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Reviews
Red Dwarf VIII: The Official Book
Published in Hardcover by (2000-02-29)
Author: Doug Naylor
List price: $19.95
New price: $28.34
Used price: $14.99

Average review score:

great edition to fans (and non fans) of the classic show
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-11
although under ground red dwarf groups put season 8 at the low end of the list the book is a hit since it is memorobila
some have come to like red dwarf because of season 8 others come to love season 8 because of this book
it is well worth the pounds or dollers you will pay

One classy book!
Helpful Votes: 14 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-04
This gorgeous Red Dwarf companion may seem a bit pricey, but no smeghead should be without it. It contains LOTS of extra material from the smash hit series 8, and is full of beautiful cast and CGI pictures. Best of all, each script is introduced by the king of smeg himself- Doug Naylor! Some of the behind the scenes stories are utterly hilarious(anyone who's read 'Rubber Mask' will know what I'm talking about!). Mr Naylor also shares with us smeggies the troubles Red Dwarf went through in the three years between series 6 and 7. This man has my undying respect and gratitude- and Red Dwarf will never die!

The MUST BUY Red Dwarf Book
Helpful Votes: 14 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 2000-04-28
This book is THE Red Dwarf to buy. You may have seen several novels, quizbooks and other largish coffee table-type books concerning Red Dwarf at your local bookshop, but there is no other one quite so good as this: particularly for a fan who doesn't want to get bogged down in endless books.

The content is first rate. Each script contains many sections which were (unfortunately) obliterated from the final shows and almost every scene is accompanied by a full colour photo - there are literally hundreds of them. The comments and anecdotes by Doug only serve to improve an already damn fine book, and allow it to be classed not only as a scriptbook, but also as a series companion and a 'behind the scenes' book, too.

Every fan should have a copy - get one now!

Great for RD fans!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2000-04-03
Excellent coffee table-style book with some great pictures from series VIII and interesting behind-the-scenes stories from Doug Naylor. A great gift for the Red Dwarf-deprived U.S. fan!

The intro alone is worth the $17.
Helpful Votes: 20 out of 21 total.
Review Date: 2000-04-08
This is a large size hardcover book mostly consisting of the scripts to the 8 episodes in series 8. The scripts include original lines that were dropped from the show, many wonderful photos, and best of all, some introduction by Doug Naylor. If you are a fan of the show, this will probably make milk come out of your nose (if you happen to be drinking any.) If you are not a fan of the show and someone just reads a passage to you, you will probably still laugh out loud. Naylor explains why Red Dwarf 8 was almost never made, why Kochanski was introduced. (There WAS a reason! ) It is well worth the money, just for the beginning. A must own for fans, even if they aren't collectors, simply for the beginning.

Reviews
Reel Spirit: A Guide to Movies That Inspire, Explore and Empower
Published in Hardcover by Unity Books (Unity School of Christianity) (2000-03)
Author: Raymond Teague
List price: $10.99
New price: $8.75
Used price: $5.02

Average review score:

Takes the guesswork out of picking a movie
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-21
What a great, great book! As soon as it arrived, I quickly glanced through it and knew I would want to savor it for later. It's really difficult to put down. It's *very* easy to use; extremely well organized. The movies are grouped into headings from "Angels (and Other Messengers) in Our Midst" to "Have Yourself a Supernatural Christmas." I especially liked reading the author's reviews of movies I'd seen such as Edward Scissorhands, Mulan, Powder and my favorite, Resurrection. This book takes the guesswork out of what movie to see tonight!

A Spiritual "Ahaaa!"
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-29
Reel Spirit recognizes spirituality and clarifies why so many movies appeal to so many of us the way they do. The insights are meaningful, and the writing is as engaging as an on-going dialog, conveying the delightful experience of going to the movies with a connoisseur who happens to be your best friend.

What comes after "Did you like it?"
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-25
Have you ever read one of those parenting magazines that says you should watch movies with your kids and then talk about what you've seen? If you're like me, you may be perfectly willing to do this, but don't know what to say. Reel Spirit provides some great conversation starters so that you and your family or friends can make moviegoing a shared experience. And if all those titles at the video store overwhelm you, use the book to identify good movies ahead of time!

