Abbey Books

Buy this book if you are totally new to Oracle and would like to get introduced to all that is out there. It is not too focused and I realized that I wanted more very soon and am already looking for the next level. It's useful but not enough.

* It introduces a variety of topics ( General concept, Architecture, SQL*plus, Forms, Reports, Loader, DBA stuff, tuning and so on... so it is priced well for all that information that is offered. However if your need is more focused then do not buy this book.

* Has got a gentle pace and lots of reminders, tips and guidelines to help you let the facts sink in.

* Some analogies used by the authors to emphasize system concepts were very distracting.

* One initial chapter dealt a lot with "how to install the software", which is hardly what I was looking for.

I was reading this book to get familiar with some of DBA work in Oracle and found that it had lots of errors and typos in the areas that I know as well as obvious mistakes in examples. If I see that it's wrong about things I know - how can I trust it about the things I don't know? Read with caution, don't be surprized when examples don't work.

I'm into the third chapter and the book is an easy read and explains the topic with good examples. So far I have no bones about the format and I'm not a DBA as of yet so, I can't rip this book apart. What I like about this book are the following: 1.Technical terms/words defined at the start of each chapter 2.Good laymen expamles of subject, terms and functions, 3.Tutorial format, 4.Easy reading.

As someone starting from ground zero, I found this book easy to read and understand. My one reservation is that the authors sometimes used terms and code examples which had not been previously defined or explained. A more complete explanation of code examples would have been very helpful in some places. However, the book is still very much worth reading.

This book suffers from a lack of consistant tone and flow. The chapter on PL/SQL is bad. The examples are incomplete and poorly explained. The SQL and DBA chapters are decent. This book doesn't appear to be a labor of love. The updates for Oracle 8 and 8i add a couple of chapters, but the failings of the earlier editions remain.

Thoroughly enjoying the book and am gaining insights on the Book of Job. The book is in great condition and was received promptly. Would highly recommend it.

The Catholic Bible Study Handbook is a very well organized, well written work by the Benedictine Jerome Kodell. He does a wonderful job in explaining the origins of the Bible and ways to study it objectively and spiritually. The part I find the most helpful is his concise summaries of each book of the Bible, explaining what they contain and where they fit in the historical context of Judeo-Christianity. This book doesn't pull out Catholic doctrine from the Bible (if you're looking for that, see Frederick Knecht's "A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture"), but leaves that the the Bible reader. This book is very user-friendly, as someone has already stated. It is a great handbook that can be used to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

The Catholic Bible Study Handbook: A Popular Introduction to Studying Scripture is reader-friendly to the interested person who is not a Scripture scholar. Its format is easy to follow, with headings for each major section, as well as a comprehensive history of the Israelites and information on the background of each major writer. This book could be valuable as an aid in discussion by groups, and also contains a section on how to use the Bible as a guide for individual prayer and meditation.

I was looking for a book to study the bible as in a workbook type of way. Not to make a chore of it but to gain a more working knowledge of the bible and of the books contained in the bible. All of what is contained in this book on 'how to study the bible' is really on less than 10 pages. What this book does go into a great depth, is a description of each book of the bible, various forms of writing of each book of the bible, how different religions wrote their versions of their bible and such. On that the book is very good. Again, it was not what I was looking for but the price was worth the information I got from it.

This book is disappointing. Little more than a surface treatment of background issues, it is not very well written. It presents a shallow style of pop biblical scholarship (circa 1970's), along with a dry and dated charismatic spirituality. What is lacking? For one thing, the rich Benedictine tradition of "lectio divina" is poorly presented (see the classic work of Damasus Winzen, OSB). Also lacking is an adequate treatment of spiritual exegesis, as recommended by Vatican II (Dei Verbum 12), and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (109-119). Try to find a used copy of Winzen's "Pathways in Scripture," or maybe Shea's "Making Senses of Scripture".

While feeling depressed I looked to this book to bring me out of my low mood and found it did the trick. It has short paragraphs on what we do to ourselves when feeling depressed and need to stop it, like negative self talk. "I have met the enemy and it is me," "Would I let anyone else put me down the way I put myself down?" And it also has advice like H.A.L.T. Don't get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. It's tough on the person in the low mood to 'stop the stinking thinking'. I found it pulled me through a low mood on more than one occasion.

Dealing With Depression:In 12 Step Recovery By Jack O

This book was a big disappointment. (...)I hoped this book would provide a framework for thinking about clinical depression as it relates to 12-step recovery, with tips on addressing the problem using the steps, etc. Instead I found it to be a very slim volume with little or no meat. Mostly it describes various manifestations of depression (from simple "blues" through true clinical depression) with little or no practical applications.

