Just another pop/rock/dance song, but the singer has a nice voice and the tune is one of those that catches your attention and j u s t - w o n ' t - l e t - g o .

4.5 stars.

This album blows me away.

The only thing I knew about Warren Zevon were the songs "Werewolves of London," "Lawyers, Guns, and Money," and "Oh, Daddy." There they were, lurking in my subconscious. Then I heard Kurt Anderson speaking about Warren and his inoperable lung cancer, and some of the collaborations with some of my favorite artists - Joe Walsh, Bruce Springsteen, Ry Cooder - on this album, ironically named, The Wind.

In a remote corner in a shop in Baghdad, there it was: The Wind. I picked it up. And was appropriately blown away. It's my understanding that Zevon always wrote and performed what he felt. This album is no exception.

The album does everything from celebrate life ("Disorder in the House," "The Rest of the Night"), to reflect on the road not chosen ("El Amor de mi Vida"), and say farewell to a lover ("Keep me in your heart").

This is musical hospice. And in sharing it, Warren brings himself to ordinary people, as an ordinary person with an extraordinary perspective.

If you listen to the album with the understanding of its having been written and performed while he faced down the Grim Reaper, you'll be all the richer for having heard it.

Worth whatever you'll pay for it.

I love the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, it's been a favorite since I saw a Showtime presentation of this very recording. This is an enhanced CD with the voice of Meryl Streep and the piano of George Winston. Although much of the music is available on his more popular December album, there are other bits and pieces that are fresh and welcome. Additionally, following the presentation of the story narration, all the songs are repeated without narration. Pop the CD into your computer and you can see visual extras, including sheet music.

This is worth the price of purchase.

So I call this one "Chinese Chicken," and "The Story of Ping" I call "Chinese Duck," but my kids love them, and every time we read it, we discover something else in the story of the illustration that strikes and intrigues us. I'd definitely be interested in reading more of Ms. Brett's work...I'm grateful for the thought she put into this book.

So, I had this and read it to my children a thousand times. Then I spent six months in Andalucia, Spain and discovered this book is an accurate represenation of it. The illustrations actually appear to be Spain from Madrid to Andalucia, especially the Frontera, including Ronda and Vejer de la Frontera or Arcos de la Frontera.

On top of that, the story of Ferdinand is about being who you are, and being at peace with yourself - whether it conforms to society's expectations or not. Subtly, and well, done.

Beautiful pictures, beautiful story, peaceful theme. What more can you ask whether you are an innocent child or a world-weary adult?

Worth buying and sharing with someone you love.

This book starts teaching before chapter one even gets under way by setting the expectation that you really can learn (and better, apply) finance no matter what you're trying to do.

The sample situation that follows all the way through the book really helps focus on the concepts being taught. Some of the examples are humorous and some make you want to share what you're reading with a loved one.

I bought this book because I'm just starting to deal with the budget aspects of network management, and needed to figure out how to lay out what I want to do technically to non-technical folks who have the company checkbook. I already know what I want to do, how much it will cost - demonstrating benefits and describing it in language the "C" team - CEO, CFO - speaks really helps.

One of the best discoveries for me while reading this book is that in addition to helping me achieve the goal above, I found the concepts are applicable to budgeting for the home as well.

It's definitely worth a read!

I spent over six months in Spain. While I was there, I took Spanish classes with a native Spanish speaker, and THIS was a primary text.

It is excellent.

It is very well organized. It has wonderful exercises. I found its workbook format very useful (you can rip the answer sheets out of the back and put them into those plastic sheet protectors, copy the original exercises, and work them numerous times to really drill home the particulars). It wasn't heavy as a brick, so I could carry it around and work during odd moments.

I found the translation exercises particularly well-thought out and worthwhile, especially with my Franklin DBE-1440 pocket spanish translator....

Don't even wait to buy it. And it's CHEAP enough that you can afford it TODAY!

Edited 11/22/02.

I bought this over a year ago and was not impressed, initially. However, I am re-reading it in light of new responsibilities, and I'm changing my opinion, slightly.

First of all, if you are a serious system administrator, you should own, read, and work to the principles outlined in this book.

With that said, there were two items that I felt detracted from the presentation.

First was, there was much text devoted to particular operating systems (both *nix and Windows). Whether you're dealing with Linux, Unix, or BeOS, it's the principles that matter, not the implementation.

The second was that cfEngine, a systems configuration engine, was used to demonstrate the principles. This works on Unix - and again, detracted from the overall presentation of the "Principles" in the title I bought it for.

So, bottom line, the book is worth a read. Spend some time working to understand and apply the principles in your environment. If you can implement some of the specifics of the author's techniques, that's all the better.

11/10/02 update: "The Practice of System and Network Administration" is in. Short verdict, it's worth the money.

I used this book in a Spanish class given by a native Spanish speaker (yes, she was Spanish as in both the country and the language). She demonstrated NUMEROUS examples in the prepositions section where it's just not used that way in Spain. This book is written from a Central/South American perspective, yet that's not clearly stated, nor are the differences noted. Try taking your prepositions learned out of here into Spain and you may find yourself using them in a way that's funny to hear by native speakers...and worse, you could be misunderstood or misunderstand someone's directions.

The pronoun sections are good and straightforward.

I'm rating it four stars for its five-star pronoun section, and knocking off a point for the problems I noted above. Get it for the work on pronouns...you'll be glad you did (it's worth its cost for that, at least).

This is a wonderful story that was written, I believe, sometime in the 1930's. It's a story of a child's cloth bunny told from the perspective of the toy...and magic happens both with "its child" and the bunny itself.

This version is really wonderful. Although it doesn't have any motion, per se, it is a series of very well done watercolor illustrations that are displayed over the George Winston "December" music, with the book narration done by Meryl Streep.

It is a peaceful, meditative experience that very simply, defines the word "grace."

My children enjoy it, I enjoy it, and I think you will enjoy it, too.