Holden Reviews

Like most of the Dummies books, this book is designed for the complete beginners, i.e. people who have absolutely no business and Web experience.

The book gives such advices as hiring a technical consultant, writing a business plan, manage your finance, etc. Wow :-()

It's better to buy several books that focus on different areas of the business. Get one for business plan, one for web marketing, one for negotiation, one for legal guide, one for accounting, etc. There are many good software programs out there that do all these now too. All of them would be better than a dummies book like this one.

I am so happy that I chose this book out of all of the others available. It is so easy to understand & packed with information that all of us starting an online business needs. I am one to fold page corners of pages that have info that is very important to me. You should see how many there are!! It is an excellent resource of info & I am very grateful to have found it.

I think this book is great. It covers areas I hadn't thought of and recommends lots of useful websites in the Internet Directory to visit with tons of helpful information. It is well organized, easy to read and a great place to start. It has more information than I expected and well worth the money!

Police officers Mack Steiner and Bank Arbaugh have been friends since the fourth grade. They are assigned to work together on the apparent kidnapping of teenager Tamara Shipley. The case has eerie similarities to the disappearance of Bank's daughter Jamie, who vanished without a trace several years ago. The latter case remains unsolved to this very day.

As the law enforcement officials begin to investigate, they soon find a tenuous link between a dead priest and an underground group called the Sisters of Compassion, who place child abuse victims in safe houses. The more the cops dig the more they believe that Tamara has not been abducted and eventually link the current case to that of Jamie's disappearance. The investigation becomes extremely complicated when Mack's own daughter vanishes.

FOUR CORNERS OF NIGHT is an extremely complex tale due to Craig Holden's ability to develop multifaceted characters that appear real; a trademark of the author. The suspense of the story line slowly evolves because of Mr. Holden's penetrating insight into his protagonists. However, once the suspense hits, it goes non-stop. Although this is not for those readers who desire action from page one to page 367, this novel remains a winner for those who enjoy character development inside a winning plot.

Harriet Klausner

Holden, in Four Corners of Night, creates another "Can't Put It Down!" novel.

Although the story line builds around police detective work and the criminal elements, it is really a story about family, friends, and complex relationships - it is definitely not just another detective novel.

Holden introduces the characters, their pasts, and their desires, such that the reader feels that they have known them for years.

I love it when a carefully developed story line comes together skillfully, naturally, not forced. And "Four Corners" is one of those books. Holden has weaved the story line so completely that he leaves the reader wondering if the book is really fiction...

I have already passed my copy on to a freind!

Within the the first pages, reading a fairly standard scene about two cops ahaving their breakfast interrupted by a call to a crime scene, I could tell that this book would be distinguished by the quality of the writing. Holden takes a gripping, but fairly standard plot, and wraps it with a meditation on family and friendship, cowardice and courage. He gives his character an extraordinary voice, and uses nuances of language and style to give the story a depth and subtlety rarely seen in thrillers.

There are two things about this book that are really fascinating...
1) how the hell this tripe ever got published, and
2) that the author is (supposedly) female when all the women characters in the book are so stupid, irritating and vacant.
I bought this book for 25p at a jumble sale and it wasn't a bargain, it was about correctly priced (despite being hard back in perfect condition).
I have struggled through it. This is desperate writing at its worst. The plot is horrifically obvious, the characters one dimensional and pathetic and the "jokes/puns" are strained and neither witty nor funny.
If the two main characters were real women they would not have jobs. No one can mess up as much as these two brainless bimbos and remain employed...let alone receive promotions like these two do. The characters are so stupid that the reader is ten steps ahead of them all the time (which is so boring).
Save your time and your money and read something else

I'm on Spring Break right now, and I needed something to read. I must admit, it was the cover of this book that first caught my interest, and I decided to give it a chance. I couldn't put it down! For the next two days, I took it everywhere with me.

Holden's writing is witty, and clips along at a great pace. Gossip Hound is a book sort of in the tradition of Bridget Jones's Diary, but with a unique style all it's own. I was really drawn into the book, and I felt so deeply for the characters. I was really rooting for them to succeed.

I would recommend Gossip Hound for anyone who enjoys both dry and laugh out loud humor. The plot is compelling, and the characters are well-developed.

The only complaint I had was that some of the plot seemed a little too coincidental, with people knowing each other and whatnot, but that is easily explained by the world the book takes place in. It makes sense for celebrities to know each other.

Gossip Hound by Wendy Holden

For fans of reading material that has come to be known as "chick lit", here's Wendy Holden's latest novel, GOSSIP HOUND. It's a book that takes the reader into the world of London publishing and celebrity "A Lists" and the latest low-down gossip that is being spread across tabloids, bars, and celebrity bedrooms all over London and beyond.

