This is a great book for animal lovers! The characters and story are very realistic and interesting. I liked how the book told how hedgehogs should be free in the wild, and should not be kept in cages as pets.

Mandy finds a family of hedgehogs and rescues them, but she and James have to trach them to live in the wild on their own again, without getting hurt.

The book's setting: The setting was at the town of Welford, in the very center of town.

Main characters: There were 6 hedgehogs: 1. Rosie was a mother of four whose leg was run over by a car. 2. Scout explored, and wandered, and was eaten by a badger. 3. Spike was the heaviest guy. Spike was named for his tail. It always went up like a spike. 4. Tiggy named for her clumsiness and size. 5. Speedy named for his incredible speed. He was the loudest of the lot. He helped Guy. 6. Guy was first found in a net farmer used for potting beans and plants. He was blind and was helped by Speedy. There were 3 children: 1. Mandy, a girl adopted by vets, has an interest in animals. She wanted to help the animals. She got all her knowledge from her parents. 2. James was Mandy's best friend. James' father, Mr. Hunter, was the very first to find Rosie and her babies and he almost put a pitchfork through her. 3. Claire found Guy, a blind hedgehog. Her father, a doctor, ran over Rosie's leg with his silver car. He turned his front yard into a hedgehogs' hotel.

Summary of the book: Rosie, a mother of four, was run over by a car. Her babies had to be nursed as well because if they were abandoned, they could be eaten by badgers and foxes. Then Guy was found. He was helped by Speedy, who followed him around, helping him, being his eyes, because Guy was blind. They were nursed by Mandy Hope, James Hunter and Claire McKay. There were four baby hedgehogs, but only three survived because Scout was eaten by a badger.

My personal reaction to the book: I think this book is sad, enjoyable and very well-written. It makes you really want to read on and on until you finish. But when you finish, you have this empty, hollow feeling. You got the hollow feeling because you've enjoyed the book so much. You really want to read on and on forever, but it always have an end. When it does end, you want more to read. I always like hedgehogs. I really like the hedgehogs in this story. I wish it wasn't so sad. It would be good if Scout wasn't killed. He was just wounded and he had to be nursed.

There are many reasons for having this book but let me relate to you what only two chapters did for me:

Gradually I became stressed. I found it hard to concentrate on anything, even the things I once enjoyed -- Even watching a movie became a task. I was too tense to concentrate, which made it hard to remember anything. I avoided people because even talking became stressful. I became so tense at times that I had difficulty breathing.

Then I got this book.

The muscle relaxation exercise showed me that all of the above symptoms were due to tense muscles brought on by stress. Afterwards I felt wonderfully calm and at peace with the world.

Following the advice on meditation brought about a simultaneous supreme calmness and sharp-thinking alertness (My brainwaves had gone from high beta to alpha). Once, my concentration increased so dramatically after the meditation that I felt mentally invincible. Of course, the effect only lasted that night but I experienced a similar effect on repeating the mediation. It basically quietens your chattering mind, and reduces 'noise on the brain'.

The incessant chatter on the brain stops. No longer caught up in your thoughts, you are left more in the moment, and notice the world isn't all that complicated after all. Peace follows.

I can't _stress_ enough how vital this book is for conquering tension, stress, and emotional unrest.

Get it for yourself and feel much better.

Lessons for Living is a exceptionally well-written book offering simple, practical and usable suggestions for living a happier and more fulfilling life. The book has helped me personally, offering new perspectives on situations in my life that were troublesome. As a therapist, I often recommend Johnston's book to my clients and have used it as a text in several group therapy settings. Every single client has given positive feedback on how the book has helped them see problems in a new light as well as provide easy to follow exercises to aid them in making changes in their lives. The book's best feature is the many strategies for tackling long-standing habits that negatively impact our lives. I highly recommend Lessons for Living . . . for everyone.

The subtitle of this book gives the reader insight into the meat of Dan text. Dan gives simple solutions to life's complex problems. In a format that is designed for a daily thought or meditation the author gifts us with the paradox of the complexity of simplicity. His book is divided into three sections of lessons: remembering, coping, and growing. He invites his readers through the use of quotes, personal stories, metaphors, and illustrations to move toward health and wholeness. All perfectionist would be assisted by his illustration of being on auto-pilot and anyone in the helping profession would resonate with his story about mind storms. I would recommend this book to my clients, colleagues and Sunday school class members.

