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The Complete Dinosaur edited by James O. Farlow and M.K. Brett-Surman is a comprehensive book about dinosaurs. There are many contributors that have written chapter for this book, so you get different writing styles and information is duplicated at times.

This book is divided into six parts and each has chapters written by the various contributors. The parts are as follows:
Part One: The Discovery of Dinosaurs
Part Two: The Study of Dinosaurs
Part Three: The Groups of Dinosaurs
Part Four: Biology of the Dinosaurs
Part Five: Dinosaur Evolution in the Changing World of the Meszoic Era
Part Six: Dinosaurs and the Media

What I found that was very interesting was that at the end of each chapter there was extensive references. So, if you find something that piques your interest you have something else to read about, to either clarify or strengthen your viewpoint. Also, this makes the book easy to use when dealing with technical material.

This book summarizes the current knowledge about dinosaurs at the time written (1997), and currently there are only eighty professional dinosaur paleotologists in the world. This book is written like professional scientific literature, but that doesn't make it difficult to read. Reading on you will find this book is not without controversy, as vigorus disagreements among the specialists over topics of contention will be found here as they hash out these sharp divergences of opinion.

I must say, that there is some very fine artwork, with bone of skeletons, muscle structure and complete complete fleshed out dinosaurs giving the reader a full grasp of what a dinosar looks like from the inside out. Also, questions as to what dinosaurs ate, how they raised their young, and the question that was the turning point that made the movie Jurassic Park... can we isolate dinosaur DNA are just some of the many questions that have answers in this book.

All in all, the technical jargon is at a minimum and there is a glossary of terms making your reading much more fruitful. I found the narrative easy to read and the information from this book to be exceptional.

This is a great intermediate level dinosaur book. It has a lot of details, but not enough to prevent non-experts from following it. It has 43 chapters divided into six parts. The chapters were written by experts in the individual subjects. This has the nice feature of making the chapters fairly independent, however it also makes the presentation a bit disjointed at times.

The first part deals with the process and history of discovering dinosaurs. The history of science isn't my favorite topic, so I just skimmed this part and can't really comment on it.

The second part describes the tools and techniques used to study dinosaurs. This includes excavations, the study of bones, taxonomy and cladistics, morphology, biomolecular techniques and exhibiting dinosaurs. There is a lot of interesting information, this material is fairly fundamental to the study of dinosaurs. Some of it is pretty easy to follow, some (like data management techniques) is a little more difficult to follow (for me anyway). None of it is prohibitively difficult.

Part three is a collection of chapters covering archosaurs, early dinosaurs and the various dinosaur families. Given that they were written by different authors, there is no consistent format for the chapters. I would have liked to have seen more material on how the families are related to each other. On the whole, I liked the level of detail.

Part four describes dinosaur biology. It contains a fascinating set of topics. A partial list of them is: plants in the Mesozoic, dinosaur diets, dinosaur dynamics, dinosaur eggs (covered in a nice amount of detail) and dinosaur paleopathology (a topic that doesn't often seem to get covered in this level of detail). In my experience many of these topics are somewhat neglected (either covered only lightly or not at all), this, and the quality, made it my favorite part of the book.

The fifth part deals with dinosaur evolution, including the way their environment changed thru time. It concludes with a discussion of dinosaur extinction, presenting both gradualist and catastrophist arguments.

The final part is one chapter covering how dinosaurs are portrayed in the media and how they are perceived by society.

Although the book had many authors, the quality is uniformly excellent. I generally liked the selection of topics. I wouldn't consider this an entry level book, but it's definitely readable by non-experts, I enjoyed the level of detail.

This book is very dense and covers almost anything related to dinosaurs. It is clearly intended to non-pros but it does not lack scientifical value. However, because the book was written by many authors you'll find some chapters less well written than others and some information is duplicated. My advise is to not hesitate to buy this as your first dinosaur book.

Do you want to get "into" Dinosaurs? This is the place to start. The Complete Dinosaur is a comprehensive introduction to what is currently known about dinosaurs and how it is known. From the history of the earliest fossil hunters to dinosaur biology, paleogeography and even an overview of dinosaurs in the media throughout the years.
The book is organized into chapters, each of which contains a deep look at its subject and yet is perfectly readable by laymen (such as myself). Even though many contributors wrote for this book, there is a sense of cohesiveness through the entire book. At a massive 768 pages, it is a very long read but seldom does it get tedious except perhaps a few chapters on dinosaur biology that get a bit too technical.
The book contains abundant references at the end of each chapter and a huge index a the end so it serves as a very useful reference on your library.
Other books that compare to this one are "The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs" edited by Greg Paul and "Encylopedia of Dinosaurs" edited by Phil Currie, both renown paleontologists. "The Complete Dinosaur" is more comprehensive than the first one and is arranged in a more readable format than the second one which arranges its articles in alphabetic order.
The only weakness of the book is its age. Written in 1997 it is probably due to a revision given that the fiels of paleontology has been progressing by leaps and bounds in the last few decades.

Highly recommended.

