Dave Barry Books

In case you didn't know, this book is actually written by several Florida authors, each contributing a chapter and taking the story where they so choose. I believe it was originally published in a magazine, with each author submitting the next installment of the story. The first is Dave Barry and the final is Carl Hiaasen with several other prime examples of Floridian writing genius in between.

This book covers the bases when it comes to Florida humor, taking place in Miami, we have nature lovers, skin divers, lawyers, police, Castro Impersonators, drug dealers, hit men, famous actors, and of course Castro himself. Throw in a couple of severed heads and a manatee with an identity crisis and you have an entertaining 201 pages.

The manner of the writing of this book leads to characters making drastic personality changes, some characters not getting a proper ending, and lots of laughter all around. The writing styles vary from chapter to chapter, some more focused on plot than others, but I recommend this book to anyone looking for a short entertaining read that they don't want to invest a lot into.

I'll make two separate sets of comments - one for professors and one for students.

Students first... There is a well-done website that accompanies the book, which includes outlines, sample tests & quizzes, and related study materials. The text is about average in terms of readability in comparison to other texts on the subject, and there are plenty of real-world examples to illustrate OM concepts (OM texts, as a general rule, don't read well). You may be able to get by with a previous edition if the textbook contents are your priority, but be advised, however, that the seventh edition contains some new and revised material, a few chapters have been re-arranged, and there are some different end-of-chapter exercises and cases.

For professors... You are probably already aware that OM can be challenging for the professor as well as the student, esp. with respect to where to aim the course - to the managers and generalists, or to the technicians & quantitatively-oriented. Heizer and Render have enough material to support either approach. The text is accompanied with ample instructor resources, including a CD and a website with slideshows, notes, outlines, and various other pedagogical tools. The testbank is easy to use, but should be supplemented with some quantitative short problems (if a quantitative approach is important to you).
Heizer and Render have also done a fair job of keeping the material up-to-date, which has resulted, after seven editions, in a pretty decent product. For me, the instructor resources and the comprehensiveness of the content (adequate support for either a managerial or quantitative approach) make Heizer and Render a good choice by comparison to other OM texts.

First of all, this book has very little to do with erotica. The title of the book is Passion; Men on Men. It is a collection of writings regarding men, their feelings, thoughts and emotions. There are both humorous pieces as well as thought provoking ones. Yes, there are some writings concerning gay men but straight men are not left out; longing is universal after all. It is truly a mix bag of essays and excerpts from books. An audiobook quite unique. It tries to cover a wide variety of men but it falls short to a point. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable to listen to. It is unlike any other audio product I have purchased in the past. Buy it if you want something diferent to listen to then the current best seller or book of the month. It will make you think about your gender in a fresh way. This book contains 2 audio cassettes and has a variety of readers. gay, straight and Bi males are talked about throughout the selections included here. Hopefully there will be another collection in the near future. In my opinion there is not enough written about males and their psyche. this is a shame.

Basics: 2001, hardcover, 272 pages, 32 color plates, 124 species, range maps

Three different families of birds are covered in this identification guide and reference book. It's a good book, but is not quite as meaty or extensive in text and illustrations as some of the other books on families of birds. The odd mixture of bird families and the lesser information inside causes me to suspect a desire of putting out another bird-family book may have distracted from producing a more solid, complete reference on these families or, on just the wren family by itself.

The 32 color plates contain 5-15 illustrations each. The artwork is good, but I have minor disagreements with some of the colors. Some birds, such as the LeConte's and Curve-billed Thrashers, look too gray, almost to the point of having no brown or tan. Many other birds seem to be printed too darkly. Also, the illustrations for the Curve-billed Thrasher don't adequately display the subspecies. I also would like to have seen more illustrations included for many of the species. Only one drawing is provided for 41 of the 124 birds. In a welcome contrast, many plumages are shown for the House Wren complex and the Winter Wren. Alas, most of the Winter Wrens appear to be too dark.