THIS IS DEFINITELY AN INVALUABLE GUIDE
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-18
I so enjoy finding spiritual elements in films, and this book helps immensely in alerting one to points in many films that one might miss. I question the spiritual value in some of the films discussed, but that's all to the good. I use this guide weekly chaeck;ing out the movies on TV, as well as, like other reviewers, taking it with me to the video store or library where I often check out videos.

I believe that this book will do loads in enhancing your enjoyment of many films, and may change your mind about some which you consdidered valueless until spiritual elements are brought out.

At Long Last!!! A really rewarding guide to films
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-16
Reel Spirit is a terrific guide to film! Buy it quickly and pop a copy into the car--you'll want to have with you every time you visit the video store! A must have for anyone who enjoys films that lift both heart and spirit.

Reviews
Review Questions for NBCC Examination
Published in Audio Cassette by Routledge (1993-06-01)
Author: Howar Rosenthal
List price: $60.00

Average review score:

A Class Act!
Helpful Votes: 21 out of 22 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-28
I was studying for the National Counselor Examination and a librarian told me that Dr. Rosenthal's Book the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COUNSELING and his audio cassette preparation guide continue to be the top sellers on the market. Then I spoke to somebody marketing a different brand of study guide and even she recommended his materials in addition to her own! This book contains a wealth of information about every area you will encounter on the exam. Rosenthal packs a ton of material into 900 questions and answers, so that even the questions and the wrong answers impart key information. He also reveals some terrific memory devices. He writes the book like he is talking to you which makes sense since his bio indicates he has a lot of public speaking experience. For me, this helped fight boredom. I've never felt compelled to write a review on a book prior to this, however, this unusually lively book really delivers on its promise. If you look at the price of competitive study guides I think you'll agree that this gem would be a bargain even at twice the price you will pay.

A comprehensive tutorial for those taking the NCE
Helpful Votes: 29 out of 31 total.
Review Date: 1999-02-22
I am taking the NCE in April and have been studying with Rosenthal's "Encyclopedia" for about three weeks. Already, my test anxiety has decreased and I feel more prepared to take the exam. The format of the book is in question/answer format, which does not give readers a very good outline to study from. It does however allow for an interactive review where you can guage your preparedness by the number of question you are getting correct. There are countless study guides and course out there that will charge $500 for a weekend. I would forget about all of those and get this review.

Rosenthal's Encyclopedia
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2000-08-09
I have passed the PCLE, the Ohio counselor's exam drawn from a Texas data-base. While I thought the book was excellent, few of the exasperatingly subtle, tricky and trivial questions on the PCLE related to questions-and-answers from Rosenthal's book. Hopefully, the book is better for the National Counselor's Exam.

Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of Counseling
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2000-06-23
I just passed the Ohio professional counselor's exam. I credit this in no small way to the time saving format of this book. I believe that it helped boost my score by at least 10%.

How I passed the NCE in one shot!
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-10
This anthology and the accompanying audio tapes were the key to passing this dreaded licensure requirement for Mental Health Counselors. I sat between two classmates at my exam. Each had used other preperatory books and even taken classes only to fail the exam in pior attempts. One of these friends had failed several times! By using these tools consistently for the three months prior to sitting for the exam, I not only passed but I scored quite highly. Not bad considering I have been test anxious all of my student life. I cannot recommend these tools too highly.

Reviews
Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
Published in Kindle Edition by Evergreen Review, Inc. (2008-01-21)
Author: Frank H. Knight
List price: $4.95
New price: $3.96

Average review score:

Before Knight there was Schumpeter and Keynes
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-23
Knight's Risk,Uncertainty and Profit(RUP) is a classic work ,especially with respect to Knight's analysis of the distinction between risk and uncertainty and the role each plays in the decision making calculus of the entreprenuer or the firm.For instance,Knight recognized that the negative impact of uncertainty could be reduced for those firms that were able to increase their size and get larger and larger over time.Advertising would allow firms to deal with the uncertainty of consumer responses to the introduction of new products over time ,as well as to changes in consumer preferences.Knight was the first to clearly recognize that economic profit is the return to the successful entreprenuer or owner of the firm to compensate them for the bearing of uncertainty.Knight's analysis of the connection between uncertainty and economic profit corrected the errors of Ricardo and Marx,who regarded economic profit as an unearned surplus .Keynes's integration of expected economic profit into the specification of his aggregate supply function,Z,where Z =P+wN(P equals expected economic profit),can be traced back to Knight's earlier discussions.It is strange that economists still are having trouble specifying Keynes's Z function nearly 70 years after the publication of the General Theory in 1936.However,Knight's theoretical analysis of uncertainty at both the micro and macro level is not as impressive as Schumpeter's analysis of uncertainty in his Theory of Economic Development(1912)or of the path breaking analysis of John Maynard Keynes in chapters 6 and 26 of the A Treatise on Probability(1921).In this latter book,Keynes operationalized a quantitative method of dealing with uncertainty(insufficient weight of the evidence,w)by means of his conventional coefficient of risk and weight,c.This coefficient allows a decision maker to incorporate uncertainty and nonadditive probabilities into a technical analysis of decision making.The only author who comes close to Keynes is D.Ellsberg with his practically identical index to measure ambiguity called rho.There are still some unanswered questions that can be asked in this area of economic thought.Why didn't Knight cite the earlier work of Joseph Schumpeter on the risk versus uncertainty distinction?Further,why didn't Keynes cite both Knight and Schumpeter in his chapters 12 ,17 and 22,where he discussed the issue of the effect of uncertainty on investment in new capital goods and on stock market speculation?

One of the classics in economics
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-20
Even though the recent research in microeconomic theory has paid attention (somewhat reluctant in my opinion) to the topic of the "uncertainty", i.e. the Knightian uncertainty, it has not been successfully incorporated in the main theoretical framework, yet. The one of the evidences may be that we still cite D. Ellsberg's paper in QJE as the one of the most important work in this field: it is like citing Keynes' "General Theory" in every microeconomic paper as in 1950s and 1960s.

The book is pleasant to read: it is full of insights, usually forgotten by now, including the complemental tendency of the theoretical and empirical works in economics. The most important accomplishment is that he argued that the exisence of the "uncertainty", the event whose probablity cannot be estimated priori or from empirical data, explains the instablity of the perfect competition, the (lucklustre) justification for the monopoly and the oligopoly, and the superiority of the private property system (capitalism). It is noticable that many phenomenons metioned in the book can be still applicable now, and the last part implies the author's thought regarding to the path of the capitalism, which is explored in more depth in Schumpeter's work despite the differences in two economists' predictions.

Knight is one of the economist who lived in the transition of classical into neoclassical economics. The book predicts the emergence of more mathematical economists, but cannot escape from the influence of the former. The same thing can be said of the works of Schumpeter, Viner, and Veblen. Despite being one of the most famous economists, he and Schumpeter has no student who followed their lines of works: is it because their imaginative ways in conducting the reserach, or because of the trends in economics which trapped their students? (Stigler was a student of Knight, but which interest do their works share, except for their interests in history of economic thoughts?)

It is worth reading because it reminds of what economics is or should be about, not because it prescribes the solution which could not be found in the modern economic works. We are witnessing the transition of several countries into the private economics with the mixed results. It should be noted that Hayek's work is the starting point in this field, the transition economics or the comparative economics, but Knight's work is more appropriate, pratical, and dynamical.

Thus, if you are uncomfortable with the current economics, want to explore more idiosyncratic works in economics and think about the big picture in the path of the society, or are tempted to diverge from the dullness of the business books in your bookshelf, then this may what you have been looking for. Unless you are struck with the optimism that cannot be easily found in the present.

Get this classic back in print!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2001-03-01
This is the standard work in the field, give or take some stuff Keynes wrote on risk and capital.

