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Too much wrong information in the text. Photo captions = hit or miss. Altogether: unreliable. Take your needs elsewhere
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Alexander Pope was not of the Romantic period, and any book that thinks he was can be no guide to a GRE Subject Test. This alleged prep text splits hair in nanometers over interpretive questions, asks for identification of the most obscure passages, and frequently explains why B was the right answer, and why A, C, and D were wrong, but leaves that status of E wholly to the realm of mystery. The practice test sent out with the GRE registration is different in scope, clarity, and difficulty. I actually tore out a chunk of this book with my teeth in frustration. Don't buy this book. Don't even steal it. Spend the money on deluging the publisher with demands to remove it from the shelves and issue written apologies to anyone who ever suffered themselves to use it
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I was hoping the book would be good. most reviews are. However the topics are not really covered at all, more introduced. It was like talking to a drunk bloke about sports, most points are important and relevant but its presented in a way that makes it confusing. They openly admit they dont want the book to be rated on the quality of the english. Just as well, long rambling thaughts that don't form conclusions. Not what I wanted or needed. It actually manages to take the fun out of reading and texas holdem all in one go
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I had high expectations for this book, but I was disappointed. It concentrated too much on digital systems, rather than broadening the definition of noise to cover the natural environment. I lost interested in the last 1/3 of the book, and couldn't wait to finish
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The content of this book is adequate, but the layout leaves much to be desired. The only way to find a chapter is through the table of contents. Pages are not labeled with chapter information, such as which chapter that page belongs to. The content is often broken up with cases and excercises that divide paragraphs in half. This makes it very confusing to follow the flow of the book. You can be reading along and jump into a case or excercise without knowing it and become very confused. If the authors and publishers would rework the flow of the book, I would rate it much higher
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The first novel written by Stephenson, and it's a satire on college dorm life. Pointless, rambling, and bizarre. It's a good thing he's improved his writing over the years, as this one stunk
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Save your time, money and patience. This may be the worst book I have read since the equally monotonous, predictable Stone Barrington novel "The Short Forever". Wow, this one stinks. Like others, I put up with the shallow characters, ludicrous dialogue and endless parade of showers, boobs and guns to figure out whodunit. Unfortunately, this book had an ambiguous ending that seeks to be clever but is instead is just stupid. Who on earth did kill Vance? And come to think of it, who gives a damn? I don't what women did to Stuart Woods but he sure seems to hold them in complete contempt. Every female character, save for Isabel the maid, felt compelled to practically rape our handsome hero. Each is flawless and gorgeous but also all are dumb, vacuous, self-centered and thoroughly unlikeable - hey a couple are even truly psychotic! The only normal female character who spared Stone, Mary Ann, unfortunately has a room temperature IQ. I am hardly a prude, but I lost count of how many women either Vance or Stone made love to in the course of one short novel and felt the need to take a long hot shower to rid myself of the feelings of filth. Mr. Woods either lives in a world of complete ignorance or the reading public is a lot less discriminating than I thought
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There is no doubt that Antonia Fraser's "The Journey" is written in the author's usual wry, witty and highly engaging style (although I must say that I never before heard of sex described as "lugubrious.") There is also no doubt that Fraser has done a great deal to redeem Marie-Antoinette's shredded reputation by accurately describing her as being compassionate to the hardships of the French people. The book is full of vivid detail which makes it very readable. However, I was disappointed to see that Fraser resorts to many popular misconceptions. For one thing, why does Fraser act like Marie Antoinette was the only princess to be sent away from home as a teenager to seal a dynastic marriage? What about Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (Catherine the Great) who was also a young stranger in a foreign land? This sort of thing happened all the time - it was what being a princess was all about. I was glad that Fraser did not fall into the myth of Louis XVI's impotence/ phimosis and surgery and all that. She simplistically portrays him as being asexual, which was not true, because he told his aunt after consummating his marriage that he enjoyed "it." But never has any other biographer subjected the reader to the spectacle of Fersen and the queen fiddling with primitive prophylactics while consummating their grand passion. I must say, it is a first. Fraser insists that Marie Antoinette slept with Fersen for many years and yet gives no solid proof, while at the same time maintaining that she was a woman of high moral character. I usually do not think of a woman who is shared by both a lover and a husband as having a high moral character, but I guess Fraser does. Oh, well. It is such romantic fantasies that turn this book into more of a soap opera than a serious biography. I found it absurd when Fraser insists that the tormented queen of France was ultimately a martyr for the cause of the socialism and democracy which the French people now enjoy. If the queen had had her way, her descendant would be reigning today, and that is just the reality of it. For a better study of Marie Antoinette's relationship with her husband, I would recommend Vincent Cronin's "Louis and Antoinette." As for better biographies of the queen, let me join some fellow reviewers in the hope that the works of Delorme and Bertieres will soon be available in English
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"Being a lover of freedom, when the [Nazi] revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks.... Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."
-- Albert Einstein.
What I'm getting at here is that you can propogate anyone to look bad, that's easy. When you have two sources contradicting each other so heavily, you may want to consider the source; i.e a protestant british author writing over fifty years after the fact, vice a prominent and liberal jewish figure who lived through the holcaust and has no biased motive to either slander or praise the beforementioned institution.
Or maybe Israel Zolli, chief rabbi of Rome whose conversion to Catholicism immediately after the war was prompted by the church's reaction to the plight of the jewish people.
This book is extremely propagated and heavily editorialized. It is important to read a work like this however, in order to better understand the manipulation of truth and half truth in the author's motive
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In the grand tradition of Rational Corp - this is an overpriced book from Rational Corp to complement its overpriced software. I must commend the HealthCare example in the book that is described in fair detail. The book's website is empty and does not supplement the book's content - only contains a link to order the book and an email to contact the authors. If you have to buy it, buy a used copy or read the free marketing stuff on the Rational website
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I agree with the reviewer who said this work is boring. It seems Roth is trying to glorify Philip Roth and not the characters. He goes on and on describing the overwhelming feelings zuckermann has for "the swede", without letting us know who the Swede really is. Roth should let the characters tell the story or try to use less erudition in his narration.
It gets to the point where the reader loses interest in finishing the book. I loved the plot against american because it was more character based than philosophizing about about the historical context of the times
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The Venona Secrets is a deceptive book. It tries to pass itself off as an objective portrait of Soviet spying in the US, but by the time the reader is a third of the way in it becomes apparent that the authors are more interested in smearing "Liberals" than in painting a true portrait of their subject. Although the information the authors provide is interesting, the biased and heavy-handed way it's presented negates whatever scientific value it might have. For example, the authors insist that J. Robert Oppenheimer was working for the Soviets (they call this a "fact") yet they present absolutely no proof that Oppenheimer was anything more than an idealistic, naive man who couldn't keep his mouth shut and whose only contribution to the advancement of Communism in America was money to the CPUSA. The book is full of these so-called "facts" with little to nothing to back them up. The authors praise Joe McCarthy and claim in the last chapter of the book that he was barely a factor in the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1940's and 1950's, ignoring the fact that MCCarthy capitalized on fears of Communism obscenely and was wrong far more than he was right about who was and was not loyal. McCarthy's methods of terrorism and hypocrisy in running hearings that could have been chaired by Stalin are completely overlooked, as are the innocent lives he destroyed in his smear campaign. The authors also praise Senator Henry Jackson as some sort of all-American crusader against Communism, not even mentioning that all of Jackson's anti-Communist attacks were motivated by his virulent anti-Semistism and hatred of blacks. Overall this book is nothing more than an indictment of Liberal ideology -- one can simply hear the disdain for Liberals dripping from the authors' prose -- and should not be given much credence by scholars not interested in right-wing propaganda who want an objective account of Venona. The authors have sacrificed their credibility for their Conservative agenda; they deserve not to be taken seriously
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I received my Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from one of the best U.S. universities, and for more than thirty years was teaching and researching in the field of solid mechanics. Before starting the reading of this book, I was in the agreeable mood with the author's that machines can never be human, and that AI will retain (if not forever) for a very long time its name - unreal. But, now, I am dismayed. The author unsuccessfully used 450 pages full of topics in mathematics and physics to support his point of view, making simple topics sound difficult, and making diffcult ones look impossibble. The inclusion of his strange tilings is strange. All in all, the book does not make sense. Moreover, his 'Note to the reader' (which is patronizing, arrogant and deceiving), and his Prologue and Epilogue (which are at best cynical) should have warned me not to venture any further. I cannot help feeling sorry for myself and for several other readers; and most of all, if this is the author's usual way of communicating his ideas, for his students. Luckily, I did not buy this book; for one person, who could not stand reading through it, dared me to finish his unfinished endeavor
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I am absolutely furious about this book. I quit reading about half-way through.
I read it through the section about It's a Wonderful Life (chapter 13). In that chapter, I found three mistakes - not minor details, but major, provable points, including misquoting Zuzu and misquoting the inscription in the book in the last scene - within four paragraphs. If Eliot's work is that shoddy in four paragraphs, how can I trust the rest of the information in the book?
Avoid this at all costs!!!!!!!!!
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I was looking for a book to make elegant, simple and practical bags. This book has is all feathers and beads, nothing that I would ever give to someone as a gift! I was very disappointed.
