Fabio Books

Yo leí este libro pues me hice fanática del musical. Es un excelente libro, pero me decepcionó un poco que el musical no se apegara del todo al libro original.
Muchas de las cosas que en la obra musical quedan sin explicar, o sin entender, en este libro quedan resueltas.

Excelente elección si deciden comprarlo.

This book is an excellent resource for perusing some interesting postmodern developments in international relations theory. It presents relevant questions for global politics, considering the world-wide religious resurgence and the supposed universality of Western (super-rational, Enlightenment) paradigms. It re-evaluates the Eurocentric basis for imposing the Euro-American worldview on non-western nations. Fascinating, and full of creative thinking!

A main goal of the book is to demonstrate logical and ontological limits of explanation. Two fundamental questions in this regard are: 1) Why does the Universe exist? (the unrestricted question of existence), and 2) Why does the World exist? (the restricted question of the World). Question 1 is unrestricted because the Universe is defined to include absolutely everything. Question 2 is restricted because the World need not include everything (for instance, it may be thought not to encompass God). Chapters 1-3 deal with the first question in relation to the logic of explanation. Chapters 4-6 deal with the second question in relation to certain ontological presuppositions in explanation.
If, as argued in the text, explanation necessarily involves something beyond what is explained, the existence of the Universe cannot be explained. A point of special interest, however, is not just the impossibility of explanation, but the underlying incoherence of the question itself. To establish this point, a theory of explanation and a theory of existence are needed. The principal thesis in the theory of explanation advanced is that the logic of why-explanation is deductive subsumption under a generalization. This furnishes the sense in which explanation must go beyond what is explained. The claim also raises controversial issues about the role of induction in explanation and, generally, about the subsumption analysis of explanation. A detailed analysis of why-explanation is given in chapter 1 to address these issues. Questions about the logical form of reasoning, the foundation of induction, the role of probability in explanation, the relation between explanation and understanding, and the explanation of human action are questions that naturally arise in the course of this analysis. A conclusion of the chapter is that an answer to the unrestricted question of existence is inconsistent with the logic of why-explanation as deductive subsumption under a generalization. When coupled with the claim that every meaningful question is in principle answerable, it follows that the question of existence lacks meaning. Notably, the grounds of this conclusion, which are argued in detail, are distinct from any positivistic principle of meaning.
Concepts of total explanation are analyzed in chapters 2 and 3. A total explanation is an explanation that explains everything. Most theories of total explanation are based on the idea that God (or the Universe) is a necessary being (or entity) that has the sufficient reason for its existence in itself. Ideas of necessary being and sufficient reason and their role in Cosmological and Ontological arguments for the existence of God are central interests in total explanation. A complete analysis of these ideas finally depends, however, on a theory of existence, which is given with close reference to the notion of designation. Alternative accounts of total explanation based on theories of extreme axiarchism and explanatory self-subsumption are considered in chapter 3. Though these theories involve unique and interesting issues, they cannot resolve the difficulties in total explanation. To complete the treatment of the unrestricted question of existence, concepts of the Universe and Absolute Nothing are analyzed at the close of chapter 3.
Chapters 4-6 primarily concern the restricted question of the World. Unlike the Universe, the idea of the World does not immediately rule out the possibility of something apart from the World. The possibility of explaining the World depends, therefore, on whether there can be something apart from the World that is the cause or reason for its existence. Concepts of creation, theories of divine creation, and possible connections between divine creation and scientific cosmology are relevant to whether the World's existence can be explained. These issues are investigated in chapter 4. The hypothesis that the World is finite in space and time is the topic of chapter 5. In addition to arguments that the World is spatiotemporally finite, special claims that time itself had a beginning, and that the World is finite yet unbounded are considered. Concepts of body, motion, void, place, space, and time are seen to require careful scrutiny in considering these matters. Chapter 6 concerns the hypothesis that the World is infinite in time or space. When taken together, the arguments of Chapters 5 and 6 prove that the World cannot be finite or infinite in space or time. The significance of this apparent contradiction is shown to indicate that we have no concept of the World as a whole, that it makes no sense to say the World exists or does not exist, and that the World is conceptually and ontologically prior to what exists. These conclusions preclude the possibility of explaining the existence of the World.
Excerpt: An aim of this inquiry is to indicate certain logical and ontological limits of explanation. The conception of why-explanation as deductive subsumption under a generalization establishes logical limits of explanation. The fact that our explanations (in matters of existential import) cannot exceed the conditions of space and time establishes ontological limits of explanation. Though the following inquiry into the nature and philosophical limits of explanation was inspired by the question why anything at all exists, a main conclusion of the inquiry is that this question is meaningless. Indeed, the reader may be struck by the number of theses that are argued to be meaningless, incoherent, impossible, absurd, senseless, or by some designation conceptually defective. Since philosophical issues are usually conceptual in nature, error in philosophy is usually a problem of incoherence rather than empirical falsehood. Since words wingless" and "incoherent" often carry derogatory meanings however, the reader is informed that these words are not used or intended in this way in the following work. Although I argue that the question of existence is meaningless, it is a question that has stimulated my own intellectual development. In truth, I have nothing but respect for the question and for the wonder that inspires it in the mind of an inquisitive soul. Philosophical insight does not reside in the assertion or denial of coherence, but only in understanding the reason why. This is the interest of the following inquiry.

