Standards Books

As an author of technical books I am especially critical of the delivery of technical information - especially when covering topics that can be heavily theoretical. Iljitsch van Beljnum's book on IPv6 provides an excellent balance between theory and practice. It introduces the IPv6 protocol and how to run it. It provides real-life examples of the protocol in action and how it can be used with a variety of applications. It particularly addresses the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, myths about IPv6, routing and DNS. It also importantly covers changes in IP protocol security as a result of the introduction of IPv6.

If you're looking at moving to IPv6 or if you are simply interested in how it is run, routes, and interacts with operating systems and applications then I strongly recommend this book.

'Running IPv6' by Iljitsch van Beijnum is an essential reference for any IT people who are looking to:

1. Upgrade from IPv4
2. Learn more about the IPv6 standard
3. Want to configure and set up IPv6

This book covers Windows, Mac, Free BSD, Linux, Cisco routers, DNS and bind... the whole shebang

Not written for a novice, this book assumes that you have knowledge of IP-related material and are not reading this book simply for "vacation reading". In a niche market this book scales its way to the top of the moutain.

Great resource!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

When I read and reviewed O'Reilly's IPv6 Network Administration by Niall Richard Murphy and David Malone, I called their book "a must-have book for all network administrators." Upon seeing Apress' Running IPv6 by Iljitsch van Beijnum, I wondered if I would waste my time reading and reviewing another book on IPv6. Now I'm glad I digested Running IPv6 -- it's my first must-read book of 2006. The books are complementary, so I recommend them both.

Three years ago I read and reviewed van Beijnum's book on BGP, which I liked while thinking it was somewhat terse. In Running IPv6, van Beijnum strikes the proper balance between explanatory language and technical details. Every chapter in the new book taught me something useful. In Ch 1 I liked comparisons involving IPv4, IPv6, IPX, DECnet, AppleTalk, and OSI CLNP. In Ch 2 I enjoyed sections on using 48 bit MAC addresses in IPv6 addresses. Ch 3 featured tips on the "on-link" assumption. As would be expected in a book by a BGP expert, Ch 4 provided lots of guidance on routing IPv6. Ch 5 included history on the evolution of DNS for IPv6, with RFCs 1886 and 2874 competing for primacy.

Ch 6 covered issues that applications might encounter when handling IPv6. Ch 7 introduced the "HD ratio," which estimates the point at which the effort required to manage increasingly "used-up" address space suggests that expanding it would be more efficient. Ch 8 mentioned the headaches caused by automatically generated, multiple MAC addresses for IPv6 multicast. Ch 9 scared me with use of the multicast ping for host discovery. Ch 10 was the first time I saw an effort to show how to use Tcpdump with IPv6.

I had no real issues with Running IPv6. I found a few production errors and typos that can be fixed in later printings. All are obvious, except the use of the word "maximum" in the first sentence of the last paragraph on p. 153. (I think that should be "minimum.")

Like IPv6 Network Administration, I liked van Beijnum's attention to command syntax for multiple OS' -- especially FreeBSD. He even covered Cisco and Juniper in the same book. Since I suggest reading the O'Reilly and Apress titles, I recommend reading the former first and the latter second. Van Beijnum's book is best read by those with a little more exposure to IPv6, but it can certainly stand alone if need be.

If you plan to ever have anything to do with IPv6, you must buy van Beijnum's latest book. Bravo.

I've have been working on an IPv6 lab and Running IPv6 is a great reference for setting up OS and router configurations. Excellent material in a short compact format with no bull or filler. I have to say this is the best IPv6 book I have read so far. It is also the most up to date of the books considering all the RFC changes that happen for IPv6.
If you are looking for something that is clear and to the point about how to USE IPv6 then this is it. There are plenty of other books out there that go into the theory and design which might be better suited for studying (Joseph Davies - Understanding IPv6 or Regis Desmeules - Implementing Cisco IPv6 Networks) but if you want to get an IPv6 network running NOW then Iljitsch van Beijnum book is for you. Kudos for writing a great practical IPv6 book.
- Ed Horley

IPv6 has been brooded over for a decade by various Internet groups. This book shows its present incarnation. It has grown very sophisticated; well beyond a simple vast expansion of the address space from 32 bits to 128 bits. So the text talks about the various tunnelling and routing options that become possible under it, that are unavailable under IPv4.