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I might have been expecting too much, but I was disappointed with this book. I did not learn anything on Dark Magick per se. The first half of the book is about a variety of subjects like, Goths, Vampires, Lost Souls, the Collective Unconscious, Dark Deities, Satanism and some other stuff. The second half is about Magick, but it sounds more like High Magick to me. Where's the Dark Magick
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As I sat here writting this review my rating dropped from a three star rating to a two star rating, and I now realize that all of my malice and discontent could have easily been diverted if the book were titled "Drawing People: A Technical Guide for Beginners" and mentioned nary a word about the clothed figure. Then if I had of stumbled upon this book it would have been an added bonus that the author took the time to outline some basics on clothing and drappery, instead of a full out disappointment. Not that I blame the author solely, most of the blame lies at my door. I was so overjoyed in finding a book that proclaimed it was specifically about drawing the clothed figure, Brune Hogath's book aside (another devastating disappointment), and that it was written by a professor from the Academy of Art, a school that I am still deciding on attending, that instead of going my normal route (ordering the book through the store, checking it out in person, and then ordering it online so I could get a fatty discount) I impulsively bought the book, only reading the book synopsis and barely glancing over the customer reviews (which all looked favorable). Now I realise my folly, and am yet determining whether I'll pay for it (i.e. keep the book).
I guess what all of my harping boils down to is the lack of content instead of the quality, for I can easily discern Bradley is an excellent artist with years of knowledge garnered from experience, and I'd say that experience shows equally in all areas, not just clothing but in setting up a composition and following through. The problem is, at least in my opinion, that this book is supposed to specifically address clothing, and it doesn't for the most part. Roughly one fourth of the book pertains to clothing, the other three fourths talk about:
how to properly hold your drawing implement, how to properly position yourself if you are drawing from a live modle, maintaing a daily sketchbook, researching your subject matter, the relationships between the head neck and shoulders, drawing hands, drawing feet, drawing eyes, and a whole slew of other. . .I wouldn't say irrelavent, because they are relavent, but not neccessarily the most important topics pertaining to drawing the clothed figure.
A refernce guide on clothing should discuss a plethora of clothing materials, and Bradley does on one page with chicken scratch detailing. It should outline some of the rules when dealing with how clothes tend to fit people of varying body tips, again something Bradley discusses on one single page. The differnce between water logged clothing and dry clothing, she didn't bother mentioning that. How pants typically bunch up while you're walking seen from the head on, profile, three quaters, and back view, another topic she failed to mention. Some examples of evening/ formal attire vs. day clothes, how clothing reacts when the subject is in motion, how jackets restrain your actions and bunch up, the effect of wearing multiple layers at once, achieving that perfect windswept look, and all manner of other topics that should appear in an artistic clothing refernce guide.
Maybe I'm being too harsh on Bradley, after all she does mention in her preface that there aren't a whole lot of books pertain to drawing the clothed figure, and compared to the standard "how to. . ." books she's leaps and bounds ahead of the rest. Oh yeah, that's another thing, she doesn't outline any steps on how to achieve a realistic rendering like- first start out with a cone pointing upward then draw a sphere at the bottom/base. The sphere represents the weight of the gathered cloth so the stress lines originate from the tip of the cone and travel down the length eventually enveloping the sphere. Note the ripples. -or some junk like that. Back to me not being to harsh on Bradley, I guess in reading she is/was a professor in the arts I thought she would have some understanding of the common impediments modern day artist face when depicting clothing.
For all who have read this drawn out rant, two maybe three people, and think I'm all talk, trust me if I had the skills I'd come up with my own series of "How to draw. . ." books and address all of my issues. As is I'm pretty good at drawing dynamic figures, but the second I add clothing they become flat, lifeless caricatures and I don't see this book as alleviating my shortcomings much. As is my own artistic habits (drawing from magazines, online pics, and occasionally stepping outside of my cave to draw people in motion) are a match for the few helpful hints in this book. You're better off doing what you've always done plus artistically drapping to a wall or over a piece of furniture from time to time then buying this book.
If you do know of a book that addresses even half of the afore mentioned topics, if you could write a review mentioning them, somehow recommend them to me or whatever I'd be eternally in your debt
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I dont take neither stance on Religion nor Science with these comments.
I have read the book and I have to admit that it was marketed and was presented brilliantly. It has one goal... Sell, sell, sell.
If you are after useful, quality, informative, knowledge to gain... well you wont find it here. Im so shocked to even see that when you check the back cover of the book it actually says "non-fiction".
The author is a talented story teller...... add a few statistics here and there, a dash of scientific key figures, mix it with life's controversial unsolved mysteries, a few more dash of historic events and famous people, add and link a few references here and there, and WALA!!!! you have a best seller.
Isnt that ironic! it is a "New York Times number 1 best seller"
It was an interesting read though.
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I was hoping that Miller would turn his talents from the dark side and we would see how well he could reproduce a Classical Epic. What we get is a blood splattered "300 Lacedaimons in the Hood". The Spartans are presented to be a buch of Homo erotic Rastafarians. The Persians rather than the Noble Middle Eastern Autocrats presented in their Art are drawn by Miller to resemble African American Gangstas with piercings and Skin art everywhere. I was looking for Xerxes to have a grill and whitewalls on his chariot.
If you were into "Sin City", you will love this mishmashed version of the Classical Tale of bravery and sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds
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I love mysteries set in WW II and like old time radio so I couldn't wait to begin this one. The "hero" is a junior varsity Tom Joad but,OK, I was game. The cast of characters that seemed to number in the low 80s and be interchangable "baddies" and "goodies". They were hard to keep track of without a scorecard but there is no quit in this reader and I pushed on. Then when we got to the Jersey shore, I found out that in 1942 with America fighting for it's life against fascism, and losing, our hero knew why. All the servicemen were bullies (A drafted station employee) or morons (the Coast Guard beach patrol). The 4F "hero" was the real McCoy however. Although not actually mentioned I bet he wished that dratted ear injury hadn't kept him from joining the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He was moderate enought to think Marxism had some problems; the murder of 10s of millions of Ukrainians and the Nazi-USSR Pact probably and I say probably, didn't elude our observant literary genius. He was also a 1975 era feminist; all those plucky WW II women throwing off the handcuffs chaining them naked to the kitchen sink had his unhesitating support. Most big businessmen, probably wearing spats and silk high hats, were the bad guys needless to say. I wondered how someone could write such a truly awful book. I couldn't finish it and it's a point of honor for me to finish all books. Then in the bio it all became clear. The author was a flack for former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder of Colorado. I'm still haunted by her rictus grin and constipated, Quaker schoolmarm expression that said "somebody, somewhere is having fun and I want it to stop now!!!" Anyone who could stand to work for Pat could write this book with ease
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I bought this recording with high hopes. What better complement to reading Shakespeare than hearing him, right? Well, not with this recording. The cast is made up of "distinguished actors," the insert proclaims, but it's obvious that these actors haven't done Shakespeare since they were in junior high school. Nor have they improved since then: none of the actors has any feel for the Shakespearean line. The speaking is stiff and mechanical, and half the time it sounds like a Monty Python farce! When there are no visual effects to distract us, low-quality acting really sticks out. For audio recordings, you need the best voices. Too bad Arkangel didn't realize this. My advice? Grind up these CDs and use them to fertilize your nasturtiums
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I didn't expect this series of books to be laid out the way they are. I am disappointed that the "notes" are simply a glorified glossary arranged by chapter rather than alphabetical. Key points from the book are not bulleted or organized based on content presentation, rather key terms are defined and that is all.
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This book is perfunctory and extremely shallow. Russell's reductive reading of the tradition shows little insight. However, it is amusing at times, hence the star
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What could have been a hilarious, informative account of breaking outlandish old-fashioned laws and getting (or not getting) in trouble for them turns out to be no more than the story of a couple of clueless young British guys (I think the author is around 23) wryly making fun of America's perceived backwardness. Sometimes it just seemed like they were trying to do things and, when they couldn't, they outright gave up on some great chances. The Swedish girls in Frisco: WHY include it if it didn't come to fruition and, furthermore, involved no lawbreaking??? I'm still wondering why they included their 2-page tour of Hearst Castle when it was little more than a miniscule travel log (cool, Hearst had Greco-Roman statues in his poolroom).
They don't get arrested and they don't really accomplish anything. Too bad
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Despite the description and synopsis on the books cover this is NOT a computer crime novel. In fact with the exception of about 20 pages total the novel quickly looses its snazzy cyber crime appeal. In the first few pages we're introduced to a dark haired female hacker but just as quickly she's gone and the book spirals into Japanese gangs, corrupt police, horribly bland and indistinguishable characters, and it just sucks from then on out. The story is good albeit incorrectly marketed. The characters however have no identity! They all sound the same, with the exception of the Japanese characters. Sadly the book lacks serious writing talent, very little character development, on what could've been a good story. One positive note perhaps is that the descriptions of Japanese culture, etc. are really good. Perhaps this is due to the authors departure many years before from England to Japan. My advice: spend some time abroad again
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I bought this book because I was looking for some alternatives to PB&J. Both of my children are now attending peanut-free/tree-nut free schools. This book has lots of ideas, but too many of them are variations of the peanut butter sandwich.