The text ranges from 1-4 pages for each bird. Most of the coverage goes to identification, description, and geographical variations. Regarding the identification section, it is adequate but is typically no better than a localized field guide covering that particular bird. The variety of subspecies is addressed, giving brief descriptive and distributional notes for each. This coverage of subspecies is important for wrens such as the Marsh, House, and Winter. Additional text covers taxonomy, voice, habitat, habits, status, breeding, and food.

The range maps show good detail and include political boundaries for countries and states. However, the country boundaries can often be very faint and difficult to see. It would have also been helpful to distinguish the ranges of the various subspecies on the map.

This is a good reference book that should be added to your library of other family identification guides but, its quality is a notch below its counterparts.

This book provides the best introduction to the concepts behind Obj-Oriented Programming I've ever seen. It makes every other attempt to reach beginners that I've read (and there were several) seem ham-handed by comparison. After reading it, I didn't feel like I was a master, but I did feel that my basics were on totally solid ground, and I had ample confidence to go to advanced-level books.

I agree with some critics that a chapter on how to use MRJ would have been a good idea. Since I had CodeWarrior Pro already, I can't comment on the software that comes with the book.

If you're looking to begin your computing experience with computer programming, this is a very good foundational book. Boone and Mark hand-hold you through the process, and Java seems very simple under their tutoring. However, as I've begun to program and use this as a reference book, I have occasion to go back to it and try to find coding I'd read about, Finding lost coding is almost impossible. It seems as though very little time was spent on the index and glossaries. In other books like Laura Lemay's HTML book, there was a lot of time that was spent recapping the chapter and listing all the code in a concise, timely manner. There is nothing like that in this book. It wasn't bad enough for 3 stars, but 4 stars seems a little much, too.

If you have no previous knowledge of any of prog_lang, start with Dori Smith book, then go to free Sun's tutorial. If you are familiar with OOP, this book will be nice transition to more advanced topics. Great book if you fit profile above. Mind you, to play around with sample code, get JDK. 3 stars, because the book should make clear that some of the later chapters are out of the reach of average beginner to programming.

Learn Java on the Macintosh just doesn't have the meat one needs to become a well-versed Java master. Including CodeWarrior actually retards learning. Restricting the user to a particular IDE, and not allowing him/her to take advantage of Apple's frequently updated MRJ SDK (a free toolset from Apple), is a painful blow.

If that were the only flaw, Mr. Boone could be forgiven, but it's not. Though the examples that are presented are easily readable and simple to perform, not enough effort has been spent by Mr. Boone to make sure his reader can expand upon these simple skills at the book's completion.

After reading the several hundred pages, the reader has done no more than been led by the hand through the most simplistic tasks (and has been tied to CodeWarrior if s/he wants to get them done).

To really get down and dirty with Java, take a look at Exploring Java By Patrick Niemeyer & Joshua Peck ISBN 1-56592-184-271-9. By the second chapter you've already been exposed to Java class hierarchies and paint methods (two topics Boone barely mentions).

It's a shame though. Mark's book on C is a wonderful volume. But Boone took too long to get going (I have an electronic copy and started printing out what I was going to actually read at page 187) and finally comes up short. Java is a field where Windows isn't the name of the game and cross-platform functionality is. Java's the perfect langauge for the Mac; the book just ain't!

