Programs Books

Before he went on to invent Cybernetics, L. Ron Hubbard was a prominent author of science fiction and eventually launched annual collections of science fiction and fantasy drawn from the best and the brightest in the field. The newest addition to the L. Ron Hubbard "Writers Of The Future" series is volume 18, ably compiled and edited by long time science fiction expert Algis Budrys and highly recommended reading for any fantasy fan and science fiction enthusiast. Included in this outstanding anthology are: The Dragon Cave (Drew Morby); The Haunted Seed (Ray Roberts); Rewind (David D. Levine); Windseekers (Nnedi Okorafor); Magic Out Of A Hat (L. Ron Hubbard); Lost On The Road (Ari Goelman); Graveyard Tea (Susan Fry); Carry The God (Lee Battersby); A Few Tips On The Craft Of Illustration (H. R. Van Dongen); Memoria Technica (Leon J. West); Free Fall (Tom Brennan); All Winter Long (Jae Brim); The Art Of Creation (Carl Frederick); Advice To The New Writer (Andre Norton); The Road To Levenshir (Patrick Rothfuss); Eating, Drinking, Walking (Dylan Otto Krider); Origami Cranes (Seppo Kurki); A New Anthology (Tim Powers); Worlds Apart (Woody O. Carsky-Wilson); Prague 47 (Joel Best); and What Became Of The King (Aimee C. Amodeo). L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers Of The Future, Volume XVIII concludes with "The Year In Contests" by Algis Budrys and "Contest Information".

WotF XIX is a compilation of excellent stories (with a few, notable exceptions) spanning the genre range from historical fiction through horror and fantasy to science fiction. Despite the ever-present copy-editing errors, this was a very good read.

I would put the stories in four categories of excellence (well, three of excellence and one of crap).

Group One: The best

Walking Rain - Ian Keane's tale of supernatural beings in present day America, reminiscent (but not derivative) of American Gods, is compelling. The writing is lush, the characterizations beautiful. Hands down the best of the best. I can't say enough about this story. The book is worth buying for this story alone.

Into The Gardens of Sweet Night - Algis Budrys weaves a fairy tale-like tapestry of words as a boy takes a fantastic journey into the sky looking for the fabled gardens. Sometimes the discussions on freedom get a bit thick, but still great.

Blood and Horses - Myke Cole brings us a story of military sf where rebels riding horses seek the oil that gives life, losing their own blood fighting against a technically far superior opponent.

Group Two: The very excellent (in no particular order)

From All the Work Which He Had Made - Michael Churchman's style is strikingly odd at first, but within a page he had made me a convert with this interesting tale about the development of a humanoid robot exploring the questions of his soul.

Dark Harvest - Geoffrey Girard brings us a story about what happens when you find your worst nightmare dying in a field, and it becomes a tourist attraction. Excellent writing, and a wonderful story.

Beautiful Singer - Steve Bein's story of a haunted sword is elegant in its way of presenting feudal Japanese culture and characters. Every word of this story echoes with the culture of the samurai. The only thing holding back this most savory of writing from the top slot was the way the ending rushed together (a common difficulty in short-story writing).

A Few Days North of Vienna - Brandon Butler takes us along as a band of thieves join up with a group of vampire hunters to eradicate those evil creatures. The plot is nothing new or innovative, but the writing is top notch, and that's more important anyway.

Group Three: The still excellent (still in no particular order)

A Ship That Bends - whatever Butler lacked in innovation, Luc Reid makes up for in spades with his characters who live on a flat world and must build a bending ship if they wish to sail to the other side without falling off. The ending is its great weakness, suddenly ending the story before it really reaches its climax. Fun world, great writing, but it just stops cold.

A Silky Touch to No Man - a weak ending is also the problem with Robert J. Defendi's exploration of life in the near future where virtual reality has become the only reality. For a murder mystery, it was painfully apparent "whodunit" from the very beginning. But the writing is strong and the world well conceived (almost scary, actually) which makes it fun anyway.

Gossamer - Ken Liu offers a scenario where Earth finally makes contact with an alien species, and has no idea if they can even communicate. Art seems to be the only thing the Gossamers are interested in, but what does that mean? Interesting twist on the first contact plot.

Numbers - Joel Best brings us a stark account of a world where mathematicians can do almost anything, including make animals and people. In this world one woman seeks to create the perfect mate, but learns that perfection (and creation) are about more than doing everything flawlessly.

