Q Books

I admit to being biased (my family moved to Albany around the time this story is set and has stayed since) but still insist this is a great period story that is at times hilarious, at times heart-wrenching, and never dull.

Although period literature is definitely in no short supply, Kennedy writes this book with a distinctly mystical flair that adds a stern dose of magic to a time most authors relegate to stuffiness and pomp. In addition, his characters here are immediately endearing, espescially Maud, Magdalena, and Daniel Quinn himself.

I'm less coherent than normal having spent the night awake reading this great story in lieu of sleep, but for anyone interested in, well, good storytelling set with a historically accurate backdrop of Albany and canal-town New York as a whole,
Quinn's Book recommends itself.

Fifteen-year-old Daniel Quinn doesn't know his life is about to change on a wintry day in 1849. An orphan, the result of a particularly bad cholera epidemic which wipes out his whole family, Daniel apprentices himself to the boatman, John the Brawn, as a helper in lieu of living in an orphanage. But when the boat containing the actress Magdelena Colon, her maid, and niece, Maud Fallon, is upset by a large block of ice, fate intervenes, causing Quinn's fortunes and fate to be interwoven with Magdelena, Maud, and John the Brawn.
This was a wondeful novel, full of rich language, and subtle humor, which portrays the life of the Irish in the mid-nineteenth century with startling realism. Daniel's family seems to have arrived in America well before the parade of famine Irish, so starkly portrayed by Kennedy in all their squalor. While not attempting to stereotype the Irish immigrants, we see them as the white, upper-class citizens of New York did, a scourge and pestilence bringing filth and disease with them. At one point in the novel they are herded on railroad cars and transported away from Albany as undesirables, dumped on some less fortunate area of the state.
Though the fate of the Irish immigrant is not the main theme in the novel, Quinn's background of being a penniless Irish orphan doesn't increase his chances of gaining the hand of Maud, though she declares her love for him upon their first meeting when she is but thirteen to his fifteen. Fate throws them together over the years, but it is not until he is a grown man that he finally seems worthy of the precocious Maud.
Besides the obvious love story the historical perspective works well. We are treated to a look at the anti-Catholic Know Nothing Pary, the forerunners of the modern Republican Pary, Abolitionists, the Underground Railroad, and the New York City Draft Riots. A very enjoyable story.

I came late to William Kennedy's work and may have to take other reviewers at their word that this is not his best. But it's certainly pretty good, and I'll find out if the rest is better. He captures a kind of crazed picaresque worldview which is something like E.L. Doctorow on drugs. His disasters are gigantic, larger than life, and so are most of the characters. It's hard to tell if it's magical realism or just totally unlikely, but it's funny as hell and a tremendously fun and quick reading experience--in spite of the mass violence and misfortune and desperate poverty it describes.

If someone set out to write a parody of Kennedy's works, it would read a lot like Quinn's Book. Hard to put down, yes; telling details, of course; but undermined by preposterous characters and an offensive kind of magical realism. Billy Phelan's Greatest Game and Legs were much better.

An excellent book, just excellent. My cousin read me the first sentence and I was hooked. This novel made me think of Doctorow's Billy Bathgate and Helprin's Winter's Tale, and it's just as good as those masterpieces. Now, has anyone else wondered about the mysterious but obvious relationship between this book, Winter's Tale, and Paul Auster's New York Trilogy (e.g., there is a character named Daniel Quinn in New York Trilogy)? And what other references am I missing? What is going on here?

Half of this book was introduction. Although the introduction was very informational, There was too much. And it's true, they did leave out the Munchkin,Bengal,and there were a few more. I just can't remember them at this moment. This was a very good book though. I just don't recommend it to anyone who is tring to decide what breed they want.

The Simon & Schuster Guide to Cats is unique in that essential information is provided in a concise format for every breed of cat, including a picture of each breed and its variations. The information provided per breed is one or two pages of information that includes origin, coat, color, body, head, eyes, tail, character, ideal owner, environment, diet, recommended care, reproduction, faults, and varieties. Also included are symbols that tell the reader whether or not a particular breed is particularly playful or requires extra grooming. It is ideal for the cat owner or potential cat owner who wants to understand the particular needs of a particular breed of cat. No other guide I have found gives such a wealth of information. As other reviewers have noted though, newer breeds are omitted, such as the Munchkin, Bengal, Selkirk Rex, and LaPerm probably due to the age of this guide which was published in 1983. It is for this lack of updated information that I give it four stars instead of five.

