Programs Books

Abby Lewis has never been comfortable with her weight. But when her father dies and she moves in with her comfort-food cooking grandmother, the problem begins to take hold of her life. In LESS IS MORE, the third installment in Wendy Lawton's Real TV series, a grieving Abby must start all over without her father and adjust to life in the big city. Grieving the loss of her father, friends and everything she once knew, Abby begins to eat away her feelings --- quite literally. As she continues to pack on the pounds, her self esteem begins to plummet. She is excited to receive an invitation to the local youth group but is soon given a cruel nickname by her fellow students, causing further pain.

Luckily, Abby begins to develop a friendship with kind football star Parker and nutrition-crazy Isabella, who help her to reexamine her choices. She decides that she must start to shed some pounds, but with each thought of her father, the binging continues --- and it sure doesn't help that her grandmother is constantly feeding her with some of the most fattening foods on the market.

However, everything begins to change one day when Abby is mysteriously summoned out of class and gets the surprise of her life. Unbeknownst to Abby, new best friend Isabella and gym teacher Coach Matthews submitted an application for her to appear on the hit reality series "Less is More." On the show, contestants undergo a holistic approach to weight loss. Each is assigned to a personal trainer and a nutritionist, and the causes of the weight problems are examined and addressed. "Less is More" has long been Abby's favorite program, and she can't turn down the full scholarship offered to her if she reaches her goal weight. With Coach Matthews as her trainer and Isabella as her nutritionist, can Abby finally drop the pounds that have so long troubled her and reverse the negativity she's constantly surrounded by?

LESS IS MORE gives a fresh and relatable perspective to an issue that many teens struggle with. Not only will readers enjoy the exciting, though at times heartbreaking, plot of the book, they also will take something away from it. The novel aims to teach both those who struggle with weight issues and those who have never even considered their nutritional choices. It offers solid advice on maintaining a healthy diet, without dieting, and keeping fit through regular exercise, which is valuable to any reader. Lawton is careful to encourage a healthy body image, no matter what someone's weight might be. At the same time, the book addresses the unseen consequences of so-called harmless teasing.

The focus on a reality TV show is merely the backdrop for a much larger and more poignant story. Readers undoubtedly will be inspired by Abby's journey and begin to more carefully evaluate their own decisions.

--- Reviewed by Jennifer Crosby

Sixteen-year-old Abby Matthews battles grief after her father's sudden death. Then, when she and her mother move from Suwanee, Georgia to San Francisco, her emotional cocooning and unhealthy eating packs on more weight than she expected. This makes the first days at her new school and in her new youth group miserable. Through her new friendships, she's chosen for the weight loss show, "Less Is More." If only we all had such good friends! This entire book series is based on the current reality TV shows, like Trading Spaces and Discovery Health's National Body Challenge. It's difficult to pick a favorite as Lawton's Changing Faces (Book 1,) and Flip Flop (Book 2,) are also written with a keen insight into relationships, personal struggles and how God doesn't desert us in our troubles, large or small. I've enjoyed all the books so far.

Wonderful book! Real life. Real issues. And reality TV! Wendy Lawton provides a delightful read for girls -- and the moms who love them. Highly recommended!

Wendy Lawton knows how to reach teens, illustrating through relationships among family and friends, the power of words, the power of understanding, and the power of grace. Some things are more important than fame and the perfect figure.

Wendy Lawton gives us a real heroine in Abby. She and her Mom move across country to live with Grandma Cece after Abby's Dad dies. Abby, like most of us, eats to deal with the pain of all the loss and change. She puts on some weight. A student leader of her new youth group gives her an unflattering nick name, but she bears it with grace. She makes new friends. They help her grow spiritually, even the one who's not yet a Christian. This is a great story of the power of words, the power of Grace, and the power of friendship. Great read.

This was a book thrust upon me, on a subject that sounded genuinely boring. I was spring-loaded to rapidly skim through it and put it down, never to consider it again. I was truly prepared not to enjoy it.
Almost immediately, however, I found myself regularly agreeing with the author and examining, in my own mind, how the issues of learning related to my individual educational experience and those of my children. By the end of the book I was mentally prepared to start handing out copies to all the educators I knew and all politicians I could access. With luck, maybe my grandchildren will derive benefit from a reformulation of our system of public education.

