Tim O'Brien Books

Product was delivered on time and in the condition as described. Good deal.

I purchased this book for a college Information Systems class. It is a good general overview of IS. The negatives are: 1) it is quite repetitive, especially the beginning, 2) the case studies are general -- not in-depth. Although with the right professor and class, it will offer solid support for a mangerial overview of IS.

received my item very quickly. and the book was in excellent condition

I had this textbook in my MBA class at Rutgers University for Computer Info Systems class in Spring 2004. The text in the book is too small to read. They should have made the book bigger and used a more readable font. There are 4 real-life examples in each chapter, but the backround is terrible. It has a grotesque looking glass building which obscures the text. The technology they talk is somewhat out of date, and this book nearly put me to sleep. They make it sound like everything can be simplified down to a few concepts. Zzzzz

in this book every single sentence is a long,I mean very long, definition.The amount of information pressed into each single chapter is amazing. THis book claims to be an introduction to information systems, I have some backround information and still have trouble to understand this text. I would definitely not recomend this book. Please pick something else, and there are many better books out there.

This book was a complete waste of my money and my time. The code examples dont work and it focuses on outdated maven 1. Maven is now at level 2.08 and the publishers of this book should know better than to continue putting this book out for sale.

The only full Maven book but falls short on being a good book. The book covers the older Maven version. I would rather wait for version 2.0 coverage than buy an out dated book.

This book does not apply to Maven 2, the current release of Maven. May be useful concept material but because it doesn't apply to the current version of the software it is not a good "Developers Notebook". This book should be pulled from the shelves.

While there is nothing technically wrong about this book, Maven 2 is almost a complete re-write of Maven. This book covers all the ins and outs of using Maven (the project model, dependency resolution, directory hierarchy), but the technical details are now completely out of date.

This is a great book to get a quick introduction to Maven. At about 185 pages, it gets right to the point. It's written using labs and each new one builds on the previous one.

I have used Ant and know how it works but was in the dark when it came to Maven. This book gave me the knowledge I needed to understand and modify an existing Maven project within the first two chapters.

It's not a reference manual, and it's not one of these 500 page tomes that weighs a ton but is light on substance. There's real content in a very readable format in this book.

If you are new to Maven and are scratching your head tryiing to figure out what the heck this thing is doing, read this book and you will be enlightened!

This is a huge amount of fun for everyone who likes to look at the fun and funky pinup girls of another era, and who likes the empowerment of women posing in nature's own. The records are incidental to the whole thing, of course; this was mainly an excuse to get some girlie-magazine stuff legitimately into the livingrooms of men around the nation. These were 'party records' or sometimes 'mood music' for the how-to-stage-a-seduction-scene right out of a 50s movie - the 'let's get you out of those wet clothes and into a dry martini' stuff that cracks up all liberated femmes fatales today. A sweet and sexy look back at another titillating time, before nudity became so mainstream as to spoil all the fun. This isn't Richard Avedon photography, folks - it is sometimes grey and grainy or down and dirty - but always with a sweet naivite that makes you smile. Not so much Annie Leibowitz - think more of the strip club in the seedy part of town like from the film 'Diner'. Nothing so naughty that you have to hide in the closet, this is a groovy coffee table book to get the conversation going at the next party or date-night at your own swinging bachelor pad. Great gift for the groovy-baby Austin Powers type in your life. Nostalgia cruise for the old guys, and vintage-style smirks for the just-over 21 set. And check those female forms ! No stick-girl supermodels there - those gals had curves. Real hips and bottoms and breasts, and, oh my ! Nice to see 'em well-fed and healthy from back in the day before anorexia had been invented and heroin-chic wasn't even dreamed of. This was more the girl next door - well, next door in your fondest dreams.

Face it...in the 50s & 60s, record covers sold most LPs, NOT the music. The cooler the cover, the better chance you had of selling a schlock recording. Sexy models were always in vogue, yet NUDE models were usually reserved for third party labels, bargain basement recordings and risque comedy LPs. There are a BUNCH of covers reproduced here, most of them were limited released and single pressings. This is true manna for the record collector and a great conversation piece for the average reader. Not much text but tons of full color covers featuring REAL (not enhanced or anorectic) models. Lots of topless nudity, so you may want to keep this one on the top shelf.