Ruffin Bailey

The authors do a good job explaining the easy conceptual stuff and simple code in the early chapters and, as a total programming neophyte, I was very impressed--at first. But when they get to more complex code examples in the middle chapters--forget it. IMO, they throw too many concepts at you, too quickly, and with poorly articulated definitions and garbled explanations, and you're left shaking your head, slack jawed with confusion. I don't claim to be an Einstein, but I've got a very strong conceptual and logical intelligence, years of Mac experience, plus energy and dedication to the task of learning--and I can't get through this damn book. The other frustration is the CD that came with the book. It was burned in 1996. When I loaded it on my Mac it put files in my system folder which conflicted with my other start-up items. I called the CD's manufacturer, Metrowerks, they politely washed their hands of it. Said it was written for system 7 and was, in 1999, now "out of date" and they bore no legal responsibility for it. In fact, the fine print in the back of the book says as much. OK, you got met. So I called the publisher, they agreed to "send me a replacement" book. Now I have 2 copies of this frustrating book, both with out of date software. So had to go out and get Metrowerks updated software for about $80 (which works fine), so I could use my book. Shame on you Addison Wesley, for leaving this book out on the market with apparently out of date software, and for doing such a poor quality editing job.

This book would have been ALOT better if ALL of the example files were included in their download site. Many of the examples claim to be from Photoshop and Illustrator Sample Files (Stock Photography). But they are not in mine, and I checked the original installation discs and they aren't on them either. It seems rather cheap to have not included a disc with the book.

I don't know why people who don't know what they are doing, write titles and claim to be experts... this book tells you nothing new about Photoshop or Illustrator. You can save your money on this one.

To the guy who said the reviewers must be friends of the authors, ah, ok sure.
Everyone has their opinion - you didn't like it, I did. I got some useful tips and I really like the way they combined explaining techniques with real projects.
I look forward to an updated version of this book.

I have the classroom in a book series for both Illustrator and Photoshop, and this book beats them hands down! The preliminary info is very helpful, explaining the theory, before you move on to trying things. I have always felt that the CIB series didn't always tell me WHy I was doing things, but just told me to do a step. This book covers the WHY and also offers some cool possibilities of other things to try. If you use both Illustrator and Photoshop, this is a great bok. (Even if you only use one or the other, I would still recommend it for the very helpful, practical concepts that it explains)
I hope they keep bringing out more of these types of books.

I don't know who wrote the other reviews, unless they were friends of the authors... the book does little to promote any knowledge of the programs... and you'd be better off opening Photoshop and Illustrator and figuring it out on your own.

Avoid the title... it's not worth the price.

I had a lot of fun reading this mess of a book, but if you are looking for a 'normal' novel then you might want to run the other way. This is NOT a book to be taken very seriously (and if you try then you'll probably end up hating it). It's like the pass a long stories you wrote with friends back in school - it jumps around adding and dumping characters at will and it sometimes seems like the authors wanted to see how crazy they could make their chapter end to see how the next author would write their way out of the mess. I think it was pure ridiculously demented fun from Dave Barry's opening to Carl Hiassen's ending.

If you are a fan of any of these authors, do yourself the favor of sticking with their individual efforts. Hiaasen's chapter (the final one) cracks broadly at the missteps of several previous authors. I enjoyed only 3 chapters (Berry, Hall, & Hiaasen), and I put up with the rest to see how Mr. Hiaasen would tie it up. Even his talents could not salvage this - and here, I strongly agree with other reviewers - MESS.

I found Naked Came The Manatee to be an enjoyable read. I liked the different writing styles that wove the storyline together. I borrowed the book from our local library and liked it enough to buy my own copy. It was interersting and entertaining. The reason I gave it four stars was because I thought Dave Barry's first chapter, though good, was a little too chock full of detail. Although I have read Carl Hiaasen's Flush and Hoot among others and have enjoyed reading Dave Barry for years, I was not familiar with some of the other writers. Naked Came The Manatee has whetted my interest in reading books they have penned. All in all, a pleasant way to spend an afternoon reading. ~ Mrs. B.

First, I'd like to tell the authors that after reading this book, each of you owe me a few hours of my time which disappeared, worthlessly, from my life.

What starts out as a great idea - a gaggle of writers each crafting a chapter of a novel - quickly crashes into a confusing, poorly played game of "telephone."

You know "telephone" - the kids' game where one whispers something to the person next to him or her and the words circle the room, ending in an incomprehensible string of gibberish?

