books I read
Once when I picked up a book from the local library, the librarian asked to tell her what I thought about the book when I would bring it back. Well, why not write a few lines about all the books I read so everybody could see what I thought about it? I'm often also happy to have friends recommend a certain book or tell me this and that is not really worth reading. I won't comment about the tons of books I have read so far, but about books I read from now on.
 | recommended not to read it | empfehlung das buch nicht zu lesen | ||
 | not too interesting | nicht allzu interessant | ||
 | average | durchschnittlich | ||
 | good reading | gutes lesematerial | ||
 | highly recommended | sehr empfohlen |
| title | Nanjing 1937 |
|---|---|
| author | Ye Zhaoyan |
| ISBN-10 | 0-571-21812-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-571-21812-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2006-Aug-12 |
An unusual love story around the spoilt university professor Ding Wenyu who completely falls for Yuyuan when he sees her at her wedding party.
The love story as such would make for quite a good reading. However, the book is completely overloaded with historical and political details of the time. Sometimes it reads like a "Who's Who" of chinese politics in 1937. Whereas in chinese culture it might be rather important to know who is friends which who, for the western reader it has the effect of partially drowning the love story.
| title | The Bonesetter's Daughter |
|---|---|
| author | Amy Tan |
| ISBN-10 | 0-00-712444-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-007-12444-2 |
| impression | |
| date | 2006-Aug-20 |
Ruth, her American father dying very early, has been brought up in America by her Chinese mother LuLing. Life with mother has not always been easy. It is only when LuLing is old, that Ruth learns about the past of her mother, just as LuLing herself did not know the truth about her own mother until after it was too late.
A well told dual-cultural story.
| title | Deception Point |
|---|---|
| author | Dan Brown |
| ISBN-10 | 0-552-15176-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-552-15176-4 |
| impression | |
| date | 2006-Sep-10 |
Campaigning for office is at its height. Rachel Sexton of the National Reconnaissance Office and daughter of his opponent, is ordered by the current President of the United States to check out and confirm the world changing finding NASA has just made. Only hours later Rachel finds herself on an arctic glacier.
By chance the civilian scientists stumble upon some minor issue which not only puzzles them but also puts a team of highly skilled killers on their heels.
A fast paced, well told political thriller. Dan Brown understands his craft exceptionally well by building up the readers urge to go on reading.
| title | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince |
|---|---|
| author | J.K. Rowling |
| ISBN-10 | 0-7475-8468-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-747-58468-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2006-Oct-08 |
This is the sixth volume of the Harry Potter series, a story about a boy-wizard chosen to fight the evil and highly skilled dark wizard Voldemort.
Don't attempt to read this without having read the previous volumes; quite a lot of knowledge from the other books is presumed. This sixth book in the series sports less action and surprises than the previous ones. While I still consider it an enjoyable read and can recommend it, I also got the feeling that this volume was somehow fabricated and constructed. In my opinion, the previous five books of this series were better.
| title | The Only Woman in the Room |
|---|---|
| author | Beate Sirota Gordon |
| ISBN-10 | 4-7700-2732-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-4-770-02732-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2006-Oct-19 |
The autobiography of Beate Sirota Gordon, the daughter of the famous pianist Leo Sirota. Beate has been brought up mainly in Austria and Japan. During war she was studying in America and thanks to her excellent language skills was hired to translate foreign radio broadcasts monitored by the US. At the end of the war she returned to Japan in search for her parents and worked for the US army where she happened to draft part of the Japanese constitution.
While this is not a literary high standing work, it is nice reading and well worthwhile if you are interested in Japan, especially the early 20th century, or in Leo Sirota.
| title | Linux-Kernel-Handbuch Leitfaden zu Design und Implementierung von Kernel 2.6 |
|---|---|
| author | Robert Love |
| ISBN-10 | 3-8273-2204-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-827-32204-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2006-Nov-26 |
Ein Buch, das nicht vornehmlich für den C-Programier-Guru geschrieben ist, sondern auch von "Normalsterblichen" verstanden werden kann.
Es wird Einblick gewährt, wie im Linux Kernel programmiert werden soll, Stolpersteine aufgezeigt und Tipps gegeben. Die wichtigsten Bereiche des Kernels, seiner Aufgaben und verwendete Konzepte werden in verständlicher Sprache erklärt. Die Zahl der C-Beispiele hält sich in Grenzen, so dass man nicht unbedingt C Programmierer sein muss, um von diesem Buch profitieren zu können.
Dieses Buch ist eine Deutsche Uebersetzung des Englischen Originals. Die Sprache der Linux Kernelentwicklung und der Programmierung ganz allgemein ist zwar Englisch, aber die sehr vielen Englischen Ausdrücke (teilweise mit Uebersetzungen in Klammern) stören doch merklich. Meine Bücherrei hatte nur die Deutsche Ausgabe an Lager und ich bereue, mich damit zufrieden gegeben zu haben, statt das Englische Original zu bestellen. Auch bezüglich Tipp- und anderer Fehler könnte noch einiges verbessert werden. Zum Beispiel sind in meiner Auflage in einem ganzen Kapitel sämtliche Tabellenunterschriften falsch.
Als Vorbereitung auf einen Linux Performance Tuning Kurs wollte ich etwas mehr über den Kernel lernen und habe dieses Buch gelesen. Die darin enthaltenen Ausführungen und Erklärungen waren zwar verständlich, ich bin mir aber nicht sicher, wieviel sie mir für den bevorstehenden Kurs wirklich helfen werden.
| title | Perfect Harmony |
|---|---|
| author | Barbara Wood |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-60629-4 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-60629-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2006-Dec-19 |
Charlotte, the American-Chinese young woman has inherited Harmony Biotech, the successful company her grandmother has built selling Chinese herbal remedies. Not long after she is in charge of the company, somebody tries to destroy it. Who is it? Why?
An extremely well written thriller, right from the first to the very last page. The way Barbara Wood succeeds to tell both, the story of Charlotte and her struggle, as well as the story of her grandmother in one book, side by side, without the two stories getting into the way of each other, is simply fantastic.
Definitely a book which is hard to put away once you started reading.
| title | The Magdalene Scrolls |
|---|---|
| author | Barbara Wood |
| ISBN-10 | 0-7515-1723-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-751-51723-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Jan-05 |
When the paleographer Ben Messer receives some ancient scrolls from Israel for translation he soon realizes that these scrolls are unlike any others ever found. They might even contain evidence which could prove or change what we think to know of history.
But with each scroll translated, Ben himself seems to change more and more. Is the Curse of Moses upon him? The line between present and history is diminishing with each scroll...
| title | Digital Fortress |
|---|---|
| author | Dan Brown |
| ISBN-10 | 0-312-99542-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-312-99542-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Mar-19 |
Susan Fletcher, a cryptography specialist with the NSA, had planned a trip for the weekend with David. But it all comes different. First David is sent onto a mysterious mission, and later her boss calls her in for an emergency.
As usual, the whole story plays in a timeframe of only 24 hours, but Dan Brown has enough twists and turns up his sleeve to make it a very eventful 24 hours, right from the first page through to the last one. Even though Digital Fortress is not exactly as highly capturing as some of his other books, it still makes for a fine read. It also makes you wonder how much spying power big organizations and countries really do have.
Some small mistakes in the book, like the mixup of the terms bit and byte, as well as a mistake in some code are tiny glitches. But for somebody who is used to the Japanese language and Japanese names, the Japanese sounding but definitely non-Japanese name Dan Brown chose for one main character becomes a bit annoying while reading. If you don't speak Japanese, you probably won't notice and mind.
| title | Managing RPM-Based Systems with Kickstart and Yum |
|---|---|
| author | Ethan McCallum |
| ISBN-10 | 0-596-51382-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-596-51382-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Mar-24 |
A concise introduction to kickstarting Red Hat based Linux distributions and how to keep them patched and up to date with the exact same infrastructure used for installations.
If you have been managing systems through kickstart, satellite server and the like for some time, there is not much new information, even if you haven't worked with yum before. If you are new to kickstart, however, you will find a good introduction to the topic, complete with a suggestion on how to layout your environment. In this respect, this O'Reilly Short Cut does exactly what it says: giving you a short cut to a workable environment.
| title | TransSib-Reisehandbuch |
|---|---|
| author | Doris Knop |
| ISBN-10 | 3-8317-1368-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-831-71368-4 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Apr-14 |
Ein einigermassen ausführlicher und doch kompakter Reiseführer für eine Trans-Sibirien Reise.
Ich habe die Reise noch nicht gemacht, sondern beginne mich erst darauf vorzubereiten und zu freuen; somit kann ich die Korrektheit und und Nützlichkeit der Informationen in diesem Reiseführer noch nicht richtig beurteilen. Zumindest für die Vorbereitung scheint es mir aber ein sehr nützlicher Ratgeber zu sein, zumal für so eine Reise doch einige spezielle Vorbereitungen nötig sind. Gerade in den ersten drei Kapiteln findet man vielerlei Hinweise worauf bei den Vorbereitungen und während der Reise zu achten ist, inclusive Ein- und Ausreisebestimmungen und ausführliche Informationen zur Beschaffung der nötigen Visas (in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz).
Die nachfolgenden Kapitel beziehen sich dann auf die einzelnen Streckenabschnitte, wobei alle drei Routen, nach Wladiwostok, nach Peking über die Mongolei und nach Peking über die Mandschurei, kurz beschrieben werden.
Dem rund vierzigseitigen Anhang kann ich persönlich nicht viel abgewinnen.
Obwohl die Autorin selber Veranstalterin von entsprechenden Reisen ist, wird das TransSib-Reisehandbuch nicht für Eigenwerbung misbraucht. Natürlich gibt es an der einen oder anderen Stelle Hinweise, dass beschriebene Touren zum Teil über die Autorin gebucht werden können. Der Leser empfindet diese wenigen Einschübe aber nicht als Werbung, sondern als Information. Schliesslich ist man ja froh zu wissen, wo man entsprechende Arrangements buchen kann und es werden auch andere Agenturen genannt.
Fazit: Kurz und büdig, die wichtigsten Informationen im handlichen Format.
| title | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
|---|---|
| author | Douglas Adams |
| ISBN-10 | 0-330-31611-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-330-31611-8 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Apr-15 |
For very early internet adopters like me, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is legend. But I have to confess, up to 2007 (lightyears in internet timecounting) I never attempted to read this book. After it was highly recommended to me again by some people, I finally dug into it.
Even though some very few lines are funny I just can't get the hang of Adams' writing style. Too disintegrated, too nebulous, no story line visible. Actually this is one of the few books I put away again unfinished after having slaved through the first 50 to 100 pages.
| title | The Woman Next Door |
|---|---|
| author | Barbara Delinsky |
| ISBN-10 | 0-7434-1125-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-743-41125-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-May-13 |
An average story of the average neighbourhood in an average small village. While Amanda and Graham are struggling to conceive, the reserved widow next door, Gretchen, is pregnant and won't tell who the father is. This again does not quite help the worked up marriage of the other neighbours, Karen and Lee, especially as Lee has a history of cheating on his wife. Also Georgia, the last neighbour on the cul-de-sac is asking herself, whether her husband, Russ, could have fathered Gretchen's child. After all she's out on business for most of the week while Russ is at home...
Barbara Delinsky has a way of working with the feelings of the characters in the book, fear, expectation, doubt, love, trust, that makes a good read out of an average story.
| title | Webdesign mit JavaScript |
|---|---|
| author | Nick Heinle & Bill Pena |
| ISBN-10 | 3-89721-275-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-897-21275-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Jul-05 |
In der Regel ziehe ich englische Computerfachbücher den deutschen Versionen vor. Dieser Titel ist aber auch in der äusserst gut gelungenen Uebersetzung sehr zu empfehlen. In der Tat habe ich bis jetzt kaum ein ähnlich gut übersetztes Fachbuch gesehen.
Für den mit mittelmässigen HTML-Kenntnissen ausgestatteten Leser bietet dieses Buch einen sehr guten Grundeinstieg in die Welt der JavaScript Programmierung. Die Beispiele sind verständlich aufgebaut und werden gut erklärt. Dabei werden verschiedene Themen wie die Arbeit mit Fenstern, Browsererkennung, Formularvalidierungen, Cookies, DHTML, etc. berücksichtigt und vorgestellt.
Wer eine Vertiefung ins Thema JavaScript sucht, sollte sich nach einem anderen Buch umsehen, wer aber an einem gut verständlichen Einstieg in das Thema interessiert ist, dem wird dieser Titel Freude bereiten.
| title | Die Wälder von Albion |
|---|---|
| author | Marion Zimmer Bradley |
| ISBN-10 | 3-8105-2614-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-810-52614-4 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Aug-12 |
Die Römer herrschen in Britannien, sind aber nicht überall willkommen. Ein junger römischer Offizier, halb Britone halb Römer, verunfallt und wird von Einheimischen gerettet und gesund gepflegt. Dabei verliebt er sich in die Enkeltochter des höchsten Druiden.
Eine Geschichte über Liebe, Macht, Glaube, Unterschiede und Kommunikationsprobleme. Die Kinder, welche sich am Anfang gegenseitig helfen und teilweise zusammen aufwachsen, gehen in ihren Leben ganz verschiedene Wege, welche sich aber immer wieder kreuzen. Während ihres ganzen Lebens beeinflussen sie sich gegenseitig, aber weniger kontrolliert und weniger direkt als in ihrer Kindheit.
Die Geschichte ist gut geschrieben, liest sich flüssig und ist keinesfalls oberflächlich, aber mir fehlt ein eigentlicher Höhepunkt. Während die erste Hälfte eine kurze Zeitspanne umfasst und mich noch eher gefesselt hat, ist mir die zweite Hälfte, welche sich über Jahre hinwegstreckt, eher zu breit geschlagen.
| title | Transsib-Lesebuch |
|---|---|
| author | Hans Engberding, Bodo Thöns |
| ISBN-10 | 3-89794-011-6 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-897-94011-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Sep-05 |
Eine Sammlung von Reiseberichten mit der Transsibirischen Eisenbahn von 1901 bis 2001, geschrieben von mehr und weniger bekannten Personen. Die Berichte sind vielfältig, teils enthalten sie viel geschichtliches oder politisches oder auch persönliches.