This year in our studies of Medieval History we will cover Spain. I wanted a picture book that represented past and present. As we unwrapped the book, the pictures are so stunning my 9 yr old commented that it felt like we were in Spain and could we go there. My daughter is now interested in learning more about Spain. Mission accomplished.

This book is a compilation of three hard-to-find vintage gay pulp paperback novels, including The Man from C.A.M.P., Holiday Gay, and The Son Goes Down. These novels showcase a remarkable concept brought to life - the fabulous gay superspy Jackie Holmes. Imagine Jackie as a gay James Bond battling crooked criminals who prey on innocent homosexuals. Jackie Holmes is a refreshingly positive portrayal of a gay secret agent.

The novels deal with diamond counterfeiters, diamond thieves, and kidnappers trading in white slavery, respectively. These nefarious criminals and their deeds provide the back story in each work for Jackie's tongue-in-cheek crime solving and sassy detective work. All three works are refreshingly light, positive, sexy and entertaining, especially considering they were originally written between 1966 and 1968. This is an era when it was not unheard of for publishers and writers to receive lengthy prison sentences for producing mature material which would be considered more tame than most romantic fiction for sale in today's grocery stores.

Each story has a solid theme and reasonable character development, but what really shines are the highly entertaining plots, replete with many twists and turns of fortune for the characters involved.

I highly recommend these books because they are both easy and fun to read - they are especially great for beach or vacation reading. Despite that these books do not contain the "gravitas" that almost seems mandatory for earning modern critics' praise, the works are nevertheless historically important for the gay community.

In this edition, the novels themselves are presented with a thoughtful forward, author's note, an interview with the author, and suggested bibliography, all of which add even more overall value to work for readers who are further interested in the series. The original versions of these books contained redundant text/filler scenes which have been removed by the original author for this compilation.

Once you have read this compilation, consider Tales From C.A.M.P.: Jackie's Back, which contains three more (out of the nine total original) of Jackie's Holmes crime-busting adventures. Two more books in the series, The Gay Dogs and Color Him Gay, are also available individually as modern reprints.

This volume definitely deserves 5 stars.

Happy reading!

What can we do to leave our mark in this world....it isn't anything we can buy, but rather what we have to give. Some good ideas and examples here.