Group Four: The stories that really don't belong

Trust Is A Child - Matthew Candelaria's overly long story of negotiations with aliens is really just a painful rehash of about a thousand other identical stories, offering no new slants or anything. That alone wouldn't make it so horrible, but the main character is painfully stupid, and the plot has a hole in it the size of a small star system (it has to do with her being stopped by Marine guards while the aliens can just cruise on by and enter her private quarters without explanation). Also, her solution to being stopped is just horrible (apparently the guard is even dumber than she is). Still, with a good edit and re-write, I think it could have been decent, so I wouldn't write off the author.

A Boy and His Bicycle - Carl Frederick offers a story about just that: a boy and his bike. They don't do anything interesting, or go anywhere fun, or give us any reason not to hope that they just crash into a bus and die. The only saving grace is that it's short and over quickly. And to think this story got first place that quarter...

Bury My Heart At the Garrick - Steve Savile takes the prize for plodding, pointlessness. This story of Houdini was confusing, but not in that good way where you want to know what's going on, more in the way where you just don't care and want to skip to the next story. I kept reading to see if it would get better (imagine a short story that took me a week to read!). It didn't.

A Boy and His Bicycle is a great story.
(I put this in so I don't continuously trip over the review by someone who apparently didn't get it. I must offer the disclaimer however, that I wrote that story. It's a subtle tale, and I'm very grateful that the judges understood it and gave it a First Place award.)

This anthology, Volume XIX, (IMO) contains richly tapestried stories, strewn with new ideas or new takes on old ones. I've no doubt that before long, many of the authors will be Hugo winners

While I do not get a chance to read much science fiction, I decided to pick up this book mainly because I enjoy short stories. And I must say that this book surprised me. There are a number of well-written, very entertaining stories in this book. There is also a good amount of variety. As more than 12 authors contribute to this book, if you are not a fan of one story, you can move onto the next. There should be four stories in this book that will captivate you. From the quality of the prose and the structure of the stories, I was at first surprised to see that these are first time authors. Now realizing that these are contest winnners from L Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest, it makes more sense. My favorites include Oragami Cranes, Eating Drinking and Walking, Windseekers, and Rewind (for it's writing style).

It's not perfect but I found this anthology very satisfying. When every single one of the stories is able to take me somewhere interesting, then the anthology is worth the money.. Favorite stories: Graveyard Tea, Windseekers, and Origami Cranes.

If I could get someone to write down everything I don't know about LotusScript and Java, it would fill a book. Well, this is that book.

Hatter and Banks aren't wordy and target this book strictly at the experienced developer looking for a reference work. That makes this incredibly useful. These days I carry this book (thankfully light despite being 700 pages) between sites all the time. The lovely posters from Lotus might list all the properties and methods, but these guys provide the details underneath it.

The remarks on each class are pertinent, yet brief (as for NotesRichTextItem, "you must call the save method of the parent Notes document to save the data to disk") They include examples not only for classes, but also occasionally for methods and properties.

Interestingly, a quick check of the index for 'Index, databases' found only a reference to the updateFTIndex method for Java Database class and not to the LotusScript NotesDatabase class, while 'Registering Users' listed the LotusScript page and not the Java one. Perhaps the editors need to work on that. Fortunately, they provide a lot of cross-references on the pages, giving you page numbers for the classes mentioned in the text, reducing the need to refer to the table of contents or the index.

The print's small, but they use fonts, abbreviations and familiar symbols to get the message across clearly.

On balance, it's well worth the (money) I paid Amazon for it - it probably saved me an hour today and none of our hours come cheap, do they?

I bought this book originally expecting a full reference to Lotus and at first was a little dissappointed that it only covered LotusScript and Java. After reading it, now it is the only reference I use for LotusScript. I too have several other books, but none give the information and detaill in an easy to read format like this book. Anything you want to know about Classes, Methods, Properties, Events, and new R5 LotusScript features are covered in this book in detail with good examples. I also like how each class has it's own contents page giving page numbers for all of the assosiated Properties, Methods, and Events for QUICK reference.

This book has minimized my LotusScript related headaches! It is a one-stop resource for methods and properties for the predefined LotusScript Classes. It is hard to believe, but ()it takes me less time to write scripts, which gives me more time to enjoy the finer things in life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, beginner or advanced.

