UK Books

Great book about great ideas and great people... Book is a very easy to read as it gets more and more interesting the more you read it.. Great analysis of starting a dot com business in Europe, and comparison between EU and States.. Also this book is a must read on what not to spend the money on when starting own dot com company. :)

p.s. too bad Boo.Com did not work out, as i would be their #1 customer....

A couple of years ago I read a review of boo hoo that said: 'great book; but don't give them any more money - borrow a copy from your local library'. I never got round to going to the Library and its taken me two years to buy the book - I waited too long - its very good. It's shocking how naive they were - probably too many vodka and grapefruit juices.

An awesome book, this book reveals the highs and lows of a dot com startup from the "ideas" to the "inverstors". Not really a book about computers and the internet but more about Ideas and people, a great book to read, couldn't put it down, passed it onto a few other people (including my mum) who liked it too. Deffinately worth buying if not only to catch a glimps of a dot com startup caught up in the internet bubble madnes! Hey Ernst how come you haven't reviewed your own book yet?

It's been over two years since I've read this book and still thought it was fun to review it. Why? Because this book is the embodyment of the Internet age / bubble. Being an IT business owner I can remember the days when money seemed everywhere and profit was nowhere... sigh, good old times.

This book will take you on a ride in the fast lane and tells about innovation, transpiration and... no common sense. Looking back it all seemed the economy would change, business would never be the same and teens were ready to become millionaires.

This story is the 'Easy Rider' of the internet age. Cult status!

An awesome book, this book reveals the highs and lows of a dot com startup from the "ideas" to the "inverstors". Not really a book about computers and the internet but more about Ideas and people, a great book to read, couldn't put it down, passed it onto a few other people (including my mum) who liked it too. Deffinately worth buying if not only to catch a glimps of a dot com startup caught up in the internet bubble madnes! Hey Ernst how come you haven't reviewed your own book yet?

Williams is best known for sprawling multi-volume SF and Fantasy sagas, but here has written a very brief work of only 200 pages that is quite successful. (It's amusing that even at this brief length, Williams still feels a bit wordy. This very short book has a few passages that could have been cut with no real loss.) Caliban has, many years later, finally found his way off the island where Prospero left him and, cheated of revenge by Prospero's death, has instead sought out Miranda to tell his story to, after which he intends to kill her.

From this device, Williams gives another perspective on the events of 'The Tempest', as well as the earlier story of Caliban and Sycorax arriving on the island, Caliban's life alone after the death of Sycorax, and Caliban's early encounters with Prospero and Miranda. The story is nicely told, with language that feels appropriate to the character. This is a Caliban who does indeed know how to curse, but also how to explain why his curses are justified by what he sees as betrayal from both Prospero and Miranda.

The ending is a bit weak, with a clever, but not really persuasive, device used to prevent the promised final and fatal confrontation. The book is still, overall, a genuine pleasure to read.

This is my first Tad Williams novel, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed. When my friend thrust this slim volume into my hands, I confess, I had my doubts. Not another entry in the "two-sides-to-every-story" genre. I have to admit that there are some very good novels that fall into this category -- Rys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Maguire's Wicked, to name two -- but there are some very bad novels that fall into this category as well. Caliban's Hour, I'm happy to say, falls into the former category.

Particularly impressive is the way Williams managed to catch the cadences of Shakespeare's Caliban. I had recently finished teaching Shakespeare's The Tempest in a World Literature class prior to picking up this novel, so Shakespeare's Caliban was fresh in my mind. While Williams has a decidedly different approach to the character of Caliban (and, indeed, Ariel), he captures the rhythm and poetry of Shakespeare's character.

At the beginning of Williams's tale, Caliban is a character bent on revenge, and the object of his vengeance is Miranda. It soon becomes clear, however, that what Caliban really wants is a chance to tell his side of the story, to make Miranda understand him. Over the course of one night, he unfolds the story of his life on the island, beginning with his life with Sycorax, his mother, and culminating in the irrevocable changing of his life with the coming of Prospero and Miranda.