Like the best-selling Simon & Schuster's Guide to Dogs, this new Guide to Cats is the best available, whether you need it primarily for identification, to help you choose a breed suitable for you, or for pure
reading pleasure. Concise, informative, and illustrated completely in full color, this book describes the fascinating history of cats and features 40 longhair and shorthair breeds, detailing for each its origin, coat,
color, body, head, eyes, tail, character, ideal owner, environment, feeding, care, mating, faults, and varieties, in accordance with North American standards. In addition, colorful symbols assist the reader in
understanding and appreciating each breed at a glance.

Over 200 full-color illustrations covering shorthair and longhair breeds, with a description of origin, physical and personality characteristics, ideal owner, diet, care, and much more, including helpful symbols for such traits as Good Mouser , Good with Children , and other traits.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK, IT DESCRIBES EACH BREED, WITH MANY EXTRA'S THAT OTHER BOKKS DON'T INCLUDE, SUCH AS TERMPERMANT AND ENVIRONMENT. I ENDED UP GETTINNG A CAT FROM THE SHELTER, BUT THE SECTION ON CAT CARE STILL HELPED ME, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT THE BEST BOOK TO BUY JUST FOR INFORMATION ON CAT CARE.

I think this book was okay but it has more introduction than breeds. It also left out a few breeds like the Munchkin,Bengal and more. If you don't mind having a few breeds missing than this is an okay book.

Great book for persons just starting QFD within their organizations. Straight forward step-by-step chapters that build upon each other to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of QFD concepts and mechanics. Team/group excercises within each chapter make this a great introductory training manual to solidify learning of material covered in each chapter.

I stumbled into QFD by accident: while browsing through sample drawings in Visio I spotted a "House of Quality Matrix" under Business Diagrams. The drawing looked fascinating, which led me to do a quick search on the Internet. The search yielded a large number of hits and interesting content. That, in turn, led me to this book because capturing and validating requirements is a difficult undertaking and I am always on the lookout for new techniques and tools.

The book opened a whole new world to me. The opening chapter, "The Role of the Customer in Design", starts with an example of using QFD in a project and gives compelling reasons for using this technique. Subsequent chapters walk you through the mechanics of a generic design process. This prepares you for the detailed treatment of QFD that follows.

Based on my initial research QFD looks simple and straightforward. However, this book reveals a rich process and set of procedures that show its real power (and complexity for large undertakings). For example, I discovered that the "house of quality" structure can have multiple matrices, each of which is linked. This gives both forward and backwards traceability, but requires painstaking attention to detail. This is where this book proves its value - it breaks this complexity down into manageable pieces and provides you with a thorough understanding of the process.

The section that I found most meaningful and valuable addresses customer segments. I am an IT consultant who specializes in service delivery, so my natural focus is on strengthening alignment between IT and the business processes that IT supports. Among the things I learned from this section are: how to effectively identify customer segments and classify them, what measurements are meaningful (especially important for satisfaction measurement), and ranking and prioritizing. One of the most powerful prioritization techniques that I discovered in this book is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This technique is an excellent way to objectively quantify priorities and requirements. The steps are relatively simple: 1.Choose the requirements to be prioritized. 2.Set the requirements into the rows and columns of the n x n AHP matrix. 3.Perform a pair wise comparison of the requirements in the matrix according to a set criteria. 4.Sum the columns. 5.Normalize the sum of rows. 6.Calculate the row averages.

However, for a large number of requirements this can quickly get complicated in a hurry. The simple math for small numbers of requirements gets replaced by sophisticated (to me) matrix techniques that are outside of my skill set when the number of requirements to be prioritized grows. Also, AHP is useful for managing requirements revealed via surveys. Most of my requirements come directly from contact with end users. I have found that a facilitated meeting using paired comparison techniques to be as valuable aas AHP. This is not covered in the book, which I found to be a minor shortcoming. If you want details about paired comparisons I will be happy to share them via email.

The rest of the book addresses QFD within the context of quality planning and management, and measuring the effectiveness of quality. Interwoven into these are valuable tools and techniques, such as affinity diagrams, TRIZ and various analysis techniques. While the remainder of the book began focusing on manufacturing, which is outside of my professional specialty, I found the material interesting because some of my clients are manufacturers and it gave insights into business processes that will surely prove valuable in the future. Almost everything in this book was new to me. The author did a magnificent job of explaining how to effectively capture, prioritize and management requirements in ways that I never expected. Moreover, the methods embodied in QFD are both powerful in that you can actually capture the voice of the customer, and practical in that you can trace a final design (product or process) back to customer requirements. I also learned about some powerful techniques, such as AHP, that I would have never discovered had I not read this book. If you are involved in requirements management, product or process design or quality then this book will be a valuable addition to your professional reading.

