Open Books

It's out of print here but it's currently available in its entirety in The Jump at the Sun Treasury. The book contains 7 pictures books.

This is a wonderful story about the curiosity of prayer for children. But, the artwork is what inticed me to buy the book, several of them in fact. Garin Baker brought out beautiful memories of my childhood. I grew up in the house that he painted. What a wonderful way to bring back memories.

This book's wonderful, lyrical text will lull any child into an interested participant. I just read it to my 5 year old daughter who then asked me, "If I'm in bed and get scared, is it okay to go to the window to pray?" When I assured her that she could, she smiled, and said, "I thought so." This book is one of those perfect little reminders of the things you already know, but need to hear again.

I am the librarian at my church. I recently read this book to a group of children during their monthly visit to the library during children's church. They really enjoyed it! It's a book that generates a lot of questions, comments, and thoughts! What I personally like best about it is that it is suitable for all children,whether they go to church or not. It's non-denominational. It's suitable for Protestamts, Catholics, or Jews. The drawings are truly beautiful and realistically portray a young girl. I highly recommend this book for all church libraries, children's Sunday School classes, and homes.

For any parent wanting to introduce their child to God, it's hard to imagine a better way than this exquisitely-illustrated book. And though it may be written with children in mind, Can I Pray's simple, direct message resonates with many adults as well. A joy to read.

Most current and objective risk assessments indicate that the risk environment faced by the U.S. during the Cold War has drastically changed. The risk of conventional war with peer nation states has been greatly reduced while the risk of asymmetrical war by non-state actors has greatly increased. Further because of the dynamics of the globalization, regional instability, failed states, pandemics, poverty, and immigration all have become serious risks to U.S. National Security. This new risk environment clearly needs a new carefully crafted National Security Strategy based among other things on timely and accurate strategic intelligence.

Which brings us to this altogether remarkable book by Robert David Steele. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the many recent efforts at reform the U.S. Intelligence System remains culturally moribund. Steele offers a rather detailed plan to rebuild this system into an open, flexible, and relevant source of knowledge about the threats and risks faced by the U.S. in the 21st Century. It is necessary not just to read this book, but to think carefully about what Steele is proposing. For example, this reviewer had to really contemplate such strange concepts as a "Global Knowledge Foundation" and "University of the Republic", before fully understanding how such institutions are vitally important to the sort of Intelligence System that Steele is advocating.

Now Steele has written a number of books that offer innovative, if radical, ideas about reforming intelligence, but this is the only one of his books that provides sufficient details to understand how he really would like to transform the U.S. Intelligence System into a system capable of dealing with both military and non-military threats and risks to U.S. security. The opportunities and risks of the phenomenon called "Globalization" are fluid and often elusive. It will take an intelligence system such as the one Steele is advocating to provide the knowledge needed to formulate an effective National security Strategy to deal with both the opportunities and risks.

This book is not an easy read. Readers need to be pro-active in critically thinking about what Steele presents. This effort will be rewarded with new and original insights on the state of U.S. security. More to the point Steele will provide the reader with a clear and unique understanding of the often arcane world of intelligence.

As a book, it's rather ugly. The pages are obviously printed out by an inkjet printer or something (you can actually see some jaggies in the font), and the index is created by MSWord indexing menu, which has multiple entries of the same item, and the way he indexes whole phrases makes it very hard to look up.

It's contents are extremely repetitive. You'll see the same ideas and examples expressed over and over and over and over again, in almost exact same wording. With proper editing, this book would have become 1/3 the volume that it is. The ideas are interesting, although some part, like his suggenstion that the US government should engage in industrial spying, seems questionable. Also, when he uses the word "Open Source", it's not the open source that the people in the software community is used to, so be careful. But it's a book worth skimming through.

For over a decade, Steele has been trying to draw attention to the fact that intelligence needs in the post-Cold-War era require different strategy, organization and tactics. This book is a useful summary of his views.

One point of emphasis is "open source" intelligence--the information that is available from sources outside of the secret intelligence community. Steele argues that the institutional secretiveness of the FBI and CIA is a hindrance rather than a help.

Another point of emphasis is language translation. A further point of emphasis is the fact that threats no longer exclusively take the form of powerful nation-states. I wish that the book focused more specifically on Islamic terrorism, since the other potential threats seem more remote at the moment.