The story is set in southern Mexico in the early 20th century. The protagonist is a beaten-down catholic priest who drinks too much and fathered an illegimate daughter. He is torn by the reality of his sin and the product of that sin, a beautiful little girl. He is a wanted man and tries to fulfill his calling as he hides from the law. At that time in parts of Mexico the church was being persecuted by the government and religion was outlawed. Churches were razed and priests were forced to renounce their faith and take wives or face the firing squad. The book is not about theology and doesn't glorify the church.

It is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a very human being caught up in circumstances he can't control and trying to do the right thing in impossible situations. He struggles daily with doubts about his effectiveness and his very reason for continuing to resist. The author shows the humanity of the fugitive priest as well as his persecutors. The priest, although protesting that he is a coward, follows the hard path of righteousness as he comes to see it and triumphs in the end.

I found it fascinating.

Graham Greene probably is one of the most intriguing writers to me. I can't say I like the story itself, but his ability to write such complex matters as sin, martyrdom, frailty, politics, and many more and weave them so coherently with interesting characters is just amazing. Just think of the name whiskey priest! The poetry in his prose and insightful reflections is beautiful as well.

(4.5 stars) Graham Greene's most elaborate and personal examination of the good life--and the role of the Catholic church in teaching what the good life is--revolves around an unnamed "whiskey priest" in Mexico in the 1930s. Religious persecution is rife as secular rulers, wanting to bring about social change, blame the church for the country's ills. When the novel opens, the church, its priests, and all its symbols have been banned for the past eight years from a state near Veracruz. Priests have been expelled, murdered, or forced to renounce their callings. The whiskey priest, however, has stayed, bringing whatever solace he can to the poor who need him, while at the same time finding solace himself in the bottle.

Constantly on the move, the priest suffers agonizing conflicts. His sense of guilt for the past includes a brief romantic interlude which has produced a child, and though he recognizes that he is often weak, selfish, and fearful, he still tries to bring comfort to the faithful. Pursued by a police lieutenant who believes that justice for all can only occur if the church is destroyed, and by a mestizo, who is seeking the substantial reward for turning him in, the desperate priest finally decides to escape to a nearby state in which religion is not banned so that the police will stop killing hostages taken in the villages he has visited.

The police pursuit of the priest is paralleled by their pursuit of a "gringo" murderer, a man so base that he thinks nothing of murdering children, yet the priest even sees value in this man's life, and when the gringo, the mestizo, the lieutenant, and the priest finally come together, Greene's philosophical and religious analysis reaches its climax. For all their faults, the priest is often heroic, the murdering gringo still has a soul worth saving, the mestizo (a Judas figure) offers the priest a better chance to see God, and the lieutenant eventually sees the priest as a human, not simply as a symbol.

Greene's novel is beautifully constructed--intricate, filled with symbols and parallels, yet often sensitive and moving. Though the action moves through an almost unremittingly bleak landscape and the sense of dread is positively palpable throughout, the novel eventually reveals the "power" and the "glory" of faith. In this sense, the novel is as much a philosophical and religious tract--specifically an examination of the Catholic faith--as it is a human story. While some may find the novel dogmatic and the priest's agonized self-examination sometimes tedious, others will find the novel uplifting and inspiring. n Mary Whipple

The Third Man
Our Man in Havana: An Entertainment (Twentieth Century Classics)
The Human Factor (Everyman's Library Classics)

Like Mr. Attenborough, Graham Green has roamed the world. His interests were not primarily plants and animals, but representatives of the human species, often those profoundly flawed. His novels are set in Vietnam, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, and more. His characters play out their drama against these exotic backgrounds, the expatriates and the natives, and almost certainly it is an interaction between these groups that is a dynamo which drives the novel forward. I used to think that "The Quiet American," set in Vietnam, was his finest, but after re-reading "The Power and the Glory," I would rank them equally.