Man kann zwar ein wenig herauslesen wie sich die Eisenbahnstrecke und das Reisen darauf im Laufe der Zeit verändert hat, darf aber keinesfalls erwarten, irgendwelche Reisetipps zu bekommen. Dies ist ein Buch zur Unterhaltung oder allenfalls fü den geschichtlich / politisch interessierten Leser, aber kein Buch zur Reisevorbereitung.
Mir selber hat das Buch nicht so sehr gefallen, die Reise jedoch schon.
| title | The Second Horseman |
|---|---|
| author | Kyle Mills |
| ISBN-10 | 0-34083-595-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-340-83595-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Sep-17 |
Brandon Vale is a thief by profession. And he is a grand master of this art. He never hurts people, never steals anything an insurance company could not replace and never gets caught.
Brandon actually is in jail for something he did not do, having been set up by a former FBI agent. This very agent breaks him out of jail shortly before Brandon has done his time. Why? To steal 200 million dollars from Las Vegas in order to buy twelve nuclear warheads and this way save the world...
This is one of the books which has the tendency of sticking to your fingers and when you are to put it away for the day you hear yourself begging: "Just one more chapter, please."
| title | The Hard Way |
|---|---|
| author | Lee Child |
| ISBN-10 | 0-55381-587-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-553-81587-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Oct-09 |
Another Jack Reacher story. As usual, full of action, thrilling, a pleasure to read.
This time Jack Reacher finds himself working with a bunch of other ex military forces guys on a kidnapping case. However, something stinks, something does not feel right. But Reacher can not point it out.
What first looks like a normal kidnapping turns out to be something much more complicated and dangerous.
| title | Bittere Mandelblüten |
|---|---|
| author | Sujata Massey |
| ISBN-10 | 3-492-23864-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-492-23864-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Oct-24 |
Als an der renomierten Kayama Ikebana Schule eine Lehrerin ermordet wird, finden Rei Shimura und ihre Tante Norie die Leiche. Das Verhältnis zwischen der ermordeten Lehrerin und den Shimuras war sehr angespannt gewesen, was letztere automatisch verdächtig macht. In der Folge passieren noch mehr merkwürdige Dinge, doch schliesslich kann Rei, halb Amerikanerin, halb Japanerin und begnadete Spürnase, den Fall lösen.
Die Geschichte selber ist durchschnittlich aber die Spannung versprechenden Wendungen werden nicht genutzt um das Buch fesselnder zu machen. Massey gelingt es hingegen recht gut, Japan und die Grätsche, welche aklimatisierte Ausländer oder Halbjapaner machen, zu beschreiben. Ob dies für Leser, welche selber keine Japanerfahrung haben, genügend einfach zu verstehen ist, kann ich nicht richtig beurteilen, da ich dazu selber zu "japanisiert" bin.
Die deutsche Uebersetzung weist deftige Ausrutscher auf; "Fudschijama" ist wie ein Schlag ins Gesicht oder wie wenn man "George Bush" mit "Tschordsch Busch" übersetzen würde und "Pocket Monsters" sind auch nicht so leicht als "Pokemon" zu erkennen.
| title | Managing Projects with GNU Make (Third Edition) |
|---|---|
| author | Robert Mecklenburg |
| ISBN-10 | 0-596-00610-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-596-00610-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Nov-11 |
Which unix administrator has not typed "./configure; make; make install" many times to magically compile source code. No need to know how to invoke the compiler, what libraries must be linked etc. It simply works, thanks to make and the makefile.
Ever wondered how to write a makefile to automate source code compilations or other tasks? I did, wanting to provide an easy way for my colleagues to update and tranlate my LaTeX documentations when they make changes to a system and to also automatically update the central documentation repository with the new version. I also want to build an easier to handle system for sorting and processing my vacation photos, etc.
In this book, Robert Mecklenburg introduces the reader in a well chosen sequence of steps to make and the art of writing makefiles. Throughout the book he uses samples, starting out simple and refining them as new concepts are explained. Some clever hacks and tricks are shown and explained as well.
Even though most samples handle compiling C or Java code, the explanations are clear enough to easily apply the techniques to other uses as well. Part one explains rules, variables, macros, functions and commands, while part two goes into advanced and specialized topics like managing large projects, writing portable makefiles, samples for handling C, C++ and Java, performance and debugging.
I did not understand everything (and don't need to), but rather than feeling intimidated by makefiles, I now believe to be able to write simple and moderately involved makefiles for the uses I had in mind.
| title | One |
|---|---|
| author | Richard Bach |
| ISBN-10 | 0-440-20562-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-440-20562-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Dec-15 |
Richard and Leslie Bach are approaching Los Angeles in their small airplane, when they suddenly find themselves in another world. But this is no real world, time stands still, you do not get hungry, the airplane is not using any fuel. It is a place from where you can get to any number of parallel existences. Richard and Leslie visit some of their parallel themselves in the future, in the past, in the maybe-present.
While I like the idea of visiting parallel worlds, the book was not really appealing to me. It was about enough to keep me reading till the end, sparked some thougths, but that's about it.
| title | Die Rebellin |
|---|---|
| author | Trudi Canavan |
| ISBN-10 | 3-442-24394-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-442-24394-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Dec-28 |
Die ärmeren Leute von Imardin müssen ausserhalb der Stadtmauern leben, im sogenannten äusseren Ring. Alljährlich zur Winterszeit findet eine Säuberung des inneren Ringes statt; die sich in der Stadt befindlichen ärmeren Leute werden vertrieben. Bei dieser Säuberung errichten die Magier der Gilde einen magischen Schutzschild und die Kinder machen sich einen Sport daraus, diesen Schutzschild der verhassten Gilde mit Steinen zu bewerfen. Auch Sonea lässt sich dazu überreden Steine zu werfen. Allerdings erstaunt sie nicht nur sich selber, sondern die ganze Stadt und insbesondere die Magiergilde, als ihr Stein das Schutzschild durchdringt. Dies ist nur mit Magie möglich.
Fortan beginnt für Sonea ein Leben in Verstecken, denn die Magier suchen nach ihr und haben gar eine fette Belohnung ausgesetzt. Gleichzeitig nimmt die Stärke der Magie in Sonea zu und wird schwieriger zu kontrollieren. Anfangs steckt sie nur unbeabsichtigt kleinere Sachen in Brand, aber immer grösser wird der Schaden, den sie mit ihrer unkontrollierten Magie anrichtet...
Eine absolut fesselnde Geschichte, welche mit diesem Buche keineswegs zu Ende ist, sondern erst richtig beginnt und in zwei weiteren Bänden, "Die Novizin" und "Die Meiseterin" weitergeführt wird.
| title | PhotoReading |
|---|---|
| author | Paul R. Scheel |
| ISBN-10 | 3-873-87213-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-873-87213-4 |
| impression | |
| date | 2007-Dec-31 |
Ich habe zwar schon in wesentlich schlimmeren Büchern herumgestöbert, aber Leute, welche nicht gelegentlich grosszügig über ein gewisses Mass an Eigenwerbung hinweglesen können, dürften mit diesem Buch hin und wieder ein Problem haben. Auch der sehr optimistische Ton wird wohl nicht jedem der eher nüchternen Europäer liegen.
Ob das in diesem Buch berschriebene Photolesen so möglich und erlernbar ist? Ich gebe zu, dass ich gewisse Zweifel hege (und darum Mühe haben werde, diese Technik wirklich zu erlernen). Anderseits glaube ich, das viele der Informationen und Techniken, wie zum Beispiel Vor- und Nachbearbeitung, Formulierung von Fragen an den Text, etc. sehr wohl nützlich und vorteilhaft sind. Ich bin auch überzeugt, dass unser Geist wirklich zu mehr im Stande ist, als was wir ihm generell zutrauen und wir uns, um mehr erreichen zu können, von gewissen Vorstellungen und Haltungen lösen müssen. Diesbezüglich hat dieses Buch sehr wohl einen Wert, auch für halb-Zweifler wie mich, die (noch) nicht bereit sind, sich von der linearen Lesemethode zu lösen.
| title | Die Novizin |
|---|---|
| author | Trudi Canavan |
| ISBN-10 | 3-442-24395-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-442-24395-2 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Jan-09 |
Sonea ist in die Magiergilde als Novizin aufgenommen worden. Sie ist die einzige Magierin überhaupt, welche aus den Hüttenvierteln stammt und nicht aus den feinen Häusern. Als Aussenseiterin hat sie es nicht leicht, obwohl ihre magischen Fähigkeiten ausgezeichnet sind. Immer wieder machen ihr die anderen Novizen das Leben schwer, vor allem Regin.
Die Fortsetzungsgeschichte von "Die Rebellin" ist weniger spannend als der erste Band der Trilogie. Das Buch, obwohl immer noch interessant, hat bei mir ein wenig den Eindruck erweckt, als wäre die ungefähre Seitenzahl vorgegeben gewesen und hätte gefüllt werden müssen. Richtig knisternde Spannung kommt bei der Lektüre nicht auf. Allerdings kann ich mir auch sehr gut vorstellen, dass dieses Buch eine Brücke darstellt zwischen dem ersten und dritten Band, die Informationen vermittelt und Voraussetzungen schafft um dann im letzen Teil der Trilogie nochmals so richtig Gas geben und Spannung erzeugen zu können.
"Die Novizin" zu lesen ohne vorgängig "Die Rebellin" gelesen zu haben würde ich definitiv nicht empfehlen.
| title | Die Meisterin |
|---|---|
| author | Trudi Canavan |
| ISBN-10 | 3-442-24396-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-442-24396-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Jan-19 |
Seit ihrer Herausforderung und ihrem Sieg über Regin vor einem Jahr, machen die Mitschüler Sonea das Leben in der Magierschule nicht mehr so schwer. Dennnoch ist sie nach wie vor eine Einzelgängerin. Ihr Leben verändert sich jedoch abermals grundlegend, als ihr Mentor, der Hohe Lord der Magiergilde, sie eines abends mitnimmt in die Stadt und ihr an einem Gefangenen Sachakaner beibringt, wie sie Gedanken lesen kann, auch gegen den Willen des Betroffenen. Von diesem Zeitpunkt an beginnen sich die Ereignisse zu überschlagen. Schon nach kurzer Zeit fällt die Gilde in eine Krise, als sie ihren Hohen Lord anklagt, verbotene schwarze Magie nicht nur gelernt, sondern auch praktiziert zu haben. Trotzdem getrauen sich weder die Gilde, noch der König, die für dieses Verbrechen vorgesehene Strafe der Hinrichtung zu verhängen. Gleichzeitig mit der Anklage von Akkarin, dem Hohen Lord, bricht ein weiteres Unglück über die Gilde herein, das nicht nur für die Gilde selber, sondern für die ganze Stadt Imardin, ja sogar ganz Kyralia eine existentielle Bedrohung darstellt.
Dies ist der letze Band der Trilogie und ein Buch, bei dem es einem schwer fällt, es zur Seite zu legen. Unerwartete Wendungen in der Geschichte; all die Aufbauarbeit der ersten zwei Bücher wird benutzt, um von der ersten bis zur letzen Seite prickelnde Spannung aufkommen zu lassen. Dieser letzte Teil ist Entlöhnung genug, um sich vorher auch durch das nur mittelmässige zweite Buch zu lesen.
| title | When We Were Orphans |
|---|---|
| author | Kazuo Ishiguro |
| ISBN-10 | 0-571-20516-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-571-20516-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Feb-24 |
Christopher Banks is a detective in London of the 1930-ies. He has come to England from Shanghai when he was a young boy.
After having read close to half the book, I still don't have much more information on what is supposed to be going on. Ishiguro lets his main character, Christopher, reflect in his memories but does not make apparent what the story is all about. One guesses that at some point, Christopher might travel to Shanghai again and try to find out what did happen to his parents. The writing style is very descriptive without saying much. After page 138 I finally gave up hoping to find something which might make it worth to go on reading.
| title | Erschöpfung und Überlastung positiv bewältigen |
|---|---|
| author | Nossrat & Nawid Peseschikan |
| ISBN-10 | 3-8304-3071-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-830-43071-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Mar-03 |
Das Buch ist für den fachlichen Laien sehr gut verständlich geschrieben. Es versucht anhand von Beispielen aufzuzeigen, was Auslöser für Stress sein können und was man in solchen Situationen tun kann. Vor allem baut es auf dem immer wieder zitierten (Un)Gleichgewicht zwischen Körper, Zukunft, Leistung und Kontakt auf.
Ich glaube nicht, dass dieses Buch ein Mittel ist um aus Krisensituationen herauszufinden oder zur Stressbewältigung dienen kann. Es zeigt jedoch sehr wohl Ansatzpunkte auf und kann zum überdenken der eigenen Situation und Verhaltensweisen anregen. Diesbezüglich kann ich mir das Buch gut vorstellen als begleitendes Hilfsmittel bei einer Therapie oder als Leitfaden zum nachdenken über unsere eigenen Verhaltensweisen und Reaktionsmechanismen.
| title | We'll meet again |
|---|---|
| author | Mary Higgins Clark |
| ISBN-10 | 0-671-00456-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-671-00456-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Mar-07 |
When Molly Lash, convicted for murdering her husband but always saying she can not remember having done such a thing, is released from imprisonment after five and a half years, she makes a bold statement to the press covering her release: she still thinks she did not murder her husband and wants to find the true murderer. However, within a week of getting out of jail, Molly is accused of having murdered yet another person. Everybody believes she is mentally ill and dangerous. Only one reporter, Fran Simmons who is to be doing a TV special on the case, starts do dig deeper into the matter and comes to think that Molly might actually say the truth.
A wonderfully crafted story where all the pieces fit together. Taking you in right from the first to the last page. The only problem with this book is that you'll hardly be able to ever take your hand off till you've read it all.
| title | Labyrinth |
|---|---|
| author | Kate Mosse |
| ISBN-10 | 0-75286-554-4 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-752-86554-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Apr-27 |
During summer break 2005 Alice is visiting her friend Shelagh in France who is the deputy at an excarvation site. As Alice does not have any other plans, she helps for a couple of days and makes a discovery at her last day...
