A. Merritt Books

Take the guesswork out of the most important career decision you'll ever make! Which MBA program is right for you? Which school's grads get the highest total pay packages? Which schools have the highest-rated programs in management, finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, international business? What are the up-and-coming schools-those that may be at the top of everyone's list in a few years? And just as important, what kind of educational experience will you have in terms of campus life, workload, and curriculum? A slick brochure won't tell you. This book will! Completely revised and updated, the BusinessWeek Guide to the Best Business Schools is the only guide that provides accurate rankings and profiles of the best graduate business schools rated by the people who know them best: recent graduates and corporate recruiters. Find out how the top 50 schools stack up against one another and which international schools you might consider as well. Compare the top 25 with the 25 runners up-maybe you don't need the top school to get what you want. Discover the strengths and weaknesses of each school in: quality of teaching-including the most outstanding professors at each school as rated by the students; average starting pay for graduates, and success of placement offices in finding you your dream job; curriculum innovations and niche programs you won't hear about elsewhere; average GMATs and GPAs for admitted students; campus environment and what to expect when you arrive. Plus, get expert advice on how to increase your GMAT scores, earn big points with your applications and written essays, find today's bargains in a quality MBA education, get your school to foot part of your tuition, and much more!

I confess to being a professor at one of the schools mentioned in this book as the "Best". Business schools have developed a love/hate relationship with this book because although it contains a lot of good, thoughtful information, some people use it for the wrong reasons.

Make a distinction between the RANKINGS and the extended essay-type descriptions contained on the top scools. The RANKINGS tell you (possibly) two things: they tell you (maybe, sometimes) about the quality of the results the graduates get, and they tell you....well they tell you whether you will get bragging rights to your friends. In other words, the rankings have developed their own prestige which is SEPARATE from the issue of whether they have anything to do with quality.

So consider the rankings with caution...do you need the reassurance of a very high ranking....or do you really care about quality of program? This book actually tells you a great deal about the quality of the program, including everything from details about the curriculum, what they are looking for in admissions, which teachers are held in highest esteem, and general comments from recent students. THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE NUMBER. It's related to the number, but it's not the same thing.

Remember, however, not to stop with this book: the information given in any edition will start to get inaccurate before it hits the bookstore. I can think of 5 or 6 top schools with new deans within the past year or two. Perusing through the book I see a good number of "top faculty" that either have already gone on to another institution, or are non-tenured faculty on short-term contracts, who may be gone by the time you get there. Even the curricula change pretty quickly. Back up your reading of this book with school's web sites, visits, talks with alumns, etc.

After all, the question you really want the answer to is not "do grads of School W make more money and have better careers than graduates of School Y?", it's "Will I MYSELF have a better career at School W than School Y." Rather than worry about the ranking of the school you get into, find the school that works for YOU. Finally, I see other reviewers saying "this book got me into the BigBucks school." I think that reviewer's intelligence, personality, and experience got him in. If he hadn't gotten in to BigBucks, he would still be smart and hardworking, and the school that got him would have been lucky. And (for the record), the number at our school is just great!

I bought many books while applying to MBA. I felt that the Business Week's book could be helpful. Yet, I would suggest that you avoid this one since it has nothing except a collection of basic information that you can normally find on b-schools' website. Do not expect real insights on b-schools (it has been written by journalists who do not know much about the real stress of MBA application), no advice to craft powerful essays that will get you in, and no tip to ace interviews!!

Look no further. This book has EVERYTHING one could ask for when applying to schools.

This guide has been called "The bible for prospective students" by the London Times for good reason. If you are considering applying to the top programs, this guide will help you narrow your focus and apply to the schools that are the best fits for your profile. (Yes, your chances really are the greatest at the schools where you are best suited.)

BusinessWeek provides a good overview and some keen insight into the top 25 MBA programs as well as the 25 runner up programs. The guide also contains good information on its b-school ranking process. A word of caution though. This book does not contain highly detailed information on the profiled schools and if you do decide to apply to any of these schools, you will want to conduct some additional research for your "Why I want to attend your business school" essay.

Pass Key to the LSAT provides excellent basic study tips and guidelines for the LSAT. This book is highly recommended for its information, affordability, and user-friendly layout.