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K, besides the late arrival, the whole book was written in terminology in which I had to read over and over again before I understood the meaning. Its not like the book came with appendices right? Anyway, I do not know whats the huu haa about the book. It seems pretty fictional. Coming from a Muslim
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This is one of the worst-written programming books I have seen yet. I'm sorry I bought it. It appears to be written by a man who knows quite a bit about finance, and dangerously little about C++ programming. Duffy's review correctly describes the main flaws.
I would add that (1) The book is not structured to build upon OO, GOF Patterns, or STL design principles; (2) The code does not follow even basic C++ coding conventions; (3) The images (screenshots) are agonizingly UNREADABLE; (4) The code listings are in ITALICS using a variable-pitch font [is COURIER font code listing so difficult to include in a $100 book???]; (5) No over-arching component object model is suggested ANYWHERE in the book.
Some of the efforts at brevity are just plain WRONG or even DANGEROUSLY WRONG to teach beginning programmers. For example, Pg 19 Data Types section:
----------------
int - holds integer numbers up to a little over 2 million, for example, "int I = 2000000;."
long - same as int.
----------------
WRONG, PROFESSOR! This is not only a syntactically incorrect example, but a just plain wrong assertion. If the reader does not know how to determine the (platform-specific) size of an "int" or "long", then the author has only served to confuse the matter further!
Furthermore, I consider it a "cheapskate" tactic to ask readers to pay for the code from this book in electronic form (particularly when the book's code listings are so sloppy). That said, I would not use the code, even if it had been supplied for free ... but it *might* have been interesting to have something to play around with...
Have any of the reviewers actually USED any code from this book without substantial refactoring?
The only use I could see for this book is for intermediate-advanced fin-techs, who want to review a few general algorithms for selected derivative calculations (futures, forwards, etc) ... but just be prepared to squint and suffer through reading the code
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This series is a travesty. I understand the feeling of loss when you finish a beloved series, but let Laura, not MacBride, have the last word on her family's experience. So much in his books rings false: the clumsy historical allusions, the narrative voice, the potty humor . . . One of the greatest things about Laura Ingalls Wilder's work is the way her voice advances in maturity as she, the main character, grows: Big Woods is written for little girls and Happy Golden Years for young women. MacBride doesn't manage this and talks down to readers. There is a tiny thread of Laura in these books, but not enough to do more than frustrate her fans. Sampling is for rap, not fiction.
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I'd never read Berry before, but as far as I can tell, this brief collection of six essays and lectures sticks to familiar territory. However, it's probably not the best entry point for people who are newcomers to his realm. There are two related problems with the book: one of presentation, and one of tone. The problem with presentation is that the pieces are so short that there's no room for specifics. So, while one might be more or less in accord with the broad strokes of Berry's vision, there's no detail to back it all up. The problem with tone is that from the very first page the reader feels like they are being lectured at. Of course, some of the pieces are lectures, but there's a certain condescension that runs throughout the book. It comes out when Berry uses certain words such as the three As of "appropriate", "authentic" and "adequate". When these are used ( as they often are), there he's obviously made some kind of value judgment, but the reader is never let in on it. The end result of the two flaws is that the reader feels like a hectoring argument is being made without any supporting logic -- which ultimately smacks of preaching to the choir.
Which is unfortunate, since I tend to agree with Berry on a lot of things (though not his anti-abortion stance). Small farms are good, agribusiness is bad, stewardship of the land is good, extraction industries are bad, treating the body as an organic whole is good, and things of that nature. Alas, he has a tendency of making sweeping assertions and accusations that are far too simplistic and shrill to be useful. Two examples from the first 15 pages will suffice to illustrate: "This is a world in which the cultures that preserve nature and rural life will simply be disallowed." and "Communists and capitalists are alike in their contempt for country people, country life, and country places."
Berry also succumbs to the trick of creating straw men to counter his theses. For example, in one essay, he claims that conservationists are people who want to simply preserve land in a pristine, untouched state, and that's all. While there are certainly some conservationists who feel that way, they are a small minority of a a much larger community who actually is in almost total accord with Berry's views on stewardship and land use. It certainly doesn't help matters that his view of small-scale farming appears to be heavily tinted with rose-colored glasses. His claims that modern agribusinesses has rendered the small farm economically unviable sounds like a reasonable proposition. However, it ignores the fact that, historically, small scale farming ran on the thinnest of margins, was subject to all kind of external instability (weather, vermin, etc.), and operated on only slightly better than a subsistence level. In farming, cash is scarce, that's why people abandoned it in droves whenever the opportunity presented itself, such as in WWII, when all those defense-industry factories were opened in California. (Of course, in Berry's vision, you don't really need cash, because you barter for everything you need from your neighbors.)
Berry's exhortations to create small-scale communities is worthy stuff, and even in cities people are creating this. The growth of CSAs, farmers markets, and the like in the past decade is a tangible indicator of this. However, to achieve the large scale results Berry seeks requires a more rigorous roadmap than what is provided in this slim collection
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I picked up the audio book from the library, and didn't know by the title and author's name (my first Jance book) that this was chick lit. I don't feel this book was something I would've started had I known. It started real well, and Ms. Jance knows how to reel you in with her writing. Midway it got off track for me when the the protagonist started blogging about her unfair release as a new anchor, and then about her friend who died of ALS, and then came the long responses to the blogs. It just got sickening to this reader and made it hard to stay with what could've been a decent suspense drama.
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On our beloved Kay Scarpetta and the illustrious Ms. Cornwell? Having been an avid fan of her novels from the very beginning, I simply cannot help but ask myself....is she really writing this stuff?
Very slow in the beginning, I began to fear a repeat of the struggle that I endured to finish Blowfly. However, this novel does begin to pick up momentum...but not until the reader is halfway through, and certainly not until this author had left me sufficiently disgusted. The storyline finds Scarpetta summoned home to the scene of the crime...Richmond, Virginia, where her previous employer seeks her assistance in unwraveling the mysterious death of a young girl. So Scarpetta---with Marino tagging along of course---heads back to Richmond from her new home in Florida to offer assistance; only to find that her old building is being demolished...and that the new one, under the leadership of Dr. Joel Marcus, is sloppy regarding policies and procedures. The demoralization of her former staff by Dr. Marcus is also unnerving to Scarpetta; and clearly he resents her intrusion. So why has he asked her to come?
Meanwhile, Lucy, as head of The Last Precinct, is once again up to her ears in nonsense. For such a brilliant, successful young woman (as readers have always been lead to believe), why must Cornwell insist on making her so completely stupid in her literary life? In this tale she is once again romantically linked with a narcissistic sociopath who also happens to be her employee.
Worse than the weak storyline, and the fact that this novel is just all over the place, is the author's disturbingly sterotypical portrayal of African-Americans throughout. Drug dealers are black, they're dead of gunshot wounds, and most ludicrous of all is in one instance Cornwell references a dead young man's "conspicuously large organ." Are you kidding me? The trash collectors are "big dark men" and of course in an upscale neighborhood, the "old black woman" must WORK in one of the houses. The author's unbelievably narrow-minded, stereotypical view of other races is disturbing at best, and frankly makes one think that she may just be as stupid from a common sense perspective as Lucy.
Read only if you must, but frankly there are better ways to spend your time.
DY
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I agree with some of the negative reviews that the Junie B. Jones books often use language and depict behavior that are less than desirable. My son, who is a pretty sensitive boy, didn't like Junie B. Jones because he thought she was rude. I would much prefer that my kids read books with kids who, though they may get in trouble from time to time or may make mistakes, are generally nice people. We did love the Magic Tree House series, both for the adventure and the personalities of Jack and Annie
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Anyone with intelligence can see that Ann Coulter is not attempting to make any meaningful or objective analysis of politics. She is using inflammatory marketing to stir up the emotions of the most die-hard, flag-waving conservatives. Until this attention-seeking labeling of other Americans as 'good' or 'bad' stops, there will never be true understanding of the complexties of American politics or foreign policy by the general public. I don't agree with Bush's war and I didnt vote for him. But he's not a 'bad person'; he did not invade Iraq because he is 'evil' or 'stupid'. I can appreciate both sides of an argument; I can avoid generic categorizations. I would never watch any news, liberal or conservative, that had a clear political bias. Why can't Ann Coulter arrive at this same level of common sense? Well, she wouldnt sell as many books; she wouldnt be on TV. It has to be "Liberals Hate America" or "The Conservative Nazi Agenda". We have the duty as thinking Americans, in the most advanced free country in the world, in these modern times of massive amounts of free information, to STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS GARBAGE. Get the facts and stop relying on a figurehead to spoon feed you your opinions
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This book is pretty much useless if you're looking for info on how to build a dulcimer. Only about 60 pages of it actually talks about dulcimer making/repair. The rest is a long winded history/bio of Homer Ledford. Some of that is a bit interesting from an historical/cultural perspective, but the author beats it to death. Homer wanted the book to be just on how to build and care for a dulcimer; the rest was the author's idea. Dean Kimball's book on dulcimer making is better, although still lacking in some areas. This book has no patterns or plans, few useful photos, and is weak in what instruction it does provide. There are a few useful ideas but not worth the price of the book
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Let's face it--if you want to get a non-fiction self help type book published and sold today, you better have a completely original idea--or make it controversial and provacative. I would hope that Ms. Bennetts' opinions are written for this purpose since they are so extreme.
