Adams Books

Know these Vignettes! Nothing more to say. They will be tested over. Period :)

There was a lot of material in the books in this series, yet I found myself getting through them quickly and retaining a lot of the information, I think because the material is so well presented and explained. Great cases and the format is tailor-made for current USMLE format. This author really understand what the board question writers are into. For me, this type of review was the best way for me to get ready for Step 1.

This is wonderful review books. Excellent writing and informacion. Great pictures and examples. I do much, much better on exam from this books.

After studying like crazy for a full month for the USMLE, I needed a break from reading textbooks. I decided to check out this case-based review because a friend recommended it. I am still thanking him for this recommendation. This book and the other books in the series really prepare you well for the USMLE, because they get you used to the long clinical vignettes that made up most of my exam. The cases and explanantions are EXTREMELY high-yield and very concise but thorough. I recommend the whole series for anyone who wants to do well on the Step 1 exam.

the poetic edda is one of the greatest collections of poetry of all times. it contains the beautifully vivid "volupso", the norse apocalypse poem, the comedic ballads, the "wrangling of Loki" and "Lay of Thrmy", the proverbial wisdom of the "sayings of har" and the mournful lays of the larger-than-heroes, the volsungs and niflungs. the edda is better written than Beowulf, the more popular northern epic, and the rhythmic verse gives it more aesthetic appeal than most epic poems. the meter, based on alliteration and caesura, whether rhythmic fornyrdislag or lilting ljodahattr, is much more pleasing to the ear than classical blank verse, which has sticter syllable stress patterns. unfortunately, the edda is not in very good condition. their are gaps in the manuscripts, and there are numerous places where it appears a scribe covered up a gap with extraneous material. the poems vary greatly in quality, and you need a good understanting of norse myths to understand what is going on (i recommend Norse Stories: Retold from the Eddas by Hamilton Mabie). none the less, the edda is a wonderful read for fans of poetry, epics, or norse mythology.

Bellows translation does a very good job at preserving the metric rhythm of the norse poems, and a fairly good job of preserving the alliteration, while avoiding the archaism of Hollander. his grammer and word choice is a little "olde", but it is still far more aesthetically pleasing the Larrington's translation, and much more accessible than Hollander's. Dronke's translation is also excellent, but only one of five parts of it is currently in print, and it is absurdly priced, but see if you can find it at your library. unfortunately, thus far Dover has only reprinted half of Bellows' translation, this volume contains only the "mythological" lays, so we can only hope they will publish the heroic poems soon, but anyone serious about reading the edda will want to get more than one translation anyway.

A Dover reprint of the Mythological section (The Lays of the Gods) from the poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems compiled in the 1200s from older oral traditions. First published by the American-Scandinavian Foundation in 1923. It's a slow read, primarily because almost every page is crammed with footnotes. The translation seems pretty good - it attempts to imitate the form of the Old Norse poetry, and the language at times is very moving with vivid imagery and sonic resonance. The abundant footnotes bog down the reading, but they are necessary since the Eddic poems were originally composed for an audience already familiar with Norse mythology. I went into this book knowing nothing about the subject, and by the time I had finished, with the help of Mr. Bellows' notes along the way, I had developed a real thirst for more. Somewhat difficult reading, but for somebody with a literary bent this is an excellent introduction to the world of Norse legendry. It certainly begs a second reading, ignoring the footnotes and just enjoying the poetry.

This is an excellent translation from Henry Bellows, easy to understand and with many footnotes. This is the version I use when I read the poems aloud.

The spelling he chose for transliterated names doesn't follow the common style, Voluspo is usually Voluspa, Hovamol is usually Havamal, etc, but these differences are minor and easy to get used to. The print is a facsmile (typical of this publisher) but clear and easy to read, and the binding is good quality (unlike products from some similar companies).