Model of how economic problems should be analyzed
Helpful Votes: 40 out of 41 total.
Review Date: 2001-03-08
This is the best work of economic theory I have ever read. There is no work in economics that evinces better judgment on the main issues or that does a better job of balancing theory with a sense for the facts. Knight begins by defending theoretical (that is, deductive) economics. Unlike the economic rationalists, however, Knight does not believe that theoretical economics can lead to precise results. The application of the "analytic method" must always be "incomplete," he argues. Theoretical economics thus can only deal with "tendencies," that is, "with what 'would' happen under simplified conditions never realized, but always more or less closely approached in practice." This methodology Knight describes as "the method of successive approximations." Knight also warns of the dangers of rationalism and the necessity of constantly checking one's results against the facts. "When the number of factors taken into account in deduction becomes large, the process rapidly becomes unmanageable and errors creep in... It is better to stop dealing with elements separately before they get too numerous and deal with the final stages of the approximation by applying corrections empirically determined."

Armed with the method, Knight proceeds to tackle several important problems in economics, especially dealing with the theoretical construct of "perfect competition." By always keeping his head firmly within the empirically real, Knight is able to bring a great deal of sound judgment to a number of issues. Knight had a keen sense of human nature and how human beings behave in the real world of fact. He knew that most economists had made men out to be far more rational than they really were. Businesses, he argued, did not merely seek to meet the needs of the consumers; no, they sought to create new needs through innovation, advertising, and even a sort of manipulative hypnotism. In this, Knight argued, we find both progress and abuse, civilization and fraud. Knight also brings a good deal of sense to the problem of interest, demonstrating the psychological inadequacy of all time-preference theories of interest. But Knight's most important contribution consists in his analysis of the difference between risk and uncertainty. Risk, Knight argues, is a measurable probability that something could happen, like the probability that an individual will be struck by lightening or hit by a car. Uncertainty is a kind of immeasurable risk--e.g., predicting short term flucations in exchange rates. Knight's analysis is crucial to understanding economic reality. Knight's distinction between risk and uncertainty, for instance, explains why the rise of derivative securities in financial markets is so dangerous. Derivatives attempt to insure uncertainty, which is immeasurable, as if it were risk (which is measurable).

Uncertainty and the Market
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-04
Frank Knight hit the ground running with his dissertation, which he published as Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit. Knight makes a simple but important distinction between quantifiable risk and uncertainty. The distinction between risk and uncertainty is important in understanding markets, profits, and entrepreneurship. Knight connects entrepreneurship with uncertainty and profit. These factors do not square well with conventional notions of perfectly competitive equilibrium.

Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit is a work of major importance. This book constitutes a serious alternative to the theories of entrepreneurship developed by Schumpeter and Kirzner. While most modern economists underemphasize entrepreneurship, Knight examines uncertainty and entrepreneurship as a way of bridging the gap between abstract theory and economic realities. Knight saw the obvious fact that we do not live in a world of perfect competition. He, like Shackle and Keynes, recognized that we must explain uncertainty if we are to ever understand how the capitalist system really works.

Knight was a major figure in the generation of interwar economists who sought to explain the dynamics of capitalism. Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit is indispensable to anyone who aims at understanding uncertainty and dynamics in microeconomics, along with the work of Schumpeter, Hayek, Coase, Kaldor, Mises, Lachmann, and Shackle.

Reviews
The School for Cats (New York Review Children's Collection)
Published in Hardcover by NYR Children's Collection (2005-08-31)
Author:
List price: $12.95
New price: $5.82
Used price: $3.95

Average review score:

The School For Cats
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-12
My husband and I just love these Jenny Linsky stories, and we have no kids! We had never heard of Jenny Linsky until my husband brought home a very badly beaten up copy of it from the dump of all places. We are now HUGE fans and plan on collecting all of Jenny's charming stories.

Wonderful stories by a great author
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-19
We are purchasing this series one at a time for our daughter, who is also named Jenny. She is eating them up! The stories are simple and sweet, but include lots of old-fashioned adventure, just perfect for young kids. We own several titles now and I have not been disappointed by any of them. Charming illustrations and great stories makes for a perfect combination! I recommend this series highly. Probably up to a fourth grade reading level.

Jenny Linsky - cat stories
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-08
My daughters love the Jenny Linsky cat books. All of the drawings are extremely charming and the writing is so fluid that my nine-year-old reads them to her younger sister.

