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Average customer rating:

Our book club loved this book
exquisite writing -- and the only short stories I've ever adored
Disappointed
Touching tale
Remarkable, Insightful and ... Outstanding

Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 039592720X

Amazon.com

Mr. Kapasi, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's title story, would certainly have his work cut out for him if he were forced to interpret the maladies of all the characters in this eloquent debut collection. Take, for example, Shoba and Shukumar, the young couple in "A Temporary Matter" whose marriage is crumbling in the wake of a stillborn child. Or Miranda in "Sexy," who is involved in a hopeless affair with a married man. But Mr. Kapasi has problems enough of his own; in addition to his regular job working as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language, he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. His fare on this particular day is Mr. and Mrs. Das--first-generation Americans of Indian descent--and their children. During the course of the afternoon, Mr. Kapasi becomes enamored of Mrs. Das and then becomes her unwilling confidant when she reads too much into his profession. "I told you because of your talents," she informs him after divulging a startling secret.

I'm tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I've been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better; say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy.

Of course, Mr. Kapasi has no cure for what ails Mrs. Das--or himself. Lahiri's subtle, bittersweet ending is characteristic of the collection as a whole. Some of these nine tales are set in India, others in the United States, and most concern characters of Indian heritage. Yet the situations Lahiri's people face, from unhappy marriages to civil war, transcend ethnicity. As the narrator of the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," comments: "There are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept." In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

Customer Reviews:

Our book club loved this book.......2007-06-18

Our book club loved this book. We enjoyed comparing the emotions evoked by each individual story and how the stories crossed cultures. Our hostess was very thorough and served Indian foods for an authentic atmosphere. We each had a different favorite story. Some of us read the book sequentially, others picked short stories randomly. We would recommend jotting down your thoughts after each story if you are planning a discussion.

exquisite writing -- and the only short stories I've ever adored.......2007-06-05

I am really not a short story person. I always feel cheated somehow by the lack of chapters and can never immerse myself in the characters because I know the storys ending is imminent. After reading Interperter Of Maladies all I can say is that I would read a thousand short stories by this immensely gifted author. I don't know extactly how she does it (it almost feels like magic the way she lures you in on the first page)and can keep you rivited, sated, and completely spellbound until each luminous tale ends. She is a master of detail, restraint, and while reading her stories I would often have to pause, the way you pause in front of an astonishingly beautiful painting. I couldn't just tear through them. Each sentence is a masterpiece -- not too much, not too little -- and when a story ends it feels like you've just consumed a 5000 page novel. Ms. Lahiri tugs you into her characters lives so competely and skillfully that it seems impossible to believe that you've only been with them for 20 pages. This book deserved to win. It is a treasure and I cannot wait to read more from this fantastically talented writer.

Disappointed.......2007-05-16

After reading the laudatory reviews and seeing that the book won the Pulitzer, I was expecting a book of truly engaging short stories. I'm a short story reader. I was expecting John Gardner or Maugham or Carver, or maybe an Indian version of Angela's Ashes, in short, I expected to be deeply touched, but the problem was that too many of her characters were uninteresting people. I don't know if it was a matter of them being intellectually passive, but the stories seemed to surround people who were morally boring or uncompelling thinkers. I like reading stories about doers of deeds and thinkers of big thoughts, and all of her stories were reminiscent of "American Beauty," if it had been played about by the Indian diaspora, small self-absorbed people with petty concerns, or about people who have attached themselves to small, self-absorbed people with petty concerns. I think I understood the overall themes underlying her muted tones, but there is something prozaic about the sensibilities of her characters that disappoints.

I put down the book thinking, "These are not the kind of people with whom I'd like to spend any serious time, except maybe Bibi."

Touching tale.......2007-05-08

Loved this story. So well written and hard to put down. The reader will become steeped in the culture of India, and feel a connection with self.

Remarkable, Insightful and ... Outstanding.......2007-05-04

In the normal course of our lives, we do and experience many things, some are remarkable whereas some others mundane and trivial. For Jhumpa Lahiri trivialities are not mundane nor is remarkable necessarily so. In her Pulitzer Prize winning compilation of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, she with exquisite clarity captures the essence of many aspects of life that we all see and yet do not.

Nine stories have numerous characters but one consistent and persistent theme. They all capture the essence of life's diverse shades and hues as witnessed by Indians in US and India. Lahiri writes with subdued passion but an eager eye for detail, a combination likely to enthrall the readers who find life engaging. Minor aspects of the lives of her characters find their way into the hearts of readers via a narrative that does not essentially seek a crescendo or climax but instead relies on the very vitality of the experience.

Indeed a lack of a climax that usually provides a cathartic release is mostly missing in these stories. Remarkably, these stories are outstanding because of this, and not in spite of it. There are moments in which there is an urge to skim towards the end but that will defeat the very purpose of reading Interpreter of Maladies because the essence here is the narrative and not some unusual twist of imagination that would intrigue the reader.

An extremely readable collection of insightful commentaries on everyday life.

Average customer rating:

Good Reference Book
Just passed...
Best CISSP book out there without question
Shaheen Gagan, CISSP, et.al No. 102964
Great Book

CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide
Shon Harris
Manufacturer: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP Exam
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The CISSP Prep Guide: Gold Edition

ASIN: 0072193530

Book Description

All-in-One is all you need! This authoritative reference offers complete coverage of all material on the Certified Information Systems Security Practitioner (CISSP) exam. You'll find exam objectives at the beginning of each chapter, helpful exam tips, end-of-chapter practice questions, and photographs and illustrations. The bonus CD-ROM contains practice tests and hundreds of questions. This comprehensive guide not only helps you pass this challenging certification exam, but will also serve as an invaluable on-the-job reference.

Customer Reviews:

Good Reference Book.......2007-06-17

I took the CISSP exam and passed it!!!

I purchased three CISSP reference books: Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP Exam, The CISSP Prep Guide Gold Edition and All in One CISSP.

The Official (ISC)2 almost put me to sleep after reading the first 72 pages. Very DRY and BORING book.
I DID NOT use this book after all.

In my opinion All In One CISSP is the best written amongst the three books that I purchased.

I read All In One CISSP book twice to prepare for the test. I used The CISSP Prep Guide Gold Edition to reinforce the Operations Security domain.

My strategy to take the test:
- READ THE QUESTIONS CAREFULLY
- READ THE QUESTIONS CAREFULLY
- READ THE QUESTIONS CAREFULLY
- ANSWER EACH QUESTION FROM SECURITY POINT OF VIEW.

Quite a few people completed the test within 3 hours, however, I almost used all of the allocated time (5 hours and 50 minutes)
GOOD LUCK!

DJ

Just passed..........2007-05-12

Though like many others, I thought for sure that I didn't do well enough to pass, I received my news that in fact I did pass the CISSP. Many thanks to this book, as well as the references at the end of the sections. Here are some brief pros and cons of the book as I saw it:
Pros:
- well written, easy to understand all domains (including crypto)
- many useful links to outside sources immediately following the sections
- covers many different topics nearly complete enough to the level of detail required for passing the CISSP exam

Cons:
- The index leaves much to desire, many topics that I tried to reference were not readily available in the index. Fortunately, the PDF version makes searching very easy.
- Although this can probably be said about most other books on this topic, the level of detail is lacking in some areas. There were some questions on the exam which could not be found anywhere in this book. This is probably why there are so many references included, but is probably the most complete book out on the market.
- As time goes by, the 2003 edition is getting old quickly. As ISC2 recently published a new version, this would suffice for now, but does not include some of the most recent changes to the official study guide.

