Languages Books

There have been a couple of other books on message passing, but most of them have been anchored to a particular operating system or language. This book is the first to offer a general treatment of messaging, as a way to merge disparate middleware installations.

At the end of the day, messaging technology is just another way to allow distributed code to interact. Blunden takes the time to compare and contrast messaging against other distributing computing techniques. The result is that the reader can understands the relative advantages and limitations of messaging, so that they can use the right tool for the right job.

At every turn, Blunden grounds his explanations using concrete examples, so that the reader has a solid frame of reference (I can appreciate the author's humorous 10-page implementation of a DCOM server, basically to demonstrate how awkward a distributed technology can be... it's no wonder DCOM faded away).

The author of this book has obviously seen combat in the trenches. The fact that he would discuss deployment requirements like auto-update and secure network communication is proof enough.

I particularly enjoyed the bits of storytelling that Blunden hides in between technical discussions. In one part, he talks about working at a company in the throes of Y2K conniptions: "Like a 15-year-old kid studying for an algebra test, the company that hired me had waited until the last minute to do its homework. In September of 1999, the CIO put down his copy of Fortune Magazine long enough to realize that something needed to be done. Angry customers might file lawsuits, which would ruin the CIO's plans for a weekend cottage in Bermuda."

This book does an impressive job of looking at a "niche" of computer science and analyzing it in the backdrop of contemporary production requirements. The book provides an extensive presentation of background theory, a 10,000+ line working system, lucid documentation, and a discussion of alternative improvements and approaches.

To demonstrate the cross-platform/cross-language feasibility of his distribution, the author offers three different client pieces (C, Java, and Perl). This is a round-trip explanation of messaging passing that does a conscientious job of covering all the bases.

This is a very instructive learning-by-implementing book, in the tradition of Tanenbaum's MINIX. Blunden walks one through an in-depth analysis and implementation of a real message passing server.

I'm a little put off, though, by the fact that I find 10 5-Star ratings for this book, all posted on the same date by the same reviewer. C'mon.

I bought this book with the expectation that the Bluebox message server would be a token implementation.

Whoa! Was I wrong; this book shows the full monty! It includes a message server engine, a log server, a database interface, a license server, and auto update engine, recovery facilities, and a heartbeat monitor. Fortunately, the 100 or so classes that make up the distribution are well documented and a user manual is included in the book. The last few sections of the book also have some interesting anecdotes that are worth reading.

One of the few WM development books, and certainly the only one that merits five stars. This book is thorough, timely, and informative about the technologies relevant to making great WM apps in native and managed code.

I purchased this book, among others, to learn more about the compact framework. This has ended up being the one that is always on my desk and constantly referred to. There is information in here that is not on any google search, and the code used by the author to demonstrate complicated operations (such as creating opacity in CF forms), is easier and clearer than I have seen anywhere else. A very good book, and well worth purchasing.

Definitely a good book: I found it very complete and easy to read. Useful and interesting, straightaway.

Got 2 copies for my moble development team. The book is simply invaluable. Either you read cover to cover, or select any chapter of special interest the result is in depth information and guidance. Very often our two copies are not enough for everyone in the team.

It is like my bitacora or bible when i am offline. I guess it has a little of everything you need to know in very compact book (i thought a 600 book will be wider but the size is great)

we need to learn how to work with them and how to make them work, this is in part what Colleen tells us here. Very nice book indeed and not the usual one. She doen't promise to become wealty by getting published, yet between the lines I think there is a hope for everyone of us becoming richer in the spirit. And this is why many of us write: to live a fuller life by reflecting on it. This book helps us in both ways - to write for the entertinment of others and for the deepening of one's thoughts - and I'm eagerly waiting for a second and third book with more entertaining tips and insight! Thak you Colleen.

This book is great, will really rev up your writing, and I'm not the only one who says so. The February 2001 issue of Wisconsin Bookwatch has the review : With "Movies In The Mind: How To Build A Short Story", Colleen Rae provides the aspiring writer with compendium of sound advice, techniques, and strategies for writing plausible, believable, resonating fiction. Each informative chapter is a gem of sound, practical, illustrative, and occasionally inspiring instruction and includes: Entering The Storymaker's Realm; Fiction's Building Blocks; Participatory Art; Digging The Clay; Whose Story Is It Anyway?; Unlocking Your Story; How To Birth A Story; and There's Always A Critic. Very highly recommended for anyone seeking to improve the quality of their fiction," Movies In The Mind" is further enhanced with a section of Exercise Pages, a Reading List; and a user-friendly index.

