Tal Cohen has taken a close look at Douglas R. Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach -- 20th Anniversary Edition. He's returned to the book to try and explain what the book is really about-using a new foreword. Definitely a book worth checking out - click below to read more.

After this most recent succesful foray into reviewing for us, Stern has sent us a review of net.wars. Written by Wendy M. Grossman, the book attempts to take a brainshot of the mid-1990s Internet. Click below to read more.

Janice Wright has been gracious enough to send us a review of Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works. Obviously not a programmming manual (well, perhaps more then we want to think. Hmm.), this is an insightful book into the little that is known about how the human brain functions. Click below if you like your grey matter.

For centuries, the faithful have been seeking the New Jerusalem, the city of radiance adorned with jewels, where God himself will wipe away every tear. For years now, more and more pilgrims think cyberspace is that radiant place. In a new book, Margaret Wertheim struggles to relate this powerful and ancient idea to the Internet. Is this the Promised Land?

CowboyNeal has taken some time out of his busy schedule to review Java Servlet Programming, a new ORA book out, written by Jason Hunter with William Crawford. Full of tips to extend the usage of the servlets, click below for more informatiion.

Stern has written a review of Software Runaways -- Lessons Learned from Massive Software Project Failures. You know that delicious thrill you get from seeing massive destruction? Imagine that applied to software projects-click below for more information.

In his radical new book "The Sun, The Genome, and the Internet" Princeton's Freeman Dyson proposes that rapidly advancing new technologies -- solar energy, genetic engineering and most of all, the Internet -- are not just means of having fun or making money. They are powerful tools for social change, ones that could create a more equal distribution of the world's wealth. Your thoughts about whether his vision is technologically possible are very welcome.

SEGV has returned with a review of Kernighan and Pike's latest effort, The Practice of Programming This book has both practical and method aspects, including exercises. If you're serious about your programming, read below to get the skinny on the book.

Lo, the reviewing hero has returned: Jason Bennett has returned with a review of Mark Harrison and Michael McLennan's effort Effective Tcl/Tk Programming. Designed as a book for those going deeper with their Tcl/Tk knowledge, this book works for those of you beyond the introductory page. Click below for more information.

A.M. Kuchling is back again, this time with a review of Richard Jones and Rafael Lins' oddly named Garbage Collection. This book is not actually about Waste Management Inc, but is "A highly detailed survey of garbage collection algorithms, and the research literature surrounding them. Interesting, if at times very dry.". Click below for more information.

Well, I seriously doubt any of you were going to buy the latest endeavour from Mr. Gates, but I've got two simply scintillating reviews, courtesy of Jon Katz and Doc Technical (Of The Story of Ping fame. Which, BTW, I know ended up on Amazon. We had it first *grin*.) Click below for some excellent Monday morning reading.

Eric Harlow, author of Developing Linux Applications with GTK+ and GDK has written a book well worth reading. A good first round of things, click below to find out how to write more of applications/widgets/whatever. Thanks to A.M. Kuchling for the review.

This book is the a great introduction for 3D newbies and a great resource for any 3D artist who would like to become intimately familiar with Blender. The book is is a work of art by itself and I highly recommend it. Read below for the full review.

After a bit of a hiatus, Jason Bennett has returned with a review of Nancy Walsh's Learning Perl/Tk. As the title of the book would indicate, this is an ideal book for those looking to learn the Tk tool kit and Perl. This book assumes a level Perl background, and a little GUI, but is a good intermediate step-click below if you want to know more.

Tal Cohen, author of a number of book reviews in his own right, has sent over a review of Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography, 2nd Edition. One of the best introductions to the field of cryptography this is a book well worth reading, even for those who simply want a better understanding of the potentials about cryptography, and what it's all about.

Sam Mulder sent a review of Michael Knapik and Jay Johnson's Developing Intelligent Agents for Distributed Systems. A book for those taking a high level view of intelligent agents. Click below for more information.

After a long hiatus away, Jason Bennett has returned to book reviewers with this review of Gerald M. Weinberg's The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver Anniversary Edition). This book talks about the meta side of CS, and this book is where many of the other mental CS books have their roots-which means some repitition. Click below for more info.

I'm the first to admit that I'm the last person who should write a book review. In fact, this is the first one I've posted on Slashdot. Frankly I don't read books any more- just web pages. I just don't have time- plus that whole paper thing doesn't appeal to me any more. But when "Open Sources:Voices from the Open Source Revolution" got here, I had no option but to read it. Immediately. Edited by Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman and Mark Stone, it's a collection of essays from Open Source glitterati with an impressive roster of names including ESR, RMS, Linus, Larry Wall, Bob Young, Tim O'Reilly, Bruce Perens and more. It's a wonderful read, hit the link below to read the rest.

As some of you might know, Jon Katz, one of our own has recently had his latest book published, Running to The Mountain. I've read an advance copy of the book, and was impressed (as I usually am) with Katz' take on life, spirituality, and what it means to be human. As he is obviously one of our own here, I won't even pretend to be able to give an objective review-I leave that to others-including the print version of USAToday, a rave review. For the reading benefit of the audience, I've included an excerpt from the new book below, along with the book cover. Read it-it's worth time. Update: 02/18 11:39 by H : The USA Today review is online.Update: 02/18 02:08 by H :Katz has written some words talking about this-look above the review to read it.

Note: This is a repost of Linux Companion for System Administrators