Classic!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-27
I picked up a Jenny and the cat Club book at a yard sale in the late 1970's. It quickly became my favorite book, and I still have it today. I tried to collect other Jenny books over the years, but they are hard to find in good condition - and expensive - so I was happy to see them all republished in hardcover! My collection grows!!

These books are wonderful - hope you will buy one for your kids - or yourself! :)

My 5 year old loves Jenny & her adventures!
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-04
I thought this story would be far fetched being that Jenny goes to a "camp." But she actually goes to a kennel and it made more sense to me (talking cats, cat who drives--perfectly normal to me). Nonetheless, the story keeps in balance with the rest of Averill's series. My five year old truly enjoys this series. He loves cats and enjoys the fun adventures Jenny the cat experiences.

Reviews
Screen Plays: How 25 Screenplays Made It to a Theater Near You--for Better or Worse
Published in Paperback by Harper Paperbacks (2009-02-01)
Author: David S. Cohen
List price: $14.95
New price: $10.17

Average review score:

"It's Difficult Talking to Idiots"
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-28
That's the eye catching sub-head for Mr. Cohen's very candid essay on the making of the movie "Bounce." It is not even a movie I saw and yet, I couldn't get myself to put down the book (and get back to work) until I finished this painfully insightful memoir by writer/director Don Roos.

In fact, the entire book is a little tough to put down because each story gets your foot inside the door of what writers had to endure to get their stories on the big screen. In some cases, you get the impression that the stories glided between the cracks. But in most cases, you wonder how anyone could ever have the tenacity to see a script to the end. And in many cases they don't. A recurring theme in these pages is how often the script changes hands, as old writers are fired, new one's hired, and the first one re-hired. Ugh. Makes me glad that I'm a Graphic Designer...something I thought I'd never say.

Surprisingly, the best story is found right smack dab at the beginning from Mr. Cohen himself. I'm talking about the Introduction, which most people skip. Don't do that. Read the introduction. All of it. It's honest. It's brave. And it's even more tell-all than the stories that come after it. Oh, and it's so funny at times that I embarrassed myself when laughing at the bookstore. I wrote the author an email, giving him a little wink about his story. He wrote back. That was enough for me to buy the book.

One more great thing about this book. I've always felt that writers are the last vestige of the world's wisemen. They have an insight about people, places and situations that when I read books like these I begin to wonder if I'm really reading a psychological self-help book. I've underlined quite a few snippets, as so much of what is shared resonated with my own experiences as a creative person. It's very difficult to stand by and watch someone "bend" your idea until it breaks (that's me paraphrasing Mr. Cohen in his Introduction).

So the point is, Get this book. If misery indeed loves company, you'll have plenty of it.

I'm so glad I'm not in the move business
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-26
I've been a working writer for 30 years, so David Cohen's book is deliciously like listening in on the personal conversations of compatriots in the craft--but the more I read, the more relieved I was that I'd never been attracted to screenwriting. Cohen's fresh, entertaining and whip-smart insights help to lace these in-depth interviews with meaning and pathos, even when the writers themselves border on the vapid--and those with the most to say shine through, thanks to the author's careful balance between commentary and reportage. We may cringe when we read of a writer's summary dismissal from the movie script he's slaved over for years, but there are enough delightful stories in this book to make the chilling ones a bit more bearable. One way or another, we've all been there.

We get to know the inner Cohen as well, from his own foray into writing for Star Trek to his early naivete at the junket buffet table. Overall, this book is a great read.

Why didn't I think of this?
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-14
Cohen's genius is giving us the real story of how things happen, by letting us drop in (sometimes mercifully briefly) on the minds and tormented, heartbroken lives of actual screenwriters and their actual screenplays. I work with book authors who often want to make the leap to screen, so I bought this to see what they might be up against. Normally I have to force myself to read writerly books like this (parceling out a chapter every few days, dutifully, 'cause it's so much a part of my day job), but I took this one to bed and read it like a novel. The stories are so wonderfully f$%!d up... you find yourself overwhelmed with pity, schadenfreude, horror, amusement you name it. It must have been hell to make some of these movies.

