Thoughtfully laid out with pretty good coverage of the NT exam topics. Because the technology changes so rapidly, I cannot fault them for being out of date, as this is something which every book of this type must face. But after I passed the exams, I kept these books on hand for reference in my job as Technical Support engineer.

I reviewed this book some weeks ago. The review appeared for a while then disappeared. What happened?

This pack of two has the Networking Essentials as one book and the NT4 as another.

While the Networking Essential book is equally as good as the Sybex, MS Press or the Exam Cram, the NT4 book has no equal.

Unlike the Sybex Core, which is split into 3 NT books and repeats itself, this book is highly focused and informative. It will not only help you pass the exams the first time, you will find yourself referring to it well after certification.

Although, the NT4 book looks big, it might actually be the fastest way to passing the NT4 exams. You can sit down with the book, read it once, do the practise exercises and sit for the 3 NT exams. If you feel like some supplementary text, you might want to take a look at the Exam Cram or (&) the Nutshells. Both excellent books as well.

If I needed to buy just one book for the MCSE, I will get this one! It's a good idea to do a lot of practise exams too!

Jay does a good job of telling women what he would do if he were an abused woman, but he is neither abused nor a woman. He writes with the power and authority that men naturally have in this society. If all women were to follow his advise and become more assertive with their battering men, some would find their situations improve, some would see no change, and some would end up dead.

Jay belittles abused women when he writes, "The amazing thing is that no matter what you tell them, what you do, or what fifty million other people tell them, some women just won't leave. Somehow, the relationship is like a drug for these women." This statement demonstrates a remarkable lack of empathy and adds another voice of critism that abused women get from innocently ignorant people all the time.

Perhaps a good book for some, but not one I will be passing out to the abused women who are my clients.

Very good and thought provoking analysis of abusive relationships. The author seems to have a good understanding of the fact that abuse does not require physical damage. Although he starts out with an offensive reference to the abuser who "may be hurting you big time (having and affair) or just a little (putting you down)...", later in the book he seems to get it that just "putting you down" can be the most insideous and damaging kind of abuse. I highly recommend the book for both men and women. Even though most of the references to the abuser are in the male gender, the author acknowledges that abusers ("nasty people") can be of either gender.

I was in an abusive love relationship for twelve years, that finally ended when my husband walked out on myself and my 6 month old baby (I had quit my job, and he decided I was no longer financially useful for him).
I really considered taking this person back when he found out he couldn't keep all our assets in the divorce, and then I read this book. This is him! You won't believe how well this book describes your nasty man. The book is very clear that THIS PERSON WON'T CHANGE. It was these words that gave me the courage not to take him back.

I highly reccomend this book - I can't say enough good things about it.

William Carter claims in the preface to this biography that his goal is "to understand, as well as one reasonably can, how Marcel Proust, generally considered by his peers a talented but frivolous dilettante, came to produce what is arguably the most brilliant sustained prose narrative in the history of literature." Fortunately, this is not his goal at all. Professor Carter knows better than to attempt any such thing.

About four months before his death, we read, a letter from one of his first English fans infuriated Proust. Sydney Schiff had endorsed the anti-Proustian idea that when one knows someone, there is no need to read a book by that person. Nonsense, Proust replied: "Between what a person says and what he extracts through meditation from the depths of where the integral spirit lies covered with veils, there is a world." (p. 784)

Some superficial spirit must in a weak moment have seized Professor Carter's pen when he came to write his preface, for his fascinating and enjoyable volume implicitly disavows the ambition to explain how Proust achieved his masterpiece. What Carter does instead is to recount, based on what records remain and in a simple and unornamented narrative style, the facts of Proust's life from month to month. Though we do not really feel that we come close to the heart of Proust's mystery as an artist, we do now and then get an idea of what it must have been like to know Proust, and be known by him.

Carter captures the essence of Proust. This is a "must" read for anyone who is truly serious about "little Marcel." Fascinating! Will actually stimulate me to go back and charge through Remembrance of Things Past once again.

Having read George Painter's two-volume biography of Proust many years ago, I might be unfair in comparing it to Carter's new biography, but my impression is that Carter has vastly outdone Painter. He has managed to write a very detailed, yet quite readable and engrossing biography of Proust. I think that conflating Proust and the narrator of "A la recherche..." has tended to diminish the author's genius, as if he had merely written a fascinating autobiography. Carter confirms Proust as a novelist, not a memoirist. Certainly, he helps the reader understand who may have inspired Proust's characters, but makes clear that Proust's imagination was the main engine behind the world he created. Some readers might be disappointed that there isn't more literary analysis of "La Recherche" in this biography, but Carter is adept at presenting passages from the novel that are representative of its genius and beauty. I'd also like to mention that the book is physically attractive, with a handsome typeface, and that there are very few typos and grammatical errors.

