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I passed the 70-431 Exam using this book and a few others. I really like Murach's stuff better though.

Philip
www.SQLDataBasics.com

I'm about 1/3 of the way through this book. As a moderately experienced SQL Server developer, I find the book useful as an exam prep beause it briefly reviews and previews the information, although it relies on the reader already being somewhat familiar with the subject.

For example, the text explanations and code snippets are good, but there are very few screenshots or other figures.

Don't get this book if you don't already have some experience with SQL Server.

Do get this book as a review or summary of what you'll presumably need to know for the exam.

Conrad

I bought this book because I had the opportunity to take a training course by one of the co-authors, Mike Hotek. Mike is an awesome teacher as well as writer. This book had very clear practical examples ranging from how to create a table to replication and database mirroring. I found that if you want to learn the just-above-the-basics of SQL 2005, this book is for you. Even if you don't know anything about SQL 2005, this book will give you an insight on how to get started.

The chapters are organized quite well, starting with how to install SQL 2005 and moving on to creating basic objects.

I would recommend this book for several reasons:
1) A great reference on basic SQL syntax as well as the main functions of SQL 2005
2) A great learning tool for the exam.
3) Easy to read and understand.

Great job on this one. I have already purchased the 443 and 444 books and am eager to read into those as well.

I had to use this book for a class. It has many mistakes and the quizzes at the end of the chapters ask questions that weren't even covered. Everyone in my class including the instructor agreed that this was not a good book. It either barely discusses or doesn't even cover things that the quizzes ask you about. I am going to find another book to study from before I even think about taking the test. The labs were terrible also, some of them couldn't even be completed as set up by the book. I wouldn't even waste my money on this.

Many examples in this book can not be compleated with the "Evaluation Software" the is included with the book. Chapters 14, and 15 both reference features not included in this version of the software.

The book has been reading very nicely and I believe that I have learned a lot from it but I have become very frustrated with the way the not all the examples/practice areas can be accessed with the limitations of the included software

The Library journal review does a huge disservice to this book.

Imagine a beautiful, highly productive, virtually weed-free,

drought-resistant, inexpensive, low-maintenance and ecologically sound

garden bed in your yard. It sounds impossible, but it is very simple

and only requires a few hours to create this fall, no digging required.

You can put to use the bounty of leaves and/or pine needles that are

provided for free to almost every suburbanite in the fall. This

is the ideal time, as the bed is better if it can break down over the

winter.

I have been gardening for about 25 years, and wish had I had heard of

this method sooner. It is perfect, especially for those who are not

physically able to dig, till or do a lot of weeding or simply have very

little time for gardening.

It involves piling up and wetting down 8 -12 inches of layers of

organic matter (we used leaves and some manure) on top of a thin layer

of newspapers or cardboard, with a small amount of amendments such as

greensand, lime and rock phosphate and manure underneath the paper. On

the top is a 1-2 inch layer of mulch (we used white pine needles), to

keep in moisture and suppress weeds. Come spring, you simply push aside

the top mulch and plant seedlings.

This 'sheet mulching' method came from this wonderful book by Toby

Hemenway. We have several sheet mulch beds this

year, and they are outrageously productive. For example, one 4' x 9'

bed in a very sunny spot, contains 6 large tomato plants, 3 sweet

pepper plants, 3 cucumber vines on a trellis, a short row of

sunflowers, one summer squash plant, and 7 winter squash plants. I

find this amazing considering that the ground underneath is very poor,

sandy and barely supported grass.


With apologies to Mae West, I have learned a big lesson, it's not the soil

in your life, it's the life in your soil!

I bought this book in January and have many times over saved the price in
time, mulch and bought amendments using ONLY the sheet mulch idea.

An excellent book and resource. At the time I purchased this book, I also purchased Bill Mollison's seminal work on permaculture. I intended to read Mollison's book first and Gaia's Garden second. After reading the first few pages of Mollison's book, I set it aside to "look through" Gaia's Garden just to familiarize myself with its contents. I discovered that I could not put it down because it is so well written and informative. I recommend this book to all persons interested in the subject of permaculture.

This was recommended by someone when I started asking questions about permaculture. I am glad he did! It is a great introduction without being too simplistic. It is showing me how to start small and gradually increase the use of permaculture.

I have shown it to friends who are all waiting to borrow it from me!

This book is excellent for establishing new concepts of applying time tested old technology. I use these principles everyday and I look forward to the days when we need to rely on our local resources and skills in order to make a living. This book teaches you how to make a start with permaculture.

I have totally enjoyed this book. The principles are a little murky because apparently this is a pretty new field and not very well developed for the eastern seabord which I live but it does provide enough guidance to begin setting up your own permaculture areas and start developing areas to be more ecologically sound food producing and living environments. I would HIGHLY recommend it as a first book on permaculture and the resources section alone has been a joy.