Finally some new ideas! I think parents (I am one)feel beaten down by the educational system that hasn't improved since our own school days. This entrenched methodology has to be replaced by a system that will do justice to our children and give us the well-educated adults we need for them to become. Davis's book is revealing and puts the issues into a greater context that goes beyond merely tweaking the status quo, and gives us a look at what we could accomplish with fresh thinking. I highly recommend this book.

Not only have I read Mr. Davis' book, but I have been fortunate enough to communicate with him about it. I believe this is the ultimate look at a progressive, forward thinking view of where education needs to go. It has inspired me to be more vocal with policy makers in my state, and to be a part of a necessary revolution in the field of education. This book is a MUST READ for anyone in the field of education who is serious about what they do for a living. I would like to thank Mr. Davis for this work and look forward to the next.

As an educator and single mother of two accomplished young adults, I found Mr. Davis' incredible historical expose and proposition for change absolutely affirming.

In my own parenting experience, very early on it was easy for me to clue into and begin nurturing my daughters' inborn curiosities and talents. Understanding infant and early childhood development as well as that of the human brain, perhaps I had a bit of an edge. Nevertheless, as soon as "we" (the girls and I) entered the public schools, it became immediately clear that "the institution", by its design, was hosing the fire for learning -- a fire that is essential to healthy, successful individual and community life.

My zeal to continue nurturing my children in a way that allowed them not only to remain eager life-long learners and grow into good citizens, but to also become (within their abilities and interests) all that they aspired to be, put me (and other families with similar concerns) in direct opposition with the system ... this challenge drained large amounts of valuable time, energy and resources that could have been invested in families and community life in other areas of tremendous need!

In my professional life over the last 25 years, I have also witnessed the consequence to many communities of the "dumbing down" process. It is a design that, if not replaced by an education architecture such as that so expertly set forth by Mr. Davis, will take us into the abyss.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE ...

"Lessons for Tomorrow" should be required reading of every educator, parent and community leader. Please read this book and share it with others.

Thank you, Mr. Davis, for bringing this critical discussion to a new level and providing a workable architectural plan that can meaningfully replace what has long been obsolete.

Coming from the angle of layperson and concerned parent of two young Montessori students, this book was spot on. The history of educational philosophy, from ancient Greece through Colonial America, to the modern age, gives the reader a strong understanding of educational goals and methods throughout history.
The idea that student initiative and interest is essential for true learning blends well with what I believe and have experienced in my short exposure to the Montessori method. Mr Davis is thorough in his documentation of our educational shortcomings (shockingly so I might add), and explicit in his model for education in the 21st Century and beyond. Let's just say, the teachers union will probably argue with many of his suggestions. While the reading can be "heavy" at times, it is approachable for the layperson, and hefty enough for the policy wonks and academics to sink their teeth into.
Buy 2 books and give one to your local school principal! Change can only begin with a debate at the local level...

Nikoluas Wirth once said "language design is compiler design". This book is truly remarkable in providing a look behind the (LISP ) scenery. Everyone who write LISP progams should red it to get an understanding of the implementation and hence cost of the language features. Great reading!!!

This book is excellent. It is clear but not superficial at all.

Queinnec explains from the basics of Lisp implementation (evaluation of S-expressions) to techniques for compiling into C. You will find very good advice on how to implement macros and continuations. If you want to implement Lisp, Scheme or any other language actually, buy this book!

Also, there are exercises -- with answers! :-)

I'm not a professional reviewer. But I program a lot, and for a living. After more than 15 years of experience in algorithm development and user interface design, to name some extremes, I get the feeling that "traditional" computer programming languages like C (C++, C#, Objective C) and Pascal (Modula, Oberon, ADA)
and even oldtimers as Cobol and Fortran tend to develop, or rather mature, into languages getting closer and closer to Lisp, Algol, and their ultimate offspring, Scheme.
This is not without reason.
But although the many qualities of Lisp have long since been known in academia, they need time and, more important, good reference material, to find their way into the real world.
Lisp programmers know the value of everything, but the cost of nothing, it is said. Christian Queinnec neatly fills the gap in our knowledge in a book that is a hard read because of the density of the content, but also a fun book because all the source is there (available through the Internet, of course) to experiment with.
You will not only gain insight into the workings of your Lisp system. You will gain insight into the basic elements of computer programming languages and their reason for being, their implementation, and the benefits and costs they will bring you.
All in all, one of the best books on Lisp I have ever almost, but not completely grokked.

