EDI Books

This book presents a revised version of the events in "The Final Problem." It begins beside a rubbish heap in Meiringen with a young Thomas Carnacki, William Hope Hodgson's "Ghost Finder," negotiating with a fat old rat for a lump of moldy Gruyère cheese. Later in the day Thomas is piknicing near the Reichenbach Falls with one "Anna Schmidt" when they witness a struggle atop the Falls and rescue a fallen combatent.

The other combatent pursues them in an effort to shoot his rival and events take off from there. "Anna Schmidt" turns out to be "Anna Moriarty" and events move on to Bern and then to Paris. Dr. John Watson appears and saves Thomas from an assassination attempt and the truth about Professor Moriarty, his wife and their daughter is revealed. The end of Jack The Ripper is explained and the creation of the Professor's criminal empire is related along with some details of the struggle between Holmes and Moriarty.

The writing is very well done and the characters are clearly and precisely drawn. The action is intricate and complex and the story is engrossing. The reason for the inclusion of Thomas Carnacki becomes clear about halfway through the book. Events take a supernatural turn with the confrontation between the Professor and Jack The Ripper. From that point on, the action revolves around the cause of the Ripper murders and their effects on the Professor and his life and, ultimately, on Holmes through the Professor.

The events in the book are crafted with careful attention. For example, although Dr. Watson saves Thomas Carnacki from assassination by his prompt medical actions, Holmes and Watson are kept separate and the continuity of the events as known to Watson is maintained. The entire tale is revealed to the good Doctor in this manuscript, sent some twenty years later by Carnacki. For readers who follow the motto "No ghosts need apply," this tale will be a disppointment. Hodgson fans will, no doubt, be delighted.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones; October, 2008

This should be subtitled "The Reichenbach Incident." Involving Sherlock Holmes, Prof Moriarity, and Dr. Watson, it tells the story of the space between the moment Sherlock Holmes fell over the Falls and he appeared again in London, and introduces another character who will later become a well-known fictitious detective in his own right, Thomas Carnacki. A devil-may-care girl-chasing student at this time, with little money but a taste for adventure, Thomas Carnacki--on holiday in Switzerland--invites himself on a picnic with a young lady he's just met. They stop at Reichenbach Falls, just in time to see a man throw another into the water. They fish out the victim and--the game's afoot! The drowning man is Sherlock Holmes, of course, but a Holmes stricken with amnesia, and Carnacki and his lady friend must help the Great Detective regain his memory while keeping him and themselves alive and out of the Professor's deadly clutches. This story can easily fit into the space left on your bookshelf right after "His Last Bow". It's fast-paced and entertaining. The story behind Moriarity's rise as a teacher and fall as a master criminal is a well-constructed background, though I would have preferred to have him do it under his own power rather than with supernatural assistance. Still...even with that, it's a tale that will be satisfying for Holmes lovers and readers of "chase" stories in general.

Prof Moriarty has been an enigma so far for intelligent mystery readers worldwide and this book makes a very clever attempt at unravelling this mystery and I must add, quite successfully !!

The book has a very clever premise set in the matters of heart, passion, history and ties several historical and fictional events of the era and that of the Holmes saga. The use and recent scientific theories ( such as Chaos ) help the story, which probably was difficult to imagine about 100 years ago.

The book is a bit cumbersome from a narration perspective and is a nice device as it helps the story as its more about the villain that about the hero. This is in tune with the recent developments at the comic world and makes good sense. Without giving too much away, it was great to see that the resolution offered was in tune with the enigma and mystery around the Moriarty character.

I have read some books by Laurie R King, who writes about the older Holmes ( strange, both writers last names are R King :-). I find this book a better story and fitting the saga as it was created by Doyle.

Some paragraphs and chapters reminded me of Pendergast, the FBI agent creation by Preston / Child.

Strongly recommend this book !

I'm really glad I got this book from the library. It starts out with excitement, the struggle at Reichenbach Falls, the rescue of a drowning man who turns out to have traumatic amnesia and turns out to be Holmes. Then there is the rescue from a doctor, blackmailed by Moriarity, who attempts to kill Holmes, and other rescues from Moriarity himself. Key actors are Anna, Moriarity's daughter, along with Carnacki, who is writing this letter to - Watson, I guess. The book then segues into Moriarity's biography, in which he recalls his history and why he turned to crime. He turned to crime when he tracked and killed Jack the Ripper who - oh horrors! - turns out to be demon-possessed, and the demon possesses Moriarity. Things plod along, Moriarity conducts his life of crime (using research created by his wife, who was killed by the Ripper), battles with Holmes, the events of this story occur, Moriarity is killed, and the demon possesses Holmes, who then turns to crime. In the end, Holmes is rescued by Carnacki dissipating the demon through an electricity driven pentacle.

This is so far from what writing about Holmes should be, I can't find enough derogatory words. If you want to read stories much closer to Holmes, postulating his post-retirement life and without supernatural beings, try Laurie King's novels. But don't, please don't waste your money on this book.

King does an amazing job here of perfectly capturing the essence of a Sherlock Holmes story while not getting bogged down with out-of-date language or scenery. The story begins at the "final" confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls (thus the name of the book) and carries us on from there.

