B Books

Great book! I find it important to learn about history and what better way than 1st hand accounts such as this one. Learned a good deal about the Marine Force Recon and their important role in the military family. I came away feeling a great respect for the men of Force Recon and hope they know that through books like these those men and their sacrifices will never be forgotten.

I cannot add any more than what has already been written below, except to say I like TRUE stories books better than fiction, and this book captivates your attention right at the beginning and takes the reader right through the very end. For a first book by this author, it is a superior read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I highly recommend any of Major Norton's books. This book is very well written, and provides an honest opinion of his experiences during his first tour in Vietnam. It also gives a good, personal look at the inner workings of Marine Recon teams in Vietnam.

Major Norton's easy and honest writing style make his books very hard to put down once you start reading them. He also does a great job of bringing the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of combat in Vietnam to life for the reader.

Most of all, Major Norton does an outstanding job of making one proud of all our fighting men & women who served in Vietnam; they did a great job and books like this one are long overdue.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book to all who might be interested in the personal experiences of Vietnam combat, as well as for anyone interested in the extremely tough job of gaining intel on enemy forces in Vietnam.

This is a very sobering and informative account of the author's 1969 stint in Vietnam. The early part contains background on how the author joined the marines and became a medic. Later chapters recount particular missions into the DMZ. You get to experience the danger of what's it like to be part of a small team, sometimes just a few yards away from an enemy of greatly superior numbers.

This short work is extremely well-written, direct, and very interesting. The author provides great insight into the special comradeship within the US Marines.

This is a story about Bruce Norton, who joined the Navy and then became a
> Navy medic.(Corpsman)
> > He was assigned to 3rd Force Recon Company in 1969-1970 in Vietnam. He
> served with Alex Lee, who wrote his own book about commanding 3rd Force
> Recon Company.
> >
> > Norton, like the Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock, was raised in the woods,
> and learned to shoot and find his way around the woods as a kid. This came
> in handy in Vietnam.
> > He learned to shoot rats in the city garbage dump in his home town in
> Mass. They hunted at night, with flashlights taped to their rifle barrels
> to spot the rats.
> >
> > While in Vietnam, he went through a typhoon and was in the jungle, with
> his 6 man team. They tied themselves together, and to some banana trees to
> avoid being blown away by the 120 mile per hour winds.
> >
> > He was on patrols that encountered a bear on one, and a tiger on another.
> >
> > He lost several friends in the Ashau Valley. Alex Lee describes the
> Ashau Valley as spooky and filled with evil spirits in his book, Force
> Recon. Horton, on the other hand compares it to the Garden of Eden.
> > While in the Valley, he describes how he got very sick on water the North
> Vietnamese poisoned by killing a pig and throwing the carcass in a pond.
> Norton drank the water, not realizing there was a dead carcass in there,
> even though the North Vietnamese left signs on the nearby trees announcing
> this.(The Marines could not read Vietnamese)
> > The 3rd Recon Company was disbanded when he was there, after Gen
> Nickerson, who created the Company, got transferred back out of Vietnam.
> >
> > Norton notes the outstanding leadership in the Company. Alex Lee, Major,
> Commanding, had the Legion of Merit, Silver Star, Bronze Star, 3 Navy
> Commendation medals, Navy Achievement medal, 2 purple hearts. Today, Lee is
> still considered a genius at small unit tactics. Clovis Coffman, another
> officer won the Navy Cross.
> > Two of his best friends, died bravely in the Ashau Valley winning medals.
> Charles Sexton, won the Navy Cross in the Ashau Valley and Paul Keaveney
> won the Silver Star.
> >
> > Norton stayed in the military, leaving the Navy and made a career
> > of the Marines, and was a Major when writing this book in 1990.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>

This product was exactly as described, in great condition and shipped in a timely manner.

Simply the best and clearest introduction to this fascinating topic. There's none better, or even remotely close, for clarity and comprehensiveness. I wish I could write as well as Hartle!

It was probably my error, I suppose I did not read enough reviews about this text book, but I bought this book believing it would contain more text and less math. I was wrong! I read into about a third of the book and started losing interest. It is not that it is a bad book, nor am I saying it is not interesting, but the caveat here is ... interesting to who?