Unfortunately Dover only published half of the book, the section referred to to as the "Mythological Lays", and have omitted the "Heroic Lays", assuming I suppose that we'd only want to read the poems referring directly to the gods. They do clearly admit the omission at the beginning of the book. Much of the ancient scandinavian works we have are regarding heroes related to the gods, so to focus completely on the gods themselves is to miss pieces of the whole picture. Some researchers (in the minority) even suggest that the "Heroic Lays" are actually stories about the gods under different names, which was a very common practice (as you'll see when you read the poems that are included). So I consider the omission very unfortunate.

Despite that complaint I think this book is worth the cost. Unless you want to print your own (the Bellows translation is in the public domain), this book is an excellent choice for what it does have. Just be aware of what you're missing.

Edit: Dover has recently announced that they will finally release the second half of the book, The Poetic Edda: The Heroic Poems (Dover Value Editions)

This is the "bible" for Asatruars and Odinists everywhere. This book is pretty easy to read once you figure out the way the words are arranged. Foot notes include variations of translation, and so sometimes the reader must come up with his/her own conclusion about a certain word or name. All in all, the Poetic Edda, whoever originally composed the works, is a great read and can be enjoyed by poetry collectors, lovers of mythology, and people who are interested in ancient Norse storytelling.

Brilliant introduction to the field of political philosophy, first and foremost with a view to the English-speaking liberal tradition. Easy to read, yet this thematically structured book covers the most important topics in depth.

As a Habermasian and Scandinavian social democrat, what Swift presents as leftist views appears to me to be the views of the centre-right. Still, the book's exquisite conceptual rigour (which one would expect from an analytical philosopher) actually helped me sharpening my understanding on liberty/freedom within the Scandinavian model of distribution.

Overall, this book is highly recommended. It presents itself as a beginners guide, but is has a lot to offer to the advanced reader as well. For example, Amartya Sen's name is not mentioned in the chapter on social justice. Yet over a few paragraphs, elegantly interwoven in the general text, Swift explains the basic structure of Sen's so-called "capability approach".

I've been using Adam Swift's Political Philosophy: An Beginner's Guide for Students and Politicians (UK) in my Political Philosophy course this semester, and, having now had several students thank me for assigning it, I should probably recommend it more widely. The book is written at an angle to my course. The course goes through the main ideas of various important contemporary theorists of justice: Rawls, Sen, Nozick, Milton Friedman (ok, he's the odd-one-out, but my view is that nobody should leave college without reading chapters 1,2 and 6 of Capitalism and Freedom, and I abuse my position as a professor to do my bit), Kymlicka, Okin, Fraser, and G.A. Cohen. The book is more conceptual; it consists of chapters on Social Justice, Equality, Freedom, Community and (in the new, second, edition) Democracy, which go through various distinctions and problems in thinking about those concepts, and it only refers to the work of particular philosophers insofar as it is relevant to the problem at hand. The book also includes a lovely discussion of the division of labour between political philosophers on the one hand and political activists and politicians on the other, and offers a semi-sympathetic diagnosis of the reasons that politicians often seem to be such uncareful thinkers about matters of value. It really is a superb piece of writing, accessible to anyone with an interest in these matters, but somehow achieving the accessibility without compromising the complexity of the issues in question.

I usually feel obliged to talk in class a good deal about the books I assign, but I haven't been talking about Swift's book much because it getes everything right (so nothing to argue with) and is written with such precision and transparency that there's nothing to clarify or explain. I do frequently use arguments or ideas from the book when explaining particular positions in the authors we are studying. I had expected some irritation from students for making them read a book that we don't discuss, but, as I say, several of them have (I suppose rather insultingly) thanked me because they find that it is an easy read that illuminates the other readings (more than my lectures do?). Its a great book for anyone who wants to understand better what political philosophers do, especially I would say if you have a background in the social sciences, and the perfect holiday gift for the politically engaged but intellectually serious young person in your life.

