Wang Books

My one big complaint with this book is that it combines traditional and simplified characters. The "grammar notes" (which are just footnotes) and index are written in traditional characters, while the homework is written in simplified characters. There should be two completely different editions of this book: one for simplified, and one for traditional.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer living in China, I needed a book that would quickly and effectively introduce me to the complex grammatical structures and vocabulary necessary to engage in grown-up conversation. Books widely available here in the motherland were not particularly useful - most "advanced" books here tend to avoid the very issues that are most talked about by young, educated people today.

I found "Oh, China" to be a great tool in my personal language acquisition process (a sentence that I can now translate into Chinese...). Most importantly, the book introduces topics of conversation that I often encounter in a method that is all-but-entirely free of bias. I was able to use this book with my Chinese tutor...

While it's true that the grammar isn't perfect - sometimes my friends and teachers laugh @ me for sounding like a textbook - for the most part the grammar lessons were right on, especially their explanations in good, clear English.

The vocabulary problems stated above are, indeed, quite infuriating.

Despite these problems, the book was immensely helpful to me and, overall, a really good book

Unfortunately I can't agree with the first reviewer. The concept behind this book is sound; it attempts to address the needs of students who, due to family background or special circumstances (such as, in my case, having lived in China), can speak some Chinese but have little knowledge of reading, writing and formal grammar. The concept is good, but the book falls short on execution. Problems:

1)There are numerous errors and omissions in the text and in the example sentence patterns. My Chinese teacher, a native speaker of northern standard Mandarin, has confirmed this.

2)The grammar "notes" are little more than footnotes; no formal presentation of grammar is given. One would think that students whose background includes little grammar preparation would require more grammar than a typical textbook provides, but this book contains virtually no formal grammar presentation at all.

3)The sentence patterns are not only prone to error but also frequently contain vocabulary items that have yet to be presented in the main body of the text. Considering that the target audience is students who can speak some Chinese but cannot read and write, why do the authors assume that students using the book will be able to read the characters for these additional vocabulary items before they have been formally presented in the main body of the text?

4)The exercises also frequently contain vocabulary, grammar and/or characters that have not been introduced in the text. This makes doing the exercises incredibly frustrating.

5)Although the main text is presented in both "traditional" ("fantizi") and simplified ("jiantizi") Chinese characters, the exercises are given only in jiantizi, while the sentence patterns (containing characters not found in the main text) and index are given only in fantizi. This makes the book significantly less useful for those who wish to learn only one character set.

6)The organization of the index is a travesty.

In sum, this book needs a much better editing job and more comprehensive use of both fantizi and jiantizi character sets throughout. Perhaps these problems will be addressed in a second edition. Until then, prospective students who fall into this book's target audience group are better off combining one of the many elementary texts on reading and writing Chinese characters with a more advanced book on Chinese grammar, such as Yip and Rimmington's (jiantizi-only) "Intermediate Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook".

The title indicates that this is for advanced beginners. I don't consider myself an advanced beginner, but this book was very informative and helpful to me. I really appreciated the wide range of information presented with each lesson, and I learned a lot by just going through the lesson once. Although some of the grammar explanations are a little dry, it is a very helpful reference to have if you are learning Mandarin.

I found this is a truly useful book for practical IC designers like myself.

I found this book a nice complement to existing literature such as "Basic ESD and I/O Design." The complementary characterisitc of this book arises from addressing the issue of designing ESD structures from the standpoint of an IC designer, with plenty of actual circuit examples (although mostly digital).

The only criticism is that the book is poorly written, too colloquial, with many grammatical misconstructions.

This is a bad book with many mistakes (not just spelling mistakes but design and interpretation mistakes!!). The author do not have seems to have hands-on experience in ESD and not known in ESD area, which is clear from his approach. Do not waste the money..
If you are a designer, go and buy the book by Maloney and Dabral.
If you are a device engineer, buy the book by Duvvury and Amerasekera.

Having owned this book for several weeks, now I could make some comments here. Well, if you need some books on ESD or IO design, you won't be able to find many. This book is one of several good books with comprehensive coverage on ESD protection. It addresses ESD test models, protection circuit design techniques, failure analysis, layout and simulations.