If you are in recovery, struggle with clinical depression, and are looking for a thoughtful treatment of the interaction between the two, I suggest you look elsewhere.

This book is about overcoming depression, but it mainly emphasizes on depression while overcoming addictions. It is very good if you are overcoming and addiction, but for just depression I would recommend another book. Overall it is a good book.

As a great Jane Austen fan, who has read and re-read favorite like Pride and Prejudice as well as Emma(!!!) I am sad to say this was definitly my least favorite. It pains me to say this, because I almost willed myself to like it, but in the end I was disappointed with the rather odd storyline and the less-than-lovely characters I was used to from Ms. Austens other works. Perhaps I'll attempt to change my mind about this novel again in a few years, but for now I'm afraid three stars is all I have to give.

Frankly I am puzzled by the criticisms leveled at this edition. There is another edition [also by Barnes and Noble] and it is cheaper, though the quality is very flimsy and I wonder if the other reviewers were confused with that edition?

This edition of Northanger Abbey is beautifully bound, with a cloth spine, and has a lovely portrait on the cover. The text is not too small unlike some other editions, it makes for comfortable reading. The book itself is sturdy, as it is in hardback, but not unwieldy - it fits nicely into my hands. Besides the main text of Austen's novel itself, it has added features - a brief chronology of the world of Jane Austen & Northanger Abbey, an introduction, the main text, as well as useful endnotes, inspiration for Northanger Abbey,comments, as well as a list of resources for further reading and criticisms. In all, a value buy.

I found the story to be a good one, but Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion will always be Jane Austen's best works I feel as do others I have talked to. As for the quality of the paper it is of good quality not poor as mentioned in another review.

I bought them (Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Emma) to complete my Jane Austen's collection, and honestly, didn't like the paper quality, it seems like they didn't even care for the presentation of them; it didn't look elegant, cheap to be more specific.

The Wooden Sword collapses under the weight of an uninteresting plot and unlikable, often depressing characters whose behavior and motivations are confused and inconsistent. Berika is a young woman who lives in Walensor, which is ruled by an enormous pantheon of dieties with whom people communicate through the Web of Walensor, a field of magic power made up of energy called basi. Everyone on Walensor is born with some basi, and people have learned how to store basi in material objects, but very few people actually are able to become true mages and use basi to commune with the gods. Berika lives in a tiny rural community where she has been betrothed in marriage to a dispicable cretin. Naturally, she is frantic to find a way out, and one day offers up a desperate prayer to her local diety. The surprising result is that she summons up a "fetch," who turns out to be a young man named Dart, who possesses a strange harp that is brimming over with basi. Deciding the harp is the real answer to her prayer of deliverance, Berika plans to sneak away with it, not to learn how to harness its magic, but simply to sell it for enough gold to move so far away no one can ever find her. Yet it turns out that Dart is really after all a human being, who was spirited away by the goddess Weycha many years before to act as her champion. Now Weycha charges Dart with protecting Berika and getting her safely to Eyerlon, the city where the Web of Walensor is generated. So, after several distinctly unpleasant scenes in which Dart must not only deal with the nearly psychotically superstitious people of Berika's village, but save Berika from her doubly psychotic husband, Dart and Berika find themselves on the road to Eyerlon. I would have to look long and hard to find a less pleasurable reading experience than witnessing Dart's having to deal with villagers shouting "Demon!" at him when he's never done anything the least bit threatening, or putting up with the weirdly inconsistent behavior of Berika and her mother, who seem gentle and loving one moment and almost monstrously hostile the next. Berika is hopelessly confused, which, at first, is fine, because of the situation she finds herself in. But she never seems to change. One minute she's desperate to flee her village, the next she's utterly resigned to her lot in a way that resembles clinical depression. Then back again! Abbey wants us to sympathize with her by ruthlessly depicting all her beatings and implied rapes by her vile husband; but when Dart retrieves the titular weapon from a magical tree and finally does the creep in, she's suddenly afraid of him. This is one fantasy heroine who doesn't need magic; she needs Prozac! Abbey herself even describes Berika as a "snarling girl," leaving me to wonder why the hell she thought any reader would find Berika a sympathetic fantasy heroine in the first place. Helpful hint to writers: causing your reader to actually hope something ill befalls your protagonist is not the idea. Berika is unforgivably spiteful and stupid. Despite her life of abuse and terror back home, she is for reasons hard to make out deeply resentful towards Dart for taking her on this journey to Eyerlon, a trip that she initially wanted to make anyway, and at one point she even whines in self-pity, "Without Dart, I wouldn't be here at all. I'd be safe at home..." Excuse me? Safe at home? Where she has been thrown against walls hard enough to crack plaster? Where she has been threatened with disfigurement? At times like these it is hard to tell whether or not this is a case of of Berika's being an idiotic character, or Abbey simply not knowing what the heck she is doing as a writer. Whatever the case, misguided characterizations and joyless storytelling rob the reader of any reason to read this novel......