Yet to me the most interesting section of the book is the chapter on transitioning from IPv4 [the current Internet] to IPv6. Every other technical issue about IPv6 pales in comparison to this quandry. The author gives the best value in the book in this chapter. He shows firstly that IPv4 will inevitably exhaust its space. Though he prudently refrains from speculating when that might be. The transition must also be incremental. No one expects a swift global change to be realistic.

Then he explains that the modes of transition come down to analysing only 4 communication models for most common web usage. Namely email, Web browsing and two types of peer-to-peer usage. Examples of the latter are VoIP and BitTorrent.

From the models, we see the necessity for using a proxy or address translation to handle the transition. An especially clear analysis.

After my baby was born, I knew I wanted to save for her college. I read this book and another 529 book. This book was ok. I got more information from the 529 for Dummies book. It walked me through the college savings process, explained how to get college financing, and listed all the 529 companies to go with for each state. It decussed tax issues as well. This is not an easy read for someone that does not have a clue about 529's (Me).

David Braverman's book is a great help in understanding how to finance a college education. It gives families the financial knowledge they need to plan and choose wisely for the future. This book cuts through all the confusion and is clear and easy to read. It's a wonderful guide and resource for all families investing in college.

Successfully finding a book regarding how to save for college depends heavily on the background of the reader. I am mathematically adept (majored in economics) and not a novice regarding buying and selling securities (but I don't go short or do derivatives directly). I needed a book that contains strategies that incorporate the current version of the tax code and investment basics. After some false starts (see some of my other reviews for these), I found this book to be a delight. Finally, somewhat unusual for me, I am keeping this book for future reference even after reading it.

David Braverman, a senior director at Standard & Poor's, looks at how financial aid can be part of your savings plan, how to use 529 and Coverdell plans effectively, and the new tax benefits available. For people who are serious about preparing for one of the major expenditures of their entire lives, this is one of the books you need to read early on. Definitely worth a read.

Tom Nixon
Cheap College Degrees website
http://www.cheapdegrees.com

I own and run a small investment firm and this book is what we give our clients to read. We also train our brokers and advisors with this book (among others). Of course, plans and details change constantly, but we feel this is a more than adequate book that's pretty straight and to the point on information for the average person.

I get the feeling they were trying to be "politically correct" in mentioning a lot of plans and ideas on how to save without trying to piss of mutual funds and other managers though. So many states have weird plans that allow little choice to the consumer besides 3 choices. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish they didn't pull punches and really reviewed and said what they really thought sometimes :-)

This book was ideal for the marketing project I was trying to come up with. I ended up using three of the art works for one project. It enables someone to get the idea and then build upon it. Once I have used all the ideas, I hope the publisher comes out with an update.

After having seen this book used by a PTO member, I couldn't wait to order it! Many great ideas for teacher/Sunday school teacher gifts.
A must for all PTO Presidents to have!!!

Bought this book at the suggestion of another Girl Scout Leader in another area of the country...it's a PERFECT book for anyone who works with Volunteers! Simply xerox the pages as shown, and add a small snack tem, listed in the front of the book! The puns may make you cringe a bit, but your volunteers will appreciate the thought, and it WILL make them smile!
(Some items need adapting for non-church volunteers)

This clever book has 70 pages to reproduce, add a treat, and give to a teacher or volunteer to express appreciation. As an example, a message might be "You were MINT to be here", to be given to a volunteer along with an Andes mint, or "We can tell your students love learning about Jesus by their Snickers", to be given along with a Snickers bar. A very cute way to say "thank you"!

Susan was my neighbor growing up so that made this book especially exciting. It has great ideas for volunteers or workers as we call them. We've used almost every suggestion in there for all sorts of activities... Sunday school, Sunday evening discipleship, VBS.. and lots more. Kids love to get them as well! Highly recommend this book.

It's kind of a catch 22. You can write the best web copy but if your website loads slowly no one will stick around to read it. But how can you make your site stand out, while keeping the loading times reasonable?

Fortunately, Website Optimizing shows the average person how they can have full website optimization. Now you don't have to make a choice. You can have a quick loading website that looks professional and still create great web copy that demands attention.