I appreciate the way the author communicates. His style is as simple as QFD, but QFD wouldn't have been simple for me without the book.

This book is not very well written. It jumps from one detailed description to another, without giving enough overview or bridging material. It seems like this book evolved from presentation slides, and the author failed to include enough of the bridging, higher-level exposition that keeps people oriented from slide to slide. This is a little disappointing, and it makes it more difficult to get value from this book.

This book provides a nice overview of QFD with more than adequate examples. One of the nicer things is that it provides Workshop forms from which you can begin putting together a training forum. However, where this book fails is in the original authorship and editing. To be honest, it must be one of the most poorly put-together books I have read. Incorrect spellings, incomplete thoughts, and figure-to-text mismatches makes this book all but un-readable. If you need a book filled with examples at a decent rate, this is the one for you. If you can, skip this train and spend your money more wisely on a book that the author and publisher obviously took more time than a weekend to put together.

This is a terrific book by literate, droll writers who really love and know the city. It's extremely idiosyncratic, which is part of its pleasure. How many other guides would give so much coverage to sento (public bath houses) or serious appraisals of 5-buck noodle joints? I only wish they would keep to their promise and update it annually.

Tokyo Q ... is an English language web site that covers the cultural scene in Tokyo. This book pulls together many of the reviews and listings published over the years.

It's a small book. The listings do not attempt to be comprehensive, and don't cover the mainstream hotels and restaurants you'll find in the typical guidebooks. It tries to be the guide your friend who's lived in Tokyo for 10 years would write, sharing his favorite places.

There's a photo of a sketch map in the center of the book which explains the neighborhoods of central Tokyo. On a recent business trip, I found this the single most useful two pages in any guidebook (and I bought several). I still needed the others to get around, but now I had a perceptual map of what I was doing.

If you're just going on business, you can probably skip this book. If you have a few days to explore, it's probably worth picking up. Don't miss Rick Kennedy's book, Little Adventures in Tokyo, which is essential for an exploratory newbie.

This little book won a spot in my bag every day I was in Tokyo, and that is the best of compliments when you are out exploring a city all day and want to travel light. I used it mostly for restaurants and it never steered me wrong. I quickly tossed my copy of Zagat Tokyo because it is biased to the most expensive places, TokyoQ has excellent listings in all price ranges organised by type of food. Dining is a huge part of the Tokyo experience and it's worth seeking out great restaurants. A couple of the places I chose from this book were a bit out of the way but well worth it.

Directions are not always given, which annoyed me until I accepted the fact that the only way to find an address in Tokyo is to find a police box and ask. Apparantly giving directions really is the main purpose of the Tokyo police.

I enjoyed the attention given to modern Architecture, an other main component of the Tokyo experience. I also loved the little sketch of neighborhoods, not a road map but more of a personality map. The sento section is much more extensive than I found elsewhere and an experience not to be missed.

TokyoQ is not an all-inclusive guide book, but it does an excellent job of filling in the gaps left by the others.

To the ill-informed, Ken Rickety and his dancing poodles may succeed in presenting Tokyo as wonderfully incomprehensible, just as Dave Barry makes it appear extraterrestrial. But one must wonder how far from "Home Sweet Tokyo" TQ's collective travels has taken it to arrive at such twaddle. Tokyo is a big city, and as such has an abundance of quirkiness. But so too have Chicago, Copenhagen and Lima, to name but a few. Dig deeper, and the reader will quickly discover Rickety's sun has long set: The mindset of his ilk has never fully been able to ford the eighties, a decade that irrevocably changed the course of Tokyo. Rickety's is a world of jazz, and quaint coffee shops, and bath houses, and factory workers benignly breaking the antiquated codes of their parents' generation. Although perhaps fascinating to the social historian, these facets have little to do with the Tokyo of 2001. Somebody please tell him; but politely, of course.

In addition to the online travel shorts they have published (I think on a weekly base), this is a great little book to carry to Tokyo. It's a quick read (2 hours, so you can read it 6 times over on the flight) with many memorable stories and experiences that made me looking forward to enjoy the city, aside from the typical tourist attractions. This is for those who want to see Tokyo from the insider's view as many hidden gems (restaurants, shops, backalleys) are revealed in this guide. However, this guide could've been even better is it had more points of interest for those ages 17-25, rather than mostly for ages 30+ type of interest.