All in all, I used this as my main reference and passed the exam. It will remain on my shelf as a great quick reference and tool for teaching. I recommend this book to anyone studying for the exam and wish them the best when they go to take it.

Best CISSP book out there without question.......2007-05-02

I read the ISC2 book, dummies, passport, Inet study guides and quizzes and a green set of integrated CISSP study and testing. What I was tested on was all in Shon's book . Most importantly, she writes what is dry with humor and love. She really believes in the absolute value of the security profession and after you read her book, YOU WILL TOO.
SHON ROCKS !!

Shaheen Gagan, CISSP, et.al No. 102964.......2007-04-11

Shon Harris has done a great job on this book, it comes with a CD with about 700+ some practice questions.
It is a good foundational book, however do think you will pass the exam just by reading that book. This is what I did to pass the CISSP exam:

Read and comprehended all materials.

1. CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Third Edition (All-in-One)
2. The CISSP Prep Guide: by Ronald L. Krutz and Russell Dean Vines
3. Mike Meyers' CISSP(R) Certification Passport by Shon Harris
[...]6. Read the DoD Mandate, 2010.

I planned to take the exam in 2007, and I started my preparation in 2006, almost one year ago.

I have passed many a certification exam in the past, but this one was something different.

4 keys to passing the exam: study, comprehend, research, practice exams.

Happy Trails

Great Book.......2007-03-08

Make sure u get the 3rd edition. I got the wrong one instead.

Average customer rating:

Everything you ever wanted to know about PowerShell
Outstanding Book!
Of Scripts and Cmdlets
Remarkable! How To Use the Powershell Language Effectively
Do not stop at think, go straight to buy and read.

Windows PowerShell in Action
Bruce Payette
Manufacturer: Manning Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1932394907

Book Description

PowerShell replaces cobbled-together assemblies of third-party management tools with an elegant programming language and a powerful scripting shell for the Windows environment. In the tradition of Manning's ground breaking "In Action" series, this book comes from right from the source. Written by Bruce Payette, one of principal creators of PowerShell, Windows PowerShell in Action shows you how to build scripts and utilities to automate system tasks or create powerful system management tools to handle the day-to-day tasks that drive a Windows administrator's life. Because it's based on the .NET platform, PowerShell is also a powerful tool for developers and power users.

Windows PowerShell in Action was written by Bruce Payette, one of the founding members of the Windows PowerShell team, co-designer of the PowerShell language and the principal author of the PowerShell language implementation. The book enables you to get the most out of the PowerShell environment. Using many examples, both small and large, this book illustrates the features of the language and environment and shows how to compose those features into solutions, quickly and effectively.

This book is designed for anyone who wants to learn PowerShell and use it well. Rather than simply being a book of recipes to read and apply, this book gives you the deep knowledge about how PowerShell works and how to apply it.

Customer Reviews:

Everything you ever wanted to know about PowerShell.......2007-05-12

I don't ever remember reading a computer book from cover to cover, but I got hooked on this book and "can't put it down"... Plus, who ever thought that the history of a program could be as interesting as this one is. After all, the book begins by asking "why another shell language?" By the time you are into a few chapters you realize the question should have been "what took you so long?"

The book is peppered with valuable code examples that show off everything from the basics to the most advanced concepts, and the examples are built incrementally so you can see how and why every character in a command line works. Since PowerShell is object oriented, you easily learn why this is important, and how to extract the power of an OO shell.

I've already put PowerShell to work at the office using it for WMI, Active Directory, and file management tasks and have incorporated it into my AutoIT scripts as well. This book was a great help in getting me up to speed as fast as I have.

Outstanding Book!.......2007-03-30

This is a great book for those wanting to learn not only how, but why.

Of Scripts and Cmdlets.......2007-03-23

This is _the_ PowerShell book.

A well written technical reference with an in-depth journey into PowerShell's design.
This book reads more like good fiction than tech, which may be caused, in part, by the disbelief of the things possible with PowerShell.
Payette's style is honest, insightful, passionate and funny.

favorite quote: "Dude! Where's my code?" (chapter 1.4)

Remarkable! How To Use the Powershell Language Effectively.......2007-03-21

The remarkable thing here is that they got the actual inventor of the powershell language and convinced him to write a book.

It's so packed full of good stuff that I wish Microsoft would ship the book, free, with every download of Powershell.

The title 'Powershell In Action' doesn't really give you a clue about just how good this book is. The title is just so that it fits in with Manning's (very good) range of 'In Action' books. But the focus here isn't on action -- it's on really **REALLY** getting to know the language used in Powershell.

Page after page, be astounded at the versatility of this language! Gasp in awe at the wise decisions that were made which allow the language to seemingly read your mind!

There is depth here that you cannot possibly find anywhere else. No one else would know the things Bruce Payette knows.

Do not stop at think, go straight to buy and read........2007-02-28

Where's the 6 stars option? I haven't enjoyed a software engineering book to the same extent for a long time. 'PowerShell in Action' works on two levels. Firstly it delivers immediately in getting you up to speed on PowerShell and being able to use it in-anger for simple tasks (and from there on it just gets better and better as it tackles more complex scenarios).

Secondly however it's not just a 'What' and 'How' tutorial, but also guide to 'Why'. Since Bruce was the design lead for the actual PowerShell language only he can tell you why they choose to implement features the way they did. On this level the book reads like one engineer talking to another. It gives you a fantastic insight into the thought processes behind the choices (what alternatives where considered, and discarded, and why).

The text is full of Bruce's entertaining and sly asides which make it clear that here's a guy that's quite possibly used every language on the planet. As a reader you get the clear impression that nothing in PowerShell is there out of whimsy. And when you start working through the book you'll get a real impression of how every feature of it hangs together and supports the whole. Get this book.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)

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from a student who use the book for a course
A Computer Science grand tour
Great Texbook
This should be on your bookshelf
Mental Barbells

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
Harold Abelson , and Gerald Jay Sussman
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Instructor's Manual t/a Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition
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ASIN: 0262011530

Amazon.com

Abelson and Sussman's classic Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs teaches readers how to program by employing the tools of abstraction and modularity. The authors' central philosophy is that programming is the task of breaking large problems into small ones. The book spends a great deal of time considering both this decomposition and the process of knitting the smaller pieces back together.

The authors employ this philosophy in their writing technique. The text asks the broad question "What is programming?" Having come to the conclusion that programming consists of procedures and data, the authors set off to explore the related questions of "What is data?" and "What is a procedure?"

The authors build up the simple notion of a procedure to dizzying complexity. The discussion culminates in the description of the code behind the programming language Scheme. The authors finish with examples of how to implement some of the book's concepts on a register machine. Through this journey, the reader not only learns how to program, but also how to think about programming.

Book Description

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs has had a dramatic impact on computer science curricula over the past decade. This long-awaited revision contains changes throughout the text.

There are new implementations of most of the major programming systems in the book, including the interpreters and compilers, and the authors have incorporated many small changes that reflect their experience teaching the course at MIT since the first edition was published.

A new theme has been introduced that emphasizes the central role played by different approaches to dealing with time in computational models: objects with state, concurrent programming, functional programming and lazy evaluation, and nondeterministic programming. There are new example sections on higher-order procedures in graphics and on applications of stream processing in numerical programming, and many new exercises.

In addition, all the programs have been reworked to run in any Scheme implementation that adheres to the IEEE standard.