I believe this book is aimed more at those with an interest in math and or the explanation of all theory at the mathematical level. I understand mathematics is the underlying point behind Einstein's theory of gravity, but I am not well educated in complicated mathematical formulas (they tend to put me to sleep) and when I purchased the book I was more interested in someone's explanation(s) of the underlying theories by way of the English language and not by way of mathematics. I prefer formulas be translated to English, similar to how computers translate lower-level assembly languages to higher-level languages for user-friendly interaction with a computer.

Bottom line: Buy the book if you have at least a rudimentary background in mathematical formulas or if you are willing to read between the pages and pages of formulas to pick up the useful and informative information in the book. Otherwise, I suggest looking elsewhere.

When an author can write a book on a complicated subject so that anyone without prior knowledge can understand the content, he is truly a gifted writer. Gravity: An Intoduction to Einstein's General Relativity by James Hartle delivers. I studied calculus and had one course in non-calculus physics 35 years ago and was amazed at how much I could understand from this book. I am also reading "Relativity DeMystified" for a different perspective but Hartle is a true winner.

One note: If relativity is your primary goal you can read chapters 1-9 and skip to 20 and then 21 (Curvature and the Einstein Equation) for a short cut, according to Appendix D (Pedagogical Strategy). Its all great stuff though, so take your time and enjoy.

Let me just say, for an introductory textbook, nobody does it better than Hartle!

Very motivating...keeps physics the central topic of discussion instead of wandering off topic.

My only complaint is that Einstein's equation is introduced towards end of the book, giving it a false idea that it is "incomprehensible" which is not true.

But really, great job Hartle!

I have all of the Princess School books and all of them are great! I liked If the Shoe Fits because it tells about 4 friends who are princesses and are just like other girls. I love it!!!!!!!

This book is so good. I'm 12, almost 13, but I like reading fantasy books. I found this book in my school computer lab and started reading it. I hope to read the others. It looks like a book for 6 years old, but it's not. It's great for all ages!

This book is about a girl, Cinderella, who has to deal with her evil stepsisters and stepmother while attending a school, called Princess School. Her two stepsisters attend the school and try to make her life and her classmates' a living hell. Luckily, she meets 3 other girls, Snow, Rapunzel, and Rose, who are the only nice girls from her class. They help her get through her classes while Ella must do all the dirty work at home. Plus, I love the ending!

This was an awesome book. Like most people, i wish Ella was brunette. I guess disney made her blonde in the movie. My favorite character is Rose, though. They didn't have a whole ton of her. I've read the first three books, but I've started the fourth. When i picked it up, i though i was too old to read it, but i was wrong. It's great for all ages!

I've read every book in the series and am impatient for 'Thorn in Her Side'. This one is my favourite because Rapunzel's my favourite out of the four girls, and it has a lot of Val/Rapunzel moments. :-)

I'm 16 and loved this book. My sister (age 10) was reading it and the title caught yy eye so I picked it up. It's really cute and it stresses great values such as indiviuality and friendship. I found that this book made the princesses more like real girls and gives them the opportunity to relate to them better. It was good and I recommend it really for anyone who is a princess at heart.

I cannot rave enough about this book. As I'm sure most translators or more authoritative people will point out, the translation quality here is superb. But, from the angle of the guy who knows almost zilch about that, the book offers guidance and discipline. While the original is short and to the point, this book offers a more 'warm' (if I can call it that) feeling, with photographic, smooth paper and various related pictures from the time.

That being said, this book also features commentary by other guys from the time relating to their opinions of Sun Tzu's words. It's definitely interesting to get perspectives from them and not just the author or translator. I felt that was a unique addition that really added to the book. You can read the whole thing of Sun Tzu's words in a couple days or so, but the deep discussion behind it offers a whole 'nother book in and of itself.

book arrived on time and in condition described

This edition makes for a terrific gift for the college graduate. The illustrations and photos add visual interest; the text layout makes for "easy" reading. Although we already own several editions of this classic, this will be added to our personal collection.

This is a classic work on what works and doesn't work it war. It is from the 3rd century BC and cuts through the BS of modern war science. Must reading for all future Presidents, Secretaries of Defense and General Officers.

As a Chinese, I can say that author grasp the essence of Art of war and the English is beautiful.