However, my personal feeling is that this book came from lots of author's paper collections instead of his own experience. Especially, in Chapter 6 (ESD Failure Analysis and Modeling), virtually all examples were borrowed from others, and the reproduced FA images are poor. Also, I agree ... that the book was not well written. It has too many long sentences which make you read uneasily.

Looking for a better one? Wiley just published the second edition of "ESD in Silicon Integrated Circuits" which is far better than first edition, and it's more practical and much cheaper than this book, with super quality. Maybe I can give a brief comparison between these two books here, academic vs. industry, professors vs. engineers.

I guess I am rushing to judgement - but in the first 10 pages I read, there were about 8 typos - so I am giving this a 2 stars for now. Will update my review/rating as I go along.

This book does not do a good job of getting the small experiments running. And w/o that, it is difficult to get any handle over the big picture. If you haven't done XML and Oracle integration before, this book definitely is not what you are looking for.

This book covers everything on how to develop XML applications based on the Oracle XML infrastructure. It also provides the readers with a lot of samples on how to utilize the technology. No matter you are an advanced professional or a fresh graduate, if you are interested in XML-related Oracle application development, personally I think this is a must-have book.

I wish more books were written like this. When you read it you understand that a team of high professional people have worked on it. The book is organized to be useful for developers, DBAs, managers. You'll find here everything you need: XML & SQL, XSQL , XSLT, XML in PL/SQL, Java, C, C++. I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book if your are new to database marketing (or have a staff member new to database marketing). It is very easy to read and and explains database marketing in the simplist terms.

It is not a book for the advanced database marketer, nor does it cover advanced strategies. Paul Wang is very knowledgeable and I have seen several of his (and Arthur Hughes) presentations through the DMA.

If your job requires database marketing and you need to find ways to do it better, this book is not for you. This book appears to have been written more for the marketing manager who has database marketers reporting to him or her, but who has no direct involvement in the process. This book is just a basic overview of what database marketing is, with no practical use.
Even the examples appear contrived and not actual case studies.

Incidentally, years after purchasing this book, I took a database marketing course in my MBA program that was taught by the wife of one of the authors. Like the book, the course didn't offer much either. I ended up scrapping the book -- not passing it on, but tossing it -- shortly after that.

Jackson and Wang have developed a "Bible" for implementing database marketing. The book helps marketers implement a customer management program at any level of application by applying 3 basic building blocks of skills. Best book i've read on the topic !

This book doesn't have a lot of real world business cases, a little bit boring. On the other hand, it doesn't have much theoretical depth either. As a practioner, I didn't find much useful info. inside.

I read this book in 1995 when VB3 was first released. It got me started programming within a few days. It is quick, concise, nontechnical, and humorous. I would suggest this book to anyone with NO PREVIOUS knowledge of Visual Basic 3. I am working with VB5 today and I find this book to still be a wonderful reference.

This book is great(if you have no experence) it teaches VB3 like no other! It has references, some great code, & teaches key code.

I bought this to learn Visual Basic 3. Even though there are some good points to the book, overall it is total useless for the money. There are not any explanations as to what the wording of the code means. The book brings you to a certain point in programing and drops you flat and starts another subject. I will not buy another book in of this series of books.

I read this book in 1995 when VB3 was first released. It got me started programming within a few days. It has quick, concise, nontechnical, and humorous. I would suggest this book to anyone with very knowledge of Visual Basic 3. I am working with VB5 today and I find this book to still be a wonderful reference.

Around The Year was originally published in 1957, and is generally regarded as one of the author/illustrator's finest endeavors in picture-book form. Tudor has penned appropriate short verses to accompany four pages of delicately-detailed scenes for each month, two done in watercolor and two in pencil.

Miss Tudor is famous for her sensitive and accurate depictions of rural scenes of the past. I consider this book to be the pinnacle of her successful efforts in bringing the loveliness of by-gone days to the present-day young reader. Commonplace events such as running home during a springtime shower and ice-skating on a pond are given as much attention by the artist as are holiday-times and other special moments. Tudor's portrayal of children carving jack-o'lanterns for Halloween and the setting-off of firecrackers on America's Independence Day are quite memorable.

On each page, there is much to be shared between any adult and child reading the book together. The Thanksgiving scenes are particularly evocative (and timely) for the start of meaningful discussions between parents and children. Tudor's observant eye gathers the flora and fauna of New England and delivers them to the observer in a delightful, but natural manner. Throughout the pages, there is a charming lightheartedness and gentleness rare in today's children's books. The careful reader will also find moments of unexpected humor. I highly recommend this book for both its content and delivery to readers of all ages.

