Reviews Books

Someone famous once said, "This is the Emotion Picture Business." This book will help you add Emotion and Depth to your screenplays.

Plot is the meat and main course of any and all fiction scripts script regardless of film genres - without a good plot, it takes a miracle to have a good movie. "The Art of Plotting: Add Emotion, Suspense, and Depth to your Screenplay" covers all you need to know to make your plot the best it can be, explaining the complex principles, advice on integrating characterization and exposition to make the story more compelling, how to spot and overcome common plot problems, and demonstrate how plot can enhance everything else about your screenplay. "The Art of Plotting: Add Emotion, Suspense, and Depth to your Screenplay" is enthusiastically recommended to aspiring screen writers everywhere and deserves a place on any community library's Writing and/or Film Studies instructional reference collection.

Ok, I've been writing scripts for decades now. What's the common complaint generations of script readers and producers make: Anybody can come up with an exciting idea, or a powerful hook. Anybody. And there are tons of ideas out there - just open a newspaper! The problem is execution - keeping a 90 to 120 page script exciting. We can all write 10 or 20 pages of exciting scenes - but most of us run out of gas. In one word, plot. The plot goes no where, or gets boring. How do you keep the plot interesting, emotional? Plot is the entire focus of Linda Cowgills's book, and she presents 180 pages of ideas and suggestions on how you can keep your entire plot exciting, eventful and emotional.

Answer this question - what's the difference between conflict and complication? Which one keeps the plot moving?


Table of contents:
1 - The Three Requirements of Drama
2 - Plot: Event and Emotion
3 - The Role of Conflict
4 - The Principles of Action
5 - The Tools of Plotting
6 - The Sequence of Story
7 - The Real Art of Plotting
8 - Common Problems in Plot Construction
9 - Tools for Analysis

Great book. Highly recommended.

Great book, gives a lot of detailed information to lay the groundwork, then gets to the nitty-gritty with three terrific chapters at the end -- the real art of plotting, common problems in plot construction, and tools for analysis. These chapters are really specific about how you put your information together in your plot, as well as address specific problems writers encounter. A great asset to any writer's library!

I actually contacted the author to ask about a single statistic that had been referenced to her book. She was great--told me exactly where to find the information I needed.

When you're diagnosed with breast cancer, the first thing you learn is that confusion and disagreement abound in the medical community, regarding both risk and treatment. Deciding on the right course of treatment, therefore, can be a frustrating experience.

Patricia Kelly arms you with information, dispelling the myths and rumors most of us have heard about cancer. She makes sense of mind-numbing data and statistics, presenting them in a way that is understandable and clear. Twice in ten years, Patricia has helped me sort through study findings, assess my own risk, and base my treatment decisions on fact, rather than feeling. If you're wondering about breast cancer risk, her book will do the same for you.

Every woman should read this book, especially if she has been diagonosed with a controversial "precancerous" condition such as atypical hyperplasia, DCIS or LCIS. Dr. Kelly presents a very readable, up-to-date review of the most important medical research on these problems. A patient who has a critical understanding of the material in this book may very well be more informed than her doctors. She could gain the confidence to say "no" to an unnecessary mastectomy, or to other harsh and disfiguring treatments that are recommended for a problem that may never pose a threat to her life.

Dr. Kelly has written a wonderful book which every woman concerned about breast cancer risk, and every health professional who cares for them, should read. In Dr. Kelly we not only have an acknowledged expert in her field, but one who is both thorough and also able to express herself very clearly. In a calm, reasoned way she cites the major literature in this field and dissects it for the intelligent lay person.Away from the sound bites and buzz phrases that spout from the popular media and the self-proclaimed gurus on this topic, she presents an up-to-date analysis of what is really known about breast cancer risk. I recommend this book highly. M. Ellen Mahoney, M.D.

I have been getting the Forecaster for about 7 years. It has all the information you need to make good, informed picks during your fantasy draft. Ron's player comments are usually right on the money, and very entertaining. If you don't have the Forecaster and other members of your league do, you're starting from a serious disadvantage.

Ron Shandler's book is nothing short of exceptional - and it's indispensible for fantasy league players. His use of sabermetric tools is very sophisticated but also easily understandable. (Not many other guides discuss important concepts like Batting Eye, Base Performance Value and Speed Index.) Shandler's book is so solid and thorough you'll find yourself hoping that no one else in your league also owns a copy!

This is the first(definitely not the last) time I have ever bought this book. I have used it now after about 2 months into the year so much the ends are curling up from frequent use. I bought four other guide books for prep in our fantasy league. I NEVER USE ANY OF THE OTHER GUIDES ANYMORE!