The authors did a great job providing examples of how the properties and methods are used. I haven't written any Java yet, but when I do this book will be right by my side!

If you are new to LotusScript do not buy this book. This is a reference book for LotusScript and Java classes and a very good one at that. The developer help files can be confusing at times and it always helps to have a reference book near you.

If you are an intermediate or experienced Notes developer this is a terrific book, I have it by my desk all the time.

If you want a book to teach you LotusScript but Practical LotusScript it's great!

Exactly what I've been looking for: A no nonsense reference manual for the LotusScript and Java class libraries. Probably the most useful book a professional Notes/Domino developer can have.

My Name's Friday is an enjoyable romp through the world of Jack Webb. From his days portraying hardboiled radio detectives Pat Novak and Johnny Madero to Hollywood Success, Failure, and a big comeback, Friday takes us through the highlights and lowlights of Webb's life.

Michael J. Hayde comes to the book with a great deal of respect for Webb and his work, which is an essential element in a work such as this. Hayde's work first and foremost is a Webb fan book. He gives a synopsis of each of Webb's movies and then provides a critique of them. While appreciating Webb's contributions, Hayde spares no criticism of the late 1950s Dragnet episodes, Pete Kelly's Blues, and other less than successful Webb projects. While I don't agree with all of Hayde's criticism (I loved the "Night School" episode and he didn't), his criticisms are reasoned and measured rather than spiteful. Whatever criticism Hayde has for Webb is mild compared to the well-deserved critique he slams down on the 1987 Dragnet movie with Dan Akroyd.

If there was one criticism I'd had of Hayde's book, it was where he went from TV fan to armchair psychologist, buying Webb's statements that he didn't miss having a father around as a youth. I actually after reading the book and of Webb's difficulty letting himself act believably on screen particularly in romantic scenes, as well as history of broken marriages might not have been influenced by never having a father around. Kind of off-topic from the subject of the book, I know. However, if one is going to engage in psychology, it shouldn't be done haphazardly.

Still, the book is incredible fun as a fan resource and provides a rare glimpse at a radio and TV genius that's been typecast as a stiff clown. Read it to recapture a vital part of America's television history.

This is an excellent book. While not a true biography, it does take a look into Webb's personal life because Webb was such a workaholic that it had an effect on all that he did and who he was.

Unless you're an old time radio fan like me, you may not know that Webb started early and young. He had many outstanding shows before Dragnet and even Dragnet started in 1949 on radio. For a while, it was on both radio and television at the same time.

Webb was in many ways a brilliant man. Yet he had many failures --- both in his business life and certainly in his four marriages.

To say he was an interesting man may be an overstatement. But his body of work is so extensive, that one has to be impressed.

I started to become interested in Webb when looking for metaphors for my own writing. I didn't want to use stuff that everyone knew. And I kept hearing them on his old radio shows --- especially the ones written by the incredible Richard Breen.

I liked Webb's delivery and unemotional approach to acting. In most people, that would be considered bad acting. But somehow with Webb it was something special.

This book makes Webb and his entire career, his stock of actors and his many incarnations come to life. While his life was short, he accomplished so much.

Dragnet started on radio in 1949 and still today, in 2007, I know of no one who doesn't know what it means to hear, dum - de-dum -dum. And few people do not know of Dragnet and at least seen it on television. To me, that's amazing.

This book dwelt mostly with Webb's body of work and not his personal life or his personality. It does deal with it to some extent. But if you're interested mostly in that area of Webb's life, you might prefer another book.

The book has an excellent and exhaustive appendix that included a list, along with dates and other valuable information on each show on both radio and television. The appendix also includes other valuable informations. Well worth saving.

For Dragnet fans and Webb fans or those who are interested in radio and/or television history, this is a must-read. Oh, it has lots of great photos too.

Highly recommended.

I found this book to be an OK read. The only problem I had was that toward the end the tone of the writing shifted as the author sought to be a Jack Webb apologist. There are excuses made for the way the Dragnet of the 60s portrayed drug users, and there's almost an indignant tone taken over Dragnet spoofs such as the Dan Ackroyd film and even Nick at Nite promos!

The reason the Dragnet of the 60s became such a ripe ground for spoofing (besides the rapid fire patter) was indeed the portrayal of drug users. The series basically equated marijuana use with LSD and heroin, which is a laughable premise. The author's defense of the "Blue Boy" episode was particularly humorous. I remember seeing one of the participants of the drug party in that show actually physically trying to climb the walls. Talk about heavy-handed and unintentionally funny!