One of the best resources you can buy, thorough research, good scholarship and a wide range of authors. Can't go wrong with this resource.

Got this For my son-in-law it is a book he has wanted for a long time!

`The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters' is a superb reference source if your primary objective is the study of Paul's writings. As a one-volume source, unlike, for example, the six volume Anchor Bible Dictionary, it is a far less expensive reference of all Pauline issues on your desk. For most people, the very best aspect of the volume is its dedication to contemporary scholarship. This focus has many good points and a few problems.

The only problem I see with its `contemporary' focus is that some important works on Paul may not cited. This is only a theoretical concern, as my biggest fear, that the article on `Mysticism' would not refer to Albert Schweitzer's important `The Mysticism of St. Paul', but it does.

On the other side of the coin, all major articles include generous bibliographies to both books and articles in English, German, and French. I find no references to Italian articles, but if there were important articles written in Italian, I believe they will be here.

While some major Pauline scholars such as Ed Sanders and N. T. Wright are missing from the list of contributors, there are many authorities that do weigh in. Foremost among these are James Dunn, F. F. Bruce, and David Wright. There are over a hundred contributors, so I'm certain I'm unfamiliar with many major authorities. From what I know, the credentials of the contributors are impeccable.

While I learned early in my elementary school years that an encyclopedia was always a good place to start a research project, it was often not enough for first class work, but there were always things an encyclopedia could do which no other reference could do quite as well. And, this volume does a great job on those tasks.

First, as already mentioned, it has great bibliographies on all major articles. My only complaint is that since all the entries run together (no break to a new line when beginning with the author's name), the bibliographies are hard to read. I commonly miss an important reference when my aging eyes skip over the lines just a bit too quickly.

Second, the text has superior cross-referencing. Every time a word or phrase is used which is itself the subject of an article, the word or phrase is asterisked. I don't recall that even the mighty Encyclopedia Britannia did so well in cross-referencing. I know the Britannia's bibliographies were not nearly as good.

Third, there are lots of useful articles with information you simply don't find anywhere else, at least not with a certain amount of luck. Two examples stand out. The first is a list of Pauline colleagues, all those co-workers mentioned in Acts and in Paul's own letters, with indications of their roles. The second is the list of Old Testament citations in Paul, divided by those where the quote from the Septuagint is exact and those where the quote is paraphrased. Most of this is reprinted from classic papers on the subject, primarily by E. E. Ellis.

There is one area where one needs to use additional references. While there are excellent articles on each of Paul's letters, they do not constitute complete exegeses of the letters. Fortunately, again, the bibliographies offer excellent lists of full commentaries; however, they are not complete and they are limited to `modern' exegeses. The bibliography on Romans, for example, does not include either N. T. Wright's very long commentary in `The New Interpreter's Bible' or references to classical commentaries such as those by Martin Luther or John Barth. Second, I would not entirely trust the information here on very early Judaism, for example. On the other hand, long general articles about, for example `Law' are extremely good guidance on research on this subject going back over 100 years.

This book will not replace more specialized works, but it will do an excellent job of helping you find and understand the mountain of scholarly research on Paul from the last century.

I enjoy reading this book. It has great contributions to the identity of Paul and circumstances of his letters. Articles are written by well-known scholars. It gives you a quick and extensive overview on recent debates of the scholarship on particular topics. Instead of reading a dozen books, you can read a comprehensive summary in a article on the topic of your interest. It is a great book and I recommend it to any student of the New Testament.

I just started studying Paul and his epistles, although I like consulting commentaries to find out the meaning on the texts, I think this dictionary does the work on explaining anything in the pauline letters. It is informative and eye opening and makes you research more on Paul and his Letters. It also includes excelent bibliographies at the end of each topic. A must have for any one interested in the subject.

I stumbled across this book in an Amazon review and I am so glad I did. More than any other book I have read, this one tells the story of the United States of America in the context of the story of human freedom throughout the ages, and makes one appreciate how rare and unique this gift we have inherited (and often take for granted). Rose Wilder Lane is uncompromising, but also inspiring. God is part of the equation of freedom, and freedom is part of the natural order that allows human energy its full expression. Authority, in the form of governmental control, is what stifles human energy and has unceasingly stymied human progress. While written during World War II, I think her observations are just as accurate, and her warnings now more than ever need to be heard. Her recounting of history is unconventional, but seems accurate to me (I've read enough history to be a fair judge). Everyone, especially every American, should read this book to understand the unique and special legacy we've inherited and should strive to preserve. If you can't get a hold of a copy, it is also available via the author's biography on Wikipedia.

