Information Books

To get the most enjoyment from this beautiful book, buy the original Katherine Woods translation.

This is a wonderful story and a great book I was able to share with my students. The only drawback with the book is that the pages are not in color, but the extremely low price allowed me to purchase the books for my students out of my own pocket.

Katherine Woods' translation is the only English-language version of The Little Prince which captures the beauty, simplicity, clarity, and profundity of the Antoine de St. Exupery's classic, penned in French.

(The newer translation is appallingly horrid and bland, mistaken, and frankly perplexing.)

This is really not a children's book, although older children will appreciate it.

Don't measure the value by the thickness of the book. De St. Exupery, himself a WWI pilot, writes with a great economy yet produces here the most beautiful poetry with a delightful playfulness and childlike innocence -- a fresh vision which thus sees clearly and does not obscure the profound.

Mr. Fred Rogers used to quote from de St. Exupery, whose image and illustrations once graced the 20-franc note (in the days before the euro).

There simply is no other work like this one. It is an exceptionally rare treasure, a masterpiece.

Be sure to read Katherine Woods' translation. Read it privately, when you have time to savor each word. And keep a box of tissues nearby.

The Little Prince has often been heralded as a youthful book, required reading in elementary and high schools alike. In delivering it this way I think The Little Prince is missed by the only audience that is likely to truly appreciate it, that is adults. It is not an uncommon misconception that this is a children's book. Indeed, I keep the pictures stored on my computer, and am often asked where they came from. I reply that they are from one of my favourite books, and without fail the response is along the lines of, 'I don't mean to be rude but is that a children's book?'. 'No', I explain, 'it is not'.

The Little Prince is most needed, I think, by adults. It is easy to be caught up in, as De Saint-Exupery describes it, 'matters of consequence' and forget that it is not these matters which bring meaning to life. By pointing out the futility of professions practised endlessly and in isolation of other people, it becomes clear that the Little Prince, with his rose, is the only character with a life of consequence.

This book is beautifully written and translated by Katherine Woods. It speaks volumes through its simple tale, strange though it seems that matters such as these only become clear when they are somewhat removed from reality. Matters such as love, innocence, imagination and priorities. The Little Prince is a gentle and stirring reminder to never forget to see the boa constrictor from the hat.

I was an adult when i read this book, and i really appreciated the lessons in life that Saint-Exupery shares through the Little Prince.

A great book, full of beautiful illustrations, easy to read, while fun and sad at the same time.

I personally read it as if Exupery is sharing with us the conversations he has with his own inner child, in the image of the Little Prince. That is why the Little Prince would ask many questions, but rarely answer the ones he was asked. Like all our inner children he's been hidden inside and kept silent for a long long time, and now that he was given his chance, he will speak. And we better listen, for he is an integral part of our psyche, who will take us through the most unbelievable adventures.

I have to laugh that one of the tags for this book is atheist. Was he an atheist? I don't know. But I truly enjoyed this book, and it was a further shovel of dirt on religion in the ground for me. A number of things had led me to that point (taking a philosophy course way back when I was in college), but this book really gave religion in a frank light: nothing more than an explanation of the unknown for societies. The ones that took hold and didn't go away when science explained away are what we have today. But seriously, lets only go as far as agnostic, please.

Religion aside, this is truly a magnificent travel through space. I read it whilst camping that really assisted in its fine journey. A little outdated, but highly recommended nonetheless.

I have read many many books pertaining to astronomy and cosmology over the years, but until this book, I had never read anything written by Carl Sagan. What interested me enough to purchase this book was not only the topic it covered, but that the book was itself written by Carl Sagan.

I best remember Carl Sagan from those TV specials he narrated that were aired on public TV many years ago. I was always impressed with Mr. Sagan's knowledge and manner of presentation of the material. His enthusiasm to tell what he knew about the cosmos was never masked by a scripted TV presentation; his enthusiasm was very infectious. So recently, I thought I had to rectify my having never read a book written by Mr. Sagan and I purchased the book Cosmos. I was not disappointed; I felt as if I was watching one of those old TV specials narrated by Mr. Sagan. In my mind's eye, I could see everything I was reading and I did not want the book to end.

Despite that the book may be dated, and cosmology has moved on a bit since the publishing of this book, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in cosmology, astronomy, astrophysics and even history. I only wish Mr. Sagan was still alive to write something new. He is missed by me.