Colleen Mariah Rae's book is a unique approach to learning the art of writing fiction. It's strictly an inside job, and Rae helps you find answers to your fiction writing problems within yourself. Her emphasis on imagery and detail is presented in a straight forward manner that sheds new light on the subject. But her advice on developing a trait continuum for your characters is help of the most valuable kind. I look forward to seeing more books from her in this series.

John M. Whalen, Journalist/Freelance Writer

Before I finished the first chapter of this book, I saw a dramatic difference in my writing. If you want to learn how to connect with the mysterious well where all of our stories come from, if you want to understand what really grabs your reader and connects him/her with your story, read this book! It's not just for short story writers. It's for writers. Period. Look through Colleen Mariah Rae's eyes as you devour this book, and you'll see your creative world in a whole new light!

With Movies In The Mind: How To Build A Short Story, Colleen Rae provides the aspiring writer with compendium of sound advice, techniques, and strategies for writing plausible, believable, resonating fiction. Each informative chapter is a gem of sound, practical, illustrative, and occasionally inspiring instruction and includes: Entering The Storymaker's Realm; Fiction's Building Blocks; Participatory Art; Digging The Clay; Whose Story Is It Anyway?; Unlocking Your Story; How To Birth A Story; and There's Always A Critic. Very highly recommended for anyone seeking to improve the quality of their fiction, Movies In The Mind is further enhanced with a section of Exercise Pages, a Reading List; and a user-friendly index.

Savoured the book from start to finish. It took me 2 weeks to read the last 20 pages because I did not want it to end. I am looking forward to reading the next Gillian adventure.

Everyone loves an adventure (or at least reading of one) and most of us will never take a boat from China to America. Envious of this one, I curled up by my fireplace and read Mr. Ding's Chicken Feet with a taste for the fascinating journey of a Caucasian woman on a boat full of Asian men. I was not disappointed.

The author sets sail on an ocean of cultural difference and wins over the hearts of the crew - a rough and salty bunch who sit spellbound by her in English class.

Because of the obvious vast expanse of ocean to cross, you know that the author is going to have to face a few things she has probably never had to before, and deal with them. There is, after all, no escape on a small boat in the middle of the ocean.

Kendall reveals the color of the crew over the course of the journey as if she were polishing up tarnished brass. It was great fun to read about the men as they blossom at the hand of their teacher...though the revelations were not one-sided.

Not surprisingly, I felt the poignancy at the sight of land, which meant having to say goodbye.

Kendall writes with an unpretentious clarity, humor and heart. I definitely recommend it.

Ji Lians book very good. Makes me laugh. Have to laugh and wake up husband to read good part. I like this book. I like especially page where I am mention. I am Li. I am beautiful asian/american. Not Chinese. I too, don't like chicken feet.

I spent the academic year of 1999/2000 teaching English in Shenzhen. I spoke no Chinese, at the time, and had no formal teaching experience. So I could definitely relate to Gillian's frustrations, culture shock, and malentendus. It's 1991 and Gillian is a grad student in Galveston, TX. The semester is coming to a close and she spies an ad on the bulletin board for an ESL teacher aboard a ship sailing from Shanghai to Galveston. After a hard sell Gillian manages to land the job aboard the all male ship. The company flies her to Shanghai where she boards the ship. The reader witnesses her feelings about being the only woman on the ship; loneliness and some sexual harassment egged on by the only other American on board. She experiences a Sapphic awakening as she realizes in her state of isolation that she doesn't have any romantic feelings for her boyfriend. She manages to break through the cultural, gender, and language barriers to form some attachments to her students and especially Mr. Ding, the cook. The book is riddled with faux pas but the funniest part, I would say, is when she saves Mr. Ding by hurling the violent Panamanian vendor into the Canal.