True to Caliban's promise that his story will only take one evening, this novel can, indeed, be read in one evening. It's short -- 201 pages -- and the story is compelling enough to keep you turning pages until the story is complete. It does, however, take more than one hour to read!

The audio version of Tad William's book as narrated by Ron Perlman (of television's "Beauty and the Beast") is absolutely wonderful. The tale is told, for the most part, in Cailban's "voice." Ron Perlman gives Caliban the same sort of realism and pathos that he gave to his television role. William's Caliban, however, is no "Vincent." He has his own agenda to fulfill with Prospero's daughter 20 years after she has left the island. Mr. Perlman's voice is mezmerizing and he gives Caliban the perfect voice with which to tell his tale.

Caliban's Hour is a well-written, moving, and ultimately magical re-writing of _The Tempest_ (in the same basic genre as R+G Are Dead and Grendal). Like many of us (or at least like me), Williams read Shakespeare's play and found himself most attracted to Caliban, the "savage" native who's love for Miranda is brutally refused and who is generally mistreated by Prospero et al. So he decided to re-tell the story from Caliban's point of view, adding in some key background (like scenes with Cicatrix, C's mom) and, of course, the present-day "sequel" elements which make up the book's action. And it works! William's Caliban, like Gardner's Grendal, is an epic, tragic, wonderful character whose story cannot help but enthrall and move. The prose is top-notch (no suprise for anyone familiar with Williams' other works). The debt to Shakespeare, while obvious and intentional, is not over-played, as Williams clearly stakes out his own ground apart from the master. And the ending is both surprising and awesome! All in all, this is one of the better, most underread and -rated books of the last ten years. For anyone who loved Tailchaster, MS&T, or Otherland, anyone who loves Shakespeare, and anyone who appreciates classic literature that reinterprets classic literature, Caliban's Hour is a must read.

Without a doubt this book is excellent in almost every way.
I am preparing for the California Brokers exam and have purchased many books and this is the best value and best written of them all by far, BY FAR!
The introduction specifically states that this book was written to prepare readers to take and pass the California Real Estate Salesperson and Broker examinations.
Buy this book!

I am about to take my exam and I am quite confident thanks to this exam book by William Pivar. I was not able to find the companion that can go with this book according to the Introduction. I think it would have made it even easier to learn.

I baught this book at first just so I can see how I would feel about getting into real estate. Let me tell you, I studied the book, took the C21 course (we went over the same material that was in the book but rushed through it in class)then took and finished my state exam in a little over a half hour (3-31/2 hour test if I remember correctly).

Believe me when I say, this book helped me a lot. I don't think I would have past the state exam with just taking the crash course.

I have been in real esate for a year now :). Thank you, Mr. Pivar

This book is a rigorous study book. And it is a lot less expensive than taking a cram course. It is the only thing I studied and I passed the first time!! Now I just wish there was a companion book for the Broker's exam!!!

25 years ago my sons couldn't get enough of this book. I got so tired of reading it over and over. Skip to the next generation and one day my two granddaughters discovered it in a box of their dad's old favorites. They are 3 and 5 and just love it! Everytime they come over, the first thing they do is go dig it out for me to read. Honestly, I've taken to hiding it!

Like the previous review, our copy has been loved to death! It is unfortunate that this book appears to be out of print . . . I would love to get a brand new copy. Our boys have just worn our copy out. Would love to buy new copies to give as baby gifts for boys. Truth be told, I am so tired of reading this book again & again . . . but they adore it.

One of the best books ever! I had to actually put it away at times because my youngest wanted it read over and over....

I bought this book for my sons when they were little and they loved it page by page until (the book was worn out) I bought them a second copy. Since my children enjoyed the book so much I bought a copy of my grandsons. They are doing the same thing and in fact this is the second copy of I am getting for them. I am happy that they are interested in book. Two generations have now loved this bood to death. I consider this the best recomendation a book can recieve.

"The Little Guides: Cats" is intended primarily as an informative reference book for cat owners, although, as a cat lover, I also enjoyed just browsing it for interesting tid-bits.