That said, I still found the book worthwhile reading, I'm a fan of Dragnet, both for Jack Webb's innovative style of shooting and the campy humor. It was interesting discovering things about Webb's radio show and some of his films that I had not previously known. I was easily able to overcome any minor annoyances with the tone shifting at the end.

I bought this book expecting fluff based on the reviews. I am a big fan of Dragnet the radio show but did not think the book would cover much of it in depth. I was wrong. Although it spends more time discussing the television series and movies, I was happy with the information on the radio show.

This book details the Dragnet radio show, both Dragnet television shows, and Mark VII movies. It does this through the central person in all of these productions, Jack Webb. However, the reader also learns about the regulars on the shows, and we get to know a bit about them as well.

"My Name's Friday" does not claim to be a biography on Webb and if that is what you are looking for, this is the wrong book for you. If you are looking for a bio of Jack Webb, there are many other books that you would probably enjoy more. However, If you are interested in the multiple incarnations of Dragnet and Pete Kelly's Blues, this is the book for you.

In addition to the main text, the appendixes include titles and brief descriptions of each Dragnet radio and television show in addition to police terms used in the shows and movies.

This is a must if you are collecting the radio shows, original TV series, or the '67-'70 version. A lot of the 50's series is on DVD, but they are scattered on all sorts of compilations. This book helps keep track of what you've got. I particularly enjoyed hearing from the extras that Webb used religiously.

But beyond Dragnet, there's a lot of interesting stuff here, how Webb was a jazz nut, including his foray into recording with his spoken-word "You're My Girl" album.

I think it's very interesting how he worked with ex-wife and her husband on Emergency! Many paramedics credit Emergency! with inspiring them to join this service. He obviously loved police and emergency services and his hometown. It makes you wonder, if Webb had lived, what his creative reaction to say the LA riots and the OJ trial would have been.

This book is an excellent read start to finish. Topics are introduced gradually, the same topics are dug dipper as we proceed. The author makes sure you understand clearly as we proceed.
No confusions created with too many scribblings and notes, going back and forth; like in the "Head First..." I had to drop that one at end of 2 chapters, you can refer to that for some examples if at all.
With this book I never had to refer to anything at all. I definitely recommend this book over the "Head First..."

What I was most impressed in this book was how clearly it's written and yet it goes deeply on those details that can always get you confused on a certification exam.

I am very satisfied.

This is a good book to learn the concepts of EJB but for the exam you need the HFEJB book.
The details of Context objects (which method of Context object you can use in which method call of the Bean class) are more descriptive in HFEJB
If you are planning to sit for the exam this book should be accompanied by HFEJB

This is a very good book on a complex subject. Explanations of the concepts are easy to understand. Exam objectives are covered in detail with example codes and review questions.
Each chapter covers the individual exam objectives as well as summarizing the gist. Logical organization of the chapters helps conceptualize even the toughest topics.

The Quick Prep Appendix for last-minute cramming and free downloadable Whizlabs SCBCD exam simulator are very effective tools for the exam.

I recommend this book as must have SCBCD exam preparation book that can be also used as a reference book on EJB.

I used this book as a primary preparation tool for the Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD) exam. Being a beginner in EJB, I found this book to be very friendly. I liked the layout of the book in general and the writing style of the author in particular. Only relevant pieces of code are presented to focus explanation of topic in question. A complete running application may be downloaded from the author's website. The multiple choice questions at the end of every chapter and ALERTs in every chapter made remembering main points easier. Deployment descriptor elements are clarified in considerable detail and they are explained well. Please note that there are errors in this book - some of them are fairly obvious such as using a capital letter as opposed to a small letter (Java versus java) while others are not so obvious but noticeable by experienced java developers. Regardless of its minor faults, I consider this book to be a valuable addition to my library. Normally I would have a cut a star for the errors but because of its content quality, I felt compelled to give 5 stars. I just passed the exam today thanks to this book. I know that I will not hesitate to buy another book from this author. Thanks Mr.Sanghera! I recommend this book highly without any reservations whatsoever.

