Reviews Books

Know these Vignettes! Nothing more to say. They will be tested over. Period :)

There was a lot of material in the books in this series, yet I found myself getting through them quickly and retaining a lot of the information, I think because the material is so well presented and explained. Great cases and the format is tailor-made for current USMLE format. This author really understand what the board question writers are into. For me, this type of review was the best way for me to get ready for Step 1.

This is wonderful review books. Excellent writing and informacion. Great pictures and examples. I do much, much better on exam from this books.

After studying like crazy for a full month for the USMLE, I needed a break from reading textbooks. I decided to check out this case-based review because a friend recommended it. I am still thanking him for this recommendation. This book and the other books in the series really prepare you well for the USMLE, because they get you used to the long clinical vignettes that made up most of my exam. The cases and explanantions are EXTREMELY high-yield and very concise but thorough. I recommend the whole series for anyone who wants to do well on the Step 1 exam.

I used this book along woth my PMP study guide, and found it very comprehensive and useful. Lot better than Rita's Hot Topics because this one is very self contained and covers more. Unlike Rita's book, It's not tied to a specific study guide. Helped me a lot in passing the exam. However, it's not an alternative to a study guide.
Highly recommended.

I used these Flashcards in a Book to pass my PMP exam. I love this approach of Flascards in a Book; they serve the same purpose as the loose flashcards, but these are easier to manage and carry around than the loose cards. I used these for a quick review of the concepts that I learned from the Study Guide. It saved me lots of time.
Plus these cards by Dr. Sanghera are very comprehensive and self contained.

I found this flashcard book the best among the two such books available in the market. It presents the quick review of your PMP exam preparation in a self contained, comprehensive, and logical way. As a companion to the PMP Study Guide, this book really helped me in passing the exam. Of course you cannot expect it to be a substitute to the Study Guide.

This book is a great tool to pass the PMP Exam. Use it as a qucik review tool and not as a study guide. That said, it's very comprehensive and self contained. Simply excellent. I recommend it, highly.

Mason's collection of essays is a wide-ranging and overall pretty good collection of essays. The title essay is sort of a 'literary memoir', and while I expected it to be one of the better essays, it really isn't. But there are some excellent essays on Auden, Tennyson, Frost, Heaney, Louis Simpson, J.V. Cunningham, Anne Xexton, and Irish poetry. And then there are the essays meant to further the cause of the New Formalist movement. They almost sound like propoganda, but they are well written, enjoyable essays that make sense. And my favorite essay is "Other Lives: On Shorter Narrative Poems." Mason is a phenomenal narrative poet, and anyone with an interest in narrative poetry should read this essay.