Customer Reviews:

from a student who use the book for a course .......2007-05-04

I'm an undergrad who is currently taking an introductory class in C.S using the book as the primary textbook (actually, the only textbook). Sadly, I'm taking it with another class in computer architecture with heavy emphasis on system programming (a la C, MIPS). Like one of the reviewers having pointed out, the excessive zeal of pedantic and theoretical C.S has left the students clueless about the connection between reality and fundamental ideas presented in the book. The authors enforces a grand vision of solving problems independent of programming language. Sadly, this is not the case in practice (I have been trying to port some algorithms in the book into C, oh boy, what a frustrating experience). This vision has left me a very bad impression on Scheme (a good-for-nothing language invented by geeks to impress other geeks).

Some people have said they liked the book. At the beginning of semester. I liked the book too, since programming in functional style is completely new to me (who major in C.S wouldn't delight at learning new thing). HOWEVER, the more I delved into the book while taking a computer architecture course at the same time (in which I have to design a complete 8-bit CPU from ground up, as well as doing a lot of low-level programming), the more I feel there are some fundamental issues with using Scheme (or any other functional languages for that matter) as a tool to interpret and design machines and programs. It just struck me as very odd to design a computer "recursively". How ironic that the book is called "STRUCTURE and INTERPRETATION of computer programs".

I agree with some reviewers in here who bashed C in favor of Scheme. C is not a very good language, but C deserves praises. There are reasons why it has been around forever (both in academic and in industry), and at this rate, I don't see how any functional languages would emerge out of academics as replacement for C. The authors in book braggs that only Fortran has been surviving longer than Scheme, but besides surviving in the this textbook (which has been pushed down my throat by my school), I haven't seen Scheme anywhere else.

This textbook reminds me of the Feynman series in Physics. A series which everyone talks about, but when it comes to reality, it's just best used as a supplementary to look up for reference and self-congratulate as being "smart" rather than the one used to teach and learn from.

A Computer Science grand tour.......2007-03-17

I discovered this text, I believe, while browsing The Aerospace Corp Library in '90. I was immediately taken with it, wishing my own undergraduate program in CS had incorporated its use. The first two chapters on procedural and data abstraction are much better CS preparation than learning Java or C++ or Ada or Pascal. Abstraction and specificiation in software development are absolutely necessary if software "art" is ever to become a "science."

I used this text last year to teach a one year introduction to computer science to some rather advanced homeschooled high school students. Scheme is a much better choice for a teaching language than C++ or Java. There is no need to deal with memory management issues as with C++ and the development model is simpler than with Java. And scheme makes many things easier to achieve than with other languages: higher-order procedures (chapter 1) and hierarchical data (chapter 2).

For my own enjoyment and personal enrichment I have used chapters 4 and 5 as a basis for my own explicit control evaluator for scheme in C++.

A classic. Every CS graduate should do remedial work now and read this text, if they have not done so already.

Great Texbook.......2007-03-15

I purchased this texbook for my first computer class since it was required. It's a great book, but I'm glad we did not cover it entirely. Too much material, and Scheme is not that popular of a language. Price was right though!

This should be on your bookshelf.......2007-03-02

This is a 'must have' book for anyone wishing to practice the craft of programming. It is enigmatic in that it requires little background in programming, but leads swiftly and easily into non-trivial concepts. Of course one must do the exercises, which are varied and practical, the most they ask of the reader is that they understand basic mathematics of Leibniz and Newton. This book will not teach you a collection of tricks, it will give you a way to think about programming. There are a set of lectures by Abelson and Sussman based on the book available at no cost on the Web. Even though they were produced over a decade ago they are well worth watching, and add an interesting flavour to the text. All the software you need to use this text is available for free for a number of platforms. If you are an experienced programmer this is a fun read, if your intention is to learn the art of computer programming, start with SICP, and add Knuth to your bookshelf for reference.

Mental Barbells.......2006-11-26

This book trains your mind to do meta-circular interpreters and higher order functions, recursion, and other things schemers take for granted. hey you with thoes 1 * reviews your just a bunch of blubbers

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition)

Average customer rating:

The best for getting the theoretical foundation of compilers
Warmed over ghost of past excellence
The new cover is awesome! Long live the Purple Dragon!
Useful book
Great book but....

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition)
Alfred V. Aho , Monica S. Lam , Ravi Sethi , and Jeffrey D. Ullman
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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lex & yacc
Programming Language Pragmatics, Second Edition
Computer Architecture, Fourth Edition: A Quantitative Approach
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (2nd Edition)
Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation

ASIN: 0321486811

Book Description

This book provides the foundation for understanding the theory and pracitce of compilers. Revised and updated, it reflects the current state of compilation. Every chapter has been completely revised to reflect developments in software engineering, programming languages, and computer architecture that have occurred since 1986, when the last edition published. The authors, recognizing that few readers will ever go on to construct a compiler, retain their focus on the broader set of problems faced in software design and software development. Computer scientists, developers, and aspiring students that want to learn how to build, maintain, and execute a compiler for a major programming language.

Customer Reviews:

The best for getting the theoretical foundation of compilers.......2007-06-13

This is the classical reference book for compiler design. This is not an easy text because of its heavy use of mathematical notation and the algorithms are presented only in pseudo code but you will not find a more complete collection of compiler related algorithms than in this book.

Warmed over ghost of past excellence.......2007-05-19

I spent some serious quality time with the first edition (the "red dragon book"), in three main episodes over the past dozen years: 1) undergraduate compilers class, 2) industry project, and 3) parser generator implementation. During all three episodes, I was disappointed in various ways, though there is no denying that the book contains a wealth of information. As an undergraduate, I found the book somewhat impenetrable. When in industry, I found the book too abstract. When implementing a parser generator, I discovered that the book excludes important research results with regard to LR parser generation. It is the last disappointment that I will focus on.

The book presents parser generation in layers of increasing complexity, from SLR to LR to LALR, where LALR is presented as the penultimate algorithm, though LALR parsers can only handle a subset of the grammars that LR can handle. The justification for this is that the original Knuth LR algorithm is intractable for large grammars. However, an efficient, fully correct, approach for LR parser generation was published in 1977, and on top of that it appears easier to implement than efficient LALR parser generation! The red dragon book's original authors simply cannot have been unaware of this research result, but I suspect that they elected to warm over the "green dragon book" (published in 1977) rather than incorporate the state of the art as of 1986 into the "red dragon book". Now here we are another 20 years later, and as near as I can tell from reading through available online information, the "purple dragon book" is perpetuating this omission. The result of the red dragon book is that we have an entire generation of computer scientists who have been mislead to think that LALR is somehow superior to LR, and the purple dragon book is setting things up for yet another generation to be mislead.

The new cover is awesome! Long live the Purple Dragon!.......2007-05-04

The CGI cover looks great! I only wish it stretched along the spine of the book like in the previous editions.

Useful book.......2007-02-20

I'm a computer engineering student and I purchased the book for my programming languages and compilers course. At present I still haven't completed the course, but I've already found this book pretty useful so far. The concepts are clearly and well explained, so that I could better understand some points that I found rather obscure during the lessons. It's being of great help, so I'm very satisfied of this purchase.

Great book but...........2007-02-15

This is the numero uno among compiler books. But whoever designed the new cover out to be have their sketch pens stuffed down their throat. Why change the cover! The previous book was called the dragon book and was a red dragon. No one ever changed Feynman's lecture books by painting the cover blue, did they? Addison Wesley should take their new edition cover design and stuff it.

The New Interpreter's Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version With the Apocrypha

Average customer rating:

The Study Bible
The anchor of our Bible Study
The footnote comentary
Exactly what I was looking for
Bible That Comes Alive

The New Interpreter's Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version With the Apocrypha

Manufacturer: Abingdon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0687278325

Customer Reviews:

The Study Bible.......2007-06-16

The best single volume study Bible on the market.