The best advice I can give, regarding this book, is to GIVE it to a young person interested in science or space. You will plant a seed that will grow forever. Sagan's masterpiece takes the mind on a wonderful journey through the stars as well as through other space centered events. Highest recommendation as a text for learning as well as a fine read for anyone interested in the subject.

Carl Sagan's book and TV series called Cosmos has opened the vast universe to millions and millions of people. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and watching the series.

It is not surprising that Cosmos is the best-selling science book ever published in the English language...and the series has been seen by half a billion people!

Carl Sagan was able to accomplish this feat by tapping into his psyche as a little boy who asked many questions about the universe. He then wrote and produced the series from the heart. His enthusiasm and fascination with the earth, planets, stars, galaxies, extraterrestrial life and more is contagious! He took an incredibly difficult subject and made it fun, exciting and educational for anyone from 8 to 80 who has looked up at the night skies...and wondered.

The book and series are not to be missed!

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

I first bumped into Carl Sagan when I saw his TV documentary series called "Cosmos" many years ago. It has only been recently that I have got off my rear and read the book. It has to be said that I had waited far too long to do this.

"Cosmos" (the book) is a great overall introduction to the universe about us and the history of its discovery by people. Mixing hitsory and astronomy, Sagan covers the major efforts that went into discovering different things out there and what thos discoveries meant. There is also a healthy level of how astronomers do what they do, such as light spectrum analysis, radar mapping and so on. Despite this, there is virtually no mathematics involved, which is a good thing for general readers.

The hardcover edition also has plenty of pictures, photos and diagrams relating to the text. This makes the book very interesting and quite amazing to read. I was very impressed with the quality of the photos and what they showed. They added a great deal to the text, especially for more visual people such as myself.

The only drawback with the book is its age. It was written over 20 years ago and references to future missions planned for 1986 highlight this aspect of the book. There may have been discoveries since the time of writing that would add more to the reader's knowledge. However, in spite of this drawback of age, the book is still valuable as a very readable introduction.

Carl Sagan writes with a very fluid and relaxing style. He doesn't overload the reader with specialised jargon, and when he does use it, he explains it very well. When the explanations are a bit heavy, I have noticed Sagan's tendency to supply diagrams. I was at no point confused or lost by Sagan's text.

Overall, the book makes a great starting point into the world of astronomy, the path people have taken to get us to where we are today and just what is out there. This is a very interesting book about a very interesting subject. I definitely recommend it, despite the age problems refered to above.

John Kremer's book has answered alot of questions that I had that I couldn't seem to get answered any where else. Now I have the ultimate tool to assist me in putting together a great marketing plan.

I recommend this book to anyone who really wants to make their book a success.

Susie McCray, poet & author
"See What I See"

Jam-packed with ideas to help you market your book. Writing amazon reviews is one of them!

Author, "Trust is Everything: Become the leader others will follow"

John Kremer's book is by far the best on how to effectively market your books. He gives idea after idea (many of them low cost and no cost) on how to get the word out.

Anyone who is in the know, knows that John Kremer's book is a must have.

You want your book to succeed? Get this book now!

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
101 Ways to Get Your Foot in the Door: Success Strategies Guaranteed to Put You Miles Ahead of the Competition

PROS: Outstanding tips. Excellent advice and ideas. Original.

CONS: A bit expensive, even though it's over 700 pages.

CONCLUSION: Both small and large publishers do a lousy job at promoting their authors. With rare exceptions (usually for high profile authors), the publishers expect the author to do most of the work. Therefore, all authors should get this book if they want to promote their work. Without marketing, most books die a quiet death.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books is the bible of marketing books. I have read the book cover to cover once and refer back to it again and again.

I used up half of a highlighter and dozens (if not over a hundred) post-it notes to mark the important pages and key points in the book. The title of the book is quite humble. The material actually has probably 2,000 or more ideas to market books.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books covers it all. It addresses the fundamentals, how to open new markets, marketing and selling in bookstores, schools and on the internet. It also discusses selling overseas, selling subsidiary rights, offbeat advertising, promotions and more.

There are so many great ideas that every time I pick it up again I find more marketing ideas to consider. Even if a person cherry picks, there are still enough ideas to keep one busy for years!

What also makes this book a great resource is that is that John Kremer thoroughly researched the work. His common sense approach makes the book a page turner. Although there are 700 pages, there is essentially no fluff.

Thank you John Kremer for providing a path to successfully marking our books!