This book is great. I've taken a lot of these standardized tests, and I've found that for a test like the LSAT, the best preparation is to know the format of the test well, to practice each section (timed and untimed), and to finish with taking a few full length practice tests. There is no need to buy a big ... book for the LSAT. There's no need to take a course. Simplicity is the key and this book is all you need. It's a ... good little book.

this is a decent little book. the organization is well thought out, and unlike other lsat guides i used, structured to aid in learning. the problems and questions are about as good (or bad) as the other books (it's best to also get actual testpreps from LSAC--actual past tests for practicing--they sell them here too i've noticed). this is a good book to pair with another book that specializes in your weak spot. all of these books, in my experience, are very similar in their strengths and weaknesses-- this one is very good for the price.

This book was the worst LSAT book I used to prepare for the test. It's compact size made it stressful on my eyes and the book was hard to keep open during a practice test. The questions were misleading and sometimes irrelevant. I would estimate my score went down from using this book.

I would recommend this book to someone who is wanting to narrow down their trouble spots and then move on to another source to tackle them. This book is excellent at helping you sort out your problem areas and gives questions that are about the same as those found in other test prep books. I found this, combined with a pile of prep tests availble from law services prepared me well for writing the lsat. I wouldn't suggest one use this book on its own and expect to get gleeming scores. It works great to a point, but another study aide is essential to compliment it.

This is a wonderful book the that clearly explains the different available retirement plans. While the descriptions seemed detailed, I would like to see a later volume that explains any changes in the new Roth legislation. A great book for those struggling with options.

it amazes me how people can write books who really don't have a grasp on all of the information they write about! He at one point is advising people on which investments to put in their ira but gives a lot of misinformation. First of all, fixed annuities have no front end sales charge at all which differs from the "cheaper" investments he refers to that can cost as much as 5% of your entire assets to invest in. As for hidden fees , I think mutual fund companies have that down pat between the annual management fees and transaction commisiions! Secondly, he is speaking only in terms of what those funds were making at that time and not what someone can expect on average. How do you like Janus worldwide now, my friend!

This is an excellent book. A must have for anyone interested in investing in an IRA. It clearly explains the different types of IRA's and how to invest in them. The book is well written and not condescending to the reader. It takes you step by step through the traditional IRA and Roth IRA so you can determine which one is best for you. An investment anaylsis of the two IRA's is shown so you can see the tradeoffs for different situations that may affect you. The book gives practical investment stategy and selection tips. The many tables and charts help clarify the topics. They also serve as a good investment resource. I highly recommend this book.

This is one of the wildest and most imaginative of the early pulp novels. Though it suffers from various plot weaknesses and simplistic characterizations (I've docked it one star for a somewhat racist caricature), the visual descriptions of this hidden world and the geometric shapes that form and reform into various entities are the most mind-blowing this side of a tab of blotter acid. With the advances in computer animation today, someone could do this novel justice and make a stunning movie.

5.5" x 8.5" softcover book. 237 pages.

Of great important to readers of weird fiction is the first installment in Hippocampus Press' Lovecraft's Library series. Aimed at reprinting texts that H. P. Lovecraft read and admired, the inclusion of Abraham Merritt's The Metal Monster should come as a shock to no one.

Set in the Trans-Himalayan mountains, a group of four explorers uncover a lost-race, their power-crazed leader Norhala, and the metal homunculus Norhala controls. More akin to the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard than to Lovecraft, Merritt's concept of writing a "nexus where scientific theory and occult mystery intersected" seems philosophically aligned with Lovecraft's own aesthetic of the weird. Readers will surely notice certain similarities between Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness and The Metal Monster.

Though The Metal Monster should feel dated, it surprisingly seems as innovative and fresh today as it must have upon first publication. The lesson learned, it would seem, is that a great author is able to create works that transcend time.