The anchor of our Bible Study.......2007-05-27

Incredible study Bible!!! Along with the "usual" notations you'd expect in a study Bible there are a variety of really wonderful "pluses".... devotional notes, "excursuses" spinning off from topics/issues raised in a particular book, Dead Sea Scroll references, peripheral writings adjacent to Biblical texts, related literature, a history of Biblical canons, including Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and Jewish; Biblical controversies... TONS of wonderful material. During our Bible Study sessions, once folks had finished reviewing all the differing translations they were using, sharing the differences and exploring varieties of meanings, they would then ask what this New Interpreters Study Bible had to say about the verses in question.... Like THIS BIble was the final word.... I love the readable print, the texture of the paper (important for me..), the huge volume of notes and devotional suggestions.... It's wonderful!! My only wish is that it were in flexible leather... Don't think that's possible, though, due to the sheer size of this work... Suberb!!! If you hunger for richness in your study, do consider this volume!!!

The footnote comentary.......2007-05-14

I rate the commentary at a high 5 stars. It clarifies and identifys other references to help you understand the word of God. It uses language that is not difficult to read. I am quite proud of this translation and bible helps.

Exactly what I was looking for.......2007-05-12

I wanted to purchase a Bible that would provide objective information for studied passages and this Bible was exactly what I wanted.

Bible That Comes Alive.......2007-05-06

This Bible has re-invigorated my interest in reading God's Word. I can open it anywhere and find the reason why "that" was the page I turned to in the cross-references and insights that are given. Although the text also seems to be more modernized ... the extra stuff throughout, including the Apocrypha are indispensible!

I have purchased this for a friend as well.

Average customer rating:

Depends on what you want
If you are a beginner...Do not buy it
A great starter guide to writing a compiler
Terrible for Starters
Super compiler text!

Engineering a Compiler
Keith Cooper , and Linda Torczon
Manufacturer: Morgan Kaufmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition)
Programming Language Pragmatics, Second Edition
Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation
lex & yacc
Optimizing Compilers for Modern Architectures: A Dependence-based Approach

ASIN: 155860698X

Book Description

The proliferation of processors, environments, and constraints on systems has cast compiler technology into a wider variety of settings, changing the compiler and compiler writer's role. No longer is execution speed the sole criterion for judging compiled code. Today, code might be judged on how small it is, how much power it consumes, how well it compresses, or how many page faults it generates. In this evolving environment, the task of building a successful compiler relies upon the compiler writer's ability to balance and blend algorithms, engineering insights, and careful planning. Today's compiler writer must choose a path through a design space that is filled with diverse alternatives, each with distinct costs, advantages, and complexities.

Engineering a Compiler explores this design space by presenting some of the ways these problems have been solved, and the constraints that made each of those solutions attractive. By understanding the parameters of the problem and their impact on compiler design, the authors hope to convey both the depth of the problems and the breadth of possible solutions. Their goal is to cover a broad enough selection of material to show readers that real tradeoffs exist, and that the impact of those choices can be both subtle and far-reaching.

Authors Keith Cooper and Linda Torczon convey both the art and the science of compiler construction and show best practice algorithms for the major passes of a compiler. Their text re-balances the curriculum for an introductory course in compiler construction to reflect the issues that arise in current practice.

·Focuses on the back end of the compilerreflecting the focus of research and development over the last decade.
·Uses the well-developed theory from scanning and parsing to introduce concepts that play a critical role in optimization and code generation.
·Introduces the student to optimization through data-flow analysis, SSA form, and a selection of scalar optimizations.
·Builds on this background to teach modern methods in code generation: instruction selection, instruction scheduling, and register allocation.
·Presents examples in several different programming languages in order to best illustrate the concept.
·Provides end-of-chapter exercises, with on-line solutions available to instructors.

Customer Reviews:

Depends on what you want.......2007-06-12

What it is: A great introduction to basic concepts in contemporary compilers.
What it's not: A handbook for someone thrown in at the deep end of commercial compiler development.

I can imagine a very good one-term course in compiler construction built around this text. After a brief introduction, it gets immediately into the classic topics of lexical scanning, parsing, and syntax analysis. These three chapters help any beginner understand the multiple levels of processing, from the character level, up through reorganizing grammars for practical parsing and table-driven techniques, to the lower levels of sematic analysis. This includes a very brief discussion of type systems and type inference - less than 20 pages, on a topic that whole books devote themselves to. These 200 pages typify what you'll see in the rest of the book: a lot of attention paid to lexical analysis, a problem largely eliminated by automated tools (lex and yacc being the best known), and thin mention of the harder problems that differ significantly across languages and applications of languages.

Chapter 5 addresses the critical issue of intermediate representation, the data structures that represent the program during analysis, optimization, and code generation. Chapter 6 is titled "The Procedure Abstraction." It deals with much more than its name suggests, including procedure activation records (generalizations of stack frames), parameter passing, stack management, symbol visibility and scoping, and scraps of symbol table organization - important stuff, but hard to understand as "procedure abstaction." The next chapter deals with "Code Shape," a grab-bag including value representations, arrays and strings, control constructs, and procedures (again). It also presents a very few pages, at the end, on object oriented language - hardly enough to scratch the surface, let alone build competence. And, for lack of a better place to stick them, I would have expected support for parallelism and exceptions to appear here, but this book seems to omit the topics altogether.

Code analysis and optimization appear in chapters 8-10. That includes a competent introduction to static single assignment notation, a staple of current compiler technology mentioned earlier, in the section on intermediate representation. This covers a range of basics, but omits all significant mention of arrays, the workhorses of performance computing. Chapters 11-13 introduce the basics of instruction selection, scheduling, and register allocation. Although it mentions some hardware effects, like out-of-order execution in superscalar architecture, discussion stays close the instruction sets of popular processors. As a result, it omits mention of SIMD, VLIW, DSP, and more exotic architectures, the ones most in need of good code generation. Compiler-specific support libraries, e.g. the kind that make up for lack of hardware divide instructions, should have appeared somewhere around here, but are oddly absent.

The authors present an adequate introduction for the beginner, someone who's still not sure what a hash table is (see appendix B). It introduces many basic topics, but doesn't go into a lot of depth in any of them. The student who finishes this book will understand most major issues of classical compiler construction. I just can't see a serious, working competence coming out of this text, though. I give it four stars as an academic introduction, but a lot less for anyone with immediate problems to solve.

-- wiredweird

If you are a beginner...Do not buy it .......2007-01-01

I read this book and really did not like it. It is a nightmare for any one new to compilers. It is difficult to read with more emphesis on the backend of the compiler.

The following texts are much better for a beginner:

1. Louden's Compiler construction --> the best text for a beginner.

2. the Dragon book

A great starter guide to writing a compiler.......2005-06-10

I recently used this book to supplement the Dragon book in a Compilers course. I found this book so much easier to read and understand. They do a great job of laying out the basics and introducing you to compiler design.

I also liked how they seemed to keep an open mind about which intermediate representation is best to use. They discuss the pros and cons of graphical IRs vs Linear IRs, and let you decide which best fits your needs.

Their open mindedness ended when it came to optimization though. I got the impression that the authors consider SSA (static single assignment) form to be the silver bullet of optimization. Almost all of the optimizations they discuss in this book rely on your IR being in SSA form! I agree that SSA form does indeed make many optimizations much easier, but there is a very high initial cost involved in converting to and from SSA form. In there defense they spend almost an entire chapter on how to do these conversions.

So to sum up, this book does a great job of introducing you to compiler design. It is well written and very easy to understand. It also does a good job of discussing different compiler design choices and their pros and cons. The only short coming of this book is that the entire optimization discussion is revolves around SSA form.