Grace Armiger is a publicist who works for a small London publishing house called Hatto and Hatto. It sounds like a glamorous job, but it's far from it. Hatto and Hatto has gotten a reputation of never having books that make it to the bestseller lists, so their authors are never the ones that are treated like royalty at any bookseller festival. In other words, it's a company that is going nowhere, and Grace is struggling to keep afloat. To sum it up, the morale at work is only going in one direction: down.

Her latest protege, Henry Moon, has just written the book SUCKING STONES, all about his adventures with an aboriginal tribe, and she is quite anxious to get this book into the realms of the bestseller lists. Unfortunately, no one seems very interested in the book, and she can't seem to sell it at any of the book festivals. Even getting a book signing for Henry is like pulling teeth.

In the meantime, in another part of the London publishing world, Belinda Black, the queen of newspaper smut, is on a tirade and is bent on landing the number one celebrity, Red Campion, as her latest interview conquest. The lengths this woman will go to get her man is hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing at all her antics. Her adventures, believe it or not, and Grace's publishing career, collide during the course of this book, as they both become involved in the world of high-in-demand celebrities and fast paced living.

I don't want to give away too much, but I highly enjoyed GOSSIP HOUND. Although I found it difficult initially to get into the book, once I got used to Wendy Holden's writing style the rest of the book went fast. This book is not for the faint of heart, but for the lover of chick lit and name-dropping and fun trashy antics among the rich and famous. It's fast paced and often times highly unrealistic. It also has a little romance tucked away, for those of you who like that sort of thing. Read GOSSIP HOUND. You won't regret it!

Although I found the essays (actually reprinted NY Times articles) very interesting and thought provoking, whoever was in charge of copy-editing this book should be handed his/her pink slip.

There are typos everywhere! For instance, it's noted that David Chase's mother died five years ago at the age of, get this, **34** ?

Here are some other zingers:

"One one side..." should be "On one side..."

"At one point, the assaults..." should be "At one point, he assaults..."

"like real life as its lived experienced in the United States..." er, who knows what that was supposed to say?

It's one thing for the occasional typo, but folks, I've only listed a few I could find in the first 5 chapters! It's enough to drive you to distraction. "What, ANOTHER mistake? Yeesh!"

More information: Yes, it's 160 pages, with an added 7 page introduction. However, it's set in BIG type, so I think we're really only getting about 100 pages worth of copy.

Since content is the most important aspect here, it's still a worthy read, but the publisher's rush to print this book forces me (and I would imagine some of you as well) to deduct a star based on such sloppy work.

-MC

It's somewhat obvious that the publisher rushed this book in attempts to capitalize on the incredible popularity of this series.

There are spelling and context errors, and a few general factual errors, that should have been caught in the first editing.

Overall, the information is germane, concise, and pretty well organized. I read the book through and through, and keep it around for when people have questions concerning the show.

A good read for Soprano heads, probably irrelavent to everyone else.

sopranos fanatics will like the update in this version

The dialogue was trite and unrealistic. The characters did not have different voices and were very flat and superficial. In addition, the dialogue got even worse when more "traditional Natives" spoke, illuminating her views on intelligence on the reservations.

Coel's knowledge about Native Americans and reservation life leaves a lot to be desired. Vicky, the "native" lawyer was more American than a Valley Girl. She appeared to completely embrace American ways and completely abondon her tradition without thought. Although other works might explain her context to the reservation and Native life, I kept having to remind myself that she was Native American since she seems more like the misguided non-native attempting to help rather than a member of the society. This story is structured so that all of the negative elements of reservation life occurred in the past rather than the fact they continue to occur. Coel's work reflects the idea that went behind the creation of Reservations in the first place; keep them on the reservation until they are acculturated into modern society. Her work reflects the idea that Native American culture is a thing of the past and should simply remain there.

For a more accurate view of Native American life read Sherman Alexie or even Tony Hillerman. Both write mysteries and both make the distinction between fact and mere fantasy.

I'm a recent fan of Margaret Coel's mysteries, but this one is my favorite, perhaps because of its theme of adoption and search for roots. A famous actress comes to Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden in search of her birthparents, convinced that she came from the Wind River Reservation. Meanwhile, an elderly priest with no apparent enemies has been killed, and Father O'Malley thinks he was the intended target. Is there a connection between the actress and the priest's death, along with several others?

Margeret Coel captures Arapaho ways of thought and family values, weaving a complex story of intrigue, duty and love. A beautiful work!

If you like the Native American culture you will appreciate this mystery even more. The characters have depth and you can't help but get emotionally involved in their plight. Good from cover to cover.

After reading Holden's first two novels, I was especially interested in reading her third. Bad Heir Day was a moderately good book, but no where near as entertaining and compelling as Simply Divine. Unfortunately, Farm Fatale is lost in the countryside.