I loved this book, for a start the narrative is wonderful. Rose Wilder Lane is a beautiful writer, very different to modern scholars who love to check, reference and double check every fact to the point of tedium. She simply takes her ideas and goes with the flow, they bristle with energy and she is a wonderfully exciting lady who comes across as a clever friend discussing the world and its woes. Sometimes it is frustrating as you wonder how she came upon them but the overall literary experience makes up for it. She has a clear view of how she sees different people in history, the Ancient Hebrews, the Muslims and Americans that makes an intuitive sense even though its not completely backed up. I particularly enjoyed her views of the break away from paganism. Her concept of paganism being a slavish religion where people belief that outside forces control their actions was illuminating. Before Islam, Meccans worshipped many gods who they thought controlled their actions. Mohammed said there was only one god, Allah the creator and after humans were created they were on their own. She understands how pagan gods were tied up to state machinery and how modern state machinery can create viewpoints that she dubs as pagan. It's a fascinating viewpoint.
I also enjoyed her insights into how America had changed over her lifetime. Many Europeans don't understand how free America was in the 19th century, we have never experienced that sort of minimal government. Thus the concept of conservatism is different in Europe it is tied up with conserving rotten regimes that she described yet in America it is allied with the freedom of past era. I appreciated her instinctive rejection of the changes made in her society and respected her for them, especially when she talked of the form of education that was voluntary and localy organized of which she herslef is an excellent advert for. She's a story teller rather than a formal philosopher, her work (as is her Mother's) is almost biblical in the way that every word is steeped in her beliefs and positive outlook, she is instinctively moral yet she never needs to moralize as she expresses herself so well without the need to lecture and drone. I only wished she had written more, I have a book of her letters where she refers to a new book that she is working on but it never materialized. I just love Rose Wilder Lane, she makes me feel more alive.

This book is also recommended reading for people interested in Islam and its effect on Arabs, namely that of freedom.

So give it a try.

No wonder the publishers in 1943 did not push this book! It is filled with truth about Freedom and very educational. Not at all what anyone who likes to control people would want you to know about. What is Freedom, what are people operating with instead. What a great book. I am sorry no one ever had me read this book years ago. Such an uplifting style of writing. In this day and age, our Liberty and Freedom is slowly being taken away because we don't know what freedom is. This book explains it simply and with great examples. Thanks Rose Wilder Lane...

Forget high school government and econ classes. Forget American history and psychology. All you need to do is read this short, exquisite work.

Ms. Lane crafted an excellent premise that cannot be over-emphasized or repeated too often: Man succeeds when free. Using history, economics, philosophy, religion, psychology, and sociology, Ms. Lane coherently explains recorded human history and gives it a logical framework for understanding. The stories read like a novel, rather than a textbook. Her prose is succinct, precise and very effective. Her first chapter should be memorized and recited in grade schools throughout this land.

Buy a copy for your favorite student as a graduation present. Give one to your congressman, store clerk, or a total stranger on the bus. Leave it at the Starbuck's or the State License Bureau. This is the finest piece of non-fiction I have ever read. Do yourself a favor and read it at least once a year.

Dr. Plaut's book is informative, easy to read, and helpful. His direct, no-nonsense approach to treating asthma is reassuring, particularly after being newly diagnosed with asthma. His book has enhanced our ability to communicate with our son's doctors about his symptoms, prescribed medications, and signs of improvement. We are grateful for this comprehensive resource.

This is a tremedous book for anyone that thinks they might have asthma or if they actually have been diagnosed with asthma. My 22 month old was recently diagnosed with asthma and even though I'm a college graduate I was having some trouble making sense of all the medications and reading the signs when he was having trouble since he's too young for a peak flow meter. This book covers it all in great deal and teaches you how to really manage your asthma whether you can use a peak flow meter or not. A wonderful book and worth far more than the list price. The author is actually an asthma specialist and indicated you can get the information in this book from your doctor, but it would take 10 hours. It would be difficult for you to remember and you would probably not want to pay for it! I think that is a good description of this book! It goes along exactly with what my doctor has been saying, only presents it in an organized manner along with some forms in the back to keep a daily diary and treatment plan. EXCELLENT!!!

I have found Dr. Tom Plaut's Asthma Guide for People of All Ages a crucial resource as we learn about our daughter's asthma. Dr. Plaut explains asthma physiology, medications, and devices very clearly. The tone is friendly and positive. The patient stories are like a support group, giving a window into other people's experiences. Some of the stories made me count my blessings! Others illuminated issues I hadn't really thought about, but that were in fact affecting my family.

These features alone would make the Asthma Guide for People of All Ages a good buy, but Dr. Plaut's book goes beyond physiology, treatments, and personal and family impact to address two important areas many people are likely to be struggling with, and which are valuable no matter what treatment you use. It explains how to understand and respond to your individual condition; and it encourages you to take an active role in your own care.

Some doctors take a one-size-fits-all stance--"this is how I like to treat asthma," in the words of one Procrustean family practitioner we consulted. In contrast, Dr. Plaut's approach provides information and reasoning to help you to understand your particular situation. It also teaches the skills you need to identify your own personal best state, to spot your own triggers and symptoms, and to know when you need to take action to prevent further trouble.

Again, too many physicians expect the patient to blindly do whatever the doctor says. This gets my goat. Dr. Plaut's book stresses the importance of working together with an experienced physician instead of just carrying out instructions. He shows how this enables the individual or family in the trenches to handle asthma care calmly and competently in a range of situations.