David C. Johnson
Pastoral Counselor

With so many books detailing the gore and carnage of the CW, it's refreshing to read about the bridges to humanity that were never destroyed. Dr. Dan deserves a lot of credit for compiling these moving anecdotes.

My Brother's Keeper by Dr. Daniel Rolph raises the standard by which Civil War history is recorded. We have many historical accounts of bravery and agression on the battlefield and while those accounts can stir the blood in positive ways, nothing has moved me more than Rolph's reports of merciful bravery in My Brother's Keeper. During these days of patriotic fervor and nationalism, it was inspiring to read about mercy being part of the warrior's spirit. Definately a must read and a "Keeper" for my library.

It doesn't matter if you have ancestors from the North or South, you will have a different feeling toward those who so gallantly fought and died for what they believed after reading "My Brothers Keeper." The book brings out the basic caring nature of man that can be seen in page after page of records written by those who were involved in hand to hand combat during the Civil War. A few tears were shed during the reading of this book, as I could imagine the emotions on both sides. Well worth the time to read.

My son came home from pre-school reciting bits of the book after just one reading and begging to order it for home. The illustrations are wonderful and the language is clever and fun. Now my son wants to write books of his own!

As a parent, I would add that if your child has concerns about nightmares, this book is a practical-but-fun story about how kids can control them.

Daniel & David Kamish have done it! My 6 year old and ten of his friends (holiday gift giving) own and love this book. The illustrations put a funny spin to awful kid nightmares, and who wouldn't give their right arm for a "magic pencil". We can't wait for these two to collaborate on another book!

Shows great imagination. Stimulating, great for kids of all ages

The author has done a wonderful job conveying a complex set of issues in a user friendly manner. This killer disease is the subject of intense research and it was good to get an up to date perspective on the topic. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in being empowered on the subject.

This book let me finally understand where my doctor was coming from. I read the book three times, I found it so useful. Being able to understand both the potential dangers that lie ahead and how to avoid them has made me a stronger person as I confront this disease. I have read several other books on hepatitis C, and I liked this one the best. I really liked learning about the PEGYLATED Interferons as well as the safe use of alternative antioxidant treatments along with the ones my doctor is prescribing. This book seems really up to date. I am pumped about it.

Excellent! Up-to-date information in understandable terms! The new edition of Hepatitis C, The Silent Epidemic gives basic explanations and also features recent breakthroughs in the use of PEG Interferon treatments. This paperback brings valuable and hopeful news!

My wife gave me this book because I was a deer hunter before I retired. I read the book and enjoyed it, although I had to look up a word now and then. This is a scholarly work. Some chapters are more readable than others. Herman certainly knows about the history of gun hunting, but I wish he had discussed the history of archery, which is how I hunted. Regardless, this book was a good addition to my library. The illustrations are great and the writing is accessible.

In Hunting And The American Imagination, Daniel Herman (assistant professor of history, Central Washington University) reveals that American hunting traditions are not based colonial or frontier cultures. In fact, the colonists and frontiersmen defined themselves as farmers and bringers of civilization to the wilds. Hunting was an integral part of frontier life, but was primarily viewed as a matter of subsistence rather than identity. It was in a post frontier era that the mythos of hunting was seized upon in the popular imagination and such democratic legends as those of Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Meriwether Lewis, and Native American cultures as the basis for America's sports hunters assuming a mantle of hunting oriented stewardships over the land and the wildlife. From John Smith to Theodore Roosevelt, what emerged in the 20th Century was a rich legacy of imagery and lore that gave rise to today's widely held, middle-class ideas about American hunting rights, privileges, and mores.

Herman is not so much interested in hunting itself as in ideas about hunting. He traces the path by which Americans--especially Theodore Roosevelt and others of the Progressive Era--came to think of themselves as a people who had been made great through hunting. Herman deftly draws on critical theory and on a vast repertoire of secondary literature yet he grounds his story (or, more properly, his series of stories) firmly in history rather than in literary criticism. The result is scholarship at its best.