It is pre-World War II Mexico, anti-clerical forces are reigning, and therefore the agents of the Catholic Church are outside the law, often literally hunted, and if caught, executed. The two principal characters are reflected in each noun of the title, a police lieutenant who vows to bring in the last functioning priest in the province. This is the principal thread of dynamic tension that unifies the novel. There is a similar thread within the hunted priest himself. He is considered a "whiskey priest," with a fondness for brandy, and he has a daughter. Does he really want to escape his pursers, or does he believe his capture would be just punishment for his sins? It is a many-faceted issue that is used to explore his character.

Graham also populates his novel with numerous minor characters, mainly part of the human detritus that has washed up in this developmental backwater. There is an American dentist, barely surviving with his antique tools; a steamship captain, his wife and their precocious daughter; and a German-American couple who have opted for Mexico instead of submitting to conscription during WW I. There are also the natives, a "half-cast" who haunts the priest, and a touchingly stubborn Indian woman with her dead infant.

In reading Greene, and particularly such a novel on the Catholic Church, it is important to reflect that according to his biographers, Greene himself was both Catholic, and profoundly flawed. Along with the works of Carlos Fuentes, this is a quintessential book on Mexico, and therefore a vital read for all Americans in particular.

Received by curmudgeonly disfavor, Catholicism is descending from heralded heights because of the representative army of priests who sully their authority by being uncommonly common. The lead character of this book could be considered no different.

Although the unnamed priest - whiskey priest (a term used for a "bad priest" as observed by all and acknowledged by the protagonist to be true ) - may not defile innocent boys whose parents entrust him for most everything, he does drink and debauch like a sailor and leaves his DNA behind in a village, maybe more than once.

As we learn the uncommonly common priest is really a commonly nice guy, we also learn that he is deemed an enemy of the state who must be killed after trial in absentia. Although the church may have trodden on many civilizations over hundreds of years, what was being perpetrated against the Catholic Church in the 1930's Mexico was perhaps worse. The church was being victimized by barbaric leaders who sought to call a frenzy among the illiterate masses by proclaiming a war against religious terror - and if the simple little people failed to cooperate the state begins to execute innocents to impose marshal law and fear of the same among the people. Keep those in fear in deeper fear, and they shall not arise.

As the story progresses, the unnamed priest follows his call to duty instead of seeking safety from the military which mercilessly hunts him. The cat and mouse game will have to end - the military is too large and savvy to succumb to a drunkard-priest. Like the man from whom his religion's book expounds upon in great admiration, he delivers himself onto his persecutors in exchange for his "duty." His Judas is a sickly career criminal (whose crimes include what today's priests are being prosecuted for) who is rewarded by the state. This Judas's life peaks upon his receipt of the reward money for "turning in" the harmless priest who imposes no physical harm upon his fellow man and is truly remorseful for his youthful sins.

This book touches upon Catholicism in a light reminiscent to that found in Willa Cather's "Death Comes for the Archbishop" and has horrific criminals south of the border which rival Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian." All show how good, bad and ugly times were in Mexico at or just after the turn of the century. This book is worthy of classic reference and worthy of those books' company.

The abstraction to personification has a long ancestry in literature: from the bible, to Romance of the Rose, to this book of tools. So what is exceptional about Toolbox is not what Morabito does, but instead how [darn] well he does it. I could not read this book in one setting - it was far too rich for that. And I can see that for many years I will be returning to this book for that lemon twist taste on life. The hard cover edition makes a great coffee-table book, ensuring the regular attention it deserves. The only aspect of the hard cover edition which didn't appeal to me was the lame graphics (some of which can be seen on the cover). The graphics are not by Morabito and I found them a great waste of space and a boring two-dimensional accompaniment for such outstanding writing. I would have preferred to have seen some photography to match the quality of the text. Photographs may push up the price, but the writing commands excellence and it is a shame to see it brought down by ordinary graphics. I can appreciate that as a rule, the graphics should not up-stage the text, but you're not dealing with ordinary text here.
I also felt the justified text format was at times annoying.
Nevertheless, one of my most treasured purchases.