Family members are encouraged to work cooperatively instead of hierarchically with one another, as well as with their physician. Dr. Plaut recognizes the common pattern where, when a child has asthma, one parent takes on the job of being the asthma authority/caregiver, and he explains why this is not a sustainable long-term plan.

In harmony with the overall emphasis on shared knowledge and responsibility, there are also chapters on dealing with asthma at school or on family vacations--where the knowledge and responsibility of people outside the immediate family become important. The school chapter has very interesting and enlightening sections on applicable laws and common indoor air pollutants--as well as on how a typical teenager might behave during an asthma episode in school!

I recommend Dr. Tom Plaut's Asthma Guide for People of All Ages to anyone interested in learning how to be an active, empowered partner in their own asthma care or that of a family member.

My son's pediatrician recommended that I read this book. Having been recently diagnosed with asthma, we were exhausted from running from doctor to doctor (for 6 years) with no answers about his "cough". We were told to do everything from "ignore it", or just give "cough medicine" so we wouldn't have to listen to it anymore. Before I read this book, I felt very out of control with regard to my son's asthma. I cried after every doctor visit because I was so utterly overwhelmed by the technical lingo and all of the different medications and when/why I was giving them. Once I started reading this book, I cannot believe how much sense everything made. I knew what questions to ask, what terminology to use and more importantly, I felt in control. My son's pediatrician even commented to me how I was asking all the right questions, and how much of a difference he could see in me! I am not as stressed when my son was experiencing a "flare-up" and I even now understand WHY I am giving each medicine and what it does to help him.
I would HIGHLY recommend reading this book for anyone who wants to know more about asthma.

I have read a number of books and articles on asthma. This is by far the most comprehensive, up to date and it is easy to understand, too. I checked a copy from my library but it is so good that I am going to purchase it for my personal reference library as well as my child's school nurse. This book even has short section explaining cough-variant asthma, which is what both me and my son have...this is a little known type of asthma which in my case was mis-diagnosed for 35 years.

I was looking for a writing guide that dealt more with plot and characterization as opposed to technical issues (grammar, syntax, etc), and this is exactly what I wanted. It helped me figure out why my character wasn't working and why the plot was flat.

So this, instead of teaching about why a sentence seems off, tells you why the *story* seems off. It's one of two writing books I've actually kept to read again.

Fiction First Aid, by Raymond Obstfeld, is packed with practical, no-nonsense tips for troubleshooting a manuscript that "needs something." It's organized simply, with chapters about plot, characterization, setting, style, theme, and the writer's life. Each chapter has sections describing symptoms, the ailment, diagnosis, and treatment. Because the author's approach assumes that the reader has already written a manuscript, I wouldn't recommend Fiction First Aid as the very first "how-to" book for a novice. But this one is high on my list of favorites.

This book is easy to read, well conceived and incredibly helpful. Obstfeld knows his stuff and he writes from the perspective of one who has been in the trenches and knows what writers need to know. Highly recommended.

I've read many other fiction writing helping books (2!), and I can solemnly swear that this one is the best. Instead of destroying your dreams of being a writer by constantly reminding you that writing is a hard business to get into (as if I didn't know that), it offers you hope. The author obviously is experienced at writing fiction, as he teaches a class. This book is well garnished with many interesting and helpful anecdotes. The problems he adresses are things that I've been concerned about in my writing, but had not been able to find answers to in other books. It's written in a very easy to read and noncondescending manner, and has good eamples. I wholly recommend this book!

I'm an editing book junkie, and this is hands down the best one I've ever read. It gives specifics on trouble spots and what to look for, and actually tells you how to fix them. So many books I've read just advise of what to do, but never show you how. I read through the pages thinking, "I do that. Yikes, I do that too." My work has improved trememdously since I read this book. I think every writer who wants to polish his work or give it a final once over before submission should read it.

This is a great on site guide for any one looking for a simple and accurate guide to building rafters.

I had a copy of this book when I worked as a carpenter. I rebought it for my son who is in the trade, and is planning to start cutting roofs in Montana. This will be a very valuable asset !!!

I have probably ruined five of these books, due to rain, losing them, etc. I just keep on buying them. After you measure spans you do not have to go back up on the roof. This is the best roof framing book of all. Five stars.

Trig calculators are for guys who wear visors, carry framing axes, and use sinker nails because they don't know how to drive a common nail. This is the book that the salty old man who takes pride in the fact that the house aint a quarter out; it's plumb level and square keeps on hand. I bought an extra copy for the old man who wore his out after 35 years, and taught me the value of doing things right. Read it and use it and you can frame any roof based on the principles it effectively teaches.

I learned to be a carpenter from my grandfather, and other master craftsmen that I worked under during my five-year union apprenticeship in Southern California. That was during the time when a lot of the carpentry teachers were still wearing white-bib overalls instead of the toolbelts we wear around our waists nowadays. This book review is derived from many sources: The various conversations I had with some of those long-gone master craftsmen from years ago, the good things that master framer Larry Haun said about this book in his Framing Roofs DVD, the use of this book by master roof cutter Steve Peters in his video series, "The Art of Roof Cutting," and a few other things that I learned along the way while researching this text, carpentry history, and this author.

