The book tells abot an experience that is worth reading. Wilson tells his side of the story about his journey in North America. As a hip hop lover and a fan of skateboard fan, I would say that this book is okay to read. It's interesting and adventorous at the same time.

The book explains the fundamentals for design and methodology of SOCs. It also addresses the design reuse concerns. However, the book does not cover practical examples of SOC design and does not explain the difference between ASICs and SOCs.

The book is well organized and contains multiple illustrations of each highlighed Scriptural truth or principle. I was disappointed that many of them were quite dated (quotes from Spurgeon, Luther, and Wesley abound). If your audience isn't theologically literate to start with, many of the illustrations will have little meaning to them. The good news is that most of the examples can be translated into more comtemporary language. And with so many illustrations to choose from there should be something to suit your need.

This book is a mystery classic. I think men would rate it more highly than I have. It wasn't too easy, the narrator is a manly young man, and the eccentric amateur sleuth both amusing and shrewd. There is only one reason I do not recommend it for women. It's obvious to a modern female reader that the amateur sleuth completely misread the female suspect's feelings toward the morally and physically repugnant murder victim. I didn't see it coming and my outrage spoiled the book for me. A woman forwarned might be able to just grit her teeth and consider the period in which the book was written. Ann E. Nichols

This book was very discriptive and gave important information on the women that started the Women's Movement and how they succeeded in their efforts to get the movement to where it is now.

Janet Todd vs. Virginia Woolf

Janet Todd. Women's Friendship in Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980. 414 pages.

In the introduction to her book, Women's Friendships in Literature, Janet Todd says that the main reason for writing the book is to prove Virginia Woolf wrong. In A Room of One's Own, Woolf claims that she has never encountered a description of real female friendship in the course of her reading. Todd totally disagrees with her. She feels that Eighteenth century literature in particular is "rich in presentations of female friendship" (1) and is going to devote her book to "... the literary phenomenon of female friendship, its form and ideology" (1). However, she warns the reader that, because the main plot in these novels is usually a heterosexual romance, she will also be "touching on the heterosexual and parental relationships" (my italics) (1). At this point, the first problem of the book already becomes clear: Todd fails to give a definition of the term friendship. Whereas Woolf apparently does not see confidantes or mothers and daughters as friends, Todd certainly does. What's more, she seems to call every relationship between women a friendship, although she does distinguish between two types of friendships, which will be discussed later, but only does this at the end of Part I, after about 300 pages. Had the two women's definitions been known from the start, Todd would probably not have to worry about not being "tactful" (6) in "...[entering] a territory which the acute eye of Virginia Woolf failed to scan" (6). The book consists of two parts: In Part I, Todd discusses 10 novels "...because of their primary depictions of women..." (5) and in Part II she discusses some more books, although in less detail, and also "speculat[es] on the authors' experiences of female friendship" (6). Part I is divided into 5 chapters, each dealing with a certain type of friendship by basically relating the plot summary of a relevant book or books as examples of that particular kind of friendship. Samuel Richardson's Clarissa is used as an example of sentimental friendship, erotic friendship is represented by John Cleland's Fanny Hill and Denis Diderot's The Nun, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Julie and the Marquis de Sade's Juliette serve as examples of manipulative friendship, political friendship can be seen in Mary Wollstonecraft's Mary, A Fiction and The Wrongs of Woman and Mme de Staël's Delphine, and lastly, Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and Emma are used as examples of social friendship. However, Todd starts off by saying that neither book belongs exclusively to one category and states that these categories "exist only to order, not to cramp" (3). Disappointingly, apart from the very brief definition of the categories and some instances of them in the selected texts given by Todd in the introduction, there is no analysis of the texts at all in Part I, and no further explanation of the categories and why a book has been ordered under a particular category. Even though the categories are only there to order, there must be some logic to this ordering. Moreover, as was said before, the definitions of the two kinds of friendship Todd identifies, are only given in the social friendship section, right at the end of Part I. She divides friendship into vertical friendship, between women who have a different class or status, or women of different ages, and horizontal friendship, between women who are equals. The fact that the reader has to wait so long for these definitions is unfortunate because having it earlier in the book would have clarified a lot, because by far the majority of the friendships that are described in Part I are vertical friendships. The reason for this delay is that the books, and with that also the categories, are ordered more or less chronologically, which places Jane Austen and therefore the social friendship section at the end. Additionally, the plot summaries in Part I vary a lot in style and amount of detail. Whereas Clarissa is described in minute detail in a well structured summary of events which can be followed by those who have not read the novel, the reader seems to be expected to be familiar with Austen's works, which are much less clearly described. Ironically, the larger part of the plot summaries consist of descriptions of the heterosexual and parental relationships that Todd said she would 'touch upon', breaking down the intended shift from conventional focus to the female friendships. This is especially regrettable because a large part of the other relationships does not really help to understand the nature of the female friendship that is supposed to be the focus of the summary. Fortunately, in Part II, the style changes. More emphasis is put on the analysis and comparison of the works that have already been discussed and more novels, like Daniel Defoe's Roxana and Moll Flanders, Choderclos de Laclos' Dangerous Liaisons and Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall, among many others, are brought in to clarify and reaffirm points that were made in Part I. In Chapter seven, The Biographical Context, Todd speculates on the lives of the 'primary authors' from Part I. The conclusion very clearly repeats the similarities and connections between the texts and the motifs like the nosebleeds regularly suffered by the heroines of the novels, symbolizing rape and seduction, which "[keep] the lusty male at bay" (405), the issues of chastity and money and the marks of female debility: illness, madness and death. Over all, Women's Friendship in Literature is a good read, however, it does not live up to its potential. Had there been more analysis and explanation of the different kinds of friendship and the theory behind them, Todd might have been able to convince the reader that there is indeed a multitude of 'real' female friendship to be found in literature, and, although tactfully, triumph over Virginia Woolf.