I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by Website Optimizing. I expected it to be heavy on optimizing code and graphics. I never really expected this book to discuss web copy. Putting the two types of information together makes perfect sense.

This book does more than talk about the basics of SEO. It dives into topics that go well beyond the `technical' aspects (e.g., keywords, titles, etc) and talks about persuasive language, fast load times and engaging websites. Once I saw this, I was very intrigued and told Andy that I'd be happy to review the book.

I'm glad I said yes. The book is excellent...and from what I've seen, it is THE book on Website Optimization. Gone are the days of scouring the web for bits and pieces of info on how to optimize....this book contains it all.

Unlike most other books in this genre, this book is much more than just an overview of the concepts of website optimization. Detailed descriptions, case studies and in-depth discussions of the `why, what and how' of optimization are provided to allow the reader to immediately take action with their own websites.

For those of you interested in the entire spectrum of website optimization (i.e., page load times, search engine friendliness, optimization techniques etc), this is the book for you. I expect that this book will be THE website optimization book for years to come.

I sometimes marvel at how much certain authors can pack into a few hundred pages. That's certainly the case here.

Up to now, when people asked me about doing better with their websites, I'd refer them to a small stack of books and a few more web resources to get them started. With this, I won't need to: everything they need to know is here in one place.

I liked that he uses real examples and isn't afraid of code. Too many books in this genre are either all code or ignore it entirely.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and will be recommending it to others.

Andy has written a very thorough, very detailed, relentlessly practical book about how to make incremental changes to your website that you can measure and prove to improve its performance and (most importantly) to increase your effectiveness and profits from internet commerce.

This book is detail oriented and presents a very methodical approach towards web development as a path of continuous improvement, continuous measurement, and cumulative advantage from focusing on the precise details that matter. Andy is on top of his game and is sharing his techniques - a sure winner.

Andy King scored a big hit in 2003 with his first book 'Speed Up Your Site'. It's a guide which still has its own live web site where you can analyse the effectiveness of your web pages. This latest magnum opus goes way beyond that in scope and depth.

It's a guide to maximising every aspect of a website and its performance.It's an amazingly practical manual, with page after page of ideas, suggestions, and strategies for getting your pages more widely known and read. On the whole, it's not too technical, and he supplies snippets of code only when necessary. All the tips are within the grasp of anyone who is used to running a web site, and along the way he explains the principles of search engine optimization (SEO) as well as briefing you on how SEs treat your site.

This is an up-to-date account of how search engines such as Yahoo and Google rank your pages and deal with search requests. He also presents real-life case studies in which he shows 'before and after' makeovers of professional sites. These are most instructive in that the 'before' pages look attractive and professional enough - until their underlying weaknesses are analysed and rectified. The improvements give what are claimed as up to fifty times more site visitors per day, and in the case of a cosmetic dentist the need to employ more staff and move to bigger offices in Philadelphia.

The first half of the book deals with search engine marketing optimization, which can be expensive as one enters the world of paid advertising. But the second concentrates on things which anyone can do and afford - making pages smaller, lighter, and faster by trimming off the surplus fat. In an age of faster and faster broadband connections, web users are simply not prepared to wait more than a couple of seconds for a page to appear - so you've got to make important pages lean and speedy:Web page optimization streamlines your content to maximise display speed. Fast display speed is the key to success with your website. It increases profits, decreases costs, and improves customer satisfaction (not to mention search engine rankings, accessibility, and maintainability).

All of these issues are dealt with in detail - and I particularly liked the fact that he was prepared to repeat some of the techniques when they occurred in different contexts. It's not always easy to grasp some of these technologies in one simple pass. Especially as - in the case of optimizing images - he explains no less than sixteen possibilities for cutting file size and speeding up downloads.He's also keen on the optimization of style sheets and shows an amazing variety of techniques for creating what he calls 'CSS Architecture'. Here too there are no less than ten strategies explained which offer cleaner, tighter, coding and the use of structural markup to beat browser peculiarities and rendering delays.

Most of his explanations are clearly articulated, but occasionally he lapses into less than elegant repetition and jargon, which could deter the inexperienced:

"By converting old-style nonsemantic markup into semantic markup, you can more easily target noncontiguous elements with descendant selectors."