In Mr Ding's Chicken Feet, the author, Gillian Kendall, comes across at first as maybe a little naive and unwary. She is a risk-taker. Her apparent lack of serious doubt about the whole enterprise, her trust in her fellow human beings not to harm her and her faith that it would all work out made me a little nervous on her behalf. But she is vindicated by the experience and it is her empathy and geniality that are the keys to her success. Observing Kendall's openness to life and her willingness to reach out across cultures became one of the pleasures of reading the book. A cynical reader such as I am found it instructive to watch her interest in humanity unfold and be repaid.

Her story really takes off once the ship leaves shore. Then it leaves behind any experience I and probably most readers have had. Shipboard life with a completely male crew who mostly speak very fractured English seems so weird and challenging that you half expect the book to be a story of failure -- perhaps noble failure but depressing nonetheless. So it's very satisfying that she actually makes a difference to the sailors' English and lives. She is inventive in her methods and determined to give her employers their money's worth and thereby wins the crew's respect and affection.

Kendall can write -- just see her description of the terrible storm at sea. It had me rigid with tension. Shades of Conrad in Typhoon. She has a distinctive and likable tone of voice. The book tells an optimistic story in an unpretentious way and gives you faith in the power of empathic teachers (and English!).

This is an all-round excellent edition of the Greek New Testament.

The text font is large and highly readable; similar to what you would find in a Biblical Greek textbook. Overall, the external quality of the book is very high, especially taking into consideration the retail price.

Variant Byzantine readings are included in the margin where they have a significant amount of textual support (although no detail is provided in regards to specific manuscript support of each variant). ALL variations between this text and the NA27/UBS4 base text are also included in the footnotes, even when these are only very minor such as word order (I did a quick comparison of one chapter between this text and the NA27 and all variants were definitely noted).

Accents, Breathings, capitalization and punctuation have been added to the text to improve readability (although these were not included in the original manuscripts they are certainly helpful for those of us who are not experts in Koine Greek). Paragraph divisions and chapter/verse numbers have also been added. Subject headings are not included in the text.

This edition also contains a good introduction and appendix outlining some general introductory information about the various text types and presenting the editors reasons for their choice of texts. Even if you are a NA27 proponent these articles still contain valuable information, and alert the reader to the methodology utilized by the editors when choosing between competing manuscripts.

Conclusion: If you are after a well-priced and highly readable edition of the Greek New Testament, this is a highly viable option.

Setting aside for the moment the issue of the underlying text, this is a GREAT Greek NT to own. The other reviewers are absolutley correct; The font on this text is by far the best available, large and clear and dark, printed on nice white paper. It is almost as large as the large print Nestle Aland and larger than the UBS 4. Both of those books for some reason have yellow paper, the white paper is much nicer. The binding on this book is MUCH better than the NA or UBS stuff which is known to fall apart with any use at all. The cover on this book is a nice red/gold/black. Because there is more Greek text per page than anything else available, this book is thinner and more light weight than others which does make a difference. All this at an excellent price!

Now as far as the idea that the Byzantine text is closer to the original than the primarily Alexandrian text underlying NA27 and UBS 4, I would say that even if you don't beleive this to be true you should still buy this text because at the bottom of the page you have every reading from NA27 which differs from this text. Thus if you are an enthusiast for NA27 you can see all the places where it disagrees from what is more or less a modified version of the Textus Receptus. When you do this I think you will be struck with a few things. Number one, both texts agree most of the time, say 95%. Where they disagree a lot of the differences are very minor, DE for KAI, a different word order, maybe an article missing or added. More importantly, you will note that MANY of the readings in this text appear shorter and more difficult according to the traditonal criteria and therefore on the surface would appear more likely to be original. Robinson points out in an appendix that NA27 excludes these readings because they come from a "late" texts, but you can't have it both ways. If more difficult readings are likely to be original, how come Robinson's text has so many more difficult readings. What all this does I think is lower your confidence in textual criticism. You are left with the impression that this text for the most part is likley to be as close to the original as NA 27. Maybe it does make sense to read instead of a text which is a hodgepodge of speculations from modern scholars to read a text which at least represents readings that are found in a textual family that is earlier enough. Particularly when again you have all the readings of NA 27 in footnotes.

But even if you think this text is late and secondary, it still is nice to have as a resource. You can use it more closely with a KJV or a New KJV translation if that is your preference, and it is kind of nice to have a text which for example includes the doxology in the Lord's prayer right in the text. But above all, for pure joy of reading the external features of this text as so superior to UBS or NA that I would at least get it to supplement one of those, again considering the price is so cheap.