That said, I am livid with the publisher's decision to replace what I consider Tudor's finest dust-jacket design with a repeat of an image from the month of April--even though it's arguably the finest single composition presented in the book. The original painting of 12 miniature portraits featuring monthly activities (in a clockface pattern) coupled with a seasonal bird portrait in each corner is a tour-de-force in composition. It hints at the precious jewels to be found inside the book's covers, yet stands alone as a memorable work in itself.

To make matters worse, the original title-page featuring another twelve individual bird portraits each surrounded by Tudor's distinctive twig frames has also been discarded. The new reader is also denied the enjoyment provided by Tudor's clever embellishments of the book's title, including an inchworm wending its way along the top of a letter.

There is an unfortunate lack of faithfulness to both the clarity of line and intensity of color that were so notable in the book's early printings; this happens all too often in the modern world of children's-book publishing. Hopefully, the printer and the publisher will work together to rectify these failings for subsequent printings.

Even with these faults, this book is a visual feast for both those who already do, and those who will now learn to, appreciate the value and importance of America's past rural life. Moreover, it is an enduring testimony of Tasha Tudor's distinguished contributions to the world of children's literature .

Around the Year by Tasha Tudor is a splendid peek into the simply wholesome traditions of a New England farm family throughout the year. Tudor's pictures are darling. My children love it. I'd recomend this book to anyone with children, anyone who needs to teach children about the monthes and seasons of the year, or anyone who just loves a really good poetic picture book. Enjoy! We did.

i could not find any magic in this book. the style is the same but the pictures and colors are just not magical. i hope it is the printers fault. i was also not happy with the amount of information in book. prehaps you should describe these books better. this is the 5th. tasha tudor that i have bought from you and the first i have not liked.

I read this book after Amazon suggested it to me, and because it could be had for cheap. Amazon suggested I might like this book because I had recently purchased Leo Marx's "The Machine in the Garden" and Henry Nash Smith's "Virgin Land". I had to read no further then the author's preface to see reference to those two authors, and the book often cited to their work in those two books.

Undoubtably, Chapter Two, called "The Factory as Republican Community" is a must-read. Using Goffman's concept of the "Total Insitituion", Kasson uses primary and secondary source material to discuss how the establishment of the Lowell-model factories in New England represented the culmination of a certain kind of american ideology. Kasson situates the discussion in terms of American reaction to English factory life (see Dickens, Hard Times) and how American factory owners wanted their factories to be "different".

For me, the most illuminating part of this book came when Kasson explained how the reaction to English factory life was primarily shock and horror at the lack of social control exercised by the British over their factory workers. The Lowell owners were just as concerned with the social control of their workers as they were with making economic profit (Kasson points out that their was a substantial issue as to whether the factories would, in fact, be profitable). For me, the point was to illustrate the profoundly undemocratic roots of American Republicanism. Although Kasson is far from an ideologue, I can see why this chapter is often required reading in college history courses.

As for the rest of the book. Meh. Chapter one sets up the background for Chapter two, so you have to read that. I thought his chapter on Emerson ("Technology and Imaginative Freedom") was a bit derivative of his influences. His chapter on "The Aesthetics of Machinery" is mildly interesting (Did you know that Americans used to paint their machines with flowers?). His final chapter on "Technology and Utopia" is, in my opinion, the weakest, although I was engaged by his exegesis of Twain's "A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court".

I'd recommend this book for students of early america history, american studies types and people interested in the the subject of social control.

We used this book as one of our texts in a history of technology course. I thought that Kasson did an excellent job covering such a large amount of material in a relatively short book.

Though it was a little dry (I would never have picked it up on my own) I thought it served as an excellent piece on early American history from a tachnological perspective.