A graphic prop book told in a prosaic vernacular of the household mechanic. 12 essays dedicated to everyday common kitchen or workbench items that brings to life the unseen or the not want to be seen. Author Morabito tells it like it is and metamorphosizes the rag into a vampiresque dependency that not just sucks, but cleans everything it touches. The knife is moved from a utensil that cuts into an imbecilic cold-hearted mystic who only moves forward without looking back and has only one pointed concentration. Each page is designed with a graphic remeniscent of medieval torture devices by Mexican graphic designer Bernardo Recaimer. As a package this book looks too enticing not to turn away, however, once one is embarked on the kitchentop journey of fancy articles into the linguistic world of poetic merchandise, one is not all that excited anymore. This book serves more as a fantasy world of Alice in the Toolshed rather than any real commentary on our kitchendary needs. After reading the first half of the selections, you will get the sense of where the author is headed (which many times the author seems to have a spontaneous direction in his writing). By the sixth essay, you will get the point very clearly that life in the kitchen happens when you are not there (or least not paying attention), which, unfortunately, the essays become somewhat repetitious thereafter. The four stars indoctrinated of this book is due to its entirely uniquness of the subject and a valid attempt at what could have been something remarkable.

Last week a couple of friends visited and wanted to write a review for you guys. I let them use my computer and my email--but the result has been the reviews don't carry their names, but mine. Sorry about that.

A work of genius, delightful, and exquisitely translated by Geoff Hargreaves. You can also find some of Morabitos's work and Hargreaves' translations in TAMEME.

Fabio will best be remembered for his pictures on romance covers and for his own crisp style of prose, not to mention his dynamite jazz album that "mysterious"ly went out of print...guess Miles and Thelonis couldn't compete... even so, I am puzzled by Fabio's new direction. Some of these essays are profound, and I am not sure how a man of Fabio's genius has remained undiscovered for so long. Yet even so, I was not impressed with his ultimate conclusion on the meaning of life. He was right when he said "life is romance" and he should have left it at that.

Enjoyable, passionate, with a leading man that rivals Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind, Ryder is strong, sexy, arrogant, confident, kind etc...mid-way through the book, I was wishing for a man like this myself! Though wordy at times, it's worth the read. Fabio needs to keep writing, I like the way that guy thinks.

The character Ryder Remington is a prime example of a classical rogue! He's dashing, strong and annoyingly smooth! He is definitely a dream away from orgasmic!

I had bought this audiobook together with Fabio's Pirate and I didn't think I would like Rogue because I was a little disappointed with Pirate because I didn't like the heroine but I listened to the Rogue audiobook anyway and I was very pleasantly surprised! I wouldn't call it a masterpiece of classic literature but it was good and I enjoyed it and I liked the characters Natalie and Ryder and I enjoyed reading about their adventures and their romance.

I beleave this book to be wonderful as well as sinful. I am only on Chapter ten so far. I wish Ryder Remington the main character of the book was a real person. I woun't mind if he looked under my frok. This book makes me sinful for reading it. Thank You, Fabio! Oh and the other person too!

This is one romance definitely not bound for Blockbuster! The characters were so unbelievable and the dialouge so poorly written it was hard to make it from page to page. The plot in itself was corny and I actually groaned aloud when introduced to the character Aunt LOVE! REALLY we are romantic not ditsy. As usual, noone can deny Fabio's sex scenes were steamier than ever, but I'm not sure one can make it that far. Also, great sex scenes can hardly make up for bad plot. I love Fabio's pictures, I really do, but a reader worth their salt must agree that a great body on one page can't make up for 400 pages of a dull and flat book. For great historical romance try Virginia Henley and the almost impossible to get Roberta Gellis. For great contemporary romance keep in mind Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

I was quite impressed with both the breadth and depth of material that was covered in this book of ADO.NET with VB.NET 1.1. I work alot with DataSets and XML and not only was the traditional ADO.NET processes of retrieving and storing data with data readers and data adapters covered, but then goes head first into XML and datasets. It is actually not that easy to find some of this information on the internet and in such a well explained manner, thus this book is well worth its wait.
These are not general approach text, but code heavy examples.
A good understanding of ADO.NET would be appropriate before taking on this book as while it does a good job of explaining and providing examples, the pace is fairly rapid and is really targeted to the professional looking to up the skill level in ADO.NET. I have become a C# coder for the most part, but as you all know, changing the VB syntax to curly brackets is not that bad and thus this book serves the C# coder as well.