Terrible for Starters.......2005-03-22

This book was the textbook for an undergraduate course on compilers. Let me make it short: I never read it after reading the first chapter. The authors may be top experts on compilers but they shouldn't be writing books. Another book written in 1982 (compilers, principles, techniques and tools) saved my life for this class. If you are a beginner "do not buy this book".

Super compiler text!.......2005-02-22

This is really a super compiler text. It is also one of the most recent compiler books you can buy.

First of all this is a theoretical book. If you read the title 'Engineering a compiler' as 'Coding/Building a compiler' you would be disappointed! So, if you're looking for a learing-by-coding book, this is not for you (but I have some recommendations at the end of this review in the latest paragraph). The difference with most of the other theoretical books is that this book is not a dry text. It has also a nice layout. It gives plenty of examples, and all topics are well connected to each other. It's a pleasure to read for not native English people, so native English people can read it pretty fast.

This book read like a novel.. It does contain enough diagrams, tables, etc. but not too much (crowded), and everything is well explained.

You can read this book as a compiler introduction book. But I can only recommend this to B.Sc/M.Sc Computer Science students (like me). You don't need to have a M.Sc in Mathematics to understand this text, (all the math, eg. liveness graphs are well explained), but you will understand everything better if you have some background in algorithms (design), pseudocode, etc. like you gained during your B.Sc program. People without formal computer science education I would recommend to read a practical book first (see at the end of this review), because you may find else this text too theoretical.

This book focus on code optimizations. According to the authors (and me) compiler front ends (scanning/parsing/etc) are commodities today, and the backend (codegeneration) is where the difference is made nowadays. So if you're looking for a introduction text into compiler optimization this book is for you!

If you're looking for a more practical book I advice you to read 'Programming Language Processors in Java' from Watt & Brown. In that book you learn to build a nice stack virtual machine in Java with 'advanced features' like records (structs), procedures/functions, arrays and so on. That book is a good companion for 'Engineering a Compiler' to give you some practical insight. If you're looking for a Language Design book I advice you to look at 'Programming Language Pragmatics'. Both books are worth the money...

Average customer rating:

New Interpreters Bible 12 Volume Commentaries
excellent authoritative reference
Expensive but invaluable Bible commentary
Could have better layout
Excellent, But Expensive, Resource....

New Interpreters Bible (12 Volume Set)

Manufacturer: Abingdon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The New Interpreter's Bible Index
The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6 Volume Set)
The New Interpreter's Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version With the Apocrypha
The New Interpreters Bible New Testament Survey (New Interpreter's Bible)
HarperCollins Bible Dictionary

ASIN: 0687063477

Customer Reviews:

New Interpreters Bible 12 Volume Commentaries.......2007-05-15

Excellent product
Excellent service
Arrived in Australia very quickly, in great condition, and at an extraordinary low postage rate.
Thank you

excellent authoritative reference.......2007-04-11

I first used this set at Duke U. in 1961. Over the years since then, the results of new research and new thought have been added. It remains one of the better Biblical study tools. And it is quite readable.

The price I paid was substantially below the publisher's price.

Expensive but invaluable Bible commentary.......2007-02-28

The NIB commentary (in twelve volumes or CD-ROM) is basically an extremely comprehensive historical-critical commentary on the entire Bible, including all the books of the OT including the apocryphal books, and also the entire New Testament. The commentary brings together dozens of biblical scholars from different Christian confessions, ranging from Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians to Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox scholars. The series also includes a number of essays on various academic and technical points, ranging from hermenutical theories of Biblical interpretation to feminist questions about biblical interpretation and so on.

While at times the overly-liberal agenda of some of the commentators can get a bit tiresome, overall the quality of the commentary is outstanding from both a theological and scholarly perspective, and incorporates the most up to date knowledge of the historical and cultural context of the scripture as well as useful reflections on how it can be applied to modern-day life.

The main drawback of this series is its heavy expense, which would put it out of reach of many individual buyers, though in my experience this set is quite easily found in most good university theology libraries, catechist resource centres, and in many parish libraries. Along with the Jerome Bible commentary and a good study Bible, this set in my view is essential reading for any priest, seminarian, theologian or theology student, and also any lay Christian interested in deeping their own faith or in a role where scriptural study or interpretation is required, including Ministry leaders, Bible Study Group leaders, RCIA team leaders and members, or catechists in any Christian denomination. If you have a difficult or obscure point in scripture and are uncertain, these volumes certainly help to get the context and message right, along with useful hints and reflections which would be useful in making a homily or sermon.

Could have better layout.......2006-11-10

The amount and quality of information is incredible. But it's pretty hard to read any significant amount of the actual biblical text because they break it up every few verses for commentary and reflection.

Excellent, But Expensive, Resource...........2005-12-22

.... and it takes up a whole shelf in my library....

I would like to give this 4 1/2 stars, but five is too many.

This is the best Bible commentary I have used. It is not constrained by length as so many are. The dual NIV/NRSV is plus, and of course I read my NJB along with it.

I absolutely love the depth of analysis, particularly of the OT Hebrew (I have yet to use this much in the NT, having just started with the set a few months ago). Allowing the author a "personal reflections" section is a nice plus. Even when I don't agree with the reflection, it stirs good internal debate, and is a source of discussion questions for adult Sunday School.

The inclusion of the Dueterocanonicals is also welcome as these are unfortunately missing from most Protestant commentaries.

The one negative is that some of the commentary is a little liberal (in some cases, even feminist - e.g., Phyllis Trible) for me, but it does nicely balance out the more conservative International Bible Encyclopedia and the International Bible Commentary. Overall though, as the next reviewer points out, the scholars involved in NIB are from a range of theological camps.

This work is also available on CD for a little less, but in the end I decided I like hard copy better.

This was a LOT of work and all those involved in producing it are to be praised for their efforts!

Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation

Average customer rating:

Great starting point for compiler development
Confusing at best
Good for seasoned compiler writers, bad for CS students
Excellent
Excellent coverage

Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation
Steven Muchnick
Manufacturer: Morgan Kaufmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Optimizing Compilers for Modern Architectures: A Dependence-based Approach
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition)
Engineering a Compiler
Programming Language Pragmatics, Second Edition
Linkers and Loaders (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Software Engineering and Programming)

ASIN: 1558603204

Amazon.com

Optimizing compilers, which turn human-readable programming languages into the smallest, most efficient machine code possible, are among the most complex pieces of software ever written. Building a compiler is both science and black art and demands an intimate knowledge of data structures, algorithms, high-level programming languages, and processor architectures and their instruction sets. Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation presents a comprehensive and technically up-to-date look at design of real-world compilers for CISC- and RISC-based uni-processor architectures. The author led the advanced compiler design and implementation teams for both Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC and Sun Microsystems's SPARC processors.

Book Description

From the Foreword by Susan L. Graham:

This book takes on the challenges of contemporary languages and
architectures, and prepares the reader for the new compiling problems that
will inevitably arise in the future.

The definitive book on advanced compiler design

This comprehensive, up-to-date work examines advanced issues in the design
and implementation of compilers for modern processors. Written for
professionals and graduate students, the book guides readers in designing
and implementing efficient structures for highly optimizing compilers for
real-world languages. Covering advanced issues in fundamental areas of
compiler design, this book discusses a wide array of possible code
optimizations, determining the relative importance of optimizations, and
selecting the most effective methods of implementation.