I am a college educated stay at home mom of two small boys. I am proud to be doing that and to be defering to my husband to support me/us financially in this mutual decision. I feel it's a personal decision to stay home and try not to be judgemental of others, but to me there is no career worth giving up taking them and picking them up from school everyday, helping in their class, having simple chats after school, and most important being very present in their young lives.
Does that mean I'm sitting back fat, dumb and happy, expecting 100% to live the fairy tale so I can turn stupid and dependent on him for my every need? Of course not. Our relationship is solid, his job is as stable as one can be, we have good life insurance and a lot of it. Here's an important one--we live within our means! We don't have two leased cars and a house we can't afford.
In addition, while I have "given up" my career to raise my kids full time, I have a lot of skills, drive, and no doubt that in that worst case scenario I could provide an income when and if I need to.
I CERTAINLY would hope no one would give up the opportunity to stay home because of these so called realistic fears. Look, if you want to be a working mom by choice--knock yourself out. But don't look for excuses to justify it to yourself and others by saying you're doing it in case of the worst. THAT would be a bigger "feminine" mistake
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I was so upset after I finished reading this book. I wish it wasn't updated and they just kept it in its original version. If you are looking for a historical information of how the samurai lived and their values, this is the wrong book. Read Bushido: The Soul of Japan. The Code of The Samurai really felt like The Code of the Japanese Business Man
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This book looks like it was written by someone who works in their own garage as a hobby. There is no real technical data in this book-- no hint of professionalism.
The photos are black and white and most of the time they don't really show what the book is talking about. There are no torque specs. Little detail or warnings on how things are done.
With the quality of this book, you're better off saving the $30 and pulling the jeep apart yourself to see how it works
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More like a diary of some of Tom's successes (and he has had many) but only a few anecdotes. Buy one of TJ Cloutier's books (or Slansky's) for much much more insight
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A book full of heartwarming stories from country stars, singers, writers, and listeners, or so the back of the book said. As I read some sentimental stories, and some down right boring stories I questioned how more than half of these stories got into the `Country1 edition of the Chicken Soup series. I loved about three stories, liked about ten, and was puzzled by all the other entries
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David Fromkin's "Peace to End All Peace" is simultaneously a comprehensive and very flawed work. Many of the reasons for it being one can be found in the other.
Fromkin attempts to examine how the modern Middle East (extending as far as Afghanistan and some sections of Central Asia) was created during and after the First World War. Obviously, in order to do this, the fall of the Ottoman Empire in that war must be considered.
This is where Fromkin's unusual methodology comes into play. Focusing on the European political machinations to resolve the "Eastern Question" in their favour, the sorry tale becomes one more of Churchill and TE Lawrence than of the Arabs and Turks who were also involved in the process. Admittedly, it was the Europeans who wielded the whip hand in deciding just where the borders were to be drawn, but reducing key figures such as the CUP Triumvirate in the dying Ottoman Empire (and Kemal Ataturk in Turkey immediately thereafter) to the status of supporting players ultimately skews the focus of the book too much.
Never let it be said that this is a simple story to retell. A complex web of national and personal political interests in both Europe and the Middle East combined to make the region what it is today, and any study of all of these will be faced with the need for convoluted explanations. The problem that Fromkin has, however, is that he does not make these very well at all.
The story is told in a roughly chronological manner, which means that we jump from place to place and meet a bewildering array of characters. Ultimately, the only real result is confusion on the part of the reader, who is constantly flipping backwards to see who the latest figure to make an appearance actually is.
Additionally, Fromkin frequently confuses his readers with references to geographical features which are not well-shown on the maps provided. Indeed, one map (showing Enver Pasha's advance on Baku and his campaigns in Central Asia) is laughable in the extreme. The legend explains that the direction of the arrows is the direction of the various advances - which would be significantly more useful were the arrows in fact arrows, and not equilateral triagles.
Where Fromkin does well, however, is in his use of purely European sources. It is perhaps unusual to say this of a book intending to tell the story of the modern Middle East, but I have considerable doubts about the depth of his research into the Middle Eastern aspects of the events in question. In terms of Europe, however, his research seems to cover the major bases of exactly what the key figures believed and did.
Ultimately, "A Peace to End All Peace" is a difficult and not particularly rewarding work. A diplomatic history of Europe during the Great War can be written much better than this, and a history of the development of the Middle East following that conflict already has been (the chapters in Margaret Attwood's "The Peacemakers" or William Cleveland's "Modern Middle East" both easily outshine this)
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Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins, and others in the Pre-Trib circle, such as Ed Hindson, Tommy Ice, Chuck Missler, etc., continue to put forth the same deceptions that Hal Lindsey popularized decades ago. The notion of a pre-tribulation rapture is foreign to scripture, it is foreign to the teachings of the early Church, and it is grooming the Church for destruction through ignorance and lack of preparation for what is really coming. These men are novices and not prophecy "experts" or "scholars" by any stretch of the imagination; they are those who tickle the ears of gullible Christians. Why continue to be deceived? Tim Cohen, in his excellent book, The AntiChrist and a Cup of Tea, provides biblically sound and testable evidence to show that the coming AntiChrist is known NOW. Not only that, the same author (Tim Cohen) has now put out the strongest presentation on the whole issue of the rapture EVER offered to the saints of God in Christ: The REAL Rapture. If you really want to know the truth about the timing of the coming rapture, then you need to hear Tim Cohen's The REAL Rapture (based on a volume in his forthcoming "Messiah, History, and the Tribulation Period" series (see Prophecy House's web site for details on these items)
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You get your money's worth here--there are a ton of CDs in this audio book. Unfortunately, I found Bryson's prose (which I enjoyed a lot when reading silently, as I have done with his other books) to be greatly irritating when spoken aloud. To me, he sounds kind of 'affected' in parts, and sometimes there is a sort of "moist" sound when he pronounces words. Hard to describe until you hear the CD, but trust me on this one. I think a lot of the positive reviews on here are for the book, and not the CD. I would stick with the written word on this one.
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Some of the stuff in here was really screwy. It's not a handbook to the "Food and Mood" book by Elizabeth Somer, which is what I thought it was when I bought it. It's a separate program entirely. This one is too woozy and non-Western for me. Very little hard data to back up what they say, just kind of fruity and flowery
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I had somewhat forgotten how Greg Bear wrote. His descriptions of the Jart are so obscure and long-winded, the reader may as well just turn the page. I found it annoying that Greg Bear attempted to invent even more words in this book than Eon. My largest complaint however resided in the high number of typos, duplicated words, letters dropped etc that made the reading even more disruptive. It really looked like there had been global replacements as the same errors were repeated. While I'd admit that an author is more concerned with flow, plot, and technical accuracy - the editor should review with a little more care to the fundamentals
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Overall, I found this book disappointing. In its defense, its basic thesis of the movement of Jewish American Orthodoxy towards the `right' (more closed and intensely religious) is interesting, and I am sure accurate, and Heilman's analysis of its evolution is insightful and well-researched. However, I was extremely bothered by the lack of any attempt to portray Hareidi society through the prism of its own value system, or in fact any attempt to understand their values at all. Heilman accepts his own world view as absolute and obvious to the reader, and in this context denigrates a society with an entirely different set of goals and aspirations. Examples of this include his assumption of the primacy of feminism and the worth of secular culture. Hareidi society has its own worldview which, although too complex to elaborate on here, has valid and very real reasons for its hierarchy of values, reasons which Heilman completely disparages or ignores. (For an example of a book that is not written by a religious author, yet is able to appreciate Hareidim from their own perspective try "Real Jews" by Noah Efron). In general, I found his view of religion as a mere sociological construct (i.e. a defensive reaction to the Holocaust) to be grossly insensitive to the Hareidi intense religious belief founded on thousands of years of tradition.
The latter half of the book I found a pathetic attempt to draw conclusions from insignificant pieces of information. For example the juxtaposition of poster A condemning something to a poster advertising B implies that poster A is condemning B as well. Or two posters (put out by the same company) advertising two different types of music indicates that the community is embattled over the appropriateness of one type of music.
In conclusion, although I eagerly awaited this book and found a fraction of it interesting and intelligent, my overall impression is negative due to the authors biased approach and manipulative use of insignificant information.
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The author is a journalist, but he seems straight out of the Chamber of Commerce or a right-wing think tank. Like business elites, the author basically does not particularly like democracy. In his view societies should be run by elites from several areas - even authoritarians if needed. He is a proponent of constitutional liberalism, based on laws, rights, especially property rights, separation of powers, with much of that power being held in unelected bodies, and most of all free-market capitalism. He finds that set of conditions to be far more important than the exercise of democracy. His low regard for democracy is easily seen in his minimal interest in the manner in which a society of laws is created or even its exact nature and who benefits. Most in the West do care. Rights and legal systems are not neutral: the manner of construction determines relative winners and empowerment.
Though the author's real target is US society, he looks at the results of democracy over the world. And of course, he finds plenty of examples where democracy doesn't work. A country in the grip of fanatics will invariably elect and support leaders who are little concerned with rights and legalisms. But it is ridiculous to imply that those situations have any bearing on democracy in the US.