Not much to this book and wish I had not purchased it. Basically, just a book of questions about various eligibility scenarios with a pithy two or three sentence response. Might be worth a read for the law student studying for a multiple choice exam. But the book has little value for a practicing attorney or someone who is looking for guidance through the U.S. immigration process. Save your money.

Actually, the book is surprising. All of the relevant facts regarding immigration and visa problems are covered! Especially for students who want to spend some months of their study time in the USA, the information is definitively helpful. Currently, I - personally - do not plan to immigrate; but if I will do so in the future, this book will be my first information source!

I found this immigration book easy to use both for reference and sometimes just to read because of the personal way it is written. Most helpful for me was the comprehensive listing of US visas with all the forms requirements laid out clearly. I also read the new Green Card lottery requirements with interest because they have just changed.

As the International Coordinator for my department at a Technical University in Austria, the book was extremely helpful in answering "student visa" related questions for a study abroad semester in the USA. For many Austrian students this book has been a major step forward in trying to figure out the complexities of getting a US student visa. I would like to thank the authors for making my job a whole lot easier.

Who would have thought that a book the the knotty problem of immigration could actually be fun! This book reads like a novel, and answers questions like a detective story. You can read it from front to back, enjoying the true life inquiries of people "on the edge" of becoming citizens. Or you can go right to the sections affecting you--either by using the detailed table of contents or the index. Since the format is question and answer, the content is never dull. And the multiple appendixes provide addresses, phone numbers, even web sites--along with definitions and the names of government and private organizations--to help keep you up to date on new developments. No jargon. No "legalese." Everything is readable, understandable, and authentic. This book will even tell you how to arrange for your Internet wife to come to the United States--or your brother by your parents who never married! Amazing.

This book is a good background guidebook to the martial arts. It has chapters on Bruce Lee, the martial arts in movies, and discusses karate, tae kwon do, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and others. "The Ultimate Martial Arts Q&A Book" is peppered with interesting facts and photos. For examples, photos of Elvis Presley's $500.00 karate gis are shown (in an era where $500.00 went really far). What this book will not do, however, is teach you techniques or katas, or how to win a fight. A good read for entertainment value.

This is a Very Good Book. It provides accurate historic information in an easy to use formate. You can open up to any page and read facts about the various styles of the martial arts. This book is a Great Learning Tool. RECOMMENDED!

What I like about this book is that it is not style oriented or even traditionally oriented. It's a fun read on a wide variety of subjects. It avoids the narrow focus of most martial arts books. This is not biased towards or away from any style or system.

It's well worth the small investment.

A solid, direct, and affectionate work, "The Ultimate Martial Arts Q&A Book" will amuse martial art veterans and enlighten beginners. The authors are not afraid to dispel movie generated falsehoods, such as killing with chi powers from across the room, or catching the blade of a "live" sword with a bare hand. The writing reflects not only a love for the martial arts, but also the wisdom that comes from many hours of time devoted to the martial way.

The chapters start by covering by region as diverse a number of arts and schools as possible. The nature of the koryu , as well as the difference between budo and bujutsu are discussed in the chapter on the Japanese arts. When discussing Korean arts, Hwarang-do, Kumdo and Kuk Sool Won are not neglected or ignored, as happens in many other encyclopedia-like books.

The book also includes a very practical chapter on choosing the right martial art school for oneself, The chapter on Bruce Lee best represents this book; it attributes his great power and skill to nothing more mystical than constant training, and shows respect for the man while dispelling the myths. And what do authors Corcoran and Graden tell us was Bruce Lee's best quality?
His speed? His skill with nunchaku? The one-inch punch?
No, say the authors- it was his smile.

If you agree with that, "The Ultimate Martial Arts Q&A Book" should agree with you.

The answers are highly oversimplified, and many totally untrue. The bias of the authors is evident, and I suspect they purposefully are passing missinformation. They did not dispel any myths and only propagate some old ones. They need to pull this book, do their homework (some of the people they write about are still alive) and re-write it with reliable information.

This is a very helpful review manuel for the RDMS exam and for class room study.

Thank You

This is a very resourceful book for test preparation. However, there are a few errors in the answer, and sometimes the explanation is not really convincing.