One thing this author does so well is finally giving us a reason to sympathize with Moriarty! We are given what could technically be called Moriarty's origin story here, and it's a tragic tale that actually makes us feel sorry for the man and understand his motivations behind becoming the criminal mastermind he would one day be. I've never read another author who did that, and the unique slant gives King high marks.

The book moves along at a great pace, and even during the bits of back story enough happens to keep you interested. Moriarty's confrontation with Jack the Ripper is great storytelling, and it's a wonderful explanation for both the identity of the Ripper and what eventually happened to him.

The book comes to a powerful conclusion and I honestly couldn't find anything to complain about. I hope King revisits Holmes in the future with another great novel.

AN ILLUSION OF HARMONY: SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN ISLAM charts a changing relationship between science and religion in the Islamic world, departing from the usual Western Christian connections and focus and thus providing college-level holdings strong in Middle Eastern studies and spirituality with a unique coverage. From discussions of modern scientific routes possibly foreshadowed in the Quran to issues of intelligent design and the Muslim world, chapters consider history, religious developments, and trends which have pitted Western science's progress against Islamic traditions. A fascinating discourse and a top pick for Middle Eastern holdings.

"You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth," wrote Einstein to a friend in 1949; "I prefer an attitude of
humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being."

Reminiscent of the all-but-humble Islamophobic V.S. Naipaul of "Among the Believers" less the literary craft, associate professor of physics at Truman State University Taner Edis, author of "An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam" is one such crusading professional. With an overreaching title doing its best to enliven a text peppered with self-congratulatory Westernism and cocktail-hour inferiority complex such as "The problem is that Muslims have not be enable to become productive in basic science" (p. 202), Taner's "Illusion", though a miss on relevance, makes for entertaining reading as a Kemalist settling of accounts with Turkish religiosity and "creationism."

This is one of the latest offerings by Prometheus Books, publishers of "God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist" (in their "Popular Science" series) by a Victor J. Stenger, which the same Taner Edis hurrayed with the blurb, "Both casual readers interested in what science has to say about religion, and scholars looking to acquaint themselves with the latest science-based arguments against God will find much in this book worth their attention." What adjudication on earth or in heaven science has over religion is itself a classic fallacy Hamlet dispatched, as did Einstein when he said "My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality."

"My roots are in Turkish secularism," Taner says, "which tried to impose a version of the European Enlightenment on a deeply pious peasant population" (p. 22). In seven chapters of which the irritatingly solipsistic first (p. 14-32) and last (p. 239-251) respectively stand in for a missing introduction and conclusion, Taner's "Illusion" begins with "Seek Knowledge in China," the "coup d'envoi" of his crusade against youthful religious indoctrination. The chapter has a section entitled "Which Islam?" with profundities like "I agree that 'Islam' can be an impossibly broad term, serving as little more than a symbol for all that is good and proper as seen by someone identifying themselves as a Muslim" (p. 27). Such fantastic phrases in a book promoted as "Islamic studies" (!) are primarily a vista into the current standards of American publishing ("God: The Failed Hypothesis" made the 'NY Times' bestseller list). They only accidentally show how proper Westernized Turks make it a point, ridicule be damned, to know less and less about the religion which propelled their forefathers from tribal mishmash to world superpower. Far from bizarre, in the parallel world of the author's "Turkish popular Islam" - read Kemalism - it is politically correct to be able to boast with a straight face that "many Turks enjoy their alcohol" but are "very careful not to eat pork" - and still
seriously claim concern about not "misrepresent[ ing] the current state of Islam" (p. 27).

Chapter 2, "A Usable Past," contains hilariously shallow assessments of the flourishing of science in the golden age: "Muslim rulers supported astronomers in order to obtain the best astrological advice" (p. 44), "medieval medicine did perfect the occasional useful technique" (p. 49). Such ill-tempered, reductive superficialities excuse Taner from having
to reconcile his freely-dispensed awareness that "concepts like God, divine purpose, design, and morality were integral to the whole enterprise of acquiring and interpreting knowledge, whether it was in medicine or astronomy" (p. 47) with the fact that faith never impeded science, on the contrary.

Like a scientistic caricature out of Dickens pontificating about "FACTS, Sir, FACTS is what life's about," Tener cries "myth, myth" every chance he gets - up to four or five times in the space of ten lines (p. 46, 94) just so you won't miss the point. About 10 per cent of his pages bring up "The Enlightenment." All Middle Eastern atheists are fond of
trumpeting their allegiance to "The Enlightenment."

Chapter 3, "Finding Science in the Quran," as misnamed as the book itself, discusses tourism in Turkey, Turkish cafés, Turkish rugs, Turkish TV, Turkish preachers (p. 81-86), proceeding to "the Nur movement" of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (p. 86-93), finally entering the subject 15 pages into the 25-page chapter with a three-page treatment of Maurice Bucaille (p. 95-97) then moving on to discuss Turkish MD vulgarizer Haluk Nurbaki (p. 98-100), finally lapsing into a paced diatribe against the religious abuse of quantum-physics terminology (p.101-111) with references to the book of Job, more Turks including "political scientist" Muhammed Bozdag, whose writings "can be hard to take seriously" (p. 104) and some Americans, but nary a word about the chapter-title.