In the US, the author is most concerned with what he calls the democratization of society over the last fifty or so years. In actuality, he is focusing on mass culture that is spread through mass consumption as vigorously promulgated by globalizing capitalism. In this era, elites in finance, business, law, banking, health care, various media, etc have likewise been swept up, in fact are the driving force, in a money-first culture. He contends that such elites once had an ethos of service and basically kept our democracy on track via subtle pressures on the masses. It is simply a cynical misrepresentation to hold that massive shopping at Wal-mart and the like represents democratic empowerment. The actual test of democracy would be the ability of a community to stop the Wal-mart juggernaut.
He especially decries direct citizen actions. He is correct to observe that referenda and initiatives have had unintended consequences, often being usurped by special interests with deep pockets. However, he little notes that citizens have taken those routes due to the unresponsiveness of legislative processes. It's hard to take seriously the stance that the robber barons of the late 19th century, and their heirs, should be viewed as elites who kept our democracy on course, after bribing entire state legislatures as well as members of Congress to accumulate vast sums. If citizens had actually been democratically empowered, such distortions of the political process could have been prevented. The theme that cash sanitizes crooks is as American as apple pie. His view that such unelected bodies as the Supreme Court and the Federal Reserve Board prevent illiberal democracy is also questionable. Who could be unaware of the politicization of those bodies: the embarrassing handling of the presidential election of 2000 or the cheerleading role of the Fed during the stock market bubble of the late 1990s benefiting financial elites? No, rule by elites has very frequency distorted and usurped democracy, not buttressed it.
If the author put journalism first, instead of being an apologist for 21st century capitalism, he would note the death grip that corporations now have over our society and the political process, actually foiling democracy. First and foremost that control is solidified through the mass media and the education system, distorting and muting all challenging ideas. It is not surprising that Americans have been unable to mount any significant challenge to this latest version of laissez-faire, free-market capitalism that is involved in such harmful developments as free-trade agreements, worker visa programs, massive immigration, out-of-control energy policies, broken health care systems, huge cutbacks in various safety net programs, massive redistribution of wealth upwards, the gutting of our manufacturing base, etc. The list could go on. Informed, empowered citizens would not permit this system of corporate rule to exist. The US most decidedly is not in a state of too much democracy, but is in the throes of democratic failure, which election hoopla very conveniently disguises periodically. This is the story of democracy that the author chooses to ignore.
It is surprising to see the fairly high ratings of this book. Americans are supposedly fiercely democratic. Yet here is a book that clearly advocates elite rule, even anti-democratic generals if need be. The book is really worth reading only to see the willingness of some to contain citizen empowerment.
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Communism is one of the most evil ideologies in human history, responsible for the extermination of 100+ million people. This book (which started it all) holds at least much of the blame. Communists were and still are a threat to the free world, and communism is a slave system. Some "intellectuals" actually support the tired mantras of Marx's philosophy, whether because they are insincere or simply pedants who haven't seen enough sunlight, I don't know. In any case, if they ever step foot in the real world they would take note that communism denies private property, and is totalitarian and slave-driving (the government owns everything, including you). And the deaths caused by communism are hardly necessary to bring up. Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin (of course), etc etc...who are these people kidding
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Not to be disrespectful but are you people for real? I can't believe this book is getting 4 and 5 stars. There was nothing good about this book. A bunch of people in the book did not even matter, Bill Kendall's wife, the new anchor man Pete whatever his last name was, the boss Yelena, Eliza's boyfriend, the priest, even the soon-to-be-president and his wife, I mean what's the point in even mentioning them? They were not involved in the main events. She didn't even talk about what happened to them at the end. The judge is the only one that matters, and she didn't even write about him all that much. Really disappointing. As I said I don't mean to be disrespectful, but to give this book 5stars, you must have read either bedtime stories all your life, or not have read anything.
DON"T WASTE YOUR MONEY that's all i have to say. sorr
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I've read great reviews about this book so I finally bought it because I could not get it at my local library. Never ever finished the book - it was god-awful. Badly written, incoherent story - it jumped around - JUST PLAIN BAD..
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I really didn't enjoy this book. I am half Italian-American, and I've read a few books about growing up in an Italian-American family in an effort to learn about my roots. I have also read several books about 2nd generation Americans struggling to find their identities while caught between what is "normal" and their immigrant parents. I normally enjoy such books, but not this one. I know that life wasn't always a bowl of cherries for these familes, but this book makes it seem as if it was absolutely horrible. Yet, I couldn't find anything about the daughters' lives that are really that bad or even different from many people's lives in this country. Where is all the anger coming from? I really don't know. This book is dark and depressing. Some say it is funny at times, but I didn't think so. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it
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I was really looking forward to reading "Ever After" when I saw the favorable quote on the back cover by Larry Gelbart. But the book turned out to be a VERY cursory glance at the past 25 years of musical theater with remarkably little insight. Here are the three things I learned from this book: (1) Mega-musicals are almost always artistically corrupt; (2) Andrew Lloyd Webber is the anti-Christ; (3) The only innovative musicals to arrive in the past 25 years started Off-Broadway (mostly at Playwrights Horizons and Lincoln Center). Most of the hundreds of shows mentioned in this book get one paragraph each, with very few illuminating details. Here's what the author says about "Carrie," perhaps the most famous recent Broadway musical flop: "Carrie, of course, was an instant classic, a monument in the pantheon of failed Broadway musicals. Adapated by Michael Gore (music) and Don Pitchford (lyrics) from the notorious Stephen King novel (and even more notorious film), this $7 million musical celebration of prom vengeance and bad taste materialized at the Virginia Theater on the 12th of May, 1988 and was gone by the 15th, touching all who saw it with a timeless reverence for its indelible, monumental ineptitude." Does that really tell us very much about this musical? Did Barry Singer even see the show? You sure wouldn't know it from this description. And just what, I wonder, makes King's novel "notorious" or the movie "even more notorious"? Almost every show in this book rates that brief a mention, but somehow Singer finds time for an entire chapter of Lloyd Webber-bashing where Sir Andrew invites the author to a cocktail party to show off his newest female singing discovery. The chapter sticks out like a sore thumb, if only because it has nothing to do with the rest of the book, but also because it's one of the few times that Singer goes into any detail. Aside from a few interesting Sondheim quotes, this book is a waste of time.
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I know all this stuff seems like a good idea but have we forgotten GHB? That was supposedly the fountain of youth a few years ago and now no one hardly even talks about it. Let me let you in on a little secret, GHB turned out to be a very addictive substance and in fact a handy little trick to get a girl naked without any problems like dinner movie or even her knowing you for that matter. Like HGH, everyone jumped on it before all the data was in. Please put your money away and be safe. A pretty face isn't worth the trouble this could potentially cause. And lets be realistic at 60 you really won't ever look 20 again and the weight you would have lost will be the money leaving your pocket book and not the fat from your thighs. Work out, do yoga, and eat a healthy vegetarian diet and you can't go wrong. Also, when i stopped eating sugar the cellulite also disappeared and so did those extra pounds
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I found two paperbacks at work, which were both thriller series, both written by women, both having two word titles with the first word being "Blind." One of the two I found exciting and satisfying, and eagerly read it. That was not this book.
At first, I thought it was just me. Unlike others, I found it easy to get into the book. But I found it too new age for me. Between Eve talking to her dead daughter to the creepy Aldo to Jane's connection with the murdered Cira, I decided I didn't need to read the whole novel and checked to make sure Jane and Trevor survived.
Maybe this wasn't Iris Johansen's best book. But I'm not going to be trying any of her others, based on this one
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I don't know why it won the National Book Award. This book is very slow, & very boring. Where is the action? I forced myself to finish it
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Some photographers think what's erotic is what's hidden and left to the imagination. Two Thirds of the pictures in this book are fig leafed with shadows or clothing, leaving plenty to the imagination. Think of playboy magazine in the 1950's or Vogue or Madamoselle magazine today. Many of these are stylistic, but not very erotic. One in three of the photos in the book are erotic, not afraid of nudity. Don't make the investment in this book if you want high level eroticism. Instead get "Shaven Angels", "Natural Beauties", "100 Naked Girls", or "Crazy,Sexy Girls".
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We absolutely loved "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (I highly recommend it) but this is nowhere near as good. Most of the story is just rehashing the original book, with a little politically-correct "let's ship the extra food to the hungry" thrown in. Lame
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This book made me feel like I was being patronized. They said the same thing over and over. I wish I hadn't bought it
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The book reads like a shallow, way too long magasine article.
The shop seems to specialize in self help books, so there's hardly a literary feel to it. The style too is annoying.
For example, she writes that "her dad wasn't big on books".
I would have expected a slightly "bigger" vocabulary then that
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The author is an owner and operator of a tutoring center. He is not an expert in auto mechanics. As he points out on the back cover the pictures and the concepts were for teenage boys and the accompanying graphics are of poor quality.
If you actually want to learn anything substative of autos this is a poor poor choice. You are better of visiting the automotive section of www.howstuffworks.com or some similar website to learn more with better graphics and for free.