Yet another point of emphasis is database integration. Writing this review in the aftermath of the DC sniper investigation, this seems to be an important point. Before the suspects drove to Maryland, they were involved in a murder in Alabama at which one of them left a fingerprint. Had the Alabama police been able to access a national database, they would have been able to identify the murderer and perhaps apprehend him. Instead, the fingerprint was matched only after a dozen more murders and after the suspects themselves told police to connect the dots to Alabama.

Lack of database integration kills.

The author of ON INTELLIGENCE is an experienced US intelligence expert. Robert Steele's main suggestion to the Intelligence Community is augmented openness. The existing culture of secrecy needs to be changed, because its methods are not effective enough to protect US national security in the 21st century. Openness would create a new environment of understanding intelligence and detect subversive activities. Using open source intelligence means exploiting pluralistic knowledge from universities, research facilities and private companies, which is available at comparable low cost. Classified intelligence often failed to support political decisions, because the policy-maker might not be cleared for such information. Unclassified intelligence can solve this particular problem of compartmentalized dissemination. Therefore, the author advises to link classified information with national competitiveness, making intelligence the apex of the knowledge infrastructure. Part three of his book lays out the core concept of "Creating a Smart Nation" through "Presidential Intelligence".

Robert Steele is the one man crusade for the importance of open source intel. This and his more recent New Intelligence tell and show why open source intel is the most useful means of understanding the world around us and at the same time maintaining our personal liberties. To him each citizen should be running their own open source collection in in the areas of their personal interest. Read both of these books. Buy both of these books. Then go to the OSS convention in Washington. You'll quickly see how muth the professionals think of him.

While this book seems largely unknown in the Reiki community, it is a most wonderful resource. It really does help understand the process of living in the moment and feeling the energetic effects of simply being.

The author describes the journey that this book represents not as being a "how-to" guide for Reiki, but as a "why-to." Narrin truly feels that Reiki cannot be adequately described, and therefore she leaves that to the reader to find their own Reiki experience. Thus, the book is left to be a journey into understanding the tangible, real-life benefits of approaching life holistically and with intention.

I strongly reccomend this book to everyone, not just Reiki practitioners. It will honestly enrich our human experience. Jus the author's personal story related in the book is wonderful, and it is so nice to see a Reiki book that isn't regurgitating the same information as every other.

I tried using one of the plant energy experiments on a dead Dogwood tree in our front yard that was killed by lightning over twenty years ago and within four weeks of using the twenty minutes worth of Reiki energy on the dead tree stump, there appeared four new sprouts right beside the stump that were little Dogwood trees.

In the back of the book there is a personal journal for a month worth of your energy healing and journal to learn if you are actually living in the moment being aware and grounded or spending the majority of your day zoned out on other things like daydreaming/ worry Etc...

After reading and studing this book, I have found that the insights Janeanne Narrin brings, along with the "ways" to learn about, and get into contact with this energy bring to life something we all "know" exists. It allows us to step by step tune in and tune up!..

Good reading, and a better study guide.... much "fuller" than any other I have studied...I recommend highly and am hoping Janeanne creates a sequal ...

I love the attention to detail and the beautiful artwork that this book contains. The layout is well done and I find it causes me to be drawn into the text. The exercises are interesting and unique to most Reiki books. Her descriptions make the practice of Reiki easy to understand and the drawings are helpful. The storys add interest and give a refreshing perspective. Certainly a lot of thought has been given to the creation of this very useful Reiki book.

Having read Janeanne's book from the perspective of a novice in the world of Reiki, I was especially drawn in by her stories of personal transformation. My goal in learning about Reiki is similar: to transform my life through new methods AND new perspectives, which her book helps me do. I would highly recommmend this to anyone who is new to Reiki and is looking for a CONTEXT of Reiki in their life's pursuits.

Over the last few years I have purchased over 50 copires of this book and given it to my friends and co-workers. It is that good! It has a very uplifting message that is well grounded in real life. I very highly recommend this book to those interested in Buddhist philosophy or to anyone who simply wants a more open heart and clear mind.