The book has one important attribute: it's clear, undoubtedly. Having a minimum of prerequisites, I think there's no way to not understand what Prof. Cohen says through its pages. It makes the job of learning this part of theory easier than any other text.
But ... but I can't totally agree with Cohen's crusade against formalism. I agree that the first target of a book should be to clearly transmit the intended knowledge, and Cohen perfectly succeeds in this. But formalism too has its importance, thereafter. A compact and clear formalism helps to communicate efficiently, and moreover unambiguously. Like in mathematics, the first, important thing is to understand. Yet, there's no way for you to efficiently work with math without using any kind of formalism, should it be more or less "standard".
That's it: a very powerful book for a "profound" understanding of the subject; a bit more of natural formalism would make it a "complete" understanding also, and the book a five stars one.

I must say this is one of the best books I have ever read. The auther is humorous and insightful. He manages to take very abstract concepts and explain them in clear concrete terms and metaphors.

This is a great book. I read the first edition many years ago, and it too was great. Everything is explained in order, and explained well - it is very accessable, even to the casual reader interested in the topics presented. It was through this book that I was able to actually write software that demonstrated Kleene's Theorem, (RE=NFA=DFA) converting between Regular Expressions, NFA's and DFA's.

Unlike many textbooks, reading this one is actually FUN. By the time I was done, I felt that I understood everything that was presented. That's how good this text is.

// CHRIS (Darien, Connecticut)

I purchased this text while researching automated testing for my Master's paper. Mosley and Posey focus on the pragmatic aspects of implementing automated testing. Since the focus of my paper was on justifying software testing automation, I particularly apprectiated their straight forward arithmetic on tool justification. However, they go even further to address where the cost justification actually exists in areas where it may not be as obvious. This book, however, does not put a great deal of emphasis on the administrative methodology surrounding software development. It tells you this up front and addresses key success factors to implementing automated testing (ie don't automate the testing of something that's not completed or working.)

The only quirk I found in the book was the diatribe against the benefit of CMM or knowledge of other models. I understand their point, which is that these models don't really add value to the hands on aspect of testing or developing software. However, from personal experience, I have seen a greater tendency in developers to consider many of the points they make if their background includes an appreciation for the types of things that should happen in a mature organization.

"Purchasing a software testing tool suite does not constitute implementing a software process". Wise words from Dan Mosley and Bruce Posey in "Just Enough Software Test Automation"; maybe some development managers need to take heed.

Too many times have automated test tools become shelfware, or the cost of maintaining the scripts prohibitvely expensive. The authors of this book offer a simple and easy to use data-driven framework that can minimise scripts and human effort. They place their framework within the Rational Unified Process (RUP).

The book offers actual and detailed advice that goes all the way down to code and script templates. Based mostly on Rational tools, the book gives lip service to Winrunner and anything said can be translated to any automated tool.

Their open-source framework is the Control Synchronized Data Driven Testing(CSDDT). Data to be input, keywords to navigate through the application and actions to be performed are held in the spreadsheet. There are four main scripts: A Main script that reads and processes the records; a window selection script, a tab selection script, an action script and error handling script. Data input is held in an array and there is a comment field that documents the test record. Your application code is held in a switch statement, and it is highly conceivable that your project can have single figure script numbers. There is also a script that converts the spreadsheet data in a .csv file that is read by the Main script. There is detailed
information given on how to implement the CSDDT. It is a framework I use and am pleased with.

There are two interesting chapters on Unit and Integration testing. Like eXtreme Programmers they believe in automating unit tests that pass at 100% before submitting for build. They correctly argue that unit tests should be constructed before development code is written and they also point to the xUnit group of tools.

They make insightful points about the necessity of integration testing: Could you not help but identify with the following statements: "... We have seen two chronic problems: First, the build fequently does not install on system test machines. Second, the fact that unit and integration testing has not been done previously forces the system test team to do tests that development should have already executed." Again they also argue for automated integration testing else "it will not get done."

I feel however that Mosley and Posey's ideas need to be infused with agile values and practices. For example do we really need improved software requirements documentation, verbose Test Plans and meticulous test design when requirements change so much? Do we really need all these Rational tools and the time it takes to use and update them? Can we not make automated functional tests an integral part of requirements? What about Pair Test Programming? How are we going to increase oral communication? Is devolopment and test a false dichotomy? These kind of issues also need to be addressed as we begin to construct software in a radically different way.

"Just Enough Software Test Automation" written by Daniel Mosley and Bruce Posey describes test automation from a practical perspective gained from much experience by the authors with commentary and contributions from several well respected leading practitioners in the field. Key fundamental points are emphasized and explained throughout the book with supporting descriptions and concrete examples for using a data driven framework to implement and maintain software test automation.

