Competitions Books

This book provides easy-to-understand answers to the who, what, why, when and HOWs of junior showmanship. It discusses the importance of your appearance in the ring, your dog's grooming, potential careers for junior handlers, and many other subjects, in addition to the basic patterns used in the junior showmanship ring. I highly recommend it if you are able to find it!

This is an outstanding guide. My parents bought me this book when I was just starting out in Jr.showmanship...I read this book every night, studied it 24/7. It tought me every thing I needed to know to win in the ring. I remember quizing my self in the A-reveiw, thanks to that I was always prepared! I must thank Marsha Hall Brown and Bethny Hall Mason, as they created a well rounded, complete guide to the world of Jr. Showmanship! It helped me.... I became One of Canada's top Jr.'s...with records that still have not been broken.I retired from Jr's in 98' thankful for all that I have acheived!

Congratulation! An exceptionally well written problem-solving book and the price is good for a teacher and a student to discover the beauty of math from a competitive perspective.

A gentle and nice introduction to math contest problems. The problems are beautifully posed and many are unusual. Most are not as hard as Titu Andreescu's problems but serve as excellent prelude to them.

Some books start off completely over the reader's head, but I've found that "The Next To The Last Word" is an "easy read" and has tools that I can actively use even before I finish the book. I've really enjoyed the writing style of Dr. Barr and Ms. Hoffman.. I find myself reminded of the Dr. Phil McGraw books in that the down to earth, real life strategies are used as examples. It's definitely a book I'll be placing on the same shelf as the others I've gone back to time and time again. I hope you enjoy it and find as many tools in it as I have.

The Next to the Last Word is far more than a how-to book on relationships. It helped me develop a whole new attitude about life. While reading about the author's life and the coflicts his clients have worked through, I felt as if Dr. Barr and I were having a conversation. This book is very well written, full of life and gives hope for the future. I highly recommend it to people in all types of relationships -- lovers, friends, family members and coworkers.

This game is absolutely fantastic. I've got a pair of buddies at work that I've conscripted into playing on lunch breaks, and we've all become addicted.

The humor just keeps us laughing, and the "But you must explain how" conditions on some cards always create good times. I would highly recommend also purchasing the Sumo Size Me addition pack as the money and honor counters alone are worth it, not to mention the awesome new cards.

While I have been a fan of Steve Jackson for quite some time, my love is now firmly cememted after playing several of his newer games this weekend.

Picture the bad kung-fu movies of the 70's, now adopt one of those personas and deliver delicious hamburgers in 30 minutes or less, without being seen! Very tongue in cheek, and loads of fun. After selecting a persona, you get Fortune cards that can help you out on your mission, or hurt someone else's mission.

Then there are the missions. The mission cards have a set of dice rolls you must make, compared to your persona's abilities. If you succeed, you gain honor; if you fail, you lose honor. The player with the most honor gets the promotion to store manager, and wins.

Example - Ski Lift.
Man enters ski lift at bottom of hill hungry. When he reaches top, he is full of hot delcious Ninja Burger!

You must make a stealth roll at -2 because uniform contrasts with bright white snow. Next, you must make a climb roll at -1 to scale icy ski lift tower. If you win, you gain 1 honor.

In deft strokes, "Partners or Competitors" sets the stage with both Europe and America vying with each for a piece of the trade prize which is Asia. Although there is a history of competition between the U.S. and the EU, the economic downturn in Asia made both aware that they were in the same boat, in that both were going to suffer substantial losses due to debt that is unlikely to be repaid.

The competitive systems of the EU and the U.S. are similar, which creates a concomitant desire for similar outcomes in trade negotiations with Asian countries. The mutual interests between the EU and the U.S., especially in light of an Asian economic downturn, would seem to compel cooperation on trade issues and, perhaps, shared economic pressure on Asia to comply. However, there are enormous barriers to cooperation--some of which are inherent in the structure of the trade organizations currently used to negotiate international trade agreements.

The editors have put together an impressive array of contributors who, together, have written a careful exploration of the prospects for Asian trade liberalization along with the barriers to U.S./EU cooperation. Some of it is descriptive, some of it is prescriptive, all of it is brilliant.

This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in international trade negotiations, European/U.S. cooperation to affect trade policy, and the application of political power to open foreign markets.

Bravo.

This is now require reading for all of my students

a brillant, insightful exposition of a fascinating subject -- a must read for historians and all persons interested in government regulation.

This engaging and colorful account of the history of U.S. food regulation provides excellent perspective for better understanding the recent spate of high-profile, food regulation trade disputes between the U.S.and Europe, and within Europe, such as the "Banana Wars", "British Beef", and "Genetically modified corn" incidents. A must-read for anyone who who has interest in the unique nature and psychology of government actions in dealing with issues around "our daily bread". This book appears to have been subjected to a very rigorous "peer review" and I expect it will become a classic reference work.