This very well written book is a nice introduction to contemporary political philosophy. Swift's approach is a bit unusual. Rather than a traditional historical approach, Swift has selected 5 of the most important themes in modern political philosophy; social justice, liberty, equality, community, and democracy. Swift is mainly concerned with providing readers with the essential intellectual tools to approach these themes. He provides a series of concise descriptions and discussions of contemporary thinking about the themes. Swift's primary goal is not provide a comprehensive analysis of contemporary thinking but rather to present clear definitions of the key questions and fair depictions of the most important approaches to those questions. Swift tries to present the best aspects of different approaches. He is not, however, uncritical. In the spirit of clarity and presenting good examples of careful analysis, he articulates strong criticism of some widespread but erroneous views. Von Hayek, Berlin's influential Two Concepts of Liberty, and Communitarian criticisms of Liberalism get very effective critiques. Each section has a good final section recommending further reading.

Now in a revised and expanded second edition featuring a new chapter specifically about democracy, Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians by Adam Swift (Fellow in Politics and Sociology, Balliol College) is a highly accessible text for students, lay readers, and novice political philosophers concerning basic political principles that are used to govern society. Chapters describe and discuss philosophical constructs such as social justice, liberty, equality, community, and democracy, and especially dissect common misperceptions and assumptions concerning the denotative meaning of certain principles and labels. Laden with examples designed to prompt the reader to think long and hard concerning what political concepts such as "social justice" truly mean, Political Philosophy is enthusiastically recommended not just for students, but for anyone seeking to prepare themselves to cast a well-informed vote in elections.

As the other reviewers have said, this book is an update from the 1975 (or so) edition which was an inspiration at the time. What seemed the most useful in this edition is an updated seed type and source list, since you are looking for compact forms of most items.

I miss the graphic artist who was involved in the first book. The pictures in the new book are charmless. And the new book lacks the diagram of double-digging that is hard to explain verbally.

And I'm just about to get started this spring on a potato barrel. It would seem like a good candidate for mentioning postage-stamp-wise, yet is not covered.

I am a gardening dummy and found this book to be a real "bible" for me when starting my first patio and small in-ground garden plot. This books really lays it all out for you. They go into detail about how to do things organically, as well, if you want to go to all the trouble. But they also tell you the easier alternatives (like buying store organic fertilizer). I would recommend this book to new gardeners as well as experienced ones -- lots of tips on how to get all types of vegetables producing a lot of food for you, when to plant, what to plant with, etc.

...and if this is as good as that one (circa 1975) then it gets 5 stars. I (like the author) too had been failing miserably in gardening - until I read his book. Unlike many other books on the subject of bio-intensive gardening, this one was encouraging and made it sound so easy. It ended up being very easy and very rewarding. Now I tell everyone - double dig, amend heavily, plant close together. Get this book!

I've grown vegetables in the past, when I was a teenager, but now that I'm going to try again in my thirties, I wanted to brush up on the best way to get as many vegetables as possible out of a small mountain garden. Following the authors' directions I measured my space, made a list of the number of plants for each vegetable based on the size of my family, and then used their spacing recommendations to see if it would all fit, taking into account intercropping and succession planting. It all turned out to be fairly easy to accomplish (on paper at least!), and I'm now shopping for seeds. I'll update this review next fall with my results.

In 250 pages, Jeremi Suri manages to do what other books do in four times that length. Suri makes brilliant connections between all aspects of the Cold War and what happens beyond it. Suri is an incredible writer and historian (see: Henry Kissinger and the American Century) and deserves recognition for his comprehensive and concise works.

Although the other reviews I read here were justifiably positive, I just wanted to mention that this book is also a very worthwhile read for almost anyone with a passing interest in recent American history and its impact on modern politics, irrelevant of the readers background. Jeremi Suri writes in a wondefully clear and concise manner that allows the reader to immerse themselves in the period of history he is discussing and consider it from every perspective without any particular bias. I highly recommend this book to everyone -- if you buy it you will not be dissapointed.

