"Python and TKinter programming" is the kind of book that is very hard to find in a bookstore nowadays. This book is not just a gap-filling, long-awaited tome, full of valuable information regarding a scarcely documented technology. It is a well-designed, carefully edited and clearly written book, too. Since the first pages, it becames clear that Grayson is an expert programmer and a talented technical writer. He does not only demonstrate a complete dominance of the Python and TKinter programming but he also shows an attention for the reader that is rare to see in this world. The whole book, and every single part of it, are carefully designed and written to help the programmer in the learning process and in the everyday work. Also Manning, the publisher, made a very good work with this book, (as with all the book of this series).

Consider to buy this book because:

- It is an exhaustive guide to Python and TKinter programming. No "shadow zones" left.

- It contains 14Mb of working and well written code (available online). You can play and learn from it.

- It is well-organized, carefully edited and clearly written. No struggles to get the info you need.

- It is a first-hand report from the world of real professional programming. No kid tales.

- You get a real understanding of Python and TKinter programming from this book, not a simple, dry description of this language.

The best characteristic of this book is its clear and flexible structure: you are not forced to follow the "flow-of-consciousness" of the author, chapter after chapter (Have you ever read "Programming Python", by Mark Lutz? ). You can easily spot and read the part that most interest you. All of the chapters focus on well-defined aspects of the Python/TKinter programming and are quite indipendent from the other ones. Grayson's writing is always clear and well-organized. You do not have to struggle for extracting the information you need. This is a book designed with a demanding and busy reader in mind.

I hope to see more from Grayson and Manning in the future.

John has done an excellent job of providing an outstanding Python programming resource. Unlike many programming books, he provides numerous complete programs. Not only that, but he explains how the program does what it does, and why he made the choices he did while writing the code. To learn programming, one must have good examples. This book provides clearly explained examples from which you can learn a great deal.

I am new to the python programming langauge and was a little frustrated with the lack of documentation on Tkinter. Thank goodness Mr. Grayson has come out with a book that not only clearly documents Tkinter but the book is also filled with clear and concise examples from which to learn! The information on PMW (Python Mega Widgets) is also fantastic. I highly recommend this book.

For the first time ever I threw a book in the compost bin. If I could, I would give it zero stars. A beautiful woman and a beautiful man fall in love. Been there, done that, too easy. I liked Michael when he said he usually didn't fall for a woman based on her looks, but the author kept harping on Emma's fabulous beauty. And, Michael fell for her beauty anyway. True beauty comes from within, and Emma was a pain in the you-know-where, no inner beauty. With her bad attitude I couldn't believe that Emma was the great teacher and writer that her creator claimed. The magic was boring and there wasn't much kissing, either. And the big build up to a love scene that never happened? That's okay, I didn't like Emma or Michael enough to care. I've read mystery novels that had better love stories than this. I'll stick to whodunnits.

This was a really fun book. The characters were so appealing and right for each other in important ways. The romance clicked, along with the humor and the paranormal elements. The cat is hysterical. Overall, this was a great light read. It's the first book by Kristine Grayson that I've read, but I'll be sure to find others.

Emma Lost and Michael Found...Lost and Found...is a great premise for the story of "Sleeping Beauty" and how she is found. The title does throw one off, however, cause there isn't much kissing going on in the book, nor anything else of that nature...but this book was very enjoyable as a fantasy read. The humor was entertaining between the cat, Darnell, Michael, and Emma. I especially loved it when "The Ghost of Christmas Present" showed up, or whoever he is. I see he is going to have his own book next, "Completely Smitten". That I will certainly buy!! Now I just have to go out and buy "Utterly Charming"!!!! But anyone who loves fantasy, fairy tales, and good escapist reading, I recommend this book wholeheatedly!! I finished it in one day. Good reading!!!

very interesting the way Topher Delaney passes her work off as spiritual. in what feels like a sell-out to the new-age craze, the designs feel contrived. the drawings and text suggest some sublime meaning in the works, look closer and the message is a one liner. the designs seem too similar to be real narratives. unless, all of the clients were one and the same.