I have just recently started looking at smalltalk and like many people (being used to c++), when starting out in smalltalk, just going through the code didn't actually tell me much about anything, it's hard to find where anything is actually being done. After reading this book this task was significantly easier, the reason is simple, after going through this book one gets a much deeper understanding about why the code is split the way it is and gains a real insight into why this is a better approach than the usual C++ style with 100-200 lines of code methods. Kent Beck's writting makes the book a very nice read, must admit i was actually sorry when i finished it.

I wish more Java/C#/C++ programmers would read this (and maybe even learn Smalltalk) so that they can appreciate the weaknesses in those languages and possibly in their practices that they might not even realize today. I certainly did. While Robert Martin and others have offered up some of the canon of good design for contemporary developers, this little gem really reveals the "feel" of good OO.

I'm always looking for ways to make coding work better, at any level from nanosecond arithmetic operations to decade-long enterprise operations. I didn't find much of use here, but there were a few good points here (very few). Let me start with those.

The "Execute Around Method" pattern is good idea, applicable far beyond this Smalltalk context. The Beta language has "inner" inheritance, which makes the idea easy, but most other languages lack a good mechanism for undefined logic between matched operation pairs (open/close, setup/cleanup, etc.) "Enumeration" is another good one, enshrined as "Visitor" in the Gang of Four book.

Most of what's left is either trivial or Smalltalk-specific and face it, Smalltalk is mostly a cult language with nearly no commercial significance. The Smalltalk pretty-printing and variable-naming rules, fatuous at best, are just not applicable to most langages. Some of Beck's "practices" are language features (like 'super'). Other "practices", like the long chapter on Collections, seem to describe standard library classes and messages. Yet others (e.g. Type Suggesting Parameter Name) correct language defects - Smalltalk chose to give up the error detection capability offered by variable typing. Beck tries to sneak it back in with variable naming conventions sort of like Microsoft's old Hungarian naming. Some of his suggestions are just dangerous, like that one that says a constructor should "half-way construct an object in one place, then pass it off to another to finish construction. (p.23)" This distributes an object's setup responsibility across its client classes, leaves unusable and incomplete objects floating around, and causes subtle exposures in multithreaded systems - I'd rip out any code I saw built this way.

The good news is that no new trees died to make my copy of this book - I got it used, and it's returning to the used market. At least my conscience is clean on that account, no matter what I'm doing to the poor guy who buys this book next.

//wiredweird

I wish I had read this book when I started getting into OO programming. This is OO to the max, at maximum granularity.

Beck's style is clear and concise, the patterns are understandable even by a non-senior Smalltalker like me.

SBPP has changed me. Kent Beck has changed me.

SBPP shed a new light on my previous knowledge of "patterns" in computer programming. I was deep in the DP tar pit. SBPP saved me. SBPP changed almost all my thoughts on programming. It has changed what I value, and how I pursue it.

Kent Beck says that he is not a great programmer but just a pretty good programmer with great habits. Build great habits with this book. Read and reread this book every morn.

If you have studied DP, this book will open your eyes to the wider world of patterns. You will think about DPs quite differently after this book. You will be able to escape from the bad effects of DP abuse.

If DPs were nouns, verbs and adverbs/adjectives, SBPP are articles and auxiliary verbs. SBPP are used much more frequently than DPs. When you learn a language it is very important to learn more frequently used words first. It could be less efficient(or even dangerous) to learn "appreciate" before "thank (you)".

--JuneKim

Got the equavalent of what it cost me after about 5 minutes. Great reference and have just recently started at chapter 3 for in-depth how to instructions.

Well written.

This book is fairly comprehensive. There were just a few topics I would have liked to have seen more on. All in all, it really helped me get the job done.

This book was just what I needed. I'm an RPG programmer who has to learn SQL for a new application we're developing. Found most of what I needed here.

I had a vendor in the day this came to work. He asked me if I had a good SQL book and I replied, "Let's find out" and opened the box. It was perfect for what we needed. I have used it several times and it is easy to read. Being new at SQL on the 400, I am a little frustrated with the index. I was trying to figure out how to substring and couldn't find a reference anywhere. Twice I have had to forego the book and ask another person.
It is a great learning tool and I'm very glad I bought it.

SQL the standard for data access is now presented in a AS400/iSeries user format. The differences that exist for the DB2/400 user are minor but significant enough to warrant 500 pages plus.

Conte and Cravitz flood the text with real working examples that hit homeruns with the IBM midrange user. Yet, minus the sprinkling of RPG/ILE & Cobol code any DB2 user would find the text extremely helpful.