Taner's real target is not Islam but religion as a whole. In Chapter 4, "Created Nature," he takes potshots at the American "Intelligent Design" movement (p. 118-120), finding it relevant to mention their "ever-fruitless but always hopeful expeditions hunting for the remains of Noah's Ark" and how Protestant creationists envy Harun Yahya's bottomless budget and work in tandem with him and Mustafa Akyol, another self-promoting Turk and outright ally of the American Right (125-133) among other popular writers whose mention, again, hardly makes sense. An intellectual bully, he is careful to visit the bantam weight of his Associate Professorship in physics on easy targets, ignoring the more serious arguments for Intelligent Design forwarded by the likes of Fred Hoyle and his "Superintellect" or Sir John Archibald Wheeler and his anthropic principle.

As the book nears its end it finishes losing touch with its purported subject-matter and actually disproves its own thesis with its best-crafted chapter 5, "Redeeming the Human Sciences," which seems written at a different time and by a different person than the rest.
After briefly engaging Recep Sentürk's 'fiqh' paradigm in classical Islam, Taner, closing the door opened by the Columbia-trained sociologist and Azhari-trained 'faqih', retreats to the safer territory of absolute Westernization:

...Sentürk plausibly argues that the social and intellectual role that sociology plays in modern Western societies was filled by 'fiqh' in classical Islamic civilization. 'Fiqh' nevertheless concentrates heavily on moral and ritual prescriptions and does not really attempt to explain social dynamics.... Any sociology worth the name must have not just some overall framework and some ability to generate raw data about societies, it also must fill in the middle ground of modest explanations of limited social phenomena. And Islamic sociology has no success occupying this middle ground... (p. 179-180)

Taner then launches into an apology for the skewed Western models of the sociology of religion and their tendentious reductionism and Christiano-centrism (180-183), then a critique of Islamic economics (p. 184-188) and historiography (189-194). He praises "the religious change and vigorous experimentation going on among ordinary Muslims" (one
shudders to guess what he means in light of his winebibbing friends), but shows his exasperation with the moralism and traditionalism of Muslim social thought, which he is pleased to blame on "fearful conservatism" and "a failure of imagination" (p. 196).

In chapter 6, "A Liberal Faith?" Taner unveils his program for progress. After rejoicing that "most elite scientists such as the members of the US National Academy of Sciences reject traditional religious beliefs," he declares that "the best way to achieve Muslim harmony with science might be to promote liberal tendencies within Islam" (p. 203). This is the soul of Kemalism as the author himself defines it elsewhere, stemming from the post-Christian Western model of separation of church and state: "Kemalists ultimately wanted Islam to take on a role similar to that of Christianity in modern Europe. They wanted religion to become a matter of private conscience" (p. 67).

Taner's "Illusion" reads like a petulant introduction to a serious, scientific refutation which never materializes (no pun intended) but is not missed. It will find its niche among Islamophobes (even their theists will gloat in the present climate), although rebarbative from the pure viewpoint of science, as it is big on formulas and small on argument. In yet another betrayal of the purpose of academe, the author forsakes the need to appeal to the wretched, under-scienced Muslims, opting instead, like the run of the mill in his genre, to preach to the choir. As a result he indulges in such massive under-representation of scientific Islam as to seem maliciously ignorant of its standing as easily the most science-friendly Abrahamic religion with a more than respectable share, if not the largest proportion of inventors, theorists and scientists in human history.

Taner Edis has done the world a huge favor in writing this book. Christianity has been bombarded heavily for 2000 years and its about time Islam was bombarded too. Hopefully Hinduism and Buddhism are next to get bombarded.

This is an honest book that is objective and Taner does not say more than is needed to make his point. Muslims who read this book will of course be disturbed by some facts of historical Islam, but won't come out offended or feel like the author was aiming to ridicule Islam, because he writes in a calm, objective manner. He's after facts not slander.

Islamic creation and reactions from Islam to science throughout time are the core focus of the book.

Here is a short synopsis of what is contained within the book:

Discussion of Islam in Turkey
Historical Islamic Views of Science
Different Views of Science from Modern Islam
Scientific Progress and Technological Advances in Muslim Countries
Speed of Technological Progress and Comparison to Western Scientific Progress
Examples of Islamic Creationism and Critiques of Maurice Bucaille, Harun Yahya, and other Islamo-scientific apologetics
Islamic View of History and Social Sciences and their Applications
Islam's Reaction to the West and Modernization (Resistance and Acceptance)
Conservative and Liberal Islamic Views of Science
The Author's Personal View of Science and Belief Systems

This is an awesome contribution to Islamic literature. Anyone interested in Islamic creationism or history should read this book. It helps understand and identify what difficulties future Muslims must face in order to maintain their beliefs as rational and objective.

In America, a large proportion of the population rejects the findings of science whenever those findings conflict with scripture taken literally. The scripture in such cases is usually the Bible, but it is good to be reminded that fundamentalists Christians are not the only ones who can't accept all that science has to offer. With even more fervor, believers in Islam have such a degree of faith that they are able to reject even larger chunks of science. Many American scientists and believers in the scientific way fret that churches who instill doubt about scientific discoveries may undermine young peoples' understanding of the natural world around them, a world that is the target for all scientific explanations. But Islam's difficulty in accommodating science is even more fundamental. In _An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam_ (Prometheus Books), physicist Taner Edis has written an overview that will provide a new way of looking at the classic religion vs. science conflict if you are used to considering only Christianity as representing the religious side.