This book supplies a lot of great information, but at a level of generalization that will only get you started in the direction of where you really need to go . . . it will not teach you the skills you need to get there. Perhaps that's too obvious to even mention! Nevertheless, I found this book very helpful and I recommend it. I also highly recommend "Open Your Mind, Open Your Life: A Book of Eastern Wisdom" by Taro Gold. Excellent!

Read IF SUCCESS IS A GAME, THESE ARE THE RULES
by Cherie Scott-Cater . . . this is a wonderful self-help book,
but don't be put of by that description if you're not typically
a fan of such material.

Scott-Carter will make you a convert as she helps you discover
what determine what success means to you . . . and that is
perhaps the key benefit you'll gain from reading her book;
i.e., it enables you to come up with you own definition and
then achieve it via ten simple rules.

I liked her use of examples, as well as probing
questions . . . methinks you will, too, and you'll be surprised
about how inspired you will be to achieve your various goals.

There were many memorable passages; among them:
I notice that many people put off doing this exercise [writing one's ideal obituary] because it confronts them with the reality of their mortality. I have found, conversely, that when you really examine your life head-on, you can be painfully honest about what you want to accomplish throughout your life. It is a bit uncomfortable writing down big dreams because they may sound highly ambitious or self-aggrandized, but unless you allow yourself to imagine your ideal life, you can never begin to make it happen. Imagining yourself at the end of your life looking back is a helpful tool to articulate what it is that you hope to accomplish during your lifetime.

The formula to find your path to fulfillment is astonishingly simple: Follow your preferences, and they will lead you to your path. Find what brings you joy and satisfaction, and trust that it will also bring you prosperity. Find what makes your blood boil, and trust that it will also fuel your existence. Discover what makes your heart sing, and trust that it will create music in your life. In other words, find what matters to you, and trust that it is the signpost you have been looking for.

One of the things that my clients and friends both love and hate me for is the fact that upon hearing them express a vision, I immediately ask, "When would you like to do that?" I do this because I am eager to see them have what they want. I know the only way this happens is through commitment.

Cherie Carter-Scott has a way of causing you to say, "I knew that, why haven't I done it?" The essential element of the book is simple. It's like the old saying, "if you don't know where you're going, then any path will take you there." The rules she gives you aren't difficult, but they make you not only THINK about where you are, but also to do the work of getting in touch with how you FEEL about success -- as you define it for yourself. She isn't on a soapbox. She writes using such great examples of people, and I'll bet they aren't out of her imagination, either. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone at any phase of their life, because life is about change and she wants to make this a bit easier for each of us. With me, she succeeded.

I've read this collection several times in my distant past, and loved the stories! I was very disappointed when I received the CD and learned that the only way I could read it was on a PC monitor. Audio or the ability to print the stories for reading is not available on the CD. It is extremely misleading on the way it's sold. Buyer Beware!

The John Carter of Mars Series is my all time favorite Science Fiction series, and in fact it was this ERB series that got me started on a lifetime of reading. And it IS nice to see it collected on a cd rom for delivery to yet another generation. I still have ten of the eleven novels in the series in paperback from my childhood, but have been unable to find a replacement for "The Princess of Mars" that fell apart after the Nth reading. Now that I've ordered the first five on the cd rom, I hope to get my kids hooked on them as well.

i read my first John Carter book when i was 12 years old; i am considerably older than that now and still enjoy re-reading them; a must for anyone who likes good story telling with the added dimension of science fiction - science fiction that was remarkably advanced for its time

... junk is stuff you should throw out and junque is what it becomes through Mary Randolph Carter's eyes. Yes, this makes a trio of "junk" books, but her approach is infectious, humorous and fun. She is clearly setting up faux scenarios, not telling us how to live with old rusty flour sifters! There's food for thought among the frolic. If you believe the keys to understanding a civilization are in its flotsam and jetsam, you will learn a lot about 20th century America here. And there's plenty of good advice about flea marketeering, how and where, etc. In fact, after lapping up each chapter, it's all I can do to keep from hitting the road! P.S. Thank you, Mary, for not finding MY favorite junque spots!

Whether we call ourselves collectors, buffs, aficionados or even pack rats, let's face it - we like stuff! One need only to note the proliferation of garage sales or the thousands who cram flea markets to know that we're a nation of accumulators, and Mary Randolph Carter, author of "American Junk," now hones in on the heart of our homes and serves up Kitchen Junk, the ultimate guide to everything culinary that's fun to hunt, costs a pittance, and will give a kitchen retro charm.