Fortunately, this sort of thing only happens occasionally. There are some very nifty tricks for creating buttons and rollover techniques using style sheets, which saves the time to download a graphic files button, and thus once again speeds up page rendering.

He puts in two chapters on advanced web performance and optimizing JavaScipt and Ajax on your site which I have to admit went beyond my technical competence. But then it's back to terra firma with understanding the metrics of your site's performance - that is, knowing how to analyse the statistical data returned by website analysers such as Google's Analytics and WebTrends. I've never been able to understand before what page 'bounce rate' was until it was explained here - and I was astonished when I saw the results from some of my own pages!

As the search for more detailed information and for planning campaigns goes on - so the process becomes more like a science. There are graphs and formulae scattered around these pages to prove this. It's the same for Pay Per Click advertising (PPC). All I can say is that if you are in this league, Andy King is your friend, and his advice is here thick on the ground to help you.

This is an update to the earlier book that was also excellent. The authors provide a very good baseline for how mobility works through IS-41D/ANSI-41C. It is a must have book for those in the wireless arena.

Un excelente libro del protocolo IS-41, gradual en su presentación. No entra al detalle de los bytes. Mantiene un muy buen nivel, con claros ejemplos. He preparado un buen curso de este protocolo a partir de este y otros libros

I just read the authentication chapter, and I just left behind all my doubts about authentication. Anyway not just the Auth Chapter is excelent but the whole book.

This is a great IS-41 book. It is very instructional(going over the IS-41 protcol) and also as a reference(to view call flows for different features). This is a must for anyone involved with IS-41.

Highly recommended book for IS-41... the networking standard between AMPS, TDMA and CDMA switches, HLR and VLRs. I'm relieved there's a book out there which explains everything in layman's term, yet goes through enough details to give a great grasp of the important concepts of mobile networking.

The authors give a great background of mobile telecommunications, the making of the IS-41 standard, mobility management, call processing (and most of the important feature procesing), and SMS. Concepts like authentication and mobile roaming are covered quite well.

The basic format of each section remains the same, so it's easy to follow. If you really want the details, like the IS-41 parameters, it's not in this book, but that's when you go to the actual standards document!

Kudos to Michael Gallagher and Randall Snyder for an awesome book!

Book is straight forward. Easy to read/follow. I had created HTML pages in the past. It was easy to migrate to WML. The scripting discussion (WMLScript) was very valuable.

The book presents working programs you will actually use:

Interacting with remote scirpts (Perl, ASP)
Validating forms using WMLScript
Dealing with limited RAM
Error detection and handling

Recommend.

Got me started within my first application in minutes. Book covers WML and WMLScript in detail. Includes some Perl scripts that let you interact with a remote server with your phone. Pretty cool. Would like to see some PHP -- maybe next edition.

I just added this book to my collection of WAP/WML titles.

I was pleased with the amount of code this book provides--probably 200+ WORKING programs. I've been able to make all of them work in the phone simulator and on my phone! That's a nice change.

If you are starting out, the intro chapters will get you up and running. If you have been doing this a while, cutting and pasting the book's code will save you time with things like interacting with Perl.

Recommend.

It's a good start, but it does go very slowly. You need to supplement it with WAP Integration immediately afterward if you want to get into any really advanced aspects of WAP. Experienced developers may even want to jump straight to the WAP Integration book.

This is a refreshing edition with the white paper and clear print. The old ones are yellowed and just plain tired. I don't sing unless they want "tree frogs" in the group. I really purchased this to leave at the church for ayone to use.

The item ordered though advertised as "used" was in A -1 condition and the order was shipped promptly.

This is the Hymnal used in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA)from 1940 until 1982. It is reflective of the classic and traditional orthodoxy of that period. Though the hymnal has been replaced in ECUSA it is still used by many traditional jurisdictions of Anglicans in the United States. Some of the tunes are unfamilar and difficult to follow for those who are only acquainted with contemporary church music. However,any added effort on the part of the learner is rewarded in the richness of the recovery of these classic tunes. The theology is vibrant and sound. The binding of the volume is durable and the type is clear and readable. The 1940 Hymnal is a sound investment for any church or individual who desires to regain familiarity with traditional Protestant hymnody. For many of us in the "buster generation" these hymns have provided a connection with the transcendent we were looking for. Well worth the purchase.