I sincerely believe that tomorrow's programming languages, whether they be called C** or Delphi 2010, will be closer to current Lisp than to current C or Pascal, and a way to efficiently implement these languages is available here and now.

The book covers all standard material like direct interpretation, compilation towards a virtual machine using bytecodes, and compilation to C. New material is found in the chapter on macro's , a subject that has regained much interest of late. A broad variety of programming styles is used to illustrate all concepts.

There is only one drawback to the book. It won't teach you Lisp, or Scheme. That is, unless you already know it.

This is an excellent book on Lisp implementation. You'll get a lot out of it, whether you are interested in writing compilers and interpreters (for Lisp or any language) or whether you just want to see how Lisp works. It is the modern day successor to Allen's "Anatomy of Lisp".

An unexpectedly good book.

If you're interested in implementation choices for Scheme and the Lisp family of languages, this is an amazing book. Its worth reading even if you never plan to implement a Lisp interpreter and just want to learn a bit of theory and history behind these languages.

We have a five year old heading to kindergarten this fall and we wanted to sharpen her focusing skills. This is a great book for helping kids understand the reasons for and benefits of listening. It has beautiful, simple illustrations and clear, concise messages perfectly suited for young children. My daughter loves the pictures and loves me to read this to her.

My son is 6 years old and I bought 4 books in this series. He is able to read the book with some assistance and relate to the book! In the back there are great ideas on how to pose questions to your child. My son does poorly with abstract questions but with this book, he not only learns but the visual (which is fantastic) helps him respond better. I will be buying all the books in this series! It is so well worth it to teach your child important words...he now speaks about being polite,kind, showing respect, helping, sharing etc....LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My son truly love this book and this book has helped enhanced his listening skill. Worth every penny!

I think this one is our favorite. The little boy looks so intently at his teacher. He learns how to pay attention even when there are distractions. These books are cleverly written and I just love the illustrations. Nice representation of all ethnic groups.

All the books in the 'Learning to Get Along' series are fantastic. They teach vital social skills (paying attention, sharing, respecting others property, etc) to children in a way that they can understand.

You can't go wrong with any of these books!

I would highly recommend any of the books in this series by Cheri Meiners. My just-turned-5-year-old son asks for them at storytime, and the writing is just right for pre-K and kindergarten children. Truthful without being preachy, the series shows children and family members from many different ethnic groups in the colorful illustrations, and each book addresses issues which are developmentally critical to this particular age group: sharing, taking turns, being afraid, listening, respecting others, helping out at home, etc. These books have given us a starting point to discuss problems at school or interacting with others, and have helped my son to have more empathy for his peers....I am hopeful that this quality will serve him well as he continues on to kindergarten and elementary school. It is exciting to hear him use ideas from this series to problem solve.

In this work, Rebecca Herold deftly lays out a framework that is easy to follow and comprehensive. She has skilfully managed to compile material that would otherwise take a significant amount of research, time and work to collect, and has created tools for the reader that are easily modified and transferred to any industry and indeed any country.

Ms. Herold consistently produces high quality written information centered around current and often complex subjects. The kernel of what she offers is the rare ability to present these topics as easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

As I live and work in Canada I was concerned that this book may be too centered on American laws and methodologies. I could not have been further off the mark. The methodology meticulously laid out by Ms. Herold could be applied in any country on the planet and ensure that whoever is following its plan is successful in their delivery.

In my 17+ years in Information engineering, security and education I have only kept a handful of texts on my bookshelf. This will be one of them.

If your organization is considering a security or privacy awareness program, this book will pay for itself many times over. I am not aware of any other resource that includes this much material about the art and science of awareness and training. Although this book is over 500 pages long, I found it easy to jump to specific chapters to get just the information I needed. The main chapters cover every aspect of program development including: planning, establishing a business case, budgeting, selling management, audience selection, material design and development, implementation, and measurement. Chapter 10 alone - which maps over 50 different awareness topics to various job roles - should save an organization thousands of dollars in program planning. And don't overlook the Appendices. Almost every sample form and worksheet you would need is available as an appendix. The assessment questionnaires alone should save dozens of hours of development. Definitely one of best security awareness investments your organization will ever make.