Keep this book at the ready since it's a "quick grab" when questions come up regarding triggers, UDF's or Database Modeling and design.

The Book is a great starting point for the AS400/iSeries guru looking to open their database to the outside world. With a solid SQL footing the JDBC mountain is a much easier climb.

Conte & Cravitz keep up the great work!

Well written, and chock full of excellent information on the making of Combat!, the stars (especially Vic Morrow, who WAS Sgt. Sanders), the story lines, directors, ground-breaking filming techniques, etc. For anyone who understands how far ahead of its time this program was when it aired, this book is a must.

This is everything you could want as a fan of the show. The author does a great job of giving us a reasonable amount of insight to move us from season to season. This blended nicely with the information about each episode.

I wish there had been a bit more room to expand the information about each episode, but, then again, I'd like to have had a bit more information about the participants lives outside of "Combat!". But I do understand the limitations publishers impose.

I would have preferred the author not to attempt to give each episode a rating (0-4 bayonets), or a least put this in an appendix. Critics can give ratings, but fans just really shouldn't try to tell another fan he's wrong (and charge them for it)!

There's nothing like an avid fan to author a great book to an already epic tv show. Jo's affection really lends itself nicely to the anecdotes given by the former cast members.
Also, if you're ever in the LA area, you can still visit Franklin Canyon where a lot of episodes were filmed. There's a road near the corner of Cold Water Canyon Dr. and Mulholland Dr. that takes you right there (can't remember the exact name,sorry). Anyway, the same trees and water still exist that were in the episodes (this is also the same place where the opening of The Andy Grifith Show was filmed, where Opie skips a rock across the water while the theme is playing). It's now a recreation area and is a nice place to hike and stow down a few beers...

This is a great book for all those fans of the "COMBAT!" TV show, produced in the 1960's. I highly recommend it if you have invested in the "COMBAT!" DVD's or if you just want to understand why this series was, and indeed still is, so popular. Ms. Davidsmeyer even included her hand written autograph in my copy!--A wonderful and unexpected surprise!!! Indeed, this entire book is "A wonderful and unexpected surprise! You'll enjoy it without a single doubt!

This publication is a must have for the discriminating fan of Combat! As the title states, it is a true "Viewer's Companion to the WWII TV Series". Author Jo Davidsmeyer provides an indepth and detailed look at what I consider one of THE best television series ever! A perfect addendum to Combat!, the complete series.

I purchased this book off of a recommendation from a friend who said that everything that you need to know for the AP test is in this book. He was right. I first read the information provided about the test itself. I began to read through the five chapters of history in the book while supplementing my reading with my class notes. My teacher, though, ran out of time to teach us history from about 1980s and onward, so all of my knowledge about that era came from this book, which allowed me to answer those questions on the test. The book also has practice multiple choice and essay questions that I informally sampled; they were suprisingly similar to the real test. Overall, this book has enough information in it alone to guarantee a 4 on the test, and possibly even a 5, which is what I received.

I strongly suggests this book because it covers everything one needs to know for the AP European history test. Since the test itself is not that long. The book, though quiet short, covers everything one needs to know from 1450 to the present day. The book almost gives you a story for every era, from the age of Exploration, to the Renaissance and finally to the Industrial Ages and the Post-War modern era. If you love history, then this book will help you a lot. There are only a limited amount of things that you have to memorize, and if you are good at memorizing things, this book is the right source for you. The questions from the test are almost identical to the ones covered on the book in a way, if you read this book well enough, you should get at least a four on the test.

I was taking AP Euro as a Sophmore in the year 2005-2006. A friend from the previous year ('04-'05) got this book and passed the exam with a 4. She didn't do so good in the class as she got a C in both semesters. She gave me her used book as a gift. I got a B in both semesters and I can tell you that the course is tough stuff. I took I believe 2 practice tests before the actual AP Exam. And to tell you the truth, I got a 2 on both of the practice tests and was close to giving up for the actual test. But right on the night before the actual exam, I skimmed the book. I took the test on Friday (if I remeber correctly). I answered about 45/80 questions, and did pretty bad on my free-response questions (considering I wrote about submarine warfare on a question about WWII hahaha...). I left school after that day ashamed because I felt like I failed that test. However, today I just got my AP scores and to my surprise I got a 3!!! This books rocks like A lot!! Don't buy REA, i doubt I would read that book since it's too long. Princeton Review is the way to go because I got a 3!