An unlikely candidate for "Queen of Junk," Ms. Carter is the Vice President of Advertising at Polo/Ralph Lauren. With her husband and two sons she maintains homes in New York City and Duchess County, New York, where, as she says, there's too much junk. Nonetheless, she abides by her motto "Never stop to think, do I have a place for this?"

With over 400 lush colored photographs and a state by state guide for junking forays, Kitchen Junk is the ultimate guide for shoppers. Helpful information offered includes a dress code and tips on haggling: "Most dealers worth their junk expect a bit of a tug-of-war."

One of the most appealing chapters, "A Checkered Life," is devoted to red and white checked items. These pages are replete with tablecloths, napkins, dish towels, aprons, gingham, oilcloth, mitts and even a rooster in those trademark all-American colors. Ms. Carter demonstrates how to set a table with these items and create an atmosphere based on "the fantasy of the farmyard."

Such aprons you have never seen - a bib apron embellished with a picture of a young girl cleaning her plate, a half apron fashioned of a cloth decorated with kitchen tools, a "Some Like It Hot" barbecue apron for him, a strawberry pattern for her. Prices of the items and where they were found are also noted.

Stating that 50% of kitchen time is spent at the sink, the author spruces up that area with an enamel soap dish found for $3.00 at a New York flea market, French agatewear bowls - a steal at $10.00 per, and vintage cut glasses discovered at garage sales for an average of 50 cents each.

Everyone knows what the staff of life is and bread boxes abound from "A hinged lift-top bread box decorated with a frieze of teapots and kitchen ware. It beckoned from a yard sale in Virginia for $3.00." to a "1930s English enameled bread bin."

Few how-to's and where-to's are overlooked in this enthusiastic paean to collecting. With Kitchen Junk in one hand and a Mapsco in the other many will prove the old saw that one man's trash is another man's treasure. Happy hunting!

Anyone who can make REAL junk look this good is a friend of mine! As a casual collector of things old with a special place for kitchen collectibles, I found this book fascinating not only for its content - such a wide variety of items - but also for the excellent photography, creative displays, and down-home narrative style. While you won't find this useful as a pricing guide, you can still get a feel for values of some everyday items you might find. This was my second book by Mary Randolph Carter and they have become my "coffee table" books. (I now have all 3 of her Junk books.)

After looking over this compilation of Carter's work which spans twenty-five years, I've come to the conclusion that his photographs are much like froth on beer: pleasing to look at, but lacking in substance. Keith Carter's recent technique of using bellows on his Hasselblad and manipulating this to cause portions of the photograph to be out of focus, is similar to any gimmick a photographer might use to enhance their images. The question of whether the same manipulated image would still be interesting if Carter hadn't used this technique, is what we should ask. The answer is "no", for the same reason a pinhole camera can be used to make an ordinary subject appear different and therefore, cause the photograph to achieve a level of interest that wouldn't be achieved by conventional photography. This recent technique of Carter's can easily be a metaphor for what he deems, "the poetry of the commonplace." What Carter neglects to understand is great poetry - like the best photography, is never in need of further enhancement. The book begins with his earliest and best work. The solitary images of a toy airplane on an unmade bed, an empty theatre, and a fence in an abandoned playing field find their strength in the delicate simplicity they intend to capture. These are the photographs that come closest to poetry, due to the photograph's strength being conveyed through straightforward mood, and not manipulation. As the viewer follows chronologically through this book, it becomes apparent how Carter uses premeditated set-ups and posing to achieve the final image: a man with a butterfly in his mouth, two children holding blocks up to their eyes, and 'mud lovers' are no different than posed, studio shots. This style of photography is fine and Carter's images are pleasing, it's when he calls these same images poetic, when they are merely contrived, that causes one to raise an eyebrow in suspicion. Twenty-five years in the life of a photographer is not a long time. Hopefully, Carter will return to the approach of his earlier work and achieve the poetry he currently lacks by going back, instead of moving forward. Then he will truly be documenting "the poetry of the commonplace". Until then, he's merely documenting the mundane.

This is a great collection of images from his books...I have it on good authority that Keith has a speedboat and can't afford the motor. He has the captain's hat, blue blazer, white pants, and a red sparkled speedboat with no motor. If you buy all of his books, Keith can go boating on the water instead of his driveway. His lips are swollen from making that motorboat sound. His wife is tired of spraying the hose at him to simulate waves. The neighbors are starting to talk. You will not regret owning this book. It's well designed and full of terrific images. Remember to get the rest of his books and unleash Keith on the water's of Beaumont,Texas.

Keith Carter is not only a great photographer, he is a great teacher. He has inspired many of us in south-east Texas not only through his photographs, but through his outlook on life. In this book you can see what I have come to recognize as Keith's true gift - his enthusiasim. He is a great photographer, but much of his talent is owed to his love of what he does and what he photographs. His books, like Keith himself, are truely an experince not to ever be forgotten!