An early settler and carpenter, born in 1889, by the name of Augustus Frederick John Riechers wrote this book, "Full Length Roof Framer," and published it in 1917. Then, in 1944, he renewed the copyright for a second time right around the same time as D-Day, on June 6th, 1944, when Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to fight for the liberation of Europe during the Second World War. I'm also told by a family member of Augustus that this book received its last renewal copyright in 1969 before it changed hands to a new copyright owner in 1992.

Augustus Riechers was born during a time in architectural history when the Victorian style homes were still enjoying their success on American soil as well as Great Britain. These old Victorians, especially the Queen Anne styles, were a true testament to the incredible craftsmanship and talents of carpenters at that time. Sophisticated rooflines and elaborate turrets adorned these homes like jewels never again to be replicated! These were the master carpenters that Augustus learned his trade from, and they didn't have the fancy scientific calculators that we do today with their sine, cosine, and tangent functions to cut those roofs and turrets.

Even so, according to what some of the long-gone carpenters and my grandfather told me many years ago when I was an apprentice, was that they did utilize one little booklet titled, "The Carpenter's and Builder's Practical Rules for Laying out Work." This book was written by a brother carpenter named Milton N. Rogers in 1901. I'm also told that in its day, it was very popular with carpenters because it contained useful information such as reading a steel square, rules for kerfing, along with information concerning common, hip, jack, and valley rafters. In addition, I was told that the carpenters back then really liked how this book fit into the pockets of their bib-overalls along with their carpenter pencils. However, this booklet, as popular as it was, did not cover enough information specifically for cutting roofs, so they just relied more on their good-ole framing squares or drylines.

Let's continue on with some important dates in the history of this book. It's 1944, what is happening in our country? Well, for starters, we're still at war with the Japanese, and Americans are looking forward to getting back to normal life. However, it will still be just over a year until the Japanese surrender. Then, finally, it happens! The war is over! The Japanese sign the surrender agreement that's referred to as V-J Day, on September 2, 1945. Victory over Japan!

With the Second World War finally over, life in America was about to change dramatically again. Returning veterans by hundreds of thousands now back home wanted to secure jobs and start new families. Married veterans desired the same aspirations with the wives and children they had left behind. Factories that were converted to producing supplies and materials for the war effort could now begin switching back to their normal operations, and the millions of courageous women that we refer to as "Rosie the Riveter," that ran those factories during the war, could once again return to their homes to be with their families. With these situations going on, however, we now had another growing problem: How in the world are we going to build enough houses fast enough for these thousands upon thousands of families?

Enter again now, the carpenters. They now have the enormous task of building homes for literally hundreds of thousands all across America! How are they going to keep up with the huge demand? That's where resourceful carpenters like the author of "Full Length Roof Framer," as well as many other talented craftsmen, took on the challenge and began developing newer methods for building homes more efficiently. This book, by Augustus Riechers, was certainly one of the tools that they came up with and utilized. At last, the carpenters had a book that could be carried inside a pocket, and still give every rafter length that was needed to get the houses built faster to meet the demand!

Now, and in conclusion, here we are today in the 21st Century. We're much faster production framers than our brother carpenters were in those days with our nail guns and roof trusses, but it's still nice to have a little book like this around for the times when we do stick-build a roof or two. At any rate, the next time you hear about this book, or read a review on it, consider owning it for nothing else but the short history behind it and its place in carpentry history. In addition, don't fret about which is better, calculators or rafter books. It's just a simple matter of preference. To some, calculators are faster. To others, rafter books are faster. I recommend this Library edition because it's very thin and compact. It fits nicely in the pouch of your toolbelt and it doesn't care if you get a little sawdust on it or drop it like my construction calculator does. I'll close this review with this: I own two copies of this book. One to use on the job when needed, and one to keep safely wrapped in our family's hopechest for our children.

This book review is dedicated to the memory of this legendary master carpenter named Augustus Frederick John Riechers, who passed away in October 1978 in Palo Alto, California. I, as well as countless other carpenters worldwide thank him for taking the time, and effort, to write a book like this to make the carpenter's job a little easier. It's also dedicated to the long-since-gone craftsmen in their white-bib overalls that left the rest of us a legacy and example to follow, and to keep this tradition going by passing along what we have learned to all carpenters far and wide.

Foley's book, The Global Entrepreneur, is an excellent resource for anyone interested in international trade, and the multi-faceted considerations one must give to the endeavor. It is particularly helpful to those interested in export sales, and marketing, with an insightful view to a variety of approaches a business person can take to the marketplace. The book addresses Self-assesment and Market Research, Business Preparation and Developing Global Partners, Logistics and Finance, and Sustaining Success. Foley successfully demystifies global business, and walks the business person with an interest in global markets from the idea stage through to long-term customer relationship management. This is a great read.