I had a horrible AP Euro teacher, but I ended up getting a 4 with the help of this review book. It shouldn't be used as a substitute for the textbook, but I remember my textbook being the worst, and I used the older western heritage by Mckay. You can probably buy it on Amazon as well.


Another book that is probably just as amazing as princeton is "Modern European History" by Birdsall S. Viault. For some euro classes it's even required, and it's great for just reviewing before a test. If you read both these books, you will definitely have a good chance of passing the exam.

Princeton Review is a very good resource, especially for AP and (P)SAT preparation. This book has some great tips, especially with the DBQ and free-response essays. The review is excellent (though rather implicit-not too much EXplicit). This is why I STRONGLY encourage you to utilize the Cliffsnotes (excellent prep book as well, great features: timelines after every chapter, but poor review questions) books as well. Some information may be presented in this title a little better to suit your specific learning style. Nevertheless, the review questions after each chapter mimic the College Board's questions. Undoubtedly, the best feature of this book is the two AP exams in the back. I'm not sure if these exams are past College Board releases, but they are very similar. All in all, buy the Princeon Review for the review and practice exams, and buy the Cliffsnotes for its great review as well, timelines, and comprehensive layout.

This is a great book of the behind the scenes with many photos and insights from those around Rod Serling during the creation of the series and effects on the world because of it.

This was a program I had grew up on and I say thanks for the behind the scene cover stories and pictures.

Back in 1983 I received a type-written catalogue in the mail that advertised sets of proof sheets from the Viacom archives...namely the "Twilight Zone"! - Hundreds of rare, behind-the-scenes photos from the 1st three seasons of the show were being offered for sale! Unfortunately, I was "between jobs" at the time and was unable to purchase any of the photos. Some of the sets from the more popular episodes were already marked "SOLD" in the catalogue, and I have always assumed that the remaining ones were snatched up quickly by collectors.

WRONG! Most of them are IN THIS AMAZING BOOK! Author Stewart Stanyard's
introduction explains how he happened to acquire this fabulous collection,
and even though Stanyard's writing is merely passable(he's not a professional author), the PHOTOS are INCREDIBLE! And there are LOTS of them, too!

I have always been fascinated by behind-the-scenes stuff, and as I paged through this book, I could not believe my eyes. I have now spent hours staring at full-page, elevated shots with cast, crew and sets from episodes such as "Death's-head Revisited", "The Purple Testament", "Static", etc....and an unbelievable shot of the dual break-away set of "A World of Difference"; great stuff!

And even though the quality of the writing is only so-so, the author at least arranges and presents his material in an intersting format. But in
the chapter entitled "Themes of the Zone", he goes a bit too far trying to
shoe-horn TZ's plots into neat and tidy categories. For instance, I was
baffled by Stanyard's assertion that bookworm Henry Bemis (of "Time Enough at Last") is a "social misfit" who gets what he deserves when he breaks his glasses, since he spent most of his life shunning the company
of his wife, co-workers, etc. Astounding! That's just NOT RIGHT!
Henry Bemis is the quintessential "Everyman", the little-guy who is hounded and misunderstood by the world, who finds comfort and solitude in reading because the real world is a harsh and uncaring place. Doesn't he try to interest his customer in the opening scene in "David Copperfield?" Doesn't he attempt to share his love of poetry with his thug-like wife, who cruelly feigns interest only to shatter her hapless spouse when he discovers that she has defaced his beloved volume of poems?
NO---Bemis' story is an example of the most cosmic sort of tragedy--- the
little guy who is crushed by the most cruel and ironic hand of fate.

Anyway, Mr. Stanyard also mixes up the two actors who play the 2-headed
Martian in "Mr Dingle the Strong"; Douglas Spencer is the guy on the RIGHT (remember him as "Scotty" in the 1951 "Thing from Another World?...the guy who says "Keep Watching the Skies" at the end?)

Also...I realize comedy is a very subjective thing.....but the author
praises "Mr Dingle", "Mind and the Matter" and the ridiculously over-padded "The Bard" as stand-out comedies, while dismissing the truly
funny "ShowDown with Rance McGrew" as merely silly. I think "McGrew" is a comic gem, with marvelously controlled performances by Blyden, Cornthwaite and Johnson in roles that could have easily veered into
total caricature. And Jesse James' arrival at the end as McGrew's agent and the subsequent change in the script cracks me up every time.