I see adiobook on this topic. What no one for this version? strongly suggest and if come out I would buy it firstly.

After attending a writing workshop conducted by Harry Noden and realizing how powerful his methods are in teaching students the art of descriptive writing and in developing one's own skills, I was thrilled to find his book. Its nine chapters are full of specific, concrete strategies to create a writing masterpiece with each concept that is presented.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS BOOK! I have searched for years for a useful way to teach grammar. This book has been an inspiration to my teaching. I have tried several of Noden's techniques, all with great success. This book is a must have for any English teacher!

Image Grammar is a great tool to use to quickly improve student writing!

Book was unwrapped, with new and functional CD. Thank you for great (and timely) service.

This is a very well-done book. The ideas in the book flow and fill your head with plenty of ideas. The writing itself is polished and comfortable. A great book for students and teachers. A good read.

I received this book as a Christmas gift. I am an occasional knitter so after a long lapse, I need a refresher on knitting. After my obstetrician put me on bedrest, I cracked open this book and started reading. My first project was the Frenchie hat. The instructions were easy enough for me to follow and not too time consuming. The yarns recommended are beautiful, but expensive (it's a good thing that babies aren't too big!). The author does a good job on explaining how to knit. She also has a blog which has video for some of the more difficult techniques http://susanbanderson.blogspot.com [...] I am looking forward to receiving Itty Bitty Hats!

I was leery to purchase this book online as I could not peruse the patterns. I came across it at a local book store and immediately fell in love! I left the bookstore and went to the yarn store to get started! SO MANY great patterns. Sure to please anyone having a baby or making gifts for friends!

I started with the Itty Bitty Hats, and have made most of the designs for friends and my own little one. I wanted to expand my gifting with this new book. It does NOT disappoint! I am so excited about everything in it that I can't wait to get the yarn on my needles. What a treasure!

too cute! a wealth of yummy knitting treats in this book, I love it just as much as I love the itty bitty hats...great for anyone who loves to knit for kiddos :)

This book has a bunch of cute projects for your baby's nursery. Projects include toys, blankets, sweaters, hats, bags, a mobile cover, box covers, stuffed pillows. All very cute, and different. I love the Susan Anderson's use of color, texture, and embellishment. She makes this so much fun. While I will probably use Itty Bitty Hats more often than this book, this is filled with fun interesting projects too. Buy them both!

The author presents the values of life in a story telling manner. He even goes beyond the peripheral and queries into the mind and touches the heart and solves the personal problems. The Golden rule soothes the mind and heart. It is excellent worth reading.

Just Golden rule for better business is brilliant comapassionate, encouraging, and all the more easy to read,and for human understanding and those who follow this golden rule can embrace peace, tranquility, love and human happiness.

I can very well tell that this book gives inspirational thoughts and encoragement. I can use it for my business and for my personal development. if the author is given more description about the golden rule then it would be more helpful for the ordinary people. This book is very interesting and very nourishing.

This is a great book, with plenty of encouragement. I think I can suggest my students to read this atleast once. This book gives motivation.

I read and I find this book is useful.

The book was written by Tim Ash of SiteTuners.com, a web analytics and site optimization service who does landing page optimization among other things for his living.

It is a real-world and practical guide to landing page testing and optimization without any fluff. It is really for the folks who do the testing and the ones who have to sell it to their boss and need to know about the details of the process of landing page testing, what is involved, what are the risks and how it should be approached and why.

It is very useful and complimentary to the "Landing Page Handbook" by MarketingSherpa, the $500 "bible" for folks who do serious landing page optimization for their business.

They also overlap in a few areas. This means that it is also a good buy for people who are not doing enough business that involves using landing pages to justify and recoup the $500 investment in the MarketingSherpa book. It's not exactly an alternative, but it is a start that cost a lot less.

If you are doing serious business with landing pages, I recommend getting both books. The return (increase in conversion = increase in business and profits) you will get out from it will pay for the initial investment quickly and then over and over again for the time to come.