Excellent in it's simplicity. Robinson and Pierpont give you exactly what you want and nothing you don't. This book is just what it's title claims it to be, "The New Testament in the Original Greek". There are no Strong's numbers or any other kind of "helps" in the text; it's all Greek baby! So understand that you'll need to at least learn the Greek alphabet and a few basic words going in, but it is what it is. I give this book the highest rating.

I have long believed the Majority Text (MT) to be superior to the Critical Text (CT, i.e., the NA/ UBS text) and even to the Textus Receptus (TR). My first introduction to the MT was via the textual footnotes in the NKJV. These reference Hodges and Farstad's Majority Text.

Later I became aware of Robison & Pierpont's MT, and having studied their differing methodologies, I came to believe that R&P's was even more accurate. However, it should be noted that the differences between these two texts are minimal. This is even truer for the Second Edition of R&P's text as some of the changes between editions brought R&P's text into alignment with the H&F text. I discuss in detail my reasons for preferring the R&P's MT to the CT and TR and even to H&F's MT in my book Differences Between Bible Versions.

So when I felt God was leading me to produce my own translation of the NT back in 1999, I naturally used R&P's text. The First Edition of the text was available on my BibleWorks program, which I used extensively in my translation work. But I was also able to contact Maurice Robinson, and he graciously emailed me a digital copy of his text, with changes that had been made to it at that point in preparation for his Second Edition. So the First Edition of my Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament: Third Editionwas as up-to-date as possible.

In 2005 I began work on the Second Edition of my ALT, and Dr. Robinson once again helped me out by sending me a list of changes between his First and Second Editions, so ALT2 could be based on the new edition. He also sent me a list of all of the Byzantine alternative readings that would appear as footnotes in his new edition. These indicate places where the Byzantine Greek manuscripts are closely divided. But I wasn't able to include those in ALT2.

In 2007, I published a Third Edition of the ALT, along with an accompanying Companion Volume to the Analytical-Literal Translation: Third Edition. In this volume, I was able to include translations of the Byzantine alternative readings. In many cases, the difference between the main text and the alternate reading is so minor that it does not show up in translation. But my "Companion Volume" lists all of the alternate readings where the difference is translatable. But even then, most of the time, the difference between the main text and the alternate reading is very minor. So the reader can have full confidence in the integrity of R&P's Greek text.

So I have been working extensively with this Greek text for some time, even before it was published. But it good to see that Dr. Robinson was finally able to get his text published in a very readable and usable format.

This is an absolute joy to read!! Anyone interested in the Greek New Testament should definetly add this to their library. If your new to learning the Greek language, or are in the dark on the majorty text issue, this is a great resource. This book is also very easy to read. Also, the New Testament in this book is completely in Greek, no Engish in an interlinear format, or on oppsing pages!! The introduction, preface, ect. are in English though. I give this product an A+!!!

I read many object oriented and agile books published recently. In a Mymocks book store near Townhall, this book is wrapped. It raised my curiosity since it is such an old book. I ordered a used book from Amazon.com and it is still cheaper than the discount book seller in Australia.

Half way through, I realized that Agile process is not a new thing, it exists before it was called Agile, just like AJAX exists before it was called AJAX. Do you know how Martin Fowler called Java POJO? Martin learnt from a joke in this book.

It is book on Agile practice even it never mentioned Agile in the book.

Half-way through this book I decided I wanted to burn every copy of the book. If other people read this book, then they'll all know how to manage object-oriented software projects too!

