J Books

A friend of mine recommended that I read this novel by J. Nelson-Owens. As some of the other reviewers have mentioned, I normally do not read books that are set in the future. However, based on the style of writing by the author, that did not create an issue with me reading the book. Some of the other aspects of the book like romance, family struggles, commerce, etc. pulled me away from the future setting and drew me into the characters and the never ending twist in the plot. It is amazing how the authors style of writing can draw in so many different types of readers. The authors attention to detail was amazing. The reader can definitely envision the characters and the actions that are being described. For her first published novel, I believe that J. Nelson-Owens has written a masterpiece. I'm hoping there are many more to come.

To the reader who wants to be entertained by a world of love, hatred and a very, very controlling family member.

I was given the book "The Van Laven OATH" to read by a co-worker. I started the book during my lunch breaks at work and found myself not wanting to put it down. It's filled with a compelling commitment to "LOVE / RELATIONSHIP" between a man, woman and father.

It took getting through a few chapters before I could remember each character since their names are very different causing me to go back to a previous chapter to refresh my memory. I found myself yearning for a love like the one between Vaush & Comron and despising the father who is out to destroy it.

Let me sum it all up by saying, it moved my emotions in many ways as I read each chapter waiting patiently to see if a love for two people can conquer all .... Oh well we'll see .................

J. Nelson-Owens ......let me know when the next book is ready for publication .... I'm anxiously waiting! I could also envision this on the big screen.

Thanks for your love of writing.

I loved it! It has everything you could want, romance, action, adventure. The book was very well written and captured my attention at once. I couldn't put it down. Can't wait for the second book to see how it ends!!

I love to read, and thoroughly enjoyed this book! At first I thought, oh a book set in the future, I am not so good with those. But it was really wonderful! It was so good - I read it twice! Enjoyed it both times! It was easy to keep up with the characters, you got a good mental image of how the characters might look! The story really kept my interest throughout, not once did I find myself turning to the end pages to see how it turned out! What a twist! I loved the twist in the story - was really surprising! I can't WAIT for the next book to come out - I have to see how it turns out! Thanks for writing such a wonderful book!

Action, Adventure, Romance, absolutely everything you are looking for in excellent reading. The book was well written. I can't wait for the sequel, I couldn't stand to put it down until finished. Patiently waiting on continuation of book two.

This is a useful and interesting book for advanced ESL students, and they love it. These students have learned all the grammar and now they want to be able to use and understand all the slang and idioms. Also they get enough practice with each idiom to realy let it sink in.

I first came across this book at borders and while i was looking for the slangman series, i decided to take a look at this book and i just couldn't put it down. Not only is it applicable to high school and college students, it puts the idioms in a context which makes the user understand it's usage for future purposes. I wish i'd seen this book when i first came here as an exchange student.
I think it'll be a great gift for that friend of yours who's visiting the country or here on an exchange program. It's a little pricy but i think it's worth the price. If you are learning english, try to learn the idiomatic expressions to improve your overall communication.

Haven't you ever wondered why it's so difficult to understand a conversation between native speakers or a movie in its original language version? Don't you think it has something to do with the way you were taught the language?
I'm French. I've been teaching English to high school students for over 20 years now, and yet it's the first time I've come across a textbook which emphasises on every day language in such an efficient and enjoyable way!
Edward J. Francis manages to browse a great number of idiomatic expressions through sixteen lively dialogues related to true life situations. Various exercises help us memorize the idioms which we can then use to express our own experiences and feelings. At the end of the book you can find a very useful glossary including all the idioms and vocabulary covered in the dialogues, as well as a list of websites related to the topics discussed in each of the chapters. Discover about the history of fireworks, visit America's national parks or book a room in a bed and breakfast inn for the weekend! This book urges you to travel!

I highly recommend "A Year in the Life of an ESL Student" to advanced high school students or any adult who intends to travel to an English speaking country, as well as to people who, like me, want to brush up on their conversational English!
So just kick back and have a great time reading Edward J. Francis' book! It's "two thumbs up!"