My partner and I are going to Europe this summer for an extended vacation and were planning on spending a good amount of time in Germany. We were hoping to find a comprehensive guide that would give cultural cues and listing of gay/gay-friendly hotels, clubs, restaurants, etc. We were hoping to find such spots in almost every city were were planning on visiting.

The book was intended to be that guide. However, once we opened it up and started looking we were dismayed. Basically, for Germany, they make the crass statement, "Why call this part 'Germany" when Berlin is the only city included? Well, that's the first place you think of Germany? What German city has the most fascinating (and scariest) history? The widest cultural spectrum? The hottest gay nightlife? The most gays and lesbians? Berlin."

So, Germany's guide was limited to Berlin. I, quite personally, don't give a crap that the Frommer writers think this is the only city to focus on/write about. The book promises to deliver this information, as they do in other cities on their USA guide, yet absolutely don't deliver. [Wow], my partner has spent time in Germany in the past and knew generally of (at least) the gay districts in Frankfurt, Hamburg and other cities.

So, if you haven't figured it out yet, find another guide. Unless you only want to travel to the few cities in Europe that Frommer features, don't buy this waste of a good tree and ink.

Having brought this along for not one but two Europe trips where it wasn't even worth the space it took up in my bag, it's time to retire it to a shelf permanently. Frommer's is trying to capitalize on the success of Fodor's GAY USA books which are pretty informative and well organized. Frommer's offering is too little, too late. Now-a-days there are gay mentions in lots of mainstream travel books. Virgin, the same people who bring you the record company, superstores, etc. also make travel books for major European cities which always include gay bars and gay hoods. Dorling Kindersley may not be gay, but they are hands down superior to any other guide out there and worth every cent. Just grab a Spartacus or look online to find out where the gay areas are, or pick up a gay mag or flyers once you get there. By all means, don't plan on this book giving you anything but a frustrating, jarbled mess of vague maps and bland information.

Like the description for this book says, there IS more to queer Europe that gay Paris. Unfortunately this book only hits on 7 other countries, so if you're headed anywhere in Scandinavia, forget it. Same with Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, and a bunch of other European countries. Make sure you're going to one of the Chosen 8, or this book will be worthless.

I have to admit, I really detest books along the lines of Making Out in

Japanese, which purport to teach you Japanese love-slang, for the simple

reason that they are insulting to any reasonable person's intelligence.

Womansword, by Kittredge Cherry, is much better. An exhaustive yet

approachable "pop study" of Japanese vernacular, this thin, smart book

goes beyond basic sexual words, and instead takes on words and idioms

that exist (or once existed) in Japanese, which tell about the

relationship of women in Japanese society. Useful for a serious student

as well as for someone looking for some interesting phrases to spring on

cute Japanese exchange students.

*

This book is definitely useless for beginners to Japanese. I bought it while living in Japan, and I showed it to my Japanese teacher. We had a good laugh, but quite frankly, some of the contents are not very practical to the average person. Maybe for people who like to play around, then it's pretty useful, because it has dialogues like 'I'm pregant' 'really? is it mine? when will the stomach start to show?' Entertaining to read, but practicality...well, that depends on what type of person you are! It's interesting to know some of the stuff in the book if you're living in Japan. Many pick up lines too! The 3 stars rating is mainly for its entertaining value.

But still quite fun. Slang is a bit outdated, but the Japanese I learned in college in 1992-93 is already outdated. Also, slang varies from city to city, and this is only glossed over. Still, I enjoyed this book and it's sequel.

The fact that this book has so little info on the client end of exchange makes this book a waste. There are many other books in print that cover the client as well as server side.

I confess to not being a fan of books that lead you through a scenario based on a ficticious network design and this book does just that. If you like that sort of thing, this book is for you.

The parts that do not conform to that model give some good information on deployment, troublehsooting and administration but is light on the details, especially in the client area. It is an easy read and will give you the basics.

Better to purchase "Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, Planning, Design and Impementation by Tony Redmond. Study hard, pass the exam, then by Tony's book. Makes you feel like an Exchange Server Champ!

If you need a first primer to Exchange Server I recommend MS Exchange Server Core Technologies by Ed Paulson - much more insightful.