I swear that Booch was spying on several of the so called "projects" that I was a developer on. It is simply amazing to me how many times the so-called "Harvard School of Business" techniques are used to manage an OO project! I have learned through the school of hard knocks what Booch has written about in this book (wish I had discovered it sooner, a couple of pointy haired bosses could have used it!). Anyway, Booch breaks OO management into seven chapters: First Principles, Products and Process, The Macro Process, The Micro Process, The Development Team, Management and Planning, and Special Topics. I especially found interesting his descriptions on how NOT to run an OO project (oh, and he gives plenty of examples on HOW to run one too!). Booch covers OOA, artifacts, OOD, methodolgies (a biggy with me even on a one person project), evolution (gosh! who would have thought you could have cyclical development???). Identification of classes, objects, symantecs, relationships, etc. He then tackles the team environment: roles and responsibilities (especially the manager's responsibilities!), resource allocation, and tools (this book is not a plug for Rational Rose BTW). Finally: managing risk, planning and scheduling, staffing, costing (a tough one), Quality Assurance (this is not testing!), and he talks some about projects in crisis and what to do. The last chapter is kind of a catch-all containing: User-centric, Data-centric, and Computation-centric systems discussions, along with Distributed, Legacy, Information Management, and Real Time Systems. The appendicies contain: a summary of recommended practices (for those wanting to create a methodology), and rules of thumb. There is a great index, bibliography and glossary to tie up the package nicely. Booch has a terrific writing style presenting what would normally be a dry subject! Definitely for the computer Project Manager's shelf!

Easily the best book ever written on managing complex software projects. Even more relevant today than when it was written, it has been my project management companion for years.

I had no hesitation to give 5 stars here. The book is really very good. Honestly, what do you expect with such a book ? To learn valable advices, to understand them, and to have fun while reading. Such a book exists : this one ! How many time I asked to myself "Yes ! What a good idea ... and so simple" or "Of course ! That's it". I really read it like a novel. You can bring it with you for your hollidays (like me), without the feeling to get boring with professional stuff !

Any of Natalie Goldberg's books are to me the ones I grab when I need to be spurred on to put pen to paper. This one in particular is a terrific tool to writing a memior. Her prompts are practical and aside from being funny at times, she knows the needs of aspiring writers. And she never writes over my head. I think I have read every one of her books at least once and even her novel "Banana Rose" which was great summer reading.
Do you want to write about yourself and your life as a memory? Try Natalie.

of a wonderfully readable memoir: That's How the Light Gets In: Memoir of a Psychiatrist by Susan Rako, M.D. The title comes from a song by Leonard Cohen: "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Rako's book is remarkably candid, insightful, and gracefully written. It's a great read. The writing just flows.

This is classic Natalie Goldberg. I have read most of her work and was not disappointed by her latest look into the heart of writing...specifically a memoir. She is the kind of writer you can and must read over and over again, not only if you aspire to write, but if you aspire to live your life well.

Natalie Goldberg has done it again! As a teacher of fiction and memoir, I recommend this book to all memoir writers. Natalie has prompts that will intrigue and spur writers to put pen in hand or fingers to the keyboard.

By using these prompts, you can't do anything BUT write.

Catherine Alexander
Author and Instructor

This morning at 4:30 I turned on the light to read a few more pages of Old Friend From Far Away. I skipped toward the end and read about how at a celebration for the twentieth anniversary of Natalie's first book, a woman who took her writing class when she was a young student at an alternative school, stood up to speak. The woman told her story of how one Monday Natalie brought in a bushel of rich red apples she'd picked the day before at an orchard near the school. This was a family orchard where a month before the oldest son had been killed in a bizarre gun accident. The woman revealed that this young man had been her first love.

When I got to the part where the woman explained how Natalie's writing class gave her an avenue for expressing her suffering and grief, I found myself sobbing (in a good way) with recognition of the truth of her words.

After the woman finishes telling her story Natalie writes:

"It's a holy thing to be a writer. It is why you want to write your memoir: to remember all of it. The good and the bad. To trust your experience, to have confidence that your moments and the moments of others on this earth mattered... It is a great thing you are doing whatever it is you are remembering. You are saying that life--and its passing--have true value."

I hesitated to buy Old Friend From Far Away since I already have Natalie Goldberg's other enormously helpful writing books. But all the praise from other writers is well-deserved. Every page makes me want to click my heels with delight--even the pages that make me cry. I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

--Suza Francina, author, The New Yoga for People Over 50 and other books for people at midlife and older.

Victoria Nelson's "On Writer's Block" covers the entire territory of writing process, not just the silences inherent in that process.

It's filled with marvelous quotations and wonderful tips. One I loved was: write your own review before the critics to so you'll have something solid to lean against.

This book belongs in every writer's bedside library.

Janet Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

If you are SERIOUS about becoming unblocked as
a writer, then this is the only book you will
ever need. What I most enjoyed about the book is
Nelson's simple methods for helping the writers.
She does not try to belittle the writer and she
writes in a fluid, flowing manner that makes the
book enjoyable and an easy read. Have a
highlighter read because you will mark up this book!