Though I had given this book 5 stars, I really mean it - this book is everything you need about the topic.
But.
A warning here. Author goes on for a lot of math, theory and things, what can scare you away, in case your mind is prepared to see a lot of pictures & comics style reading like you probably saw in this book:

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition

I would say - if you want easy book to read on a topic - take a Steve's book, but of you are ready to serious brain wash with a topics starting from Myer/Briggs personas (same topic is covered by another great book - Waiting for your cat to bark, from Eisenberg brothers), probability theory, quantitative approaches, and other similar issues - then this book is for you.

Just do not expect the easy go read. This is what I wanted to say

This book may be the best thing since sliced bread for you, or can be practically useless. It has an extensive focus on Joe web surfer's persona, on why and how he behaves on the web. It also explains basic concepts such as A-B split testing, ROI, and gives a few examples from author's consulting background. There's a few mathematical formulas, which I am sure are excellent for marketing folks.

But what completely lacks from this book is THE WHAT and THE HOW. The "Uncovering Problems" section is surprisingly small and has no real value. It is explainable - the later part of the book is nothing but a marketing promo of author's consulting business. This costs author 1 star in my review.

The second star I remove because this book is completely useless for small to medium business. If you are a company with under $20 million in revenue - which is where 99% of websites belong - this book is not going to help you much.

Certain types of advice go without saying; eat your vegetables, listen to your mother, look both ways before crossing the street. In his new book Landing Page Optimization, Tim Ash reminds us of fundamental landing page design concepts that seem simple. But we all (at least occasionally) fall into the trap of forgetting them when designing a page.

Landing Page Optimization starts and ends with a very simple premise: you are not the expert in designing an effective landing page -- your customers are. You may feel that you have pegged the perfect message, the right layout and the simplest form. You reason you derived all of these elements from an exact understanding of who is visiting the website and why. Truth is, you haven't. Your design most likely rests on how you see your product or service, how you structure your company, what your CEO likes, or any number of other things that have little or nothing to do with the customer's needs. Swallow your pride, trust your customers to tell you what they want through their actions, and give it to them.

Tim asserts the basic principle that your page must appeal to the emotional responses of the visitor. Make them feel welcome, safe and connected to your site. Unfortunately, you don't have the time to explain to them why they should trust and commit. Visitors devote only a few seconds to your landing page, and you must make the most of these seconds. Assume no one wants to read your lengthy descriptions. Communicate quickly with images and bulleted lists, with your overall goal of maximizing conversions constantly in mind.

Tim has delivered a must-read book for every level of an organization that wants to make its website and online marketing efforts successful. Far from being a book for any one job title, Landing Page Optimization gives everyone in an organization a solid foundation for how to think about customers, how that relates to design, and how to test sites with maximizing conversions in mind. Each person involved in landing page design must think about how each element on the landing page helps or hinders a visitor's ability to understand immediately who the site owner is, conclude there's a solid benefit for them, and trust the site owner with their information.

In all, Landing Page Optimization provides a valuable look at the factors we should consider when evaluating the effectiveness of any landing page. This excellent read will leave you saying, "I knew that! Why haven't I been doing this all along?!?"

Could a book that would obviously be about grabbing a web surfer's attention for commercial purposes be helpful to someone who wasn't particularly concerned about `conversions'? In this case, absolutely yes. If you can allow your mind to think outside the box just a bit, this book can really provide some helpful advice which can be easily translated to your particular goal.

Mr. Ash assumes you know what you want to do but nevertheless gently nudges you with reminders of the many things which you should be considering. Complex - but necessary - concepts are explained in context and without boring definitions so that you can smile smugly with the sure and steadfast knowledge that you've always understood things like Full Factorial Non-Parametric Testing. After a few pages, you'll be eager to make meaningful changes to your own website!

Anything written by Ann Ross is a winner, and the Miss Julia series is superb. I love to visit Abbottsville, it's a special place, filled with believable characters, who could be your next door neighbor. Wish there were more books of this type to read. I also like Jan Karon and Barbara Dickinson. They can tell a story that is wonderful, interesting and satifying--and yes, NO BAD LANGUAGE. Hope there will be many more visits to Abbotsville. I want to see how Little Lloyd turns out. Ms Ross, you keep writing and I'll keep reading.

Miss Julia Paints The Town is another example of superb writing set in Appalachia. Mrs. Ross knows and describes the area and her characters so well that one feels they are intimately acquainted with not only the characters but the area in which the plot takes place. Mrs.Ross is a bright and shining example of what anyone can do at any stage in their lives. The mind does not have to age just because the body has lived a full life and Mrs. Ross's writing serves as an example. I am one of her devoted fans and have every book she has written.
Adda Leah Davis

Miss Julia is always feisty, and never less so than when an out-of-town developer threatens to level the town's historic courthouse and replace it with condominiums. She and her friends band together to oppose Arthur Kessler with any means at their disposal. At the same time, her friends' husbands seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate, and Miss Julia stays busy commiserating with the abandoned wives. She becomes a bit suspicious of one of them, however, when her husband Sam begins spending altogether too much time with her in Miss Julia's opinion. This book is full of laughs and memorable scenes when Miss Julia's proper ways come into conflict with something she is determined to accomplish, despite her ever-so-close brushes with the law. This is a humorous and enjoyable series which can always be counted on for lots of laughs.

Miss Julia is one of my favorite people and this one is just as good as all the rest. Hope Ann Ross keeps on thinking up new scenarios.

Since I thought the previous book in this series was pretty bad, and said so in my review, I need to be fair and write one for this latest one. As far as I am concerned, Miss Julia is back on track! She is quirky, funny and entertaining in this new novel from Ann Ross.

The story is set in Abbotsville with all of the town folk providing wonderful adventures (and misadventures) for Miss Julia to get mixed up in. The story is engaging and funny with Miss Julia providing her own opinion and assistance in all that happens throughout. The names of the characters alone are good for a chuckle. If anyone else was disappointed in "Miss Julia Strikes Back" and is considering not reading this lastest installment ..... all I can say is give it another chance. The book was all that I hoped it would be !

Have your children or students ever told you what they want for Christmas and after hearing it you internally cringe at the thought of them actually receiving it? Well, in `My Penguin Osbert' one little boy's Christmas wish becomes reality and its funny to see who ends up cringing...

Elizabeth Cody Kimmel tells the story of Joe, a classic case of Christmas-gifts-ignored-syndrome, who decides that he is going to help Santa get his gift absolutely correct this Christmas season. You see, Joe wants a penguin, a REAL penguin; he has to be exactly 10 inches tall, with a black and white coat, a yellow beak, a beating heart, and a name tag that reads "Osbert". And when Christmas rolls around he actually gets one.

H. B. Lewis' colorful illustrations will have you and your kids roaring with laughter as Joe's elated face gets more worried and worried by the pages. Very soon Joe begins to realize that taking care of a real penguin is quite a mission, especially if you would rather open the rests of you presents on Christmas morning than play in the very cold snow outside, or would prefer eating chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and not creamed herring, or think that ice cream makes a great dessert but is not a good substitute for Play-Dough. In the end, Joe and Osbert's friendship will continue but in separate houses, after Joe takes Osbert to the penguin section of the city Zoo and Osbert falls in love with the idea of living there. The only question remains... has Joe learned his lesson about being careful what you wish for?

Maybe not, but who does...

This story is sweet - charming illustrations. On a larger scope, it can spark discussions about the responsibilities of owning a pet - it's not all fun and games. Nice for the winter season in general without being just a holiday book.

What a cute little book! My husband likes reading it to my son because he thinks it's funny, and my son likes it because he loves the pictures! Such a great addition to our sons book collection!

Despite the fact that this book has a young child writting lettrs to Santa, it is now February and we are still reading it! My son has hundreds of books and this is his favorite of all of them!

We read and discuss the lessons that are learned. My little one (he is 2) now knows that he has to take care of the people and animals he loves and not always do what HE wants.

We can not wait for more books by this wonderful author!

This picture book has a lot going for it: the story is about a penguin, if your child likes penguins then Osbert's story is a place for them to start reading. The story line is simple enough to glue a [...] to the page, yet magical enough to keep an [...] interested.

Osbert is a classic penguin, full of mischief and naive energy. He is a lovable character.

Elizabeth Cody Kimmel writes with a consistent style. It is a great little book that's sure to please parents and pre-reader age children.

The illustrations and art direction by H.B. Lewis are very nice indeed, in some instances truly wonderful. This is a book that will stay in your child's library for a long, long time.