For Christian fundamentalists, the idea that the Bible could be anything but literally true is unacceptable. This is even more the case, Edis shows, in Islam which is centered on the Quran as the word of God, a divine text whose freedom from error must not be questioned. Of course there is a creationist movement in Islam, often allied with Christian creationists. American creationists, "due to their ever-fruitless but always hopeful expeditions hunting for the remains of Noah's Ark in the mountains of eastern Turkey," have been considered scientific experts by Muslims in the region, experts who could spout an anti-evolution position. The refusal to accept evolution reflects but one part of Islamic rejection of science. Muslims can view scientific thinking as part of the Western or Christian culture, yet another import that corrupts the faith. There is emphasis on applied science in Muslim countries. There are plenty of engineers among Muslims, and especially among their political leaders, and technology is valued. Science is equated with practical technology; astrophysics or evolutionary theory are among the pure sciences that demonstrate at the deepest levels how material causes are sufficient to understand our world, and are thus suspect. There are Muslims who favor liberal views similar to many Christians; if the science conflicts with a passage in the respective holy book, for instance, it is best to take the passage metaphorically. There is a western tradition of doing so going back to Copernicus, and millions of Christians with liberal views, notably even Catholics, have no problem accepting that the Bible is not a text to be used as a science book. Muslim thinkers who advocate such liberal, metaphorical views are subject not only to censorship but to persecution.

Edis has a fine vantage from which to view these issues, and to help explain them. He was born and raised in Turkey, where his introduction to Islamic concepts was within the secular state advocated by Kemal Ataturk. He admits that his personal sympathies are with Enlightenment ideals. He does his physics research in American institutions rather than even in the secular Turkish ones not only because the resources are superior, but because of the better intellectual climate. Muslims who want to do pure scientific research have to go abroad to study, because Muslim culture does not now accept the experimentation and formation of theories which is the way science is done. Edis reflects that it isn't impossible that Islam and science will take their own paths as Christianity and science have done, but he makes clear that such a separation would mean a complete reinterpretation of Muslim thought, a change which is likely no time soon.

This is a rare book, informative and precise, yet perfectly accessible to the non-expert. Anyone who wants to know the nature and history of the Muslim interaction with the modern sciences could not do better.

Taner Edis at no point condemns the Muslim attitude; rather, he understands and explains the effect on science of the traditional religion that permeates the social structure of the Muslim people, determines their view of the world and reality, and forms the basis for a kinship that transcends even national identity. And he explains how it is that religious people, by a socially normal insistence on the perfection of Islam as a religion and a social force, have boxed themselves into a corner in which theoretical science, to the extent that it might contradict religious orthodoxy, cannot be easily tolerated; it is antithetical to an entire way of looking at the world.

The book is fascinating.

There is food for thought and a cautionary tale embedded within this story of Islam and science. It might be wise if our own society gave serious consideration to the consequences for theoretical and innovative scientific research when the results of such research have to be stifled and forced to conform to the dictates of a religious orthodoxy that insists that nothing can be allowed to deviate from its particular beliefs.

Truth is, I just finished the book and I'm not sure what to write. My feeling towards the book is one of ambivalence. It was a bit dry, somewhat technical at times (at least for me), and I didn't always understand what the author was trying to say. Too often I found myself rereading paragraphs trying to understand the point, not always successfully. Overall, the book needs a glossary and some spark. The best part for me was the collection of short essays at the end by other authors. Their points were clear, straightforward, and had "spark." I rate the book 3.5 stars.

Scientists have raised religious questions since the discipline's earliest development. Today many scientists are also nonbelievers - but can scientific inquiry and religious belief coexist? Science and Nonbelief is an overview detailing the history and theories of this relationship, examining scientific and spiritual developments alike. Any collection strong in science, philosophy or religion will find Science and Nonbelief a satisfying blend of inquiry and analysis.

If all physicists had the grasp of philosophy, biology, human prehistory, religion and new age bunkum that this writer has the world would have been a better place. Having read Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Paul Kurtz, Sam Harris, Matt Ridley, Steven Weinberg, Jared Diamond, Peter Watson, Frederick Streng, Peter J Gould, Joseph Campbell, Ninian Smart, Michael Shermer, Stephen Hawking, Simon Blackburn, Philip Kitcher, Charles Freeman, Karen Armstrong, Hector Avalos, Robert M Price and many others, Taner Edis stands apart with this single volume that introduces the reader to just about all the important topics that these writers have explored.

The book (dare I call it a landmark publication?) leads the reader effortlessly through all the important topics related to nonbelief. The style is clear and convincing, the scope expansive and the author self-assured and well informed. His insights are wider than most of his peers and his exposition of the subject convincing. Unlike Dawkins he never snaps at religion, unlike Harris he doesn't stop short at vague mysticism, and unlike anyone else I've read his understanding of the central issues seems unmatched. And he adds just that touch of sarcasm where opportune, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle's "oracular" reputation outside physical science being a juicy example. I also appreciated his unapologetic naming of the phenomenon under discussion as nonbelief rather than atheism, agnosticism or "bright-ism".