I am not a friend nor acquaintance of Ms. Herold. I believe this is a good book on Awareness Training and would recommend it to professionals in that field and to security professionals contemplating an awareness training program. I believe the book has especially good material on Legal and Regulatory requirements for training. However, it is too long at 515 pages. For a training program, the best bet is to collaborate with corporate training departments; security awareness training is no different from all the other types of awareness training. There is no point in security professionals reinventing the wheel on training methods. A collaborative approach will yield faster results than reading and understanding everything that is in this book.

The author introduces her book very eloquently: "I wrote this book to provide a starting point and an all-in-one resource for information security and privacy education practitioners. I incorporated much of the information and knowledge I obtained while working on my MA in computer science and education as applicable to providing education to adult learners. Additionally, I included the same type of information that I've used and found helpful over the years when creating awareness and training programs ... My goal was to provide a more comprehensive resource of everything involved with managing an information security and privacy training and awareness program than I had been able to find - a reference for practitioners to go to when implementing any part of their education program and get ideas that will help them be successful with their own program."

The entire `lifecycle' of a security awareness program is covered from program design (e.g. why awareness is important, legal and regulatory requirements and even `how not to do it') through program delivery and execution (getting started, gaining executive sponsorship and budget, topics to cover, methods of delivery/communications and motivational techniques, incorporating awareness into job responsibilities etc.) to program management (hints about planning, controlling and reporting progress) and program review (how to check that your program remains on-track and effective).

The book may appear overwhelming to someone just starting out on their information security and privacy awareness although it is not compulsory to read the entire book cover-to-cover in one sitting (tempting though that may be!). The chapter on `Getting started' is recommended reading, with details of how to identify key contacts, review the organization's existing approach to awareness and training, and a handy road-map that would serve as a good high level project plan. For more experienced information security professionals, and especially those considering or tasked with `doing awareness', this book is a must-read. Even seasoned security awareness practitioners would likely learn new things from this book, at least I did and suspect my copy will become well-thumbed in the months and years ahead.

The coverage is reasonably even throughout with plenty of meaty content in every section. The writing style is engaging, quite easy to read yet at the same time stimulating and thought provoking. The book is crammed full of good ideas, not just theoretical concepts but solid practical advice that can be put to use immediately. It really is hard to think of any way the book could have been better - praise indeed if you have read any of my reviews of other security awareness books.

This really *is* the definitive guide - a wonderful book for practitioners in our field, one I'm happy to recommend unreservedly.

I'll begin by saying that I have two broad comments about Ms. Herold's new book, Managing an Information Security and Privacy Awareness and Training Program. First, it may be the definitive book on the topic and seems to have enough meat to be the definitive book on the practice of information security in general. It approaches the profession in the right way: people-oriented. That is rare and important. Second, I actually read it from cover to cover - a rare thing for me. Professional books usually find their ways to my reference library and are used mostly for that purpose, not for general reading.

In the over twenty years I have been in the information security profession I have seen a lot of approaches to managing the security of organizational information. There is one common thread that ties all of those approaches together. The successful ones address the people who use and manage that information. Technology simply is a collection of tools to assist the information assurance manager with the task. It has been said that there are management solutions to technical problems but no technical issues to management problems. Ms. Herold addresses this homily head-on and does it with style, personality and skill.

Her experience shows as does the commentary from two icons in our profession, Donn Parker and Hal Tipton. If you have any questions about whether you should buy this book, read their comments in the Preface and Forward.

I have known Becky for many years and I respect her skill, experience and ability to present important issues clearly, concisely and understandably. Her latest book does all that and more.

If I was told that I was moving to a new office and could take only two boxes of books with me from my library, I would fill both with technical books but I would leave space for the only two general books on information assurance I will ever need. One is "The Computer Security Handbook" edited by my good friend and long-time colleague Dr. Mich Kabay. The other would have to be "Managing an Information Security and Privacy Awareness and Training Program". It would take more than the two boxes to cover technical issues in security, but I could put Mich's and Becky's books in my brief case. Then I would have the perfect security library.

This book is highly recommended for any information assurance professional (or aspiring professional), manager with information assurance responsibilities, or training coordinator. I'm sure there are others who need this new offering as well, but Amazon only allows so much space for these reviews. I also will be highly recommend this book to our students in the MSIA program at Norwich.