I am an English teacher in Japan and I was looking for a book that had a lot of useful, everyday English for my students that covered material not usually taught in the language schools. After searching many book stores I still had no book to use for my students. I really thought I was going to have to write my own book. Then, one of my students came to me with this book. I was amazed that she was the one who came across such a good book. I felt like one of my friends won the lottery. After flipping through a few pages I knew I had to order it. I ordered it that night and use it almost exclusively for our lessons. The students love the content. The exercises are fun, simple, yet effective in helping students retain the new material. The layout is perfect, particularly if you need to make a copy from the copy machine when you are in a pinch for material needed in an unexpected class. The choice of content in this book is excellent. My lessons with this book now give the students a lot more useful English phrases to speak like a native English speaker, and understand a lot of idioms Americans use.

Among the many difficulties faced by English as a Second Language learners is our seemingly random used of words and phrases to express ideas. Our idioms are opaque (chicken out, spare tire), slang changes before the dictionary can catch up (wimp, freak out), and many words are rarely used, except in a specific circumstance (bawling, hilarious).
What is the poor ESL learner to do?
Edward J. Francis has come to the rescue with A Year in the Life of an ESL Student - Idioms and Vocabulary You Can't Live Without. (Trafford)
Following Andre, a student from Switzerland, through 16 chapters of activities ranging from suntanning on the beach to catching a movie, the 300-page text is filled with dialogues, definitions, crosswords and cloze activities, not to mention comprehension and discussion questions. Everything is well laid out and easy to read. There are web sites listed for each chapter, answer keys and an extensive glossary with definitions and page references. All that is missing is a CD recording of the conversations.
This book would make an ideal extension resource for the Advanced ESL class.

cumplía 15 años, NOS DESPERTÓ UN PAVOROSO TAMBORAZO.
Mi esposa se abrazó a mi. Yo salté como conejo espantado y me levanté con tal violencia que Joanna se cayó porque estaba colgada de mi cuello.
Del tamborazo, siguio un trompetazo y miles de guitarras eléctricas !
NUESTRO "NENE " ESTRENABA SU LIBERTAD ADOLESCENTE.
Pensé en darle una cintariza ( no, ya no estaba en edad de que hiciera lo que nunca habia hecho con él )
PENSÉ EN UN INTERNADO: Joanna me pediria el divorcio
EN UNA CAMISA DE FUERZA ( Para Jon Jr...o para mi )
EN IRME A VIVIR CON MIS PADRES. ¡Ay, no !
MI SUEGRO ME REGALO ESTE LIBRO...ese mismo día,Joanna y yo nos fuimos al parque con sandwiches y abandonamos la fortaleza en manos de nuestro hijo...
SOLO 2 MESES DESPUES...¡SANTO REMEDIO !
Casi le prendemos veladoras al libro,tan leído que nos lo sabemos de memoría...
SI OYES UN TAMBORAZO, ¡CORRE A COMPRARLO ANTES DE QUE OIGAS EN TROMPETAZO, AMIGO !

fue un encanto...hasta que le pegó la adolescencia...PERO LOS CONSEJOS Y LOS PUNTOS DE VISTA DE ESPARZA, EL AUTOR DE ESTE LIBRO, NOS PERMITIERON SORTEAR EL TEMPORAL

QUE TE PERMITE CRUZAR POR EL TIEMPO BORRASCOSO DE LA ADOLESCENCIA DE TUS HIJOS, COMO SI FUERA UN DIA SOLEADO Y SIN
TURBULENCIA...Y HACER FELIZ A TUS ADOLESCENTES SIN DEJAR DE ORIENTARLOS.
¡PERFECTO !

LIBRO PARA COMPRENDER Y CONDUCIR BIEN A LOS ADOLESCENTES
COMO DIRÍAN ELLOS: GENIAAAAL !

Porque comprende bien que, al entrar a esa edad, nuestros muchachos cambian al mismo ritmo en que sus hormonas suben y bajan...
También hay que tomar en consideración que los chicos necesitan estabilidad, y que el PORQUE LO MANDO YO !les provocará berrinches, pero en el fondo, se sienten bien porque se dan cuenta de que sus padres se sienten seguros de lo que ordenan!
UN LIBRO INTELIGENTÍSIMO!!

