MCTS Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Exam: 70-431 Exam Cram, by Thomas Moore

Another cramming book for Microsoft exam 70-431 written in a concise & logical manner as a only database book probably could be. After looking at the Microsoft exam syllabus I wonder why the authors chose to structure the book the way they did because the syllabus seemed more logical & I ended up shuffling my notes into the Microsoft structure. In particular, for me the book would have benefitted from bringing all the various tools used under one section (or appendix), though I suppose that's up to the individual & their exam technique. However it has excellent points of interest highlighted throughout & the practice exams are very good, & it helped me successfully get through the exam.
3/5

MCSD Analyzing Requirements and Defining .NET Solution (Exam Cram 2), by Randy Cornish, et al

A book for cramming Microsoft exam 70-300 written in a likeable enough manner but I got confused when various topics were repeated throughout the chapters. I realised that the level of detail for these topics increased as the book wore on but unfortunately it was never completely clear what the thresholds for the level of detail were. I think the book could have benefitted from more closely following the Microsoft exam syllabus because I ended up referring to it to fix each of the development stages in my mind. The book might have ended up being much more concise than it was as well, nevertheless it did help me to pass the exam so it did its job.
2/5

The Great Crash, 1929, by John Kenneth Galbraith

A topical read of the seminal work on the 1929 crash written in a lively & engaging style. It describes the gathering sense of foreboding followed by the panic of the collapse that occurred in the Autumn of 1929. It puts the crash into the context of the wider American economy & society, describing the people it affected, directly & indirectly, & it also touches on the crash's influence on the Depression that followed it. Understandably quite a lot of technical economic information & terms, some of which went over my head, although the author does a decent job at describing them. The book obviously describes events that occurred nearly 80 years ago but it's arguably never been more relevant in these volatile times, & some of the parallels with now are quite hair-raising!
3/5

England Managers, by Brian Glanville

I reckon there's a good book to be written on why England haven't won anything in international football for over 40 years, but this effort by celebrated sports journalist Brian Glanville is not it. In fact it is one of the worst books I've ever read!

Firstly the standard of editing is terrible, quite often there are parts of paragraphs that are repeated verbatim within a page or two & there is also too much repetition of lame cliches, all of which should really have been tightened up to make the book a bit more readable.

Ultimately though the book fails because despite what the cover promises, Glanville actually attempts no analysis on why various managers have failed to establish England as world-beaters (Alf Ramsey excepted). Instead he ends up superficially describing games that occurred during the various qualifiers & tournaments, & the manager's reaction to them, whilst providing next to no new information or opinion. This means that the prose degenerates into the jaundiced & rambling anecdotes from an old man's memoirs: memoirs which should probably have stayed private.

The closest Glanville gets to any sort of analysis is to hypothesize on the good luck, or not, of each manager, which is an astoundly weak argument for a man who has clocked up many years of supposedly incisive insight into the game. Consequently because of this general lack of insight there is an underlying tone of negativity & short-sighteness - after all, if Glanville has no idea or theories to offer he might as well just focus on the negative headlines of the day, which is exactly what he does.

I can now understand why various England managers end up revilling the press. Journalists would like to us to believe that their articles are considered pieces of opinion based on their knowledge of the technicalities of the game as well as from their relationships with players & managers. However if Glanville is supposed to be one of journalism's elder statesmen & yet he can come up with nothing more intelligent or insightful than this, it's no wonder professionals within the game get so fed up that journalists have so much influence based on such shallow & half-arsed insight: "insight" that Glanville displays in this terrible book.
1/5

Class In Britain, by David Cannadine

An extensive & somewhat academic anaysis of class structures in Britain from the 18th Century up to the end of the 20th Century. There are apparently three different models: them & us; hierachical; & tripartite (upper, middle, lower). The author explores the evolution of each model & the wider consequences that had upon the society of each century.

It doesn't sound like the most entertaining read does it? & you'd be right! However the argument of how each class is assumed to have its own political party when in fact it doesn't was quite interesting & a novel one to me.

Finally I found it worth perservering with until the end because the author presented an interesting contemporary analysis of Britain's class structure in comparison to the United States. Included within this section were some noteable suggestions on how Britain can become more classless (as various politicians have promised to make Britain) for example by scrapping the ludicrous honours system.

I don't recommended it for a light read on Britain's class foibles though.
3/5

The Hot Topic, by David King & Gabrielle Walker

A punchy & informative book which presents the facts of & dissects the arguments on man-made climate change. One of the authors, David King was the UK government's Chief Scientific Advisor for 7 years so knows a thing or two about the topic & that familiarity & depth of knowledge is obvious, even if just from the amount of evidence provided within the references.

What made me appreciate the book even more though was the acknowledgment that man-made climate change is here to stay for the foreseeable future & that sensible measures must be taken to limit its damage & to reduce CO2 emissions to prevent the effects from getting far worse. Furthermore these measures can be carried out using current technologies which needn't cause the bankruptcy of any country that implements them.

I found this argument a refreshing message from the usual doom-mongers & the refusenik stance of various Western countries mostly responsible for the problem which neatly exposes the reasons for a lack of progress in tackling this problem for the lie that it is.

Negatives in the book were that some of the chapters were necessarily statistic heavy, which doesn't (usually, for most people) make for the best read.
4/5

Rubicon, by Tom Holland

An erudite, entertaining & very readable book on the rise & fall of the Roman Republic, why it happened & who made it happen. For once the usual cover blurb in its praise & its awards were not for nothing. The book successfully captures the details of the major players' characters, as well as the shocking brutality of the times, in a concise & contemporary manner, in contrast to often dry translations of original sources. Although always an interesting subject it's no mean feat to tell the complicated story in such a readable way, a way that has seen this book win so much praise, including mine - I've only knocked off one star because I wanted it to carry on.
4/5