Abraham Merritt's second novel, "The Metal Monster," first saw the light of day in 1920, in "Argosy" magazine. It was not until 1946 that this masterful fantasy creation was printed in book form. In a way, this work is a continuation of Merritt's first novel, "The Moon Pool" (1919), as it is a narrative of America's foremost botanist, Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, narrator of that earlier adventure as well. As Goodwin tells us, he initially set out on this second great adventure to forget the terrible incidents of the first; if anything, however, the events depicted in "The Metal Monster" are at least as mindblowing as those in the earlier tale. While Goodwin had encountered underground civilizations, frogmen, battling priestesses and a living-light entity in the earlier tale, this time around he discovers, in the Trans-Himalayan wastes of Tibet, a surviving Persian city, a half-human priestess, AND an entire civilization made up of living, metallic, geometric forms; an entire city of sentient cubes, globes and tetrahedrons, capable of joining together and forming colossal shapes, and wielding death rays and other armaments of destruction. As in the earlier tale, Goodwin is joined in his epic adventure by a small group of can-do individuals that he meets in the most unlikely, godforsaken areas of the world. This time around, it's a brother-and-sister team of scientists, as well as the son of one of Goodwin's old science buddies.
The sense of awe and wonder so crucial to good adventure fantasy is of a very high order in this book. Goodwin & Co., in one of the book's best set pieces, explore the living city of metal, and witness the life forms feeding off the sun, reproducing, and preparing for war. Later on, Merrittt treats us to a titanic battle between the metal folk and the lost Persians, as well as an hallucinatory cataclysm at the novel's end. Indeed, much of the book IS hallucinatory, with the metal shapes coalescing and morphing like crazy Transformers gone wild. A book by A. Merritt would be nothing without his hyperstylized, lush purple prose, and in this tale, his gift for somewhat prolix prose is given full vent. At times these incessant descriptions wear a bit thin, and at others they paradoxically fail to stir up pictures in the reader's mind eye. (I defy anyone, for example, to say that he/she was able to fully visualize Goodwin & Co.'s initial nighttime entry into the city of the metal people.) For the most part, though, these descriptions are amazing. Just take this one small sample. Whereas other writers might simply say that Goodwin entered a chamber with multicolored lights, here's what Merritt gives us:
"...a limitless temple of light. High up in it, strewn manifold, danced and shone soft orbs like tender suns. No pale gilt luminaries of frozen rays were these. Effulgent, jubilant, they flamed--orbs red as wine of rubies that Djinns of Al Shiraz press from his enchanted vineyards of jewels; twin orbs rose white as breasts of pampered Babylonian maids; orbs of pulsing opalescences and orbs of the murmuring green of bursting buds of spring, crocused orbs and orbs of royal coral; suns that throbbed with singing rays of wedded rose and pearl and of sapphires and topazes amorous; orbs born of cool virginal dawns and of imperial sunsets and orbs that were the tuliped fruit of mating rainbows of fire...."
Almost like prose poetry, isn't it? With writing like this, a well-thought-out plot, exotic settings and some great action sequences, "The Metal Monster" does indeed live up to its rep as a fantasy classic. There ARE some unanswered questions by the book's end, but that only adds to the aura of cosmic mystery that Merritt has built up. The book is a winner, indeed.

dIsHa bOoKie iSh vEWi gEWd...tAG...oH gEeZ...wIsH hE wAz rEAL! LiNdA iSN't rEALly iNteReSTed iN hYm aT fIRsT cAuSE sHe'Z bEEn hAPpI lIviN' dA siNgO lYfE aFTa hEr dIvoRCe wIth hEr eX...i dUn bLaMe hER oNe bIt! tAg rEALly stARTz gEtTin tAh hER...aNd yEA! sO...oVErALl...diS bOoKie iSH eXcELlEnt...pLot iSh eAzEe tAh uNdasTAnd! (dATz a pLUs!) hIghLY rEcOmmENdEd! bUt wAIt! u'Ll hAvE tAH cONtiNuE iN tHA nExt bOoK iN dA mINi-sERieZ tAH fINd oUt tHA cONclUsiOn oF dIs sTorIe! HehE!

I'm reading this book for an Lit. project. I have read some of it and so far Linda Fioretti moved to Rumor, Montana after she divored cheating, lying husband. She's a high school teacher so she has a good name so far, everyone knows who she is. A guy named Tag came to make improvements to the apartment building. She was starting to take a fancy to him. This is as far as I have gotten in the book but I hope it's a good book!

Linda Fioretti moved to Rumor, Montana after she divorced her lying, cheating husband. There she meets local carpenter Tag Kingsley when he comes to do work on her apartment. Tag's a widower with a young daughter. There is an immediate attraction between Tag and Linda. Since his wife's death, Linda is the first woman he's wanted in his life. Strange things keep happening to Linda. A strange man keeps coming to her door in costumes, a stranger enters her apartment when she's gone but Tag is there painting, etc.

I really wanted to like this book because Tag is such a great hero. He is sexy and sensitive. His relationship with his daughter is touching. The problem with the book and the reason I didn't like it is Linda. She is just totally unlikable and unreasonable. Any concern that Tag shows her sends her over the edge but she doesn't seem at all bothered by the stranger that seems to be stalking her even after she knows he's been in her apartment. Skip this one; it's not worth it.