The most interesting surprises for me were the backstories on two directors whose films normally do little for me personally: Todd Solondz and John Waters. I've always considered them overrated in a hipster-annoying kind of way (ditto the Cohens and the Sedarises, zzzz), but both men came off as brilliant personally, and so much more in control of what happens with their films. They make you wonder why anyone would want to get involved with the studio system at all... both seem so sane by comparison to some of the studio writers in the other stories.

The best thing this book did for me is make screenwriting seem do-able, by actual humans, rather than something demigods accomplish for little reconition and erratic pay. It's a job, like plumbing, and people have this job and make it work for them. I'm going to buy several copies and give them out to would-be screenwriter clients. Great work: author, author!

Fascinating
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-07
David S. Cohen gives us the back story on 25 movies (from the sublime, like The Hours, to the incredibly bad, like Random Hearts): how they evolved from screenplay to screen.
Although it's not a how-to book, I suspect budding and aspiring screenwriters everywhere will receive Screen Plays like a man stranded in the desert welcomes water.

Following these films from the birth of the idea until the films came into the theaters and left as classics, embarrassing flops, or somewhere in between, Cohen is smart enough not to offer glib answers about why the result was what it was. Writing, for example, about the very talented people who were behind Random Hearts (which I suspect will always be in the list of worst movies I've seen in my life), he ends quoting Harrison Ford, who instead of trying to explain the process of making the film, simply said: "You sort of had to be there." Regular film lovers can't be there for the journey, but Cohen does a really good job showing you photos of the trip.

Reviews
Slayer: The Next Generation (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Virgin Publishing (2003-03)
Author: Keith Topping
List price: $7.95
New price: $1.97
Used price: $0.30

Average review score:

Hey ho, let's go...
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-20
As an American, it hurts to admit that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the quintessential expression of American cheekiness and derring-do, has been best chronicled by a Britisher. Of course, I'm teasing a bit. But there is no question that Keith Topping seems to have a better grasp of what is important in the Buffyverse than many of his contemporaries on this side of the ocean.

What Topping does not do is write one agonizing reprise after another of all the episodes of Season Six of the show. As viewers will no doubt remember, Season Six was quite agonizing itself without that point being hammered home all over again. Instead, Topping provides very short synopses, followed by myriad details of things that are unique, funny, or perplexing about each episode.

You will be treated to paragraphs on 'A little learning is a dangerous thing' (the power of misinformation), 'Denial they name is...' (Self-delusion in Sunnydale), 'It's a designer label..' (clothes, of course), valley-speak, geek-speak, logic errors, and ever more items that bring to light the aspects of the production which the viewer, caught up in the story, is likely to miss. All of this is done in a style that is an enjoyable mix of tongue-in-cheek and respectfully serious.

Topping is an excellent researcher. His ability to find countless relationships, both intentional and accidental, to other atavars of popular culture is uncanny. Nor does he hesitate to introduce the reader to the more analytic writings on Buffy and the Scooby gang. Despite the spottiness of Season Six, Topping manages to ferret out all the good parts - to the point where I have to admit that the book is better than the season.

If you are a fan then you will want this book. And you will want to track down Topping's other efforts on the show that nearly ate South California.

This is good--for fans of season 6
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-24
I have the edition of Slayer for seasons 1 through 5, and it is really a good guide of the series. This book continues with the same fun observations, facts, and quotes. I know some people hate season 6, but for those of us that love it--this book is worth it. If you don't like season 6, maybe this book can help you see the good things about the season.

The author of 'Slayer' provides a 6th season update
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-06
For those who liked Keith Topping's British perspective in his earlier 'Slayer' volume, here is an update. This book covers only the 6th season - Buffy's resurrection, the Trioka, the musical, Willow-as-evil, etc. Each episode receives 5-to-8 pages of coverage, organized under various thematic headings: Plot summary, music, memorable quotes, comments on the women's clothing, continuity errors, logic flaws, pop culture references, etc. Topping seems to have caught everything, down to the tiniest continuity error.

There are also separate essays on (1) series creator Joss Whedon, (2) the network switch to UPN, (3) an update on BtVS novels (about a paragraph on each), (4) an update on BtVS and the internet, and (5) predictions for the 7th season, which was the last season of this underappreciated series that never gained the viewership it deserved.