This book is a collection of essays and reviews by poet David Mason, who thinks that contemporary poetry and its professional readers have neglected "nonacademic readers" like "the educated common reader." Through a critical style that incorporates the anecdote and that admires Louis Simpson's "refreshingly personal criticism," "as if we were hearing after-dinner opinions," Mason's text follows the goal of his Preface: "I have in mind that audience of grown-ups arguing about books even while they discuss . . . the latest political tremors or a new movie coming to town." Mason's taste for life in poetry criticism, whether communicated through autobiographical or biographical techniques, doesn't mean that he remains uncritical of self-absorbed forms of art. In the title essay, for instance, Mason acknowledges "the useful legacy of Eliot's ideas" in support of "the self so distanced from itself." Of the book's sixteen sections, five open with personal anecdotes. These anecdotes quickly become relevant to their subject matter (whether regionalism, self-indulgence, sentimentality, Tennyson, or Yeats). Given Mason's opposition to self-indulgence, one might argue that Mason develops contradictory attitudes toward forms of expression, or that he is critical of the personal in art, but then makes self-absorbed statements like, "Nowadays close reading often bores me," or, "I have sometimes felt that I was part of a story, and that I had a sacred duty to transcribe as much of it as I could." Yet such personal statements have relevancy to the larger poetics/rhetoric of the essays. Besides, wouldn't it seem odd--and bad writing at that--to claim that "poetry helps us live our lives" without then providing here and there a few examples from life when it has? Mason claims, "People do quote poetry, or refer to it--some do, anyway--and they connect it to their lives." He then supports this claim with the example of when his mother once remembered six potent lines by Yeats. Yet Mason's theory about why "people remember poems or songs or key phrases at surprising moments in life" is questionable. He says that "the best forms of expression are often those we most want to remember." But he suggests that these best forms of expression are those that are so large, so universal, so full of matter, that they "convey 'a general truth'." "Universality is suspect in some quarters, I suppose, but I submit," Mason says, "that we cannot have great art without it." When Mason then quotes from W.H. Auden's New Year Letter, he means to show how such poetry that conveys truth makes things happen because, as Auden once said, it survives--in the memory, among other places--as a way of happening, a mouth." Yet the section he quotes, like so many Auden lines, might seem to some less like a memorable poem and more like lineated philosophical text. What are the best forms of expression for poetry? This is an important question for Mason. On the one hand, there is the often difficult poetry of magnitude, and on the other, that of locality, which is less difficult. Mason proposes that the former is usually formal, whereas the latter is typically free verse. He worries that the latter is generally practiced by poets who "ought to hold themselves to higher standards than they sometimes do." These standards are the focus of Mason's important essay "Louis Simpson's Singular Charm." A New Formalist and one of the editors of the anthology Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism, Mason believes that meter "is . . . a kind of compression that, in the right hands, lends language a supercharged memorability." He finds that Simpson, with his rejection of meter, "has courted danger, choosing a slighter technical range that often highlights his lackadaisical diction." Mason's essay is good at providing us with passages--from articles by and interviews with Simpson--about this Jamaican-born poet's reasons for this rejection. The reasons involve Simpson wanting his poetry to be more accessible and direct for an audience like the one Mason advocates. Simpson believes free verse better lends this accessibility and directness. Mason disagrees, making some convincing arguments; one is that Simpson "comes to that tired solecism that meter is un-American." Readers need only digest what is arguably the most important essay in The Poetry of Life, "American Poetry in the Nineteenth Century," to be reminded of the great American poets who worked sometimes accessibly and gorgeously in traditional forms. But in arguing that Simpson's stylistic change toward accessibility and directness "leaves disturbing implications for the art," a change which sometimes lends Simpson's poetry what Mason calls "deliberate banality," Mason may not be true to his aversion to the Twentieth-century critics who have prized difficulty in poems. Perhaps Mason, who from time to time in this book reminds readers of his career as an English professor, is more on the side of J.D. McClatchy, "accustomed . . . to respect the authority of difficulty," than he is on the side of Dana Gioia, to whom Mason devotes a chapter, desiring neither anti-intellectualism nor a ban of difficulty in art, but, instead, a popular audience for poetry? Accessibility, difficulty, formality, memorability, popularity, universality--these are the interesting buzzwords of The Poetry of Life. They are perhaps defined and discussed with the most clarity and precision in Mason's superb "Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, and the Wellsprings of Poetry." Though this essay has as its primary concern a comparison of Frost and Heaney, it draws this definition and discussion in, and in very enlightening ways. Though different in many ways, both poets, Mason asserts, "have made use of colloquial speech in their poetry" and "refreshing rhythm and idiom with materials that are at least partly extra-literary." Mason demonstrates this use, rhythm, and idiom through focusing attentions on and drawing connections between each poet's images of work, play, and water. No doubt, these images are universal. And Mason knows precisely when and from what poem to quote, showing that Frost and Heaney often image the world without either that magnitudinous air of Auden and Eliot or that more banal, informal language of Simpson.

Mason is a rarity in this day and age--a poet-critic who writes in a public idiom. He is clear in his aesthetic criteria, but not so dogmatic that his work lacks room for surprise (I was surprised to see him so enthusastic about John Haines, for instance). What is most important about his writing, though, is that it is elegant as well as insightful; these essays are as much a pleasure to read as the poets he discusses. My own efforts at poetry criticism lack the warmth and elegance that allow Mason to wear his erudition lightly. The elegance, direct tone, intelligence, and accessibility of these essays give me hope that poetry criticism outside the university is not in critical condition. Cheers to Story Line Press for supporting this important poet's work.

This is a brilliant book. His analysis of contemporary poetry is astute, learned and, above all, readable. I urge everyone who is interested in poetry to read this book. His explanations of the new formalism are as sound and enticing as any offered by other critics. For poetry lovers, this is a must have book.