This hymnal is replete with example after example of the best, most beautiful, most intelligent congregational music Christendom has to offer, from ancient to modern. Happy is the church that sings these songs of praise and affirmation.

Were you a choirboy? Did you get a copy of your hymnal or prayer book for perfect attandance at Sunday School? For two generations since the middle of World War II, the prize for many Episcopal choirboys was this book, The Hymnal 1940. Most hymnals are serious works of scholarship: laboriously constructed by a committee appointed by the church to review, revise, edit and augment its previous hymnals, they are then condemned to perpetual scrutiny and comment by its users. This hymnal was no exception; indeed, the similarly sized "Hymnal Companion," which dilated at length on each hymn, was published along with it. Now superseded by the 1982 version, it is still considered a masterpiece and superior in several respects to its successor, in particular for its legibility, certain of its texts, and its inclusion of some hymns dropped in 1982. By then the Hymnal 1940 had been augmented to over 700 hymns and 160 pieces of service music. It contains several indexes by which a hymn can be located in several different ways, including the useful "metrical index," not a feature of every hymnal. The music ranges in age from the earliest years of the Christian era right up to the 1930's; so you will find most of your favorite classical composers represented. If you have other hymnals, you should have this one. If you don't, this is about the best place to start.

I read this book 20 years ago and still consider it one of my very favorites. It is so good to see that it is still in print. I'll just add a bit more to what the other reviewers at amazon have said. This book was a favorite of Picasso, and it's easy to understand why. Huysmans was the ultimate modern artist, and had he not become a writer he would have assuredly become a painter. Des Esseintes decorates the shell of a living tortoise with jewels and colored glass so that the light, reflected off the roving gems, accentuates the colors of the room, adding continuous and subtle variation. Now that is a sense of color! His heighten senses go further to invent new art forms: a perfume organ, for instance. Des Essentes, is also a bit of a sadist. He conducts social experiments, turning innocent ordinary working class youths into criminals by cultivating within them a taste of luxury. By the way, if you can, try obtaining a copy of the book with Arthur Zaidenberg's illustrations; they are an exquisite addition. Huysmans other books are also worth reading, especially Down There (la-Bas), a book about 19th century French Satanism that nicely weaves stories about the extreme Medieval sadist, Gilles de Rais, whom Huysmans portrays as an aesthete much like Des Esseintes. Both books are gems.

Des Esseintes, the protagonist (and basically the only character) of this book, is a man of noble descent who has tried everything in life: he has mingled with the frivolous and found them vulgar and empty-headed. He has lived among the intellectuals and found them petulant and arrogant. He is tired of life, especially in these (his) vulgar and superficial times. So he sells a number of properties and buys a house in the countryside. His idea is to reject everything that is "natural" and concentrate on art and artifice. He lives in complete solitude, barely interrupted by a couple of silent servants. He spends much time choosing the colors, the furniture and the pictures for his house. Along the book we are witnesses to his tastes in a number of realms, such as painting, literature, flowers, perfumes and music. Sometimes it seems to be just a long catalogue of sophisticated, rare and decadent pieces. This book is a big fantasy of reclusion, of elegancy, of sophistication. Give yourself some time and be an eccentric for a day. If you read it with a sense of humor, you'll find an enjoyable piece of French décadentisme, certainly on the periphery of the Western Canon, but representative of a way to view life.

Its atmosphere is very Gothic, gloomy, silent and full of beautiful things. The main character is a bit of a lunatic, but his bored and irritable personality has a touch of glamour. If you sometimes feel filled up with the world, if you sometimes fantasize about winning the lottery and then buying a big house full of the things you love, a place to retire and reject society and all its annoying and ugly characteristics, then you will find this book a very cool way of retiring from the world.