I bought this book long time ago and finally had the time to look at it and I regret it
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True, there are many controversies raging about copying DVDs and copyrights. I suspect we are in a transition zone with all this and "the industry" will figure out how to help people love and cherish their DVDs rather than simply calling everyone a pirate. Having said that, I can also understand why an author of such a book wouldn't want to "say too much" about this controversy, especially if he his looking over his shoulder at "the lawyers." I was trying to think of an analogy to express my disapointment in this book (and this isn't a good one) but it goes like this: You want to go to Israel and you buy a book on "Israel for Dummies" and you search for something, anything on the controversy of the wall they are building. But instead of finding a discussion of the controversy you find a few off-handed quips about "There's a wall going up and it's causing some controversy. 'Nuff said."
"'Nuff said"? Hel-lo? Were dummies out here, that's why we bought the dumb book!
There might be some useful information for some people, but I was sorely disappointed
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It is a very dry book and hard to stay interested in. I am barely able to stay awake while reading it. It does have some interesting things
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It's a bad idea to create a character-driven sci-fi when your characters are this annoying. The majority of Children of the Mind consists of inane dialogue between characters that are impossible to care about. The characters are so one-dimensional and predictable that you already know what they'll say before they say it. Peter says nothing except smart alecky remarks, Val spends the whole book whining loudly about not being a real person, Novinha is as crazy and hard-headed as she's been for the last two books, and Ender spouts off a bunch of trite, up-with-people garbage every chance he gets. Somehow, Card even managed to make Jane more irritating than my ex-girlfriend during PMS. The only decent characters in this book are Miro and Wang Mu, and they aren't nearly enough to save the story.
I admit it: I only made it a little over half-way through Children of the Mind. I couldn't take the dialogue anymore. That's not to mention the ridiculous plot, which centers on two children warping around the universe, engaging in philosophical discussions with caricatures of Japanese and Polynesian culture, in an attempt to avert a war between species.
If you're that curious to learn how the Ender Quartet concludes, do what I should've done from the beginning: find a plot synopsis somewhere and save yourself the pain of reading this garbage
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One star is too generous! AAARRRGGGH! I am still mad about this book and I read it 3 books ago! I loved Ted Dekker's "Three" and I enjoyed Peretti's children's books I read with my kiddos, so I was looking forward to the arrival of a collaboration. But it was utterly silly! If I start a book, I have to finish it. Okay, that's my own fault, but I had to MAKE myself read this to get it over with! I wanted to burn the book when I was finished to make sure nobody else I knew ever read my copy.
The ending? Well, "Shoo! Get out of here!" was embarrassing! Shame on you, Frank and Ted
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This was required reading for my British Literature class. It's the only novel in the class that I struggled with and only struggled from boredom. It is entirely possible that I just do not understand the genius that is Forster, but I did not enjoy this novel. A lover of Forster or Modernist writing might enjoy it more. It must be a classic for a reason.
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The author shows she is obviously making a transition from poetry to prose with this novel. Her sentences are long and wordy, and her numerous metaphors make little sense in their context. She goes to great lengths to describe many little and unimportant details, causing the actual story to suffer from lack of content. Her descriptions of life in general seem unreal - she describes things and events in a way that no person would do in the circumstance.
The storyline is decent in some places, but it is generally hard for the reader to follow. Many times, I had to go back to read paragraphs and pages again to realize where the author was going. It is true there were many points in which I wanted to stop reading all together, which is a rarity.
I was altogether disappointed in the book. I thought it would be decent, from all the literary awards it had won, but it really was just pages of fluff and poetry disguised as prose
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I got this as both a book and an audio file. I had waited to read it and was surprised by both the enthusiasm of the content and its author, but also by how he snuck in some odd biblically unsound thoughts (e.g., I gasped when he suggested Christ went to Hell...what Bible passage evidences this?).
I agree with how he suggests the enemy is out to deceive us and keep us asleep...but wonder if I go further how much more Eldredge will slip in of his own peculiar biblical misintrepretations. Where were his editors when this was being written? Why take sensible good sections and mar them with oddities?
I havent read all the reviews here but as one of those "conservatives" frequently mentioned in them I have to admit I may not even finish this book for fear of what else Eldredge has slipped up on.
I did appreciate his story about Daniel and the "delayed" angel...but am left wondering if I need go deeper into researching that as possible misintepretation too.
What a shame this book is turning into such a questionable venture for me. We are at war as the author suggests and we must guard the source material well..the Bible well. So far...I may join others and ditch this valiant attempt to energize Christians and return to the Word itself.
I wonder if I can get a refund
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Mark Furman cab be a brilliant detective but he is not a medical examiner. This is the same guy who almost imediately solved the OJ murder case while at the same time being shown to be a racist by his previous interview. One big plus and one big minus
resulting in a not guilty verdict. Mark has been shown to be a liability in anything involving ethics. He can add nothing to the Terry Schiavo story.
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I've been following BPRD since the very beginning and feel that I can say with all sincerity, that this series gets better and better with each new story! The TPB's are absolutely the way to go if you don't frequent comic stores (which I do). So do yourself a favor and purchase all of the TPB's, kick back in an easy chair with a stock of time set aside, and enjoy these bad boys to your hearts content
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i'vc had this book since i was 7 years old. i loved the awesome photos of echanis doing his thing. if you like the elaborate and complex, then this is the knife fighting book for you. there are simpler ways of "getting it done", but few are more fun to try. and, by the way, if any of you are curious as to how he died, he was killed while "training" in nicaragua. hmmm . .
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More Than Human is one of those books that has garnered high praise from the science fiction community because of its strong prose and original ideas.
The writing is often compared to that of Faulkner but I wouldn't make that connection having read a few of Faulkner's works. Sturgeon uses many of Faulkner's narrative trademarks (i.e. streaming conscious, first person perspective of low IQ individuals, disorienting changes in first person narrative) but I didn't feel the net effect really compared to say something like As I Lay Dying.
I love science fiction books and the readers in general love the genre which is why they want it to be taken seriously. This results in undue adulation and comparisons to mainstream books. More Than Human is slow, dated and not what I would describe as genre transcending nor would I recommend it to others. So the idea might of been original in the 50's but topics like telekenesis, ESP, computer-brain babies, and self produced morality and ethos have all been tackled more successfully in other science fiction classics before (Asimov) and since. This book rarely set off that wow! button in my head or kept me turning pages. This book simply did not have enough meat in it to make it anything more than mediocre at best.
In 1953 there were 5 Hugo Award nominees for best science fiction book (Determined in a retro hugo award ballot in 2004) The Retro Hugo awards are fascinating because the voting (in this example) takes place 50 years later so the impact of the book on society can't really be ignored. Besides More Than Human, the far superior The Caves Of Steel, Childhood's End, and Farenheit 451 were among the other entries in a banner year for classic sci-fi. Needless to say, More Than Human did not win (Farenheit 451 did and rightfully so)
Bottom Line: I wanted to like this book and it doesn't surprise me that others give it such high praise. These are probably people that don't read other genres enjoy congratulatory wankfests
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Oh, how I wanted to love Devon's book! He was such a charming rascal in "Wicked..." and such a bore in "Sinful..". There was no meat to this story. The back of the books summarizes it nicely. What would have made a better short story in an anthology was dragged on for over 300 pages. I admit I only made through about half before skimming and realizing it wasn't going to get any better.
There's no sizzling tension, the love scenes weak, and the mystery is predictable. I had such high expectations for this Boscastle book since Drake's was brilliant and Devon's character seemed such a lovable rogue.
Not a keeper for me.
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I read this book with an open mind. I am familiar with the tremendous criticism that has arisen from claims that survivors of child abuse may use their backgrounds to claim some sort of privileged status. In a few cases, I think this criticism may be legitimate; in other cases, not. So I was interested to see if there were perhaps legitimate reasons to criticize survivors of the Holocaust or their advocates in the Jewish community.
(Note: I am not equating child abuse and the Holocaust. I am saying that when people speak up about terrible things, there is often a tendency to see them as whiners who are shirking their responsibilities. All things do not have to be equally terrible to promote this societal reaction.)
I didn't find anything in this book to convince me of that. What I found was to me an unconvincing and highly subjective summary of the Jewish reaction to the Holocaust, in which the author claims that it did not become a big deal until a long time after it was over, and that it was made into a big deal for illegitimate reasons, but this discussion is so subjective and brief that I was not persuaded to adopt his point of view.
The bulk of the book consists of complaints that Jewish organizations unfairly extorted money from countries such as Switzerland. The argument becomes fairly technical here and evaluating it is beyond me because I have never read the reports ("audits," etc.) to which the author refers. But I think that focusing so narrowly on money misses the point. I expected to see a general discussion of the ways in which the author alleges that an emphasis on the Holocaust caused some Jews to "play the victim card," and what I got was a very indepth discussion of several fights about money about which I have no way of determining the truth of the author's allegations.
To me it seems obvious that the Holocaust was a terrible atrocity with devastating consequences for the Jews, and many lives were destroyed or damaged as a result. It seems reasonable to me that the Jewish community would insist that society recognize the destruction and damage, and to the extent that this book detracts from this, I think it is unfortunate
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I am not sure why the author thought he had something to offer on this subject. There was no original thought or useful lessons on the topic that was promised by the title. I read this book because it was the subject of an on-line book club for public health leaders but will be much more discriminating in the future regarding the purchase of books that are recommended by this group.