Naked Came the Manatee is a hobo stew of styles, with each writer leading us through silly plot moves and adding their own characters.

While reading each of these authors might be fun, their collective sum only reveals a bookfull of defective parts.

Back in the primary school days you probably partook in the exercise of everyone in the class writing a paragraph then passing the paper to the person sitting next to them who wrote the next paragraph, passed it to the next person and so on until everyone in the class had contributed to each of the 30 or so stories. Well that is exactly what the publishers of Naked Came the Manatee have done, with thirteen Florida authors, just on a bigger scale.

The quality of each chapter obviously varies with the quality of each author but that adds to the fun. Even though Hiaasen is on the spine also doesn't mean that all the authors are surreal humorous type writers either with some chapters being very crime thriller in style and even one, chapter 11 being poetic philosophy (must admit didn't really enjoy this one.) The story flowed on quite well (except from chapter 10 to 11) from author to author in most parts but you could definitely pick up the difference in style with each transition. The story overall lacked the high quality that many of these authors such as Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry have achieved in their own novels but it was still a very good and enjoyable read.

The basic plot of Naked Came the Manatee revolves around a Manatee, called Booger by the locals who is either part of or around the main action. Throw in a 102 year old woman, Fidel Castro, shiny steel boxes, dim-witted criminals, lawyers and politicians as well as the locals of Coconut Grove and you've got a pretty fun storyline.

If you like the multiple author novel and want to read another one that Dave Barry is in grab a copy of The Putt at the End of the World. Barry teams up with Lee K Abbott, Richard Bausch, James Crumley, James W Hall, Tami Hoag, Tim O'Brien, Ridley Pearson and Les Standiford in this surreal golfing adventure that golf related is to the world of novels what Happy Gilmore is to the world of movies.

Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need is typical, dumb fun from Barry. It will give you a some great laughs.

For anyone who read Barry's newspaper column, this book will feel very familiar. Barry's style of humor reminds you a little bit of the "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" movies: throw a million jokes at the audience; if most of them miss, it's OK, because some of them are great. There's a lot of silliness, but you don't read Barry for enlightenment.

The book is organized into several short chapters. In one, Barry goes through what you can see in each of the 50 U.S. states; of course, he insults all of the states. He also has a shorter section on Europe. Throughout the book, Barry brings up trips that he has taken with his family. One section that rang true to me was a chapter about camping; Barry said that camping is Mother Nature's way of promoting the hotel industry. I'm not a camper, so I got a chuckle out of that one. In the end, the topics don't matter so much because one reads the book to laugh at Barry's humor.

At only 170 pages, this one won't take much of your time. It won't help you plan your trip, either; but everyone needs something silly to laugh at on occasion & Barry provides plenty of laughter.

Marvel's line of hardcover Marvel Visionaries books seem like a good idea, but there are a few that while they display the highlighted author's talents, they are poorly assembled. This hardcover TPB, which focuses on legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont, is sadly misassembled thanks to only featuring single issues of his various runs on different series' instead of full storyarcs, which really doesn't display Claremont's talent as a whole to begin with. The issues we get here aren't bad though: the penultimate issue of his legendary Dark Phoenix Saga from Uncanny X-Men, an issue from his Wolverine mini-series (featuring art from Frank Miller), as well as various issues from his runs on Excalibur, New Mutants, Iron Fist, and Daredevil. While what you get here isn't bad, if you start to dig the story you're reading and want to see how it ends, prepare to lay down more cash to pick up the whole thing in TPB form. There's nothing bad here at all, and Claremont is more than worthy of being labeled a visionary, but this poorly assembled TPB fails to display just how great and influential a writer Claremont was way back when.

Dave Barry is one of the finest writers out there. Boy, I wish i could have his job, writtng booger jokes all day. This book is another of his comic geniuses just as funny as any other.