Its hard to believe that one of the best hacker novels was written back before computers were common...I believe the commodore computer was the most common household computer around when this was written!

Would really like to see a modern sequel!

I read this book the first time decades ago. I was just getting my feet wet in the computer industry and the story was compelling and exciting. We didn't really know it at the time, but the hero of P1 wrote a polymorphic computer virus that could learn and grow. We are getting to this point only now, so the story has enormous relevance. Don't get me wrong, I'm not glorifying computer viruses. What attracted me then, and still does, is the possibility that we may one day interact with machines that are our equals, emotionally and intellectually. This book gives us a glimpse of that brave new world.

This book is rather dated now as far as the technical side of it
as well as the 70's outlook on life in general. But, I miss the old outlook, anyway. Aside from all that, it is still a great read.
I believe it to be one of the first science-fiction stories dealing with a computer virus, even an intelligent one. Very tight and doesn't let up. You'll love the dialogue between the AI and the people it deals with. Get this one if you can find it.

I've now read The Adolescence of P1 (at least) three times. The first time was before I got my first computer (but after I'd learned to program in Fortran on mainframes). I most recently finished this book yesterday, and loved it as much as I did the first time.

Back in my early days, the thought of a computer having 256 megabytes of immediate access memory in one place amazed me. Now, it's a bit humorous to read the section of the computer's artificial intelligence going euphoric when it finds itself with that much memory.

I learned a lot about computers the first time I read it, but when I read it this time, I recognized more things because I understood the background better. For example, when I read about the military intelligence code utilities that P1 stole from a government computer, I recognized PKZIP (and similar compression utilities) in this description on page 190:

"... it abbreviates the hell out of data ... boosts transmission speed by an order of magnitude ... The decoding process at the receiving end can reconstruct the original data completly intact. No losses whatsoever."

In spite of its datedness, this is a very enjoyable book. Gregory, a young college student, manages to write a computer program that is both greedy and fearful, two of the attributes of intelligence according to the theme of the book. Eventually, the computer grows out of his childhood, but some readers would question if it ever grew up. I do believe that P1 grew up by the last few pages of the book when it learned about its own mortality.

The book ends on the note of possibility when we realize that P1 still lives, but in a very subdued and careful form. I often wonder what Thomas J. Ryan would have done with a sequel.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed finding out on page 109 that the computer had read Stranger in a Strange Land (*), for two reasons, 1) It is one of my favorite books, and 2) I had just finished rereading it for the umteenth time just before starting this book.

Of course, I also love Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress (**), which has as it's main protaganist, a computer system that has become self-aware. If I had to pick only one self-aware computer book, P1 or Moon, that I'd be allowed to reread again, I'd keep Moon is a Harsh Mistress, because I thought the character development was stronger in Heinlein.

(...)

Thomas J. Ryan wrote The Adolescence of P-1 in the mid-seventies, and for its time, it must have been a breakthrough in computer science-fiction literature. The story is compelling: an adaptive computer program is created and set loose by a bored college student and becomes so advanced that it develops self-awareness. The computer virus, dubbed P-1 by its creator, can communicate with humans in English through a computer terminal. The dialog between P-1 and the humans is both amusing and provocative, while P-1's ominous nature tugs at the imagination. P-1's existence has a purpose: to survive. Eventually, P-1 must deal with the value of human life and the meaning of what it means to be human. The theme of the novel centers on those two topics while tying in to the speculations on Artificial Intelligence.

However, the novel is not perfect. The Adolescence of P-1 was written by and for those in the nascent computer industry of the mid 70's, an intensely male-dominated industry. As a result, the female character in the novel (the hero's girlfriend) seems a bit oversexed for reality, especially in the beginning. I read through the cheesy, unrealistic dialog and laughed at its wackiness. It seems as if the author dreamed desperately about a woman like this, and had to write her in somehow. Or Ryan might have done a little satire on the flat characters of pop culture by putting one in his novel. But I wouldn't rule out the first possibility. Later, however, when the plot's theme broadens to encompass the more philosophical scope of humanity, she is portrayed as the vital feminine counterpart to the hero.