This book, written in a flowing conversational style, has 7 sections: an introduction, an extremely fine rendition of Buddhist psychology-aimed at human emotions, the "current situation" on cyclic existence/karma, the future-Buddhahood, the path to take, the past-brief Buddhist history; & conclusion. Overall, it's a very fine introduction to basic Buddhism & a terrific companion to Ven. Chodron's Q&A "Buddhism for Beginners" & "Working with Anger." While the author is a Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist Bhikshuni (ordained nun), the book is more generic. The pp. 25-80 psychology portion is convincing: e.g. p. 40: "The sources of the pain & confusion are our own biased projections & the selfish expectations we've placed on others," but goes a bit far, stating p. 77: "all problems arise from the self-cherishing attitude." Later sections present std. Buddhist doctrines, dogmas, mythology, & terminology-very different from the psychology section. For example, as I read Websters, "kindness" implies intention; while one can be grateful to another for some benefit, an unintended benefit is not a "kindness." Similarly, p. 161 the discourse on emptiness ignores the mixed definition of "cracker"--Websters says it must be baked, it is not simply the sum of its parts + synergy is possible. She has some questionable (though not unusual) assumptions-saying p. 196 there were no Buddhist wars (but the Gelugpas came to power over the Karmapa via Mongol military strength etc.). The discussion on soul/self is also party line e.g. p. 163: "the Judeo-Christian idea of an eternal, unchanging soul" & p. 166: "the self still exists, but in a gentler & softer way. It's merely a convention, not a real entity." IMO it depends on one's definitions of words used. This basic book doesn't address specific Vajrayana or Mahamudra perspectives, but Ven. Chodron says very valuable things when speaking for herself: p. 206: "Others may not be our relatives, but they are someone's parents & children. They are the same in being parents & children, only the possessive pronoun describing them is different: `their' instead of `our.' Once we recognize the arbitrariness of these labels `mine' & `others,' our love & compassion can spread to everyone impartially. In this way, feelings of alienation & barriers between people fall away." I find this observation very useful in developing lovingkindness, compassion, Bodhichitta & Tonglen & p. 209: per Lama Yeshe, "We do whatever we can, with whatever wisdom we have...to the best of our ability. This in itself will be of enormous benefit to others; we don't need to wait until we become Buddhas before we can begin to act."

You will not find a better introduction into the world of Buddhism than Open Heart, Clear Mind. Thubten Chodron does a phenomenal job simply explaining complex concepts in language that the beginner can understand. Her prose style is easy yet full of wonderful metaphor. The book is all about questioning our basic assumptions, and examining them in a whole new way, such as this passage about the management of anger:

Generally when we're angry or hurt we feel like victims of others' harmful deeds. We see ourselves as innocent people who unjustly have to bear the brunt of others' actions. We're hurt or angry because we think other people are wrong or bad. Both the anger and the hurt refuse to accept what has happened.

Many people live with a "victim mentality," constantly feeling helpless, mistreated and fearful. However, the more we understand the workings of our minds and the functioning of cause and effect within our mental continuums, the more we'll understand that our present interpretations, as well as our past actions, have played vital roles in the evolution of what we experience. We are in some way responsible for what is happening to us. Knowing this, we then take responsibility and act in order to improve our situation. (47-8)

Part of the understandability of Thubten Chodron's explanations stems from the fact that she is a Westerner, and once had all the questions that we might ask. Her ability to discuss reincarnation, karma, the Four Noble Truths, and the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment in clear and compelling writing is an incredible accomplishment. And those wanting to learn about Buddhism would do well to heed her words.

Following is a quote quoted in the book (so this is a quote of a quote of a quote) from Christian Humphreys (an eminent British judge) that sums up a lot of what I dig about Buddhism:

Buddhism . . . is a system of thought, a religion, a spiritual science and a way of life which is reasonable, practical and all-embracing. For 2,500 years it has satisfied the spiritual needs of nearly one-third of mankind. It appeals to those in search of truth because it has no dogmas, satisfies the reason and the heart alike, insists on self-reliance coupled with tolerance for other points of view, embraces science, religion, philosophy, psychology, mysticism, ethics and art, and points to man alone as the creator of his present life and sole designer of his destiny.

An excellent book to re-read at least once a year. Thubten Chodron offers insights from the combination of many perspectives-a Buddhist in a Christian world, a nun in a predominantly man's religion. But underlying the philosophies is a gentle female offering wisdom on how to give, receive and feel love! Beautiful!

This book was the start of an unquenchable thirst for Tibetan Buddhism for me. I recommend it to beginners in Buddhism and as a complement to any variety of spirituality. A must for understanding and treating human suffering at the root cause.