This is a must for dog and cat owners who want to give their pets a healthy natural diet and who want to use alternative medicine -- a really super book with tons of information!

Once you've read this book, you'll never go back to commercial dog food again. This book was very informative and helped me understand everything I needed to get started cooking for my dog. And it's easy! It takes about 30 minutes to prepare food for your pet for the whole week. I've only been cooking for him for 2 weeks and he's like a puppy again. If you love your dog, buy this book - You're dog will thank you.

This book is extremely helpful with lots of good information in caring for your pet. It informs you on how to keep your pet as healthy as possible and avoid the vets office. Wonderful advise.

I have had the original Pitcairn guide for many years now, and consider it a classic in the field of natural healthcare for pets. As a canine behavior specialist, I am well aware of the link between nutrition and behavior issues, so I find this information especially valuable and have recommended it to many of my clients.

I like that this new edition contains information on environmental pollutants and toxins, which is a topic that is thankfully coming more to the forefront in the public's minds. This book will help owners to understand just how much of an impact those factors can have on our beloved pets.

To comment on a review by another reviewer, I am guessing that the information regarding raisins and grapes and the link to renal failure came to light after this guide was published, and I certainly hope that any recommendations to include raisins in the diet will be removed in future printings.

I was really looking for more recipes than are offered in this book. Also not quite ready to do raw feeding and didn't realize that most of the recipes are raw. There is quite a bit of info on nutrition so if that is what you are looking for this is the book.

This book opened the door for me at midlife to finally "let my hair down!" Thanks to the author, Lorraine Massey, I am not only growing out my curly head of ringlets... but cherishing every one of them! Something that I had previously always regarded as my curse in life! FRIZZ, HUMIDITY!!! This is a MUST READ for anyone with curly hair of all degrees and ages! Educational and Fun! A real Lifesaver!

This book is extremely instructive re: curly hair. It tells you how to properly clean, condition, and style the three main types of curly hair. It also offers recipes for home-made hair-care products so you can save a few dollars. I have used all the recommendations, including one or two of the home-made products and my very curly hair is manageable and looks great! I definitely recommend the book as well as the Devacare line of hair products.

Lorraine's book tells you to abstain from shampoo WITH SULPHATES, you can find all natural shampoos like WEN, Deva No Poo, Burts Bees or even Castille soap that you can wash with. The CG method suggests coating hair with conditioner prior to shampooing if you feel you want to shampoo to protect the hair and keep it's moisture or simply using conditioner to wash.

This method WORKS and I have tried it myself, and there are countless curlies on naturallycurly.com that are using this method and it works for them. Even straight hair can benefit from the CG method it's not just for curly/wavy girls but the book encourages you to find your "inner curl" and embrace your natural waves rather than subjecting your hair to the abuse of SULPHATE SHAMPOO, hair products containing things that end in "CONE" and SD Alcohol as well as excessive heat styling that is very harmful to our locks!

This book has a lot of good tips for curly-haired girls. It also has a lot of stories from people who have battled with their hair most of their lives. It's definitely worth reading if you've ever been ready to give up on trying to work with your naturally curly hair. Put down the flat iron and embrace the curls!

After lots of years of straightening products and processes and lots of big rollers, and blowing dry, I have come to live with and love my 65-year-old naturally curly hair -- hurray! This is the first book I have ever discovered that glorifies the pluses of having curls -- and gives reasonable recommendations and suggestions for hair care especially for those of us whom nature blessed this way. I discovered this book while trying a "new" hairstylist at a salon new to me. What a delight to find someone who actually knows how to work with curly hair and bring out its best! I skimmed thru the book while I was there and discussed some of its contents with her --
yay! I am a most happy lady!

This book is great. The authors easy to follow instructions make homebrewing simple and easy, anyone can do it.

I found this book an inspiration to me when I was a first time brewer, and I still use it and refer to it from time to time many years later.

This book is amazing. I got it with a set of equipment to brew my first batch. The book answers many, many questions for beginners, theoretical and practical. Not only is there information for the brewer just about to brew their first batch, but there is also rich information for people just starting to brew mash-extract and all-grain beers. Because of this book, I went from brewing my first batch from a pre-set kit (malt extract, hops and dried yeast) to my fourth batch, where I formulated and brewed my own ALL-GRAIN recipe!! The book also contains many useful tables for reference, and is a fun read, with Papazian's witty style. I highly recommend this book if you're just starting out!

My wife bought this and a True Brew kit for my birthday (I know, you're thinking, "she rocks!"). Anyway, I've just started reading the book and I love it. There is a ton of GREAT information in the book and I would encourage anyone interested in brewing to buy this book.