In July 1209 Alaïs finds a dead body in the river when she goes to find fresh herbs for her medicines. When she describes what she found to her father, he is rather distressed, just as if the dead might be somebody dear to him. It turns out to be somebody else, but still, something seems to be bothering her father and he passes her an ancient book of great value for safekeeping. One book of a set of three he once was asked to bring from Egypt because it supposedly was safer in France...
Is Alice the same person as Alaïs? Is she a decendant? Gradually the two stories, at first seemingly unrelated, become one. A story of religion, faith, love, all centered around the Holy Grail.
A longish book but told well enough so I kept reading even though I'm usually not too much interested in historical or religious stories.
| title | Hour Game |
|---|---|
| author | David Baldacci |
| ISBN-10 | 0-33041-173-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-330-41173-8 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Jun-13 |
Shortly after the dead body of a woman is found in Wrigthsburg, more murders happen. The handywork of some maniac serial killer. But neither the police, nor the FBI can put the pieces together. Also Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, two ex-Secret Service agents can't make sense out of it at first. And some additional murders, which seem not to be performed by the serial killer, don't make things easier either...
After their first adventure in Split Second, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, now partners in a private investigation firm, solve another mistery crime. The story makes for a good read, but is somewhat cruel at times and it is not always so clear how the hero jumps to the conclusions which help to solve the mistery.
| title | Beautiful Ghosts |
|---|---|
| author | Eliot Pattison |
| ISBN-10 | 0-09942-284-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-099-42284-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Jul-04 |
Shan Tao Yun, once a successful Chinese investigator, was put in prison and working camp, because of his success. Since his release he lives in the mountains of Tibet.
Shan planned to go on a retreat for meditation after the festival. However, during the festival something happens in the cave and seems to have driven the lama Surya mad. There is also a pond of blood deep down in the cave, but no injury or body to go with it. When then finally some helicopters with troops arrive, Shan decides he could not possibly find peace in meditation until he knows more about what has happened in the cave, not expecting the kind of troubles and dangers he is about to face.
A well written thriller in a different setting from the mainstream. Sometimes I did not really see how the characters in the story came to their conclusions, but this well structured story makes still for a good read.
| title | The Sociopath Next Door |
|---|---|
| author | Martha Stout |
| ISBN-10 | 0-76791-582-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-767-91582-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Jul-19 |
Imagine a person with no conscience, none at all. This is the most basic description of a sociopath. Stout, a psychotherapist in the Boston area, kind of shocked me on the first page with the explanation of what a sociopath is. She goes on and explains, also using real-life examples, why it is so difficult to recognize these people, why they often seem to be successful, respectable achievers, what their motivation is and compares what is going on inside of a sociopath and a non-sociopath. Towards the end of the book she also shows how similar science and religion see these people.
Even though I do not quite agree with the complete black-and-white picture Stout draws, her samples and explanations can be an eye opener for something, you might already have witnessed but took for a mistake on your side since it just seemed so unbelievable.
The book does not give you any direct help on how to deal with sociopaths, even though it does sport a (far too short and utterly useless) section called Thirteen Rules for Dealing with Sociopaths in Everyday Life. The real value of this book, however, is to open up your mind to accept and thus be aware of something, most of us would think was completely impossible, so impossible we would come up with tons of excuses why what we saw and thought could simply not be true. In fact, after reading this book, I might, in some situations, now accept that indeed it was true.
| title | State of Fear |
|---|---|
| author | Michael Crichton |
| ISBN-10 | 0-00718-160-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-007-18160-4 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Jul-26 |
Global warming threatens to make the island nation of Vanutu disappear. Vanutu and the National Environmental Resource Fund are preparing to file a lawsuit against the US over global warming. George Morton is financially backing the lawsuit with a 10 million dollar grant. All the preparations go fine. But after John Kenner shows up at Morton's place, Morton seems to have second thoughts about the matter and threatens to withdraw the grant. Shortly before dying in a car crash, an obviously drunk George Morton publicly hints his withdrawal in a public speech.
Now things really speed up. In the course of only a couple of days George Morton's lawyer and secretary are urged by John Kenner to follow him to a number of places around the world in order to prevent some catastrophes which would be only too convenient to coincide with a big conference on abrupt clima change.
The book is very well written and loaded with presumably well researched information about global warming, all wrapped in a thrilling and fast paced story. Some chapters contain more story while others are more designed to present information and facts about global warming, media influence etc. without being boaring or pure descriptions.
Some of the action in the book seems a bit far fetched and I could well do without one particularly cruel death, but apart from that the book is really recommendable. It shows global warming from a refreshingly different side than what we hear and read from the news all the time.
| title | S is for Silence |
|---|---|
| author | Sue Grafton |
| ISBN-10 | 0-33043-888-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-330-43888-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Sep-06 |
Violet Sullivan is an extremely attractive woman, but married to a violent guy. Both her husband and herself often hang out at the Blue Moon and have a drink too much. One day Violet disappears and is never seen again. Foley, her husband, is suspected of having killed her, but he persists in saying he didn't do any wrong and she simply ran off. No proof can ever be produced to backup one or the other story.
Thirtyfour years after the disappearance of Violet Sullivan, her daughter Daisy hires the private investigator Kinsey Millhone to have, against all odds, a look into the matter once more. She wants to find out whether her mother was murdered or ran off without ever bothering about her own daughter.
A medicore story which, I think, could have done without another death at the very end of the book.
| title | The Name of the Wind |
|---|---|
| author | Patrick Rothfuss |
| ISBN-10 | 0-75640-474-6 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-756-40474-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Oct-04 |
Kvothe is the son of a trouper family, going from town to town, performing, moving on. He is a formidable actor. He is a great musician. And he is very bright.
When Kvothe sees someone call the name of the wind so the wind rushes to the aid of the caller, he wants to learn the names of things as well. He wishes to go to university to learn. He longs to have access to the huge library at the university. But the Chandrian meddles with his life. The way to university is hard. Staying at the university is hard. But hardest of all is the thirst for knowledge.
This story is fantasy, set in a time when people believe in daemons, but might be they are right in doing so. It is extremely well told and it keeps you turning page after page after page. Like the story itself, you can not do justice to the book by explaining about it, the only way to understand is to read it. I assure you, you will not regret it.
| title | No Place like Home |
|---|---|
| author | Mary Higgins Clark |
| ISBN-10 | 1-41650-221-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-416-50221-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Nov-09 |
Liza Barton, at the age of ten, shot her mother and wounded her stepfather while trying to save her mother's life. She was accused of cold blooded murder but finally got off without being sentenced. Twenty four years later, after having taken on a different identity, Liza returns to her former home when her new husband, who is not aware of her past, buys a house for her birthday present, the house where everything happened. Upon their moving in, they are greeted with a nasty surprise to make things worse, a series of murders start.
While quite a number of happenings in the storyline are predictable, Marry Higgins Clark still succeeds to keep the reader turning page after page.
| title | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows |
|---|---|
| author | J.K. Rowling |
| ISBN-10 | 0-74759-586-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-7475-856-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Dec-07 |
The final part of the Harry Potter story. Lord Voldermort has returned and risen again. He is about to take over the whole wizarding world. Of course, not everybody agrees with the new ruler, but putting up resistance becomes more and more difficult by the day. Even Harry Potter has to go into hiding. Before Professor Dumbledore died, he gave Harry a task, but Harry feels he has not be taught enough about what he is supposed to do...
Again, Rowling easily succeeds to catch the reader's interest, to keep everyone's nose sticking to the pages. There are, however, quite a number of references made to the part of the story which happened in the preceding books, so don't attempt to read this book without having read the rest of the story.
| title | One Foot in the Grave |
|---|---|
| author | Jeaniene Frost |
| ISBN-10 | 0-06124-509-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-06-124509-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2008-Dec-25 |
Cat is half vampire and half human. She is pretty, powerful and dangerous, but has been lonely ever since she left Bones four years ago. Cat hates vampires and at the same time still loves Bones, wo himself is a Master vampire. In her undercover job, she and her team fight those creatures who go for humans. Yes, Cat is 'Red Reaper', the one no vampire knows and every vampire fears. One day, however, she lets one of the fanged creatures escape and he comes back at her, trying to add her to his collection. A tougher battle begins than what Cat is used to and she is lucky Bones, her ex, finds her before Ian does. But Ian still gets his second encounter with Cat...
Even though there is a fair amount of slaughtering in this book, it is not frightening. There are also some sexually explicit scenes which I would have guessed were written by a woman even if I hadn't known the author of the book. All in all: good entertainment.
| title | Versteckte Botschaften |
|---|---|
| author | Klaus Schmeh |
| ISBN-10 | 3-93693-154-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-936-93154-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Feb-05 |
Steganographie kannte ich bis anhin nur aus der Computerwelt. Diese Art des Botschaften Versteckens nimmt in Schmeh's Buch nur einen kleinen Teil ein. Mit zahlreichen zum Teil humorvollen Beispielen wird in den ersten drei Teilen aufgezeigt, was Steganographie ist und was für verschiedene Methoden über die Jahrhunderte angewendet wurden um Nachrichten zu verstecken. Jargon Codes, Semagramme, Zinken, Akrostichen sind nur einige der zahlreichen Techniken, auf die im Buch eingegangen wird.
Im vierten Teil räumt der Autor gnadenlos mit Steganographie-Scharlatanerei auf und zeigt wiederum anhand etlicher Beispiele, dass noch lange nicht hinter jedem vermeintlich gefundenen Code auch wirklich ein Code steckt.
Dieses Buch gibt auf humorvolle Art und Weise einen Ueberblick über die vierschiedenen Arten, wie Nachrichten versteckt werden können. Wer jedoch eine wissenschaftliche Abhandlung erwartet wird enttäuscht sein. Der Leser, der eine technische Anleitung zur Steganographie sucht findet auch nicht, sehr wohl aber vielfältige Ideen und Anhaltspunkte.
| title | Life Support |
|---|---|
| author | Tess Gerritsen |
| ISBN-10 | 0-553-81173-6 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-553-81173-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Mar-25 |
Toby Harper is a doctor at a hospital. She usually works the night shift at the ER. One night the cops bring in a completely disoriented elderly man who unfortunately leaves again some time later without a proper diagnosis. This already turns her live somewhat upside down, but things start to really go wrong when a few weeks later another man comes in with the same symptoms.
The story starts out rather slow but picks up speed after some time and gets really fast moving towards the end. The author was a doctor herself and surely knows what she is writing about but from time to time there is an overload of medical expressions which might be interesting to people who actually did study medicine, but not to others. Neither are these special terms a necessary part of the story, so if you don't understand them, simply skip them. And if you are the type of person who can't close an eye after seeing a mild horror movie, you should keep your fingers off this book. It is not horror, but in my opinion it is neither for the fragile.
| title | How to Win Friends & Influence People |
|---|---|
| author | Dale Carnegie |
| ISBN-10 | 0-671-72365-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-671-72365-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Apr-09 |
Many of these self improvement books are completely exaggerating and talking about methods which are simply not applicable. This is, I feel, one of the books which actually are on track and give advice which is useful.
There are three parts in this book: how to make people like you, how to win people to your way of thinking and how to change people without arousing resentment. Actually, most of the people will actually know about most of the things the book suggests, but often we "know but do not realize". Ever so often I had to say to myself "Well, that's actually the way to do it and if I think of it, I somehow knew it." But these things have never before been laid out in front of me so openly. Some of the principles described in the book I already used consciously, some of them unconsciously and some where new ideas to me.
The book is not a manual giving concrete steps to take or phrases to use, but rather a guide to show you the direction to follow. The steps used to walk into the given direction must be found and taken by yourself, as they are very much dependent on the situation at hand. But there are numerous examples of how people applied the principles in certain situations. Actually most of the book consists of such examples and what the result was. Sure, Dale Carnegie uses positive examples with incredible results for illustration in his book, basically he shows the tip of the iceberg. The reader must realize that not every time one of these principles is being applied such a huge gain can result. So don't expect immediate radical changes once you start following the advice in the book, but I'm sure the general idea is correct and will yield results finally.
| title | Pandora's Daughter |
|---|---|
| author | Iris Johansen |
| ISBN-10 | 0-312-36805-4 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-312-36805-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Apr-18 |
When she was a child, Megan Blair heard voices. Sometimes they drove her almost crazy. Her mother always insisted that Megan does not need to see a doctor about it and that the voices will go away when she grows up.
As a grown up, Megan indeed does not hear voices any longer. Until the day she is almost murdered and Neal Grady appears in her life, again. Megan must learn to accept the shocking news, that she does have a very special gift. A gift which can also be a curse. That gift is valuable to some and it makes others want to eliminate her. A cat and mouse race begins.
Iris Johansen has written a real page turner. The prologue is short, leaves many questions open, but it is a necessary part to avoid lengthy explanations inside of the main story; thus, right from the first chapter, the action can and does start.
| title | SAP on Linux |
|---|---|
| author | W.Nüßer, M.Stein, A.Hass, T.Kugelberg, F.Kley |
| ISBN-10 | 3-540-23613-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-540-23613-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Jun-01 |
Das Buch gibt eine sehr gute Vogelperspektive über SAP und wie es auf Linux zu betreiben ist. An manchen Stellen geht es vom Höhenflug in rasantem Sturzflug in die Tiefe und es werden Dinge wie Speicherverwaltung unter Linux oder IO unter Linux in einem Detailgrad erklärt, der ansonsten nur in spezialisierten Kernel- oder Performance-Tuning-Büchern zu finden ist. Auch bei einigen nicht-Linux Themen, wie Datenbanken (MaxDB, DB2 UDB, Oracle) oder Starten und Stoppen von SAP wird zum Tiefflug angesetzt.