Exciting, inspiring, motivating, encouraging, helpful, informative, clear, comprehensible, easy to read. Excellent book!!! Knowledge, experience, and passion towards discussed topics just shines through every page. Written in a easy to understand language, the book is a perfect aid to not only beginning exporters/importers, but also experienced ones. Lexicon doesn't belittle reader's mental abilities by chewing on every elementary detail; at the same time it doesn't bombard anybody by heavy concepts and trade jargon. Author uses great approach to delivering information - logical, clear and ordered.

Mr. Foley takes it right from the start - from solid information on whether to even consider making international sales, all the way through to direct foreign investment. Along the way he provides detailed examples, reference materials, and a number of excellent resources that take the mystery out of international sales.

Perhaps most importantly, this is not a regurgitation of MBA material on the subject - Mr. Foley has directly relevant experience, having spearheaded international expansions earlier in his career and now advising companies on how to achieve their global potential.

This is an excellent reference that our company continues to use as we expand to new markets globally and work to increase our share in markets we're already addressing.

As a newcomer to the "world of global business," I was searching for one resource that would quickly build my understanding of the various aspects of the international arena. I was thrilled to discover The Global Entrepreneur, by James Foley. This book covers everything from basic definitions to the broad issues of "how," "why," and "when" to go global, while also providing solid information on specific topics such as logistics, marketing, relationship building, strategic planning, and using the internet.
And it accomplishes all this in an informal, easy to read and understand style. Mr. Foley writes in a conversational manner, taking information that could be quite dry and boring, and making it interesting and exciting. As an added benefit, the book also includes numerous other resources to enhance your research and exploration of the global arena.
The Global Entrepreneur offers a wealth of information and is a practical resource/reference book for anyone involved in, or becoming involved with, global business.

This is an excellent source for everything from foreign market evaluation to the documentation for your first sale. Well written and enjoyable to read. While startng out in the game of global enterprise, I have a lot of questions. The questions are being answered, plus all the ones I didn't know I needed to ask. The book excites me to pursue the markets. Before hand I thought it would frighten or discourage me, reading about all the work and risk involved. It was encouraging to hear that international business is where to see the world and its cultures, not just a way to increase profits. I plan to use this book as the guide when our company goes global.

For some reason, this book has always stuck in my head, long after reading it. After an encounter with aliens, a man becomes functionally
immortal, even gaining some redundancy in bodily organs. He also has enhanced perception, reflexes, and mental abilities. He received these
abilities in a bizarre meld with an alien cave creature that in general, would kill sentient life forms, but his merging made him superhuman.

With these useful talents, he goes adventuring to utilise his medical talents and superhuman abilities to stop a very virulent disease sweeping the galaxy, and find the powerful being that is the root cause.

I have to ask why this book was overlooked since it was published many years ago. When I first brought it at a used bookstore, I didn't expect it to be this good and reread it countless times. It's about a man who became immortal by an accident, Dalt must deal with a voice(Pard) in his head who takes care of his body and evolving it to survive. Imagine to be the only one in the whole universe full of aliens and being the one to watch civilizations rise and fall. It even includes politics, science theories(easy to understand), romance, etc. all you ever wanted in an sci-fi epic story. Buy it and you won't regret it! :)

Pard is a perfect analog to the coming "shared conciousness" that machines will offer us.

Justifies the 5 star rating over time. Deeply moving on many fronts over the years..

A great read for ages 10 & up, I wholey recommend adding this to your Library & read-list. Worth re-reading every few years.

Good ethics, fine morals, confronting action.

One of F. Paul Wilson's finer early works..

Mandatory sci-fi qualifications - "Have you read The Healer, Paul Wilson? Please describe Pard.."

Iread this novel 22 years ago and loved it. If you love freedom
and sci-fi you've got to read this book. And if you're a gun nut
you'll love the shotgun Steve and Pard use in the ending; and the planet Flint!

I first read this book some 20 years ago, and it has haunted me ever since. I truely wonderful bit of sci-fi spanning time, space and mortality. Whilst it was in my possession I read it many many times, but made the unfortunate mistake of lending it to someone, never to see it again. Some time later I discovered the LaNague chronicles (encapsulating "Healer") and got the book. Whilst Healer remains my all time favorite, LaNague is almost as good a read. Should anyone know of or have contact with Mr F Paul Wilson, would they extend my thanks, and plead with him on my behalf to put pen to paper (or fingers to key-board) and produce further "Steve & pard" novels, as there is far to much meat on this bone to let them off travelling the universe and time in just one book!

Letitia Baldridge's book is unquestionably "un coup de maitre". We are most grateful to her for allowing us to take a peek into that atmosphere of class, sophistication, grace and good taste that once was the Kennedy White House. Reading this fascinating book is like going back into this elegant and refined world created by Jacqueline Kennedy where culture, arts and good conversation were a main priority. I so enjoyed reading that book!!