This book is THE ONE to have for home brewers. The information will take you from brewing in the simplest of forms to all grain and everything in beteween. It was written in an easy to understand style that skips throught the nonsense and gets you to the point. Full of recipes, anecdotes, suggestions and resources, it should be required reading for all homebrewers.

We have found this resource wonderful. There's more in this book than I could have asked for gardening, preserving, how to chop would, how to make tools... Our 10 year old son enjoys reading it too and learning about how to really make items that he would use. We were looking for a resource to help us "survive" if need be on our own, also we were looking for items that were more cost effective in this hard economy. Great resource!

One of my top ten books. I am an avid outdoorsman and believe in being prepared(Boy Scout Motto) to take care of one's self "off the grid". This book might as well be my bible. It does skim a little on some subjects but on the whole it gives a thorough enough explanation of all the skills one would need to scout out, build, propagate, and flourish on a frontier farm. Excellent illustrations to accompany all the subjects.

My only thing to change about it would be a slightly larger thickness of stock for the pages. I know this would make this rather large book even heavier but the pages have a tendency to bunch and fall midway through the book. A slight qualm about an otherwise flawless book. Read it flat to avoid this problem.

If you want to learn about how to be completely self sufficient I highly recommend this book.

This book will teach you best tips and tricks for raising your own food, and a whole lot more. I purchased it as a replacement of my original book that I bought in the early '80s. I was so thankful it is still around! I wore the cover right off my old book and passed it onto a friend in need of this knowledge.

If you are into living off the land and need advice on how to do it, get this book!

This book starts with selecting property for building a home and continues through construction to maintenance and entertainment. It contains much detailed knowledge and each subject is well explained. Graphics and illustrations are good and well formed. I would recommend this book for any home builder, farmer, do-it-yourselfer or alternative urbanite.

Until I checked this book out of the library, I had rarely given a thought to getting "back to basics," that is learning how to be more self-sufficient. After I read the book, I soon bought it, because it opened my eyes to the many ways that I am almost entirely dependent upon others for my basic needs. "Back to Basics" is a helpful guide for those who want to get away from it all and live totally independently on a farm, and even those like myself that live in town, but that want to become more self-sufficient, and less dependent on expensive fossil fuels and foods that someone else has raised or grown.

"Back to Basics" is a colorful, easy-to-understand encyclopedia of basic skills. There are hundreds of color photos, and most lessons are laid out step-by-step, making the concepts very easy to learn. The book is divided into six basic parts:

I. Land: Buying It - Building on it (how to choose land, build a home, develop a water supply, create a sauna, etc)

II. Energy from Wood, Water, Wind, and Sun (making your home more efficient, how to use wind energy, setting up a solar-powered house, etc)

III. Raising Your Own Vegetables, Fruit, and Livestock (how to properly grow all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and grains, how to farm fish, beekeeping, butchering an animal, etc)

IV. Enjoying Your Harvest Year Round (canning, preserving all kinds of foods, making cheese and wine, etc)

V. Skills and Crafts for House and Homestead (making natural dyes, weaving, woodworking, stenciling, soapmaking, making homemade perfumes, etc)

VI. Recreation at Home and in the Wild (camping, canoeing, kayaking, celebrating holidays, etc)

This book definitely has the potential to help all of us live more self-sufficiently, learning to do the things that our grandparents probably learned growing up. However, one possible drawback is that becoming self-sufficient takes a lot of work, and in the case of switching your home over to some type of alternative energy, a lot of money as well. Most readers are probably not going to have the land, time, and money to make some of the more significant changes suggested. However, the book still offers a lot for the rest of us, and at the least, educates us as to what it takes to live in a self-sufficient manner. Another possible drawback is that the book tries to squeeze a lot of information into 456 pages. This means that while you are getting a very concise, and surprisingly detailed, overview, you may need to consult more detailed sources if you need more help than what the book offers.

Overall, this is an interesting and useful book that offers practical ways to become more self-sufficient, something that is highly relevant in these times of rising energy and food prices. My family has already used some of the ideas, starting our first garden this year.

Good explaination of all the different types of systems. Advantages and disadvantages are listed. Home energy analysis is helpful in detemining what system may be best for you.

I was not impressed with this book. It was not what I was looking for. It should be more appropriately titled "Home Energy Saving Tips"
It did not offer enough practical information on powering your home with Solar.

This is a good introduction to how the energy from the sun can be put to practical everyday use. If you don't like to read a lot of technical stuff, this book is for you. Quick, easy reading the non-technical average person. with references for more information. This book has practical projects for the person who already has some knowledge of solar energy as well. If you're looking for a really detailed technical book of how to design and install your own solar collector (electrical or water), better get a different book. My 5-star rating is for those who are beginners or those that have a little knowledge of solar energy.

My husband and I have become increasingly consciencious about saving our natural resources. It has been our goal to add solar panels to our house but most of the books out there were not written for the average person. This book answered all our questions in a language we could easily understand. We learned how to make solar power an investment throughout our entire house! How cool is that?