In "Civilizing the Machine", Kasson presents a very fair and even set of accounts which chronicles the advent of the American industrial and technological communities. While this is not your standard economics or history book, Kasson sets the tone for the burgeoning young nation's entrance onto the world trade stage. His insights over the "hidden agenda" of many early national leaders are quite fascinating; in this regard, he slyly points out that many of our forefathers who were so deftly incline to advocate liberties and freedom for the masses were also deeply concerned over the relatively slight amount of intelligence among the working classes. The book is not without its faults. The decision to not include any narratives about the economic and industrial effects from the Civil War was a troubling omission for this reader. Kassan's treatment of America's infantile arts and education communities might lose some readers. His goal, which takes a while to digest, is to point out that most of the early arts docents from the industrial powerhouses were simply trying to encourage the common workers to realize that their contributions to the "American machine" were actually assisting in the development of a sense of American culture. In that this book takes the reader down the venues of early Revolutionary War era factories, controversial immigration policies in the last half of the nineteenth century, and the mindset behind the first free, public American schools, it is a highly recommended work for fans of history, education in American and the Industrial Revolution.

I just don't understand this adaption at all. It is so unfaithful to the original plot of the movie. I enjoyed the first four. The art is so sublime as the line in Chinese "Tian Xia" (underneath Heaven). the story is pretty good too but I wonder if they can fix the translation and maybe fix the images too? It looks so weird that everyone is almost prodominately left handed. Back to vol 11, I don't like where this is going, especially that little essay at the end. Thank goodness I didn't buy this comic. Borrow the comic and see what I mean. Or just look at my review on Vol 12.

I just LOVED reading about Jen Yu and Dark Cloud! It's great when they had a duel and fell in love. Compared to the part about them, the stuff about Yu Shen, Mu Bai, and all the other characters were boring. I highly recommend this book, except when Jen Yu and Dark Cloud are in the cave...ew. But anyway, it's a cool book with beautiful illustrations.

This book was totally cool. I loved it when the book got to show Jen Yu as a girl and show her as an adult. I loved the drawings which are SO detailed. But I didn't really like the ending where this bandit wanted a match with Jen Yu because I wanted to read more!

Needham investigates a 11th C Chinese clock

Needham's work is unmatched. Heavenly Clockwork is a scientific research book on the origin of clock building in China with emphasis put on Su Sung's Astronomical Water Clock. Needham, however, does more than give a historical and scientific account of water clocks and astronomical devices in ancient China; he puts China's clockwork into historical perspective, discussing the subject in other regions of the world, including Greece, Egypt, and Korea. For those who are looking for material that looks beyond the Western bias when ancient science and technology are discussed, this is a great book to pick up and enjoy.

book review _Heavenly clockwork_
HEAVENLY CLOCKWORK the great astronomical clocks of medieval china
by Joseph needham

I read the book because of a statement made in a online discussion group: "the chinese emperor suppressed the knowledge of clockmaking."
This did not fit into my understanding, as i have seen very old water clock diagrams on the walls of bell and drum towers in China, in particular, the drum and bell towers in Beijing had a very complete set of sketches of massive water clocks. Although i could not read the legends i understood that the purpose of the drum and bell towers throughout China was to keep time in a very public way.

Now choosing this particular book was not an accident, i have wanted to get into the massive corpus of Needham's work on China, and this was an opportunity to have a minor need driven learning curve. I was not at all disappointed in the book. It is literally an excellent example of how to do science, how to investigate a historical question, how to marshall facts and prove a difficult point.

But the book is not for the faint of heart, or the mildly interested in horology, it is complete, tedious and not a Sunday afternoon light reading. Nor should it be, it is just as the author intended it, a scientific research book on the origin of clock building in China.

From the introduction: " It is generally allowed that the invention of the mechanical clock was one of the most important turning-points in the history of science and technology. Not only was it the earliest complex device, heralding a whole age of machine-making, but also its regular imitation of the natural motion of the sun and heavens fascinated men and exerted no small influence on their philosophy and theology." The key text which is studied throughout is _New Design for a Mechanised Armillary Sphere and Celestial Globe_ written in 1090AD by Su Sung. The clock was built, a high astronomical clock-tower more than thirty feet high, with sky observation points, moving globes and rings that would be analogous to the same object in the movie "Dark Crystal" with the planets in their various orbits whizzing around the sun.