I rarely stop reading a book once I've started it. Can count on one hand the number of times I've done that--and this was one of those times. Dark, depressing and written like a draft in a writer's workshop. Lacks character development and any ray of hope/light.

This is a love story about two married mountain climbers, whose final climb together takes place in the beautiful Tatras mountains of Slovakia.

It has beautiful naratives, authentic characters, as well many thoughtful relections.

The book ends in Slovakia near the end of the Communist era and recalls to mind how awful that period was in Eastern Europe. How quickly we forget.

It is a good read for climbers or non climbers alike, and for anyone interested in the realities of life in Eastern Europe before the Wall came down.

Mountains matter in a country often referred to as the rooftop of Central Europe." Possessed by Shadows takes one on an unforgettable expedition deep into Slovakia's Tatras Mountains-a human as well as physical journey of three climbers and the tangled lives they lead.

Donigan Merritt, the author of five other novels and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' workshop, is a master at crafting a novel that moves back in forth in time and relies on several voices as opposed to a single narrator. This is a book that seems chaotic initially but comes together magically at the end. Bits and pieces of information coalesce into a logical whole by the closing pages of the novel.

Merritt also is skilled at creating characters. Although he is a male writer, his female characters are the most masterful and compelling-especially Molly and Sasha. Furthermore, it's obvious from this book that he has traveled and climbed in Slovakia and understands the country's cultural and physical geography very well. His book captures a very important slice of that country's history-the dark period just before the Velvet Revolution in 1989. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Slovakia, climbing, or human relationships.

I love a book that, when I'm through, I can put down and walk away feeling happy, content, and still lost in the characters. Jackie Merritt's book "Tough to Tame" left me feeling all these and more.

Jake Banyon has had a rough time with love in the past. Deserted just weeks before his wedding day by his fiancé fresh out of high school and completely broken hearted, Jake spent years throwing everything he gained away. Any money he made he tossed away on booze and slept with any woman who showed the least bit of interest in him. Finally, after hitting rock bottom, he found solitude and happiness working as a ranch manager at the Wild Horse Ranch owned by Stuart Paxton. For four years Jake has lived completely content with his new womanless life on the ranch. Then Stuart calls from his home in New York and informs him that he's sending his daughter Carly for a visit. Instantly, Jake's heart falls to his stomach and the fears begin to grow. Having a woman on the ranch was going to be nothing but trouble and boy is he ever right.

Carly Paxton has suffered through a three year marriage with an abusive husband. The only good thing that has come out of the years of misery is the divorce. Being concerned for his daughter's happiness and well-being, Stuart Paxton talks her into taking a vacation to the family ranch in Wyoming. Determined to please her father and not cause him any more worry, Carly agrees. Peace and relaxation may be just what she needs after all. However, from the moment she steps off the helicopter onto the compound of the Wild Horse Ranch and lays eyes on Jake Banyon, she knows she's in for a lot more than just a simple vacation.

The characters in this novel are so well formed and developed...from Jake and Carly to the ranch hands with the smallest of parts in the plot. You escape into the lives of Jake and Carly leaving all reality behind. You feel their longing, their reservations, their pain and most of all you feel their love. "Tough to Tame" is moving, hysterical, suspenseful, and completely romantic from the first page to the last. A book that you won't want to put down and wish it didn't have to end.

A definite must read for anyone who loves romance and even those who don't.

I thought that this book was not so bad. It's my first book by Jackie Merritt. There were some interesting parts and some boring ones. I would reccomend this book for Desire lovers.

I generally like Jackie Merritt's books, but this one had me baffled. I thought both characters could have used some counseling. This was like a typical 1970 contemporary romance novel where both characters couldn't say 2 kind words to each other, yet were secretly in love. And in the middle of an argument, they would begin to make out. I just didn't think this book was up to Ms. Merritt's usual standard. It will make me think twice before I get another one of her books. I would not recommend this one.

I've read Sandra Hill and other authors Viking stories and been quite happy with them but this book was never more than just okay. Kelda, the adopted daughter of a Viking Chief sails to find his half Iriqois son who he wishes to take over as chief when he dies. The problem is when Kelda and her men arrive, they are treated as prisoners and she finds out the chief's son Brander wants nothing to do with the Vikings. When she finds a way to bring Brander and his mother to the Viking camp, it is for Brander to discover that another man is bethrothed to Kelda and is being groomed to take over when the leader dies.