In this book, Suri puts a new twist on the period of detente in the late 60's and early 70's. He explains how the social uprisings centering around 1968 forced world leaders in the United States, Europe, and Asia to pursue detente in order to keep reign on their legitimacy domestically. The research and documents used in this book are both credible and excellent. I had Professor Suri for a class and he is an excellent lecturer. This book is like a lecture from him, but he has time to go into even deeper detail on the subject at hand. We were required to read it in his class, but it is a book that I have read twice since then because it is that good. Anyone with interest in the Cold War or US foreign policy will love this book!

The main thesis of POWER AND PROTEST is best summarized by author Jeremi Suri himself at the end of this brilliant and original exploration of post WWII international relations and their impact and continuity with domestic policy: "In previous decades [the 40s through the early 60s] the Soviet-American rivalry had provided a simple bi-polar framework for both competition and cooperation. This inherited architecture now proved inappropriate for a world in which citizens besieged their leaders, small nations challenged the influence of larger states [France and West Germany; Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the East] and China acted as an independent great power [dealing directly with France, for instance, instead of through their "big brother states, the U.S. and Soviet Union]. The international environment had grown multipolar, but the United States and the Soviet Union desired the continued power and standing they had possessed in the earlier bipolar setting. What Kissenger called a new 'structure of peace' would protect the benefits of order and stability for the largest states despite the fragmenting trends in world affairs. This was the conservative core of detente, and the drive behind the central accomplishment of the superpower summit [between Brezhnev and Nixon in 1972]" P.256.

His supporting thesis that "The strength of detente derived from the fact that it addressed the fears and served the interest of the leaders in the largest states," is well and amply proven with reference to original source material from each period he explores. With state documents and memoirs, he dramatically shows the panic of the world leaders as they confront their suddenly, inconveniently active citizens, who, given reason to hope in the early 60s with their leaders' charismatic rhetoric about the "New Frontier," the "Great Society," "Great Leap Forward," "Communist Construction (and DeStalinization)," ironically had their rising expectations dashed by the very same men those who activated these hopes. In their tussle for power, and in their attempts to prove their systems or their insight into world and domestic politics were superior, Mao, DeGaulle, Kennedy, Johnson, Krushchev, Willy Brandt, and others came to fear the chauvinistic idealism they had unleashed in their charismatic rhetoric. Ironically, this leadership cohort, especially the most powerful actors, the U.S. and Soviet Union, felt compelled to reach out to each other, put aside the inflammatory anti-communist and anti-capitalistic rhetoric, and demonstrate to their unruly citizens and client states that as nations they could and would work together in peaceful coexistence. Suri likens these two states to "overmuscled wrestlers" who were constrained by the potential of mutally assured (nuclear) destruction to muzzle their client states' inflammatory rhetoric. The exception that proved the rule, according to Suri, was Vietnam. It was seen by Kennedy and Johnson, as well as by Chinese and Soviets, as a proving ground that would show which set of political arrangements was superior. Far enough away from the U.S., China and the Soviet Union, it met the requirements of a showcase war for all.

As Suri says: "Each of the great powers gained from stability when confronted with the prospect of wide-spread disruption. D?tente assured that the international system would operate smoothly so long as policymakers adhered to their objective 'national interests.' The problem, Suri suggests, is that national interests are "not objective laws, but instead contested ideas," and that "Detente's fatal weakness grew from its inability to address the claims of citizens and small states that refused to accept the status quo because of its perceived injustice." By this he means "From the day that Nixon and Brezhnev signed the Declaration of Principles through the end of the 1970s, the leaders of the great powers suffered repeated criticism for ignoring concerns about national self-determination, human rights, economic fairness, and racial and gender equality."

He notes that "Agitation around these issues had triggered the global disorders in the 1960s that initially made detente appear necessary as a source of stability. Ironically, political leaders reacted to the criticisms of injustice voice in the previous decade by isolating and containing dissent rather than by creating new sources of popular consent." "Detente reflected traditional balance-of-power considerations, but also included a set of policies that deliberately constrained domestic dynamism. Instead of eliminating the suffering and dissatisfaction in the Cold War, it tried to make it all seem 'normal.'"