Save yourself a lot of time and buy the only fantasy guide you need to buy. This book is not a rehash of the "same old junk" as all the others seem to be. It breaks down the reasons to grab people nobody knows about and goes "inside the numbers."

This is my new best friend that nobody will know about but me. I just hope the cover lasts all year!!

If you play fantasy baseball, Shandler's book has the best player analysis of any book on the market -- I've read a lot of them.

Shandler uses sabermetic principles to look at all players who played in the majors last season. The book is orgainzed by player alphabetically, dividing hitter and pitchers. There are some general articles on fantasy strategy in there too that are quite useful whether you're new to the game or an old vet.

If I was going to buy only one book on baseball, I'm not sure it would be this one -- the Baseball Prospectus has a greater range of players (includes more minor leaguers) and the team comments are very interesting. If I was was going to buy one fantasy baseball book... it would probably be this one.

In any case, it's worth picking up.

THIS IS A SYNOPSIS ABOUT SEASON 2 OF B G. IT COVERS EACH EPISODE, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, COSTUMES, SPECIAL EFFECTS AND SO ON. THIS IS A GREAT BOOK WITH ALOT OF BEHIND THE SCENES INFO ALONG WITH WHY THE PRODUCERS AND WRITERS DID WHAT THEY DID. ALSO INCLUDED ARE INTERVIEWS WITH THE ACTORS WHO DISCUSS THE SHOW AND THEIR CHARACTERS AND WHERE THE SHOW MIGHT EVENTUALLY GO. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FOR ALL B G FANS. I READ THE FIRST SEASON AND WILL READ THE 3RD AND 4TH (WHEN AVAILABLE). THIS IS A MUST READ. SO SAY WE ALL.

Compared to official guides for other shows, the companions to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA simply cannot be beat for enhancing the enjoyment of the episodes. Most official guides tend to do two things. First, they provide a critically neutral description of the episodes individually and the season as a whole. Second, they tend to repackage pretty much whatever one as a viewer can pick up on their own.

If you look at the official guides to BUFFY or FARSCAPE you'll see what I'm talking about. The best route with BUFFY is to get the unofficial guides. These unofficial guides are written without much contribution by the creators, producers, writers, or cast, but they at least have an independent point of view. The BSG official companions, however, while not critical from the author's viewpoint, are remarkably frank in providing critical assessments by the producers and directors and actors and writers as to what did and did not work in an episode. Any fan of BSG will recognize upon watching that "Black Market" and "Sacrifice" are not highlights of the show, but it is incredibly refreshing to read statements by Ron Moore and David Eick and Jamie Bamber that indicate that they, too, believe "Black Market" was not a successful episode. Take the official guide to BUFFY and read what it says about "Beer Bad" or "Some Assembly Required." You'll get no hint that these are considered among the worst BUFFY episodes ever. But in the BSG companions you'll not only see the creative team agreeing with you on the weaker episodes, but they will provide additional insight into why they don't work. So on the first of the two points mentioned above, the BSG guides are head and shoulders above other official guides.

On the second point, i.e., the regurgitation of stuff you can get yourself on an alert viewing, the BSG companions also shine. Probably 80% of the contents of the books are not directly accessible to a fan of the show. For instance, in reading about the casting of Admiral Cain, I was unaware that they first approached Sigourney Weaver, Jessica Lange, and Angelica Houston before asking Michelle Forbes if she was interested in the role (though I have to add that it is inconceivable to me that any of those fine actresses could have been more effective than Forbes, who was simply outstanding). As with the first companion, there are substantial interviews with all the concerned parties about how an episode came together.

My lone disappointment with this volume is that it possibly contained less information not directly concerned with specific episodes. The reason for this is obvious. Whereas the Season Two companion was restricted to the same length as the Season One companion, the second season featured 20 episodes as opposed to the first seasons 13, along with the miniseries. This volume thus had more episodes to discuss.

Still, I think many fans will find this as enjoyable as I have. I'm aware that there are some who prefer the kind of guide that I abhor, one that gives a glossily regurgitated summation of what happens in each episode. I generally find these kinds of guides worthless. Give me one like BSG any day! I want behind the scenes scoop, not a repetition of what I can easily see for myself.

Companion books on the shelf are a key indicator of "nerd-hood". I think BSG (nerd) is one of the best shows on TV. It's more than Sci-Fi, it's a drama that happens in space. This book is a useful reference tool should you develop an interest in what goes on beyond the screen.

my short and sweet opinion of this book is a great have for the Battlestar Galactica Fan. A lot of Sci-Fi and Tech information with great information and wonderful pictures. If You are thinking of a low-cost gift for a BSG Fan, this book along with the Season One Book is a great buy.
So Say We All

Everyone must read this book. It is unique in every way. Believe me you have never read anything like this!