I think my biggest problem with this book is the way the dialoge reads, you viking, I am a great Iriqois, etc....Its predictable and sometimes a little silly but not boring.

"Viking Captive" is one of my favorite novels by Emma Merritt. Not only was Merritt extremely detailed with her historical information, but she also wove a beautiful love story that centers around two extremely conflicting characters. Kelda, a viking warrior and leader, travels to North America in search of her chief's possible lost child and to also pay a blood debt to the Norse cheif who had raised her as his own. She is captured and enslaved by an arrogant war cheif known as Brander--who Kelda knows is part Norse because of his build and his hair color. As Brander's slave, Kelda must decide how to deal with her attraction to such a captivating man and find a way to get away from him and back to her home. Kelda fights her feelings for Brander physically and emotionally, and swears that if Brander wants anything from her, he will have to take it by force. The book then describes some of the battles that Kelda not only fights with Brander but with the way of life of the Indians that she is forced to live amoungst. She befriends Brander's mother (who also happened to be in love with Kelda's Norse Cheif long ago...hint..hint) and aquaints herself with a few of Brander's warriors. Another interesting part in the novel is the conflict of how Brander will "brand" Kelda as his slave (Even though he doesn't treat her as a slave, he still must physically "mark" her as his so that no one else will hurt her).

I absolutely loved this book. There's something about a sexy half-blood warrior with a chauvanistic attitude that I can't resist. Along with Kelda's wit and strong will to add the love and spontaneity that we all hope to find one day, this book proved to be quite a page turner. If you find it, keep it, because this kind of historical romance is few and far between.

NOTE: Due to the period of time that this book was written, it has the simple, historical writings of most books written in the 1980's...some/little sex (it's a steamy book since Merritt wrote it)...lots of action...lots of historical facts.

This is a interesting book because of the tie in with the Vikings and North America's Iroquois indians. I like the story because both the h/h were strong but gentle. They both were warriors and they respected each other that way. Which lead to respect of thier feelings for both their families and their feelings for each other. I liked the fact that this book brought together an older couple who had lost each other 30 years earlier back together. This is a good read so if you see it I'd pick up a copy.

This collection of essays purportedly addresses the philosophical theory of technological determinism - the belief that human behavior and culture is driven by technology and its unintended (or intended) consequences. Of course, the theory has many nuances and permutations, which are explored in depth by the various writers here. The book starts off with fine introductions to the topic, particularly the opening essay by Merritt Roe Smith and the seminal "Do Machines Make History?" by Robert Heilbroner. Unfortunately the book then descends into standard turgid theoretical obfuscations of dubious usefulness to anyone other than each professor's immediate colleagues. Examples include the standard academic exercise of reinterpreting the ideas of earlier thinkers and calling the results a new theory (Bruce Bimber, Thomas Mina), or forcing existing theories together and taking credit for the resulting "breakthrough" (Rosalind Williams, Leo Marx). Another running issue in this book is a lack of distinction among technology, progress, and modernity, as can be seen in the otherwise fascinating historical report by Michael L. Smith. And as usual for academic books that collect essays by various professors, everybody repeats the basic tenets of the theory at issue before embarking on their particular interpretation or example of interest. One benefit of this book is that the editors (both in their introduction and through the essay selection process) do not try to nail down a particular position on the many nuances of technological determinism, which is healthy for purposes of discussion. Regardless, little is accomplished by the writers except esoteric reinterpretations and feeble grasps for significance. [~doomsdayer520~]

This book is a fascinating summary of a centuries long debate in history. Can the development of technology shape large scale historical trends in a society? The essays in the book are as timely now as when it first came out ten years ago. While the authors talk about the general sweep of technology, across history, it lets readers possibly get some perspective on the changes currently underway.

From reading this book, you may get the sense that maybe our age is not unique in experiencing vast technological changes. Whichever side you come down on, in the book's debate, you might now look with scepticism on claims that our age is unique in this regard. Unless of course you go with the Extropians and their siren call of an approaching singularity.

The first chapter--despite its title, "Why you need life insurance"--attempts to define all sorts of life insurance jargon without explaining why someone would need this stuff. After stumbling over the fifth or sixth typo, I gave up on this book. I hope better ones are out there.

It is a good book that gives you good information with out any personal biases