Global protest, Suri suggests, was given impetus by state programs. College loans and grants, necessary to build a new technocratic citizenry who would through science demonstrate the superiority of their respective political systems, backfired as thousands of young people were herded together in colleges and universities all over the world. There they found a literature of dissent waiting for them by such authors as Solzhenitsyn, Marcuse, Galbraith, and Harrington. Armed with these anti-state and anti-"system" discourses, students around the world developed a common language of dissent and protest, a language soon taken up by the disspossessed all over the world.

Summing up, he says, "Skepticism toward authority is now a global phenomenon" that has grown out of the conservative core of detente and its stepchild, globalization. "Leaders are no longer loved or feared. In some of the largest democracies they are ignored by as much as half of the electorate, which refrains from voting. Leaders are frequently profaned by international media that play on public distrust of politicians. In this cynical environment, we are still living with the dissent and detente of a previous generation."

POWER AND PROTEST is a landmark work of history. Scholarly and highly readable, it is unsurpassed in tracing the roots of dentente as a conservative reaction to the political engagement of the demos across all types of states.

I was amazed at the effects that this book had on my Bird-brain. Our mind is only limited by our beliefs. The author backs up all of his assertions with facts and real life examples. Several mind-expanding accounts of people all over the world who are not limited by a "confined consensual reality". Changes your beliefs and your experiences will follow. I highly recommend reading this book.

Powers of Mind is brain candy. It is intuitive, original, and fascinating. One of the most informative and interesting books on the subject that I have read. The author lightens up normally dry reading with humor, sarcasm, and other literary devices. If you are interested in the extended issues of psychology, and parapsychology, then this book is a must read. Everything from LSD and "mind opening" experiences to ancient perspectives and interesting historical fact.s

One of the best non-fiction books to come out of the mid-1970s was this wonderful tongue-in-cheek exploration of a whole raft of different mind-expansion techniques by the best-selling author Adam Smith. From Rolfing to EST, Smith includes us in his often humorous attempts to gain genuine insight into how the human mind works, and how we can each individually overcome the limitations, liabilities, and lamentations associated with living with our minds. And, as Smith tells us again and again, your mind is not necessarily your friend.

Although he writes in a self-deprecating and quite comedic way, often he uses his wry and laser-sharp mind to show us things well worth knowing. Indeed, this book is not a throwaway effort, but is a very helpful and essential guide to a plethora of different philosophies, techniques, and modalities dealing with different ways of gaining further self-awareness. Smith asks himself if he really could, as is claimed by some adherents, learn to control his blood pressure, stifle headaches, or learn to pop himself into an alpha state? And by the way, he asks, what is an alpha state, and why do we want to achieve it? How useful is meditation, and what can it really do for us?

In reality, this is aground-breaking effort to introduce the field of consciousness psychology, of the whole field surrounding questions of the mind-body connection and how to approach getting involved. What makes sense and what doesn't become more apparent as we accompany Smith through adventures in Arica, or Transcendental Meditation, or what Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard refers to as the post-relaxation response. In an aside, Smith begins to question his own ideas about what is real and what is not, and the ways in which our own so-called reality paradigm predisposes us to seeing, interpreting, and experiencing the world around us in a particular way.

I found myself particularly astounded by his own experiences in a sensory deprivation tank, and how he seemed to experience out-of-body experiences associated with these excursions to the far reaches of consciousness exploration. I lost my only copy of the book in a fire last year, and just recently re-acquired another copy through the Amazon out-of-print book service. It is an unqualified joy to be re-reading it again after all this time. Do yourself a favor a get yourself a copy too. I know you will love reading it too. Enjoy!