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I wonder if Jance wrote this just to get a movie credit based on her novel. One cannot help but be suspicious of writers who shift gears in their careers and write in a Tom Clancy or John D. Macdonald style just because that's what film-going audiences like. I do not think this is a bad thing, but I, like some of the reviewers here, are so fed up with clich plots that just borrow from i.e., Macdonald's "Cape Fear," or use that tired Native American romanticism that certainly sells the box office tickets through the roof. As for her writing style, she really should stay away from those scenes where character developments have not fully grown. What we're left with are people who are one dimensional like both the Walker parents, Davy, his fiancee, and to some extent, Lani, who just never convinced me that she had the fire of the budding Medicine Woman. Her male voice is very forced machismo that is typical of female writers who are testosterone-challenged. The men in this novel just weren't credible when they spoke. I kept seeing Jance speaking for them. So we're left with a high-concept piece that is still waiting for Hollywood to call and possibly star Penelope Cruz as Lani Walker. What's the Tohono O'otham word for "2 thumbs down?"
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The daughter of a prominent Boston doctor is dead, apparently from a botched abortion (which was illegal in the late 60's). Dr. John Berry's friend, Art Lee, is in jail for the crime, which he says he didn't commit. So, Dr. Berry sets out to prove his friend's innocence, and runs into cover-ups and lots of secrets. But there are many doubts, such as was the girl really pregnant, and did Dr. Lee actually perform the surgery, and why is Dr. Berry so interested in finding the culprit?
For Michael Crichton's first novel, it's not bad, but nowhere near as good as some later ones. The plot is marginally interesting, but it was hard to keep characters straight and the dialog didn't sound very natural. Dr. Berry (who just takes the whole work week off to investigate) talks more like a cheesy "private eye" than a doctor. Also annoying was the use of footnotes and endnotes to explain various medical terms and concepts - nice to know but annoying to look up
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"Col Mike Martin" raised in Iraq, speaks fluent arabic.........
The Taliban are Pashtoon, they are not arabs, they don't speak arabic, they don't even like arabs very much. They are a totaly closed tribal society. I spent a year living and working with the Pashtoon in 2005 in Helmand Province. There are no members of the Taliban who are not Pashtoon. The other ethnic groups in Afghanistan, the Tajik and the Hazara, are opposed to the Taliban.
Mike Martin would not have the correct family, clan and tribal ties and background to carry this off.
Sorry, but Forsythe has dropped the ball on this one.
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The Scientific Method applied to this book:
1) Form a hypothesis: Great managers do something differently than mediocre managers.
2) Conduct an experiment: Interview 80,000 managers.
3) Analyze data: ???this step is missing???
4) Draw conclusions: Write this Book.
With the exception of the "12 questions", the authors make no attempt to back any their conclusions with the results of their study. They make several insightful statements, such as "many managers say they would like to define the right outcomes." However, they do not even attempt to tell the reader how the study led them to this statement. Did 90% of the managers interviewed state this? Did 60% of the great managers state this while only 10% of the mediocre managers did? Does "many managers" mean 100 managers? 100 managers seems like "many managers" at first, but considering 80,000 were interviewed I 100 managers is a negligible amount. The entire book consists of several rational statements that are not supported by their study.
It seems to me that after conducting a huge study to find out what great managers do differently, the authors found almost no common trends. However, since they put a lot of money and effort into conducting the study, they needed something to show for it and wrote this book. If Buckingham and Coffman didn't claim this book was a result of "the largest study of its kind," I would say it offers some decent advice; however, since it does make this claim, I wish they would have back up their conclusions so the readers would be able to determine how valid they are.
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Talk about self-absorbed...I guess the ego and the love of self this man displays are essential to success in business...I thought the man made some good points, but few are helpful to anyone in the real world (or outside the newspaper business). Nausea sets in after the second chapter. Neuharth will die an old, lonely, rich man. Respected by many, hated by nearly all. Luckily, I didn't have to sit through this entire book. I put it down quickly
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This book is poor. It 's not "philosophical" in any sense because it's not logical and it's not supported by the majority of music scholars today. Reimer contradicts himself at every turn; he doesn't understand what Langer is really saying; and. his absolutist notion of music is completely out of synch with what most scholars argue about music today. Reimer just mouths a lot of fluffy, feel-good nonsense
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Having read Detective Comics #471-479 in the 70s done by this same creative team, I picked this up, hoping for more of the same. What a let-down!
I have to ask - What Happened!?
The art on those erstwhile 70s issues was the finest, most detailed art I'd ever seen in a comic-book. I think that was due mostly to the inking of Terry Austin. When he was working on X-Men, he gave John Bryne's pencils that fine detail as well.
Has Austin done a 'Gil Kane' and given up his nib-and-ink to work with marker-pen? This Dark Detective series shows none of the fine-ness of his previous work. You only have to compare the 'flash-backs' of this series to the original Detective Comics issues to see that something is wrong.
Maybe Austin or Rogers are getting older, but the artwork is very basic, and lacks the sheen they used to produce. The art sometimes actually reminded me of Bob Kane's early work.
The story also is a little unbelievable. It portrays Bruce as a love-sick puppy and just doesn't ring true.
Also, the lettering is - well, it's been hand-done, by Rogers I surmise, and is quite uneven. It should have been done by computer.
I'm sorry - I SO wanted to like this, but it's nothing like the calibre of work that this creative team produced in their glory days of the 70s.
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It takes indeed some real power to get so many five-star reviews for such shallow writing. This book is a very poor way of handling thw well-known concept of paradigms and paradigm shifts. If you are at all familiar with these concepts simply forget buying this book as (just because you paid money for it) you will naturally be inclined to read it and this will be a total waste of time and energy. There are so many books on creativity, innovative thinking and innovation; look for them. This is a book on nothing: was it a busines book on business models? Was it a cookbook for personal development? What was this for god's sake, apart from being an insult on iltelligence
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I was very disappointed in the content. There were not enough color plates and transparency in the color was lacking. Many of the instructions were used with black and white sketches and plates. Many of Kautskys subjects and scenes appeared to me to be "pre watercolor career" pencil sketches which I recognized.
Dark somber and sparse in my opinion
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There is only one 100% whole grain bread recipe in this book. Most of them are less than 50% whole grain. If you want healthy bread recipes try "Breadtime" by Cheney or "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book" by Robertson. Every recipe in both of those books is 100% whole grain. I doubt that most people considering a book titled "Whole Grain Breads..." are looking for recipes that contain just a small portion of whole grain ingredients. With that being said I thought the book had some good recipes and was well written. Therefore, I am willing to give it 2 stars as opposed to none.
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Good Lord, people must be busier than I thought. If you haven't been allowed to even think about your future after retirement, then maybe you will get something out of this book. For the rest of us, this is drivel
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First off I'd like to tell you that this is only the second Star Wars book I've ever read, 'Jedi Search' being the first. I actually liked the first book, it drew upon the Star Wars lore well and was a decent read. However, this book made me groan in so many places that I felt almost compelled to create an account here to have a little rant about it (BE WARNED, THIS MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS). Thusly:
How much of the book was wasted with overly long descriptions? It reminds me of a 'Little Britain' sketch where a woman author is dictating her new book and starts reading the Bible out to make up the space! I don't mind the story being 20-odd pages shorter if it comes to the point!
For some bizarre reason the author seems to have taken every opportunity to 'ground' the story by CONSTANTLY relating to the Star Wars films. For example, when Wedge and the scientist go to that forest-resort planet and meet the alien ambassador there, he says something along the lines of: I was actually in the cantina in Mos Eisley when Luke met Han and Chewbacca, little did I know the brush I had with history there.... GAHHHHHHH!!! WHY!? HOW DID HE KNOW!? it didn't need it!! *bangs head on desk*
He does this throughout the two books I've read so far!! how about the will to stick your own neck out and come up with something new without 'proving' that it's true by telling the readers that it was from a certain scene in one of the films?
Then there's Admiral Daala. Made an Admiral because of her brilliant military skills and quick thinking.... so what is she doing in this? she's reviewing recordings of speeches given by Tarkin over military tactics and following them to the letter and losing! It's only the end of the second book and she's down to 1 star destroyer! She should live up to her reputation and at least have a few successful campaigns before the inevitable happens. (i.e. the rebellion win)
He then goes on to waste an absolutely brilliant idea, that of having a Jedi Academy (the point of the trilogy!). There's so much that could have been done here - new and original training for the Jedi, but no - he has the Jedi go two-by-two into the forest (holding hands?) to *sense* things... it's meant to be a sci-fi series! something could have been done to make this SO much better!
I was incensed to find that Luke was actually made 'boring' in this book. Part of my motivation for starting to read the series in the first place was to see how Luke had grown. It all started very promisingly in the first book, having learnt that Luke had turned to the dark side and come through it all with the love of his friends and was now more powerful than ever! (cool! I thought). It got to the stage where I'd dread coming back to the Jedi parts of the story because he was so dull.
The other trainee Jedi needed serious character development (they were 1 dimensional!) - entering every scene with Luke surveying them noting how well they were progressing just wasn't good enough.
As other reviewers have said - one of his students goes rogue, somehow gains the knowledge of building a super-lightsabre (great idea btw!! we need more of that!) then is discovered burnt to death in his quarters... and Luke just meditates about it!? *grr*
Okay all that being said it was 'okay' and on the strength of the first book I will be reading the next book (it's like a car accident - you've just got to look!).