We meet two couples, Rosie and Mark -- semi-struggling Londoners -- and Samantha and Guy -- wealthy Londoners. Through a series of circumstances, both couples (who don't know each other) end up in the same English country village. While Rosie is the most keen to move to the country, her descriptions of the country never made me feel like I was there.

I suspect this novel was written under a deadline, and it painfully shows. The four main characters are so distressed and stressed out, it's hard to feel anything for them. Holden spends too much time dwelling on the complaints of the characters without bringing more depth to this novel. The characters just complain and complain and complain and the reader has to wait forever for any of the characters to have the nerve to actually DO something to improve their life. Yes, we know about Rosie and her struggling career as an illustrator, and Mark as a washed-up wannabe newspaper writer, but there is no spark that makes any of the characters interesting or likable. When the fancy dress party arrives on page 220, it felt like the novel was going to change and sparkle, at last. Unfortunately, the party was over in a few pages (Holden could have had such fun spending more time describing the party!!), and the reader is back in the distressed lives of the main characters. What spark does come to the surface in the final section of the book simply isn't enough to carry the story.

Even if you're a fan of Holden's novels, I recommend leaving this one alone. Unfortunately, Holden's best novel was her first (Simply Divine), and neither of her follow-up novels are as good. If you're interested in a British-chick-in-the-countryside novel, try Stately Pursuits by Katie Fforde -- her observations are keen and spot-on and her characters are instantly more likeable and entertaining.

A European bestseller, Holden's third novel is a romantic comedy of manners about two city couples moving to the country. Protagonist Rosie, a freelance illustrator, longs for rural peace while her journalist boyfriend, Mark, loathes the very thought until opportunity - a witty column about country living - pushes him into it. Trophy wife Samantha hauls her hapless husband Guy off to the manor house in the same small village, mostly to escape the horror her radical decorator has made of her London home and make a trendy new splash in rural opulence.

Sweet Rosie quickly makes friends among the eccentric villagers - the nosy postman, the broodingly handsome farmer, the cheerful pub owner - and begins gathering a collection of comical vignettes her blinkered and increasingly frustrated boyfriend dismisses out of hand. Meanwhile the horrible Samantha determines to throw a bash to top all bashes, with the village's reclusive rock star as her prize guest.

Holden has fun with arrogance of all kinds, particularly city provincialism and celebrity ego-mania and the rule of the trend. The satire takes center stage and the characters serve it well. Romance beckons and there's just enough surprise to make the predictable less so. A lighthearted romp, with a caustic touch.

This is a very funny, humorous book. City folk move to the countryside and have to deal with the gossipy locals. Rosie wanted to live in the country all along. She moves there with Mark who is only going because his newspaper is paying him to write a column about it. Funny situations happen in their lives which lead to a breakup. But Rosie finds romance with Matt Locke, the rock star who lives in the area. The entire book is really cute and funny. At first I was alittle worried about the british slang since I am from the USA. But the story moves along quickly and is very easy to follow. A great funny read if you are looking for a light fun book.

This is one of the earliest J2EE 1.2 book that hit the market and it does a decent job. Coverage on individual topics such as servlets, JSP's, and EJB's are good and coherent. I especially like the EJB topic which spans 6 chapters that gives a lot of details and guidance in architecting your apps using EJB's. Other J2EE topics like JDBC, JNDI, RMI, XML, JMS, and JavaMail also received adequate coverage in the book. Compared with the book by Perrone et al. (Sams), this one is more focused and more in depth.

However, I am somewhat disappointed by the lack of substances (i.e., code, code, code to a developer like myself!) in the later chapters that deal with design strategies. It will have been a lot better if the book used an integrated sample to illustrate how to implement the design principles layed out in chapters 24 and 25. Instead, we have a chapter (30) which basically borrows a canned sample from Orion Server release, which in itself is OK but is not tightly related to earlier chapters. So if you already have servlets and JSP experience and would like to add EJB/JMS to the mix, I wouldn't recommend this book. Pick up the new book from Wrox on BEA WebLogic Server instead.

The content of the book is a great way for Java programmers to get an overview of the J2EE APIs and Java-based Web applications with reasonable hands-on depth. I can't say enough in that regard. More depth requires more specific books, but that's just due to the size of J2EE. However, the editing on this book is just short of awful. There are numerous typos and non-grammatical sentences. Part of this is obviously insufficient attention given to the writing of non-native speakers. The approach differs radically from chapter to chapter, ranging from elaborated regurgitation of the documentation (useful due to its experienced commentary) to teaching almost solely by example. In one chapter, the author's coding style is full of distracting peculiarities. If he were consistent in their use, it may not be so distracting, and his at time really strange departures from common control structure idioms leaves you guessing. If the chapter weren't so strong from an architecture and design perspective, you would wonder about his command of Java. All in all, I recommend this book as in introductory cram course on J2EE, but the Wrox multi-team approach broke down somewhat here.

