this book has been *much* better than all of those other books
595068
I'm working through this book now and am thoroughly enjoying the experience.

The author mixed concepts and working code examples in a way that is very helpful. And, the author provided broad coverage of Android topics.

I'm a new Android developer, and have worked through many chapters of several books. So far, this book has been *much* better than all of those other books.
1853382
It has been a long time coming -- I wish we could have had a book like this a long time ago.  I feel that this book will be a big help to lots of children who are going through many of the same things that the the child in this story was going through.  I feel that there have been many children who could have benfitted if they could have had this book to read.  It should be a big help to younger children.  Top-Notch in my book!!
451407
I have been a vegan going on four years now and have been on the search for my "perfect" diet for nearly ten years.  Since becoming a vegan, I have dabbled in raw food and more typical vegan fare that has contained a fair bit of oils.  Since finding Lindsay's books about 1.5 years ago, I have never looked back.  My skin has improved drastically, my husband has competed in Ironman triathlons, and we feel awesome pretty much most of the time.  Oil-free makes a HUGE difference.  Anyways, this book is BY FAR the best one of the Happy Herbivore series yet.  If you could only get one book, get this one.  Here are some things that make the book so great:

1) Nutritional Information for each recipe - includes serving size, calories, fat, carbs, fiber, sugars, protein, and even Weight Watchers points, if you're into that sort of thing.
2) Lots of beautiful pictures - all of Lindsay's books have a lot of pictures, but the quality of the photos has improved a lot in her past two books.
3) This book contains more easy lunch-type recipes including easy-to-assemble bowls, wraps, salads, and of course soups.  The snacks and dips section also seems to be more extensive than previous books.
4) There is a section that includes descriptions and pictures of exercises to incorporate into your daily regimen.  I have not used this section much as I am a pretty avid athlete, but it seems very useful to those who are new to exercise.  Most of the exercises can be done at home with not much special equipment.

But most importantly: the food is AWESOME.  I haven't  made anything I haven't liked yet.  Here are some examples of recipes I have made with success:
1) Breakfasts/Breads - pumpkin pancakes, oatmeal 300 (chocolate and raspberry cream variations), granola (oil-free granola!!!), whole wheat drop biscuits with olive gravy, tofu scramble, ruby chocolate muffins, cornbread
2) Lunches/soups: chickpea tenders, Asian rice bowl with Thai peanut sauce, pumpkin chili, skinny mac n cheese, lentil marinara sauce, Thai green curry
3) Sides/Snacks/Sauces: parmesan greens, parmesan topping, quick gravy, sweet pea guacamole (my husband hates peas but I tricked him with this guac! hehe), roasted chickpeas
4) Drinks/Desserts: Banana ice cream, mint mocha, hot chocolate, hungover Marys!, pumpkin spice latte

There are so many more recipes I am dying to make including lentil sloppy joes, meatloaf bites, blueberry yogurt muffins, tempeh bacon, tofu jerky, chocolate cake (there's even a recipe for chocolate frosting made from sweet potatoes and dates!), Irish stew, Thai tacos, a cheeseball, nacho bowl, spinach artichoke dip, and the list goes on.

This book is awesome.  Every recipe has health and nutritional density in mind. Your grocery cart will be so beautiful when shopping for ingredients for these recipes.  All around my favorite cookbook thus far.  Thanks Lindsay!
734805
I've read the entire series of books, and this has been my favorite.  They're all wonderful, but this was very, very enjoyable.  I've read the last two chapters twice now.
It's nice to read happy endings and get away from the seriousness of life.
1430273
This book has taken on a common task of trying to explain positional techniques, but did a better job with it than any other book I can think of.  The success is in breaking the concepts down to a finer level, and being able to provide very good examples to illustrate the concepts.  So, for example, instead of having a chapter on rook play which is vaguely written with some example games (seems typical for many books I've seen), they have specific examples on some subject (how to open or close a file, or keep it closed), with specific examples, which are often just a few moves long, but which illustrate the technique.  By doing things this way, they are able to present a lot more examples.

I would have liked more diagrams.  Very few people are going to use a chess board to set up the positions in the book, so more diagrams would have been appreciated, as sometimes they go 30 mores or more between diagrams, which is a bit much to try to just move through in your head.

Also exercises at the ends of each chapter might have been nice, but this may be an impractical suggestion, as the book is quite long, and it wouldn't have been worth trimming out the examples for the sake of exercises.  There are some exercises at the end of the book.
2946534
There's a reason this book has lasted as long as it has -- it's simply a great book!
4034803
I've read tons of books on social anxiety, most published by highly clinical, academic types. This book is so much better because of the author's very personal battle with it. His writing style is so warm and understanding, it honestly feels like I'm getting advice from a really close friend who knows exactly what I'm going through, not some detached PhD who "studied" the disorder.