"Of all the living things in Eyerlon, the trees were the oldest... and the wisest. A generation ago, the ancient forests of Walensor swallowed up the young princeling Dart. All the kingdom presumed him dead. But, enclosed in the bark of the oldest tree, Dart was still alive--a human vessel of the trees' greatest secrets ... and most powerful magic. Twenty years later, Dart was released. The trees had given him the most precious of gifts: A wooden sword, a harp, and timeless wisdom. The trees also gave him a great and terrible mission: To save his world from a powerful tyrant, a dark wizard of smoke... and fire."

When I began reading this book I could not put it down. Following Berika and her frustration at not being able to reach the Web, her meeting with Dart, and their subsequent journey... this all was wonderful. However, about halfway through the book it began to lose the charm and style of the beginning and I began to lose interest. A good book for fantasy lovers, if you can pick a copy up.

Running away from a marriage she does not want, Berika daughter of a shepard, prays to the forest goddess and finds Dart. Man, demon, fetch, you don't know, and the whole story takes you on a trip where you can not preguess the plot or the ending. The only problem with this book is that it is very much a lead in to the next book. Fortunately Lyn Abbey wrote the sequel 'Under the Web' instead of leaving us hanging. My big regret is that there isn't a whole series of these books. Lyn Abbey has a tendency to create a fascinating new world, write a book or two, and then drop it. On the other hand, Lyn Abbey's books never seem to accumulate the fame that they deserve, so perhaps somewhere there IS a third book, waiting to be published.

"You can't judge a book by it's cover" is all well and good, but all we have is blurbs and recommendations if we do not wish to read every single book in any given store.
So I bought it because the blurb and the cover were interesting.
After reading it, I was very disappointed to be left hanging in the midst of the story! I can get that in real Life! I want my happy ending! Sheesh!
Now I find there Is Indeed a following book "Under the Web". I'll bite. But I really wold have prefered to have known ahead of time I was only getting half the story.
My recommendation is to only purchase this book If you can get it with it's follow up, otherwise, skip it.
The characters are good from my point of view because they do stupid things at the wrong time, act like idiots, but have a greater depth to themselves ... pretty much like real people. Sometimes they say one thing, and do another, while trying to be good, honorable people to their own minds. Just like the rest of us.
It is my fervent wish that books were always offered bundled with the others in their series, not as an only point of sale, but for those of us who are interested, but dislike being left hanging. They could at least Mention it.
Thank you for reading my two cents worth (grin)
~Mariance

I found it very informing. It talked about things I had mised in the main series and the poster was great!

P.S. wait until you have read the main series so you do not ruin any suppresses.

I am not pleased with this item. It is NOT a book. I don't really even know what to call it. It is folded over with some pages glued on the inside. It has a lovely poster if you want to pay that much money for a poster. It is more like cliff notes for a book. I very disappointed and feel like I've been had.

Tribes Of Redwall Badgers may not be suitable for library lending, with its pullout color poster, but will prove a fine parent's pick and will also appeal to school libraries for classroom enjoyment. This is recommended for prior young fans of the Redwall series: it provides a guide to the characters of the Badger Lords, covering the laws, language, and secrets of their tribes. An appealing, colorful presentation.

This is the seventh volume in the Thieves' world anthology series and as in other ones we are treated to a whole bunch of short stories written by some of the leading lights in fantasy and science fiction tied together by the world of Sanctuary during a single season. In this book, Sanctuary is deteriorating even more (if you can believe that!) into a vicious cycle of war and darkness as winter lays its deadly grip on the world.

All of the stories share the same location - the city of Sanctuary - and many of the main characters, time and even events. However, the fun of the books is in how each author twists his or her interpretation of what is taking place into the viewpoint of their protagonist. No different is this book. The various factions are either making alliances or fighting against each other and the battle lines are literally drawn in colored lines in the streets of the city. However, the alliances are constantly shifting and it is never really clear what they are fighting for and with or against whom.