I would certainly recommend this book as a good example/reference/code snippets for ADO.NET 1.1.
Look for the ADO.NET 2.0 book as well.

Pro ADO.NET with VB.NET 1.1

I've been involved deeply with DB access applications for the last 5 years, and I've read many books on the subject. I've read some that were bad, and I've read some that were amazing. This book is definitely a good one.

Note that this not intended to be a full reference on the intricacies of the object model, but more of a "this is what it can do, and here's a practical example" type reference.

Our author does a great job of introducing the subject. This is intended to be book for someone with some experience; it is not a beginner's book. Mr. Malik writes the book with the perfect voice for his audience. I also found the inclusion of references to prior versions of ADO to be most useful, too. He even provides specific instances when it would be better to use prior (non-.net) versions of ADO since the functionality either doesn't exist, or works much better. This realistic approach to ADO.Net's abilities is consistent throughout the book.

The book most notably does a great job of "selling" the data reader object in .Net. This is an exciting, very powerful read-only connection that can be used for variety of purposes. Mr. Malik gives many useful examples (e.g., reporting) where this is *much* faster than standard methods. He demonstrates how to use the GetSchemaTable, and how to bind it to a data grid; a very nice way to get this information out of the database.

The code examples were very specific and addressed their topics very well; not a lot of fluff that serves little purpose. I find that shorter, more direct code snippets like these are more useful. Ideally, a code example should fit on one page, if at all possible.

I felt the chapter on creating your own data provider was interesting, but might have been a bit too advanced for most readers of this particular book. I also thought this was covered a little quickly, since it does only make up one chapter; I suspect an entire book could be written on the subject. It wasn't a bad idea to include it, but it was perhaps a bit too much icing on an otherwise very good cake.

So, if you are looking for a "down and dirty" intermediate practical usage reference, you need not look much farther than this.

I had a very narrow vision of what ADO.NET was until I read this book. ADO.NET is more than just DataSets and DataAdapters. It also involves XML, Data Services and Web Services. This book covers it all and more!

All the basics are covered. Chapters 1 through 5 explain Data Readers, DataSets (Typed and UnTyped) , Data Adapters and Data Schemas. I was impressed with the depth covered on each of these subjects.

What I didn't expect was the XML coverage. Chapter 6 covers everything you need to know about XML and how to use XML with DataSets.

Chapters 7 through 9 explain Constraints, Relations, Views, Transactions, and Mapping.

Data Services and Web Services each had full chapter. This was an unexpected bonus.

Performance and Security is covered by including optimizing, connection pooling message queuing, and basic security concerns. I always wondered what MSMQ was and now I know!

Also covered where InterOp and Migration from ADO.

The last chapter walks you through creating a MSMQ custom data provider. Very cool!

This book will make a fantastic resource book. This is definitely a must have for any level programmer!

The many authors of this book show how to use ADO if you are coding in a .NET environment, and need to access a database. The authors chose to have the example code in VB.NET 1.1. Though they might equally well have used examples in C#. Perhaps they felt that VB has a broader allure?

Conceptually, the role of ADO is simple. It is a layer between your application and the database. It gives you standard ways to read and write data, largely independent of the actual database. Java programmers will recognise this as similar to JDBC drivers. But while the concept is simple, the book shows that the details of how to use it from your application can be nontrivial.