The book is divided into three parts:
1) All About Cats (20 pages): This section talks about the biological history of cats, cats in general, and cats in the wild.
2) Cats as Pets (146 pages): The heart of the book, this section discusses cat health, behaviour, and ownership.
3) Cat Breeds (104 pages): A catalog of different short haired and long haired cats.

The book ends with a glossary, and information directory, and a very useful index.

This is certainly not the most detailed book on cats available. In that respect it may be more useful to inexperienced pet owners or else as a handy reference. Still, the book does cover most of the issues that pet owners will face, including litter-pan training, common diseases, and pregnancy, to name a few.

Often the book will be directed a bit more to pedigreed cats than mixed breeds. The book includes information about showing your cat and the extensive catalog of breeds. The cat care section, though, is equally applicable to any cat.

Throughout the book has lots and lots of good pictures as well as clear diagrams. The text is clear and well written.

All in all, an enjoyable little book for cat lovers and a useful guide for cat owners.

Informative Read ........Highly Recommended 5 stars

The Review
The Little Guides: CATS is a 320-page work divided into three sections. Part 1: 55 pages `All About Cats,' presents a synopsis of the modern 36 species cat family.
Section two: 145 pages: is the `Cats as Pets' segment and includes information important to those who choose to be owned by a domesticated cat.
Section three: 70 pages: offers more detailed information pertaining to particular breeds of cats.

As a cat owner and cat lover myself I particularly enjoyed this book. Excellent choice for cat owners or one considering becoming a cat owner.

Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend.

This book is a great guide to cats. It comes in handy if you want to adopt a cat or kitten. You should look for other books in this series!

This handy little book has a tremendous amount of information on cats. Every breed is displayed including wild cats. Information on caring for cats is included. If you have never owned a cat and are contemplating adopting one this is an excellent reference book to have. If you are a cat owner you will learn things you never knew.

It was Chinese poetry, then later painting, that began my continuing fascination with Chinese culture. I have struggled to learn classical Chinese and have been frustrated by the poor teaching materials available. This, together with A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese (Harvard East Asian Monographs) by Paul Rouzer, is the best. The author was one of those immensely learned scholars who put his energy into teaching rather than writing. Fortunately some of his colleagues are putting together his teaching materials, of which this is the first to be published.
Not only does it make study of literary Chinese interesting by selecting tests of interest,rather than dull exercises, there is an immense amount of information about Chinese poetry that I have seen nowhere else.
If you have any interest in the literary language of traditional China, or its poetry, but this book.

I've been enamored of Chinese poetry for some time now. This is by far the best book I've seen for someone with no background in Chinese who wants to study the poems in the original language. Highly recommended.

I have dozens of books on Chinese and Chinese poetry, but this is one of the best. Archie Barnes was a true teacher, and this book is a gift to those of us who want to learn both Chinese and Chinese poetry. "Chinese through Poetry" is so good I went to the Monterey Language Institute to study Chinese so I could get more out of this book. Even if you haven't had the good fortune to study Chinese, "Chinese through Poetry" is valuable.

It is probably better if you know some chinese (modern or classical) before dipping into this book, but even without, there is much to learn and pick up. The style is easy to read and as an ABC to classical chinese poetry there is really nothing like it at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you need one book to start to appreciate the language and the poetry of ancient China, this book is definitely it.

This is a wonderful way to start if you know you have a problem with clutter but feel defensive, upset, or at wit's end about it. The author not only discusses how to start, how to continue, and how to keep it going, but gives personal examples so we don't feel alone and also gives tips on how we may be feeling and how to move forward through those feelings. This is good stuff.

I have a lot of things but keep them all very well organized, but still, I'd like to pare down and feel less encumbered by my things. My partner has a different philosophy on things and is reluctant to get rid of anything, so I got this book hoping that I'd gain some philosophies that would help us both. Well, I did. The entire book can be summarized (and is!) in one page at the end of the book, so the general tips and ideas are simple and easy to remember and understand.

But the real value of this book is how she walks you through each step and supports you through your emotional journey to get rid of clutter and begin living a life that is more in the moment and less about the stuff.