I wish I could give this book six stars!

I have never looked at Writer's Block the same way again after reading this book. She shares wonderful stories of other creative artists, defines a number of common blocks, and best of all, ways out.

It has a very psychological approach to the creative spirit.

The title really doesn't do the scope of this book justice. I picked up this book because I was having some problems with a novel in progress. Then I read it and just sighed....clear insight into the writing process, the good, and useless, habits we form and their impact on our productivity. The book addresses a wide spectrum, such as: "Beginner's Block", Procrastination, Perfectionism, Obsessive Rewriting, and Success. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned professional, this book should be part of your toolbox. It will get you writing....happily.

When I am completely stymied as to why I can't write creatively, I reach for the books at my bedside - The Holy Bible and this treasured paperback - to place me squarely back on track. Ms. Nelson has the uncanny ability to get me to cast away my inner slave driver who ruthlessly tries to force fame and fortune out of every sentence I write. She reminds me that I am a human being in need of TLC and a change in expectations without using cloying, "self-help" speak. I am forever indebted to her for writing such a wise book that comes across like loving advice from a trusted, experienced mentor every time I read a few chapters. My wish is that other frustrated writers come to know her intelligent solace so they can face the blank page truthfully, in peace and with joy. Thank you, Ms. Nelson, for being such a cherished lifesaver.

I love writing and so do my children but I realized long ago we learn by reading what others have written..This book is very easy and fun. I think it will be very helpful as the children go through various stages of writing school papers.

The service was great and the book in great condition when it arrived.

everthying in the painless series is great well worth the price. great for kids and adults.

I'm really fired up! Painless Writing does help us get rid of turgid and stilted way of writing, that's for sure. This must save us a lot of waste which annoys readers. I noticed that shorter and more concise sentences come before longer and wordier ones. I haven't finished reading it yet, though. Especially, too many prepositions and passive voices get on my nerves and dilute my enthusiasm for reading. For example, what if your boy/girlfriend said,"You are loved by me."? How lame! I would be embarrassed and run away! Do you know why? - It sounds too formal to suit the situation. In short, it's an automatic turn-off! From this example, I'm sure you will put plainness before wordiness.
Overall, I bet you can say good-bye to the repetition of wordiness!

My instructor never gave assignments to use the book, but reading through was easy and understanding.

Painless Writing covers pace, rythym, and writing mechanics - and so much more. To writers who want to teach yourselves, this book should be at the top of your list because it unveils the "secrets" of making text appear seamless.

Strausser conveys information in an organized and comprehensive way: he offers websites and stand-out text boxes for easy reference.

Finally, pay attention to the "before" and "after" text examples. Stausser shows a poor example, then an improved one - to reinforce the chapter lesson. Outstanding guidePainless Writing (Painless Series).

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.

Ismail Kadare's "The Palace of Dreams" is a book that reads like Kafka as influenced by the painter M.C. Escher with a bit of "1001 Arabian Nights" thrown in for good measure.

Ismail Kadare is an Albanian poet and writer. He is also the winner of the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005 and was selected from a list of nominees that included Saul Bellow, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Naguib Mahfouz, Milan Kundera, and Gunter Grass. The Palace of Dreams is one of his best known, many say best, work.

"Palace of Dreams" is set some time in the 19th-century in an Islamic-ruled Ottoman Empire that includes the Balkans (including Kadare's native Albania). The Palace of the title is a mammoth office building where the dreams of everyone in the kingdom are submitted for analysis. It is a Byzantine bureaucracy whose complexity is matched only by the dark, complex hallways and byways of the building itself. The Sultanate considers the dreams of his subjects to contain clues to the future. Like an oracle of Delphi, dreams are interpreted to predict plots against the Sultan or threat to the Empire generally. The interpretation of dreams is a powerful tool used to run the Empire and control its citizens and as a result the Palace of Dreams is the most feared agency in existence.

Into the Palace of Dreams steps a young new employee, Mark-Alem. Mark-Alem is a member of the Quprili family. The Quprilis are a powerful family of Albanian origin. For generations the family has produced high-ranking Viziers, the approximate equivalent of Cabinet Ministers, to the Sultan. Although a powerful family the Quprili's relationship over the years with various Sultans has been rocky and has been marked by purges and bitter in-fighting. The tenuous relationship between the Quprilis and the Sultan forms the backdrop of the story.