The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

Code complete is the right title for this book. Sadly most people find it extremely hart to read it. Its great as a reference but reading it word for word is as interesting as watching grass grow. Don't get me wrong. This is a great book. Everyone should at least hold it for once. But do not try to read it as a book. The first 300 pages will be boring. When the actual code chapters begin it gets better but still tends to be tedious.

A great book for beginners but a little boring read for advanced users.

When I bought this book, I couldn't believe all the 5 star ratings in the reviews. But, now that I've finished it, I have to agree with them. Simply put, this is probably the best computer-related book I've read. In the book's 850 pages, I found a grand total of five minor problems: one was grammatical, two were typographical and two were minor disagreements with how some things were presented. All trivial. Content-wise, if the universities would teach this material and if programmers would follow the methodologies contained in the book, the world of software would be far, far better off. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book and rate it an Excellent 5 stars out of 5.

This was a great book both for me and my team. I've been in the software industry for many years. I started building a team of developers and needed an easy way to bring novice and experienced programmers together on a similar set of standards. This book provided us with the perfect framework from which to start our team. We've developed several major projects using the principles in this book and have experienced a great deal of success.

One warning, the book gets a bit tedious after the first half. If you're looking to improve your C programming skills, it gets really detailed into pointers and other fun, or not, stuff. Also, the examples are in VB.NET...but you still get the point.

If you're an experienced software developer or a newbee in the world of commercial computer programming this book will give a good kick in the right direction. Steve McConnel will keep you hooked by mixing the right guiding concepts with real-life knowledge and examples.

for all programmers. Shall I say Application Developers? Software Engineers? Whatever the title is, programming jobs are alive and well! This book provides a solid foundation. It is too bad very few American students are interested in this profession.

The average students are all studying business marketing. The good students are studying finance.

At Harvard University, they do not teach Accounting. The best ones, study Economics. There are only 21 students studying Computer Science at Harvard. Yet, parents are paying $220,000 to Harvard and other Ivy League. Truly amazing!

Is there anyway we can change this trend?

If you like horses this book is for you. The basic plot:
-after a shipwreck, a kid ends up stranded on an island with a horse
-the two befriend each other and help each other (kid feeds horse, horse kills snake near kid)
-the two our found and taken back to NY, where the kid lives
-all are happy to see the kid's alive
-the horse has amazing talent in the field of racing, but the kid has no papers for the horse so he is unable to race it
-they find a race that was set up by the owners of the horses and ask the owners if he can be entered into it
-they say yes
The book ends with a thrilling race that you feel you are riding in.

A boy and his horse.


In something of a change of pace, a horse book that may just be slightly more directed at boys than girls, although the plot stays fairly similar.

Boy helps out horse in island shipwreck situation. Horse returns the favour. Horse of course is an impressive specimen and can do the fast running thing quite nicely.

So, off to the races then go.

Strange in a way that I loved this book so much when I read it in fourth grade, because, ironically, in real life, horses kind of scare me. I think Walter Farley's book is magical and I hope others who read it find as much meaning as I did in the story of a boy named Alec Ramsey, who survives a shipwreck and befriends a magnificent black Arabian stallion. Yes, this enduring classic is basically a fantasy, but sometimes it takes fantasy to create a book that is capable of touching the human soul in the exact way this one does.

What would you do if your horse saved you from the frightening death of drowning? Then what would you do if that horse was taken away from you? That is exactly what Alec thought of in the fictional book The Black Stallion written by Walter Farley.

Alec was on a ship back to his homeland, when the ship got in contact with a glacier. No one even thought of about saving that horrible, kicking, horse in the stables. Though Alec knew it was the right thing so he went into the stables and saved the horse. As they jumped off the ship, Alec was too weak to swim. So the stallion swam miles with Alec at the end of the stallions lead rope, until they saw land. They were stuck on that island fighting to survive as their friendship grew between them. One day a ship came and saved them. In a couple of days they would be at home. The stallion was named The Black and was kept in an older barn behind Alec's house.

I couldn't put this book down. This whole series was amazing. Anyone who loves horses would love these books. This book made me happy, nervous, and sad. It also made me cry. I think everyone should experience these feelings when you read a book.

-Courtney Dommer

This book is a must-read for any child. When I was young I read lots of Jack London books and I also read the entire Walter Farley Black Stallion series. Walter Farley's books are written in a very simple style, easy for young readers to understand. The movie is a timeless classic & was so well done. Some children will find the movie slow (no talking during the whole island sequence) but if your child appreciates beautiful images, and is horse-crazy, they'll love the film. I now own a black Arabian stallion of my own...so be careful, Black Stallion books can cause a lifelong horse addiction!