To some of you, who are interested in developing Web Services, there is an entire chapter devoted to showing how you can do this. Where the Web Service has a database and its access of this database is mediated by ADO. The chapter tells how to build a Web Service from scratch, using ADO. A nice comprehensive approach that you should be able to easily adapt to a specific Web Service of your design.

As many of you probably have figured out, ADO.NET is probably my favorite piece of the .NET Framework. While many other facets of the framework were improvements over past paradigms, ADO.NET was unquestionably a 'differen't technology. Well, until now, I thought there were two must have books on ADO.NET, David Sceppa's ADO.NET Core Reference and Bill Vaughn's ADO.NET & ADO Examples and Best Practices in (VB.NET or C#). Now, there's a third. A while back, APress bought out a bunch of Wrox titles and redid them the Apress way. Every single one that I've gone through so far has been a DRAMATIC improvement over the original version and it looks like it's the case with this one too.

First off, some background information on "why" ADO.NET is such an important topic that it warrants buying at least 3 books on it. In the old days, you used to have a connected metaphor when you were using most data access technologies. For instance, previous versions of ADO required a persistent connection to a database to be of much use. But ADO.NET changed that in a fundamental way. Now, you can deal with database access in a Service Oriented way. You can retrieve data from a Text file, send it to a web service, then to an Oracle database then to a SQL Server database and you can wrap the whole thing in a transaction. You can easily build a service facade that interacts with a data access layer - if you want to change your back end you can simply change the data access layer and not touch your business objects. Distributed transactions, transactions that span multiple databases or providers are now a snap. You can grab data from a Web Service or a SQL Server database and never be able to tell where it came from and use virtually identical methods to retrieve and manipulate the data. And while there are so many areas that are greatly improved, new complications pop up. The old way of dealing with concurrency has changed and is somewhat more complicated for instance. On the whole, things are exponentially easier, particularly in the realm in Enterprise scenarios but the additional power means that you have to Think thing through a lot more. And the reason this book is so good is because 1) It's technologically correct (which was something quite rare in old Wrox books) 2) Because the more complex areas of ADO.NET are covered and covered quite well.

Including tables and indexes, the book is just over 600 pages. The back cover even features a picture of Sahil (looking very serious for someone as lively as him) on the back. I think everyone can agree that wrox's brillian idea of putting 10 people's faces on the cover of each book was a bit challenged as far as marketing goes.

Chapters I-IV are the elementary stuff - the what, why etc of ADO.NET and a brief run through on how the core objects work. That's obligatory in any book. After that it gets fun though, and fun quickly. If you don't understand XML, and understand it pretty well, then you don't understand ADO.NET. Chapters 5 & 6 discuss XML and its role in ADO.NET and on a scale of 1-10, I'd have to give them a solid 8. That's a really high number considering it spans only two chapters. Concise, thorough, to the point and interesting are three words that come to mind when descrbing those two chapters. When I say thoroug, I don't mean that 2 chapters exhaustively discuss XML -- that's the subject of MANY books. But by the time you are done, you will have a good enough understanding of how XML relates to ADO.NET and how to use it that you won't be a danger to yourself anymore.