This book gave me a true taste of the original vision of Topher Delaney. I found the photographs and narrative fascinating and inspirational for the budding landscape architect, and probably of interest to any student of the creative process. However, I also was truly offended by the foreword written by Maggie Peng (whoever she might be) which sounded like a parody of all the pomposity and bombast associated with art criticism. Also, though the book has been designed in a clear and easy on the eyes format, it suffers from the annoying characteristic many of its tabletop/art book ilk share: a preoccupation with showing only 'details' and skewed points of view that make each photograph an evocative masterpiece but prevent the reader from getting a complete visualization of how each garden example was actually setup. A single pedestrian long view shot or just a simple blueprint would have sufficed to give me the big picture concept unfiltered by the book photographer's sensibility. Otherwise, Topher Delaney and her multiple visions do come through on the page and I enjoyed the book.

Having seen Topher Delaney's work first hand on the West Coast and having heard her speak, I was anxious to read her book, Ten Landscapes. Delaney is an artist, architect, landscape designer, gardener and contractor rolled into one very passionate, humorous, spiritual being. She is a unique designer whose work is considered " cutting edge," This book will challenge your perceptions of what a garden can be. Ten Landscapes is a wonderful narrative with fabulous photographs. A must read for those who are into landscape architecture or who just enjoy beautiful gardens.

I really enjoyed this novel, but I have to admit I enjoyed "The Gazebo" much more. I agree Ms. Grayson has a rare talent for touching the soul, and she did continue with this book. I definitely would recommend this one, (and have to many of my friends), but if you haven't read her first---you need to.

Emily Grayson exploits the entangling bond of a love versus hate relationship between the Mallory twins. Liz was forced to confront her sister, Harper, after the accidental death of Harper's daughter, Doe. Years of separation had torn them apart because of jealousy, hurt, and deceit built up over the years. Liz sees Harper as the wealthy, famous painter in New York who has always been successful and loved by the boys. On the other hand, Liz is portrayed as an innocent librarian with a dull life and far from a beauty queen. Unexpected love is struck between Liz and David Fields, a former boyfriend of her sister's, who is an amateur astronomer. The times of pain create a bond between them all, which could never falter.
The theme deals with how we need to explore love and seek for the best in everyone. We shouldn't let ourselves hold back from something that can be so beautiful all because of past mistakes or disagreements. Love is not jealous and envious or prideful, but it should be equally waded. Most of the characters are believable because of the author's formulaic approach. The story line is told in the normal "boy meets girl" setting. David is a static character and is therefore limited in his role as the astronomer and boyfriend. However, the Mallory twins and Harper's son, Nick, are round, dynamic characters who we learn more about throughout the novel. Each of them seek for answers and grow while dealing with the pains of life.
The author deals with each character and their problem in a positive manor when opposition occurs. The novel keeps one's attention by its delightful and heart-wrenching love story. Grayson wrote a realistic plot, which helps us to examine our own lives and put it into a realistic perspective.

The Observatory by Emily Grayson is a novel about two twin sisters who never got along during childhood, and a story of unexpected love. Grayson takes her readers through new and different experiences that Liz Mallory encounters.
Liz and Harper Mallory are twin sisters. While Liz excelled in school, Harper was the more wild, popular, and noticeable twin. Liz grew up to be her hometown librarian, and Harper grew up to be a rich famous painter living in the exclusive Stone Point, New York. As the Mallory sisters grow older, they also grow apart. However, a tragedy happens. Harper's daughter dies in a sledding accident. To recuperate, Harper skips town to be by herself, leaving Liz the responsibility of taking care of her nephew, Nick.
While Liz gets to know Nick for the first time, she also gets to know his and his surroundings, friends, and teachers. Being the second favorite child, Nick eventually opens up to his Aunt Liz, allowing her to understand him. Liz shares the same things Nicks likes. Sharing the love for astronomy with Nick, Liz encounters his teacher, David, with whom she ultimately falls in love. However, David hides the fact that he used to date Harper, making it a major issue in their relationship. Throughout the novel, Liz becomes close to her sister, nephew and also David. She begins to trust others, especially men, and Liz also learns more about her sister's lifestyle.
Grayson does a wonderful job illustrating the colorful scenes, and characterizing each person's personality. The Observatory was a well-written novel; however, Grayson tended to rush through the book towards the end. Grayson illustrates her characters as both round, realistic, and stereotypical. The commercial plot of the book is not necessarily original, but indeed different. The theme of the book is also well developed.