I found "Open My Eyes, Open My Soul" by Yolanda King to be a wonderful collection of essays by people from all walks of life about their own experience with either intolerance or a gift of tolerance and love.
This is a book the world has been needing. I will frequently refer to it in my speaking engagements and will recommend it along with future editions that will be printed. Thank you Yolanda. You are a blessing to this world.
Carrie bluehawk601@yahoo.com

Everyone has a story to share of a defining moment (or many!) when they see past the surface images to the humanity that connects us heart to heart. I think the best "media pairing" of the message would be this book with the movie, "Love Actually". Both clearly and often joyfully illustrate that no matter what your casual or even paranoid observations regarding the world may be, or your current loss of hope or elevated fears for the future, Love IS all around, and it is everywhere, within everyone, ever eager to burst into bloom. I highly recommend this book, a collection of personal "moments of awakening and realization" to anyone who needs an emotional lift and to anyone who loves and wishes to open their hearts even more. Blessings to you both, dear Yolanda King and Elodia Tate!!! Looking forward to more of the same soon!

This book leaves a lasting impression of love and commonality of the human spirit no matter the race, culture, or beliefs. We are one humanity, one world. Every story shows how people touch each other's lives in a positive way. Both celebrities' stories and "other author" stories remind us that we have so much in common.

Marie McBride

If everyone in the world read this book, all fighting would stop because people would see every other human being as a brother or sister--not someone "different" just because of the color of their skin or their religion or particular culture. This book is a wake-up call that spawns peaceful feelings and longings for a harmonious world. This book is for everyone--not just members of minority groups. I happen to be Caucasian, but reading these heartfelt stories makes me want to shake people who hate and remind them of what Dr. Martin Luther King sacrificed his life for.

This book lifts up, acknowledges, rejoices in, and teaches us about our wonderful differences. We learn through this book that we all receive gifts of lessons and experiences handed down through our cultural ties. It shows us how strong, powerful and united we can be. Share this book with loved ones and those who need to hear the message.

I was impressed by the amount of research which is presented in Opening Up. The history of the open relationship is well detailed as is the variety of practices which fall under the open relationship umbrella. I was particularly impressed with the questionnaire section which truly encourages a reader to consider whether an open relationship will work for them. The issues of safety and boundaries are well covered and the reader is encouraged to have an open dialog with their partner(s) to be sure that everyone is on the same page. The section on legal issues was well researched and I believe beneficial to the reader in that these issues are important issues that tend to be ignored. Opening Up takes an honest look at the open relationship and details it in a well organized and thoughtful manner.

Tristan Taormino has done an excellent job of providing a real-world guide to everyday polyamory. She's incorportated a wide diversity of voices and experiences, and presented us with a hopeful and visionary view of modern day multiple-loving that is firmly rooted in reality. It should appeal to a wide variety of readers, from those just exploring and interest in the poly life to those who have been in poly relationships for years. There's a lot to learn, explore, and reflect upon in this book.

This book was JUST what our new realtionship needed! It is clear, not pushy, and very open to the fact that people are diffrent, with diffrent wants and needs.If ou are an old pro, new hopeful, or just want to get you feet wet, this is the book for you. It helped us to talk over our needs, and find athe compromise for all 3 of us

Tristan Taormino is an over-achiever, a multifaceted woman with an impressive breadth of expertise and talent. To her long list of accomplishments she now adds this latest book on open relationships. At almost 350 pages, it leaves nothing out.

This is a book of amazing diversity with personal stories of people from a wide range of sexual orientations, lifestyles, and styles of open relationship. It was thoroughly researched and includes references to a significant number of well-known alternative relationships experts, sociologists, anthropologists, researchers, therapists and communications and relationship skills experts.

Far from a dry technical manual, throughout the book Taormino includes compelling quotes from and the personal stories of many of the 126 people she interviewed. These lend a valuable perspective by which the reader can identify and connect with the information and advice offered. She includes checklists and questions for negotiating the terms of open relationship and explains terminology to help people who are new to open relationships get a handle on what kind of open relationship they want.

Chapters that particularly impress me are the chapters on compersion (which is the most comprehensive I've seen on that topic), coming out, raising children in open relationships, safer sex (also excellent) and legal and practical matters.

The book is thoroughly annotated and includes statistics about the age, locale, gender, sexual orientation, etc., of the interviewees. There is a comprehensive and up-to-date resource guide that includes a lengthy book list, (I have the impression that she's read everyone of them!), a list of conferences and events, GLBT/queer resources, local, regional and national and international organizations, online groups, listservs and communities, professional directories, resources on research and activism, spirituality resources, and so on.