A big portion of the book is dedicated to the magical fights that pit Roxanne, Ischade, and the other gods or wizards against each other while using the HellHounds, Stepsons, Beysibs, and other groups. We are getting more and more the sense that the battles in Sanctuary are a reflection of the greater events that are unfolding as a result of the breaking up of the Rankan Empire. The individual stories take a look at individual events and tell the stories of individuals at times, but also look at the great scope of events. So, Kadakithis is still enthralled with his Beysib conqueror queen who he adores, but she is put to shame when it comes out that his wife, the Princess Daphne is still in town. There are also stories of hell, perdition, and the life of zombies and other nameless critters.

As is usual in these volumes, the stories are very dark and even deranged as Sanctuary is a very bad place. If you can put up with the darkness, gore, bloodthirstiness, and general evil of the place, you can enjoy the collaboration, the points of view, and the general fun of the idea embodied in these books.

It's taken seven books, but it is becoming clear that the Thieves' World series deserves the praise it has received from the fantasy cognoscenti. Volume seven continues the tale of a city in decay, this time, mercifully, with an index of characters. Most of the usual suspects contribute here, including Asprin, Abbey, C.J. Cherryh, Andrew Offut, Diana Paxson, Janet Morris, and Diane Duane. Duane's story is the highlight, as she sends three characters and a dog on journey to Hell. Duane provides a wonderful example of what the Russians call "ostranyenye" or "estrangement", as she gives us the dog's perspective on life, death, and society in general.

There is a world of difference between book seven and book one. One can read book one and think, as I did, that it's not a big deal, just a few loosely connected stories. The first book is just the prologue, however, and watching the characters, series, and, above all, Sanctuary, evolve is a disturbing delight. Disturbing because Sanctuary is not a nice place, and the people with very few exceptions are not nice people, but a delight because several talented authors are playing off each other, inspired by each other, and ultimately fusing their several parts into an intriguing whole. The series continues to be worth the price of admission.

The Dead of winter is an anthology, with several writers exchanging character information. The stories themselves are interesting to say the least. The world in which it is set is as dark, dank and disturbed as anyone could imagine. Theft, murder and worse are common exoeriences here, and taken by the citizens in the same way that a new yorker takes a trafic jam at 5:30. The characters have developed a lot over the past 6 books in the series, and you get a real sense of their plight. Sanctuary the city the book is about is going strait down the toilet, and in many rather intresting ways. A new eliment of the world of sanctuary is the waring factions, which have made the city even more dangerous. Magic, ganges, political intreague, gods, and a pleasent trip to hell, this one has it all.

This is a useful survey of Shelley's philosophical thought. There are few poets whose philosophical thought is so central to their work, or so important in its own right.

_Destroyer and Preserver_ is a high-water mark in one strand of Shelley criticism, and a necessary and valuable one. It emphasises, rightly, that Shelley was a tough-minded and realistic thinker, in many respects firmly in the Humean tradition.

And it is a corrective to the mid-20th century picture of Shelley the Platonist, a portrayal that is in a direct line of descent from the "harmless" de-sexed and de-politicised Shelley of the Victorian imagination.

I might have given the book four stars rather than five, were it not for the empty one-line, one-star review that I'm following: "needs tweaking" indeed! I could dock the book a notch for what it doesn't do: the hard but necessary task (not yet accomplished) of re-integrating Shelley's Platonic thought with the sceptical Shelley.

That's a project which has importance not only for Shelley studies, but it may even have some contemporary philosophical use and application. I'm not sure that Shelley managed to marry Platonic and Humean thought into a coherent philosophy. That's an extremely hard question to answer. He doesn't in the prose; but the late poetry has depths I certainly haven't plumbed yet, and nor does this book. There are still things to be learned from Shelley; and he had a knack for asking the right questions.

This book is a fine examination of one of the two major parts (the most important part, in my view, but not the _only_ part) of Shelley's thought.

Laon

I thought that it lacked a lot! Could have used a little tweaking here and there!

This is a useful survey of Shelley's philosophical thought. There are few poets whose philosophical thought is so central to their work, or so important in its own right.

_Destroyer and Preserver_ is a high-water mark in one strand of Shelley criticism, and a necessary and valuable one. It emphasises, rightly, that Shelley was a tough-minded and realistic thinker, in many respects firmly in the Humean tradition.