Peter R. Stephenson, PhD, CISSP, CISM, FICAF
Associate Program Director, MSIA
Norwich University

This is without question the best book available for Outlook Business Contact Manager. We had previously purchased two other books on the subject, however they were both difficult to read and reference.

I am so thankful that I found this book. I keep it right on my desk and if I ever have a question, I can quickly and easily find the answer.

It's easy to use, read and extremely easy to reference. It has become the must have resource for everyone in our office. If you are using Outlook Business Contact Manager this book is a must.

Even though I wasn't sold on using MS BCM, my IT department didn't provide my choice. After reading through a list of books, I settled on this one. It is my first one with these authors and I cannot recommend it enough.

It was well written and comes more from the business perspective, which makes it a real value for me. My IT folks could never have explained to our department as clearly as this book. I found it easy to use and it even inspired me to dig a little deeper into the software.

Thanks for the great text! I am much further along now than I could have imagined. Will be sure to look for more by these folks.

This is definitely one of the best book on the market for Outlook Business Contact Manager. It's easy to use and easy to reference. It has become a resource for everyone in our office. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone working with Business Contact Manager!

tired of CRM that costs a fortune and is too difficult to maintain, i ended up taking a look at the outlook business contact manager (BCM) when i upgraded to office 2007. it turns out that i needed a book after all and was happy to find this one.

this book offers clear instructions and helped me to understand BCM far more quickly than i had managed without the book. there are a couple of others out there, but i recognize the authors from a couple of books Managing Contacts with Act! 2006 i liked about ACT!, another CRM software application. they got it right before and they got it right this time.

i recommend Managing Contacts with MS Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager to anyone who is upgrading to MS Office 2007 and wants to take a look at BCM without getting lost. this book offers you the best way to master BCM in the shortest time possible.

I bought this book because we wanted to see if Outlook BCM would work with our business. We also got the Dummies book, and this book was hands-down more useful than Outlook BCM for Dummies. This book was clear, and I really liked the fact that there was only one task on each page. This made the book really easy to reference, and since I wasn't reading the book from front to back - like a novel - this is exactly what I was looking for. I highly encourage everyone to buy this book!

I recieved my copy of Excell within the specified time and have found the Maran Illustrated Excel 2003 and excellent manual to become a professional user of Excell

Thought of taking an Excel class? You can do it yourself with this book.

This book has made life so easy for me.I ordered the whole MS suite. They are user friendly and the color as well as concept are awsome. The book is in NEW condition!!!!!

Thanks

The Maran Illustrated computer series is excellent. Clear captures of computer screen images allows the reader to follow along easily to the explanations.

Although I have not completed the full book, I found it very good especially for beginners. I was not conversant at all with Excel and found that I needed it for my employment as my employer had changed my job and I needed the basics.

I found the illustrations very good and easy to follow, and anything I needed to know found easy to find in the book.

I would recommend this book, especially to anyone with little or no knowledge of Excel.

I am several discs into using this program and am very pleased with the improvement it has made in my German language comprehension. I enjoy the learning format these discs employ: an instructor, 2 students and putting what you learn into immediate use. Even during your 1st listen to the 1st disc you will be able to formulate sentences and understand what is being said. I don't find the instructor's corrections of the students or the back & forth talking to be annoying as some others here have commented.
This is a very worthwhile program!

I have been unsuccessfully tried to learn German until I found Michel Thomas.

We have many German clients, and speking that language in our company is a must. A colleague gave me the first CD to try it, since I have a long commute to work. In the beginning I was VERY skeptical, since I have tried many other courses, including lessons with a private teacher. However, since the first CD, Michel Thomas makes you speak basic phrases, and builds on top of that.
I really, really recommend this course if you want to get a basic conversational level.

I truly believe that anybody can learn with these CDs. My son was in the car with me, I put the CD on, and after the first 10 mins, without me telling him anything, he was trying some phrases in German as well.

The only problem is that the vocabulary that you learn on the first 10 CDs is limited. You will learn about the basic structures and verbs, but you will need to reinforce what you learn with something else.