I seem to be addicted to self-help books, so I think I can sound off here. I really liked this book. Maybe I'm not the "everything sucks, life is terrible" type, but I get stuck in negative patterns like everyone else. Instead of preaching about symptoms and identifying the problem, this book gave me concrete ideas on how to deal with life's little kicks in the shins. The suggestions were great -- better than a book that just said "hey, you're negative, isn't that awful?" it gave you exercises to PULL YOU OUT OF YOUR PATTERNS. And that made all the difference.

After finishing the book in two days (including taking notes), I found it a useful tool in dealing with everyday pains and stress. Although the focus of it is on negativity, it is not just for those who are depressed. Everyone experiences negative thoughts and the book just helps you use them in a positive way. The case studies are nice examples of her explanations and the charts, stories, and lists are nice additives as well. I was espcially interested in the analyzation of identity and childhood aspects of the book more so than the negativity and although that wasn't the focus, I found it more than enough informative for my novel needs.

Negaholics - How to Overcome Negativity and Turn Your Life Around is an excellent book. This may be an opinion which is closely linked to the fact that I'm a woman and Negaholics is written in a very "touchy-feely" style by a woman. The idea is that bad experiences and/or toxic relationships in your childhood deeply affects the way you view yourself and all your relationships. Negaholics does not focus on childhood specifics, but gives some really positive techniques to try to turn your negativism around and build up your self-esteem.

After reading this book, you truly will see the impact Wallace has had on politics and the right. Goldwater and Nixon obviously took their cues from this man. Carter has presented an excellent portrait of Wallace and the lengths he went to in order to be elected. My only regret in this book is a very small portrait of his terms as the chief executive of Alabama, but this is a minor quibble. A very enjoyable read.

Every year I teach this book for about 125 undergraduates in a course called "Race and American Politics from the New Deal to the New Right." Though it is a course that welcomes controversy, one thing that virtually all of my students agree upon is that this is a GREAT book. Carter, the dean of Southern historians, is a masterful storyteller with a matchless eye for detail and a balanced political judgment. He shows how Wallace, far from being just another Southern demogogue, opens the way to the transformation of American politics and the rise of a new conservatism whose wellsprings are the rage and fear of white Americans in the face of the civil rights revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s. It's a brilliant, absorbing book and every year when I read it again I am struck by the rich craft of Carter's prose and the deep thoughtfulness of his assessments.

George Wallace was not an evil man, just an opportunist. He was a liberal on racial issues until he lost his first race for the Alabama governorship because of race baiting. Carter relates these surprising facts and documents how Wallace's brand of conservatism became adopted by mainstream candidates such as Ronald Reagan and also how an assassain's bullet pushed him toward that path of asking for redemption from the very people he had previously villified. Carter is an excellent biographer, and "The Politics of Rage," is well worthy of its subject.

This book is not simply a description of the tomb or complicated archeological jargon, but was written to inform the curious while the tomb was being cleared. It still contains a sense of currency that captures a rare event in recovering the past. Starting with a biography of Lord Carnarvon who financed the expedition, then goes on to describe in subsequent chapters what they knew of King Tut at the time, and the background of the Valley of the Kings and a discussion on the theft of antiquities. Then about half way through begins the story of Carter's involvement. With a combination of the words and pictures it is possible to get a glimmer of what events were like for them. Even to his irksome view of people who interrupted the work by insisting upon a tour of the tomb, or his peevish rebuttal against those who consider an archeologists work akin to a day at the beach. Anyway, through it all it is an engaging book. Includes 105 photographs, however in black and white. It should be known that this account is not of the complete find and primarily concerns finds in the Antechamber, and not the Annex or Shrine. Still, the book is titled the "Discovery" so this should not come as a surprise.

3 years ago my parents took me on holiday to Egypt, which I was very angry about at first because its was'nt a 'proper holiday' (too much education involved). Now I look back on it as the most inspirational 2 weeks of my life. This book compliments the travels perfectly. The book really shows how determined Howard Carter was to discovering Tut's tomb, and how close he got to never finding it at all. The book documents one of the greatest discoverys in the past century and will make you want to visit the tomb. Please read this book!!

Written for a curious public, this is Howard Carter's only published account of the finding of the tomb and clearing of the "Antechamber". It is easy for some, more than 75 years after its discovery to fault Carter for his handling of many of the objects from the tomb. Here you can read of some of the problems and his solutions first hand. Included are the photos Burton took during the clearance. Some of these are to be found nowhere else. The step by step emptying of the famous "Painted chest" is fascinating. You can actually see the condition of the objects deteriorate as the bottom of the box is reached.