"To sum up the matter, it is quite clear that one of the reasons why the early Jesuit missionaries were so much welcomed by the Chinese was for their interest in clocks and clock-making, hardly less indeed than for their skill as mathematicians and astronomers. ... In Ricci's time the Jesuit order was capable of attracting for its overseas mssions some of the best minds of Europe. It was a mobilisation of oecumenical idealism something like that which the League or the United Nations have now and then commanded in our own time." pg. 145

It is the 9th chapter: "General History and Transmission of Astronomical Clocks" that i personally found the most fasinating, where Needham takes the details and builds the connections to general thinking and social structures. "Such devices of scientific technology have exercised not a little influnce on the idea that the universe was a great mathematical machine whose workings could be comprehended by exact reasoning. Since astronomy and graphic representation are two of the most ancient of man's arts, it is no wonder that he should want to hold the cosmos in his hand by making a model of it--" pg 179 "This is no accidental feature of mechanical design, but an inherent part of the format of Chinese astronomical theory."pg 180 "The question is also linked closely with the different modes of astronomy in the Hellenistic and Chinese cultures. In the West, a series of happy accidents occurred soon after the arithmetically minded Babylonians had communicated their astronomy to the geometrically strongly-developed Hellenic scientists. These accidents of physical fact and mathematical structure had the effect of directing the best period of genius towards the mathematical analysis of planetary motions rather than to any other part of astronomy." pg 181

I understand that the big question for Needham was why did science develop in the West and not China, given the Chinese invention of all the pieces of what we consider the enabling technology. This book is my first study into the Needham body of writing and i look forward to working through the 12 volume set on Chinese science.

thanks for reading the review, and i hope it inspires you to at least skim the first chapter and chapter 9.

Reviewer: fjord from Portland, OR United States
When I was in China, I read a review on this book, saying
C. T. Hsia was funded by C.I.A when writting this book.
"the book is bias and full of hatry to Communist China" the
reviewer said, "that is why this book is banned in China".
I was so curious that the first book I checked out from a U.S.A
library was this one. I am disappointed since Hsia is really
bias and sometimes paranoia.

He really did not understand the huge difficulty all Chinese
writers faced in the past 100 years. And sometimes I really
doubt whether he is a Chinese at all? When he sat there laughing
at Communist writers, did he realize those were of the same
origin of his parents and himself?

In this sense, this book is just common, not great, since it
is lack of love and forgiveness, the basic elements of all great
works.

When I was in China, I read a review on this book, saying
C. T. Hsia was funded by C.I.A when writting this book.
"the book is bias and full of hatry to Communist China" the
reviewer said, "that is why this book is banned in China".

I was so curious that the first book I checked out from a U.S.A
library was this one. I am disappointed since Hsia is really
bias and sometimes paranoia.

He really did not understand the huge difficulty all Chinese
writers faced in the past 100 years. And sometimes I really
doubt whether he is a Chinese at all? When he sat there laughing
at Communist writers, did he realize those were of the same
origin of his parents and himself?

In this sense, this book is just common, not great, since it
is lack of love and forgiveness, the basic elements of all great
works.

I'm of Chinese descent, though I'm now a bona fide Canadian. I have read many classical books about China which are translated into English. I have also read the modern classics, for instance:- The Naked Earth and The Rice Sprout Song by Eileen Chang. Incidentally, the late Ms. Eileen Chang was the grand daughter of the reknown Chinese official named Lee Hung Chang who was once a grand Viceroy of Manchu China (1644-1912). He was nearly assassinated by a Japanese extremist while Viceroy Lee was in Imperial Japan to sign a peace accord. I have had read Prof. C. T. Hsia's definitive analysis, entitled: THE CHINESE NOVEL - a learned review of six classic novels - namely:- Romance of the Three Kingdoms; 108 heroes of the Marshes; Journey to the West; Chin Ping Mei (Golden Lotus); The Scholars; and Dream of the Red Chamber (Hung Lou Meng).

Undoubtedly, Prof. C.T. Hsia present book: HISTORY OF MODERN CHINESE FICTION will be interesting to read, since I have just ordered a copy.
His comments are always based on what he has critically read and I am pretty sure that he has no intention, as alleged, to be biased, rude, insulting nor mocking the authors of modern China. Hsia is Chinese and therefore he don't mean to mock or disgrace those authors under his critical review. These, I am pretty sure. Once a Chinese always a Chinese at heart... Need I say more???

PS: In passing, I have also read works by Ba Jin like: The Family, Spring, and Autumn. My other reading includes Lu Hsun and Mao Tun who wrote the Silk Spring Worm. These are some of the authors reviewed by Prof. C. T. Hsia.