And he puts his finger on the pulse when he laments science and skepticism's standing in society amid the pseudosciences, new age bunkum and other intellectual hallucinations.

Perhaps in the next edition (which I look forward to) the author might choose to expand on the indoctrination of very young children and the philosophical anaemia of praying. But even with minor shortcomings (from my subjective point of view, I must add) this remains an excellent book as an introduction, reference or thoughtful gift.

This book stands on my "favourites" shelf next to the Bible, Quran, Bhagavad-Gita and The Origin of Species, and henceforth Taner Edis is my author of choice. I'd have given the book ten stars if I could.

Taner Edis has written a marvelously critical overview of where naturalism and supernaturalism collide. Books in this vein tend to be overly biased in favor of one side or the other, but Edis somehow maintains an edge of skepticism toward even his own viewpoints. Strength rests in this book where it points out the incomplete and weak areas of a fully naturalistic account of existence. The tactic utilized seemed to be very effective in that, generally speaking, he shows why naturalistic accounts are the best explanations, why their supernaturalistic rivals are woefully inadequate or just plain wrong, and then he points out the potential weak spots for those who hold to naturalism. I found this approach especially refreshing seeing that this method invites critical reflection on the issues at hand - something that the epistemological methodology of supernatural belief often lacks.

Chapter 1: Science, Philosophy, and Religious Doubt

This chapter is a very good overview for framing the thesis of the book. It contains the historical background of science, philosophy, and doubt and traces their beginnings in ancient Greece, their revitalization during the Enlightenment and how this trend is (and isn't) being carried into today. This chapter also gives a good introduction to the meta-representational differences between naturalism and supernaturalism.

Chapter 2: An Accidental World

Providing a primer on our current and mature physical picture of the universe, Edis explains why "commonsense" notions of believing in a Designer-god such as the "anthropic principle" are inadequate when one has a good understanding of physics. I especially enjoyed the exposition of "symmetry breaking" and how this very simple principle accounts for much of the "design" often pointed to.

Chapter 3: Darwinian Creativity

Makes the case for evolution and its centrality to understanding biology. Edis tackles a wide range of topics ranging from entropy to the ways in which evolution has been reconciled with religious beliefs, from pseudo-scientific Intelligent Design to the propagandist-driven American and Islamic creationism.

Chapter 4: Minds without Souls

Utilizing neuroscience, this chapter explains why the dualistic notion of a soul or non-material essence is superfluous to a complete understanding of the human mind.

Chapter 5: The Fringes of Science

Following in the grand tradition of debunking nonsense, UFO's, psychics, parapsychology, and miracles are judiciously dealt with.

Chapter 6: Explaining Religion

Drawing from the burgeoning and related fields of cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, Edis successfully shows why a naturalistic account of religious psychological phenomena is effective, even if incomplete. It is also correctly pointed out that a cognitive-scientific account of non-belief is needed to complement our understanding.

Chapter 7: Morality and Politics

Edis takes the exceptionally large issues covered in the book and expounds on their political environment and outlines some of the most common methods and tacts utilized. Covered here as well is explaining both the strengths and weaknesses of morality without a Heavenly Watcher, contrasted with the strengths and weaknesses of traditional transcendental schemes. The author concludes on a stark note, one that I won't spoil for the potential reader.

These annotations on the chapters do not and cannot do the volume justice. Edis weaves the thematic content of each chapter into a very coherent whole of a very readable and intellectually rich book.

Of all the books I've read on this topic, this one takes the cake. Edis presents well-thought out, logical, and unbiased arguments - a combination particularly difficult to find on a subject like this. The author examines each of his topics thoroughly, and his writing demonstrates skill, fair-mindedness, and expertise that far exceeds other books I have read on science and nonbelief. This book expounds complex ideas in a digestible way that holds the reader's interest while introducing intricate concepts and ideas. Edis explicates the politics and history behind creationism, intelligent design, and Darwinism in addition to their principles, claims, and assertions. It is quite easy to take this author's writings seriously because he does not make the mistake of appearing elevated, bombastic, or egotistical; he simply offers the facts and spreads his prodigious knowledge on to the rest of us.

the content of this book is not the same as the name of the book.
its content is too general and it is not good as an EDI dictionary.The technical content of the book can be easyily found in other computer dictionary.

I think the author intentionally spent extra time on some of the keywords in e-business that are often overlooked or misrepresented (e.g. commoditizing products, disintermediation). The ANSI X12 and EDIFACT appendix is invaluable. There are also several pages dedicated solely to supply chain, e-procurement, and EDI. Recommend it highly.

I read the dictionary cover-to-cover to prepare for a new job. Terms were easily understood and well written. The EDI information is invaluable, I haven't been able to find many resources that are current in the subject. Highly recommend!

It's hard to get too excited over a dictionary, but I needed something for my summer job doing e-commerce related work in the states. I've used it twice and both times it had the word I was looking for. I suppose I'm giving it 5 stars because it was only twenty bucks whereas other dictionarys were over fifty. Tech books are overpriced, so it's nice to see something useful at this price.