Opening Up will quickly become a mainstay for those learning how to successfully conduct their open relationships.

A number of good and okay books on nonmonogamy and polyamory have been published in the last several years. I read most of them: some were focused on particular forms of nonmonogamy; others dominated by a spiritual bent, others were just poorly written or edited. Some were downright Pollyanna-ish in their superficial treatment of the challenges of open relationships, occasionally reeking of smug superiority over less-evolved monogamous couplings. None of them was the perfect book I wanted to recommend to the curious, the novice, the baffled and disapproving. This is that book.

Among the book's chief strengths is its breadth. Taormino conducted over 120 interviews with a diverse sample of the nonmonogamous - people of varying ages, sexualities, and (most of all) approaches to relationships. This variety is highlighted by six chapters on different types of open relationships, discussing each types particular advantages and challenges and sharing the experiences of individuals, couples, and group relationships.

The later chapters tackle particular issues and problems common to open relationships, from the emotional (managing jealousy, coming out) to the practical (safer sex, legal and financial protections). Taormino moves beyond the platitudes common to discussions of nomonogamy - "Communicate! Be Honest! Own your feelings!" - and provides concrete advice on how to approach difficult conversations, disentangle emotional reactions, develop and follow agreements, and respond to change.

The book's heavy use of quotations and anecdotes from interview subjects, and its effort to be accessible and inclusive, result in an approach that mutes the distinctive voice and focus on sexual exploration that mark Taormino's other work as an author, editor, educator and pornographer. In-depth discussions of group sex are not to be found (Taormino recommends Vicki Vantock's Threesome Handbook); instead, the focus is on the emotional aspect of relationships, and sexual details come up only in the context of forming agreements and protecting your partners. With a few exceptions - such as her criticism of the "radical honesty" school of intimate communication - the book presents varied opinions and approaches in a neutral, descriptive fashion; rather than question the importance of gender and heterosexual intercourse to many people's relationship agreements, for example, she simply recognizes these as emotional facts to be addressed.

This book will be most interesting to those relatively new to thinking about, or doing, open relationships. But while those for whom nonmonogamy is familiar may be tempted to skim or skip this book (or any new book on the subject), nearly everyone will find something thought-provoking, such as the discussion of mono/poly relationships (which poly folk sometimes regard as doomed to fail, in much the way many monogamous folks regard polyamory generally), the evolution of group relationships, and coping with major changes in wants, needs, and circumstances.

[...]

I love Gaku Homma's books for their straightforwardness. This one is exactly what the subtitle says it is. I wish there were a higher text-to-photo ratio, but mostly I wish Gaku Homma had finished the series of which this was the first book. If you train in aikido already, I suspect there's a good chance you've seen this material already. But if you train in other martial arts and have an interest in aikido, I think this book could be very informative for you.

This book will deepen your understanding of how Aikido techniques are linked to sword fighting. An excellent, visual presentation of Aikido footwork, timing and mental attitude. I wish Mr. Homma would complete the series he had planned with the publication of this book. Highly recommended!

This is the best technique book I have ever read. The book is very practical in the order that it is layed out; and clear in showing the relationship between the the arts. The clearity and order of the photos make it very easy to follow each technique from start to finish. Each technique is true to its Japanese art; their does not look to have any mix of other arts or peronal change to any of the movements. This is an excelent book.

I found the book very good, useful and interesting. It shows that even though Aikido is gracful it is also dangerous.

This book shows in great detail how aikido empty hand techniques related to techniques with weapons.

Ignore the image of the cover I posted above. You're not going to get the same cover. You're going to get something better. The hardcover book came with a protective cardboard cover box with two holes cut into it. Peeking out of the two holes are Boog and Elliot, of course.

When you pull the book out of it's cover box, you'll notice that there's something different about this book and other art books. There are a lot of goodies packed within the pages. There were post cards, posters, mini booklets and even stickers!

Inside the book, there were tons of original sketches, beat boards and film stills. The captions and write ups were really nice to read. The content was so vibrant and full of life. The book actually feels like a scrapbook. I've several photos taken on Parka Blogs

Pixar may want to review their delivery of any future art books now that Sony is delivering books like Open Season, chocked with goodies. This book is so packed full of art you would think the film was traditional. I enjoyed Open Season and wondered why since I cant stand most CG films except for Pixar's (excluding Cars). I know why now I see all the pre-production that went into it...for me Im a colour and environment lover and I was so happy to see Sony included colour scripts and beat boards! I really think this one is a great investment! The presentation is a real treat, I am looking forward to the Aardman art of books now that they are partners with Sony...keep it up.