Excellent book for the best Buffy season
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 18 total.
Review Date: 2003-04-30
Season six is in my opinon the best Buffy season ever.
If you don't like it read this book. It will change your mind.
If it doesn't, then go back to watching Bewitched or Buffy season one. I guess the true spirit of the Slayer is lost on you.

Another excellent Slayer volume
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-16
This book covers the sixth season of Buffy and is the next volume in Keith Topping's 'Slayer' episode guides (the previous 5 seasons are covered in a single volume, also available from Amazon). Keith does his usual thorough job covering each episode in detail. Even if you disagree with his views, you can't dispute that he has a deep love for the show and a healthy respect for all those involved in its production.

As I have stated in other reviews, Keith Topping's Buffy and Angel books are the best unauthorised episode guides on the market. If you are a serious fan of Buffy and Angel, you only need the official guides and these books.

Reviews
The Stay-at-Home Dad Handbook
Published in Paperback by Chicago Review Press (2004-10-01)
Authors: Peter Baylies and Jessica Toonkel
List price: $14.95
New price: $9.00
Used price: $2.85

Average review score:

No more "Mr. Mom"
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-06
While the day-to-day, 9-to-5 (only it's sometimes more like 24/7) career of child-rearing is still largely a female domain, Mr. Mom is no longer a movie cliche, but an SAHD, or Stay-at-Home Dad. As more mothers bring home larger pay checks, and more paying jobs can be done at home, more fathers find themselves able and willing to do the daycare thing. Thus the rise of dads like Peter Baylies, founder of the At-Home Dad Network and publisher of its newsletter, and thus this very useful and pragmatic guide for "Men Who Clean Bathrooms and the Women Who Love Them."

The Stay-at-Home Dad Handbook would be an excellent tool for any expectant parent, male or female, who wants to look after both home and children. Baylies is full of clear and clever advice about establishing routines, cleaning house (and how to schedule this around the needs of a small child), dealing with tantrums, attaining and maintaining a satisfying social life, living on one income, working at home, avoiding burnout, and what to do when the kid hits kindergarten age. Some of this stuff men simply need explained to them, and Baylies does that with admirable precision, flavored with amusing examples of traditional can-do male attitude - there's a really good idea about how to recycle your old computer and edutain your child at the same time - and tips only a dad would think of, or publish. (Having fun in the summer months via the "ice cube meltdown in armpit" method comes to mind.) But the book's guy-ness comes through most strongly in the "Spotlight on Dad" profiles that finish each chapter: vignettes, some funny and some poignant, by other SAHDs about their at-home experiences: the frustration of waiting and waiting, a squalling infant in one's arms, for the breast-feeding mom who's stuck on the freeway; the guy who's finally taken the proud step of calling himself "a professional parent." ("And if you call me Mr. Mom, I'll hit you with my diaper bag.")

It would be nice to hear a little more about the less tangible rewards of staying at home: the ease and intimacy of life with one's child, the pleasures of not commuting and of being one's own boss. But not to quibble; with its attention to detail and the appendix of cool resources, Baylies's latest child is for any father-to-be who dreams of becoming a real pro. -- Melanie Lawrence for the FEARLESS REVIEWS

Best Book Ever on Stay at home Dads
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-17
This is "THE BOOK" on stay at home dads! Fun and fast reading that offers valuable insight into the life of stay at home dads. Great parenting tips for both mom's and dad's. Read this book and you will be a better father. This book is a must read for any parent who takes parenting seriously.

Good For Working Moms Too!
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-13
As a recently back to work mom, I found this book to be incredibly helpful both for me and for my at-home dad husband. The chapter about how to deal with the "rush hour" time before dinner offers some great tips. I definately recommend this book to new moms and dads!

Fathers are people too
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-13
I had a chance to peek at an advanced copy of the book and I was floored by the creative advise and down to earth approach. I should have read this book 5 years ago when my son's were still young. Luckily I'll have plenty of time to practice on my daughter.

Men who change diapers change the world
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-09-28
The book provides valuable nuggets of information for the stay at home dad. This grassroots hands on voices of experience book is a great resource with funny and informative reading.