This is a very hepful tool if you're preparing for the ARDMS test. Highly recommended.

This book was very helpful and I did pass the ARDMS abdomen registry exam. However, the actual test questions were a lot different and included more than what is covered in this book. For example, the ARDMS test now includes images and questions showing small parts such as the Achilles and the wrist which are not reviewed in this book. Overall, I think it did help me. The publisher says their review books are "thought-provoking" and this is very true. The questions help you think things all the way through. Especially for those great questions we all love like "all these can cause carcinoma EXCEPT."

This is a good book. I use it everyday in my computer programming subject and this is so cool!!! My teacher takes examples and solve them from the book.

This isn't a voluminous compilation of algorithms or data structures, but for me it's the first place to look. If I can't find what I need here, I'll check more complete sources, typically either Introduction to Algorithms or Knuth. But if what I need is here, it's typically covered more succinctly and accessibly. It's been on my bookshelf for almost fifteen years, and I haven't seen a worthy, or necessary, replacement.

The book goes over practically important algorithms and data structures. It may not include the latest and greatest advances, but it is still very relevant in today's practical applications.

To me, the highest value of the book is not the particular methods explained, but the good style and the way of thinking about programs that the book teaches. There are very few books that can actually teach good style, and this is probably one of the best.

This book is a must read for anyone wishing to become a great programmer, not merely an average one. Another good book is "Design Patterns" by the gang of four, it is the next level.

This is an old book. I have it for 15 years.

This book is second edition of the book Algorithms + Data Structures = Programming, without Compiler construction, so the formula for it can be

(Algorithm + Data Structures = Programming) - Compiler Construction = Algorithms & Data Structures.

I bought it because of its famous author, N. Wirth, the creator of Pascal, Modula and Oberon progarmming languages.

But the book was a dissapointment for me. The matter in the book is presented in very strange order. There are no field in the book that is explained complete. For example, there are many sorting algorithms in the book, internal as well as external, but some basic sorting algorithms and techniques are not explained. Quicksort algorithm is explained without explaining underlying devide-and-conquer method, etc.

If you considering to by some book from the field of compute algorithms and data structures, there are many better books to buy than this one.

As with Kathryn Stockton's first book, God Between Their Lips, this book is highly articulate, intelligent, insightful, engaging, and thought-provoking. I highly recommend buying this book.

What I love about Stockton's work is that it represents the cross section of theory, literature and art. The one thing that discourages me (often) with the study of literature is the horribly drab study of theory--one that seems to exclude the beauty of it all. However, here it is approached with a fresh eye and a fresh aspect.
Stockton looks at photography, cinema, literature etc. and does so in a way that will make you think differently about black queer studies. The influence from Kosofsky Sedgwick is obvious and complimentary.
I think it's easier for reviewers to hate this work simply because it dares to "think outside the box"...thank God!
Stockton's book is among the best (of the limited) black queer studies projects.

The tis of what ever not is when not at the end of the silent contempt enforceable of which is to blame not tender at what, not but chatter con to what it truly is. If you understood this last sentence then this book is for you. But if you are normal like the rest of us then it is nothing more than meaningless gibberish and the ENTIRE book is full of it. I never seen anyone take a bunch of words and put them together in such meaningless fashion as this author did on this book. I thought it was on blacks, or maybe on gay bottoms, or maybe on the shame of homosexuality (if there is such thing), but NO. Just some crazy talk on nothing. I encourage you to please buy this book and see what I am talking about. A waste of paper, of space on my shelves (where there ARE good books), and a waste of my 22 dollars... I want not only a refund but for the author to pay me a million dollars for having to go thru all those pages of senseless free association. I did like the cover. Lesson learned: don't buy the book by its cover!

I am completely baffled by the first review of this book which, unfortunately, paints a horrible picture of an incredibly provocative, fascinating, and very intelligent book. Stockton analyses different points in American cultural production (everything from Toni Morrison to Pulp Fiction) where the meanings attached to "queerness" become linked to the meanings normally surrounding "blackness" (and vice versa). By looking at how these two terms and their histories intersect, she makes an incredibly compelling case for the ways in which "bottom values" (everything connected to lower class status, "passive sexuality, etc.) have been assigned to both black and queer identities and how those values might be explored theoretically. Her chapter on Sula is one of the most impressive literary analyses I've ever encountered. This is cutting edge work in the fields of Queer Studies and African American Studies and anyone interested in these or related fields should definately read this.