After implementing some of the strategies he recommends, I feel like I'm *finally* starting to see some tangible progress. I'm so excited to continue my journey and get to the other side of this.

Do yourself a favour: get this book and you'll see the changes in yourself.
4915434
I'm a bit confused by some of the hate for this book, since I thought it was much improved from the previous book. While there are some problems, most notably Ms. Lackey's current practice of inserting pages of previous books into the current book, on the whole it moved the story along quite nicely.
I admit that I, like others, originally thought this would be a trilogy, although "Chronicles" does imply a longer series.  I've adjusted my thinking in that regard, which helped my enjoyment of the book tremendously.  In this installment, we learn Mags' real name and more about his origin, though not all.  Hints are given about Mags' true status--he's apparently important enough to send people looking for him, and for the head of state in his parents' country of origin to take a personal interest.  We also learn more about Karse, specifically how it got the way it was before Solaris and why Vkandis didn't step in sooner--and why Valdemar didn't just go in and perform regime change.  And Ms. Lackey introduces a new Suncat, which is enough for me--love the Suncats.  Secondary characters are moved along as well--the biggest development being between Bear and Lena.
To the problems in the book, besides the previously mention insertions (Ms. Lackey, if you're writing so many books you have to resort to this device, you have this avid fan's permission to slow down.).  I'm still not quite sure of how old Mags is and how long he's been at the Collegium.  Some passages seem to imply that it's been a couple of years, some that this it's been less than a year.  Mags at the start of the first book seemed to be about 11 or 12, in this book he seems to be 15 or 16.  Yes, the mine could have slowed his emotional and physical growth, but Lena seems quite young in the first book as well.  Of course I can assume that was her shyness, and I can just establish in my own mind that Mags was 14 but stunted due to conditions at the mine and that it has been about two and a half years since the first book.  But that's work that should be done by the author, not the reader.  And of course, Ms. Lackey puts in details about everyday Valdemar life, which I enjoy but others may not.
All in all, though, I thought this was a good continuation of the story, and I'm looking forward to the next book.
1138924
I bought this book for myself.  I am pregnant with my second child.  I like this book much better than the other "textbook" written books.  It is a fun read and you get to see what other women think or experienced.  I really did think it was far better than any other books I read.  I would have LOVED to have this book 8 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child.  I plan on buying this for any of my girlfriends that get pregnant.
3082137
As difficult as it is to imagine, every book that Archer has written has been better than the one before.. This one really blows the lid off of all of the others.  But in today's tumultuous times, the premise could actually happen, in which case we will need Camelot and his crew for our salvation.
1323062
As some others have mentioned, this book in the ex series definitely took a while to get started. But once it did, I was very pleased with it.

I listened to this book using Audible. My biggest complaint about it is that they changed up the voice acting. In the previous books their were men and women doing the voice acting. While it took a while for their voice acting to grow on me, I still associated characters with those voices. In this book, the guy that did the St George voice in all the other books does ALL of the voices now, both men and women. It is not a big deal, but it takes a while to get used to. In the beginning I didn't even recognize that one of the voices being narrated was a character we know until several minutes in.

Like I said, these are fairly small complaints. While I definitely like ExCommunication and ExPatriots the best, this book is still worth getting if you are a fan of the series
4051124
This is a great book, not because it says things that other books done, but because it says them in ways that other books don't I have ready most of the modern business books out there, especially the main volumes in the "Lean Startup" canon. Those books have good information but they tend to be dry. Furthermore, it is often hard to relate to that information unless you have had the experience already. All In Startup does an excellent job of creating parallels between business experiences that many people have had and business tactics that they may or may not have used.
3091765
I have been rereading these lately, in order - I've read all but the most recent two previously. During my re-reading I've been a bit disappointed with a lot of the early books, finding them a little repetitive and cookie cutter. This one stands out amongst the rereads so far.

There are a few loose ends - the thing with Roarke and the warrant drives me nuts, because its really unbelievable (does she not think someone would notice at some point?) - but they are minor.

This one has a more creative plotline than some of the earlier novels, which helps a lot. Perhaps more importantly she avoids the cookie cutter feel of the earlier books - for example, we aren't dealing with a serial killer here. Perhaps most importantly, she deviates her ending from the ending of most of the other early novels, which are largely the same - thank God! Likewise, it was nice to see Eve developing a little as a character and starting to see some shades of grey amongst the black and white.

Also importantly, she avoids the repetitiveness of the earlier books. While we do touch on Roarke and Eve's backgrounds etc., she doesn't harp on them here the way some of the earlier books do. I think probably at this point she started to realize very few people would be reading this as their first In Death book and that faithful readers might get sick of the same material being repeated over and over again. Likewise, she seems to back off on the sex at least a little bit, which is also refreshing to me.