While the book is well written and easy to read for someone who's familiar with software testing and who may have some experience with test automation, it assumes that the reader does have experience in the field.

The authors begin by reviewing important fundamental practices of software testing that are critical to effectively sustaining both manual and automated testing efforts. They provide recommendations on how to approach test automation for each phase of the software development lifecycle beginning with requirements through the final stages of testing. The authors present very specific recommended techniques and tools and offer many examples using a data driven framework with emphasis on Control Synchronized Data Driven Testing (CSDDT). Most often the tools mentioned and examples provided are those offered by Rational, Inc. as well as the use of Microsoft Excel. Frequently, automated tools from other vendors are referenced when they are applicable to the technique being discussed. They provide references to books and to several web links that offer sources of information on similar frameworks using other tools. The authors include useful information in the appendices such as a captured discussion on the subject of the data driven approach by leading practitioners, automated testing definitions, an example test automation project plan, and a test automation project work plan template.

Some of the key points in the book include the importance of identifying and documenting application and testing requirements as well as documenting test cases and conditions. They emphasize the importance of planning for test automation and implementing it similar to any other software development effort. This includes the separation of roles between test designer and test implementer. They urge that test automation be performed at most phases of software development including unit testing, but that it primarily be used for regression testing. The key success factor for test automation is the maintainability of test scripts. The authors point out that this is extremely difficult using a capture/playback method of implementation and that a data driven approach using modular scripts has shown to be much more successful in the long run. The authors do a good job of describing these key points and then making specific recommendations with examples on how to implement them.

As a practitioner of test automation, and reviewer of this book, I very much agree with these key recommendations and support the authors' intent to educate people implementing test automation as these key points can be the difference between failure and success.

Isabella Bird was an astounding woman. Adventurous, courageous and full of good humor, she traveled by horse through the Rocky Mountains when it was still virgin territory. Although she lived under difficult circumstances, especially during the winter months, and met a number of rough customers along the way, she never lost her nerve or her good nature. This is an excellent book to get a feel for Colorado in the late 19th Century and to admire a woman way ahead of her time.

A must for the reader who is searching for a first hand description of life in the Rocky's in the 1800's. It includes wonderful sketches by the author and great descriptions of characters and adventures in the untamed West. A great book for bedtime and rainy day reading.

This is a wonderful book to bring on your vacation to the Rockies. Miss Bird travels to what are now popular tourist destinations, only she does it before the convenience of a SUVs, Motels, or even plumbing. She meets overworked settlers, fascinating (and surprisingly polite) desperados, and English dandies. She revels in the mountain vistas, sunrises, sunsets and orange moonlight. Her many mile treks on horseback over frozen landscapes, alone in the wild west are an inspiration.

Being an architect already, I found that the book was an excellent introduction, even for me, to the various alternative building techniques emerging. It gave the author's honest opinion about many of the techniques, which was very appreciated. Don't expect it to be a precise how-to guide for any of the methods. It is an excellent overview, though, that can help you evaluate which building techniques you would like to explore further. The references at the end are vast and helpful.

However, I found that for a book about the "Natural House", it often suggested many un-green building materials (OSB, polypropylene bags). Sometimes their "ungreeness" was mentioned, sometimes not.

This book would go far in helping a person seriously considering alternative housing options. Numerous popular and reliable methods for homebuilding are described in detail. The reader is provided with a clear understanding of exactly what efforts, materials, costs and skills will be required.

In addition to these utilitarian functions, this is a spectacularly informative and enjoyable book. I am in no position to seriously consider housing of this sort but I read this book cover to cover and enjoyed it all. This is a fascinating and engaging topic and the author is a remarkably skilled writer. Recommended for any curious person.

If you're interested in building a natural home (cob, rammed earth, straw-bale, earthship, whatever), this is your primer. The author has done his homework and presents the description, pros/cons and pitfalls of each type of construction. He is very honest about just how "do-it-yourself" each type can be, and how much it will cost you. He also covers passive and active solar design, natural water capture and other alternative technologies to go with your natural home. This is an excellent overview on all these subjects.

The best thing about this book is that he refers you to other sources for more detail - books, videos, newsletters and organizations that will support you, give you a workshop or just give you more detailed information than belonged in this primer book.

I highly recommend this as the first book you read on the subject. Once you know which type of house you are interested in, you can pick up some of the other books he suggests on that building type.