GREAT!!! Book very concise and very good in explaining the right and wrong answer choices.

Very good cards. I highly recommend them to anybody preparing for certification exams.

I highly recommend this book! I bought several other review books such as Concise Review, and this book has more detail than any of the others. It has 1000's of questions, but what is most helpful is the DETAILED description of the answers. They were so thorough that by diligently studying and outlining their answers you will learn a tremendous amount.

I bought this book when i was reviewing for my Medical Technology certification exam. The book is more difficult than the certification exam. But the beauty of this book is that it will make you understand the rationale and principles behind all the laboratory tests and procedures. If you can pass at least 60% of the questions in this book. You have a good chance of passing the certification exam.

This is the most comprehensive and concise medical text that I have ever used....so reader friendly. It has over 70 contributors from all over the country.

This is a superb book for any practitioner working in primary care. It covers all important subjects completely and concisely. I used it to review for my boards with the review book that goes with it and I was very prepared. I highly recommend this text.

This a tremendous effort on the part of the editors and multiple contributing editors. The format is subsystem based with extensive attention to standard formatting for each subject area. The major primary care maladies in each anatomical subsystem are covered in a clear, concise and easy to read format. Excellent reference for any practitioner. The contributing author list reads like a who's who in Physician Assistant education.

I found this review book an excellent source of knowledge and simple to understand. This book by passes all the intricate biochemical details and present the meat and potatoes so to speak. The wisdom of the pearls make this book unique. I recommend this book to any professional in a primary care setting.

I highly recommend getting this book, it provides an excellent review-- trust me because I got a 5 on the AP test.

I bought AP chem prep books from Barron, Cliffs, and REA, but Princeton Review was the best at giving all the basic highlights in an easy-to-understand way. Because I was panicked over the exam that was only one week away, the info presented in the other prep books was just too much to memorize in a week's worth of time. Not only did the other books have too much information, but the way the calculations were done were all the more confusing. Although Princeton lacks details, it does gives you basics that'll get you through the exam as long as you have some background knowledge from class. All you need is to understand all the material in the Princeton Review book and do a little review in your own textbook on the history. The chapter on chemical reactions was great, but I found the Acid/Base chapter a little confusing. All in all, I think this book is worth buying...especially because it helped me get a 5 on the AP exam! =)

I'm an AP Chemistry high school student and after working hard all year, this book offered a pleasant alternative to an arduous review of hundreds of pages of notes. The material was concise and easy to understand. The only let down, however, was in the difficulty of the multiple choice questions on the practice tests. They were ridiculously easy compared to the actual AP test, and provided me with a false sense of security as I walked into the test. The free responses are very "AP-like" and offer a good preactice to the actual AP free response questions. Overall, though, this book is probably the best out there. (A word to the wise: Learn Kinetics (Rate Law) before you take this test!! Its a mandatory free response every year.)

I am an AP Chemistry teacher, and after pouring over all of the major review guides (Barron's, Arco, Cliff, & REA) I have recommended this book for my students. The 1999-2000 edition is a major improvement over the first edition: lab section, extra practice exam and an AP scoring guide.

Easy read and right to the point! Very thorghtfully written.

Psychiatry has been always a hard to grib subject. You thought you understand it, yet you miss the questions. This is the first book I found that is really helpful. It lists the easy to miss facts in an easy to memorize format. You can have a quick yet through review of psychiatry 2 days. A great book.

I love it. Really helps.

I wholeheartedly recommend this excellent book. If you want to buy a single book for an enthusiastic yet comprehensive review in a short time, this is the one. The authers are all active practicioners, mostly work in academic settings, and know very well what is needed for a board-style test. The questions are all high yield. The aswers are short and to the point. A must read for all residents and junior practicioners preparing for board or just a quick update of your knowledge. Well worth the money.

The flexibility of the English language lends itself to lots of fun stuff as veteran teacher, writer and lecturer Richard Lederer knows so well. Kids love funny jokes and play on words--why not introduce them to the fun side of English.