Obwohl der Inhalt des Buches wertvoll und informativ ist, macht es doch sehr stark den Eindruck eines unvollendeten, unter Termindruck erstellten Werkes: Für einen allgemeinen Ueberblick werden zu viele Details in einer zu grossen Detailtiefe besprochen und als tiefgehende technische Dokumentation zu SAP ist die Breite der Themen nicht ausreichend. Eine spätere Auflage dürfte hier wohl Abhilfe schaffen und die Breite der Themen erweitern. Auch orthographisch und grammatikalisch ist dringend eine Ueberarbeitung nötig (wurde das Manuskript vor dem Druck korrekturgelesen?); die vielen Fehler beeinträchtigen zwar den Inhalt nicht, wirken aber dennoch störend.
| title | The Postman always Rings Twice |
|---|---|
| author | James M. Cain |
| ISBN-10 | 0-394-72583-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-394-72583-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Jun-04 |
Frank Chambers is a vagabond, here today and somewhere else tomorrow. When he tries to cheat a Greek restaurant owner for a meal he is unexpectely offered a job. But in this job he stays much longer than usual, the reason being the pretty wife of Nick, the Greek. Frank and Cora fall in love and are looking for a way to get rid of Nick.
This is a rather old book and no doubt had the stuff to be scandalous in its time. But more than seventy years later it is rather tame. Interesting, however, some of the wording used. Good I did not study English from this book or my marks for grammar would have suffered.
| title | Pulling Strings with Puppet |
|---|---|
| author | James Turnbull |
| ISBN-10 | 1-59059-978-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-59059-978-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Jun-22 |
Puppet, being a great tool for system administrators, unfortunately suffers, at least in my opinion, from a lack of good documentation. Sure, the wiki at reductivelabs.com has a good amount of information, but it is neither easy to read, nor complete and the structure is not suitable for learning the ropes.
Does this book fill the gap? Only partially. What struck me at first was the complete lack of an index. The index in 'Red Hat RPM Guide' is of poor quality, but still better than none at all. Very often the author references to the wiki at reductivelabs.com for further reading and more details. I really would have liked more depth in the book. Especially a more extensive coverage of the various types, functions and configuration items used by puppet, including samples, would be in order, possibly in a separate chapter. Even if this meant duplicating much of the information in the wiki, it would avoid having to switch back and forth bewteen the book and the online reference.
On the bright side, Turnbull's writing style is easy to read. What is covered in the book mostly is explained by showing a sample followed by text explaining what's going on in the sample code. This makes it easy for newcomers to follow along. This covers mainly the basics plus some first steps beyond. I'm sure with puppet you can do much more, but here we're on our own again.
If you are new to puppet, get the book; it will help you get up to speed more quickly than the wiki. If you have puppet up and running with basics only, you might get some ideas from the book on how to get beyond the basics. If you are a slightly advanced puppeteer already you'll probably not gain anything from reading this book.
I'm still waiting for a good book on puppet, but meanwhile this is probably the best you can get and thus it gets a small bonus in my rating simply for the fact of being available.
| title | The First Counsel |
|---|---|
| author | Brad Meltzer |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-61064-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-61064-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Jul-05 |
Michael Garrick is a young lawyer at the White House. And he is a very lucky man, because he is asked for a date by the First Daughter, Nora Hartson. Nora is a real daredevil getting rid of the Secret Service tailing them to sneak into a bar incognito and without being watched. There they spot Simon, Michael's boss, who seems to be handing over something. Secret information? Money? Nora convinces Michael to follow Simon and this is where Michael's life starts to go upside down. Within hours he is not only lying to the police, but also investigated by the FBI as a prime suspect in a sudden death case.
This is one of the few books written in present tense, which needed some getting used to on the first few pages. The story is well told with a number of unexpected twists and turns. Good enough, but nothing which kept me up at night reading till dawn.
| title | Stolen |
|---|---|
| author | Tess Gerritsen |
| ISBN-10 | 0-778-30157-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-778-830157-8 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Aug-01 |
Jordan Travistock is a real British gentleman and aristocrat. And he is there for his friends when they need his help. So in the end he agrees, when Veronica Cairncross pleads "A small burglary. That's all I'm asking for." in order to help her out of some trouble. However, during this small and relatively harmeless burglary, Jordan stumbles upon another burglar at the same site. And this is when his own trouble starts.
At the beginning of the book, there are several odds and ends which, at first, seem to be completely self contained and not interwined with each other; especially if you also read the prologue, which you should do. But at the latest from the middle of the second chapter, some connections between the different stories become obvious. The whole story is very well constructed, every then and when the reader, together with the main figures, learns something new about how the events and characters are connected. It definietely is not one of those stories where you know all about the plot after reading the first twenty pages.
| title | Version Control with Git |
|---|---|
| author | Jon Loeliger |
| ISBN-10 | 0-596-52012-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-596-52012-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Aug-20 |
Git is a very powerful, but also a very complicated Version Control System (VCS). I have experience with Subversion and for sure subversion was much easier to understand and learn. Also the documentation available online for subversion I think is better. So I was looking forward very much to this book, hoping it would finally jumpstart me on understanding and using git.
Jon Loeliger definitely does a better job with his book than the online documentation to give the reader an understanding of git. But even after reading the book I still feel somewhat like a toddler, wobbly on my feet when walking on the git-road. Partially this definitely is due to the complexity of git and its (seemingly) dozens of sub-commands and possible ways of doing things. However, I would have preferred fewer references to the manpages. The various commit graphs used throughout the book are a big help to understand what is going on, but a consistent example repository which is used from begin to end for all the examples might make things easier. On the upside, Jon does usually show how the sample repository he is using in each step is created, so you can follow along quite easily. With some of the later chapters I felt a bit lost. For example at the end of chapter 12 'Repository Management', I really thought I had a misprinted book with some pages missing; a few possibilities on how different repositories could theoretically be connected are mentioned, but there is no information on actually how to do it, not even a hint that such information can be found further on in chapter 15 'Combining Projects'.
If you need or want to use git and are dissatisfied with the usage information you can find on the web, Version Control with Git is probably worth buying and reading, it will remove some of your struggle, but don't expect you will be proficient in git after going through this book.
| title | The Charm School |
|---|---|
| author | Nelson DeMille |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-35320-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-35320-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Aug-30 |
Gregory Fisher is a young American travelling with his Trans Am in Russia. Major Jack Dodson is an army pilot who has been missing for years. Lisa Rhodes works as a public affairs officer at the US embassy in Moscow. Sam Hollis served as a pilot in Vietnam and now as military attaché in the US embassy of Moscow. Finally, Seth Alevy is the top CIA guy in the same embassy. In one or another way they are all involved in a breathtaking discovery: Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School. A school unlike any other. A school, which threatens to refreeze the thawing relationship between Russia and the United States. A school which is hidden and well protected.
The Charm School is a cold war spy story. It is written very well. The first two chapters are promising and the remaining forty chapters fully make up on that promise. This book is not only full of action, it also is done in a way so the reader never knows too much. Sometimes the main characters know or suspect more than the reader, not vice versa as it is with some other books. DeMille also does a good job of creating the appropriate moods with his writing. Adrenaline when things move fast, fear and a sense of disorientation when held and tortured in prison...
| title | A Walk in the Woods |
|---|---|
| author | Bill Bryson |
| ISBN-10 | 0-552-99702-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-552-99702-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Sep-13 |
Bill Bryson describes his attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail, an old and famous trail in the US stretching over more than 2000 miles. Not only is Bryson's writing style entertaining, he also adds quite some facts and figures about the trail itself, how it came to be or various areas through which the trail passes.
This non-fiction book is for entertainment and would not be useful as preparatory lecture for doing the Appalachian Trail.
| title | Günter lernt verkaufen |
|---|---|
| author | Stefan Frädrich |
| ISBN-10 | 3-897-49501-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-897-49501-2 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Oct-11 |
Eigentlich hatte ich garnicht vor, dieses Buch zu lesen, aber es lag da auf dem Tisch, ich guckte einfach mal rein und schon war ich mitten drin. Der Schreibstil ist sehr locker, leicht zu lesen und gut verdaulich. Aufgeteilt in 100 mundgerechte Häppchen, kann man seinem innern Schweinehund namens Günter beibringen, wie man erfolgreich Geschäfte abschliesst.
Die präsentierten Häppchen sind keine Hexereien und auch keine hochgeheimen Rezepte, sondern ganz normale Verhaltensweisen, denen manch einer automatisch folgt. Dennoch ist es hin und wieder garnicht schlecht, wenn einem diese klar aufgezeigt werden. Und mit diesem Buch macht das sogar Spass.
| title | The next accident |
|---|---|
| author | Lisa Gardner |
| ISBN-10 | 0-553-57869-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-553-57869-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Oct-28 |
Whether he knew it or not, Pierce Quincy was a legend around the Bureau. A highly skilled profiler, having studied psychology and criminology, one of the best people the FBI had for predicting crimes and moves criminals would make. But one day somebody equally skilled in understanding the mind of others starts to play games with Pierce. A terribly skilled and enormously motivated opponent wanting to do Quincy as much harm as possible, taking away all he has left in life.
From the prologue to the last chapter, this thriller is loaded with action. Just as the main characters themselves, the reader does not really know who the culprit is till the very end. An addictive book.
| title | Manche mögen's gleich |
|---|---|
| author | Sydney Biddle Barrows & Judith Newman |
| ISBN-10 | 3-426-60529-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-426-60529-5 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Nov-14 |
Wie kommt ein Kerl dazu ein Buch zu lesen, das für Frauen geschrieben wurde? Nun, ganz einfach: dieses Buch soll Frauen zeigen, was Männer mögen, warum sie zuweilen für Sex bezahlen, weshalb sie fremdgehen. Da besteht doch auch für Mann die Chance, etwas mehr über sich selbst zu erfahren und vor allem interessiert auch, ob die Autorinnen uns Männer wirklich gut genug kennen, so dass sie auch imstande sind Ratschläge zu erteilen.
Nun, ich muss eingestehen, dass ich mich zum Grossteil mit dem Bild, welches von der männlichen Bevölkerung gezeichnet wird und mit den Erklärungen, welche abgegeben werden, identifizieren kann. Die Damen, welche das Buch verfasst haben, verstehen wirklich etwas von dem, was in den Köpfen der Männer (und weiter unten) abgeht. Der Damenwelt werden hier auch keine abwegigen, sondern durchaus sinvolle und angemessene Ratschläge erteilt, wie sie vermeiden können, ihre Ehe- und anderen Männer zu verlieren oder unbewusst fast schon mit Gewalt von sich wegzustossen. Es wird nicht nur aufgezeigt was Mann mag, sondern auch was es für Gründe geben kann, die ihn in die Arme einer Anderen treiben können. Mehr sogar, Dame erfährt auch Dinge, die Mann sich nicht getraut zu sagen.
Durchaus ein lesenswertes Buch, dass sicherlich dazu beitragen kann, das Verständnis zwischen den Geschlechtern etwas zu verbessern. Das Theama ist enger gefasst, aber die Beispiele und Erklärungen sind sehr viel besser als im Klassiker "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". Ein ähnliches Buch über Frauen für Männer wäre sicherlich auch sehr interessant.
| title | Just one Look |
|---|---|
| author | Harlan Coben |
| ISBN-10 | 0-752-86381-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-752-86381-8 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Nov-22 |
Grace Lawson, a happily married mother of two, picks up a pack of freshly developed photos from the Photomat. Between the shots recently taken there is a single old picture. She does not know the picture or how it came there, but one of the five people in it might be her husband at a time before she met him. When her husband has just one look at the odd photograph, he makes a call, gets into his car and disappears. She does not know what might have happened to him, but the police assumes he simply ran away due to some marital problems or the like. Some people from Grace's own past start showing up; a past, she had hoped would be history and stay history.
The book starts out with several seemingly unconnected events and these separate lines of the story go on for quite some time. Sure, it is one book and they must somehow be connected, but it takes a long time until it becomes apparent in what way. And it is only in the very end that things start to make at least some sense. Even in the very end, all the glue to put the pieces of the puzzle together seems rather far fetched and unlikely.
| title | The Ruby Programming Language |
|---|---|
| author | David Flanagan & Yukihiro Matsumoto |
| ISBN-10 | 0-596-51617-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-596-51617-8 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Nov-29 |
Ruby definitely has won a firm place in the list of commonly used scripting/programming languages these days. So even if you don't want to become a ruby guru, you might want to have a good book covering the important parts of the language. And as there are differences between ruby 1.8 and ruby 1.9, your reference ideally covers both. If so, then this book certainly is a good choice, even if you decide to skip the more advanced chapters or save them for when you need them. And if you intend to become the local ruby guru, then you definitely should have this book and read it two or three times, until you also understand the more advanced topics.
If your goal is to learn programming, then this book is not for you. It is not intended for programming beginners, but assumes that you know how to program in at least one other language. You should also know at least the basics about object oriented programming.
Flanagan does a very good job explaining how ruby works, not only in words, but also with code snippets. I found the book to be very well balanced; not too much lengthy explanation but enough to make things clear; short samples of code which demonstrate just the features being explained. This style creates a book densely packed with information. The topics are presented mainly in logical order, starting with lexical and syntactic structures, explaining data types, covering expressions and operators, going on with statements and control structures before getting involved in the more advanced topics like methods, classes, modules and metaprogramming. Personally I'd have preferred to have the last two chapters "The Ruby Platform" and "The Ruby Environment" placed somewhere before the heavyweights. The more difficult chapters may well scare a lot of folks off and if they don't jump to those two chapters at the end, they'll miss some of the more important and easier information.
All in all: Definitely no easy reader, densely packed but well done and well balanced.
| title | sleeping dogs |
|---|---|
| author | Thomas Perry |
| ISBN-10 | 0-804-11160-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-804-11160-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Dec-13 |
Michael Schaeffer appears. Out of nowhere. Nobody knows him. And he stays. He's a nondescript, average guy and the only thing which one could possibly see as out of the common is that he seems not to have any past. At least he never talks about anything that was before he came to Bath, England.
Ten years later his girlfriend, the Honourable Meg drags him along to a horse race in Brighton. And there the dogs that have been sleeping for the past ten years wake up again. Two people get killed and an attempt at Micahel's life is made too. All of a sudden he is thrown back into his old life with full force. Schaeffer vanishes on a 'business trip' back to the US. His business? Clean up the mess so he can live in peace again. He is still good, one of the best, at doing what he was doing in earlier days, but there are obstacles now, which he never had to consider before. It's not only the mob which is after him now, but also the FBI...