In this small book there is a surprising amount of information on Jackie and Letitia's entertaining style, in stories, beautiful photographs, recipes and anecdotes. I especially like how she includes descriptions of the table settings (tablecloths etc) and menu choices, with short explanations of why they were chosen, and how they parted with tradition in many cases. It also provides a peak at the highly talented guests outside of politics whom they entertained, and how they entertained them! As other reviewers said, the recipes are mainly classics. Some I wouldn't dare serve today but it's nice to know what to do if I ever wish to!

whatever your political affiliation, you can't help but be amazed at the graciousness the kennedy family brought to the white house during his term of office. down to minute details, jackie emerges as the quintessential first lady. i especialy enjoyed the personal comments and special moments shared with the first couple. this makes a wonderful gift

I already own Rene Verdon's White House cookbook which is an enjoyable read as well as a great reference. Many of his great, classic recipes from that collection re-appear in this wonderful, picture-filled book that recreates the magic of Jackie's style that made Camelot. Rene Verdon and Letitia Baldridge show that they have not lost their touch and guide us through a host of beautiful occasions. My personal highlight is the famous state dinner at Mount Vernon. We find out many intriguing details about entertaining at the highest level and are able to take a little of the glamour to our own table. Rene Verdon's recipes are great classics that are meant to be enjoyed over and over again. They can be reproduced by the capable home cook with highly satisfying results.

This is a marvellous, beautifully presented look at the entertaining done by President and Mrs. Kennedy during their too-brief thousand days in the White House. Letitia Baldrige was Mrs. Kennedy's Social Secretary, and she has collaborated with Kennedy White House Chef Rene Verdon on reminiscences and recipes that really do evoke that very special time and place. Baldrige's anecdotes give glimpses behind the scenes that help us all understand how distinguished the hosts, guests, and entertaining really were- and her comments are often very funny indeed. Verdon's recipes are drawn from menus actually served at the White House on historic occasions, such as the famed evening when cellist Pablo Casals played for the Kennedys and their guests. The book is incredibly generous with its illustrations, which range from White House photos, to pictures of actual invitations for the events described, to fashion designer Oleg Cassini's original sketches for Mrs. Kennedy's clothes. For Jackie devotees, the book is a bonanza, with many photos showing her in her full splendour as First Lady; one 1954 photo of her lighting the candles on her dinner table may be the single most beautiful ever taken of her. I have one small, gentle caveat: Verdon's recipes have been given before, in different form, in his 1967 "The White House Chef Cookbook". The versions of the recipes in this new book have been changed a bit from the 1967 incarnations, mainly with an eye to increasing the strength of flavour; today's palates are evidently more demanding than those of the Sixties. Still, you're getting a look at the Kennedy White House from the people who made it HAPPEN- no gossip, no hearsay, no errors of research. Baldrige and Verdon were indisputably THERE, and you could do much worse than to buy their book. Come to think of it, if you've been reading some of the other Kennedy books issued recently, you have.

The service overall was very good:

i) The item was as described, and
ii) It was shipped quickly

The first part of this book that deals with topology is a pedagogical masterpiece. After motivating the key concepts of compactness and continuity in the relatively concrete setting of metric spaces, the book goes on to abstract topological spaces, a beautiful section on compactness including the tychonoff theorem, and an extremely lucid development of the separation axioms and the proof of the urysohn imbedding theorem and the stone-cech compactification. I personally find the chapter on connectedness to be the weak link in this part of the book. Wherever possible, Simmons provides an exhaustive list of examples (especially when introducing the various types of spaces) that aids comprehension. Moreover, some of the central concepts (product topology) and deeper results such as the Stone-Cech compactification are easier to appreciate because the author has a section on topological properties of the relevant function spaces couple of chapters ahead and several exercises along the way. All in all, a highly recommended intro to the subject.

In the author's words in the preface, the dominant theme of this book is continuity and linearity, and its goal is to illuminate the meanings of these words and their relations to each other. The book, he says, belongs to the type of pure mathematics that is concerned with form and structure, and such a body of mathematics must be judged by its high aesthetic quality, and should exalt the mind of the reader.

The author's attitude can only be characterized as magnificent, and, if one is to judge his utterances in the preface by what is found after it, one will indeed find perfect evidence of his delight in mathematics and his high competence in elucidating very abstract concepts in topology and real analysis. Indeed, this has to be the best book ever written for mathematics at this level. It is a book that should be read by everyone that desires deep insights into modern real and functional analysis.

After a brief and informal overview of set theory, the author moves on to the theory of metric spaces in chapter 2. His emphasis is on the idea that metric spaces are easy to find, since every non-empty set has the discrete metric, and that metric spaces are good motivation for the more general idea of a topological space. The Cantor set, ubiquitous in measure theory, dynamical systems, and fractal geometry, is constructed as the most general closed set on the real line, i.e. one obtained by removing from the real line a countable disjoint class of open intervals. Continuity of mappings between metric spaces is defined, and also the concept of uniform continuity, the latter of which is motivated very nicely by the author. Then, the author takes the reader to a higher level of abstraction, wherein he asks the reader to consider all of the continuous functions on a metric space, and turn this collection into a metric space of a special type called a normed linear space, and, more specifically, a Banach space. Thus the author introduces the reader to the field of functional analysis.