I have to admit, at first i thought i would never finish it. For me a book that was that long was impossible. this book was incredible, it broadened my view of possibilities. It is a very touching story. It is very unique and anyone can enjoy it. You must read it!

This is a great story based on a powerful character, Ulysses, who tries to get away from Buenos Aires and from his miserable life.

Well written and with an edgy sense of humor, you don't just read "Beer cans..." You get nicely drunk with it! Enjoy it!

This is a great story based on a powerful character, Ulysses, who tries to get away from Buenos Aires and from his miserable life.

Well written and with an edgy sense of humor, you don't just read "Beer cans..." You get nicely drunk with it! Enjoy it!

Well, behavioral science is the most important yet difficult part to masterize in the USMLE step 1. That's why a great teacher ( at least they say so ) like B. Fadem thinking of all the world's students, wrote this book.
You cannot ask for more. Written in an enjoyable manner, with high yield facts, review questions on Each Chapter, and a final review exam, concepts definitely get into your hard disk ( or you will have to see your neurologist ). It's a masterpiece worth a place in your shelf, and of course, it's price is insignificant for what you will get.

Great outline review of all the parts that fit under the rubric of 'Behavioral Science' according to the NBME. Prepared me well for the NBME exam, and was a good review tool for class exams in Psychiatry. Highly recommended! Fadem is a great teacher too!

You really need this book for Usmle as well as med school.Indispensable A book you will refer to over and over again

I used this book for my clinical neuro class and it was excellent! It even has some epidemiology and statistics. It's all I used to study for this subject on step 1!

The Blessings of Hard-Used Angels is an enjoyable and rewarding collection of short fiction. John Cottle's stories are fresh with unique, sometimes off-beat, but always-believable characters. I have no qualms in comparing his approach to development with that of more well known Southern writers in an extremely favorable manner. I would then erase the Southern writer categorization, not wanting to represent the collection as anything other than great stories and excellent writing. Annie McGill, my selection for one of the better stories in any collection, is subtle but unrelenting as it delves into and renders an attorney's emotional response to a quandry. Simple enough, short, but accomplished in such a manner as to create a picture far more intricate than its length might indicate.

John Cottle's writing is like a clear mountain pool--the kind you might be lucky enough to find wandering the deep forested ends of the South. It has that kind of arresting clarity and simplicity and yet such richness of detail--light striking the surface just so, wheeling cascade of ferns, the dark reaches of shadows, rocks stacked in centuries--that tells you from the first you're looking at something you'll remember a long, long time. Of course you will reach your hand to touch such beauty, and the cold shock of that clear water will go straight through your bones--it's that powerful. You'll laugh but you won't leave: in fact, you may even jump right in, boots and all, splashing and swirling, floating for hours, remembering how wonderful it is to be warm-blooded, to be human, to be alive.....If you love masterful writing, memorable characters, and language that tells the truth of living, buy this book now.

A wonderful debut short story collection from Alabama writer John Cottle. If you love language, you'll love these stories. There are descriptions in The Blessings of Hard-Used Angels that are as lush as the landscape that inspired them. A rich cast of characters, too, their lives tragic, humorous, hopeful and ill-starred. The law is a central theme, what it takes to uphold it, break it, get used by it or simply ignored by it. There is a long tradition of great writing from the South, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor come immediately to mind. John Cottle's writing is of this tradition and continues it. Do yourself a favour and check this book out. You won't be disappointed.

John Cottle is a master storyteller. One tends to forget, in the midst of all the pseudo-fiction of today that is passed off as literature, that classic, poignant, 'real' literature is still being written. Cottle is one of those Southern writers who has stepped out of the traditions of Tennessee Williams' and William Faulkner to give us touching and masterful art in The Blessings of Hard-Used Angels. But for all of that, he is still lending his own fresh views to the plight of those men and women, the hard living, the hard working, the people we all know, mesmerizing us with prose that is so well wrought that it sweeps the reader right in. One story after another is guaranteed to knock your socks off, so I highly recommend this book. If you only buy one title this Christmas for gifts, make it this one; you can't go wrong.

Derek Robinson's "Piece of Cake" is my favorite novel telling the same story that Frank Barnard revisits with "Blue Man Falling." Stories of the Fall of France are not numerous. At first I was a little concerned as there were many similarities between "Blue Man" and "Piece of Cake." The American pilot in "Blue Man" seems very similar to the one in "Piece of Cake." As the novel progressed it became clear that this was a different story and it was very enjoyable. Anyone who has read "Piece of Cake" should enjoy "Blue Man." If I have a complaint it is that I would have liked to get to know the other pilots of the squadron much better. "Blue Man" has a secondary plot which means there is not as much time devoted to flying and the lives of the pilots as one might like. Still all in all a very enjoyable book.