I was surprised as to how quickly the Michel Thomas method helps me build sentences and pronounce words correctly. I use this course as an addition to grammar books, as it doesn't focus on the written language, obviously. It's different in it's aprroach to the language than i.e Pimsleur's, as it doesn't start of with presenting you "vacation-skills" (handy and practical, but only for easy phrases needed when going on vacation). The M. Thomas approach is a little more complex, but it hence give you the chance to build broader basic knowledge of the language.
That being said, I'm a little disappointed at how the course has been recorded. The two English students M. Thomas is instructing, did get on my nerves after a while. Their progress was a lot slower than my own, and I consider my self no quick learner. I felt they where there just to stretch out the time mostly (which isn't necessary at all, as you can control the speed on the disc's with your pause-button). Coughing, laughing, etc. was also left on the finish discs, which made it seem a bit unprofessional to me, but that may be great for the ones who fear a too serious and "stuck-up" approach to learning.
The M.T German course is a surprisingly quick and down-to-earth fun way to learn basic German.

Firstly my native language is English, and I also speak Italian at an intermediate level as my parents are Italian born. My only other contact with another language was that I took German classes for six months at night during my first year at University. That was almost 20 years ago.

Becuase my latest job sees me travelling long hours on the road, I thought it opportune to refresh my interest in the German language. I went to the International Language Bookshop in town and spoke to the service desk. I told them I wanted the best language course that was most suitable for the car. I was given three options. One was Pimsleur, the second was Michel Thomas and the third I really can't remember. The lady in the store told me Michel Thomas was a "bit different, and you will either love him or hate him". Fortunately they gave me the option to listen to each one in the store.

I listened to all three. After 10 minutes of listening to Michel I was hooked. It's like having a cranky old kraut professor telling you how to speak German! And he is passionate about the language, and uses little memory tricks to get you to remember words and their meaning. He also gives you the background on the language, and it is done in a nice casual conversational manner. Two students are used to create the talking situations and i found the whole approach refreshing and INTERESTING. I do have a low boredom threshold, and some of these educaional language classes suck the very desire out of you to learn the language you want to speak!
As the sales lady said you will eiher love him or hate him - Try and get a sample of the course before you buy if you have the opportunity. I am sure you will very quickly be able to make up your mind if Michel is for you.
Danke & Guten Abend! *****

I switched on to Michel's "Speak French" set of tapes about four years ago and constantly use them as a refresher. There is profound learning in the seamless technique he employs, such as: the use of building blocks, repetition, reinforcement, association, and so on, well known pedagogical devices. The great man died at the beginning of 2005 (check out his Wikipedia entry), and I feared his wonderful teaching would fade from the scene. That fear has been put to rest. His French language recordings have become like old friends to me, and this "Speak German" series continues the legacy. He presents the German language with the aid of two neophytes, who are gradually transformed into reasonably competent speakers of the language. If you are attentive and stay with Michel's two ground rules, you, too, will get there. At times Michel is gruff, and at others gently encouraging his students with good humour. Yes, I am a big fan. Michel delivers all he promises with this remarkable teaching method.

This particular series of instructional books (meaning the "QuickSteps" series) has always been one of my favorites -- they're concisely written in short paragraphs with decent descriptive pictures to help anyone learn just about any type of software application.

While I found this book to be fairly complete, I'd still only recommend it as a desk-side reference manual to use along with Microsoft tutorials themselves. While it is a cleverly written book that is not as cumbersome to use as other reference books on the market, it does not address all of the finer points of Excel.

All in all, it's a great reference book, and let's face it, sometimes it's just easier to review a chapter a few times to digest material rather than stare at a computer screen until you become cross-eyed.

All in all, I'd probably give this book a 4.5, but since that's not an option, I'll have to stick with 4 stars.

I manage a medium-sized network and support a large number of fairly savvy users. That is, most users know how to do their specific tasks very well and are willing to learn new things. But they are not willing to sit down with a book full of dense text. This is where the "Quick Steps" books come in handy. I keep a number of these books on hand and when a user requests assistance, I give them one of the books with the appropriate page bookmarked. Steps are outlined in full color with lots of pictures and pointers and tips. Additional information is set off in side boxes so users can learn more if they choose. What I have found is that once a user completes a task successfully, they get fairly excited about the experience and browse the book to learn more. The books really stimulate users to experiment with things they would not normally bother to learn. And that is where this book excels. It is a "browser." Users don't feel like they need to start at the beginning and read through to the end. I get lots of grumbles when I ask for the book back so I can pass it on to others.