This books is cute, and funny, but not quite as good as the first two books in the series. I would have found a slightly less conventional ending, with the frog not turning into a prince, but still winning the princess, more emotionally satisfying, and truer to the two main characters. Still this was a fun read.

It is hard to call a book a real romance when the hero and heroine are hardly ever together, there are only a couple of very tame kisses, and the hero isn't in his real body except about 20 pages of the whole book. If you don't look at it as a romance but fantasy, it is more interesting. The main attempts at actual humor are with subcharacters from among the Mount Olympus Greek Gods. I found the hero's situation more sad than funny a lot of the time.

Almost three millenniums ago, the Fates punish skeptic Darius for interfering with Eros' task of firing arrows containing true love to the mortal plane. His sentencing is to match up one hundred soul mates in love, but he must do so in a shrimp short-tempered gnome body instead of his natural handsome hunk figure. After twenty-seven centuries of being the laughing stock of Mount Olympus, Darius has one couple to go.

Taking his annual one-week vacation in the Idaho Mountains in which he allowed to return to his normal body, Darius observes triathlete Ariel Summers calmly struggle to stay alive during a rock slide. He helps her and takes her to his cabin, a shocker because the last visitor was Hemingway over eight decades ago. As they fall in love, Darius worries that Cupid stealthily shot him. What will happen to true love when he returns to his gnome form?

Perhaps the reigning queen of romantic fantasy, Kristine Grayson provides her audience with her usual whimsical yet cute novel. Whether readers find the story line UTTERLY CHARMING depends on taste because for much of the book Darius is as anti a hero as a protagonist can be even if he saves Ariel's life. Instead he is a dumpy grumpy schlump. On the other hand, Ariel is a courageous soul who goes after what she wants without worrying about the outer wrappings. Thus the audience wonders just whom the human really is. Still the story line is amusing for those readers who enjoy a contemporary adult fairy tale.

Harriet Klausner

This book opens with Casey Becket two days before her 20th wedding anniversary with safe and steady Michael. She looks out the window to find the man, Will, who left her at the alter over 20 years ago and who broke her heart. He was wild and passionate and different from Michael who she had known her entire life. While this is an interesting enough book, I was never quite caught up in it the way I think it was intended. I felt disappointed that Casey would pine for Will for 20 years and then he would just show up and ask her to leave with him and she would agree. I thought the ending was the most interesting part of the book and redeemed it a bit.

Two decades ago in New York, Will Combrey simply vanished while his teenage fiancee Casey Stowe lovingly waited for him at the altar. Not long afterward, Casey's parents die in an accident. Distraught, she marries Michael Beckett, her next door neighbor. He was her neighbor since she was born and his parents are delighted with their marriage plans and hers folks would have been ecstatic as well if they lived. Over the next twenty years, the duo shares a contented life raising twin girls and one boy. The girls are at college and the boy will start in the fall. Casey is also a highly regarded teacher.

Into her Eden returns Will, whose personal life consists of two divorces and no meaningful relationship today. He has come back to start over at the point where he feels he failed, jilting Casey. He wants her to return with him to his San Francisco home. The temptation is great as a part of Casey always wondered what would have been if Will had married her.

THE FOUNTAIN is an engaging contemporary relationship tale centering on choices. The interesting premise is well designed, but the problem resides with the key cast because this tale is not choosing between a devilishly handsome "bad boy" and a steady mate. Will is pathetic instead of the confident cocky lover while Michael has been near perfect to Casey for years. Throw in their three teens and readers will not accept Casey's thought processes. Emily Grayson is a talented writer who entertains the reader with a well-written story line, but the characters fail to make the plot appear plausible.