I think of myself as quite the computer buff, with a comprehensive knowledge of the computer industry and its technological history. However, in my short 17 years of age, I had never encountered the level of computer competence that this book demands. The actual technology described in the book is ancient. Although the author clearly explains the concepts that are required for believability, a few explanations cover too much depth and move too quickly for any normal reader to follow.

But I thoroughly enjoyed the book despite these minor setbacks.

Ah, the wit of a computer geek.

A must have for NP school. Great book. Thanks Amazon for providing the best prices and great services.

If you work in a pediatric practice which serves children, you will find yourself turning to this book again and again. It has very helpful and complete text and pictures. Our pediatric residents use it as a primary board review text. I highly recommend it. Anyone want to buy a Nelson's???

I bought this to study for the pediatric boards and it was very helpful for the picture session. I've also found it extremely helpful everyday in seeing patients especially the dermatology section.

Another ubiquitous book. A "must have"....or "must have owned". Too big. People just buy it for the pictures anyway, has anyone really read the text in Zitelli's? Most people use it as an atlas to review for boards...My logic is, if you're gonna just use it for pictures, why not google images? There are other atlases out there that are less cumbersome and cheaper. Plus, do you think the pedi board people will take a picture right out of a well-known text?

Useful as a bookend or coffe table a-la Kramer in Seinfeld.

This is the finest text a pediatrician can own for daily practice, board brush up and companion to the standard textbooks. It can fill many gaps inherent in the nature of pediatric training and is eminently relevant. If the authors never pen another things, they can be forever proud of this work. Brava.

Explore the Book is an excellent source for Bible study. It is extremely detailed, but readable. Baxter's style is scholarly, yet his descriptions are easily understood by readers of all levels of understanding of the Word.

I recommend it highly.

If I had to give up everything but my Bible, this work would be on my top three "to keep" list. It is a wealth of information. Seldom do I preach, teach or approach any Biblical sermon or topic without consulting Baxter.

Baxter takes each book of the Bible and analyzes it like a masterful painting. His interpretative method of dissection holds the Scriptures in their high place, and wonderfully unveils the very plan and purposes of God woven throughout them. It is a magnum opus of Biblical exposition.

From lay Sunday School teacher to seminarian, _Explore The Book_ provides great utility. It is among the most practical and useful tools on my bookshelf.

It is actually a three volume set in one, and is a bargain when you consider the price against its utility.

Explore the Book by J. Sidlow Baxter is an absolute phenomenon. This book is to be compared with C-4. It is powerful and explosive!! Baxter does a superior job in analyzing the Holy Scriptures and presenting the facts so that the average lay person may fully grasp pertinent spiritual knowledge. I particularly appreciate how Baxter provides the historical account of the Bible. It helps the reader to understand the original scene and setting, which further assists in our relating the Bible to our modern culture. We do not possess the Bible but we possess a translation of the Bible and Baxter delivers a solid and accurate supplement to our social and cultural understanding. Explore the Book is a must read for everyone that is involved in some kind of ministry. From historical analysis to "type teaching", Baxter's writing clearly packs an awesome punch! I highly recommend that every library of Christian literature save an open slot for Explore the Book. Kudos!

Baxter's "Explore the Book" is one of the most excellent surveys of scripture available. Dr. Baxter's comments are warm, devotional, and practical. However, his suggestion of a possible mid-tribulational rapture (instead of pre-tribulational) concerns me, as does his hyper-dispensational view that Israel was offered the Kingdom a second time in the book of Acts. The Bible clearly teaches that Israel will not receive the Kingdom until the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ and the establishment of his literal, physical Millenial Reign at the end of the Great Tribulation period. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone desiring a deeper understanding of the Bible.

Baxter's Explore the Book can be likened to a treasure map. The Bible is full of gems, a veritable (and verifiable) treasure trove of insight, information, encouragement, and direction, all given under the inspiration of God. At times, though, the underlying message can seem hard to find, or to fully understand when it is discovered. This is where the value of Explore the Book comes in-it is the map to help the reader discover the treasure of God's Word in its fullness.

Explore the Book is actually a complete Bible survey course in one (rather large but comprehensive) volume. Each book of the Bible is given an overview including analysis, a synopsis, and the special features of each. More importantly, however, are the practical applications of the meaning and of the message in each book of the Bible.

Even readers without any background in Bible study will find Explore the Book greatly interesting and helpful, as will those more experienced students of Scripture (including pastors and teachers). This book leads the reader/student to a deeper awareness and appreciation of the grand themes of the Word of God, from Genesis through Revelation.

This storybook accurately paraphrases all the major stories in the Bible, making them accessible for very young children. The questions at the end of each story are an excellent way to review, and teach children biblical truths. The pictures are beautiful!

My three-year-old son and I love this book. We read several pages every night at bedtime. There are a couple of questions at the end of each story and I'm always amazed that he can answer every one! We've already gone through the entire book three times after receiving it a few months ago. My son is really getting to know the Bible and he enjoys it! The best picture Bible I have come across for preschoolers.

Bought as a gift to a new mother. Beautiful illustrations, short stories, thoughtful questions for little children to consider what they've just read! I used with my own children to begin their foundation of Bible knowledge.

Used an original of this book with my children and found it very good. So good that I am now buying for my grandchild. Like the edition with realistic pictures so much more than the one with cartoon like figures.

Like some of the other reviewers, I grew up reading this book. I have a 1977 printing, as well as a recent one. The old copy was only recently returned to me and I was happy to marvel over some of the beautiful scenes depicted in this book. Truly, they are some of my earliest mental pictures of God and faith stories, particularly the image of God on the very first page, but many others as well.

I was disappointed, upon giving it a more critical overview as an adult, to realize that the paraphrase is terrible in some points. The one example that stood out to me so starkly was the Wedding at Cana. "After a while they needed more grape juice for the people to drink." Grape juice? Also, the author's use of the word "minister" in place of "priest" and "church" in place of "temple" is affected and sounds like it came straight out of a contemporary Baptist Sunday school lesson. Additionally, I find it baffling that, among so many beautiful art depictions on most of the story pages, there are a few images that seem to be photographs of actual people. Specifically, Ruth and her mother-in-law (page 72 in the old version) and Ruth alone on the next page. I might be wrong about how the images were created, but those two really stand out in style from the rest of the book.

I give this book a 3 star rating for the pictures alone. My favorites are the cover (baby Moses being rescued by his sister), God in the darkness on the first page, Jacob's ladder and the angels, The Nativity, Jesus walks on water, the Transfiguration, the Shepherd on the cliff with a sheep, and the Agony in the Garden.

The book lost 2 stars from me because I feel the wordings and translations are lacking, although I appreciate the childlike phrasing and intent to bring the truth of God's love to young people. I also am disappointed in the lack of consistency of quality among the images.

I bought this book for my mother in law just before her trip to Italy and she loved it. She said she used it as a resource there and it was very interesting. I gave it 4 stars because it wasn't something I would buy for myself but my mother in law adored it to pieces! Great gift for any Italian or someone planning to visit Italy.

I'm glad this guide book exists. I have found it helpful and informative. I am currently living in Germany, and I find pilgrimages to be a far more meaningful way of exploring Western Europe than more traditional tours. With this in mind, I would like to respectfully suggest some revisions for future editions. First, I would really appreciate more and better maps. A simple blank map of each country with dots representing the pilgrimage locations would have been extremely helpful--- as would better directions and ideas of distances between major sites. More pictures would also be helpful. I plan on eventually visiting most of these sites, but the book on its own is not enough.

A very good book full of information. The only thing i didnt like is that they talk about certain images of The Blessed Virgin , but dont show her. Only the builing... I think more pictures of the statues at the shrine and less of the outside of them would be better. But i gave it five stars for the information. It great for that reason only.

I spent two semesters in Europe and this book was immensely helpful in deciding which pilgrimage sights to go to and then finding them! I love the little maps that are shown for the various shrines. At Franciscan University's campus in Austria, this book in particular is very popular, because it tells about the history of the place and how to find it. If you know a Catholic who is going to Europe and wants to visit shrines, then I highly recommend this book.

My brother and I both lived in Europe (in different places) and we both used this book extensively. The book unabled us to visit shrines that otherwise we would not have known existed. The book was easy to use and included the history of each shrine, directions on how to get there, where to stay and how to contact the shrine. There is also a picture of each shrine, with made it easy to choose which shrines we wanted to see. Our stay in Europe was greatly enriched by the use of this book.

The recipient was very pleased with this book. The large type was ideal for those well into the golden years.

Great heart warming stories. This is my second copy. Gave the first one to a special friend

Bought book for my 88 year old mother. The large print enables her to read and the great stories and the humor kept her interested in this book. She really injoyed this book and now I have started reading it also and find it to be delightful.

It will bring tears to your eyes ... from many touching stories and a couple that will make you laugh til you cry.

Easy to read ... thought provoking, entertaining. Open the book anywhere and find a interesting, heart warming story.

Some stories will make you appreciate your blessings, some will make you look at life a little differently and some will just entertain you.

Something for everyone.

My mom bought me chicken soup for the kids, preteen and preteen 2's soul. I fell in love with the series. Well, my Grams and Grandpa's anniversery was coming up so I thought a rose bouquet, a card, and a chicken soup book would be perfect. I looked for a chicken soup book that would be for 60+ people and I found this! It's just great. But one thing thats not true: Anyone can read this and enjoy it! I am just a kid and I liked it. My grandparents definetly liked it. I recommend this book for everybody!

I don't write many reviews, but I had to say something for this title. Within 48 hours of receiving this book (along with "Hardening Cisco Routers" also from O'Reilly) I had put some of these recipes into production.

I even find that I can read each chapter like a study or reference guide due to its excellent structure. The first few recipes of each chapter are very basic and explain the concept of what you are trying to achieve. However the author clearly states that the basic solution is either full of pitfalls or security holes. The following recipes cover each pitfall or hole until the last recipe, usually titled 'Putting it All Together', is a full fledged, practical solution with no theory.

The theory and study guides should take some cues from this book, and begin really teaching real-world networking.

ONE WARNING - This book covers working with routers primarily. "Cisco Router Cookbook" would be a more apt title. However I have applied some of the VPN router concepts to Pix firewall configurations.

Mr. Dooley, where is the Cisco Switching Cookbook!!??

As a telecommunications engineer I've read a lot of Cisco books and this is by far one of my favorites. The format: (problem - solution - discussion) really helps tie in the theory with the reality. It is well indexed and I found the discussion sections to be particularly well written and illuminating. I go back to this book time and time again and I am looking forward to purchasing the latest edition. Although not really intended as a study guide for certification I nevertheless found it helpful in clarifying concepts that other books could not. When you're ready to get your hands dirty in a Cisco router this is the book to take with you.

This is a great reference for anyone who supports Cisco routers, BUT... some of the sections are out of date, for example, the section on QOS. Also, a section that needs to be added is MPLS. I would buy a new version just for these two enhancements! Hopefully it is being updated right now and we'll see a new printing this year!

If you are an administrator and you have forgotten details about a router configuration, that you need. this book will be the real lifesaver.
Basic and advanced router config have been included and all the topics are grouped and explained in a clear way.
I found Chapter 9:BGP very useful, showing a hard topic by using a easy to understand solutions.

Si eres un administrador y se te olvido detalles de una configuración, este libro realmente te ayudará.
Se han incluido configuraciones básicas y avanzadas y los temas están agrupados y se explican brevemente, pero muy claro.
Me intereso el capitulo 9 sobre BGP, en que muestra un tema difícil de entender, en una forma sencilla con ejemplos claros.

Cisco Cookbook is a a complete reference guide for field engineers and Network Administrators. The book has practically everything you need to know to competently configure cisco routers for a production environment. However, if you do not already have a working knowledge of Cisco networking technologies this book maybe over your head. For experienced Engineers and Administrators, the book is a must have for your desk reference.

Thomas Villarubia
CCNA CCNP