Bill Nye is great. I got this book a few years ago in college and enjoyed it no end. It's kind of an extended take on the old "Consider The Following" segment on his PBS show, if anyone remembers that bit he'd do on there. In this book he goes one step further and answers some previously imponderable questions (my favorites dealt with astronomy and physics) and does it with that good natured "I'm a nerd but I'm a cool nerd" wit that gave him so much charm. This book walks a fine line in being nominally intended for 8th-12th graders, but it has enough going on to interest those of us who left our classroom and locker mirror days behind us in the last century. Since he wrote this about 5-6 years back, I understand Bill has reinvented himself and sort of let his show grow up along with those like myself who used to watch him back in middle school. With a little luck and some good moves, Bill could go a long way toward becoming science's ambassador to the masses. We really haven't had anyone in that job since the passing of Carl Sagan. You should go for it, Bill. You rule.

Ok, I haven't read this book. I've only looked at some of the content online.

I have a lot of respect for Mr. Nye. He has done an excellent job making science entertaining. So, I was surprised that in the first chapter where he explains how airplanes fly, he uses the Bernoulli principle as the primary explaination. There are a lot of subtleties in how airplanes fly and Bernoulli is certainly one of them - but the primary explanation has more to do with Newton than Bernoulli. [...]

I'm particularly surprised that Mr. Nye would use this simplistic (and mostly wrong) explanation as he is an ex-Boeing engineer and should know better! If this chapter is representative of the rest of the book, then I'm disinclined to purchase or recommend it.

Being an ardent fan of the TV series, " Bill Nye the Science Guy", I was delighted to discover this book. It covers many, but not all, the topics dealt with in the TV series. Each chapter begins by first posing a thought provoking question, which is then followed by an easily understood explanation of the topic, and lots of easy-to-do experiments. Bill Nye and Ian Saunders, the contributing author, understand their reading audience, and the language used, and the explanations given are appropriate to the age-level (and also to the more mature young-at-heart reader!). They give the phonetic pronunciation of new, potentially difficult Scientific words, so that the words become fun to say, rather than being a hurdle. In its soft cover, the book has the feel of a magazine, and is packed full of useful information for anyone wishing to augment their viewing fo the Educational videos. However, it is not necessary to have seen the videos to enjoy the book. As a teacher, I have found it useful to have all the experiments written out, using common household items found in the my kitchen. At the back of the book, there is a good index, glossary, and page of interesting facts about weights and measures. The tone of the book is one you would expect from Bill Nye - fun but full of good stuff. The only criticism that I have is that the illustrations are a bit disappointing. They are clear, but as my twelve year old son said, "A bit arb!", which in plain English means that they are arbitary (mediocre). I would also liked to have seen a chapter at the beginning of the book devoted wholly to the explanation of electrons, molecules and atoms. Although these are covered from time to time in subsequent chapters, it would have been good to have seen them consolidated into a chapter of their own. I am glad I have the book, I enjoyed reading it, and I will find it a useful resource in my teaching.

Being an ardent fan of the TV series, "Bill Nye the Science Guy", I was delighted to buy the book "Consider the Following". It covers many, but not all, the topics dealt with in the TV series. Each chapter begins by first posing a thought provoking question, which is then followed by an easily understood explanation of the topic, and lots of easy-to-do experiments. Bill Nye and Ian Saunders, the contributing author, understand their reading audience, and the language used and explanations given are appropriate to the age-level (also to the young at heart!). They give the phonetic pronunciation of new, potentially difficult, Scientific words, so that the words become fun to say, instead of being a hurdle. In its soft cover, the book has the feel of a magazine, and is packed full of useful information for anyone wishing to augment their viewing of his Educational videos, although it is not necessary to have seen the Videos to benefit from reading this book. As a teacher, I have found it useful to have all the experiments written out, using common items found in the kitchen of my home. There is a good index and glossary at the back of the book. The tone of the book is one you would expect from Bill Nye - fun, but full of good teaching. The only criticism that I have is that the illustrations are a bit disappointing. They are clear, but mediocre. I would also liked to have seen a chapter at the beginning of the book, devoted wholly to the explaination of electrons, molecules, and atoms, as although these terms are mentioned (and explained) several times in subsequent chapters, it would have been good to see them consolidated into a chapter of their own. I am glad I have the book, and I enjoyed reading it. I will find it a useful resource tool in planning my future Primary Science Lessons, in Physics, Chemistry, Life and Earth Science.