It really doesn't surprise me that this novel has been reviewed by only one person at this site. What a statement about the reading patterns of present-day culture! From my teens through my twenties, I snatched up every Penguin Classic I could find on the bookshelves in NYC and San Francisco. I guess I just came up in a different literary milieu. This novel was one of the true gems that I encountered at that time. This is probably the seminal avante-garde novel. It's hero, Des Esseintes, is basted on Absinthe (or hashish) half the time and his life is one prolongued hallucination. The author takes the reader so intricately into the main character's life, that we are living alongside him, absorbed in his decadence. We are invited to his parties (which rival Trimalchio's), are absorbed in his fantasies (which rival Fellini's)and basically are tripping with him in his unique and solipsistic universe. Oscar Wilde described this as the strangest work of fiction he had ever come across. Though not a great Wilde fan, I couldn't agree with him more on that point.

This review is a copy of one I wrote for 'A Rebours' under its alternative title - 'Against Nature'. Perhaps it will be useful to readers of 'Against the Grain' - and act as a vector to the other reviews of this novel under the alternative title.

This is an extraordinarily self-indulgent work, a tirade by the author against all those sensual things that we enrich our lives with - food, wine, literature, religion, music, travel ..... And yet, in the end, the hero of the story, Des Esseintes, fails in his attempt to isolate himself and cocoon himself in all these things he treasures so much - he becomes ill and has to abandon the attempt. So why does this 'novel' work? It is a very strange one, but it is certainly a novel(ty), perhaps even a nova! Is it the fluidity of the writing (and the translation I read by Margaret Mauldon)? Is it the content that connects in so many ways, in so many directions? For me there was a special fascination although the basis for me as I had lived my life was totally different to Des Esseintes. His experience was a withdrawal from the world after extravagant and self-damaging, self-indulgence. For me, I had imagined doing exactly what Des Esseintes did (but my life turned in a different direction), but my basis had been one of rigorous but perhaps equally self-damaging, self-denial. Would the outcome have been different? I can only speculate but I suspect not. I think Huysmans is right on the money!

Des Esseintes, the protagonist of Against the Grain (A Rebours), is, without a doubt, literature's ultimate social dropout. Dissatisfied with the limitations of the natural world, he hides from human society, constructing his life so that even his own servants are invisible to him.

While looking at others with disdain (and this is putting it mildly!), Des Esseintes's opinion of himself grows ever higher until he has "no hope of linking up with a mind which, like his own, took pleasure in a life of studious decrepitude; no hope of associating an intelligence as sharp and wayward as his own with that of an author or scholar."

Just as Des Esseintes eschews the natural, he embraces the artificial. In an early chapter, he chooses the colors for his country house near Paris based on their appearance under artificial light. He comes to the conclusion that one can obtain a satisfactory sea bath at home because "without stirring out of Pris it is possible to obtain the health-giving impression of sea-bathing...for all this involves is a visit to the Bain Vigier, an establishment to be seen down on a pontoon moored in the middle of the Seine."

Eventually, Des Esseintes moves beyond mere artifice and seeks to remove from his life the natural in all its aspects. When he becomes unable to ingest food orally, he feeds himself through enemas and finds this method far superior.

Des Esseintes's realm of artifice soon becomes his only god. He is safe in his virtuality, enjoying travel without risks, lust without passion and social interaction only with imagined beings.

The heart and soul of Against the Grain is really the debate between nature and artifice and man's role as the creator of his own universe. Des Esseintes is the ultimate aesthete; a man whose desire to obliterate the natural is transformed into the limitless experience of artistic creation.

Against the Grain represents typical French decadent literature in which the whole is subordinate to the parts. It must be understood that decadence in literature is an aesthetic, rather than a moral conception; the opposite of classicism, in which each part must subordinate itself to the enhancement of the whole. Each has its virtures, and in order to appreciate one to the fullest, we must learn to understand and appreciate the other.

Against the Grain may well be the greatest novel to emerge from the French decadent experience, and it has exerted much influence over later writers. It is the fullest, most detailed account of the search for artifice, a search that is particularly akin to today's virtual world of cyberspace. As such, Against the Grain is more relevant than ever and should be highly recommended, even required, reading.

This was a great purchase as Bibles go. I gave it as a gift to my father, who is a retired Air Force veteran. Here are some things I observed:

Great Things:
- Has a Bible for each branch
- Great resources in the back, like prayers of famous leaders like Patton
- Attractive, small, and easy to read
- The translation is great: it is both easy to read and accurate

Not-So-Great Things:
- Not a lot of study guides and comments in the margins (it is compact)
- Not a lot of space for writing notes

Overall, I recommend it, particularly as a gift for someone else. I would also recommend giving it to someone who is not a Christian if they are associated with the military.