* Lays the foundation for understanding the major issues of advanced
compiler design

* Treats optimization in-depth

* Uses four case studies of commercial compiling suites to illustrate
different approaches to compiler structure, intermediate-code design, and
optimizationthese include Sun Microsystems's compiler for SPARC, IBM's for
POWER and PowerPC, DEC's for Alpha, and Intel's for Pentium an related
processors

* Presents numerous clearly defined algorithms based on actual cases

* Introduces Informal Compiler Algorithm Notation (ICAN), a language devised
by the author to communicate algorithms effectively to people

Customer Reviews:

Great starting point for compiler development.......2007-03-04

Compiler development is more of a craft than a science, although there's plenty of science involved. It involves huge numbers of tradeoffs in features, optimizations, and use of the underlying processor. But, as long as people keep coming up with new computing platforms (and not just instruction set processors), new languages, and new performance demands there will always be need for new compiler developers. If you can't apprentice yourself to masters of the craft, or even if you can, this book is a great introduction 2000-era compiler development.

Muchnik does a clear, thorough job of laying out the basics, starting with the intermediate representation used. (If you get that wrong, nothing else is going to work.) He then moves on to the basics of symbol table structure - an issue that can get immensely complicated in systems like Microsoft's CLR. He also discusses run time support briefly. Although that discussion is good as far as it goes, it skips past a lot of the complexities of dynamic loading, debug symbol tables, simulation support, and related issues. They aren't strictly part of the compiled, executable code, but responsibilities of the compiler developer nonetheless. Next comes a brief description of code generation, crucial in normal environments but tangential to my own needs.

That's just the first quarter of the book, though. The rest is the real meat of the topic: code analysis and optimization techniques, over 600 pages of discussion. It's way too much to summarize here, but even that just an introduction to a huge technology. Still, you have to start somewhere.

By this point, you may be asking "But what about tokens, lexemes, and grammars? Isn't that what compilers do?" Well, yes, but it's done. Tool developers have made lexical analysis a commodity. The easily automated tasks are not where modern compiler distinguishes itself. This book addresses the semantic levels, getting the reader into the shallow end of the industry's huge pool of specialized compilation knowledge.

If you have to self-teach compiler development - good luck. Start here, though, and luck will have a lot less to do with the outcome.

//wiredweird

Confusing at best.......2006-08-17

I've seen chapter 14 of this book referenced (by a university professor giving suggestion to his students, not by a random guy) as:

"Another conventional approach to strength reduction. 35 pages of the same kind of confusing crap we've all come to expect from this book."

This could not sum it up better. A confusing book at best, presenting basic material so as to make it look "advanced", and without any covering of even relatively new techniques. A good source of references to papers that you should read, but not at all a valid reference on its own.

Good for seasoned compiler writers, bad for CS students.......2004-12-14

Ok, let's be fair. This book provides a broad coverage of useful optimizations and it will be useful in case you work writing compilers AND have some experience.

However, for learning the concepts, it is a very bad material. At the end you end up confused under a pile of thousands of lines of pseudocode in a weird notation (invented by the author) called "I CAN" (yes you can write a very bad book Mr. Muchnick) instead of reading useful explanations of the topics. The author also assumes that you already know some concepts and that's why he does not explain them as he should. If you want to really understand this book, first review Chapter 10 of the Dragon Book. I thought that the Dragon book was not so good because you have to re read some things in order to fully understand, but with Muchnick's book that is not always possible.

You can also take a look at Morgan's book (unfortunately, out of print) or just read the papers (as the first reviewer suggested). This book is not enough, and sadly, a lot of "teachers" think of it as a kind of "bible" and as a very bad excuse to teach very poorly. Some of them even don't master all the concepts presented there and have to use other books (their "dirty little secret") but they don't tell you which ones and continue praising this bad piece of work. If you are a CS student who really wants to learn, be warned that this book is not for you (it has at least three erratas and still has errors!)

Excellent.......2003-10-14

Advances in compiler design do not get much press these days. The reasons for this are unclear, but no doubt the perception that compilers need no further improvement has something to do with this. This book, written by one of the leading experts on compilers, certainly dispels this belief. Once readers get used to the idiosyncratic ICAN (Informal Compiler Algorithm Notation) invented by the author and used throughout the book, they get a comprehensive overview of compilers, especially that of optimization. Compilers for the SPARC, PowerPC, DEC, and Pentium architectures are treated in the book. The predominant emphasis of the book is in optimization, and so a few more recent and important topics in compiler construction, such as partial evaluation, are not discussed. Readers are expected to have a prior background in elementary compiler theory. My primary interest in reading the book was to gain insight into the compilation issues that arise in symbolic programming languages such as LISP and Prolog.

A detailed review of this book cannot be done for lack of space, but some of the helpful aspects and interesting discussions in the book include: 1. The "wrap-up" section at the end of each chapter, giving a compact summary of what was done in the chapter. 2. Generating loads and stores: The author shows how to move values to and from registers using routines more sophisticated than simply loading values into registers before using them or storing values as soon as they have been computed. 3. The main issues in the use of registers, such as variable allocation, efficiency of procedural calls, and scoping. The author lists the different categories that will result in contention for registers, such as stack, frame, and global offset table pointers and dynamic and static links. 4. The local stack frame and its uses, such as holding indexed variables (arrays, etc.) and debugging. 5. The five different parameter-passing mechanisms: call by value, call by result, call by value-result, call by reference, and call by name. A thorough discussion is given of their properties and what languages make use of them. In particular, the author notes that in the languages C and C++, call by value is the only parameter-passing mechanism, but that the address of an object may be passed, thus emulating essentially call by reference. This can be a source of confusion to those who program in C and C++. The most exotic of these mechanisms is call by name, which is a form of "lazy evaluation" in functional programming languages. The author gives a code example of the call by name parameter passing in ALGOL 60. I don't know of any modern practical programming languages that make use of call by name. 6. Shared libraries and the role of semantic linking and position independent code. 7. The compilation issues that arise in symbolic languages, such as LISP and Prolog. These languages typically have run-time type checking and function polymorphism, which gives them their power and ease of use. The author discusses how to produce efficient code for these languages. Since heap storage is utilized heavily by these languages, the allocation and recovering of it is very important. "Generation scavenging" is mentioned as the most efficient method for doing garbage collection in these languages. This method has been advertised in the literature as one that minimizes the time needed for storage reclamation in comparison with other approaches. In addition, the use of "on-the-fly" recompilation for polymorphic-language implementations is discussed. 8. Dynamic programming and its role in automatic production of code generators, as contrasted with the "greedy approach". The author explains the need for "uniform register machines" in the dynamic programming algorithm. 9. Interval analysis and its use in the analysis of control flow. This technique has been used in the field called "abstract interpretation" in recent years, the aim of which is too automatically and intelligently test program code. 10. Dependencies between dynamically allocated objects, such as links between graph structures in LISP and Prolog. The author describes the Hummel-Hendren-Nicolau technique for doing this, which involves naming schemes for locations in heap memory, a collection of axioms for characterizing aliasing locations among locations, and lastly, and most interestingly, utilizes a theorem prover to establish the properties of the data structures. The author emphasizes though that this technique, and others developed for doing dependence analysis of dynamically allocated objects, are very computationally intensive. 11. Individual optimizations, which the author divides into four groups in order of importance. 12. Induction-variable optimizations and their role in loop optimizations. The author shows how to identify induction variables, and how to transform them using various techniques, going by the name strength reduction, induction-variable removal, and linear-function test replacement. 13. Procedure integration and its role in "inlining" procedures in languages such as C++. The author emphasizes the drawbacks in using inlining, such as its impact on cache misses. 14. The trade-off between object abstraction and optimization, which occurs in object-oriented languages such as C++. The author discusses in detail the role of interprodecural optimizations in dealing with abstraction in the object-oriented modular approach to programming, particularly the identification of "side effects" in making procedure calls. 15. Code optimization that takes advantage of the memory hierarchy, such as data and instruction caches, and how to improve register allocation for arrays. The author gives a detailed and highly interesting discussion of scalar replacement for array elements. 16. Future trends and research in compiler design. The author mentions a few which he believes will dominate in the upcoming decade, such as scalar-oriented and data-cache optimizations. Scalar compilation will be he most active research area in his opinion. At the present time, there has been discussion of "intelligent compilers" that will interact with the user to develop optimal code, or even produce correct programs. These compilers will understand the intentions of the program and warn the user if these are violated, as well as reduce the time and cost needed for testing programs.

