field and new to Windows 2000. This book covers the essentials and is well organized. I recommend it to all of my students that are trying to learn Windows 2000 and want to be able to support the operating system. This book covers all of the important topics in a way that makes it easy for students to understand and absorb.

Great work Mr. Tate!

I was looking for one book on Windows 2000; a reference book, not a text book, and this one fits that description! If you already know what Mixed Mode is, this is the book for you. It's style hits the right note with me, and I especially like the little notes interspersed throughout. It's already saved my bacon twice upgrading from NT and it will live a long and useful life on my desk. It's a must-have if you need THE authoritative Windows 2000 reference.

An extremely readable, well written account of Model-T's first thru-hike in 1990. I was surprised by the heft of the book (542 pages!), but I'm sailing through it. He maintains a good balance of philosophy, landmarks, side topics, and people. Some of his digressions become a little predictable and repetitive; some of the writing can prove overly flowery (kind of like my 12-year old doing Creative Writing assignments), but it is evocative. This book was recommended to me on several of the A.T. bulletin boards, and I can see why. Enjoy!

I've read a about 8-10 "AT thru-hiker" books since deciding to thru-hike the trail and this is, in my opinion, the best by far. Not just another "today I walked x miles and had x meals", but a wonderfully told story of a terrific adventure and the people who helped make it so. No forced "and then I had my epiphanic, sterling moment of truth", no mind-numbing whining. Model-T writes of beautiful vistas, interesting people and adventures, tossed with a realistic dose of the kind of exhaustion, grunginess, hunger and pain thru-hikers must surely endure. I made myself wait two weeks to start it again, and am reading it even more slowly this time, just to make it last. I hope to meet Model-T someday and thank him for the most excellent tale!

As a fellow Appalachian Trail Thru-hiker, I have to say that this book gave the most accurate description of what a thru-hike on the A.T. is really like. Model-T has a witty and often ofbeat sense of humor that I found hilarious. Before my thru-hike, I read close to 15 books about the Appalachian Trail and found this one to be by far the best. Enjoy!
D-con, class of 2002

THE best book on Basquiat out there! A very talented New York artist that started out doing graffiti on the New York Subways as SAMO and instantly became famous after one day meeting Andy Warhol and giving him a postcard of his artwork. They became quick friends and Warhol had a great influence on his very short career even though Jean-Michel's work is totally different. Jean Michel died tragically from a drug overdose. Cool little known fact - He dated Madonna! Great photos of the Jean-Michel and an incredible extended chronology in the back of the book. Best yet info on the artist existing anywhere in the the book. Color plates of his art work are superb, large, and mostly one per page, incredible color. I highly recommend this book if you are a fan of Jean-Michel or his friends Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, or Andy Warhol.

This is a great book with many of Basquiat's paintings and drawings. It also has various essays by art critics and people who knew him. I suppose the reviewers who slammed Basquiat also think anybody could knock over a couple of paint buckets and be Jackson Pollock. The genius of Basquit in my mind is his ability to create truly beautiful paintings while painting in a seemingly uncontrolled, primitive (I hate that word) fashion. The way he layered colors, and added details is incredible. My favorite is "Untitled (Skull)" 1981. Here is a brilliant example of how Basquiat combines dissarray, ugliness, harmony, and beauty all into the same striking painting. I know Basquiat idolized Hendrix and ultimately went out much like he did, unable to cope with his talent and the attention it brought. To me Basquiat's painting very much mirrors Hendrix's musical talents. They both created wild, noisy, seemingly unharnessed, unpolished art. But to the careful, sensitive observer the true beauty and magic is revealed.

Such a tragedy for a talented fellow like Basquiat to succumb to the temptations of drugs at such an early age. His paintings are so raw and fresh. I feel as though he used canvasses as giant doodle pads which he displayed to the world. Many of our own doodle pads (next to our phones, on our office desks, etc.) end up in the [bin] but Basquiat's ended up in the galleries and museums of the world. Some think of his work as [bad] but I view it as a treasure. Fine art, cartoons, grafitti and doodling...the best things in life. This book is the best collection I've seen of his work. The reproductions are well done and the essays are enlightening. For the art afficianado, this book needs to join the collection.

Your appreciation for this book will be increased if you've ever had a [bowel movement]job, ever had to watch as incompetent management destroyed every shred of morale and independent thought in their staff. It's really short, it's not a masterpiece and it's full of typos but what you get is pure content. There is no wasted space in this book. Practically every sentence has something for you, and that something is usually funny, ironic, or yet another tidbit to make you shake your head and say "How did he ever put up with this?" This one will stay in my permanent library of books I have too much of a connection with to ever throw away.

There are very few books in this world that can make me laugh out loud, even on the second or third or tenth reading. This is definitely one of them.

Some people I've shown this book to just didn't "get it." They saw the author as a clueless loser who just wrote whatever came into his head. I feel sorry for those people.

Like the fictional works of Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre, Greg Tate's narrative pulls us into an absurd world that must be faced on its own terms. It's the world of the anonymous working stiff, of petty indignities, of corporate insanities, of people and things that refuse to cooperate with our cherished plans and dreams. Thrown into this hellish world, a world he never made, Greg Tate saved himself by learning to laugh at his predicament. He shares his keen, deadpan observations of life at the Burger Store with us, forcing us to watch as things go wrong again and again and again, blaming people, yes, but never making the mistake of trying to find some deeper meaning in it all.

Tate is the post-modernist writer par excellence: things happen over and over, an endless stream of people come and go from the store through a revolving door, getting hired and quitting or getting fired, pausing only to piss him off or to commit some absurd act. Words are repeated, language breaks apart, communication devolves and fails. Tate's use of dialogue, in fact, is a worth successor to Eugene Ionesco and the Theater of the Absurd.

Here is a passage that should give a flavor of the book:

During the first week of March, the store was out of glass cleaner. Ward was accusing Walter of not doing his job. Keith said something to me about the windows not being cleaned. I told him there was no glass cleaner. He said, "Use dish soap." I went and washed the windows. When I got finished, Ward said something to me about the windows not being cleaned. I told him there was no glass cleaner. He said, "Why didn't you say something?" I had mentioned that there was no glass cleaner. I had also left a note in the office saying, "We need glass cleaner." Ward said, "There was no note." He said, "I am going to put an ad in the newspaper that the Burger Store needs a janitor." Ward then said, "I might put an ad in the newspaper that the Burger Store needs 2 janitors." He sounded like he was going to fire me. If he was going to fire me, I would go on unemployment. The thing was, he had to chew me out in front of everybody. Ward wouldn't chew me out downstairs where nobody was around. I think he was afraid that I would kick his [butt], and he wouldn't have any witnesses. [p. 36]

At the end of the book, Greg Tate says he's working on a fictional drama. I can't wait!

I am a woman of little words so let me just say that I found the content devilishly beguiling-- is the book a simple auto-biography or an insightful commentary on the universal drudgery of work?