Reviews
The Successful IMG: Obtaining a US Residency
Published in Paperback by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (2005-01-15)
Author: Anagh A. Vora
List price: $26.95
Used price: $199.99

Average review score:

Great book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-04
Absolutely must for an IMG, has a lot of stuff starting on how to prepare a good application and also tips on writing personal statement and dos & dont,s for recommendation letters. I found it very useful and would definitely recommend it.

Total Success!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-15
I bought this book on June/06, just prior the match season started. It totally changed my original plan. I was full of the info that is on the internet, the same that the thousands of applicants use. This book gives you in detail what you have to do in order to outstand from the rest. Focusing on the difficulties that an IMG has while trying to get a residency, set the profile of the SUCESSFUL IMG, and explains you how to become one. I relyed on this book only and obtained 10 invitations out of 30 applications, all from top centers like Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, or Mayo Clinic. Definitively, the best tool for IMG's.

It's about time!!!
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-10
I would swear and curse with joy, but I shall hold back!

The author of this book is to be commended on the exemplary structure and layout of this little gold-mine... I was hoping to find this work earlier, and I am only thankful that I have it in my hands right now!!!

Getting to the US, into a top-notched residency programme, while being a foreign medical graduate are all difficult things to combine and accomplish skilfully. It is absolutely wonderful to see a physician who made it, and who made it BIG.
I found this book thoroughly informative, believe it or not, on ALL the major steps required for that arduous process. Most texts offer scarse little tid-bits of already well-known facts that I needed to add MUCH more to. This book does that splendidly.
I particularly enjoyed the Seventy-Thirty rule.

Guys out there looking for more than JUST a book on getting through the hurdles?... this book is for those who want to do it and do it WELL. It's plain, and simple, and easy to read. I recommend it above ANY of the other books on the market. THIS ONE is the ONLY one of it's kind...

Thank you to the author. A tremendously honest piece of work. Congratulations.

the best
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-03
It's a very comprehensive book and the tips it gives are really great and deal with real life. The LORs and interview sections are marvellous. The author has an indeed deep understanding of the successful application process for a residency in the U.S. What might miss from this book: maybe how can IMGs find an observership in the U.S for which he/she wouldn't have to pay, just like it is possible in Europe!
I recommend the book in highest terms to anyone applying for residency.

The best IMG book in the market
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-07-24
This is THE book for IMGs. Forget first aid and others. Nobody explains the finer details, the minutae that can enhance your competitiveness better than Anagh Vora. The book is a truly outstanding read and will help the readers in the process of obtaining a US residency.

Best would be to buy it by the 2nd-3rd year of medical college and utilise all the guidelines mentioned. Its 140 pages of information for just IMGs, so very much detailed as to what to do and what not to do.

Buying it will be the best decision in you quest for a US residency.

Reviews
Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 2
Published in Paperback by Titan Books (2008-04-08)
Author: Nicholas Knight
List price: $14.95
New price: $8.55
Used price: $8.55

Average review score:

Supernatural Rocks the World!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-28
I love Supernatural. Anything Supernatural gets an automatic 5 million in my book. I love the extra detail included in each companion that gives more facts on the creatures and the explanation as to why the writters decided to make the brothers go after them. Dean and Sam are the BEST!

Very satisfied
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-17
I preordered this book when I ordered the season 1 companion guide along with the complete seasons on DVD. I was very satisfied with the indepth information that was given about each episodes. The best thing about this book is the 22 Things for Aspiring Ghost Hunters By Dean Winchester. Very good book for any Supernatural fan!!

Awesome Book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-04
This is an awesome book to have for fans of Supernatural!! I highly recommend it.

A great companion for a great season of a great show.
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-09
The Supernatural Season Two Companion is brilliant. Much like the first companion, it has lots of episode information, quotes, and behind the scenes looks. It also contains episode insights from Ackles, Padalecki, and Eric Kripke. The quick facts and episodic music listings are particularly my favourite. The "Did You Know?" bits are always insightful and really interesting. And, needless to say, the coloured image inserts are awesome.

Overall, I have been really happy with the seasonal companions so far. I look forward to the the third with great interest.

Thank you!!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-18
Thank you for sending the book so timely and in the great shape it was promised that it would be. 5 Stars


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