After Mark-Alem makes his way through a maze of corridors he is taken on as an apprentice. He quickly moves from a clerical position, sorting dreams, to interpreting them. Kadare's writing is very powerful as he traces Mark-Alem's path as an employee on the fast-track. One can feel the job beginning to overwhelm Mark-Alem's thoughts and actions. What seemed as unreal to Mark-Alem as an apprentice now seems commonplace. In a certain sense Kadare portrays vividly one person's descent into a claustrophobic, mystical hell where dreams are more real than reality.

At the same time renewed tensions between the Sultan and the Quprilis emerge. One specific dream involving a bridge in Albania built by the Quprilis hundreds of years ago quickly becomes the centerpiece of the plot. This same bridge played a critical role in an earlier Kadare novel, "The Three-Arched Bridge". Mark-Alem finds himself faced with analyzing this dream and the consequences of that interpretation drives the last third of the novel.

Palace of Dreams has been doubly-translated, first from Albanian to French and then from French to English. Despite that it felt as if I were reading the book in its original language. Entering Palace of Dreams was like entering a dream itself, one that quickly turns into a nightmare. As I read the description of Mark-Alem wandering, lost, through the hallways of a dimly lit Palace of Dreams I could feel the increasing despair welling up in Mark-Alem. The credit for that must be attributed to Kadare but with a significant nod to the translators who kept the writing both fresh and as disturbing as it appears to have been intended.

Kadare's The Palace of Dreams is well worth reading.

L. Fleisig

In Kadare's hallucinatory novel, the most important ministry in the country is the one where the dreams of all its citizens are interpreted. A monstrous bureaucratic organization collects those dreams and a monstrous herd of employees classifies and analyzes them. The interpretation of the apparently most important dream is presented every week to the sultan, because it could contain crucial information about the destiny of the country and the ruling families.
The whole country has really turned into a ghost state, where people perform ghost work: Absurdistan.

Of course, this macabre ministry is only a veil for the bitter power struggle between the powerful. A bad dream interpretation could create an opportunity to lash out at the other throne contenders with deadly consequences for the innocent common citizens. The for the common man seemingly blind fatality is in fact the result of a deadly fight for control and power between the mighty.

Kadare's novel, inspired by Enver Hoxha's Albania, is a masterful portrait of the totalitarian state, where real life is replaced by hallucinations. The government's most important role is to try to control even the dreams of its citizens. A dark nightmarish regime.

This highly political work is composed and reads like a thriller. A real masterpiece.

The Palace of Dreams is more than a "read." Kadare is Virgil accompanying Dante into Purgatory, and we are there. Be prepared to walk peacefully into a chilly bewilderment of silent corridors, past closed doors, suddenly seeing a group of grave whisperers disappear around a shadowy corner. On your desk find truth and untruth sifted together in a fine mix of papers that may have lethal consequences and may not. It is a puzzle to the very end. It is a puzzle at the end and beyond. This is the most compelling and morally instructive writing I have read in four years.

As he did in his Man Booker International Prize-winning novel THE SUCCESSOR, Ismail Kadare portrays in THE PALACE OF DREAMS an autocratic, vaguely Islamic, East European state controlled by rumor, innuendo, superstition, and irrationality. The instrument of power this time, however, is not the whim of an all-powerful dictator who induces a constant state of fear and uncertainty in his subordinates, rivals, and subjects. Rather, it is a post-Freudian dream factory, a monolithic and opaque institution that serves the state by interpreting the nightly brain-ramblings of its citizenry. The purpose of the Tabir Sarrail, the Palace of Dreams, is simple: to sift through the thousands of sparsely remembered dream descriptions in search each week of a Master Dream, the one and only dream that will be presented as meaningful to the Sovereign. Presumably, that dream and its accompanying interpretation convey important information for running the state - for making key decisions, warning of impending crises or revolts, or just predicting the future. Of course, no one can say for sure how that Master Dream gets selected by the Palace's director, how its particular interpretation is chosen, or whether the presented dream in fact ever took place or was simply fabricated for political purposes.