Harriet Klausner

I bought this book and "Pets on the Go" both at Amazon.com. First I visited petswelcome.com's web site and thoroughly checked it out, looking for completeness by checking their site for motels/hotels that I know accept pets. Some places that I knew of were missing in popular tourist sites where people bring pets. I found their website very large (almost too large) for efficient surfing and for fast note taking/printing out. So I bought the book instead. Well, the book writing is "cutsy" to the point of being corny. That aside, comparing it with "PETS ON THE GO" (which I also bought), "PETS ON THE GO" wins hands down. The latter has more organization, more entries, more detail in the entries, and more current information. For example, checking "Lone Pine, CA" (a popular tourist town for Mt. Whitney climbers), one finds only one scant entry in "Petswelcome.com", whereas in "PETS ON THE GO" there are four entries, plus "PETS ON THE GO" gives you the motels' URL's! "PETSWELCOME.COM" does not give the URL's. (Go figure----they're a dotcom company!). Libby Montana has no listings in "PETS WELCOME.COM" whereas "PETS ON THE GO" has four. This happens over and over. "PETS ON THE GO" is twice as fat as the other book and it is organized alphabetically by State, City (in boldface). "PETSWELCOME.COM" was frustrating for me for fast, efficient use because the first boldface entry is not the city (rather the motel---which is not alphabetized!) and you have to squint to find the city in the listings. A pain! Of the two books I would get "PETS ON THE GO" (I rated it 5 stars for fast and thorough, complete information). I would be tempted to throw the other out the car window! One just gets the feeling of dotcom generic phoniness when reading "PETSWELCOME.COM". I feel like this book is like a maze-designed building with every other brick missing. I'm a dog person on the go with four dogs (one traveller) and numerous other pets and I have no involvement with the book. I hope this helps folks that are organized and ergonomics-minded like me.

The Portable Petswelcome.com book was a terrific gift for me and for our favorite Golden. The book's light breezy style made for easy reading of really useful stuff including how and where to find a vet when we're all on vacation. I've now recommended Portable Petswelcome to Arthur and JoAnn for their a new Golden Retriever so they can have the benefit of its complete and authoritative advice. You can tell that the people who wrote this Petswelcome really love their animals, and know what they are talking about.

The portable petswelcome.com book has been a tremendous resource for me and my pets. It's approach and completeness certainly surpasses any others on the market today. I also enjoy the insight and great sense of humor from the writers. The best part is that the book is also supported by their dynamic website which is constantly updated with new information. I would definetly recommend this book (or the website) to anyone who would like to travel with their pets, enjoyably and without restrictions.

talk, talk, talk, talk, talk? . I know the important of the plot , I don't care much usually about the writers , but those names David GRAYSON & Phill JIMENZ I'll remember , the whole story is about syburg rebuilding him self and sleep walking him self to earth capturing the moon and threatening every living thing on earth .

kidnapping the Titans (to keep them close to him as a family) they manage to wake up to realize what he is and ending up facing the JLA to defend their friend in a battle , which batman use for their advantage .

of course you can tell its a good story , but through out the story I couldn't find what I always wont in a comic , for all is so confusing , with wards flooding all over the story , like a long non imaginative novel , though the ending would please anyone a s syburg return to the titans in his new suit and freshen the Titans blood , you'll find that its the only lovely tale in the entire comic book.

We'll get the confusing part out of the way first: the desire to include every Titan that ever was, and everyone who ever helped them, got old. Even with the little "id" boxes, it got difficult to keep track of who was who, and the boxes themselves became intrusive after a while.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. I'm finding I like Devin Grayson's work a lot, oddly enough for some of the same reasons the other reviewers didn't like it. (BTW, it's Devin, not David. A girl writing comics. Imagine ;)).

As someone only recently getting into the Titans, I found this a good introduction. I liked the interplay of the various characters, both within their respective groups (JLA or Titans) and between mentors and proteges. Sure, there was a lot of talk (not, IMHO, a bad thing), but there was more than enough action to balance it.