The book provides an excellent point of reference for anyone involved in logistics or E-Business. I must note that I got a sneak peak at the book before it went to publication.
Although, I personally do not deal with logistics on a regular basis, I often have to interview people who are in the business. The dictionary provides access to these professionals' very particular language and as E-Business spreads throughout the world, it would be a good idea to own a copy of the book.
Nevalainen also slips some humor into a few of the definitions -- check out "cracker" -- which makes the read more interesting and some words more memorable.

Easy to read and excellent in examples.
The best book about IDOCs/ALE.

There is quite valuable information for both EDI developers and project management leads smattered within -- my bias being from a project managment standpoint. The material is possibly worthy of four (possibly even five!) stars, but is presented quasi-reference style (read: haphazardly), in asides, and sprinkled liberally with anecdotes, quotations, and amateur pen and ink drawings. The writing style is informal, practically conversational at times, and, in small doses, refreshing. I'd be more than interested in seeing a review of the original German text... maybe it works better in the native tongue...

But the sad truth is this book was/is extremely difficult to read -- the translation from German is quite poor, almost unbelievably so at times. It's almost as if the original text was run through translation software and published as such without ever once being viewed by a native English-speaker. If Vieweg is truly interested in publishing to the English-speaking technical market, they may want to invest in SOMEONE with fluency in English so they can perform even a rudimentary edit of the material prior to publication.

Should have known when the reply card (nur auf Deutsch!) fell out of the book upon opening that this was going to be one of those challenge reads!

By far, the best book on IDOCs that I have come across. A precise, succinct and down-to-earth literature for picking up skills on ALE/EDI-IDOCs, this book also carries a very user-friendly, real-time and pragmatic approach to learning IDOCs. With an SAP System besides, this book took me just a couple of hours to master the whole of it.

The book starts with a remark - IDOCs are simple to learn, tough to explain. But the authors have dispelled the notion, disproving it totally. It is a handy book for developers/consultants, and I think it is a bare necessity for Project Managers. The time estimate given in the book for accomplishing EDI Solutions stands as a great enlightener for the Project Managers with Integration Projects at hand.

On a scale of one to five stars, this book very badly needs a ten.

Excellent reference source for consultants learning about the EDI interface and ALE. The book gives real world answers and cuts straight to the heart of the matter. I highly recommend the book for consultants working on the subsystem side as well as those consultants working EDI on the SAP side of the project.

This is the best book of the 3 available IDOC/ALE titles - but just for professionals, who want to get the essentials for the IDOC/ALE interface, and how to use workflow in that context.
It's thin (120 pages ?), but it focuses on the real important facts and informations.
It has just small chapters of explanation. But if you're familiar with SAP it's the best to get the issue in a very short time but almost complete.

(for SAP-beginners I would rather recommend the book from A. Nagpal et al)

In the opening essay in this book Woolf tells us she is writing for the common reader. The common reader is not the critic and not the scholar."He is worse educated, and nature has not gifted him so generously. He reads for his own pleasure rather than to impart knowledge or correct the opinions of others. Above all, he is guided by an instinct to create for himself, out of whatever odds and ends he can come by, some kind of whole- a portrait of a man, a sketch of an age, a theory of the art of writing."
Woolf then goes on in the subsequent essays to write of Chaucer, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Montaigne, George Eliot, Defoe, Addison, 'Modern Fiction' 'The Lives of the Obscure' ' Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights' 'The Russian Point of View'.
She writes with a special kind of insight and artfulness. I especially liked her essay on Montaigne who she sees as one of the few writers who truly makes a portrait of himself, and writes truly of the whole of his experience. She sees him as one who knew not only how to communicate himself but to be himself, who defied convention and ceremony, and prizing contemplation and retirement made a book which was himself.
It can be said that Woolf in a way does the same with these reflections upon others which hold up a mirror to her own masterfully insightful sensibility.

You start out wanting to like this author. She has a witty, humorous way with words, a reverence for the written word and a telling grasp of what distinguishes writers of various eras. Of Elizabethan dramatists, she writes, "Theirs is the word coining genius, as if thought plunged into a sea of words and came up dripping." She writes about Classical Greek damatists as one who understands what separates them from all writers who follow: "To understand him," she says of Aeschylus, "is is necessary to take that dangerous leap through the air without the support of words ... for words, when opposed to such a blast of meaning, must give out, must be blown astray..." For her, the best writing, whether that of a Greek or an Englishman, has a meaning that defies words, a meaning that we percieve in the mind -- without words. Coming down the centuries and pausing to consider Jane Austen, she captures the essential writer in terms that encourage and enlarge: "Think away the surface animation, the likeness to life, and there remains, to provide a deeper pleasure, an exquisite discriminaiton of human values." Along with her interest in the well known (she treats many more than the few mentioned here)she has a teasing regard for near greats and nobodies, whose seldom touched books rest in near oblivion. Of the memoirs of one, Laetitia Pilkington, she writes: "... the dust lies heavy on her tomb ... nobody has read her since early in the last century when a reader ... left off in the middle and marked her place with a faded list of goods and groceries." Nor is it just to have a chuckle that she looks at such relative unknowns, but to give us a look at their pained and frequently bereft lives. Laetitia Pilkington was badly used by men in her life. Woolf has a compassion for such women. You begin by wanting to like this woman who claims it's the common reader who makes or breaks an author. As you read on, you find yourself happily taken in and smiling at her wit, humor and insight.