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Extremely difficult to dig through the excessive examples in order to find the relevant theorems and results. Because of this, the problems at the end of each chapter become exercises in tedium, as more time is spent searching for the necessary theorems in the text than in actually working out the solution.
I do not recommend
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Maybe it is me but this novel was about as exciting as watching the grass grow. It is the first mystery novel that I have read by a female author and I hope that it is not representative of the gender. But, by the reviews here, all by women, I can see that Jance writes to that crowd. Her readers seem to like being taken down the aimless boring pass of relationship drible. If you want to spend 10 pages with the main character sitting and talking about nothing in her mothers house or on her friends porch talking about their health than this book is for you. It is amazing that Jance can start great with the murder scene and then 200 pages later start uncovering her first clue, the insulin bottle. Jance gives no indication that Oak Vista or the stranded stranger are even remotely related to the story. Do not start this book it is absolutely a total waste of time. If you want a good mystery read Coben, Crais, Patterson or Michael Connely
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"The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Queen's Fool" are two of the best books I've ever read--and I've read a LOT of books, especially about this period, which especially fascinates me. They were gripping to the end, and my involvement with the characters was complete--true masterpieces. So whenever a new book by Philippa Gregory comes out, I buy it, hoping to have the same experience, and lately have been sorely disappointed. "The Virgin's Lover" fell flat, and now I am trying to read this book but not finding myself engaged, must give it up. One reviewer suggested the books were being written too quickly--that is always an easy guess, however it depends on the writer. Anthony Trollope, for instance, was able to turn out amazing book after amazing book with incredible speed. That may or may not be the case with Gregory. I know, as a writer myself, that there are times when the work flows out, feeling almost as if it's channeled from another source, and times when it's harder, more mechanical. The more challenging situations are those when I'm not entirely convinced or in love with my subject. So to me, neither of these books feels as if they spring from a natural impulse. They feel forced, constructed. I'm going back to Trollope
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This is another piece of lowbrow anti-German propaganda dressed as historiography.
The book is a mess of primary, yet selective and biased historical research, simplistic psycho-babble, ridiculous sociological-anthropological speculation, pathetic organization behavioural theorising and last but not least, absolutely third rate military history. The author is hell bent on proving that there is a German Sonderweg from the founding of the Second Reich to Hitler, that the vaunted German Army is nothing but foolish automatons predisposed to atrocities and mindless offensives.
All in all, cheap trash billed as history.
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Not even worth finishing this book! This author does not know enough to even write this book! I have personal connections with Blackwater and I know not one of the employees is even close to what he makes them out to be. It is a one sided story not based on facts, which it what most writers do, but purely fiction! The only few misfortunes Blackwater has had is what he bases his book on, not the postive stories that I hear about everyday. Don't waste your money
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I read some raving reviews about this book, but I admit, I was quite disappointed. Factual, I'm sure, but it lacks details and tries to touch on too much without going into any depth. Many other pregnancy books go into further detail
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I am a Jew living in a college town in Mississippi for the past 5 years. I was born & raised in the North. I think Evans should rename his book "Fiddler on the Roof in the South". His book is a very nostalgic look back at Jewish history - as it was in the past here. It's very much: the southern Jews were all so happy, they all fit in and were accepted, etc. He does cite a few instances where they had problems - but these usually involved us 'Yankee Jews', like the instances when a few (Yankee)Rabbis in the South fought for civil rights.
Evans should realize that times have REALLY CHANGED HERE! The evangelical Christians in my town (which is most people here) harrass me like crazy - 'I am praying for you!' 'Have you read the words of Jesus, who was a Jew like you?' 'When will you come to my Church'. Blah, blah, blah. Thank God for the minority of Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians and a few others who live here. They are the only ones to accept me for the way I am, and the way I will stay - a Jew.
I want all who are reading this to realize that I am only speaking for my experience. Jews who reside in cities in the South have told me that they have had far better experiences, and that they cannot relate to what I am saying.
But I do want to ask Evans a few questions:
1) If things are so great for the Jews in the South: Why have you lived in New York for decades now???
2) Why don't you at least write either a new Forward to the book, a magazine article, etc., contrasting some of the ways in which the lives of Jews in the South have changed over time (for some of us at least), primarily due to the rise of the evangelical Christians?
I read Evans' books before I moved here, and nothing much he describes in his books is my life here. For a Jew who really cares about her/his religion living here is depressing; it is practically Jew-less; and, at best, the majority of a certain denomination of Christians here ignore me. (By the way, I am planning to move to a city!)
By the way, don't bother writing to me to tell me that I am "wrong", or to invite me to things like the Bible Study at your Church. Believe me, with all the praying for me that is going on in this town, and all the myriad attempts to convert me, if it hasn't happened by now, as they say in these parts, it just ain't gonna happen
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I typically do not read stories like this, but a neighbor had lent it to me and I figured I'd check it out. The plot isn't bad, but the dialogue is another story. The writing was so unbelievably awful that I had to fight myself to finish it. Phrases like "God damn, Oh god, etc..." were repeated over and over again. I got really sick hearing about Tess's cute freckles and Jimmy's movie star looks/sex drive. The majority of the story line between Tess and Jimmy has them arguing over a one night stand. It was 300 + pages of pretty bad writing. I'd strongly recommend taking a pass on this book. Not worth your time unless you are looking to take a mini-break from Harlequin romances...
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Let me get myself straigh here first. I have always been a fan of the Artemis Fowl series even though its started to fall into ruins. I loved the first one, and it was a wicked twist to the standard fairy tale stuff i ussually have to plow through, with the protangonist antoagonizing the fairies, instead of saving them from some kind of "evil" foe. Also the fairies were pretty cool, and had all of the problems of normal people such as sexism. They were high tech and armed with laser guns. Unfortunately the author put Artemis on the helping side of the fairies which took out some of the pizzaz.
Now let me rewiew this particular book. ITs a horrible read. who in their right mind would read something about a twelwe year old kid who investigates mysteries with no new innovative concepts?
no me. now add the fact that this mystery is completely absurd, i mean seriously a "barbie" doll girl who gets kids expelled from school just because they're boys. How old is the author anyways? two years old? well obviously he's not married thats for sure. I always thought that these books were aimed at 13 and 14 year olds, not four year olds. Anyways enough of that, the author also proceeds to put in someothing about a talent show and other garbage abouta possesive father. I read Colfer because he writes futuristic books, that are predominetely fantasy not preschool level books about an obssesed teen ager who doesn't even solve robberies, instead he investigates some dumb boys vs girls war.
All of the wicked humor is lost, there is no action whatsoever, the main charecter isn't a genius with wicked humor, and the book reeks of drawn of bits from the others. Heavily downgraded, adn obviously the worst parts. DO NOT EVEN READ THIS THING. get some other artemis fowl books, or read Alex Rider,. thats a very good read.
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Let me start by saying that normally I'm a big Popcorn fan. I read any article that she's quoted in. I've read "The Popcorn Report" at least twice and loved it. The same for "Clicking." Great book. They're part of my permanent library.
So I was more than disappointed after the first few chapters of EVEolution. I hung in there as long as I could, but the male bashing that pervades the early part of the book overwhelmed whatever golden nuggets were in its way. I just couldn't tolerate reading any more.
Perhaps her comments about or against men are warranted in some people's view, but I didn't see how they fit in with the intent of the book. The comments seemed gratuitous and unnecessary.
So hopefully her next book will be better.
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I'm a big Nora fan, but I couldn't even finish this one. By the fourth chapter I began to skim. WAY WAY WAY to much detail for me. Which made it boring and slow. Testing and corrosion, is it fake, is it real ...blah blah blah. ENOUGH! I did however enjoy the side story about the brother (I forget his name). But thats it folks. Unlike ALL the other reviewers, I hated it. I say PASS on this one. But as you can see, I'm in the minority
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. . .uninspired and unsatisying. The writing style is Austinesque, but the insipid plot and shallow character development are definetly not. Margaret's motives and emotions are obscure, and the author's assertion that her "heroine" has wit and intelligence is never illustrated by word or deed. Quite the contrary . .
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Will somebody please tell me what the appeal is? Yes, I know it's a classic. But it's a really, really boring classic. The prequel to Charlotte Bronte's, Jane Eyre, is the story of Bertha Mason's childhood whose literary conceit is to tell us why Bertha went nuts. It's also a didactic dinosaur relic of the 1960s that traces the source of her madness to the fact that they didn't like little French girls in Jamaica. Racism, sexism, and classism drove Bertha `round the bend. There. I've saved you the trouble of reading it. Now re-read Jane Eyre instead
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I love to read great books like BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley or FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD by Thomas Hardy. I love THE AENEID by Virgil, THE ODYSSEY by Homer. I read both long versions of LES MISERABLES and THE HUNCHBACK OF NORTE DAME by Victor Hugo. I read THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE by Gibbons and gained much knowledge from doing so. I LOVE TO READ.
But GREAT EXPECTATIONS was a GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT! I was somewhat amused until chapter ten where I felt the book became psycho-babble. I was also disappointed in TALE OF TWO CITIES. I could not endure the first two chapters! Dickens did a fine job on THE CHRISTMAS CAROL. But I will NEVER read another of his books
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Subsets and Splits