"The Bloss book provides a standard method for determining the approximate United States Chess Federation rating of a person who solves the Mate-Rater problems...a good system...I would not hesitate to buy the book..." --Personal Computing

"Rate Your Own Chess" is a unique and timely addition to the chess canon. Chess enthusiasts of all levels can test their skill without undergoing extensive play against officially rated experts. This newly revised edition incorporates computer-chess as well as descriptive notation throughout for universal application.

The problem-oriented format itself will broaden your repertoire and hone your abilities, as dozens of USCF-rated players who tested the system discovered. You will proceed from relatively easy one-step-to-mate problems to two- and three-move-to-mate stumpers, checking your improvement periodically on the rating tables.

Over 85 illustrations provide the visually and psychologically important over-the-board perspective of actual competition.

This very practical companion for those idle times waiting in line or on a long airline flight. A must for any serious match playing chess player.

It contains a graduated set of mate -- rating problems (ranging from mates in three and up) that range in difficulty from moderate to very difficult -- to be solved in under two minutes. There are warm-up problems leading up to the actual "Mate-raters." These are non-trivial problems taken from actual match play with solutions given in the back of the book.

Scores conform to the FIDE scoring system and range from 1600 FIDE points (a class "D" Player) up to 2300 ("Master") depending on how quickly the problems are solved. Various tactics and strategies are grouped in an effort to stress given themes or weakness.

It contains 85 problems with 65 mate-raters. It is one of my most prized possessions.The diagrams are clear easy to analyze three-dimensional pictorials. A valuable contribution to any chess library. Five Stars

It is not too late for America to wake up and change her ways! Read this insightful book and start doing your part to solve the problems NOW. (For the savvy readers, another recommendation is "New Inequality" by Richard Freeman.)

Smith provides a well written pictures of the differences in how the US elementary and secondary schools differ from our global competitors. He illuminates the way Japan & Germany prepare the non-college bound for productive careers in today's economy. It stimulated my thinking about our school systems for the 70% who never get a degree and are ill-equiped for tomorrow's careers.

This novel created a rich densly packed world I would not have otherwise traveled to with eccentric and suprisingly familiar characters met along the way. The story carried a wonderful genuine story of someone finding them self lost in the woods and yet returning to their own path even when others try to stop them. I look forward to reading more from the author.

Yes, it is a little lame to review your own book, but, hey, someone has to push this thing into the street.

Aaaanyway...obviously I think it is a great book. I have been told by lots of other folks, too, not the least of which is the wonderful, workaholic publisher I found, after looking for, um...a little bit of time (four years), and who agreed to print my book.

This book has a little something for everyone. I tried to keep it moving, so even though I guess you could say it's a "drama", I intentionally kept building it up on some level (physical, emotional, etc.) throughout its entirety. I have been told that the dialogue is excellent, as well as the action. Yeah, it has action. I don't care if it's a drama, you still have to have action. There are fights and explosions, and showdowns and angry people conflicting with other angry people.

You get the idea.

I want to emphasize the fact that even though the backdrop is a bluegrass music scene, you don't necessarily HAVE to like bluegrass to like the book. The fact that you either don't like or don't know much about bluegrass won't in anyway lessen your ability to enjoy the story. Plus, the great thing about it being a book, for those of you not into bluegrass, is that you..well, you don't really hear any music (still trying to figure out how to do that, though--that would be cool; a book about music that you can hear, too, or a book that has, like, music for effect, kinda like the movies and stuff...hey, dibs on that patent!).

So, thanks for checking it out. And if you want to write a review, that would be great. You don't even have to buy it. You could still write a review about...about, the cover. Or, um...the summary.

Or something.

Thanks!

Zach

In a world where the relationship between many pairs of countries resembles nothing so much as two people in the same room with hand grenades ready to kill each other off even at the cost of their own destruction. The author has investigated several cases where such rivalries have head to war, and some others that have lead to a reduction in tension and maybe even peace.

Analyzing these conflicts using various different techniques yields some surprising conclusions about how knowledgeable leaders might be able to diffuse even long standing rivalries such as that between America and the Soviet Union might be put aside.

Certain regional arguments such as that between India and Pakistan over the ownership of the Kashmir area have the ability to seriously interfere with American actions regarding the fight with Osama ben Laden. If the concepts described in this book could be successfully used to defuse this area, it could be of significant help.

Finally I wonder if these techniques might be applied to the struggle between America and ben Laden. Here one side of the battle is a country, while the other is non-governmental.

SCARE TACTICS: THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL RIVALRY is a fine pick for any college-level collection strong in international political science courses: it identifies faults in conventional thinking about international conflicts and competition, examining how domestic and interstate interactions blend to encourage either international war or diplomatic relations, and it surveys how pressures and tensions within and between countries escalate into rivalry and problems. Statistics blend with analysis and research in an important key to understanding some of the influences upon and roots of international conflict.