The back cover of this paperback has a line that says: 'A stunning collection of more than 100 nude album covers', if only that were true, well the 100 bit is true. Most of them are low budget stock shots bought by small record labels for their LP covers. Mainstream record companies were too conservative to use such blatant selling techniques. None of the covers are of any photographic or design interest (and most of the music on these LPs was produced by session musicians and is of no particular interest either).

The hundred plus covers are presented one to a page with some copy on the adjacent page, this is rather overgenerous for the text because there is really nothing to say about the covers so the author's repeat bits of the cliched copy from the back covers. I think the (mildly) most interesting covers are the ones produced for the American bachelor market during the fifties and sixties, these are now so ancient and of such awfulness that they take on a curiosity of their own.

I think it is only worth getting this book if you are interested in this very tiny corner of commercial art or maybe you'll want to own the only book that will ever be published about the subject. Worth checking out though is `Vixens of Vinyl' by Benjamin Darling, a nicely produced little book (six by six inches) of LP covers that feature females but not nudes. These covers are from major labels so at least you'll see some decent photography and design.

Another collector of wishy washy grab table records, who obviously bought anything as long it was cheap and had some nipples on the cover, proudly presents his collection. This was probably cheap to reproduce for the publisher, since none of the shown record sleeves were of any lasting value for the market and probably scratched from memory after release. The artwork shown is superficial and mostly shows images that could have been cut out of page 3 of nameless 3rd class girlie magazines. The music must have been secondary indeed, I have been dealing with music for 30 years and never met people who actually listened to this type of entertainment. On the 70's and 80's it runs even shorter than on the cheesecake tradition (gack...this word alone...) rest, not even classics like Hendrix' electric ladyland are included here...bare anything that was a little more specific or explicit. A complete waste if time - I wish someone would get a serious collector to produce such a book...

The book itself is great but it only covers 12 parks. I think they should make an updated version to this fantastic book.

This book I think would mainly be helpful for your first visit to one of the parks. I've worked for this company for 4 years and read it one rainy day when attendance was low. The only poor quality of a book of this sort is if your buying it any other year than was published it will be somewhat out of date. Our park changes every year. Attractions names, prices and locations change with the season. So use it for a general guideline for not so much what to see but when to see it. Use the crowd avoidance tips and of course read the articles about the big coasters those never change.

Cliff's notes once again delivers as a fantastic study aid. By no means should you use this as a replacement for the book. O'Brien has emerged as one of the greatest modern writers on the subject of war, and it would be a pity to overlook his writing. But if you are looking for help to write a paper on the topic, or just curious to discover more about the underlying meaning of the novel, don't hesitate to buy Cliff's Notes.

"The Things They Carried." This book has many sides to it. In one moment there is love, happiness, and serenity then moments later the reality of war flips the story! The story line is so messed up on so many levels. There is a fine line between the truth of the matter and O'Briens imagination.
This book has so much pain and heartache. With a mix of passion for other men at war. Even through all the deaths and destruction, these soldiers seem to taunt life with life and death games. If you were at war wouldn't you think that you would be making sure you wouldn't die!
For war this book sure seems to let you know how it really was. The most important thing was that it had a historical value. At least he was there to be able to tell about it.
At the beginging this book did not start at all right. Then since he was so unhappy that he did not experience a life changing effect, he focused on the negative outlook. O'Brien should have been happy he survived the Vietnam War.

Wish it had more home town stuff in it about local flavors but it is worth the time to look through for travel ideas.

Golf is not a team sport, but this book used ten different writers to come up with a murder mystery on a golf course full of celebrities. Each wrote a different segment, and sometimes the story line does not jell, but I'd say they had fun working on this silliness.

Golf used to be a man's game, and used to be called the "good walk" when the men used that means to exercise their bodies as much as their golf swings. Nowadays, they ride the golf carts and play at the game. They've actually started teaching golf in schools, and nine great values the game teaches for youth (sportsmanship, confidence, integrity, perseverance, respect, responsibility, judgment, courtesy, and honesty) ensures a future for the continuation of the game of golf.

Only one of the nine contributors was female who used such off-hand characters to pepper her chapter: Mr. Potato Head, Sensible Shoes, Book Bag Woman, 'Star Wars' star pilot, MacLout, and Cameron who directed the movei 'Titanic.' She laid out the sexual hijinks of the golfers at the castle in Scotland. Dave Barry had the middle to fill in so he used his usually raucous vocabulary as he led into an explouding golf ball made out of enough plastique to end the world as we know it.