A lengthy introduction to topological spaces follows in chapter 3. The author motivates well the idea of an open set, and shows that one could just as easily use closed sets as the fundamental concept in topology. And, most important for functional analysis, he introduces the weak topology, and shows how to obtain the weakest topology for a collection of mappings from a topological space to a collection of other topological spaces. The reader can see clearly that the weaker the topology on a space the harder it is for mappings to be continuous on the space.

Compactness, so essential in all areas of mathematics that make use of topology, is discussed in chapter 4. It is motivated by an abstraction of the Heine-Borel theorem from elementary real analysis, and the author shows how well-behaved things are on compact topological spaces. Some important theorems are proved in this chapter, namely Tychonoff's theorem, the Lebesgue covering lemma, and Ascoli's theorem.

Recognizing that the only functions able to be continuous on a space with the indiscrete topology are the constants, and that a space with the discrete topology has continuous functions in abundance, the author asks the reader to consider topologies that fall between these extremes, and this motivates the separation properties of topological spaces. Chapter 5 is an in-depth discussion of separation, and the reader again confronts function spaces, and their ability (or non-ability) to separate the points of a topological space. Spaces that allow such separation to occur are called completely regular, and this property has far-reaching consequences in analysis and other areas of mathematics. The Stone-Cech compactification is discussed as an imbedding theorem for completely regular spaces, analogous to one for normal spaces.

The intuitive idea of a space being connected is given rigorous treatment in chapter 6. Certain pathologies can of course arise when discussing connectedness, and the author shows this by discussing totally disconnected spaces, remarking that such spaces are very important in dimension theory and representation theory. Indeed, computational and fractal geometry is much harder to study because of the existence of these spaces.

Chapter 7 is important to all working in numerical analysis, wherein the author discusses approximation theory. The Weierstrass approximation and the Stone-Weierstrass theorems are discussed in detail.

A slight detour through algebra is given in chapter 8. Groups, rings, and fields are given a minimal treatment by the author, discussing only the basic rudiments that are needed to get through the rest of the book.

Banach spaces make their appearance in chapter 9, with the three pillars of the theory proven: the Hahn-Banach, the open mapping, and the uniform boundedness theorems. These theorems guarantee that the study of Banach spaces is worth doing, and that there are analogs of the finite dimensional theory in the (infinite)-dimensional context of Banach spaces. The theory of Banach spaces is very extensive, but this chapter gives a peek at this very interesting area of mathematics.

Banach spaces with an inner product are considered in chapter 10. These of course are the familiar Hilbert spaces, so important in physics and the subject of a huge amount of research in mathematics. The presence of the inner product allows constructions familiar from ordinary finite-dimensional vector spaces to carry over to the inifinite-dimensional setting, one example being the transpose of a matrix, which is replaced in the Hilbert space setting by a self-adjoint operator.

As a warm-up to the infinite-dimensional theory, finite-dimensional spectral theory is considered in chapter 11. The famous spectral theorem is proven. Then in chapter 12, the reader enters the world of "soft" analysis, wherein topological and algebraic constructions are used to study linear operators on spaces of infinite dimensions. Putting an algebraic structure on a Banach space gives a Banach algebra, and then the trick is deal with the spectrum of an element of this algebra. The reader can see the interplay between algebra, topology, and analysis in this chapter and the next one on commutative Banach algebras. Indeed, the Gelfand-Naimark theorem, that essentially states that elements of a commutative Banach *-algebra act like the functions on its maximal ideal space, has to rank as one of the most interesting results in the book, and indeed in all of mathematics.

This book was recommended for our analysis course (final year at Adelaide University). It helped me pass the course but more importantly, gave me an interest in metric spaces and topology. The book is an excellent communicator and nearly 20 years after I have read it I am looking out for a secondhand copy!

This is a fine book, but not quite in the 5-star league. Let me elaborate. The book is divided into three parts: general topology, the theory of Banach and Hilbert spaces, and Banach algebras. The first two parts lead, by way of synthesis, to the last part, where some interesting but elementary results are proved about Banach algebras in general and C*-algebras in particular. I might mention, for example, the Spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint operators, the Stone representation theorem, and the Gelfand-Naimark theorem.

I can attest from personal experience that the book is well-written; indeed I worked through it chapter by chapter. But today there do exist a plethora of other treatments that can at least rival this text in lucidity, organisation and coverage. For example, for general topology, there is an excellent text by Willard titled 'General Topology',as well as Hocking and Young's old 'Topology'. Both of these go much further in the realm of point-set topology than Simmons. Similarly there are any number of well-written texts on functional analysis that cover the subject of Banach spaces, Hilbert spaces and self-adjoint operators very clearly. Indeed in some respects I feel the Simmons book was inadequate by itself and needed to be supplemented by a text on linear algebra; self-adjoint operators -- and by implication, the Spectral theorem -- need to be seen and manipulated in the finite-dimensional version before one examines their infinite-dimensional generalisation. The Simmons book is a bit weak here; one needs to be playing with matrices.

These are, however, minor quibbles. The book can be recommended to a junior- or senior-level undergraduate.