I bought this book as an additional material to study for the CISA exam. However it didn't help me with the exam at all. Furthermore, in an attempt to cover many things, it did not cover anything in detail. This book is just an endless recollection of bullet points. On top of that, it misses very sensitive topics like disaster recovery planning.

Not having much experience in the IT audit field, this book was a great resource and was easy to understand.

This book has some material relevant to the CISA examination based on the 2003 content areas, although it is not organized or focused as a CISA examination guide. If you are looking for CISA review material for the test, I would strongly suggest to stick with ISACA's combination of review manual and questions CD. I also searched everywhere for study aids for this grueling test and ended up using ISACA's expensive material, but it proved to be the best choice as I passed the Dec 2006 test.

However, as owner of a copy of this book, I assure you that this is an excellent reference of IT management, planning, implementation, risk assessment and control procedures for anyone in the IT business. Most of the material is still relevant as of 2007.

Audit is not the most exciting topic in the world, but this no fluff book really sets the standard. The care the authors took is obvious from the start, the table of contents is one of the most detailed I have ever seen, it allows the book to be used as a reference.

My favorite chapter was Quality Management, best job of making quality approachable I have seen to date. My least favorite was Project Management, it seemed to lack the application and lean to theory a bit.

I am not an auditor, but as an auditee, this book really helped me understand how they think. Recommended!

This is a huge book but spends no more then 1 page on any topic. In my opinion the authors only have financial audit experience and little understanding of IT controls. This book shows the failure of the 'integrated auditor' as the authors are tyring to be IT auditors with little IT experience. They touch on some very good points in a few instances and, in general, the book is decent. The authors do not know much outside of the CISA, IIA and financial based certifications as they seem to think that the ISSA (Information Systems Security Assoc.) is sponsored by ISC2/CISSP's (it is not). Overall, I have not been impressed with this book.

This is THE BIBLE. This is the gold standard for the exposition of the TCP/IP protocol stack. Every other TCP/IP protocol book must be measured by the yardstick of this book. This is simply the most comprehensive book ever written on the TCP/IP protocol stack. It's crystal clear and utterly lucid. Stevens tome leads the reader logically, methodically and effortlessly through all of the layers of the TCP/IP protocol stack: the Link Layer (ethernet frames), IP layer, Transport Layer etc. All nuances of TCP/IP are discussed: Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), RARP, ICMP, IGMP, User Datagram Protocol, Transmission Control Protocol etc. In particular, the 135 page exposition of the transmission control protocol is a masterstroke. Application level protocols such as DNS, NFS, FTP, SMTP are discussed at length. TCP/IP Illustrated is Unix-centric. Given that the roots of TCP/IP are in Unix, every serious appreciation of the protocol requires at least a basic understanding of Unix philosophy. This book is a masterpiece of technical writing in Computer Science. Do not be mislead by the one negative review of this book on the spurious grounds that it is outdated. The TCP/IP protocol has not changed since the publication of this book in 1994. I have two copies of this book and will probably buy a third copy. I very, very highly recommend TCP/IP Illustrated Volume I.

It is a very good book for understanding TCP/IP protocol suite. It has lots of tools explained in detail to explore the different protocols on unix/linux based systems. Most of the protocols are presented well. It is a must have book for learning networking concepts. I highly recommend this book.

Either if you're a pro or a student, this book is a MUST-HAVE. "Buy it NOW, don't waste more time" is the best advice I could give to you.

This book has very well detailed TCP/IP information, unfortunately some of the information is outdated. The book is easy to follow, and would make an even better learning tool if updated. I bought the book since it was required reading for a class, but I would opt out for a younger publishing on this topic if I had a choice.

This is a good book that covers all the fundamentals of TCP/IP networking. Good illustrations. Seperate chapters for each common application protocols.

Thick Oracle book which is intended for developers who might need to understand the Oracle internals and administration parts besides writing SQL. It's useful for them working in other database also as the general database concept is simlar. Developers can now have more DBA knowledges after reading before on-going performing some DBA task.

Gr8 stuff for all the Oracle ppl.

A true masterpiece, and a great way to learn Oracle concepts. No more to say.

I have been an Oracle DBA for about six years and this book is still the one I turn to when looking for deeper insight into tough Oracle problems. The author recently published a new book on 9i and 10g and that one is also quite excellent. When it comes to analysis and clear writing style, no one can beat Tom Kyte for excellence. Highly recommended.