And it is a corrective to the mid-20th century picture of Shelley the Platonist, a portrayal that is in a direct line of descent from the "harmless" de-sexed and de-politicised Shelley of the Victorian imagination.

I might have given the book four stars rather than five, were it not for the empty one-line, one-star review that I'm following: "needs tweaking" indeed! I could dock the book a notch for what it doesn't do: the hard but necessary task (not yet accomplished) of re-integrating Shelley's Platonic thought with the sceptical Shelley.

That's a project which has importance not only for Shelley studies, but it may even have some contemporary philosophical use and application. I'm not sure that Shelley managed to marry Platonic and Humean thought into a coherent philosophy. That's an extremely hard question to answer. He doesn't in the prose; but the late poetry has depths I certainly haven't plumbed yet, and nor does this book. There are still things to be learned from Shelley; and he had a knack for asking the right questions.

This book is a fine examination of one of the two major parts (the most important part, in my view, but not the _only_ part) of Shelley's thought.

Laon

The Thieve's World idea is a great one - get a collection of top story tellers to tell tales about a common location. Therefore there are rules to be followed and even common characters - but you get to see how each writer deals with the same ideas in their own, unique, and creative ways.

Unfortunately, this book is the weakest so far. In previous volumes, there was always a central focus or idea that made the collection a collection. Whether it was Vashanka the storm god, or curses and their effects, each of the stories hewed to that focus. In this volume that focus is lost.

At the end of the last book, a mysterious fleet appeared off the shore of Sanctuary. So, one would suppose that this volume would be all about the newcomers. How disappointing then to read all the stories and see those newcomers be very much in the background to almost not being mentioned in any story at all! Oh, we learn that they are called the Beysib ... and they are featured in a couple of entries ... but there is no mention of how they came to rule Sanctuary; why Kadakithis lets them do what they want (can you believe that they routinely conduct executions on city streets without the local government interfering in any way?); and what the rest of the empire may be doing about this invasion.

Instead we read about Tempus leaving; About Ischade and her moment of pity for a human being; etc. Now, don't get me wrong; some of the stories are very entertaining and enjoyable to read. But that's why I gave this book three stars rather than some lower rating!

Many of the characters from previous books return - although not all. In addition to the two I named above, your read a fun story about Lola the painter and his wife; Samlor the trade is back; Mradhon Vis makes an inexplicable return; Enos Yarl is more fully examined; and, of course, Hakiem appears in the Prologue to set the tone for the book. So, there are good stories here. The unfortunate part is that the book as a whole seems out of focus. Too bad.

A collection of top fantasy writers have contributed to this unique experience of tales.

This fifth volume in the Thieves' World series contains stories by Janet Morris, C.J. Cherryh, Asprin, Lynn Abbey, David Drake, and Diana Paxson - with Andrew Offut noticeably and thankfully absent. The stories range from the grotesquely gripping to the merely entertaining, and overall are more enjoyable than most of the previous Thieves' World books. The highlight is Paxson's "Mirror Image," which features the two only endearing characters in all of Thieves' World, the painter Lalo and his wife, Gilla. Lalo, you see, had been cursed/blessed. His portraits revealed the inner soul of the subject, not the exterior facade (thus his large, domineering wife appears as a goddess). In "Mirror Image," Lalo paints a self-portrait and the result is a very moving tale. Despite the false packaging (the "invasion" referenced in the title is hardly that, just an omnipresence of mysterious, powerful foreigners), The Face of Chaos is, perhaps, the first Thieves' World book I'd recommend without reservations.

This is barely an excuse for a book, and was not at all what I was looking to find. It is really little more than a pamphlet. I felt it was a scam and will never again waste money on an Elf-Help product. There are lots of good books dealing with forgiveness; this is not one of them.

If you have ever been wronged by someone or felt great resentment over a situation this book is just what you need. Davis Schell gives his readers 35 different axioms that all stem around the topic of forgiveness. The book offers a lot of food for thought and helpful suggestions that are short and to the point. Because of its easy to read format and its cute illlustrations this book was thouroughly enjoyable to read and helped me overcome a difficult situation of my own. I highly recommend it for anyone facing their own struggles with forgiveness.

If you have ever been wronged by someone or felt great resentment over a situation this book is just what you need. Davis Schell gives his readers 35 different axioms that all stem around the topic of forgiveness. The book offers a lot of food for thought and helpful suggestions that are short and to the point. Because of its easy to read format and its cute illlustrations this book was thouroughly enjoyable to read and helped me overcome a difficult situation of my own. I highly recommend it for anyone facing their own struggles with forgiveness.