BUT WHO CARES ABOUT THE TEXT?!! It's the Photos that allow us to step back in time and peek in on the production of the legendary "Twilight Zone"! SEE Joseph Schildkraut reading his off-camera lines for "Death's Head".....SEE Brian Aherne and Pippa Scott rehearsing their night club encounter in "The Trouble with Templeton"....SEE numerous shots of Fritz Weaver being assualted in the final scene of "Obsolete Man"....SEE Ivan Dixon as boxer Bolie Jackson being photographed from UNDERNEATH the
boxing ring in "The Big, Tall Wish".....the list goes on!

GET THE BOOK!

PS. There is also a nice selection of interviews with actors, writers and technicians who worked on the series, plus a very cool reminiscence by Charles Beaumont's son Christopher.

I was first struck by the weight of it - high quality softcover and beautiful bond - even before opening the book - I knew I was in for a treat - This is the perfect celebration of the great series. Rod would be honored by the care and reverence, by the personal recollections thick with respect and admiration for his genius. Stanyard has formatted each section brillantly - the interviews and essays are a perfect compliment to his own contributions. And the photos - pure magic. But I was struck with a twinge of sadness because for all these years I was convinced that each episode came from the ages - certainly not from prodcuers, actors, cameramen - but they're all right there - Stanyard has pulled the curtain aside.

Any book about The Twilight Zone has big shoes to fill. Marc Scott Zicree's The Twilight Zone Companion is the bible of The Twilight Zone and, moreover, one of the great books about a television show--any television show. Still, give Mr. Stanyard his due, this is a pretty good book.

Wisely, Mr. Stanyard has followed a different path that Zicree. After a few early chapters on history and analysis of the show, the bulk of the book is taken up by interviews. Over 150 pages of interviews with nearly 40 people involved in the show on various levels, from relatives like Carol and Robert Serling, to writers (Matheson, Hamner, etc.), actors, producers and directors. The last pages are a series of "appreciation essays" written by various people who feel their lives have been impacted by the show as well as speculations by people who knew him of what Rod Serling might have achieved had he lived longer.

Mr. Stanyard has also included a number of interesting photos and a few documents like letters and contracts. Most of the photos are backstage photos from the author's own (inherited) collection. This actually poses a bit of problem. Since the photos Stanyard received cover only a fraction of the episodes, there is a lot of repetition from certain episodes and a whole slew of some very great episodes that have no pictures.

In fact, if I were going to nail down one weakness in the book, it's repetition. Besides the pictures, the interviews also end up being somewhat repetitive as many of the people interviewed have very similar words of praise and descriptions of the show. We're all fans of the show but, with rare exception, the interviews are variations on a theme with not as much enlightenment as I was hoping for.

Still, for a fan of The Twilight Zone this is a difficult book to pass by. There are enough pleasures here to make spending time with this volume worthwhile. For newcomers to the series, I would suggest Zicree's book first.

Great intro to the concept of home education with a heavy emphasis on the Charlotte Mason method. I re-read this little treasure regularly to keep myself on track. Loving books as much as I do tempts me to compile quite a list of Books We Must Have for School. The CM way of thinking ensures I stick only with the best, the essentials. I highly recommend it!

I first read this book because it was written by Susan, one of Francis and Edith Schaeffer's daughters. Little did I know that it would become the foundational book to becoming a homeschool parent when I decided to take my youngest child out of the public schools.

One doesn't need to be homeschooling their children to appreciate this book. Susan writes in the same warm and friendly way as her mother. However, if one is homeschooling and using the Charlotte Mason "method", this book is an essential volume to have in your library.

If you're a Charlotte Mason fan, you can't pass this one up. It is my favorite book on Charlotte Mason & is full of wonderful parenting advice. Really, all parents are teachers, not just homeschooling parents. This book offers great insight for all who spend time caring for children.

As one preparing to homeschool, this book was this kind of thing that has been spurring me on to ponder, philosophize and dream about both the general approach I will take, and the beginnings of many specific ideas.

For those who are disenchanted with the high pressure standardized-testing mentality prevalent in classrooms today, this book explains the educational philosphy of Charlotte Mason. It is God-focused (Susan is the daughter of Christian apologtic Francis Shaeffer), natural, and relaxed. It is a must-read for any classroom teacher, homeschool parent, or school administrator.