Excellent coverage.......2003-08-15

I would suggest to the average reader to first
get "Programming Language Pragmatics" by michael l. scott
and coming to this book.

Reason being that "Programming Language Pragmatics" would
provide ground-coverage before moving on to this book.

Customer Reviews:

Great Bible Study Aid, but use other sources too!.......2007-01-13

`The New Interpreter's Bible' is a 10-volume commentary on the Christian Bible, including the books of the Apocrypha. This review concentrates on Volume X, particularly on the commentary on Paul's letter to the Romans, easily one of most important books of the New Testament. The 375-page commentary on Romans in this volume is longer than many standalone `Romans' commentaries.

I am especially happy that it is possible to buy individual volumes from this set, as I suspect there are many potential readers who may be interested only in the Old Testament or only in the Gospels or, like me at the moment, only in the commentary on Romans.

While the set is edited and published by Methodist organizations, I am certain that the work as a whole is not colored by those things which distinguish Methodist theology from, for example, Lutheran, Baptist or Episcopal thought. I do, however, sense a stronger influence of Protestant over Catholic points of view. The `Romans' commentary is written by N. T. Wright, who wears the hats for both preacher and theologian for Westminster Abby, the ultimate center of The Church of England and, by extension, the godfather center for the Episcopal Church in America.

My understanding of this work as a whole is that professional Biblical scholars for a professional, but not scholarly audience who wishes to interpret the Bible for others write it. Thus, the audience is primarily pastors, Sunday school class teachers, and Bible Study group participants. This last may be something of a stretch, as my experience with many Bible Study participants is that they are quite happy to stay with an unassisted reading of the scriptures. And, as I have spend the last several months exploring some of the more arcane corners of Pauline scholarship, I confess this is quite a good choice for many readers. The problem is that Paul's letters are DIFFICULT reading, at least as difficult as, for example, Plato's `Republic', and may be even more difficult than the more obscure `Timaeus'. This is due to the fact that while Paul's thinking is deep, his rhetorical skills may be a bit unpolished. I have read that his texts show far less erudition in technique than his Alexandrine Jewish contemporary, Philo, in spite of the fact that both write in the same Hellenistic Greek.

Wright, just like many other recent popular writers on Paul, stress that it is important to understand Paul's overall argument before trying to pry lessons for life out of the kind of sound bite we get from the readings during our Sunday morning service. The organization of the `Interpreter's Bible' is eminently suited for those who want to see the forest and not just the trees. Each Book has a longish general introduction, followed by a Bibliography of major works on the subject. Reading the Bibliography on `Romans' is revealing in that it is limited to works that have been published in the last quarter of the 20th century. From that period, I believe Wright has pointed us to the cream of the crop, especially with his references to books by C. E. B. Cranfield, James Dunn, Ernst Kasemann, E. P. Sanders, and Wright himself. One small problem with this is that it leaves out almost 1600 years of commentary from everyone between St. Augustine to John Barth and Albert Schweitzer, most especially glossing over Martin Luther and John Calvin. But Luther's point of view is eminently represented by the `Commentary on Romans' from Ernst Kasemann.

The next item is a very detailed outline of the subjects and the argument(s) in the letter. It is important that Wright's outline is not universally accepted. Kasemann has a different outline that several other writers, including F. F. Bruce in his exegesis on Paul's Epistle to the Romans have adapted. Fortunately, there are not huge differences between the two, so I feel comfortable following Wright's outline. And, in the course of my guiding the study of `Romans' for a Bible study class, I have found the outline illuminating.

The main body of the commentary uses this outline to break up the discussion into four great sections (I through IV), with each major section being broken up into three (3) to eleven (11) sub-sections (A through K), which may or may not be broken into further subdivisions. Each major section begins with its own overview and ends with `Reflections' which are personal observations on the relevance of the section to Christian belief. All general sections are far more useful for the illumination of faith than for the comparative study of theologies.

Between these two bookends is the text of the scripture from both the NIV and theNRSV translations, followed by a verse by verse commentary on both the translation(s) and Paul's meaning within the context of his arguments. The commentary is liberally laced with references to both Old Testament texts explicitly and implicitly cited by Paul and New Testament texts from both Paul's other letters and the Gospels.

It is with the scriptural references where I start to find some problems. First, misprints or author errors I believe, corrupt a small number of the references. Fortunately, there are very few of these, and they are not too important. Other problems are with relevance. I am hard pressed to see the relevance of a minority of the citations. This brings us to my biggest problem with Wright's commentary, where he frames the new covenant, living in the body of Christ who dies in the law and rises to replace the law as a reference to a `new Exodus'. Not only do I not see allusions to this in `Romans', but I see a distinctly different Paul where Christians move from a slavery to the flesh to a slavery to the Spirit of Christ. This is part of Luther's using Paul as the foundation for his predestination theology.

Paul may not have been a `Lutheran', but he does offer more support to Luther's important arguments than the Wright lets on.

Smooth Exegesis.......2005-09-29

As NT Wright says on page 497, "When exegesis comes out smoothly it shows that we are approaching the text from the right angle; when it comes out awkwardly, with phrases and sentences that do not fit, we should take it as a sign that the chapter is being forced in the wrong direction." For so long, exegetes have assumed Paul to be rather simple-minded, providing an argument then backing that up with some scripture. They have contorted verses, such as 3:23, into a proof-text to "prove that we're all sinners." As true as that may be, 3:23 is one of the most beautiful verses in all of scripture, giving everyone hope, for everyone sinned. Wright does an excellent job of show-casing Paul's incredible mind, showing at each step how the argument is wonderfully woven with both what has gone before and what is coming in mind. To get a handle on Wright's theology, this is a wonderful place to start, if one can shell out the $50. There's a reason there's not too many cheap used ones; those who've purchased them are not going to let them go, especially not for cheap. A MUST BUY, even if you disagree with him.

Good Scholarship.......2004-03-22

Review: 4 of 5; good work, worth a look.

Now for the comments on the topic:

Let me suggest to the reader that they do their own investigation into NT Wright before they simply assume someone else's view is correct. NT Wright certainly has some different interpretations of Romans and Paul, but a couple of points need to be made.

First, have you that have criticized him actually read his work? And that is, not parts of a couple of books and some reviews online, but have you read and studied his work? This common courtesy should be offered to any author.

Second, The comment is made that Wright's views depart from those of the Reformers: from Luther, Calvin, etc.. Let us not forget that these are merely Christian scholars too. We must compare an authors work against scripture and not be so taken with a particular theological camp that we are in danger of lifting tradition higher than it ought to be. That was what the reformers themselves were concerned about and fighting against: bringing back to scripture the significance that was being placed on tradition. Sola Scriptura was the cry and it should be the cry still today.