The whole story is well told and surely worth reading, although the book was not keeping me up till late at night because I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. A few times going on to the next paragraph felt like I had skipped some pages; new environment, new people. However, things started to fit into the big picture again after a couple of more paragraphs.
| title | The Andromeda Strain |
|---|---|
| author | Michael Crichton |
| ISBN-10 | 0-060-54181-4 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-060-54181-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2009-Dec-26 |
After a satellite goes off course and is brought down earlier than expected just outside of Piedmont, the whole town literally stops in its track and drops dead. Four scientists are called in to a secret high security underground laboratory. Their task is to find out what is going on. What happened to the inhabitants of Piedmont, why did two individuals survive, what is causing this, how can it be stopped?
Despite of the fact that it is full of medical terms, the book reads smoothly and is interesting. For somebody who does not know about all the various advanced medical tests, the only tipoff about the age of this text (original copyright 1969) is the seemingly absurdly low cost of some of the machinery. The plot itself could well be plucked right from the present.
As with other books written by Michael Crichton, there are lots of scientific details. But the plot is not as elaborately shaped and told as with some of his other books.
| title | The Christmas Train |
|---|---|
| author | David Baldacci |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-61575-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-61575-4 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Jan-03 |
I have read several of David Baldacci's books and he is a very gifted thriller author. But he really excels and outshines himself when he's writing a non-thriller. This is the second non-thriller by Baldacci which I read and just as "The Wishing Well", it is simply superb.
In the book, Tom Langdon, a journalist, travels by train from Washington D.C to Los Angeles during Christmas season. To do so, he has to take the Capitol Limited from Washington D.C. to Chicago, and from there the Southwest Chief to LA. Even though it is one single story, when Langdon changes the train, the flow of the story also changes.
In the first part Baldacci plays a lot with language and expressions in a pleasant way. And he does a terrific job of capturing the atmosphere of such a multi-day train ride. I can't speak for American railroad travel, but I have myself done a fair bit of longhaul travel by train in Europe and Asia, among others also along one of the venerable Trans-Siberian routes. And the way this journey is described by the author, it caused me to remember my own journeys and often I had to say "Yes, this is exactly the way it is on the train."
The second part of the book is then more kept on the exciting side with action and unexpected happenings.
Even though it is a fabulous book, I do have a small complaint: do yourself a favour and read only the first paragraph of the last chapter (about one page) and just skip the last four pages. They are fine, but the story is simply nicer without them.
| title | The Second Saladin |
|---|---|
| author | Stephen Hunter |
| ISBN-10 | 0-440-22186-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-440-22186-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Jan-23 |
Paul Chardy is an ex-CIA agent. In his time he was a star, one of the tough and successful cowboys out in the field but also somewhat controversial due to his famous temper. Years after his less than glorious dismissal a situation builds up where the CIA wants to get him back. He is the only one who has ever seen the face of the man they fear. Chardy's last operation, which went belly-up comes back to hunt him. But he finally also learns what exactly went wrong.
The first half of the book is mildly interesting, though far from splendid. Then things worsen and some parts get quite chatty without saying anything or bringing the story any further. Obviously Hunter wants to make the reader feel the situation the characters are in by describing their thoughts and reasoning, but all he succeeds in is to create some boredom. Then, in the last quarter of the book things pick up but unfortunately they disintegrate quite a lot. Characters in the story know where to look for the villains out of the blue, they find some good guys offhand in the Mexican mountains even though the last time they heard of them was before they ran into the mountains etc. It feels very much as if the manuscript had been sitting on the desk for weeks and now, due to some kind of deadline a desperate attempt was made to bring it to an end, somehow.
| title | Innocent in Death |
|---|---|
| author | Nora Roberts |
| ISBN-10 | 0-425-21754-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-425-21754-2 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Feb-06 |
Craig Foster is a young history teacher at the prestigious private school Sarah Child Academy. The staff like him, the students like him and, freshly married, Craig and his beautiful wife Lissette are totally in love. Even though he seems to have no enemies at all, he ends up being murdered on the school's premises. A shock for everybody and some very negative publicity for the otherwise picture-perfect school.
Lieutenant Eve Dallas has no problem finding out how Craig Foster was killed and there are also some possible suspects which would have had the opportunity to do him in. But each of them is lacking a reason for doing so. And after the most likely suspect is confronted with a possible reason...
The story is well designed with an ending which can hardly be foreseen. It's well written but I could have done without the second story, going on in the private live of Lieutenant Eve Dallas, which is worked into it and distracts from the main stuff without adding any value or twist to the murder case. On the other hand, I imagine this sidestory would appeal to many female readers.
| title | 50 Erfolgsmodelle |
|---|---|
| author | Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschäppeler |
| ISBN-10 | 3-036-95529-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-036-95529-2 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Feb-26 |
Das Buch verspricht viel. Es soll helfen Entscheidungen zu treffen, Ratschläge geben und sicher durch Beruf und Alltag führen.
Zwar ist es klein, handlich und wirklich schön gemacht, ähnlich edel wie ein Moleskin und wartet mit zahlreichen Illustrationen auf, aber der Inhalt überzeugt nicht. Ein Sammelsurium von 50 sogenannten Modellen, welche allzu häufig nur genannt, aber keineswegs auch nur annähernd ausreichend erklärt werden. Etliche der Illustrationen entpuppen sich als absolut unnütz und wären zu Gunsten von ausführlicheren Erklärungen besser weggelassen worden.
Die eine oder andere Idee lässt sich vielleicht doch noch verwerten, aber alles in allem hätte ich besser daran getan, dem Umschlag Glauben zu schenken. Ich wollte dieses Buch. Auf dem Umschlag steht "Falls Sie jetzt schon wissen, dass Sie dieses Buch wollen, ist es wohl nichts für Sie."
| title | Nippon Connection |
|---|---|
| author | Michael Crichton |
| ISBN-10 | 3-426-19315-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-426-19315-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Feb-28 |
Peter James Smith ist der Kontaktmann des Los Angeles Police Departments bei Problemen mit asiatischen Staatsangehörigen. Eines abends wird er beigezogen, als es Probleme gibt bei einem Mordfall, der am Rande einer Party passiert, welche von einer grossen Japanischen Firma veranstaltet wird. Eine bildhübsche junge Dame wurde tot auf dem Konferenztisch in den Büroräumlichkeiten im Stockwerk über der Party aufgefunden. Die Japaner stellen sich den Ermittlungen in den Weg. Zum Glück hat Peter Smith einen alten Hasen mit dabei, wenn es um Japaner geht: John Connor. Dennoch beginnt ein Katz- und Mausspiel sondergleichen.
Die Geschichte an und für sich gibt nicht so viel her. Dennoch schafft es Crichton hervorragend, die Unterschiede in der Mentalität, Denkweise und im Handeln zwischen den Amerikanern und den Japanern zu beschreiben. Und er spart nicht mit Kritik, auch nicht gegenüber der amerikanischen Seite. Amerika kenne ich selber weniger gut als Japan und kann weniger gut sagen, wo der Autor über das Ziel hinausschiesst und doch etwas zu weit geht. Auf der Seite von Japan, hatte ich häfig den Eindruck, dass Crichton sehr gut recherchiert hat und vieles recht korrekt wiedergegeben hat, aber doch auch hier und dort etwas zu hart war und zu weit ging.
Alles in allem, wenn man das Ganze mit ein wenig Skepsis nimmt und von einer 80-prozentigen Glaubwürdigkeit ausgeht, eine gute Gegenüberstellung der zwei Mentalitäten.
| title | French Silk |
|---|---|
| author | Sandra Brown |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-36426-6 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-36426-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Mar-16 |
The book jumps right in with The Reverend Jackson Wilde had been shot in the head, the heart, and the testicles. Reverend Jackson Wilde had been a celebrity, an enormously successful televangelist. The main suspects for the murder are his wife Ariel and Claire Laurent, the owner of French Silk, which is a very successful lingerie company but under heavy attack by the Reverend for its pornographic catalog.
Both, Claire Laurent and Ariel Wilde are very strong characters and they make the investigation not an easy one for Robert Cassidy. Or rather, the solution looks easy and right at hand, but it feels wrong to Cassidy.
Sandra Brown masterfully plots the whole story so the reader is thrown hither and thither about who could be the culprit, but never can be quite sure. Was it Ariel? Did Claire do it? Possibly Yasmine? Or Claire's mother? Lots of people with ample motive and sufficient opportunity. It's only in the very end that the murderer is found out. But don't check the last pages in advance, you don't want to spoil all the thrill, do you?
Some of the passages could be considered R-rated, so if you are offended by rather explicit scenes and descriptions, you might want to pick up another book instead. Or if you like them, you might doubly like this book.
| title | presentation zen |
|---|---|
| author | Garr Reynolds |
| ISBN-10 | 0-321-52565-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-321-52565-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Apr-05 |
Presentations these days are mostly done with powerpoint slides containing bullet list after bullet list full of text and numbers. And it seems this terrible presentation style is getting worse and worse.
Have you ever paid attention to how you listen to such a presentation yourself? Joe average tries to decipher the text which actually is much too small to read while attempting to listen to the presenter at the same time and by the time Joe average managed to get through half of the slide's text, the next one is put on. At the end? Instead of any wiser Joe average is tired and irritated.
Garr Reynolds is one of the seemingly diminishing number of people who (still) know that a presentation is not the same as a documentation. While his book is not a step by step cookbook for better presentations, he clearly points out the principles and shows examples. Principles, which lead to much better, less tiring, more memorable presentations which are not only more enjoyable, but also have a much better chance to bring your key points clearly to your audience. Simplicity, strong visuals, planning, story and less text.
While I knew and tried to apply part of the principles to a certain degree, reading this book really encourages me to even much much more go against the common-non-sense and again apply more commonsense, to use more radical deviations from the usual malpractice. It also opened my eyes for things I had not yet considered.
Presentations would be so much better if it was impossible to open powerpoint before having read this book...
| title | Ich weiss, was du denkst |
|---|---|
| author | Thorsten Havener |
| ISBN-10 | 3-499-62520-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-499-62520-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Jun-12 |
Thorsten Havener verdient sein Geld damit, Gedanken zu lesen. In diesem Buch lässt er uns teilhaben an seinen Methoden. Dabei verspricht er weder das Blaue vom Himmel, noch behauptet er wirklich die Gedanken anderer Menschen lesen zu können. Havener geht sachlich und vernünftig an das Thema heran und verrät, wie er dazu kommt Dinge über andere Leute zu wissen, oder eben zu ahnen, die er eigentlich nicht wissen kann. Dazu gehören unter anderem eine sehr gute Beobachtungsgabe und bestimmte Fragetechniken. Einige der beschriebenen Methoden dürften, kennt und übt man sie ein wenig, in verschiedenen Alltagssituationen hilfreich sein um sein Gegenüber besser einschätzen zu können, sei dies in Meetings, in Verkaufsgesprächen oder auch bei anderen Gelegenheiten. Es gibt im Buch Anleitungen für ein paar Selbstversuche, von denen einige wirklich gelingen, da einem beigebracht wird, worauf man achten muss.
| title | The Falls |
|---|---|
| author | Ian Rankin |
| ISBN-10 | 0-312-98240-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-312-98240-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Jun-27 |
In Edinburgh, Philippa Balfour, a 20 year old student of art history, disappears. She is not only a student, but also the daughter of a very influential merchant banker, which does not necessarily make the police work any easier. There isn't really much which could help to find the whereabouts of Philippa or to indicate whether she is still alive or not. An email found on her computer from someone calling himself 'Quizmaster' suggests, she was playing some kind of game through the internet. The investigation becomes more interesting when, after a few days, a small coffin with a wooden doll is found not too far from where Philippa grew up. All these things seem rather far fetched, but they are the only straws John Rebus and Siobhan Clarke have to clutch at.
The story wouldn't make for an action-rich Hollywood movie, but nevertheless it is not only well written, but also interesting. Quite a number of seemingly dead ends which are followed by the main characters and which finally all come together. It's also nice to not only have the crime to follow, but also being given an insight into the main investigators lives, with all their good sides and their faults.
| title | Bone Mountain |
|---|---|
| author | Eliot Pattison |
| ISBN-10 | 0-312-33089-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-312-33089-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Jul-21 |
Another adventure for Shan Tao Yun. Shan once was a Chinese investigator, then was sentenced to do time a Chinese prison and labour camp from which we managed to to be released early but without proper papers. Since then, Shan has been in Tibet, mostly moving around with his befriended lamas Lokesh and Gendun.
This time Shan finds himself in some situation which he does not really understand why it developed this way. The stone eye of a deity was stolen from Tibet by Chinese many decades ago and now it has been stolen back. Of course the Chinese are mad. Why is it Shan, a Han Chinese, which has been chosen to bring back this holy artefact to its original place? Even though the whole journey has been well planned, it does not go smooth. Multiple Chinese groups are in pursuit of the small Tibetan caravan, all for different reasons, as it turns out. On multiple occasions, Shan is thinking about giving up.
Pattison again wonderfully succeeds to not only tell a story, but also literally paint a picture of Tibet, of the problems between the two nations, of the people's mindset... This is a thriller, but one of a different kind; instead of fast paced car chases through busy city streets there are dangerous trails in high mountains, instead of high tech equipment to get through dangerous situations there are prayer beads, and the wounded can not be rushed to some emergency room but must be healed with herbs. At times, however, I did have some trouble keeping the many characters straight.
| title | Twelve Sharp |
|---|---|
| author | Janet Evanovich |
| ISBN-10 | 0-312-34953-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-312-34953-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Aug-06 |
Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter, going after people who were bonded but did not show up in court when they should. But instead of her going after people, things turn out to be the other way round: a woman is stalking her. That woman, claiming to be the wife of Stephanie's friend Ranger, seems to be rather short tempered and quick to draw her gun. Not very easy to talk her into reason. But as Stephanie soon finds out, this woman is only a minor nuisance compared to the Ranger she married...
A good novel written in a refreshing style, humorous and easy to read. There is also a sufficiently elaborate storyline behind it. The book starts off somewhat chatty without much action, then goes over into real action and culminates very fast paced and captivating at the end.
| title | Fade |
|---|---|
| author | Kyle Mills |
| ISBN-10 | 0-312-93418-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-312-93418-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Aug-22 |
Fade is a former Navy SEAL. During his time, he was the best and often risked his life for his country. But when an accident left him almost crippled, his government turned its back on him, didn't pay for the surgery he would have needed. No wonder he is not on good speaking terms with the government and when years later Hillel Strand from Homeland Security wants him to come back for some job, he declines. However, Strand is not someone taking "No" for an answer. He tries to force Fade to come back. As he soon finds out, Fade still is the best and Hillel's attempt blows up right into his own face. Even though he has the police and Homeland Security resources at his disposal, Fade is still an enormeous threat to his life.
The short chapters and easily understood language and sentences make this book easy to read. One thing is difficult, though: putting it away. Just one more chapter before going to bed, and maybe still one more, and just another one...
| title | The Whole Truth |
|---|---|
| author | David Baldacci |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-54401-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-54401-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Sep-09 |
Shaw is a man who can walk into a room full of terrorists, do whatever he does and walk away alive -- a winner. Nicolas Creel is behind Ares Corp., a company selling weaponry to governments all over the world. Creel highly successful in what he does and one of the richest men in the world -- a winner. Katie James is a journalist through and through and won two Pulitzers already -- a winner. Before she started drinking, that is.
Some allegations are made against the Russian government. It is accused of torturing and getting rid of uncomfortable individuals. Lots of them. These allegations are followed up by bits and pieces of evidence. The whole world is at rage. And the Russians are denying everything. The only problem is that nobody knows where exactly all the information is coming from. But who cares about the sources when the facts given are so outrageous. Outrageous enough so a war could start.
Shaw, Creel and James somehow are all connected to these events, but each of them from different angles. For Creel, the situation increases sales, Shaw holds a personal grudge about whoever is behind this and for James this could be the story, which finally helps her to get a grip on her life again.
The story, playing in an international setting, is very well written and constructed from start to end. It often kept me up reading longer than I initially intended to. However, both Shaw and Creel are just a little too good and capable for my liking, kind of almost superhuman. Probably the story could also have been told by leaving the reader much longer in the dark about who is behind the Red Menace, making it even more interesting and almost impossible to put the book away.
| title | Where Serpents Lie |
|---|---|
| author | T. Jefferson Parker |
| ISBN-10 | 0-786-88944-6 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-786-88944-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Oct-24 |
CAY, short for Crimes Against Youth, is the newest police unit. The mob they specialize in, is mainly pedophiles. One very vicious criminal they currently are after calls himself The Horridus. He abducts young children, girls, but lets them go again after a few hours, without raping them, for now...
Terry Naughton is the initiator, driving force and head of CAY. He is successful in what he does, but not without his own share of personal problems, huge intake of Herradura being only one of them. The interval in which The Horridus hunts girls shortens and the CAY unit still is none the wiser about who is behind it. When they finally find at least some straws to which they are clinging, Terry is forced to leave his team alone.
At times, especially in the beginning, I would have preferred less lengthy descriptions of situations and things and move on with the storyline instead. But mostly the story is well told and not all too predictable, even though some of the details about the villain given early on would better have been left out.
There is, however, one aspect which I absolutely dislike about this book and which is also the reason for the low marks I give it. Had I known in advance what this book is about, for example from the back cover which I did read, or in what gory details some of the most ugly scenes are described, then I certainly would not have bought it. Due to some details meticulously described in length, this book can, in my opinion, easily be classified into the horror genre.
| title | Gesund mit Ingwer |
|---|---|
| author | Ellen Heidböhmer |
| ISBN-10 | 3-776-62467-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-776-62467-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2010-Nov-14 |
Dass Ingwer wärmt und mir in gewissen Situationen gut tut, hab ich selber schon gemerkt. Beim herumstöbern in der Buchhandlung bin ich auf dieses phantastische Buch gestossen. Häufig findet man Ratgeber-Bücher, welche nur einen Teil eines Themas abhandeln. Nicht so "Gesund mit Ingwer". Ellen Heidböhmer beleuchtet das Thema Ingwer ausführlich von verschiedenen Seiten. Es wird nicht nur erklärt wo Ingwer herkommt, welche Sorten es gibt und wie er verwendet werden kann, sondern auch auf die Inhaltsstoffe und deren Wirkung wird eingegangen und als Krone obendrauf wird das ganze mit einem grosszügigen Rezeptteil abgerundet.
Der Verwendung als Heilmittel wird gut ein Viertel des Buches gewidmet, der Rezeptteil füllt etwas weniger als die Hälfte der 206 Seiten. Die Rezepte sind sehr breit gefächert und reichen von Vorspeisen, über Hauptgerichte, Saucen, Desserts, Backwaren bis hin zu Getränken. Wie allerdings Irish Coffee in den Rezeptteil hineingerutscht ist, kann ich mir nicht erklären, kommt doch in diesem Rezept überhaupt kein Ingwer vor. Und bei den Ingwerwaffeln muss wohl der letzte Absatz irgendwo untergegangen sein, denn irgendwie sollte der Teig doch sicher noch gebacken werden. Ansonsten ist das Buch äusserst sorgfältig und übersichtlich gestaltet. Die Themen sind farblich gekennzeichnet, das Inhaltsverzeichnis nützlich unterteilt und alles so angeordnet, dass man sehr rasch zum Ziel kommt, wenn man nach etwas bestimmtem sucht.
Dies vom Format her handliche Buch ist Gesundheitsratgeber und Rezeptebuch in einem und eines der ausgewogensten Bücher dieser Art, das mir bis jetzt in die Finger gekommen ist.
| title | Child 44 |
|---|---|
| author | Tom Rob Smith |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-40239-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-40239-2 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Jan-04 |
Leo Stepanovich Demidov, once a hero of war, well trained, is now a successful and dedicated officer of the MGB, the State Security force in Moscow. He does what is expected of him, what he is told to do, and he does not question his orders. Some things just need to be done to keep the system running, to work towards a brighter future. In secret, however, he does have second thoughts about some things going on. And when his superiors demand something very drastic of Leo, his patriotism falters. Expecting to be executed or at least being sent to the Gulag, he gets off very easy, being degraded and sent to some post far away. Punishment or slow torture? Leo does not know. But his real trouble only starts there and soon he finds himself up against the very system he had worked for his whole life.
Tom Rob Smith succeeds in painting a picture with his words. He gives the required background to understand the story, to understand the people, their way of thinking and their actions, albeit at times there are many pages between some at first seemingly unrelated event and the point where the relation becomes obvious. While the whole book is very interesting to read, and the things happening seem to be really possible, I felt the very end, were the mystery is solved, is a bit lukewarm and far fetched, not too logical. But that's only my personal interpretation and despite that, I enjoyed reading this book.
| title | Night Fall |
|---|---|
| author | Nelson DeMille |
| ISBN-10 | 0-316-85849-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-316-85849-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Jan-19 |
At the five year memorial service for the victims of the TWA Flight 800 crash, Kate Mayfield talks about the investigation of the crash to John Corey, a former NYPD homicide detective now working for the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force. It is the first time Kate talks about it. She was working on this case five years ago, but she is not at all happy with the official statement about the cause of the crash. Of course, to give John some inside information and point out some irregularities is like teasing a hungry dog with a steak. He goes for the bait and starts digging around this old case on his own time and against explicit orders from his superiors. The warnings form the higher ranks only make him more suspicious.
While the story is laid out fine and interesting enough, the style this book is written in needs some getting used to. Not only is it all told from a first person perspective, but also very conversational. In numerous places John tells the reader something just to follow it with "Just kidding." This book by Nelson DeMille is ok, but he has written better ones.
| title | City of Bones |
|---|---|
| author | Cassandra Clare |
| ISBN-10 | 1-416-95507-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-416-95507-8 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Jan-27 |
Clary Fray is just an ordinary girl, or at least she thinks she is until she learns about daemons, shadowhunters, werewolves, vampires and more such creatures. And shortly after she sees such creatures for the first time, Clary is already deep in trouble. It's not her fault, though, but nevertheless there is no piece of mind and battling some of these creatures is the only way to survive. Piece by piece she learns who she really is, what her mother never told her and why.
This is the first book of the Mortal Instruments trilogy. Right from the beginning the reader dives into an expanded dimension of the world as we know it. There are many groups of species which are not always too friendly with each other. The book is inherently interesting and absorbing. It very much tended to stick to my hands, preventing me from doing much else till I reached the last page. But I can write no more, the second book in the series is right there on my desk and I just can't resist...
| title | City of Ashes |
|---|---|
| author | Cassandra Clare |
| ISBN-10 | 1-416-97224-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-416-97224-2 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Feb-04 |
This book carries on right where the first one in the Mortal Instruments trilogy, City of Bones, left off. And I don't think it would be good to read this again fantastic book without having read the previous one; there is no explanation any more of the main characters or their circumstances, like why Simon gets so sick seeing an episode from a Dracula film on TV or the role of Valentine.
The Mortal Cup is not enough for Valentine. He wants more and he surely does not hesitate to use dark forces to get what he wants. Jace is imprisoned by the Inquisitor of the Clave for his alleged conspiracy with Valentine. But Jace as well as Clary find they have some special powers beyond what they thought possible. The shadowhunters are up against more evil than ever, more vicious daemons than what they usually fight and not everybody survives...
Just like the first book, this is an absolutely absorbing page-turner, even though towards the end I could have done with less fighting and bloodshedding.
| title | City of Glass |
|---|---|
| author | Cassandra Clare |
| ISBN-10 | 1-416-97225-0 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-416-97225-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Feb-14 |
The third book in the Mortal Instruments series is as fascinating as the first two, City of Bones and City of Ashes. In fact, the three books actually are one huge book split into three volumes. Each subsequent one picks up where the previous one left off without either a break nor any explanation what had gone on in the story before. Unlike some other series, where each book can stand by itself, the only way to read the Mortal Instruments series is in the correct order.
Clary finally is going to the City of Glass, to Alicante in Idris. She wants to find Ragnor Fell, who is said to be the only one able to help her mother, who is still lying unconscious in hospital. But Clary does not arrive in Alicante the way she thought she would. As it turns out, the city also faces some never seen mayhem courtesy of Valentine. And both, Clary and Jace learn what shocking thing Valentine has done to his son, what he made him.
It is extremely difficult to tell anything useful about the gist of the story in this series without spoiling it. Just as difficult as it is to put the books away once you opened the first page. As I'm now through the three books in record speed, I finally can catch up on lost sleep...
| title | FreeSWITCH 1.0.6 |
|---|---|
| author | Antony Minessale, Michael S. Collins, Darren Schreiber |
| ISBN-10 | 1-847-19996-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-847-19996-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Mar-09 |
While a wiki is a really good means of keeping documentation up to date, especially in a project which is constantly moving forward at a good pace, documentation in a wiki usually is rather troublesome for the newcomer who first has to learn the ropes. For a first overview and as an introduction to a new topic, books are a much better choice and they definitely are much easier to read. So after struggling for some time to get a hold on the topic through what was available on the wiki, I was really looking forward to this first book on FreeSWITCH.
Indeed, the book did fill in some gaps I had, especially it was helpful for understanding the overall structure of FreeSWITCH better. This is what the first chapter is about, the architecture, followed in the next chapter with a walkthrough of how to build and install the software on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. In chapter three the user is guided through a few test calls to get acquainted with making calls and how things work very roughly. The chapter also includes details on how to configure some SIP phones. The remainder of the book goes deeper into configuration, dialplan, the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) engine as well as the event system architecture. The information is presented in mostly logical order and configuration samples are given throughout the book. In this respect, the book is absolutely fine.
However, in areas not directly related to the information it tries to give the reader, there are severe shortcomings. From the beginning to the end I couldn't get rid of the strong impression that this book either was produced without the hand of an editor or that instead of the final an earlier draft made it to the printer by mistake. Many of the samples contain wrong commands or settings, obvious even to a FreeSWITCH-almost-newbie like myself. A few mentioned commands or API calls make you wonder whether they are mentioned just as a reminder to add a more detailed explanation later. Also typographically the book has scope for improvement; the section, subsection and sub-subsection headings all seem to be the same font and size, making it sometimes hard to decide whether the next heading starts a new sub-topic or a new top-topic until you read half through it.
Maybe I'm spoiled from reading too many well produced technical books, but this definitely is not the kind of quality I expect from a publisher of several hundred tech-books.
To learn about the general architecture of FreeSWITCH and what might be possible or if you are new to SIP and VoIP and want to work with FreeSWITCH, then the book is worth an investment, despite its shortcomings. But if you know your way only halfway around SIP, have already been working with another SIP server such as Asterisk or figured out what you absolutely need to know from the wiki, then stick with the wiki.
| title | Bad Luck and Trouble |
|---|---|
| author | Lee Child |
| ISBN-10 | 0-440-24366-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-440-24366-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Mar-26 |
The book starts with Calvin Franz falling from a helicopter at 3000 feed, without a parachute, not by chance and neither out of his free will. Some time later Jack Reacher gets a distress message from Frances Neagley, a member of his former MP team. Even ten years after they all left the service, they still stand in for each other and thus, if one of his former teammates is in trouble he's going to help, no questions asked. Jack quickly learns that it's not Neagley who is in trouble, Franz obviously was. But why? Soon they try to raise all the others as well.
A Jack Reacher story usually makes for some good reading and this one is no exception. Action packed from start to end. It's no news that rules and the law sometimes must be interpreted flexibly in order to prevent larger collateral damage. But the way Jack raises some money because he is more or less broke definitely is neither gentleman like nor terribly important for the greater good.
| title | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |
|---|---|
| author | Stieg Larsson |
| ISBN-10 | 0-307-47347-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-307-47347-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Apr-15 |
Mikael Blomkvist, a respected reporter, is convicted of libel. He hasn't done much to defend himself. Shortly after his conviction Mikael is offered a peculiar assignment by Henrik Vanger, a wealthy, retired industrialist. Henrik wants Mikael to write the biography of the Vanger family, but mainly as a pretext to have a thorough look at a crime which happened more than thirty years ago; the murder of Harriet Vanger.