Great artbook. really relly great!!! with lot of little details, postcards and beautiful sketches, backgrounds and3D modellings, etc and a really beaituful and perfect edition, with a "2nd cover" (I don't know how it's called in english)

I have seen the movie and wanted to walk out on it within the fist five minutes. NOT because the animation was bad, or the art direction awful, simply because the pacing and the main character's voices were just getting in the way of the experience I look for in a movie, any movie : The escape.

When I picked up the book, I was almost shocked to see that the exact oposite was happening. I found myself flipping through the pages, being brought in to this magnificent world inspired by the older Disney designers, and really enjoyed the book.
I would recommend it as a standalone Art Book, rather than a complement to the movie. In fact, you might like the movie better if you just go through the book.

If you are a serious student or professional of the animation field and/or a fan of the movie, "The Art of Open Season" is a must-have in your library. This book contains TONS of great early conceptual art and designs from the film. Additionally, the artworks are large and fills up all of the negative spaces of the pages, as opposed to small thumbnailed images that are often found in other "Art Of.." books. The presentation of the book is also of very high quality and neatly put together. Inspiring and informative, I believe this book sets a new standard for future "Art Of..." books (and I own quite a few myself). Highly Recommended!

WOW what a book, I find each page is a personal message to me, helping me through the day, after reading a page, I feel ready for any challenges of the day. I write down the thought of the day and throughout the day, I take another glimpse and feel Blessed to be alive and surrounded by my angels. Buy this book it is money well spent and you will be inspired to achieve, set goals and soar towards your true potential, and feel the love generated by the angels surrounding you.
Love and light to all.

I really enjoy this book. Its provides great, positive daily meditations that are fun and uplifting. Its easy to read, and makes you feel more spiritually "in tune". Love it!

I love this book for the inspiring messages. It is a wonderful way to start the day. Just open a page and read and it will put you in a positive frame of mind.

I use it everyday to start the day.
I firmly believe in the angelic realm and also Doreen Virtue.

It is a great way to start off your day! It has a reading on each page that you read everday a different page. It is positive and helpful thoughts for that day! Order it you will be happy!

I picked up this book to help me develop an application knowing absolutely nothing about GTK+ programming and it was beyond helpful. Excellently written, not to mention many code examples showing how to use the GTK+ library properly and efficiently. This book gives you the tools and the understanding for building your own applications and not just re-creating the examples given to you.
I highly recommend this book to anyone programing in C and want to learn how to use the GTK+ library along with the GLib and Pango libraries. This is one book I'm not going to let go of.

FINALLY... a great book on GTK+.
Easy to follow and understand, great example, great explanations...

Usually I dislike the writing styles in Apress publications, but this is a definite winner. For the first time I can say I actually understand and can effectively use GTK+.

I got this book a few weeks ago and found it to be well written and to the point.

A textview widget in python had me stumped, but no longer. Anyone wishing to tackle GTK+ programming should buy this well organized and excellent book. It is well worth it.

I wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I cannot in good conscience give it 5 stars as the other reviewers have.

I will say the book is well organized and is definitely useful as a starting point for studying GTK+ and the author clearly has a great deal of knowledge about the subject. But what should have been the main strength of the book that differentiates it from the mostly inadequate online tutorials is the author conveying to the reader straightforward explanations of important concepts and insider tips and tricks that can only come from extensive experience. He tries to do this, but I found many of his explanations ambiguous and confusing. Important terminology was left undefined or poorly defined which contributed to the confusion.

The author dutifully plods through a presentation of most of the main widgets, providing essentially the same trivial example code each time with minor variations- basically just showing how to put the widget onscreen. But there was a frustrating lack of material devoted to how to use signals and events to perform any useful tasks. The vast majority of the functionality of any GUI application lies in its event handlers and callback functions. After reading this book, you will be able to prototype the GUI for your application, but you may be at a loss to make it actually do something.

By Ch.3 and 4, the same example code has been replicated so many times that there is an increasing frequency of copy-paste errors that gradually becomes very annoying. Also, there are many typos in the text. The lack of editorial oversight and technical review on the part of the publisher combined with the author's lack of attention to detail and failures in exposition has created a book that I can only marginally recommend- mostly because all of the other books that have been published on GTK+ are either out of date or out of print, so this book seems to be the winner by default.