As background information, I read most of her work starting with her first novel "The Voyage Out" published in 1915, skipped her second novel - which is considered to be a flop, Night and Day from 1919 - and then read "Jacob's Room," her third, then went on and read "Mrs. Dalloway," her fourth, and next read "To The Lighthouse," etc. Also, I read much of Woolf's non-fiction and set up a Listmania list on amazon.com.

We are the "common readers," as Woolf describes us, we readers of her books. The present book is an informal summary of all literature from the Greeks to Joyce. It is not complete but it is bits and pieces that Woolf thinks are interesting. This is a medium length book about 200 pages long and available free on line at the Gutenberg project. I think her best fiction is "To The Lighthouse" - that is a masterpiece - and her best non-fiction is "A Room of One's Own." I like the Oxford version of the latter published along with "Three Guineas." Also, the present book is almost on par with "A Room of One's Own."

I got interested in Dostoevsky, and read most of his work, so I was interested to read what Woolf might say about him. These two comments from Woolf on Dostoevsky show you what you can expect from the "Common Reader." The two quotes below are from the section on Russian literature.

Comment #1: Her question: it was written in Russian, and is the sense lost in the translation to English?

"Doubtful as we frequently are whether either the French or the Americans, who have so much in common with us, can yet understand English literature, we must admit graver doubts whether, for all their enthusiasm, the English can understand Russian literature. Debate might protract itself indefinitely as to what we mean by "understand"."

Comment #2: Dostoevsky focuses on the Russian soul.

"Indeed, it is the soul that is the chief character in Russian fiction. Delicate and subtle in Chekov, subject to an infinite number of humours and distempers, it is of greater depth and volume in Dostoevsky; it is liable to violent diseases and raging fevers, but still the predominant concern. Perhaps that is why it needs so great an effort on the part of an English reader to read The Brothers Karamazov or The Possessed a second time. The "soul" is alien to him. It is even antipathetic. It has little sense of humour and no sense of comedy. It is formless. It has slight connection with the intellect. It is confused, diffuse, tumultuous, incapable, it seems, of submitting to the control of logic or the discipline of poetry. The novels of Dostoevsky are seething whirlpools, gyrating sandstorms, waterspouts which hiss and boil and suck us in. They are composed purely and wholly of the stuff of the soul. Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture."

The "Common Reader" is only glimpses and fragments of literature but it has many interesting sections.

The breadth of the book's approach is quite impressive, especially as it is contained in only 193 pp with notes etc. I am grateful for the writers defining out so much detail in their step-by-step approach. It really gives context to what is involved in the value drivers of the businenss. The market is screaming for tools to handle the areas of intangible value and leadership decision making still and while SBfV talks about it in theory they still are a voice in the wilderness saying we need some innovation in the near future. There is nothing in this book that a business owner cannot take immedialtely and put into practice. A good read; simple in delivery, very comprehensive in scope and well worth the time if you want to understand all the options there are to look at for determining value in the eneterprise. Well done.

This is a marvellous book on the valuation methodology for enabling companies to enhance and maximise shareholder value through the use of strategic benchmarking. The book is well written in simple/plain English that should make it easy to follow and understand by any reader.

The book presents critical insights into how companies can enhance shareholder value. It arms managers with tools that enable them to make decisions that facilitate growth and create value. This is achieved through clear and practical methodologies and tips that can be employed to maximise company value. Case studies reinforce the message and help the reader to understand how to practically implement the concepts highlighted in the book.

Among the concepts and methodologies that the reader can benefit from the book include the use of the balanced scorecard, performance measurement, and economic valuation and fraud prevention techniques.

The book is recommended to anyone who needs to learn about benchmarking.

Finally! A readable book that brings the Harvard Balanced Scorecard and Economic Value Added to the private business owner. Only 193 pages, Driving Your Company's Value: Strategic Benchmarking for Value brings a specific and focused Five Step Process to making more money. The Process incorporates a Return on Strategic Effectiveness (ROSE) framework utilizing all tangible and intangible assets to fullest productivity. Implement this Process and your ROSE will be leading your P&L.

This book provides crucial information on the EDI - XML link that connects supply chain mgmt with RFID. Book provides an insight on the backone technologies that run today's supply chain management. RFID section is brief, it provides a nice overview of the RFID's potential future impact on the Supply Chain.

Nahid Jilovec, a recognized expert in Supply Chain technology, has written an excellent briefing on the new developments in the space. For anyone interested in subjects such as Electronic Data Interchange over the internet, new EDI standards and new applications of technologies such as RFID this book will provide a thorough overview how the technologies are used and the benefits they provide. I recommend it highly.

Given the recent fall of the financial marketsFinancial Shock: A 360º Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis, real estate (like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), the impending doom of the U.S. automakersThe End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market, rising cost of healthcare, and instability in the global economy, many people are running for cover with regard to their portfolios.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of generic advice that will give you guidance. However, this book tries to hard covering too many topics with a superficial explanation. There are many vignettes of prior successes; however, past performance does not predict the future. Hindsight is 20/20.

For people who have jobs in retail/sales, restaurant industry, non-professional fields, and government related industry, this book may help you marginally. For those with professional jobs with advanced degrees, this book is not worthwhile. For those with jobs that are traditionally volatile and change with the ebb and flow of the markets, this book will probably help.