The art was great, and the arrangement of panels and scenes interesting without being confusing.

Overall, I highly recommend it.

After reading some other reviews, I had to speak up. If you only enjoy big fight scenes with no characterization, then this is not the book for you. This is a great story, and features every Titan since the team was founded. You can tell a lot of work went into this story, and the author really cares for the characters.

Definitely a good read, and great artwork to compliment the story.

I read the first 3 books in this series, and this one fell woefully short compared to the others. As I read this book, I felt increasingly that Ms. Grayson was under a publishing deadline for this book and rushed through. There were loose ends left EVERYWHERE! We never find out the Fates' fate. Which, by the way, was the whole reason that Vivian and Dexter get together anyway! We never learn what really happens to Aunt Eugenia, who also played a part in the "evil scheme". Speaking of "evil scheme", the villan is captured too easily. There is no real "romance" shown between the characters - mostly in their heads. The one "love scene" we get cut out of. I wasn't even sure that the characters had actually consummated their realationship until it was mentioned later. Go figure. Vivian's nephew is alluded to in that he may have knowledge of Vivian's and Dexter's situation and/ or that he may have abilities like Vivian's, but we never learn anything else about it. And if that's not enough, the whole book takes place over the course of ONE day! (Boy they slept together awful fast!) There's no real ending either. This book just screamed for an epilouge, but we don't know what happens to the characters. We also get to briefly see the characters from the previous books, but they are also quickly discarded. This one was a bummer all around.

The three Fates (Lachesis, Atropos, and Clitho) arrive at Vivian Kinelly's Portland home seeking help from her Aunt Eugenia who recently died. The trio was stripped of their magical power for one year in an effort to bring some competition into the magical realm in an effort to revitalize it in the age of scientific skepticism. Now someone is trying to kill them while they lack the ability to perform magic.

The threesome realizes that Vivian is not ready to be their champion so they ask her to find master magician Henry Baron, owner of a local pet store under the name of Dexter Grant. Vivian explains to Dexter what is going on and he knows she is the soul mate he has waited an eternity for. Sparks fly between them even as they intercede in an effort to keep the "retired" Fates from harm.

Readers will find SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE simply irresistible because the whimsical story line contains characters that make magic so real that it feels more like a branch of science. The story line never takes itself seriously while providing sub-genre fans with an amusing war of the magicians (reminiscent of the Corman's movie The Raven). The lead couple is a charmed pair who one does not need a crystal ball to feel they belong together. However, the three Fates and the new wave substitutes turn Kristine Grayson's fun plot into a jocular joyful experience.

Harriet Klausner

"Simply Irresistible" by Kristine Grayson feels unfinished. Plot lines are left hanging, and if you have not read the Grayson's other books, you might feel a little confused by the actions of some characters. In addition, those looking for a well-developed romance should not start here.

Still, this is a witty, appealing read for those looking for a fun, light read. The characters are accessible, and it's cute to witness them "falling in love." The hero, especially, is immensely appealing. The plot line (which concerns a wrathful goddess seeking revenge) moves along briskly. In addition, there are some laugh-out-loud moments and some delightful surprises.

All in all, I don't know if this is up to the quality of the rest of the series. But it's still an immensely entertaining read. I'd recommend it for wit and originality alone.

While I was interested in seeing the presented works, I was disappointed that the landscaping drawings were mostly only a half page and had no detail information as to the plantings, etc. Basically it becomes a picture book to examine the presented landscapes, some of which I have seen repeated elsewhere. The overall size of the book is too small to get much value out of the photographs of the landscape that are presented. The plants seem to mostly exotic that would not be available to most people.

Splendid and inspiring... Raymond Jungles tropical gardens are wonderful living works of art, a must for anyone interested in modern art and landscape architecture. The photographs capture a unique talent and love of nature that transcends landscape design and will always be modern and artistic. This book should be a primer for anyone studying landscape architecture, and is a refreshing breakaway from the rigid monotony that is so commonly done by practicing landscape architects.