5.5 stars

You will NEVER find a better deal on this site than Powers Of Mind for a penny.
This is one of the most underrated and unfairly forgotten books I can think of. When I found it in my Dad's library and read it at age 12, it changed the way I saw life and my mind and why I am on this planet.
Reading it 30 years later, it's just as powerful and enjoyable.
Smith is really George Goodman, a brilliant mind who wrote some of the best books on money and Wall St, including Paper Money and The Money Game. Here he turns his brilliant brain to the various modalities of consciousness expansion around in the mid-70s, the peak of such pursuits. From yoga to acid, biofeedback to tennis, sensory deprivation tanks to EST, and on and on, he checks it all out. What makes this book so enthralling and loveable is the author's constant awareness of multiple perspectives and his willingness to be deeply curious, wrong, and in awe, often all at once.
Smith calls it exactly as he sees it; if he thinks something or someone is a fraud, he gently points that out. If there is more to something or someone than meets the eye (a major theme), he evokes the mystery while never judging or discounting the "impossible". It's tough to write about the nebulous, but Smith does it in such an elegant way that you feel both smarter and happier every time you put down this book. He's also funny as hell at many points; imagine the 200-IQ uncle/grandfather/best friend you always wanted, and here he is.
Great writing can be like a drug in your brain, expanding and enlightening your basic take on the world as you read. This is just such a book.
I can not recommend this book highly enough. At a penny for a beautifully bound hardcover first edition, this is well beyond the no-brainer category. It's a full-brainer, and it'll be even fuller and happier once it's encountered this book.
God bless you, Mr, Goodman, wherever you are. You've made my life a lot more fun.

If you have been looking for a book to make you feel good about being good to yourself, this is the one to read.

Enjoyable,inspiring and easy reading for those of us who put "us" off.

This is one book that you will keep by your bedside, carry with you to the beach or to the office. In these stressful times being alone is often suspect, considered, somehow, a failure. Ruth Fishel gently takes us through our days, our fears and our longings and offers a means, through solitude, to find our true Selves. "Precious Solitudes" is a loving companion, reminding us daily that we are precious and our time alone is precious.

A book with an inviting title that delivers what it promises. Precious Solitude is a perfect retreat companion, but provides an extensive menu of ideas for how to relax, refuel, and rejuvenate even with our everyday lives swirling madly around us. Adopt just a handful of suggestions from Ruth Fishel's latest and relearn the meaning of the word "calm." You'll be glad you did -- and honestly, so will those around you. Incidentally, if you're tempted to dismiss the notion of solitude as an unimaginable luxury, then you need this book even more than most of us!

I've always had a problem with being quiet and alone with my thoughts. Ruth book includes the thoughts and feelings of a diverse background of people toward the subject of solitude. I found that I'm not alone! Precious Solitude frees the reader to transform any negative feelings toward solitude to something positive and productive.

I found a personal message in the chapter titled "Walking". I'm working on loosing weight and my doctor told me I have to walk 1-hour a day. No skipping - no excuses! I've been ignoring his directive for two weeks now. I just couldn't find anything productive about walking alone an hour each day. I've put all of my energy into not doing it and complaining about how hard it's going to be. "Walking" changed my perspective on the entire situation. Now I'm looking forward to my 1-hour walks. I'll have time to myself to think, plan, enjoy nature, get centered, focused and loose weight! I learned that solitude can be a very productive time!

Precious Solitude is written in small vignettes and is very easy to read. Excellent book!

SharePoint as an application development platform is long on potential, short on guidlines. Pro SharePoint Solution Development guides the user through applciation development techniques that leverage the infrastructure (security, doc management, database access, navigation) of SharePoint to deliver application functionality. This book does not assume the reader is an advanced .Net developer, nor does it treat the reader as brand new to the concepts of application development. It cuts directly to the use of built in features and the creation of custom features and how to bind them together to create solutions.