The "Tairy Fales" shows how Spoonerisms or reversing sounds on pairs of words can yield some madcap results. (And don't forget, Butterfly was once Flutterby, but we just couldn't get it straight.) Riddles are great for long car rides--rhymes will tempt even the most lackluster reader to stretch their abilities. This is a must for homeschoolers and reading to the kids in the evening--fun, too.

My third-grade daughter couldn't put this book down! Absolutely loved the "Pun Fun" section and the "'Let's play a Game' said Tom Swiftly" section. The booked is marked up and dog-eared.

In this highly entertaining book, punmaster Richard Lederer reveals the tricks of the punster's trade while challenging readers to create original wordplay of their own. In sixteen chapters, with titles such as "Calling on the Homophone," "Puns That Babylon," and "Tairy Fales," the author explains how to use homophones, homographs, and spoonerisms for comical effect while exploring knock-knock jokes, Tom Swifties, and other types of jokes and riddles based on the deft manipulation of sound and meaning. The author presents a clear and simple explanation of each form, provides numerous examples, and then invites readers to create original jokes, rhymes, and puzzles of their own. Language-lovers of all ages will appreciate the wealth of wit and humor presented on these pages.

To me, puns are the stars of the wordplay world, and Pun and Games is Sirius fun. Legendary verbologist Lederer has packed this 100-page upper and lowercase suitcase with tons of puns. Illustrations by Dave Morice dance with (and throughout) this logophile's dream, and the pun never ends. No irritable vowel syndrome here.
- Michael Kline, author/illustrator of WordPlay Cafe

A very helpful guide for managers who have the task of doing Performance appraisals , with ready to use appraisal forms! Very helpful for the always busy Manager.

This book is great. If you are just starting out writing appraisals or just want something fresh and new, this is a great book to use. With this book it was a time saver for me because it addresses pretty much every area that I needed for my associate reviews. Best of all, it's user friendly. I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book, and contains both good advice and practical applications. Readers of this book gain access to online tools that they can begin to use immediately, and which will not only boost the efficiency of their performance reviews, but also their effectiveness.

This is a great tool for managers who are responsible for writing performance reviews for their staff. It provides an actionable outline for the performance review process (if your company doesn't already have one). Most importantly, it provides pre-written paragraphs and text to help you articulate how employees exceeded or didn't meet expectations. (Great for those who don't have much experience writing reviews or those who just need some fresh ways to express their thoughts.)

What a novel idea, that movies are more than just entertainment. The author points out that watching some of the traditional Christmas movies (It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol) makes us feel safe and comfortable. They relieve stress and give us a feeling of control.
I remember my family having a ritual of watching Yankee Doodle Dandy every fourth of July. Even now, if I sing a few lines from one of those songs, my sisters join in (40 years later) with all the words.
Movies like these, are "very rich in spiritual messages," according to the author.

"Reel Fulfillment"
A 12-Step Plan For Transforming Your Life Through Movies
Maria Grace, Author
McGraw Hill, Publisher
ISBN 0-07-145907-3

Reviewed by Donna Van Straten Remmert,
Author of "The Littlest Big Kid" and "The Jitterbug Girl"

If you love movies as much as I do, "Reel Fulfillment" is an insightful guidebook that will entertain as well as transform you. It will explain why you love some movies enough to see them over and over again, and why you laugh or cry your heart out each time. Psychotherapist and author Maria Grace is well known in Austin for her live, standing-room-only movie reviews that humorously and poignantly probe into our psychological make-up and help us realize truths about ourselves, as reflected by characters in the movies. She is also well known at SCN for her fabulous Be Our Guest presentation. If you've witnessed Maria's gigs, I know you haven't forgotten how delightful they were. The same is true about "Reel Fulfillment". It's delightful.

Maria moved to New York City a few years ago, and she has already received a great deal of praise and recognition for her inspiring book, her seminars, and her ezine that I highly recommend as a way to continue analyzing your responses to movies after you've read "Reel Fulfillment". Each week's ezine is about something new and different and it's always fun and thought provoking. This week's challenge, for instance, is to watch movies that are about food cravings. She tells you some of her secrets for relating to food in a more healthy way, learned from having attended a spa in Brazil, she invites you to click onto her 60-minute seminar "Eating Without Guilt: The Joy of Conscious Eating" and she asks you to watch two fabulous movies about food to better understand yourself: "Chocolat" and "Real Women Have Curves". Go to www.mariagrace.com to learn about Maria's adventures and to read more about the ezine that's free for the asking. Subscribe!