This book is also great for new users. I tell them to spend a few hours working through the steps, which are easy to follow and can be done at a fairly fast pace. Most users think the full color layout is fun to work through. The down-side is that like any book, space is limited, especially with the fully-illustrated format, so you're obviously not going to find everything in these books, but I do feel they contain a good balance of material and are appropriate for corporate libraries.

Marty (the concept author for the Quick Steps series) and I are fellow writers and that is how I learned about these books. I must say that they have helped my users enormously and relieved my support task. Hey, it's the 21st century. Anyone working in an office should know how to work with operating systems and common applications. Most people can do that if they have easily accessible references and refresher material like these books. Thanks to Marty for developing the "Quick Steps" concept and to McGraw-Hill for publishing this series.

I'm a soon-to-be-graduating Psychology student at the University of Washington and I am writing this review from the perspective of some one using excel in Social Sciences.

I found this book extremely suited to my needs...each step was very clear and precise and it was easy to find the chapter or section that was most applicable to what I was working on.

It covered all of the functions of Excel that I have used in my classes thus far. Although my intro. classes had a very brief introduction to the functions I needed, as I progressed into higher level classes and used more and more Excel I found that I needed additional specific instructions for my work. This book was very helpful in that way, and saved me the bother of forever emailing questions to my professor, as I had done before I received the book.

I actually used Excel the most to analyze the significance of data from an experiment that I had designed and to graph the results. This required quite a few steps and it was helpful to have a guide to look at as I went as opposed to trying to guess what came after the basic skills I had previously learned.

I also lent this book to a friend who works in American Ethnic Studies and used Excel to organize and make tables of data for her thesis. The American Ethnic Studies major has no background in science, so was in the position of having absolutely zero knowledge of Excel. However, with this book alone, she was able to complete the Excel portion of there thesis without any additional help.

From a student's point of view, this is a great resource if your field involves any use of Excel.

I don't use Excel all the time. But when I do I don't have time to troubleshoot problems.

This hands-on, user friendly book has helped me conquer Excel. The text is readable and well organized. The visuals are clean and fully support the instructions.

I found that you can start from the beginning and teach yourself EXCEL with simple step by step instructions or you can flip straight to your topic of interest and further build your skills. This is a great tool for all levels of expertise.

I am an infrequent Excel user, so I needed a good reference book that is well indexed. That's exactly what I got with Excel 2003 QuickSteps. It's easy to find what I need when I want it. It's very well illustrated and contains a lot of great tips. The author does an excellent job of explaining the material.

I like Kate Gregory's writing style and her ability to get very complex and detailed information presented in an interesting and informative manner. I especially appreciate her ability to describe the interop capabilities of utilizing both managed and unmanaged C++ code. This book is the best that I have found in explaining this complex subject in a clear manner. This book is a little too complex for a beginner.
I do not normally write book reviews, but this is an outstanding book by a very proficient author.

I've purchased serveral books on .NET and this is the first I have finished. I really liked the fact that the book was short and to the point. This made for a quick read.

One of the surprising things in the book is how she takes some time to explain her methodology to application development and give some great examples. You won't find that in any other book.

If you're a C++ programmer looking to move into .NET I highly suggest this book as your first read. You won't be dissapointed.

This is an excellent book to start learning C++ .NET 2003. As with many people out there, I find myself often disappointed with the Microsoft on-line help and especially with the fact the many examples are only in VB.NET or C#.NET. I am one of those guys that goes to the local Book Superstore and sits in the corner reviewing several books on a subject trying to find a good selection. If you want to learn C++ .NET, I challenge anyone to go find a copy at a bookstore and look through it. I think you will buy it like I did.

Kate Gregory does an excellent job in describing how to work with Managed and Unmanaged C++ with .NET. She also provides excellent overviews on many aspects of C++.NET. The book doesn't cover everything about C++.NET, no single book possibly could. It will always depend on the target audience. But this is a great book for the beginner and intermediate developer. Her writing is clear and concise with example code that is easily understood.

Bottom line - If you want to learn C++ .NET - CHECK OUT THIS BOOK!

This is a very good quick read text to use in moving from C++ to Mananged C++ or .NET. Very clear writing with succinct examples.

I've been programming in C++ since the borland D.O.S version, and now I'm inside the .NET world. I think this book is good enough to understand the changes between versions