This book offers an indebt review of how SharePoint fits in the Microsoft Office ecosystem. It delivers a variety of advanced examples, richly illustrated with sample code, downloadable from Apress, and step by step instructions and illustrations in the book itself.

The organization of the book is very convenient and the first four chapters allow the reader to brush up his knowledge about MS Offices and SharePoint with abundant external links. Each consecutive chapter after that represents a standalone example based on a real-world scenario. The examples are focused on the integration with a particular MS Office product. For example Chapter 5 demonstrates a scenario where MS Word integrates with SharePoint and Chapter 9 shows how to construct PowerPoint slides using content stored in a SharePoint list. Every example starts with an introduction and walkthrough, which allows the reader to start reading the chapter directly without losing context.

The complexity of integrating products of the MS Office family in enterprise solutions requires quite a bit of knowledge and experience thus I do not recommend this book to beginners in SharePoint and MS Office programming. While this book has a plenty of introductory and historical information about MS Office development and SharePoint customization, it does not emphasize on important steps of professional SharePoint development such as creation of SharePoint solutions, list and site template customization and provisioning. However if you are already familiar with SharePoint (WSS 3, MOSS 2007) concepts such as solutions, features, workflow etc., this is the book to put all these features in the context of enterprise applications.

The software and hardware requirements for the examples in this book are quite high, so if you want to be able to implement them on your own you need to allocate some time to prepare a system with MOSS 2007, MS Office 2007 Enterprise, VS 2008 Professional or Team Edition and for the first example MS Office 2003. In addition there are several manual actions, which require a bit more time.

Something, which may not be obvious from the title, is the heavy use of the new MS Office document standard - Office Open XML (commonly referred to as OOXML or OpenXML). This was my first exposure to this format specification and I found its use throughout the book very useful.

Overall this book is of great value to intermediate and advanced developers, working on enterprise applications based on the MS Office system or integration projects with third party vendors. The examples can be read independently and each one of them not only demonstrates the implementation of a particular scenario, but also provokes ideas for other projects.

This is the 5th book on MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0 that I have bought so far and it is the best as far as SharePoint development. Each chapter after chapter 4 describes a real-world project for integrating SharePoint with Office. The book assumes that you already understand SharePoint development and .NET programming. You can download the code and I have not had any errors compiling it so far. The book makes heavy use of the System.IO.Packaging namespace and so there are many examples generating xml-based office documents. This book gets straight to the point with lots of code. I highly recommend it.

I am involved with SharePoint developer education so I buy and scan through every single SharePoint title when it becomes available. There are plenty of SharePoint books out today that all cover the same basic topics. This book was special because it had a significant amount of content that I have not seen anywhere else. In particular, I like the way this books explains how a developer can integrate Office 2007 office applications together with SharePoint 2007. It goes beyond the typical 'hello world' examples and offers plenty of gems that could only have been gathered from real-world experience rolling out projects in a production environment. Congrats to Ed and Susie!

Simply put, this book is by far, the best Domino book on the market.

I get bored easy, and this book kept my interest (finished it in two days). I like the way important information was presented in tables--easy to use as a reference. If you can't afford to take the Lotus Classes on Domino/Web....get this book! Also, after reviewing the Lotus sampe exams, I would recommend this book as a study guide. NUMEROUS typos in this book (but I can learn to live with that). Wish it was out in R4.6!

An excellent book to take one from "traditional" Notes application development to development of web applications. Unfortunately, the publishers did a TERRIBLE job of copy editing: references to figures that don't exist or are mis-numbered, paragraphs that end in mid-sentence, mis-formatted tables with items listed in the wrong column.
Deserved much better pre-publication from the editors/publishers and a higher rating.

My students have asked me many times if there are third party books about Notes and Domino that I would recommend. My answer was always no until I read Professional Developer's Guide to Domino. The authors' enthusiasm about Domino made me want to start developing and hosting web sites for clients and I'm not even a developer. The authors presented information about Domino in a easily understandable format. The book is full of useful development techniques and administration procedures. As a consultant, I have used the information in the book to help design and support Notes infrastructures. As an instructor, I found new and better ways to describe how some Notes/Domino processes work. If you are in the groupware profession, add this book to your collection and it will be used more than the official documentation. When was the last time that you picked up a yellow Notes book just to read?

Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone sex line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy pimp leader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. As he said in the BOOGIE NIGHTS script book introduction, "I've come to realize that my function as a director is to be a good writer...My obligation as a director is to deliver the actors a good script, thus making my job as a director describable as 'hanging out' and watching them go. No good actor needs direction beyond 'Let's do another one' and 'Keep it simple.'...There is no flour and sugar...this is a script written for actors. An actor does not need a full description of their character...This is how most screenplays are written... This sort of thing must be written by writers who have no interest in meeting or socializing with actors. If you have written this and you can find an actress to play this part, as described, you will have a bad actress. Actors do not need this, they don't want it. Don't give it to them; they will not read it anyway. This is writing for studio executives. Studio executives do not make movies. They pretend that they make movies. This is a script written for the people who really make the movie, people who physically put it into existence, and all they need are the facts. Pure and Simple." This is a philosophy that is rare and much needed in Hollywood and Independent Cinema nowadays...Scripts rely too much on the "telling" of a story and not enough on the "making" of a story. People who know where their story is going before they pick up a pen, type one letter, or even think of an idea, will never write a great screenplay that way. You have to let it unfold for you and for the audience...

Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone ... line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy ...and leader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. ...

One of my new favorites, "Punch-Drunk Love" is a unique and spectacular story about a man who doesn't know how the face the world around him. That man is Barry Egan. He has seven sisters who have verbally abused him since he was little, causing him to, now all grown up, get into violent outbursts. Barry's a quiet and shy guy, but if his button is pushed things can get out of control. He meets Lena, a very strange and peculiar girl herself. Love falls upon these two, but Barry's even facing more problems after being blackmailed by a phone-sex operator. But when all else fails, he knows that he has a love in his life in this very oddball and dark comedy.

I'm glad they came out with a script version of the film that you can buy. Paul Thomas Anderson has written a magnificent picture that's so easy to relate to , it's scary. The stuff that occurs you can see happening in real life. It's realistic and surreal at the same time.

This is the shooting script, on blue, pink, and yellow colored pages that symbolize when the revisions were made. Technical terms such as camera angels are included as well since it is a shooting script. Even little changes are mentioned as well. I love the dialogue that was written and you can tell that P.T. had Sandler in mind for the part, because nobody else would've been able to pull it off. While it's not your typical comedy, I thought it was hilarious. It pretty much follows the movie, although some things aren't there or changed due to changes that occurred during the shooting. It's pretty much all there for the most part.

"Punch-Drunk Love: The Shooting Script" is a great purchase for anyone who loved the film. It may not had been the most popular movie to come out of 2002, but it's #2 on my list. The pages fly by with ease, and when you're done with it you want to read it again. I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD. I'm counting the days. A spectacular script for a spectacular film.

I love being able to read P.T. Anderson's shooting scripts. His films are fabulous. I believe one of the negative reviewers partially misses the point when harping on the misspellings, the rambling monologues and how PTA's scripts are saved by the actors. The whole point of a script is that it is the first rough draft -- the framework -- upon which a movie is built. Of course there are going to be improvements between the script and the final product. The reason to buy this, or any, shooting script is to see how the project evolved from script to screen. In the case of Punch-Drunk Love -- much more so than Boogie Nights or Magnolia -- it's fascinating to find that almost every important scene was tweaked, sometimes in a major way, before this wonderful film reached the screen. ... It's a great chance to get some insight into the stages of the creative process of one of America's finest directors. ... BOTTOM LINE: Does this book have all the bells and whistles of the Boogie Nights and Magnolia shooting scripts? NOPE. Is it essential for the PTA fan? YUP.