The awesome thing about this book is it goes way beyond explaining the money we can save but includes vital tips on what not to do. I love when a book keeps me from making mistakes. I could go on and on about this book because I'm thrilled I finally have a great reference tool. I am eagerly anticipating creating a home that will actually not take so many of our precious resources from the earth.

most of what is there was interesting but it wasen't what I thought it would be. It's a facts about solar not a how to get started with your home. It had little solar projects but most of these are on the web anyway.

I own dozens and dozens of books on decor, flowers, weddings, entertaining, gardens, etc. I didn't get this one right away, but waited for awhile. I've seen many of the images on the zillions of decor blogs out there. But it doesn't compare to having the book, and holding it your hands. Great interiors, great photography, breezy easy text. This edition is a good addition for your collection of books to inspire you.

Different styles, each executed beautifully. Great inspiration -- the only negative is that if you are a subscriber to Elle Decor, you have seen all these spaces before -- in the recent issues.

This book features a lot of famous designers' homes that do a great job in describing their personalities and who they are. And the selection of it is all unique in its way, unlike those that are predictable, commercial looking and seem-to-see-it-before-ish. I did go through many books at a bookstore before I decided to pick this one. It just stands out!

This book is beautiful, certainly for the beginning decorator or if you just want to know how the "Beautiful People" live, this is for you! Exquisite pictures, great profiles, as well as great tips! Oh, and let's not forget the fabulous price!

Looking for chic rooms that are inspiring? Ms. Russell does it again. Edited from the pages of her magazine,she puts together a great resource book and/or coffee table topper to give you a brousing escape from our own dreary interiors.

First, I bought this as an audiobook to get me thru a cross-country drive.
This is not a good choice for audio format - maybe you need the klitchy recipes and photos to make it as cutesy as it is billed to be. Still, I thought the content was not funny at all, just condescending, childish hostess advice most everyone has heard already. Marbles in your med chest? Oldest trick in the book, but as someone who really has entertained company (and actually cares about their comfort, also known as "hospitality") more helpful is to place items guests might be embarrased to ask for in your med chest - like aspirin, Tums, tampons, etc. Yeah, I get that it is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek but it never quite gets there. Overall, this book - audio or not - sucked. I made it to disc 3 and gave up. Save your money!

This is a general warning before reading the review: This book is VERY odd, so if you don't like oddball humor, go find another book.

The book's flap shows you how funny it is, as she gets angry with you for not purchasing the book. And there it begins.
The layout is very old-fashioned. The chapters are spread out with many photos and crudely drawn images. Usually these images make you chuckle. The whole book is in full-color, so no guessing as to what color such-and-such is.

The content is hit-and-miss, but generally a hit. It'll make you chuckle, and you'll definately think "what was she on?" during some chapters, and that's the point. But that's not all; you also get a giant reference manual to easy-to-make recipes! Rachael Ray, move out of the way! This book also shows you how to entertain and be a guest, as these are also part of the hospitality boat. You'll eithe laugh or end up scratching your heads at the comedy.

------------over-all grade-------

Writing: B+ - It's funny, but it drags on for much longer than necessary.
Layout: C+ - It's very old fashioned, which is a big turn-off. Full of yellow and greens.
Overall: B - It's a generally fun guide to entertaining, but beware if you don't find it funny or you'll be returning to Borders right quick.

I love this book. She is a genius. Writing & photos are funy, and I want to try the recipes! BUT, it isn't for everyone. I was reading the 1 star reviews, and was sorry to see how people weren't getting it. It is a Kitschy, Rated R, humorous book on hospitality. If you don't like swear words, "ladies parts", and 70's photos, don't buy it. If you love all those things, get it! You won't be dissappointed. PS: I now own a planter in the shape of a log with a squirrel sitting on it. It reminded me of this book so forcefully, I HAD to buy it! We should all be more like amy ;-)

enjoyable but would have liked it to be a little more off than if was.

Can you believe this book???? Practical, funny, creative, liberated, boy it just racks up positive adjectives, doesn't it? But be forewarned, it's also revoltingly gross here and there and above all this is comedy, not a foray too far into Martha Stewart territory. But then again, if you needed me to tell you that you probably don't know who Amy Sedaris is. I had fun reading Amy Sedaris' assault on vulnerable Eisenhower-era values, actually learned a thing or two, and, who knows, might try a few of her recipes next time I'm feeling antidisestablishmentalitarian. And, oh yeah, her, ahem, charming wit is amusing too. (Marbles in the medicine cabinet?! What to do with organic lemons? Where the heck does she get that stuff?) I'm a fan of books that walk the thin line between parody and information, offensive and endearing, and gods help us, the irreverent I Like You does that extremely well.