This is the nicest looking bible I have ever purchased. It includes Air Force specific passages in the back.

This is a great present. I bought it for my brother in the Air Force and who is currently serving in the Middle East. It is compact enough to fit in the cargo pocket of his uniform and it's leather, so it durable.

I pray all involved in war read this book, especially the lines in red, to realize war brings only deep sin, death, immorality, lust, injustice, oppression, and eternal and infinite distance from our great God of Love and of Peace whom we find through the blessed word of Jesus Christ, here printed in red. Love one another as I have loved you. Love thy enemy.

I pray each soldier reads this book and weeps, and beats his arms into plowshares, to build peace and feed the children instead of slaughtering them and leaving them orphan, maimed. Saint James the greater writes that religion pure and simple is caring for widows and orphans in their distress, not creating widows and orphans and their distress.

I pray every soldier may read this Good Book and take it to heart and change their ways and study war no more.

Take and read, for this is His Body.

It is not a license to kill.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not lie.

Love thy enemy.
Turn the other cheek.
To whomsoever asks your coat give your shirt as well.
Do for others what you want them to do for you.
Love one another.
Repent and follow the divine word which leads unto life, not killing and imperialist warfare for oil.

Please read as well:
Pacem in Terris Peace on Earth Encyclical Letter of Pope John XXIII, On the Development of Peoples, Populorum Progresio., Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response a Pastoral Letter on War and Peace (Publication / Office of Publishing and Promotion Services, U), Jesus the Rebel: Bearer of God's Peace and Justice, Disarming the Heart: Toward a Vow of Nonviolence, Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance, etc. But best just read this book especially the lines in red and learn why we must study war no more, but to love our enemy, who is our neighbor, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

This is a great item to present to a person leaving for Basic Training. It is a very high quality Bible, yet small so it can be easily stowed. The slide-tab closure keeps the Bible shut, which is nice when being carried to on-base services or while traveling. The special sections are very encouraging to a service person. I have purchased three of these Bibles (for my son, my daughter, and my daughter-in-law who are in the USAF).

Like Christmas being commercialized.....so has Easter. This is such a great way to give the Easter bunny a place in the True and wonderful gift Easter gives the World.

This book is excellent in content, however it is a boardbook, which was not in the description. I bought it to use with a group of preschoolers, which was kind of hard to do because the pictures are so small, it being a boardbook, not a picture book for sharing with a class. The content is appropriate for preschool, and the primary grades and is EXCELLENT.

What a terrific story! This book truly encompasses all the "fun" Easter traditions of egg hunts and baskets of chocolatey treats, etc., while finishing with an enthusiastic and upbeat description of the true meaning of the season - Jesus and His love for us! It would have been *perfect* if the darling illustrations had included a boy more prominently...even so, my 2 boys loved it!

I was introduced to this book last week and I am very glad I was. It is a wonderful book that is all about Easter. Easter eggs, Easter candy, Easter animals, Easter clothes, Easter Sunday at church,Easter everything. It says that all these things are fun and OK, But the best thing about Easter is JESUS. We have Easter because of Jesus. Jesus died for our sins, But He did not stay dead. He rose on the first Easter. He did this because He loves you and me. What a wonderful message for kids (and adults). This would be a great book to read anytime of the year. Not just at Easter.

This book helps recount my favorite things about Easter growing up, but concludes with what I have come to realize is truly the BEST thing about Easter. Each page of the story builds in excitement as it describes the FUN things we should like about Easter (dyeing and hunting for eggs, candy, animals, springtime, dressing up, and going to church on Easter Sunday) but, repeatedly indicates that these things aren't the BEST thing about Easter. "The very BEST THING about Easter is... Jesus... God's own Son!" The story of God's planned death and resurrection of Jesus are described simply and summarized nicely: Because Jesus loves us. I highly recommend this book for teaching the "true meaning" of Easter to children, whether it be your own family, or a group of children at church, Bible classes or an Easter egg hunt. The pictures are sweet, and the way handwritten words are interspersed throughout the story help build the excitement and fun. It is written from the perspective of a little girl telling the story.