The three Stieg Larsson books have gained tremendous popularity. This first book in the series is good, but to be honest, that's it. I have no idea what should be so extraordinary about it.
| title | The Girl who played with Fire |
|---|---|
| author | Stieg Larsson |
| ISBN-10 | 0-307-47615-4 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-307-47615-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-May-01 |
This book is a continuation of the first one, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not only are there the same characters, but also the story continues, even though there is a break of about one year in between. There are quite a number of back references to the first book, but also some brief explanations what happened. So, while it might be possible to make head and tail of this book without having read the first one, knowing the previous story surely does help.
After her coup with the Wennerström's accounts, Lisbeth Salander has the funds to go travelling abroad. She spends about one year out of the country. Then, shortly after she gets back, the world turns against her. Completely. But Salander has an enormous fighting spirit and she is incredibly sharp. In the whole mess Salander's past finally surfaces. She has always kept to herself, refused to talk to authorities or psychiatrists. And finally some people do find out what 'All The Evil' was, that triggered this sort of behaviour. And even Salander herself finds out a thing or two about her past she was not aware of...
Some of the material in the book does not have anything to do with the main story and in hindsight seems to be completely superfluous. But possibly Larsson is going to pick up on it in the final book, just as lots of things from the first book very much influence what is happening in this one.
Even though this book is an absolute bestseller, personally I would rate it as good, but certainly not top.
| title | The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest |
|---|---|
| author | Stieg Larsson |
| ISBN-10 | 0-307-73996-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-307-73996-4 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-May-28 |
This third book in the trilogy is the best. If it were a book on its own, a slightly higher rating would be justifiable. But it simply is not a book on its own. It clearly is part two of the second book, 'The Girl who played with Fire'. The story goes on as if it continued on the next page rather than on the first page of another book.
After Salander has tracked down her father and they almost killed each other, they both end up in the same hospital. For Lisbeth, who needs to have a bullet removed from inside her brain, this means a very long stay in the hospital with no access to computers or the internet. On the other hand, people who want to harm her also don't have easy access to Lisbeth.
Because of the whole tumult about Zalachenko, some already retired staff from a secret unit inside the Security Police come aboard again and take command. The situation is exceptional and this calls for exceptional measures, not all of which are strictly legal.
| title | Tibet - Reisen auf dem Dach der Welt |
|---|---|
| author | Andreas von Hessberg, Waltraud Schulze |
| ISBN-10 | 3-897-94151-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-897-94151-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Jun-13 |
Dieses Buch stand inmitten von Reiseführern für China und Tibet. Est ist aber weniger ein Reiseführer der während der Reise hilfreiche Informationen bereit hält, als ein Buch zur Vorbereitung im Vorfeld, um etwas über Land und Leute zu erfahren und was einen in Tibet etwa erwarten kann.
Der erste Teil widmet sich der Geographie und Geologie, dem Klima, der Flora und Fauna. Dabei muten die Autoren dem Leser vor allem im Teil über die Pflanzen Tibets sehr viel zu; dort tönt es eher wie in einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit. Für die Autorin, studierte Biologin, vielleicht sehr einfach verständlich, für den Durchschnittsleser jedoch eher weniger. Auch über die Menschen, Medizin, Küche und die Geschichte Tibets inclusive Religion ist im ersten Teil einiges zu erfahren.
Im Gegensatz zum ersten, rund 130 Seiten umfassenden Teil, fällt der zweite Teil eher mager aus. Es werden hier auf rund 60 Seiten die wichtigsten Reiseziele und Sehenswürdigkeiten beschrieben, bis hin zu einem kleinen Kapitel 'Bergsteigen an Achttausendern'.
Sehr interessant zu lesen ist die lange Reisereportage der zwei Autoren über ihre Fahrradtour quer durch Tibet. Diese Reportage nimmt geanso viel Platz in Anspruch wie der zweite Teil.
Teil vier beinhaltet kurz und bündig die wichtigsten Tipps zur Ausrüstung, zugeschnitten auf Outdoor Reisen, bevor im fünften Teil, mit dem Titel 'Sprachführer', auf sage und schreibe vier Seiten (davon lediglich eineinhalb Seiten Text) das Thema Sprache zumindest erwähnt wird. Dieser fünfte Teil ist absolut unzureichend und wäre besser gleich ganz weggelassen worden.
Die rund 30 Seiten im Teil sechs 'Reisetipps von A bis Z' geben dagegen wieder etwas an Informationen her, incl. Listen für weiterführende Lektüre.
Das ganze wird abgerundet von einem Anhang bestehend aus einem mehrsprachigen Ortsverzeichnis, das als sinnvoll und hilfreich erscheint, sowie einer für die meisten Reisenden kaum sehr hilfreichen, achtseitigen Artenliste mit den verschiedenen in Tibet vorkommenden Tieren.
Wie bereits erwähnt, als Vorbereitung für eine Tibet Reise, um etwas über das Land, seine Leute und Geschichte zu erfahren, ist dieses Buch ganz hilfreich. Als Reisehilfe für unterwegs gibt es jedoch sicher bessere Werke.
| title | Predictably Irrational |
|---|---|
| author | Dan Ariely |
| ISBN-10 | 0-061-35324-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-061-35324-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Jun-23 |
Are humans predictable? Mostly. Are humans rational? Not always. But the interesting thing is that even some of our irrationality is predictable, what Ariely nicely shows in his well written book which is not only enlightening but also entertaining.
Have you ever wondered about advertisements which contain one option which no sane person ever would consider? In the first chapter Ariely picks up exactly this situation and explains why this offer is there along the others. It is not an option the company actually wants to sell, but a way to steer us towards the offer it wants us to choose. Why are outrageously expensive things sometimes so much more desirable than comparable, but reasonably priced items? How comes we buy tons of chocolates when they are almost free, but we only take one or two if they are completely free? On the other hand we tend to easily give up a much better deal for one which is free but actually worse. Or why does a certain beer taste better if we're told what it contains only after tasting it, compared to being told before taking a sip?
In many real life situations we're acting irrationally, but do so predictably. Dan Ariely discusses lots of such situations and underlines each of them with multiple experiments. Knowing about this predictability allows us not only to make more conscious decisions, but also to see through some tricks used in advertising or possibly even to better understand how we might need to present something to make it more appealing to others.
While most of the information in this book might not be groundbreaking news to you, it is still worth reading. The statements of each chapter are always backed up by experiments and including their outcome. The whole book is very easy to understand, written in a conversational, easy to follow style, far from the unintelligible scientific hubble-bubble which could be expected for such a topic.
| title | Skin Trade |
|---|---|
| author | Laurell K. Hamilton |
| ISBN-10 | 0-515-14805-9 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-515-14805-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Jul-16 |
Anita Blake is a Vampire Hunter. A feared one. They call her "The Executioner". One morning she gets a gross present. After talking to the Las Vegas police she's on her way to there. It appears Vittorio, one of the most powerful and most gruelsome vampires, has resurfaced there. Vittorio and Anita have met before, when he slaughtered some men of her SWAT team and managed to escape. Now she gets another chance to kill him, or vice versa.
The story takes place in a time when both vampires and wereanimals live among humans, peacefully but with exceptions. Also witches and many other individuals with special abilities are abound.
Quite a number of characters appear in the book, including many boyfriends and lovers of Anita and at times it was not so easy to keep track of who is who. Also the concept that a single living, day walking person could be part vampire and part wereanimal at the same time was unusual. These do not always get along too well with each other in different stories. Even more unusual was the concept that the same person could be different wereanimals at once.
All in all, the book is fine, but a bit complicated and confusing at times. The end comes extremely quickly, giving the impression of "Ok, now I've reached the commissioned number of pages, let's stop here."
| title | I Served the King of England |
|---|---|
| author | Bohumil Hrabal |
| ISBN-10 | 0-679-72786-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-679-72786-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Aug-02 |
The story of Mr. Ditie, a young Czech who starts out as a simple busboy at the Golden Prague Hotel and has a dream of becoming rich and a hotel owner himself one day. Ditie loves his work and has a talent for it and he uses his chances to advance. But World War II has a huge influence on his life. Becoming rich and a hotel owner, is that really what life is all about?
At first the book, which is sprinkled with rather pornographic scenes, which surprised me for a book originally written in the early 19-hundreds, appears to lead to a good story with a climax, but somewhere in the middle this turns around completely. There is no more clear aim, or much aim at all and it becomes more of a reflective text. The expection building up in the reader in the first part is never fulfilled. And people who like thought provoking literature whould probably not guess the second part was to their liking when starting to read the first part.
| title | Ihre Ausstrahlung - erkennen, entwickeln und bewusst leben |
|---|---|
| author | Michael Reiter |
| ISBN-10 | 3-448-09285-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-448-09285-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Aug-05 |
Bezüglich Aufbau und Aufmachung ist das Büchlein sehr gelungen. Die 122 Seiten sind eineteilt in die vier Teile "Eine positive Ausstrahlung - aber wie?", "Finden Sie Ihr inneres Geichgewicht", "Lassen Sie Ihren Körper sprechen" und "Wie Sie auf andere wirken". Die zwei benutzten Farben sowie die Gestaltungshilfen werden konsistent und wirkungsvoll eingesetzt; sie unterstützen die Uebersicht ohne aufdringlich oder ablenkend zu wirken. Diesbezüglich könnte manch ein 'grosses' Buch mit einem viel höheren Preis etwas von diesem kleinen Büchlein 'lernen'.
Inhaltlich dürfte man enttäuscht sein, wenn man nur den ersten Teil des Titels liest: "Ihre Ausstrahlung". Beachtet man aber auch den zweiten Teil des Titels "erkennen, entwickeln und bewusst leben", dann stimmt der Inhalt. Der Autor weist immer wieder darauf hin, dass man eine positive Ausstrahlung nicht erlernen oder mit Tricks herbeizaubern kann; das muss von innen heraus kommen. Man kann allerdings Vorhandenes verstärken (bewusst leben) oder langsam ändern (entwickeln). Dazu muss man sich jedoch erst mal der eigenen Ausstrahlung bewusst werden (erkennen). Dies ist genau wo das Büchlein versucht zu unterstützen.
Sehr viele der Uebungen basieren auf Atemtechniken und Körperhaltung. Hier bin ich persönlich sehr skeptisch, respektive ich traue mir selber nicht zu, dies nur mit einem Buch zu erlernen. Auch gewisse andere Uebungen dürften viel effektiver in einer Gruppe und unter Anleitung durchzuführen sein als alleine im abgeschlossenen Kämmerlein. Persönlich hatte ich mir weitaus mehr Beispiele und Erklärungen dazu erhofft, wie gewisse Sachen auf Mitmenschen wirken und weniger Uebungen. Aber dazu hätte ich mir vielleicht ein Buch über Körpersprache kaufen sollen.
| title | Graceling |
|---|---|
| author | Kristin Cashore |
| ISBN-10 | 0-547-25830-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-547-25830-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Aug-13 |
Have you ever seen a person with two differently coloured eyes? If so, you've seen a graceling, a person who is graced with a special ability. This could be a special skill in cooking, mind reading, archery, medicine, whatever. But not always is the exact nature of such a grace what it appears to be.
Katsa is graced with special fighting skills. Even though she is a girl, there is not the slightest chance even ten highly trained warriors attacking her at once could do her much harm. For Randa, the king of Middluns, her grace is a very useful tool. But Katsa has also her own agenda, unknown to Randa.
When Katsa encounters another graced fighter, for the first time in her life she meets an opponent worthy to train with her. Very soon they become good friends and they happen to become involved in an adventure that requires even them to go to the very limits of their abilities.
This is an exceptionally good book but don't even think about starting to read it in fine weather or when you have lots of other things to do; putting it down before you've read it all is tremendously hard.
I'm convinced Kristin Cashore has two differently coloured eyes herself and surely her grace it writing good books.
| title | sed & awk |
|---|---|
| author | Dale Dougherty & Arnold Robbins |
| ISBN-10 | 1-565-92225-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-565-92225-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Aug-25 |
All of sed and awk that most unix users know, including many professional administrators, is 's/this/that/' and '{ print $1 }'
But there is so much more these two tools can do. And this book shows you how. In each of the two major parts things are laid out in a logical manner building up knowledge thoroughly from the ground up, all supported by lots of well explained examples.
Both, sed and awk, rely heavily on regular expressions and the authors don't let you down in this area either. Chapter 3 is dedicated to equip you with a well enough working knowledge of regular expressions. It surely is not as thorough as Jeffry Friedl's "Mastering Regular Expressions", but the chapter packs a lot of information into the 29 pages. Especially with awk, there are quite a number of different versions out there and they are not quite identical in feature scope. Differences among some major implementations are discussed as well. Finally, in the appendices, you can find a quick reference for both sed and awk.
As thorough (and even beginner friendly) as the book is, it does have one drawback: it is old. Much of the sample code deals with manipulating troff files or uucp logs. Both things many unix/linux users of today have no idea about. The reliance on such old samples is not a problem per se, they still do the job of demonstrating concepts and usage of sed and awk quite nicely. But these samples are much less applicable to sed/awk users today than they were twenty years ago when the first edition of this book was published. What I also think would be badly needed in an updated third revision is a discussion of how to use these tools with non-English charactersets and Unicode.
While this is an excellent book for learning to use sed and awk much more effectively, let's hope that the authors sometime get around to do an overhaul, provide samples which are more accessible today and also add a chapter or two about using these tools with the much larger and inherently more complex charactersets in common use today.
| title | So What! |
|---|---|
| author | Marlene Faro |
| ISBN-10 | 3-442-35625-3 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-442-35625-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Sep-11 |
Das Buch handelt von vier Frauen, Freundinnen, in ihren Vierzigern. Langsam werden sie alle älter, Fältchen beginnen sich zu bilden, die ersten grauen Härchen werden sichtbar und Selbstzweifel erwachen. Und leider ist das auch schon so ziemlich alles. Vieles wird angefangen, aber nichts zu Ende erzählt. So What! hat keine Pointe, keinen Höhepunkt, keine 'Moral der Geschichte'; es ist einfach nur eine belanglose Erzählung, eine Momentaufnahme. Zwar versucht Faro ganz am Schluss plötzlich, auf gerade mal zwanzig Seiten, einen Höhepunkt zu erzwinen, scheitert aber kläglich.