This is a "intro" book from several authors. If you don't know the j2ee technology at all or you intend to know any part of the j2ee then this is a good start point. But if you liked to dig into a specific area or to develop an j2ee application then this book is not sufficient.
Moreover this j2ee book is a bit obsolate, the 1.3 edition is a better choice though the j2ee tech goes to the 1.4 edition.

This book is useless. The scope is so broad you are only fed with minimal info on each subject. I strongly recommend you DON'T but this book.

proofread your book.

I reiterate the first review.

I bought this book because i want to know about database connectivity and this book covers enough. the only downside of this book is it doesn't have CD included for a $30+ book(you gonna need to download the files from their website)

"The Carrier" by Holden Scott, St. Martin's Press, 2000.

A Fast Moving Book mixing modern gene therapy with the modern concern for the upcoming plague.

The author, Scott Holden, combines a fairly deep knowledge of modern genetic laboratories with a story of politics in the university setting. His main character is a genius Ph. D. candidate (Jack Collier) from New Jersey who ignores the jealousies on the university campus (Harvard of all places) until his advisor, Professor Dutton springs a rather large conspiracy on Jack. Jack Collier is expelled for plagiarism, while it is Dutton who had done the real plagiarism. In hopes of a Nobel Prize, Dutton steals Jack's work, which was intended as a cure for cancer. In stealing Jack's discovery, Prof. Dutton inadvertently changes the cure into a killer. Jack carries the killer/cure across the United States, while being pursued by FBI agents, one of whom is a psycho and another a Ph.D. in Biology. This is an interesting sub-plot all on its own.

The book is well written, but some discrepancies crept in: I do not think that the Boston Police Department has legal authority in Cambridge, where Harvard is located. The references to the BPD should have been to Cambridge Police. On p. 209, the editor permitted "stewardess" to be used, when today's correct usage is "flight attendant". On p. 191, the verb "affects" was used when the noun, "effects" was required. All of this is minor compared to the fast-moving story combining many modern themes.

Jack Collier has a brilliant idea that will not only attain him his Ph.D. from Harvard, but cure cancer. However, his faculty advisor Dr. Dutton steals the ideal of training Strep A bacteria to eat tumors leaving Jack expelled for plagiarism and feeling heartbroken.

Jack flees Harvard to seek his former girlfriend who is dying from cancer. However, unbeknownst to Jack he has become infected with his cure, turning him into a modern day but deadlier Typhoid Mary. He kills anyone who comes in physical contact with him. With the FBI wanting to stop Jack before others die, while others want Jack dead before he reveals the truth, he continues his trek cross country to try to save a life.

THE CARRIER is an exciting, fast-paced medical thriller that falls a bit short of being a classic horror tale. The story line moves so fast that readers will finish it quickly, but feel very little towards the characters in the process. Even though this tale is not quite what it could have been, any one skeptical about Holden Scott's talent will realize he is a major player who needs to know speed kills interesting plots, even one that is still fun to read.

Harriet Klausner

After you read this book, you will probably never want to use a public toilet again! When Holden Scott first started writing as Ben Mezrich, there was an obvious talent there that somehow seemed to elude critical or public acclaim. However, since changing his name and writing "Skeptic," seems his fate is a little more promising.
"The Carrier" is a by the numbers chase thriller, which has some interesting scenarios, and some truly frightening scenes (reference to the above mentioned public toilet scene..yipes!). However, so many "coincidences" occur and agent Thomas Moon is so over the top that you have to grimace at some of the cliches Scott uses. However, this is an effectively creepy and involving book, one that flows nicely and gives us another one of Mezrich/Scott's typical young medical heroes who is caught up in the bureaucratic/evil world of modern science. You can't help but admire Jack and his quest to save his beloved Angie from cancer; and you can't help but hate Michael Dutton, who cruelly steals Jack's "miracle."
A nice, engaging read and one that I recommend; it's fun.

Holden has a great grasp on the tragic American hero and is also able to spin highly-infectious stories. The resultant combo is best displayed in The River Sorrow. While this book starts strong and has a vice-like hold on the reader through the middle sections, I found the last section to be predictable, and even a bit corny. I was downright disappointed with Holden on this latest offering, but as I hold him to an exceptionally high standard, I still must give the book a decent review. A great one to bring to the beach; make sure you apply enough suntan lotion before starting the book as you'll have a hard time putting it down for much of the story

This is a good read. The characters in the story are very three dimensional. I especially like the FBI agent RedFeather. The ending is a bit surprising, but I don't like it. Apart from that the whole plot is quite well-organised. Read it on the beach, or during a long flight. You should not be disappointed!

I liked the novel, it kept me reading until the end. I did not like the ending though. (I'm not going to give it away) This is a good cottage book. I will try Holden's other books as well.