Concerning Wright's view of Paul, and while I am not completely sold on it yet, it seems plain after having read his work (and spoken with him) that he does not tear down that which was established at the Reformation, but he builds upon it. Through all of this he appeals with passion and sincerity to scripture, therefore, let your criticism be born of scripture also.
The above review reads almost verbatim the numerous criticisms online from Reformed pastors and theologians. Of all those criticisms that I have read (and I have read over a dozen conservatively) some make some valid points but most if not all of them discredit themselves with ignorant, or defensive or simply unwarranted accusations.

Concerning justification (this is a major simplification), it should be clear from the vocabulary what the word justification means. When justice is served, then someone has been found guilty or not guilty of something. When someone is justified they are declared righteous (the verdict is declared). They are not righteous because they are declared righteous. They are declared righteous (justified) when/because they have been found to BE righteous. A defendant is not declared innocent (or justified in his actions or lack thereof) because someone declared him so, but someone declared him so because the evidence demonstrated he was innocent. We are to be judged; Christ speaks the evidence on our behalf; due to the righteousness of Christ awarded us because of our faith in Jesus, God (or the judge) declares us innocent! With God, justice must be served -- He must make a decision one way or the other -- will He declared us unjust or just? Are we "unjustified" or are we "justified"? Because of Jesus and our faith in Him we are declared at JUSTIFIED! And the gavel slams down!

Bottom line is that you are not justified by faith because you believe in justification by faith. You are justified (declared just) because of the righteousness (the condition) that you received in faith in Christ. From the other side, if you 1)did not have faith in Christ, you would 2)not receive Christ's righteousness, therefore you would 3)not be declared just (or be "justified") by God.

There is a great deal more to this and I certainly do not claim to speak for Wright. I am simply suggesting that you investigate for yourself. There are plenty of resources available. And for goodness' sake, don't agree or disagree with something because it agrees with or does not agree with the Reformation. The Reformers would not. Sola Scriptura!

The latest volume.......2003-06-26

The New Interpreter's Bible is a twelve-volume series, updating the popular Interpreter's Bible from a few decades ago. There are several key features common to all of the volumes of this series. First, each includes a two-column, double translation of the Biblical text (NIV - New International Version, and NRSV - New Revised Standard Version) arranged by topical unit or story. Then, they provide commentaries that look at the passages as a whole, as well as verse-by-verse. Third, interesting Reflection pieces that relate the passages to each other, to history, and to current concerns occur at the conclusion of each passage. Fourth, introductory articles for each book are provided that discuss transmission, historical background, cultural setting, literary concerns, and current scholarship. Finally, there are general articles about the Bible, each Testament, and various types of literature (Narrative, Gospel, Wisdom Literature, etc.) are provided to give general placement and knowledge about the text overall.

The list of contributors, editors, and consultants on the project is a veritable Who's Who of biblical and theological scholarship, representing all major traditions and schools of thought liberal and conservative. Leander Keck, of the Yale Divinity School, is the primary editor of the series.

The volumes were published individually, and can be purchased individually, which is a good thing, given that they are a bit expensive. But for any serious biblical scholar, preacher, student, or enthusiast, they are invaluable.

--Volume X--

The tenth volume of the New Interpreter's Bible continues the New Testament, containing the books of Acts, Romans and First Corinthians, including an introductory essay on Epistolary Literature (i.e., letters). This was the final volume to be published. The series is now complete.

Robert Wall of Seattle Pacific University provides both the commentary on Acts as well as the essay on Epistolary Literature. The introductory article on Acts includes maps and drawings of archaeological sites, and looks at Acts from the standpoint of composition and conversation. Thus, Acts can serve as a story, as theology, or as historical framework.

In the essay on Epistolary Literature, Wall looks at both the Pauline collection and the letters attributed to other apostles. He examines the issues of dating and sequencing, the controversies over authorship on some letters, and the literary issues and features of letters versus other types of literature.

N. Thomas Wright, theologian of the Church of England, examines the Letter to the Romans. Looking at the structures and the themes of Romans, Wright argues against the idea of pulling out a few verses here and there as representative of the whole. `One might as well try to get the feel of a Beethoven symphony by humming over half a dozen bars from different movements.'

J. Paul Sampley of Boston University looks at First Corinthians. Sampley explores the city of Corinth, the church in the community there, Paul's relationship with the Corinthians, particular themes that appear in the letter as representative of early Christianity.

High praise goes to the general editorial staff for working with such strong authors/scholars, that their work fits together well as part of this set while retaining the individual characteristics (much like the writers of the Bible itself!).

--Other volumes available--

The following is a list of each volume in this twelve-volume set, and the contents of each.

Volume I: General Articles on the Bible; General Articles on the Old Testament; Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus

Volume II: Numbers; Deuteronomy; Introduction to Narrative Literature; Joshua; Judges; Ruth; I & II Samuel

Volume III: I & II Kings; I & II Chronicles; Ezra, Nehemiah; Esther; Additions to Esther; Tobit; Judith

Volume IV: I & II Maccabees; Introduction to Hebrew Poetry; Job; Psalms

Volume V: Introduction to Wisdom Literature; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs; Book of Wisdom; Sirach

Volume VI: Introduction to Prophetic Literature; Isaiah; Jeremiah; Baruch; Letter of Jeremiah; Lamentations; Ezekiel

Volume VII: Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature; Daniel; Additions to Daniel; Hosea; Joel; Amos; Obadiah; Johan; Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah; Haggai; Zechariah; Malachi

Volume VIII: General Articles on the New Testament; Matthew; Mark

Volume IX: Luke; John

Volume X: Acts; Introduction to Epistolary Literature; Romans, I Corinthians

Volume XI: II Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians; I & II Thessalonians; I & II Timothy; Titus; Philemon

Volume XII: Hebrews; James; I & II Peter; I, II & III John; Jude; Revelation

Worth waiting for!.......2002-08-18

Published at least a year later than originally announced, this volume completes the 12-volume New Interpreter's Bible Commentary (Volume 1, Genesis-Leviticus, having been published in 1994). I've really come to enjoy and rely on the broad and balanced scholarship represented in this series (although I have to admit I haven't read any of the volumes from cover to cover). Volume X has the text and commentary for The Acts of the Apostles, Romans, and 1 Corinthians, plus an excellent "Introduction to Epistolary Literature" by Robert W. Wall.

Although the volumes are large and you'll need to dedicate 28 inches of shelf space if you intend to acquire the entire series (and you should), you'll appreciate the large, easy-to-read typeface and the inclusion of two English translations of every passage of the Bible (NRSV and NIV for the 66 books used by both Protestants and Roman Catholics; NRSV and NAB for the Deuterocanonical Books read primarily by Catholics). Besides verse-by-verse commentary, each book has a general introduction, "Overviews" to large sections within the books, and periodic "Reflections" (intended, I presume, to help kick-start many a pastor's sermon preparation). In addition, there are occasional Excursuses on a variety of fascinating topics (although there are none in Volume X, there are 4 in Volume VIII on the Gospel of Matthew). On the off chance that these commentaries won't answer every question you may have, the detailed footnotes and thorough bibliographies will direct you to all the right sources.

My only gripe is that the series does not cover ALL the books of the Apocrypha as represented in the NRSV translation. There is nothing, for instance, on 1 and 2 Esdras or 3 and 4 Maccabees. My copy of Volume X came with an announcement that in Spring 2003, Abingdon Press would be coming out with the New Interpreter's Study Bible. I plan to pre-order it as soon as I can. My only hope is that this Bible will include the Apocryphal books they neglected in the Commentary. The announcment also stated that an index volume would be issued in Fall 2003. Can a CD-ROM be far behind?

Books: