X Books

This is a fabulously passionate and emotional story. Happy Sigh ...I Love this series and the two main characters. In Awakenings, the first novel of the I Found My Heart in San Francisco series, we met Ryan O'Flaherty and Jamie Evans, juniors at the University of California at Berkeley.

This novel is a substantial read to be savoured. Oh My Goodness, this was fun reading.

I was completely delighted to see this novel in print. Excellent writing, perfectly paced plot, lovable characters, as well as characters you can come to loathe. I was riveted to every page and didn't want to put the book down. I always hold off opening this author's novels until first thing Saturday morning so I can read as much as possible in the next 48 hours.

The two main characters, Jamie and Ryan, are as endearing as ever (I just can't get enough of them) - as well as passionate and very sexy. In addition, their extended family and group of friends are endlessly interesting. The author explores them thoroughly so that the reader gets to know them as well as we do Jamie and Ryan.

Along with the great plot the humor is laugh out loud funny. The author, who I thought was perfection in her other novels, All That Matters, Cherry Grove and Arbor Vitea just keeps surprising me with one hit novel after another.

I couldn't want more (already looking forward to re-reading it) and yet I am clamoring for the next novel in this series. I must mention that the quality of the book itself is outstanding from the paper to the cover to the printing. Terrific cover!

This is a Keeper!

Don't miss the other novels in this great series:

Awakenings
Beginnings
Coalescence
Disclosures
Entwined
Fidelity
Getaway

After many months of allowing their relationship to grow and their love to deepen, Jamie and Ryan FINALLY consumate their relationship in this 3rd book in the I Found My Heart in San Francisco series by Susan Meagher. The book is filled with sweet, passionate, sexy love making. You will NOT be disappointed.

Finally! They're actually going to get busy! This is the honeymoon book. It's a bit light on plot, but the love scenes are very well-written. This author knows the difference between a hot sex scene & a hot love scene! Jamie discovers the joy of lesbian sex & Ryan finally ends months of tortuous celibacy. There isn't a lot of conflict, although we do get a glimpse of how hard it's going to be for Ryan to accept Jamie's wealth.

Do not read at work!

What a great book. It really kept me in suspense. I enjoyed the supense and the idea of this book. Mulder believes Pusher can force people to kill and commit suicides through his will but Scully is unsure. She only gets convinced when Mulder puts her at gunpoint. Will she be able to survive Mulder's shot. See it in this great book CONTROL. Nice heading also

I loved this book so much when I first read it, it was like I was watching it on tv. I even used it in an assighnment for English thats how much I loved it. I recomend this book for everyone. Everyone out there go buy this book!!!

This was an awsomebook. I really enjoyed reading it

In the crowd of books about cowboys, this one stands out chiefly for the well-researched photography. Here you will see classic photos from the late 19th century ranging right up to the present. Among the older photos it's refreshing to find many that have rarely, if ever, been published before. Especially useful is the careful identification of each one, with the place, date, and name of the photographer. While some of them have circulated anonymously on the Internet for years, it's illuminating to have their subjects identified (especially the studio group-shot of XIT cowboys that you sometimes see hand tinted, on pp. 142-143). I also had not known that the wonderful bunkhouse shot of a cowboy with a guitar (pp. 154-155) is cowboy-song collector and poet Jack Rhodes.

Richard Slatta's history of the cowboy supports the photo images well but breaks no new ground on his subject. Readers of other cowboy books will find the usual topics, from cowboy gear to trail drives and rodeos, and a repetition of what's generally known already (though for someone who's never researched the material, it's an excellent introduction). If there's an unusual angle, it's that Slatta goes out of his way to comment on the role of women in ranch culture. Altogether, this makes a fine gift book. It is handsomely designed, on nicely finished paper, and the photos are reproduced with satisfying clarity. The book includes recommendations for further reading and a listing of museums and events with their Internet addresses.

I like this book "Cowboy: The Illustrated History" by Richard W. Slatta, as the author presents an exciting and authentic account of cowboy life around the world.

Cowboys of the old west is talking a lot about the life of how cowhand is an American term of how those people are Argentinia's gauchos, France's gardians, Australia's stockmen and Mexico's vaqueros and some of the best four-legged cowboy horses workers are the camargue ponies of France, the Australian stock horses, the criollos of Argentina, and the quarter horses and mustangs of the U.S. and Mexico, talking a lot about the trail with the cowboys of the old West and international figures of independence and bravado, from Argentina's gauchos to France's gardians. Whether it's the types of horses they rode or the clothes they wore, you'll come to understand what made cowboys from every country unique.

In this book by the best author Richard W. Slatta, you'll be interested in today's rodeo cowboys, movie cowboys and the modern working cowboys of the American West.

The best chapters to read and look at in this book for the times are On the Ranch, Cowboy Food & fun and The Cowboy Hero in popular culture.

In the chapter of "On the Ranch", my favorite photo is a rodeo photo on page 90 of "Chester Byers roping, Pendleton, Oregon." Photographed by Ralph R. Doubleday, circa 1935. It's the best rodeo photo of Chester Byers roping a calf as the calf has hit the end of the rope as the calf tricked the horse and rider at going a different direction and the horse is just starting to stop dead in order for the cowboy to dismount. On page 90 of "Chester Byers roping, Pendleton, Oregon." Photographed by Ralph R. Doubleday, circa 1935, you'll want to know that for this photo, here's how this goes:

Rodeos take place where the modern cowboy can compete against his fellow workers to show off his and his mount's skill in the arena. Roping calves and steers (calf roping and team roping), which forms a major part of his everyday work, is one of the many organized events together with cutting-out, saddle bronc riding, team penning and bull riding. Complete co-ordination between horse and rider is essential if a calf is to be roped successfully. As soon as the lasso has found its mark the horse will stop short and take the weight of the calf as the rope is firmly attached to saddle. The cowboy then leaps to the ground and ties the calf securely.

Again for page 90 of "Chester Byers roping, Pendleton, Oregon." Photographed by Ralph R. Doubleday, circa 1935, you'll want to know that for this photo, here's how this goes again the second time:

Another rodeo event is calf roping where the cowhand gallops and speeds after a runaway calf and tries to lasso his rope around it.

In the chapter of "Cowboy Food & Fun", got some of my favorite rodeo photos of team roping on page 170 and another rodeo photo on page 171 and over time, rodeo events were standardized to the best five events to include bareback riding, calf roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling (bulldogging), and bull riding are the best five standard rodeo events as the second best of the other six events in which as if fifteen cowboys and teams for the Miami, Florida's new rodeo called the "King's International Rodeo" (which will be real someday) compete in the six best events that fifteen of the best cowboys are in six events and they try to be called the best all-around king and represent a combination of the tasks a modern mounted cowboy might perform every day and the events are: saddle bronc riding, cutting competitions, team roping, calf roping, team penning, and most dangerous of all bull riding.

In the chapter of "The Cowboy Hero in Popular Culture", got some of my favorite photos from Western TV shows of Gunsmoke and Bonanza and my real favorite photo is 193 is of the cast of Bonanza on horseback. Lorne Greene (center) played Ben Cartwright, father of three grown sons. Michael Landon (left) and Dan Blocker (right) played Little Joe and Hoss, respectively, two of the Cartwright boys. Photographed between 1962 and 1970. Bonanza was filmed at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, California and Warner Brothers Studios and Bonanza is by Paramount and Warner Brothers Pictures and Paramount is a viacom company for Bonanza. Here's a little Bonanza episode as if for this book that you might be interested in and the episode is:

BREED OF VIOLENCE

In this episode Breed of Violence:

Sheriff Kincaid (Val Avery) is strict with his daughter, Joe's friend Dolly (Myrna Fahey). To escape his tryanny she leaves town with Vince Dagen (John Ericson), unaware that he has robbed a bank.
She learns the truth when he and his companions kill a guide while trying to kidnap the Cartwrights.

Guest Stars: John Ericson, Myrna Fahey, Val Avery

Written by: David Lang

Directed by: Johnny Florea

If the real book just called "Bonanza" was written by authors John Challis and David Lang, this would have been the best talking about some of the American west, Dolly Kincaid learns the truth when he and his companions kill a guide while trying to kidnap the Cartwrights, wrestling, roping and tying up cattle for branding or doctoring, the leprechauns, etc. That would be the best book of Bonanza by authors John Challis and David Lang as if it contained 380 pages and that would be the best book of Bonanza, ever.

This is one of the best cowboy books I ever read because this book sure gives my lots of information and learn a lot about cowboy stuff and I really loved and liked this book!

This book is a GEM, forever and ever and years to come:)

YEEHAA, YAHOO, Happy trails.

So many titles have been written on cowboy history that one might wonder at the need for yet another, but here's an oversized photo tribute which stands out from the crowd, surveying both myths and realities of the cowboy on and off-screen, including assessments of cowboys around the world, ranching roots, cowboy film, and cowboy representation in literature. With such a wide-ranging survey in hand, any with an interest benefits from the lively research of 'cowboy professor' Richard W. Slatta, who has already earned numerous awards for his research.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

As a debt counselor, most of my day is spent relating with and trying to assist those in debt. This book has been invaluable to my own education and the education of my clients. I am indebted to Feinberg for such a well written "insider's view" of the credit industry.

In my quest for the Holy Grail of books about personal debt and financial mastery, this book is a real treasure!
With a sharp sense of humour and a willingness to explore not just the practical but psychological aspects of the debt culture and "perma-debt" -- his term for those of us who get into endless credit card slavery -- this book reads almost as well as the mystery thriller I devoured last weekend.
And no, I'm not being cut into the profits in exchange for this gushing review.

Whether you're shopping for a loan, trying to refinance your mortgage, or hoping to avoid the pitfalls of car loans, credit cards, even loans between friends and family -- this guide will save you money.

This is an excellent guide for hikers to the wilderness areas in Arizona. It includes many fine areas, such as Apache Creek , Cedar Bench, and Pine Mountain not covered in the newer "Guide to Arizona Wilderness Areas."

Each of the 87 areas includes a quick summary of important info such as distance & elevation, detailed instructions to reach the areas and find the trailheads (and whether 4WD is required), a basic map of the wilderness area (including access roads and designated trails), discussion of geology, plants, wildlife, and sometimes historical notes. Many areas include B&W pictures.

Some areas have descriptions of activities beyond hiking, such as river running, rock climbing, and cross-country skiing.

Covering over eighty designated wilderness areas you will be suprised. The focus of the book is to provide valuable information. Geology, history, plants, wildlife, and seasons to explore are well documented. Areas rarely published make this a great book. I agree with Todd Tiddyman's review, you will enjoy this book time and time again.

Are beliefs in psychics, horoscopes, alternative medicine, and pop psychology harmless? Why don't irrational beliefs die? Why do we, and those close to us, cling to odd beliefs? This small book is a gentle, clever, yet rigorous work which actively engages readers in developing scientific psychological thinking. This book is intended for both psychology students and for readers who want to better understand the pitfalls that often prevent us from thinking carefully about ourselves, our relationships, our thoughts, and our emotions.
Why did people, who were just as intelligent as us, believe for centuries that bloodletting was the best medical treatment for most illnesses? Possibly, because most of the time ill people do recover (in spite of blood loss) therefore it was easy to conclude that the bloodletting treatment was responsible for the cure. In the rare cases in which the patient died, the explanation was that, "He was so ill that even bloodletting was not able to save him". They organized their thoughts to confirm what they already believed. Do you think we are beyond this 'confirmation bias' in terms of our beliefs about relationships, emotions, psychic phenomena, gender differences, and so on?
I once had a student who had a strong belief in sasquatches, the giant hairy beasts that supposedly live in the Pacific Northwest. When I questioned her on why the evidence for these creatures was so lacking, she told me in a whisper, "they have the power to make themselves invisible and undetectable to skeptics". This would only be a funny and trivial story if it were not the case that Sigmund Freud had, and continues to have, a huge impact on our perceptions of ourselves by making statements about our minds and motivations that are just like the student's statement about sasquatches. The similarity is that, as stated, neither claim can be tested, therefore both are unfalsifiable.
How to gently create doubt about our cognitive processes and consequent misinformation and open up learners or seekers to empirically based information? A frontal assault on individuals' current beliefs and ways of thinking may not be the best approach. It may only further convince the believers in psychics, horoscopes, alternate healers, and effortless self-improvement that empirical psychology holds nothing for them. It may have the same discouraging effect on those who are struggling in other ways with the inevitable problems that human beings have.
In the war between the forces of organized irrationality and the methods of science, this book holds a unique place. Through a series of ten interconnected narratives or 'fables', it explores the cognitive processes that make us vulnerable to irrationality and provides a world view based on psychological science. Issues such as confirmation bias, illusory correlation, hindsight bias, attributional errors, and unfalsifiable claims are covered in the narrative format. The topics of the fables parallel the organization of standard introductory psychology texts. For example, the first five fables deal with critical thinking, sensation and perception, consciousness, learning, and memory.
Both psychology students and lay readers have found this approach to be an active, engaging, and memorable way to learn.

About the Author
Dr. John Marton, Ph.D has been a psychologist for over 30 years. He has had a clinical practice and taught college and university psychology courses. He has a particular interest in debunking prevelant misconceptions about the paranormal, mental health, personal change, and relationships. For more, http://mars.ark.com/~marton/

Are beliefs in psychics, horoscopes, alternative medicine, and pop psychology harmless? Why don't irrational beliefs die? Why do we, and those close to us, cling to odd beliefs? This small book is a gentle, clever, yet rigorous work which actively engages readers in developing scientific psychological thinking. This book is intended for both psychology students and for readers who want to better understand the pitfalls that often prevent us from thinking carefully about ourselves, our relationships, our thoughts, and our emotions.
Why did people, who were just as intelligent as us, believe for centuries that bloodletting was the best medical treatment for most illnesses? Possibly, because most of the time ill people do recover (in spite of blood loss) therefore it was easy to conclude that the bloodletting treatment was responsible for the cure. In the rare cases in which the patient died, the explanation was that, "He was so ill that even bloodletting was not able to save him". They organized their thoughts to confirm what they already believed. Do you think we are beyond this `confirmation bias' in terms of our beliefs about relationships, emotions, psychic phenomena, gender differences, and so on?
I once had a student who had a strong belief in sasquatches, the giant hairy beasts that supposedly live in the Pacific Northwest. When I questioned her on why the evidence for these creatures was so lacking, she told me in a whisper, "they have the power to make themselves invisible and undetectable to skeptics". This would only be a funny and trivial story if it were not the case that Sigmund Freud had, and continues to have, a huge impact on our perceptions of ourselves by making statements about our minds and motivations that are just like the student's statement about sasquatches. The similarity is that, as stated, neither claim can be tested, therefore both are unfalsifiable.
How to gently create doubt about our cognitive processes and consequent misinformation and open up learners or seekers to empirically based information? A frontal assault on individuals' current beliefs and ways of thinking may not be the best approach. It may only further convince the believers in psychics, horoscopes, alternate healers, and effortless self-improvement that empirical psychology holds nothing for them. It may have the same discouraging effect on those who are struggling in other ways with the inevitable problems that human beings have.
In the war between the forces of organized irrationality and the methods of science, this book holds a unique place. Through a series of ten interconnected narratives or 'fables', it explores the cognitive processes that make us vulnerable to irrationality and provides a world view based on psychological science. Issues such as confirmation bias, illusory correlation, hindsight bias, attributional errors, and unfalsifiable claims are covered in the narrative format. The topics of the fables parallel the organization of standard introductory psychology texts. For example, the first five fables deal with critical thinking, sensation and perception, consciousness, learning, and memory.
Both psychology students and lay readers have found this approach to be an active, engaging, and memorable way to learn.



About the Author
Dr. John Marton, Ph.D has been a psychologist for over 30 years. He has had a clinical practice and taught college and university psychology courses. He has a particular interest in debunking prevelant misconceptions about the paranormal, mental health, personal change, and relationships. For more, http://mars.ark.com/~marton/

Wow...a text book for Psychology courses that I couldn't put down...as a Clinician at a public Mental Health Centre, I was completely 'pulled in' to the stories. I wish I had this kind of book at Graduate school. This book takes the theoretical and puts it right into the day to day everyday practice of clinicians. It challenged my assumptions, beliefs and made me re-think different cases. What a great addition to psychology courses - I'm surprised we didn't have this kind of book at Graduate school. I really made me think, and when I supervise new clinicans, I'll use this book. Great book....

This mini-serie is as close to perfect storystelling as you can get . The 'Reed's diary plot' is incredible . It seems to me the FF were created only to have this one story told . The Ben Grimm/Thing pages are terrific ,highly emotional . Claremont at his very best . Plus Jon Bogdanove pencils and Terry Austin inks !

For anyone dissatisfied with Chris Claremont's current work on FF, or thirsting to see some classic Claremont work on both X-Men and the Fantastic Four, read this series. The characterization of both teams is excellent, and Claremont excels at telling an intriguing tale involving the very origin of the Fantastic Four and a vital turning point in the life of Kitty Pryde. Franklin Richards is the focus of this book, and his take on his family and on the plight of Kitty Pryde is fantastic. Read it.

I have long been a fan of Chris Claremont's stories, and books like this are the reason why. The book provides a beautiful transition for both X-Men fans wishing to learn about the Fantastic Four and FF fans trying to start a knowledge of mutants. This reprints the four issue limited series of the same name and is a tribute to Claremont's excellent ability to capture humanity in the most unlikely characters. Although well-known for his work on X-Men and other mutant books, Claremont has also wonderfully characterized the Fantastic Four showing both their great strength as a group and family as well as their weaknesses of self-doubt and uncertainty

The era of "Reconstruction" in the aftermath of the Civil War remains one of the most controversial periods of American history, furiously argued over to this day, and "A Fools Errand" is one of the most valuable windows into it that we moderns, and especially the general reader, have access to, giving us an account of those times "straight from the horse's mouth".

Tourgeé was right in the middle of the events he describes, as one of the bitterly (and often unfairly) derided "carpetbaggers" in North Carolina, where he held various public offices, principally as a judge. A Union soldier, he settled there in 1865 with all kinds of high hopes for the rebuilding of the defeated South. Fourteen years later he returned North, utterly defeated and disillusioned.

All his and his fellows' work had been thwarted by a ruthless and efficient terrorist campaign, enjoying the near-total support of the local (white) community, and which the authorities in Washington were quite unable, and, as things dragged on, increasingly unwilling, to combat in any effective way.

In some ways this book has an oddly "modern" sound, perhaps reflecting the fact that much of the story remains so relevant today. Tourgeé's observations on his hero's (and by implication his own) resolution to enlist in 1861 display a dry cynicism worthy of the 21st Century, while this hero's letter to a northern Senator complains of the mishandling of the reconstruction programme in terms which anticipate later criticisms of another "reconstruction" following the fall of Baghdad.

It is interesting to note Tourgeé's complaints about the persistent tendency, even in the North, to romanticise the southern cause. He grumbles that before long, at this rate, men will be ashamed to admit that they ever fought for the Union. And this was written in 1879, over 60 years before "Gone With The Wind" and even 35 years before "Birth of a Nation". Clearly the will to sympathise with the fallen foe (once they were safely defeated) began far earlier than most people realise.

Yet he himself can show, if not sympathy, then at least understanding of the feelings of those who so brutally destroyed his work. One of the best things about the book is its ability, much rarer now in an age which takes colour-blind democracy for granted, to get inside the heads of those who rejected it - who saw themselves (and were seen by many others) as serving an honourable cause, though by the most dishonourable methods.

Tourgeé gives a vivid illustration of the levels of resistance which even a totally defeated society can bring to bear against the efforts of well meaning outsiders, even when the latter are backed by seemingly overwhelming force. At one point (Ch XXI) with an eerie topicality, he equates the depth of Southern commitment to white supremacy with "the zeal of Islam", and when (Ch XLV) he speaks of north and south as "convenient names for two distinct, hostile and irreconcilable ideas.- two civilisations" he again anticipates the language of the "war on terror". One recalls those lines of Kipling's

"And the end of the fight is a tombstone white
with the name of the late deceased
And the epitaph drear 'A fool lies here,
who tried to hustle the east'".

Substitute "south" for "east" and that pretty well sums it up. But perhaps there is another (middle) eastern example in our own day for those with eyes to see it.

This book is Tourgeé's "retrospect" on that part of his life. Sadder but infinitely wiser, he calls himself a "Fool" for his youthful aspirations, yet one somehow feels that that he retains a sympathy for that young idealist, and deep down still thinks the young Tourgeé (alias "Comfort Servosse") a better man than his world-weary older self. I am reminded of the survivor from World War One, who dedicated his memoirs "With deep emotion, to the man I used to be".

Though Tourgee wastes no time in presenting his views on the matter - they are in the title, after all - the rhymes and reasons of Northern Pro-Recon; Northern Anti-Recon; and Southerners are all presented in a lovely non-biased light, giving the reader all of the firepower needed to agree or disagree with Tourgee. All of this is presented in a genuinely engaging storybook fashion. Recommended as an introduction to Reconstruction or as a supplement to prior learning.

I was particularly impressed by Tourgee's use of dialogue. By constantly hearing both sides of each design and every brainchild, the reader is allowed to come to his or her own conclusions. Whether A Fool's Errand would be considered a historical account or a novel is ambiguous, but then maybe such a combination of fact and fiction is what allows literature to survive the passage of time as this work has. I was enamored as well by the way Tourgee, sitting as judge to all, openly and maliciously attacked both the plaintiff and the defendant for their contribution to the melee we know as "reconstruction". This is the only truly nonbiased approach, and it was marvelously implemented here. I feel too many works are skewed to facilitate the author's motives, especially those written about this era. Like a refreshing breeze from far away, this work brings clarity and insight to a misinterpreted time in our nation's past.

Hamshim a. Shomari is a virtual mystery man. He has spit the truth out to the youth, and has said very little since. No one has really picked up on this in the intervening 12 years, and built the kind of mass Black social movment he talked about. There are are even very few Black owned entertainment/hip hop companies of any types, less known hip hop cooperatives, as he urged, for example. Further, the Hop Hop Political Summit that has come onto the set is trapped in conventional liberal politics (the Democrats), and is not a new radical tendency or has any such potential, IMHO. Neither is Minister Farrakhan's "Millions" movements, which was invested in so much time and energy by the youth; clearly they must break off and go into an independent political direction to organize the hood directly, and no longer depend on false prophets. I kow this makes ome mad. Just stating it here: This is not a question of "diss", but cold analysis. Where is the proof of a movement(?), if it ain't in the streets, it ain't nowhere. Tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may! (Malcolm X) The youth and poor people are dying from chemical warfare, internicine violence, poverty and violence, so who is really stepping up?

Of course, hip hop in this period has been dominated by gangsta rap, which is neither revolutionary or "real" by any measure, just all about the bling, accompanied by the worst sexism and nihilism. It was produced and controlled by white media executives as self-destructive counter-revolutionary culture. That is what made the hits on Tupac and Biggie possible. I believe that a radical hip hop activist movement is still coming, and will blow up and conquer everything, just like the Black Power movement did in the late 1960's, superceding the venerable Martin Luther King and the old wing of the civil rights movemnt, and producing the Black Panther Party and other radical tendencies.

"nuff said, Let's Organize the hood! All props to Hashim A. Shomari

Hashim Shomari keeps his eyes opened so he can open the eyes of people of color. In this book he shows his concern for the Hip Hop culture and how the media is keeping the slave chains on their minds and souls. Hashim insists that the Hip Hop music has positive features of raising consciousness of the youth who listen to this music. A must read if your 'DOWN BY LAW'.

This is an excellent, short study of the political possiblities and shortcomings of the current hip-hop culture. It sheds intellectual light on a culture that has moved into the current American consciousness.

Shomari takes the reader by the hand and guides them towards understanding that hip-hop is more than music. Using the Blast Master KRS ONE to frame his argument, this is a must read for newcomers to the culture, old heads, as well as parents who want to make sense of their children's fascination with hip hop music.

Shomari predicted five years ago that hip hop would totally overtake popular culture and his predictions are on the mark.

I needed to teach myself GarageBand and fast. I was in the middle of editing a podcast with Audacity, and it wasn't working for me. GarageBand saved the day--and this book saved it even more. I picked this book up from the library to check it out ... then quickly ordered a copy for myself. It's easy to use, easy to understand, and is a great quick reference tool.

The Visual Quickstart Guides have a format where each page is divided into two columns with one column showing what you see on the screen and the other column having text that explains what's going on and what you need to do. A few such pages are then used to cover a small topic within the chapters. The small topic is self contained, easy to identify and makes a nice little mini-less all by itself. A good index leads you to this mini-lesson if you are looking for just that one thing.

In this book, the tried and proven approach is used to give an excellent beginning leven introduction to GarageBand 2. GarageBand 2, just introduced at MacWorld 2005, is "music software for the rest of us." Basically this one program, included free with iLife, enables the Mac to do the work of what used to take a whole room full of equipment.

GarageBand 2 does not come with a manual. You can, you are supposed to, learn about it by experimentation. Reading a coordinated book like this one gives you an overview that covers the entire program rather than a hit and miss approach that sometimes lets you miss things.

This is not your typical giant sized computer book. But it's quick, fast, and complete.

This is a great book, just like the title says "QuickStart Guide" and it is definitely a quick start guide.