Kadare centers his tale around a most unlikely hero, Mark-Alem Quprili, the ineffectual scion of a long-powerful clan of ministers, viziers, and businessmen. As his given name suggests, Mark-Alem lives in a world half-Western and half-Islamic, with a last name of Albanian origin that translates as bridge. Not just any bridge, it seems, but an Albanian bridge of three arches (another of Kadare's books is titled THE THREE-ARCHED BRIDGE) in which a murdered man was walled up inside its foundations. A family meeting decides Mark-Alem's future - he will take a position at the Palace of Dreams. The young man enters his job naively, completely unaware that he is being positioned in the Tabir Sarrail to protect his family from the inscrutable machinations of government. He begins with a job in the Selection department, one of dozens if not hundreds who sift through the week's collected dreams to choose those worth further consideration. In surprisingly short order, he is promoted to the Interpretation section, which analyzes those sent from Selection for meaning, including culling out the relatively small group that might become the week's Master Dream.

The Palace of Dreams is an immense and forbidding structure, filled with endless corridors and locked doors. Each new experience there is for Mark-Alem a waking nightmare - wandering lost through empty and unmarked hallways, hearing faraway footsteps, seeing the dead bodies of citizen-dreamers who were brought in for interrogation being spirited away. Over time, however, the dreams whose readings fill Mark-Alem's days become more real than life outside the Palace. How, after all, can real life possible compete with the wild imaginings, the sheer magic and impossibility, of dreams? Mark-Alem finds that he has even stopped having dreams of his own. As his responsibilities increase and his hours lengthen, his life becomes a dream state within a dream world in a dream-processing factory. It is not until he attends a dinner at his Vizier uncle's home that reality, and the machine of State, impinge murderously on Mark-Alem and shock him awake. He discovers the truth of his situation in the Tabir Sarrail and how he failed to protect his family. Yet almost simultaneously, the attack on the Quprili's is answered with a political counterattack that will forever change Mark-Alem's life. This benign butterfly of a man becomes a powerful instrument of the State and its evil affairs, and he even dares to dream his own dreams again.

Ismail Kadare's prose is powerful in its very sparseness. His setting is Balkan, but the time period is deliberately unspecific, vaguely 19th Century in feeling. THE PALACE OF DREAMS progresses easily and quietly, but the story feels like a dream itself, a nightmare world of uncertainty, unnamable fears, and evil portents. We experience through Mark-Alem a ceaseless sense of confusion, of being constantly lost and unable to find our way out. Various newspaper reviewers likened this novel to Kafka's THE TRIAL and THE CASTLE (the obvious choices), Borges's labyrinth, Canetti's AUTO DA FE, or Auster's THE MUSIC OF CHANCE. For me, the analogues were Plato's cave, Saramago's THE CAVE, and Solzhenitsyn's THE FIRST CIRCLE. Regardless, THE PALACE OF DREAMS is a chilling, almost nightmarish story of a world where reality is governed by irrational belief in the quasi-religious predictive power of dreams. It is a forbidding world in which government is run by superstitious faith, where decisions of life and death are divorced from the reality-based world. If this sounds disturbingly familiar to a certain modern Republican Presidency (replace "dreams" with "anti-intellectual, anti-Science, Christian fundamentalism"), so be it. And to think that Kadare first penned this novel in Albanian in 1981. Perhaps he had a dream himself?

THE PALACE OF DREAMS is a first-rate tale, an unsettling horror story that mirrors modern life too closely for comfort. Ismail Kadare deserves a wider audience in the United States. His work in eminently readable, and he has much to tell us.

Mark-Alem works in the world's most bizarre and apalling institution ....the palace of dreams

it was found to harvest all men dreams in an ultimate place , then set them aside , sift them ,scrutinize them , so that the empire's (fortune)- along with its tyrant's- can be told.

Mark-Alem begins to rise in the ominous positions of this ghoulish society , to become its head ...alas he becomes haunted with that terrible obsession of being ( crushed ) by the vile bureaucracy that he is running , like ( it ) devastated many people before ...

The palace of dreams - the stygian kingdom - is a metaphor for ( thought police ) ... a police that supported - and supports - political dictatorships in the entire world ...

Do not this horrific detailed allegory reminds us of the status of each and every human individual at the end of this barbaric era ?