Tim O'Brien, whose book IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS I enjoyed, wrote "On an adjacent putting green, also under umbrellas, mingled such notables as Tony Blair and Al Gore, both decked out in tweeds and starched golf shirts. Nearby, Mu'ammar Qaddafi was giving a now-or-never, sink-it-before-you-die putting lesson to Jack Lemmon, while only a few feet away Chi Chi Rodriguez did his best to adjust the clumsy, rather primitive one-handed putting stroke of former senator Robert Dole." These are just a few of the names; Fidel Castro was present as was Dan Rather and other important people.

The ending was written by the editor whoever he is, preferred to stay anonymous. The ending was explosive, to match the varied styles of writing the international language of golf. Other writers taking part in this project are Lee K. Abbott, Richard Bausch, James Crumley, James W. Hall, Ridley Pearson, Les Standiford, and Tami Hoag. How many are golfers, I wonder?

I haven't read this book in a long time, but I thought it was great. I don't know why other readers gave it such a low score. I can only think that they didn't know what type of book they were getting into. If you want to laugh out loud, get this book!

This group-written book has two things going for it: Colorful characters and a promising plot. But that's about it. Wading through several chapters to get to Dave Barry's part in this fiasco was a waste of time otherwise. While the characters are certainly vivid, NONE of them are likeable. At all. ZERO. To top it off there are more F-bombs here than a def jam hosted by Chris Rock, and not nearly as many laughs. The handoff from one writer to the next is sometimes fairly smooth, but the writing styles sometimes vary so wildly that one wonders if one is still reading the same book from one chapter to the next, and it's intended to tell one cohesive story, not be a collection of shorts. Pass on this.

This was a terrible book. Multiple authors were not able to successfully make the book flow from chapter to chapter. Character development was disjointed to say the least. Way tooooo much celebrity name dropping...it almost read like People Mag. Buy "The Greatest Player Who Never Lived" instead.

It is said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Since a camel is very efficient doing what camels are intended to do, then the remark must mean that a camel is a very funny looking horse. Well, in The Putt at the End of the World, a committee of nine individually popular writers has turned out a very funny golf story.
The Putt at the End of the World is apparently the brainchild of last-listed author Les Standiford, shown as editor and compiler. It also seems to be a salute, at least in part, to recently deceased British writer Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy series which includes The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It is certainly reminiscent of Adam's work, with zany characters interacting amidst nefarious schemes, all centered around a golf tournament. But not just any golf tournament. Computer zillionaire Philip Bates has bought a Scottish castle and cleared original growth timber to construct the ultimate golf course-as well as rehabbing the castle into an exotic hideaway retreat. This infuriates both environmental terrorists and the last of the MacLout clan, who claims that the MacGregor sellers usurped his family's claim to the property and he should have gotten the money. Then Bates (no relation to this reviewer) scheduled a conference and golf tournament inviting all of the world's political leaders and top golf players.
One of the invitees is Billy Sprague, club pro from Squat Possum Golf Club in rural Ohio. Billy is a magnificent golfer, unless there is money involved in which case he can't even get the ball of the tee. Billy's mentor is the old retired family doctor whose life is golf, who build the Squat Possum Club and who dies immediately after giving Billy his invitation and telling him that he has to go to Scotland and play in order to lift the curse and "...save the world as we know it..." Then FBI and British Secret Service refugees from the Keystone Kops get involved because of the terrorist threat, and the rest is-not history, but hilarious.
Each of the nine authors wrote one of the chapters. They did a good job matching styles, and/or Standiford did a great job of editing, because the novel is seamless. It is a farce, but at the same time has a "Bagger Vance" note of paean to the wonder of golf. It reads fast, and it reads great.

I wanted to use this book to plan some interesting stops along and off of I-40. However, there are minimal maps and unless you look up every single town in each division of Tennessee, you have no idea if they are anywhere near I-40 or not. When I have purchased from the "Off the Beaten Path" guides in the past, they had maps with the places discussed marked at least in some way. I frankly don't know how you would much use this book to plan a trip across Tennesee. It would only be helpful if you lived there and wanted to explore around a segment of the state.