I bought this book on cheap clearance after the original publisher went out of business -- the best $12 I ever invested. Remembering even 10% of this book makes you better than 90% of Oracle developers, modelers and architects. Mr. Kyte's real world experience and reliance on solid examples instead of folklore makes this light-years ahead of any other Oracle book; it's the only Oracle book I re-read regularly. If you can afford only one Oracle book, this is it. And you may not need any other.

This is a terrific book, as good as I've seen for the intermediate user. I'm not a professional but in my opinion, once you've learned the basics, selecting and masking are skills essential for improving your photographs, or whatever type of art you do with Photoshop. This book is a treasure trove of information I've never seen in other books or in tutorials from the web. And I even learned how to use the pen tool, something I've only been frustrated with before.

The author uses a unique combination of tutorials (along with sample files from her website) and descriptions of Photoshop features that will help you easily master every technique.

However, I'll warn you. The pages from my copy were falling out when I first received it from Amazon. If I had been willing to ship it back and wait another couple of weeks, I'm sure they would have replaced it. But it was a frustration. I've managed to keep the book intact with a generous application of glue to the pages, but the binding was unacceptable and I doubt my copy was the only one in that condition.

Ms. Eismann hits all the areas necessary for one to become proficient in masking and compositing. She is recommended by all the current photoshop gurus for a very good reason. This book is an excellent primer and also delves into advanced techniques. It's a great resource book and I've got post-it flags everywhere. You can't go wrong with this book.

Debbie Schmidt
dsh Solutions
http://www.dshsolutions.com

The most comprehensive book on selecting, masking and layers. It was easy to read and follow. Adobe Photoshop CS3Photoshop Masking & Compositing (VOICES)

The cost of any book by Katrin Eismann is returned to the reader in value many, many times over. This book is everything the photoshop user needs to know about the sometimes daunting, but now made easy by Katrin, masking and compositing images. Now you can make those tough cut-outs of thin strands of hair against tough backgrounds that you used to run away from before.

Katrin is one of the best and this book continues that tradition!

It's a great book. It gives you a very wide knowlege of how to make masks,selections and compositions.It's easy written and you can download all pictures of the book from the internet.So you can try it yourself wright away.Katrin is a very inspiring person and she makes you very enthousiastic by telling her way of seeing things and the many ways you can make these things happen with photoshop.You really can't wait to start.I thought I knew photoshop but I learn so much more by reading this book and doing it at the same time.

My alumnae group read this book to 3rd graders at an inner-city school and the kids loved it! We had a map and games to go with it and the program was a big success. I highly recommend this book for teachers.

My daughter told me that my young grandchildren love this book and the humorous way it was written. I found it through the reviews in here and wholeheartedly agree with the good ones and thank everyone for posting them. I haven't gotten to read it myself, as they are in another state...but I can assure you, it is a book to include in your little one's library! :D

This is a fun book and is a good way to get familiar with the States. My son enjoys reading it.

A hilariously told and illustrated story heart about appreciating where you are from and what you have. 'Scambled is a unique take on being in a state of discontent . Each State has its own (harmlessly and comically stereotyped) characteristics-- Wisconsin loves cheese, Texas hollers "YEEEHA!" The illustrations playfully keep your eye moving (the spreads are FULL of tiny side jokes) and the story keeps the pages turning. Lost along the way (and maybe why it's so successful) is that the reader will have learned some geography along the way. What an entertaining, engaging way to present fact and nonfiction to a child! A perfect companion to kids who are starting to learn about our country.

This book was fantastic for my 2nd grader to learn the names of the states. We started each state lesson by doing the Melissa & Doug USA Map 51-Piece Floor Puzzle. Then we would read "The Scrambled States of America" while the puzzle was made, so we could check where each state is located that the book mentions. After a day or two, my son loved to put together the Melissa and Doug USA puzzle, because it wasn't just pieces. Each state had a personality. So instead of just putting together a puzzle piece, the pieces would talk to each other. Nevada would be in one hand, and Mississippi would be in the other. "I love you", "And I love you". "I'll write to you every day. Bye" "Bye". Then he would put Nevada and Mississippi in their respective places. I should make a video of my kids doing the puzzle. It is hilarious. Even my four year old would get into it and talk about how Nevada and Mississippi were in love, and Arizona did not like the ocean ruining her hairdo.