Chapter 7, Constraints, Relations and Views is definintely one of the money chapters. When I was moving to Greenville, I had to take some time off from the newsgroups and when I came back, some guy named Sahil Malik was posting up a storm and unlike a lot of newcommers, his answers were rock solid. There's no doubt he has a strong understanding of the typical pitfalls of most developers learning ADO.NET and he gets you right through those. Way too many people think that DataAdapter.Fill is all you need to know and they invariably end up writing a LOT of code and doing a lot of Goofy stuff just because they don't know that there are existing objects that will do the job for them or they don't know how to use them. I personally have encountered a situation where 'professional' developers were called on to build a component which made extensive use of Typed Datasets. Mind you that there's a team of 5 'experienced' .NET Developers that were working on this. Well, one of the requirements was that the typed datasets needed to be filled (obviously) from a database. Their solution? Pass an Untyped dataset to the DALC, retrieve the data and manually loop through the returned dataset, table by table, and add the data to the typed dataset. Not surprisingly the code had a little disclaimer "We didn't implement the update code yet, we're having some trouble with it". This is so unbelievably poor that if it were done in the medical arena, some lawyer would be rich off of it. But this isn't atypical by any means. However if they had any understanding of Rowstate for instance, it's doubtful such a silly approach would have ever entered their minds. Similarly, they had some bad logic in their select statements and ended up pulling back data that, when copied to the typed dataset, violated the integrity constraints on the dataset. So they simply used a Try/Catch and at the exception. It filled correctly, but think of the unnecessary overhead associated with this. Think of all of the extra code necessary to do it this way. If they had read Chapter 7 of this book, I can assure you they would have known enough to know that this approach was a recipe for disaster and after reading Chapter 5, they would have known how to use a Typed dataset correctly. (Note to all new ADO.NET Programmers: Just because you see "DataSet" in the parameter list on DataAdapter.Fill() - typed dataset ARE datasets so you can safely pass them in. They obviously didn't understand inheritance but that's a different story. In addition this chapter discusses one of my favorite objects, the DataView

Chapter 8 delves into transactions and there's plenty of good stuff in here. Using a simple transaction is, well, simple. Using distributed transactions is another story (at least until ADO.NET 2.0 and the TransactionScope arrive). Well, in all honesty, in most enterprise scenarios, simple transactions aren't going to cut it for you. He goes through some more complex transaction examples and does a darned good job. (Obviously using COM+ and distributed transactions couldn't possibly be discussed fully in one chapter, but there's still a LOT to work with here).

Chapter 9 deals with Mapping. Again, it's a good discussion but there's only so much you can do with Mapping. However if the people above read this chapter before coding there 'solution' , I doubt they would have made the mistakes they did either. Mapping is a sleeper of a subject but important nonetheless. The Data Adpater Configuration wizard uses it extensively in the code it generates, and you'd be well advised to understand what it does and how it works. A lot of new developers use the wizard without understanding how it works - which is NEVER a good thing. David Sceppa used great Stevie Wonder lyrics to drive this point home "When you believe in things that you don't understand, Then you suffer, Superstition ain't the way" Wonder
Chapters 10-14 are the Advanced issues covering things like web services, security, performance etc. I personally have read a lot on the subjects but I still found them interesting. He does a little more on XML processing and SQL Server/XML in particular which is definitely good stuff to say the least. I'm not really devling into the details but that's not because it's not well covered - it's simply that a lot of that information is pretty technical and it's hard to get into the details of it without getting too technical. Besides, I want to save room for Chapter 15.

Without a doubt this is the HOME run of the book. Sahil pulled a rabbit out of a hat with this one. He goes through the process of making your own custom ADO.NET Provider. In so doing, he discusses the interfaces that each of the core objects are built on and what they do. You simply can not get out of this chapter without having a really firm grip on what ADO.NET is all about. In all of the books that I've read, this chapter has to be one of my favorites, hands down. So what provider does he build? A MessageQueue provider. Combining a killer topic like MessageQueuing with building a provider was nothing short of brilliant. He could have wrapped things up 100 different ways, none of which would have come close to this on pure coolness. Don't know about MSMQ or MSMQT yet? Well, get with the program - the stuff is pure gold and I can just about guarantee that you will find a great place to use it. Combining the two subjects was just great. I had thought about writing an article on building a provider using the File System but this is 100 times cooler than that idea. It's technical, complex and very in depth - and the icing on a very good cake.
All in all this is one of my favorite books - mainly because I love ADO.NET coupled with the fact that Sahil just straight up kicked a33 in it. Totally interesting. Tons of 'real world' stuff. No detectable fluff. If you want to learn ADO.NET correctly or want to understand it better - I can vouch for Suhil's guru credentials in both writing and ADO.NET! You won't be disappointed.