Overall much better than some of the other early efforts in the series. I'd definitely recommend to any fan of the series.
4621131
Ordinarily I don't get along with most books of this genre and chafe at suggestions of how to "get happy" and feel better about myself.  There's just so much material coming out of the whole positive thinking movement, most of it repetitive and banal and hard to take wholly to heart.  Not so with this book.  For once I feel secure in giving myself permission to shake off (external) expectations and pronouncements that too often seem to settle on me in an oppressive heap.  After years of struggling with the aftermath of verbal and emotional abuse by a chronically unemployed elder sibling, I have to say that this book has done more for me than my past stint in psychotherapy and it's definitely superior to the other "self-help" books I've flirted with before.

I found the workbook format useful as a means of cutting to the chase during reading.  This isn't great literature--it's more about delivering a bolstering shot to my ailing, put-upon, over-obligated spirit when I've allowed myself to get too caught up in the opinions of others and fallen into the trap of trying to please everyone.
1267114
I have read plenty of self fitness/help books in the last few years, and this is the only one that has actually been practical. This is a great book!
861404
I'm happy to say I liked this one. I've been a loyal reader of Terry's for fifteen years now, and to be honest over the last few years I've been a little worried. I was worried after "Law of Nines" and "The Omen Machine," which I felt were pretty bad missteps in Terry's writing, but this book was a vast improvement. Not a total improvement, but it showed a significant rise in quality from the previous two books. For example, he still suffers from repeating information or phrases too often. I could sure go without reading the phrase "occult conjuring" EVER again after this book, but the story was good, the tension was well built, the characters seemed like the characters I've come to know and love over 12 books (something I cannot say for "The Omen Machine") and the new characters (Samantha in particular) were interesting and engaging. But the repetition is nowhere NEAR as bad as it was in "Omen Machine."

It's probably still not up to par with his first three or four books (which I still feel are his strongest entries, especially "Stone of Tears" - my all time favorite), but it is certainly heading in that direction and has regained important ground.

We've got a clearer picture of the threat (which was only hinted at in the previous volume) and I now feel this thing is going somewhere. Hannis Arc and his interesting new partner (no spoilers, I promise) make an interesting team and provide a good and serious threat to Richard and Co. PLUS there is a well done moment of heartbreak that leaves some interesting implications for the next volume. I can't say what it is, but if you're a long time fan, you'll know it when you see it.

The best praise I can give for any book can probably be said for this one: I wish I didn't have to wait for the next one!
403144
I have read many of the reviews and find that the many readers who are avid Harry Potter fans have given the book 5 stars simply because it's Harry Potter.  Others have given it a less than stellar reviews because they think Harry is being to grumpy or they think it's too long.  I admit, when I first read the book I fell into the latter category.  Now I fall into a third category: those who have taken the time to re-read it, and reviewed it based on it's merit.  When I re-read OotP, I gained a whole new perspective on the book.
  Firstly I would like to address the issue of Harry being too grumpy.  Guess what?  After all the trials and tribulations Harry has been through and then to be suddenly cut off from all information and treated as a helpless child, you would be a sourpuss too!  And let's not forget that Harry is only 15!  If he were to be the perfect little gentleman and rise above it all....well, that would be just plain unrealistic.  It's called teenage angst, people!
  Others complain that there are too many useless sub-plots.  I disagree with this claim (with one exception).  The sub-plots give us a glimpse of Harry, Ron and Hermione's underlying personalities.  Hermione is obviously maturing much faster than the boys.  Harry is getting a chip on his shoulder where he believes the world's fate is resting.  And Ron has some serious self-doubts that have risen to the surface prominently in this book.  All the other sub-plots served a specific purpose to either tie things up in this particular story, or to further an on-going plot.  The only grip I would have is with Grawp, Hagrid's giant brother.  Unless he factors heavily in the next couple books, his sub-story was useless.  Sure, he shows up at the right time to distract the centaurs, but that could have been handled differently.
  As for the length, can you say that after all the trials that the dreadful Delores Umbridge put the school-kids through, you werne't ecstatic when she received her come-upins?  Would you have been so delighted if it had only been a couple of chapters of torment?  Don't think so.  Personally, I began to hate her as much, if not more than Voldemort.  Guess it goes to show you that you don't have to be bad to be evil.
  I thoroughly recommend this book, but read it twice.  Anticipation kills the appreciation the first time through.  I only gave this 4 stars instead of 5 because it does not quite measure up with the previous ones.  Prisoner of Azkahban was by far the best with Goblet of Fire trailing close behind.  Philosopher's stone would be third best followed in succession by Order of the Pheonix and Chamber of Secrets.