Quite unlike any other work I've read based on the happenings during early WW2. The detail was particuarly impressive and the reader will absorb an enormous amount of historical fact in an easily assimilated way without appearing to do so. The persona and life of the main character, the well brought up and slightly naive,unworldly young fighter pilot from a priveleged background, is particularly well drawn and totally beleivable. There are one or two sub plots and beautifully set up characters that add enormous interest. The contrast between the hastily snatched social breaks and the chronicles of the death and destruction whilst flying against the enemy reflects no doubt exactly how it was and again is particularly well drawn and sensitively written. The lifetime of the average frontline fighter pilot at the time being measured in months at best. A lot of meticulous research has been done for sure by Frank Barnard to produce a great read that is hard to put down once started. I look forward to his next one, as he must go will surely go from strength to strength.

"Blue Man Falling" by Frank Barnard , is a fascinating glimpse into the fragile, often bizarre days of the "Phony War", that "wishful thinking" period of WW II when few believed the Nazis would actually invade France. Accordingly, one day we find an RAF Hurricane pilot engaging in a dogfight with his German counterpart and the next we see him enjoying a drink in a Parisian cafe. This jarring juxtaposition of moods illustrates all too well the surrealistic nature of that period. Mr. Barnard has a great ability to capture a "sense of place" whether he's describing a French farmhouse, a British barrack, or the Hotel Crillon. He also portrays convincingly the comaraderie and the rivalry among the "blue men", as well as their romances. I found this to be a very readable and well written book about a period not widely understood.

Blue Man Falling deserves to be a great success. Frank Barnard has managed to combine a gripping adventure story of Hurricane fighter pilots with a moving and totally convincing account of the tragedy and drama of the phony war. The book gradually builds pace through the skillful use of flashbacks and scenes which contrast the relative calm of pre-occupation Paris with the turmoil of the German advance. The author clearly shares in the adrenalin rush of an aerial dogfight, but equally clearly recognizes the pain and horror experienced by combatants and civilians on either side of any conflict.

After reading Blue Man Falling, you will not only have enjoyed a hugely entertaining story; you will have learnt more about the early days of World War II (and probably the Spanish Civil War, too), and very likely wondered how you yourself would have acted in the heat of battle.

This anthology rules the roost when it comes to good writing from the west. There's a freedom of expression and a willingness to push the envelop here that I have not found with other reviews on the university level. Kudos.

Bukowski's ghost is probably putting in overtime reading selections from Blue Mesa.

What I enjoyed about this particular issue was the willingness of the writers to explore the boundaries between countries and how that influences not only our relationships but the way we tend to look at the world. When a narrator writes about cities separating him from his friend, he is writing about more than geographical distance. Kudos to the editors of Blue Mesa!

BLUE MESA REVIEW #6 doesn't pull any punches. It begins with a great dramatic monologue dedicated to the memory of Cesar Chavez. This is a special issue because it is a tribute to Rudolfo Anaya, the man responsible for the existence of the magazine. He has helped assemble a marvelous collection of poetry and prose from writers more interested in The Other than the Self. These selfless writers challenge the status quo with emotional fireworks. I would say this issue is probably the finest collection of voices to come out of the west in quite a while.

This is a good concise way to study different aspects of medicine. I really like that each question has a full explanation of the answer.

Only 100 questions for this price is too little. Questions are good, same format as Kaplan questions. Good help when you are studying specific subject for the shelf or the boards, before you can do integrated subjects tests form other books.

Portable! Complete! Pertinent!
These are three strengths of this book. This white coat pocket-sized book allows one to complete 200 questions anytime and any place (including during rounds). The questions vary in difficulty from easy to more difficult. Nonetheless, the key facts to be learned are well explained in the answer explanation section, which covers not only the reasons for a correct answer but also outlines reasons that the other answers are incorrect. It is an excellent source of questions and a great starting point. If used to prepare for the actual Medicine shelf, then one can finish the entire book in under 4 hours! Some additional time will be needed to review the answers.

The new edition of the book now has 200 questions (twice that of the previous edition). The questions are arranged in the same style and length of the current Step 2 format. The questions are broken up into 5 question blocks. Each block has the answers with an explanation of why the correct answer is correct and (most importantly) why the other choices are incorrect. The questions in the book provide a good review of fundamental concepts with the more involved "2-3 step" questions found on Step 2. I think this is a great resource to use for Step 2 as well as a third year medical student on the wards. Many of the same concepts come up with actual patients in the hospital.