'Small House for the Next Century' is well designed and well written. Its photographs are excellent, and drawings well done, but I can't give this more than a 'so-so' rating.

It's probably just my own knuckleheaded thinking, but 'Small House for the Next Century' should have been called 'Small Vacation Homes for the Next Century'. Clearly the concepts applied here can be applied to other small houses, but the majority of the houses in this book are for wealthy people who can afford second or part-time homes. The designs (and costs) all play to this notion.

I would encourage anyone to look at this book, but if you're interested in small, low-impact, livable and economical homes, this is not the right book.

This is no high-gloss, high-fluff content, coffee table book. It is, however, a great resource for anyone who is interested in architecture that keeps aesthetics, budget considerations, efficiency, and the personalities of the inhabitants in mind. I bought Duo Dickinson's book because my fiancee and I want to build our own home eventuallly. Reading this book has been inspiring and informative--it contains detailed descriptions, floor plans, hundreds of black and white photos and architectural drawings, as well as, a middle section of beautiful full page color plates. The main focus is the concept of "fit"--building the house to fit the occupants' needs. Many of the homes shown were built by the architects for themselves and/or family members. I really liked this book because it gave me a concrete set of ideas that my fiancee and I can use to build our own perfect home.

This is a well-illustrated book which teaches kids to obey their parents because they know what is best for them. It makes the point in an entertaining way.

Overall, this was a good read -- especially for existing programmers who are looking more at ADO.NET for things like architecture, usage, differences with ADO 2.x, etc... The book greatly simplified ADO.NET in my mind, and gave some great starting points in my own research.

My only problem with the book is that there are quite a few errors in the text that, in my opinion, the editors should have caught. For example, if you're new to OOP, you'll probably want to know the difference between overloading a method and overriding a function. This book on several occasions uses one term where another should have been used and vice-versa.

Overall, however, this is the best book on ADO that I've read so far...

_howard

Although this book lacks real world examples, it provides complete reference for ADO.NET, and this book has examples in both VB.Net and C#.
For ADO.NET beginners to start to write code in ADO.NET, this book is not enough. This book is for developers who already have some ADO.NET experience, and need some information about specific method or property. --Reviewed by Richard X.

Let's face it, ADO.NET introduces some brand new concepts and design philosophies that even classic ADO experts are not familiar with.

I found that this book provided me with a great ADO.NET foundation to build on. I have read many ASP.NET/WinForm development books and I am of the opinion that ASP.NET/WinForm developers will benefit from a book like this *before* diving into their ASP.NET or WinForm developement books.

Good readings, but the producer apparently felt the poetry can not stand on its own and added background music throughout. It distracts terribly from the music, and never has any relation in mood to the poetry. Avoid this tape.

If you like Emily Dickenson (and I do) you will love this audio cassette. The readers include Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, and other great female talents. They read the poems with style and a subtility that matches the work of the poet. After hearing the presentations, I came away feeling that the poems were studied by the readers and for the most part understood and delivered accordingly. Thumbs up!

As a person who has known Lee Dickenson for 12 years and has worked at two of the facilities that he talks about in the book (as a matter of fact, I'm "James Young" in the "Numbers, Not Names" chapter) I found that although he did not outright lie, he left out enough information in many incident to alter the facts. In the Chapter "Hector Rodriquez" chapter, he implies that all an inmate has to do is request to be transferred to a new facility and it's a done deal. That is simply not the case. And, to collude with an inmate to throw a trash can in order to get transferred is insanity. In "Numbers, Not Names", he calls me "Lt. Infanti's yes man." No problems there. When a lieutenant gave me an order, the answer was "yes." Lee expects obedience to his orders now that he is a lieutenant. The inmate in that situation was in posession of contraband. He was putting the wire up in front of me. I took the contraband and refused to return it to him. I'd take it again. It's called, "doing your job." The character, "Chuck Daniels" is cited as being one of the best officers that Lee ever met. The real "Chuck Daniels" was promoted to lieutenant and then promptly demoted. His friend, Sal Christaldi was and is a nice guy, but his nickname at Niantic CCI was "The Marshmallow" because he was so soft on the inmates, a quality that Lee despises. I could, but I won't go on and on about the half truths in the book. All of us have felt frustation from time to time but Lee tends to find more frustration than most of us. My son, who is a correction officer asked, why, if Lee is such a terrific lieutenant, has he left almost every facility that he has ever worked at under a cloud and why is he always in trouble. That is a valid question. Everyone gets in trouble once in a while, but Lee seems to be looking for the world's indoor record. This department has more problems than it deserves. Those of us who succeed know that this is not a perfect world and that this is not a perfect department and we adapt. Lee needs to learn how to choose his battles. He loses most of his battles, and his victories all seem to be Pyrrhic victories.

Lee Dickenson is one of those increasingly rare prison guards who manages to survive in the institutional setting with his humanity intact. The Sounding Tree is a powerful collection of vignettes on the numbing senselessness of prison inhumanity. It should be read by everyone concerned with the real cost these concrete bunkers­­popping up like mushrooms after rain across the country­­are having on our nation. -Daniel Burton-Rose, editor, The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry.

This novel is the fourth (?) in a series about an ancient tribe of people trying survive and evolve. In this episode, Mana and her tribe, the Moonhawk, move because of the threat of a tribe that murders other men and keeps the skulls as trophies. They plan a trap to kill the stalkers after adopting a woman whose mate was murdered. They also face the problem of saving and raising a child who is the son of these tribesmen and Mana herself must face the oldest and wisest of these men in a confrontation which kills him. All throughout, Mana is learning a lot about who she is and what is right, even though her kinsmen do not always agree with her. The book's action and moral message are strong points in its favor. However, in between each chapter is a sort of fable about the gods of the different tribes that is slightly confusing. It also detracts from the plot of the story. Another factor to consider is the language, which is appropriately more basic and tailored to the experiences and thoughts of the tribes. It takes a long time to get used to. Overall, it is a pretty good book, but I recommend starting with the first in the series and going from there.