Nicht nur fehlt ein Höhepunkt, auch der ganze Aufbau und Ablauf der Erzählung mutet zuweilen recht chaotisch an. Es mag ja angehen, dass ein neues Kapitel plötzlich von einer anderen Freundin handelt oder seit dem letzten Kapitel ohne Vorwarnung einige Zeit verstrichen ist. Aber es ist sehr verwirrend wenn dasselbe oftmals von einem Absatz zum nächsten gemacht wird und man erst mal einige Zeilen lesen muss, damit klar wird dass dies garnichts mehr mit den vorangehenden Abschnitten zu tun hat.
Nur eine einzige Zielgruppe kann ich mir vorstellen, die an diesem Buch Gefallen finden dürfte: Frauen in ihren Vierzigern, bei denen sich Fältchen zu bilden beginnen, die ersten grauen Härchen sichtbar werden, langsam Selbstzweifel aufkommen und die niemanden haben, um sich darüber zu unterhalten. Diese Gruppe von Damen könnte unter Umständen Zuflucht in diesem Buch finden, ein Ort, wo es den Hauptfiguren genauso ergeht, ein Trostspender der zeigt, dass es auch anderen genauso ergeht. Ansonsten: im Regal stehen lassen; die Wahrscheinlichkeit dass ein anderes Buch bessere Unterhaltung bietet ist gross.
| title | Simple Genius |
|---|---|
| author | David Baldacci |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-19946-X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-19946-9 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Sep-20 |
The private investigator team consisting of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell is at work again. Actually, as Michelle is not really well, Sean takes on the assignment by himself.
Up at Babbage Town, a high level research facility, he is to investigate the death of Monk Turing. Turing was found dead on the more than top secret CIA facility which sits just across the river. Everything points to a suicide. But why go to these forbidden grounds to commit suicide? And why is the FBI interested in the case too. When the top dog of said CIA facility personally summons Sean and the local sheriff to make it very clear to them this be better none of their business, Sean is sure something is terribly wrong here.
As a side story the reader also learns one of Michelle's secrets. There is a reason why the interior of her truck always looks like the inside of a dumpster.
Just like the other Baldacci books featuring the winning team Michelle Maxwell and Sean King, Simple Genius is a very captivating book, well written, well plotted and full of action.
| title | Grundkurs Typografie und Layout |
|---|---|
| author | Claudia Runk |
| ISBN-10 | 3-836-21207-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-836-21207-6 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Oct-18 |
Das Thema des Buches ist weit von meinem Fachgebiet entfernt, interessiert mich aber. Die fachliche Richtigkeit des Inhaltes kann ich mit meinen minimen Kenntnissen somit nicht beurteilen.
In den ersten rund 80 Seiten geht Claudia Runk erst mal auf die geschichtliche Entstehung von Schrift und vor allem Typographie seit 3500 v.Chr. bis heute ein. Auch zahlreiche Typographen und Schriftendesigner werden dabei vorgestellt. Danach geht sie, ausgehend vom einzelnen Zeichen über Wörter und Zeilen bis hin zur ganzen Seite, nicht nur auf Formen, Grössen, Hervorhebungen, Abstände ein, sondern auch auf Schreibregeln, Lesegewohnheiten und vieles mehr. Quasi nebenbei wird der Leser mit den entsprechenden Fachausdrücken bekannt gemacht. Die Wirkung der verschiedenen Elemente wird nicht nur erklärt, sondern auflockernd anhand von zahlreichen Beispielen dargestellt. Diese Beispiele dienen gleichzeitig sehr gekonnt als Gestaltungsbausteine auf den einzelnen Seiten.
Immer wieder wird auf Einstellungen in InDesign und QuarkXPress eingegangen, welche aber von Leuten, welche diese Programme nicht einsetzen, ganz einfach übersprungen werden können. Ein Kapitel beschäftigt sich auch mit Typographie im Web und im letzen Kapitel wird auf die Schrifttechnologien PostScript, TrueType und OpenType eingegangen.
Das Buch ist durchaus auch für interessierte Laien lesbar und informativ. Was ich etwas vermisst habe sind härtere Fakten was wann wo in welcher Grösse etc. benutzt werden soll. Zwar werden etliche generelle Daumenregeln genannt aber dann gleich wieder abgeschwächt indem darauf hingewiesen wird, dass man Regeln, die man kennt, bewusst auch umgehen darf, wenn man sie erst mal kennt.
| title | Git |
|---|---|
| author | Valentin Haenel und Julius Plenz |
| ISBN-10 | 3-941-84142-4 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-941-84142-0 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Nov-11 |
Obwohl ich seit gut zwei Jahren regelmässsig mit Git arbeite und gut damit zurecht komme, konnte ich aus diesem Buch viel Neues lernen.
Im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Büchern wird nicht im Haupttext erklärt, wie Git zu installieren ist. Lediglich im Anhang A wird kurz darauf eingegangen. Das ist aber kein Problem; für praktisch alle Systeme stehen fix fertige Installationspakete zur Verfügung.
Im ersten Kapitel geht es neben den unverzichtbaren Grundbegriffen um die Konfiguration von Git. Schon hier werden Optionen vorgestellt, die in anderen Büchern erst sehr viel später oder garnicht behandelt werden, wie zum Beispiel Aliase oder automatische Fehlerkorrektur.
Nach dem zweiten Kapitel ist der Leser in der Lage mit Git lokal zu arbeiten; die dazu benötigten Kommandos werden ausführlich erklärt und auch das Objektmodell vorgestellt. Wieder fällt auf, dass die Autoren sich nicht auf das Minimum beschränken, sondern auch ein paar erweiterte Optionen erklären, die bei der täglichen Arbeit mit Git immer mal wieder sehr nützlich sind. So z.B. -p für git add oder die grep Funktionalität. Man merkt sehr gut, dass die Autoren Git wirklich im Alltag einsezten die Leserschaft an ihren gesammelten Erfahrungen teilhaben lassen.
Kapitel drei beschäftigt sich vor allem mit Branches, Tags und allem rund ums mergen, während das darauffolgende Kapitel einige fortgeschrittene Konzepte wie rebase, stash, bisect etc. erklärt.
Erst im fünften Kapitel, wenn man ein solides Verständnis von Git aufgebaut hat, verlässt man den lokalen Rechner und lernt mit entfernten Repositories umzugehen. Das nächste, relativ kurze Kapitel gibt Tipps wie Abläufe sowohl lokal als auch im verteilten Repository strukturiert werden können.
Kapitel sieben beinhaltet alle Informationen, welche man benötigt um einen eigenen Server aufzubauen, der Git Repositories für verteiltes Arbeiten zur Verfügung stellt. Dabei werden verschiedene Varianten betrachtet inclusive Gitolite, Gitweb und CGit.
Das zweitletzte Kapitel gehört definitiv in die Sparte fortgreschritten. Es geht um Attribute, Hooks, Referenzen und ganz allgemein darum, vieles zu automatisieren. In diesem Kapitel ist noch viel mehr als in den anderen sichtbar, dass die Autoren aus der Unix/Linux Ecke kommen. Während die vorgestellten Git Mechanismen sicherlich auch unter Windows funktionnieren müssten, sind alle Scripte für Linux ausgelegt.
Im letzten Kapitel wird sehr ausführlich erklärt, wie man mit Git an einem Subversion Repository mitarbeiten kann und wie ein Subversion Repository nach Git migriert werden kann.
Sehr zu empfehlen ist auch Anhang C, wo ausfährlich erklärt wird wie Git besser in die Bash und Z-Shell integriert werden kann, mit Kommando Vervollständigung und einem angepassten Comand Prompt.
Allgemein kann gesagt werden, dass dies ein sehr gelungenes Buch ist, welches auch von geübten Git Anwendern geschätzt werden dürfte. Für Anfänger dürften Kapitel 1, 2 und 5 erst mal interessant sein und die Lektüre des ganzen Buches nach einiger Arbeit mit Git erscheint als sinnvoll. Allerdings sollte man nicht den Anspruch haben, sämtliche erwähnten Kommandos und Optionen nach einmaligem Lesen zu kennen; viele davon kommen aus der Schublade "fortgeschrittenes Arbeiten mit Git" und sind in einigen Situationen ausgesprochen hilfreich, aber nicht überlebensnotwendig.
| title | The Secret Servant |
|---|---|
| author | Daniel Silva |
| ISBN-10 | 0-141-03695-8 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-141-03695-3 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Nov-14 |
Gabriel Allon is an art-restorer, officially. Off the record, however, he is one of the best agents Israeli intelligence has. When a scholar doing terrorism analysis is murdered in Amsterdam, Gabriel is sent to his house to make sure nothing linking the dead scholar back to the "Office" in Israel will be found. But Gabriel can not even go out to get some Thai food for dinner without stumbling right into something big. An international chase of very well organized terrorrists starts.
Neither familiar with the history nor the political situation in the middle east, there were many terms and concepts which I did not really understand. Nevertheless, the fast paced story is understandable and interesting to read. But at times it is not quite so clear how Gabriel comes to some conclusions.
| title | Körpersprache |
|---|---|
| author | Tiziana Bruno und Gregor Adamczyk |
| ISBN-10 | 3-448-09299-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-448-09299-8 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Nov-16 |
Ich finde dieses Büchlein ist ehrlich. Es will nicht dem Leser vorgaukeln, dass er mit ein paar einstudierten Körperstellungen sein Gegenüber einfach täuschen oder auf einen Blick das Innerste aus dem Gegenüber herauslesen kann.
Sehr wohl "sprechen" wir nicht nur mit Worten, sondern auch durch unseren Körper, aber jeder mit vielleicht einem klein wenig anderen Dialekt. Auch darauf hingewiesen, dass wir meist nicht authentisch wirken, wenn wir bewusst versuchen Signale auszusenden, welche nicht unseren wahren Absichten oder Gefühlen entsprechen.
Der erste Teil erklärt die Körpersprache. Dazu gehören Themen wie Haltung, Gang, Mimik, Gestik, aber auch Sprechweise. Intuitiv verstehen wir alle die Körpersprache, einige vielleicht besser als andere. Aber oft wissen wir nicht recht warum uns jemand sympathisch ist, weshalb gewisse Personen in Besprechungen dominieren oder warum uns bei manchen Verkäufern das Bauchgefühl rät "schliess keinen Vertrag bei dem ab". Die Erklärungen im ersten Teil können helfen, gewisse Situationen besser zu verstehen. Gleichzeitig lernen wir auch besser zu beobachten und verstehen was für Signale wir selber aussenden und warum wir vielleicht manchmal anders wirken als beabsichtigt.
Im zweiten Teil werden rund fünfzig Uebungen vorgestellt. Die eine oder andere mag hin und wieder ganz nützlich sein zur gezielten Entspannung oder Beruhigung.
Das Büchlein ist günstig und handlich im Format. Meiner Meinung nach ist es geeignet, dem Leser Signale bewusster zu machen, welche wir mit unserem Körper mehr oder weniger bewusst aussenden.
| title | The Collectors |
|---|---|
| author | David Baldacci |
| ISBN-10 | 1-405-09011-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-405-09011-7 |
| impression | |
| date | 2011-Nov-25 |
Two seemingly unconnected stories start in this book and it is not before about the middle they finally become somewhat connected.
Annabelle Conroy is planning to relieve someone with a rather heavy bank account of some of he's weight. For this she needs some help; a very skilled team and a precisely planned script.
Robert Bradley, a successful and influential politician is shot at a party. Jonathan DeHaven, librarian at the Library of Congress, dies at his workplace. Cause of his death: unclear. Nothing suggests these two deaths, and others to follow, have anything to do with each other. But when the members of the Camel Club have a look into the circumstances of DeHaven's death, they are convinced it was a well orchestrated murder.
As always, David Baldacci captures the reader right from the start and keeps things interesting throughout the whole book, even though the reader knows lots of things already early on and can guess a lot. But the why and how only comes bit by bit. By the way, how are the two stories connected to each other? Well, you'll have to read the book for yourself to find that out, I don't want to spoil it and you won't regret reading the book for yourself.
| title | Böses Blut |
|---|---|
| author | Arne Dahl |
| ISBN-10 | 3-492-24285-5 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-492-24285-1 |
| impression | |
| date | 2012-Jan-26 |
Der letze Fall der Spezialeinheit für "Gewaltverbrechen von internationalem Charakter" beim Reichskriminalamt in Stockholm lag schon eine Zeit zurück. Und seit damals hatte die Gruppe nichts richtiges zu tun gehabt. Das ändert sich aber von einer Minute auf die andere, als ein berühmter schwedischer Literaturkritiker am New Yorker Flughafen kurz vor dem Heimflug von einem Serienmörder hingerichtet, das Ticket storniert und kurz darauf an jemand anders weider verkauft wird. Alles deutet daruf hin, dass einer der berüchtigsten amerikanischen Serienmörder aller Zeiten auf dem Weg nach Schweden ist.
Anfangs muss man sich etwas an den Schreibstil (oder die Uebersetzung?) gewöhnen. In teils langen, verschachtelten Sätzen werden die Personen beschrieben, die Atmosphäre dargestellt, die Umstände dargelegt, kum, "das Spielfeld wird abgesteckt". Zwar geht es stets vorwärts, aber gemächlich. Wer hier durchhaltevermögen beweist wird dann im letzten Drittel schliesslich mit spannender und flüssig lesbarer Lektüre belohnt. Obwohl die Geschichte am Anfang sehr sorgsam aufgegleist wird, erwecken einige Begebenheiten gegen Schluss doch den Eindruck, sie seien weniger von Beginn weg geplant gewesen, als viel mehr eine Notlösung.
Alles in allem, ganz in Ordnung als Unterhaltungslektüre, aber nichts herausragendes.