Thanks to "Reel Fulfillment", I can now say it right out-I am a movie addict! I watch at least one, sometimes two, movies a day. In the privacy of my bedroom where I can laugh or cry to my heart's content. I'm obsessed, and I now know that I don't need to feel shame or guilt for spending so much relaxation time in bed, because through my obsession and with the help of Maria's 12-step plan for transforming my life through movies, I accomplish major self-awareness fetes. There is a Questions to Answer section in each chapter of "Reel Fulfillment". I glance at these questions in advance of watching a movie recommended by Maria in that chapter. Then, as I'm watching, I think about possible answers to these questions, viewing the movie as if it were a story about my life. Metaphorically, it usually is!

After my movie(s) for the night is over, I sink into my unconscious for a good night of dreaming. When the movies I've seen are especially relevant to my life, they often trigger fantastic dreams that reveal things about me that I'd otherwise not know consciously. What a gift! Imagine all of the unlived lives I've been able to experience through this process!

I am so in love with Maria's work that I flew to NYC to attend one of her seminars. She's better than ever, and what a good excuse for having fun in The Big Apple. Reading "Reel Fulfillment" is like being with Maria again. Order an autographed copy and browse her other learning tools at her online store at www.mariagrace.com.

Life should be as happy as we can make it. Life should be as fulfilling as we can make it. Life should be as free of fear and doubt as we can make it. No one book, no one program can provide all these needs. But this work, Reel Fulfillment, is certainly a tool you will want to add to your tool box. If you are building a house, you cannot do it with only a hammer. You must have saws, screwdrivers, rulers, pliers, and on and on. To build a full life you must have many tools also. Most certainly, this work, I feel, can be one of those tools, quite an important tool, actually. What a unique and fascinating concept...using movies to help analyze your life and help correct those little and big blimps and bumps in life that we all encounter. This is not a just a book about "going to a movie and feeling good." It is far more. The author, Dr. Grace, gives us a twelve step plan or program for truly changing the way we perceive ourselves and the way we meet and treat the various crises and challenges we all encounter. The subjects, Gaining Inner Clarity, Emotional Health, Joy, and Gaining Spiritual Fitness, are all more or less hung on a unique framework, on the concept of movies, on the stories that we can relate our own experiences to, and learn from, which we see on the screen. We can and, indeed, do learn from these stories.

Movie, of course, are art. Who has not been emotionally changed by a great piece of literature, a great painting, a wonderful photograph, a deeply felt and written poem or one of the world's great paintings. Most of us can be driven to either tears or great joy by any of these. Movies are no different. More importantly, with movies, we can learn from the stories these artists, the movie makers, writers and actors bring us. We can relate. I dare say that not one person reading this review has ever not been moved, in some way, after watching some film story at some time in their life. Dr. Grace has given order to this. Each chapter includes a wonderful section of self examination, profound questions, which, if answered truthfully by the reader, can indeed shed great light on our inner being. She has been able to articulate what most of us actually know, but we simply did not know we knew. She has given us a tool and then explained how to use that tool effectively.

Now, this work, like any work in this particular genre, is only effective if you actually DO IT! I wonder how many "self help books" are purchased, skimmed, shelved and forgotten. You actually have to work through the program for it to help. Folks, there are no free lunches...you get out of something just about what you put into it. This book is no exception.

On the other hand, if you want to purchase it, skim it and then shelf it, that is okay too. As an added bonus, even it you don't work through the doctor's program, you will certainly pick up some great tips to make your movie going far more pleasurable. You really cannot loose with this one. I highly recommend! Recommend you add this one to your library.

This new self-help book is really good with this new method of watching movies combined with exercises in each step to find fulfillment.

At the beginning I thought it was about analyzing movies but was pleasently surprised that the method uses the movies to help the reader find answers and create awareness. I did watch a couple of the movies suggested and then followed the exercises and it really works.

I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes movies. Watching them from this new angle will make you enjoy even more your favorite films and even better appreciate the ones not so good.