The book is broken down into major categories:
Spend Less
Save More
Make More
Give More

SPEND LESS

Many of the principles regarding spending less money, decreasing debt, and caveats of debt counselors are common knowledge. Nothing is really earth shattering or elucidating.

The Millionaire Next Door

SAVE MORE

The concept of investments such as diversifying in real estate, stocks and bonds sounds simple in theory. However, there are numerous volumes of books written on each subject.

The Real Estate Investor's Handbook: The Complete Guide for the Individual Investor

Technical Analysis of Stock Trends

The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition)

You will not get much enlightnment in these broad markets which are fraught with pitfalls. There are useful tips that are outlined with oversimplified pitfalls in each area.

MAKE MORE

Negotiating for a raise is not possible for all industries but the chapter is useful, if it applies to your field. Entrepeneurship is superficially covered but there are other books that cover more meaningful information.

Small Business Ideas: 400 Latest & Greatest Small Business Ideas

SUMMARY

There are a lot of inspiring vignettes but this book does not have a lot of substance.

There are better alternatives out there.

Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity

Bach takes a long time to make a point, and he repeats his points ad nauseam, but the core financial advice [in all of his books] is inarguably practical, easy to understand, and very helpful when applied.

Loved the book!!! It had many helpful tips to get you back on track to save for retirement.

This book is easy to read and covers a lot of different topics with ideas that can be put to practical use. I am on my second read and this book has motivated me to up my percentage going in to my 401k. So although there's not too much that I wasn't already aware of after reading this book, I feel that reinforcing principles is a good thing and if a book can motivate me enough to take positive action with my financial situation, then it's a book that is well worth reading!!!

Start Late, Finish Rich is a part of the Finish Rich series of financial advice books that David Bach has written. This one seems to mostly be a reprise of "The Automatic Millionaire." Bach has added a section about real estate investing and starting businesses; other then that it is pretty much the same book. Definitely not worth the purchase if you have read "The Automatic Millionaire."

Most of the book is filled with advise that is solid, as far as I can tell, but not original. This would certainly be helpful to people who have no idea how to invest, or what they need to do to prepare for retirement. If you have read anything at all about the topic most of the advise is likely to be familiar.

Part four, the section on how to make more money is of little value, in my opinion. The advise seems to be superficial summaries of what you find in books on similar topics. They are too shallow to give you much to go on. Many of them seem dangerous to me, in that they may encourage people to get into difficult complex businesses with out sufficient preparation. The anecdotes from his friends success do not seem at all applicable to the audience the rest of the book is aimed at.

The book is written in a friendly encouraging tone, and avoids financial jargon.

Book is excellent, price is not. I lucked out and found it at Job Lot for 6.99 brand new. I bought two books there for $14, would have cost me $90 at the book stores. So shop around for a better price.

This book starts at the beginning of what a new networking engineer needs to know and works through several examples of how this works in the real world today. It covers TCP/IP, AppleTalk, IPX, X25, Frame Relay, and more, if you count the appendicies. Unsurprisingly, it's also the best study guide for the CCNA. The writing is vague in places, but on the whole a review of the state of technology this clear is remarkable.

Because Cisco would not take the time to review this book it has changed what could have been the best book in the world to a confusing text of mumbo jumbo, especially to the novice. Here are a few of the errors. Page 35, Fig 2-8--AcK 6 not Ack 7// Page 45, Line 6-- relays and FRAMES for host Z, router A// P61, Fig 3-17-- Truth table should be 00,01,10,11// P424, Ans 3.1-- F=FDDI It's F followed by the interface number// p94, Fig 4-18 -- Router C should send 10.4.0.0 to router B// p115, Fig 5-3--The step right after the POST test is to look for a Cisco IOS, once the image is found then the router looks for the config file.// p130, fig 5-15 --Decent should be DECNET// p217, fig 9-9-- 255 is all ones 11111111 not 11111110// p219, line 2-- should be 2 to the 5th power not 25// p231, q 9.1-9.3-- The answers are filled in by mistake// p238, fig 10-3-- Address 172.16.1.1.0 should be 172.16.1.0// p314,fig 13-2 The figure shows a standard access list the narrative talks about an extended access list.// p317, line 20-- The prompt should be Router(config-if)// p319, line 7-- If you are talking about specific protocols like IPX or Appletalk the range numbers 100 to 199 will not work.// p321, fig 13-7 00000111 should be 00001111 for "ignore last 4 address bits.// p324, line 19--The prompt should be Router(config-if)// p328, last line--The prompt should be Router(config-if)// p331, line 15-- Should be standard rather than simple.// p373, line 11--The prompt should be Router(config-if)// p373, line 13--The prompt should be Router(config-if)// p417, fig 16-14--rame should be frame//

I used this book to help me pass the CCNA exam on my first attempt. I found the explanations in this book to be a big help in remembering the CCNA material. I also used the CCNA Virtual Lab e-trainer to practice using the Cisco IOS commands.

This book is the gateway to a career working with Cisco networks. A must for the beginner, and intermediate alike. This book along with Todd Lammle's CCNA study guide will catapult the network enthusiast into CCNA status. A great reference for the bookshelf thereafter.