The only quibble I have about this book is that the publishers did a shoddy job. The book itself is bound with very little space near the spine, so in order to read the first chapter I had to bend the poor book so it now looks old and bent just so I could read the text, and it took some pressure to hold it wide open to read each page. The design isn't very professional either.

But the content of the book more than makes up for the publisher's shortcomings, and I'd really recommend it. It's well worth the money and it fills a niche that no other book on clutter seems to be filling - that of a gentle friend walking you through the emotional journey of getting rid of excess things.

In a society where everywhere we turn, we are bombarded by marketing, advertising and other temptations to constantly add more and more stuff in our homes and our lives, this author takes you step by step on a journey to unclutter your home and realize the value of only keeping those things that thrill, inspire and support your life as it is now. With an engaging writing style that makes you feel that she is your friend by the end of the book, this author recommends how to strategically rid yourself of too much stuff, why we clutter our homes in the first place and what to do with the stuff that you do keep. With humor and encouragement, she offers a simple approach to finally "traveling light" again. Highly recommend!

No-one could wish to work with a more effective clutter clearing coach than Maartje - she is the best! Maartje gently but firmly supports, encourages and cajoles in her own unique and light-hearted way, transforming clearing your clutter into a cathartic and fun experience. Full of infectious enthusiasm for the subject, energy, fresh ideas and creative strategies, Maartje brings a lifetime of experience and wisdom to the clutter clearing journey, becoming your best ally at a time when you need one most.

Maartje de Wolff has written a useful, insightful, and pleasing guide to clearing clutter, replete with many excellent remedies for solving clutter woes. The chapters on paper taming, on coping with piles of newspapers and magazines, and on managing photograph collections are brisk, practical, and full of common sense.

I am very happy with this book. It has two pages on each oil describing the aroma, a description of the plant, the history and myths, chemical constituents, uses, precautions, and other oils it blends well with. At the back is a glossary, a blend chart, which catagorizes the types of oils, and a skin type chart. I have found it easy to use, and helpful in my home creations.

This is one of my favorite and most referenced handbooks for essential oils. It is designed for one who knows at least a little about aromatherapy, and plans to be working with the oils. Warning: the drawings on some of the pages may be offensive to some, depicting a witch with an herb popularly used by witches at one time, and people not fully dressed on others. I value the book for it's wealth of information, and ignore some of the illustrations.

Two pages are devoted to each of the essential oils, which are in alphabetical order. Near the title of each oil there is a chart listing the plant/part (plant as in "tree", and part as in "leaves" or "fruit"), Latin name, family, note (top, middle or base), planet, and means of extraction. There are several categories that describe each oil. Aroma describes the kind of fragrance; "features" tell about physical characteristics of the plant, and where it is grown, and such. A section called "History and Myth" tells about how the oil was used historically, and any myths associated with it. The chemical constituents, oil properties, and any precautions are listed. Three sections are devoted to telling how each oil may effect the mind (as in being a sedative), body (as in helping to regulate women's cycles), and skin (as in reactions to say, oily or sensitive skin). The last heading on each page is "blends" which lists other essential oils which blend well with the one under discussion.

There are several helpful resources in the back of the book. A glossary gives a short definition of oil properties, and lists the oils with each property. A blending chart is included, categorizing the oils by what they are (trees, flowers, spices, etc.) and telling what commonly works well together. Another chart lists the oils under which skin types for which they would be most helpful.

This book is great! It covers most of the oils any one would use and some you may never have heard of. I really like that it includes the note( top middle base) for each oil as well. This is a must have book that you will use often.

This book is definately a must for anyone studying or wants to know more about essential oils. I used this book as a bible during my Diploma of Aromatherapy course, and I still find it a valuable tool for this modality, as it covers everything from where the plant originates from, its chemical properities, effects on the mind, body, skin, blending. I highly recommend this book for any aromatherapy enthusiast. A must on the bookshelf.

As good as 'Tin Drum' but far more accessible and direct in its impact on the darkness and light in the German psyche. The only author from Germany to honestly address the issues of what led to WWII and its aftermath. There is a hilarious and brilliant passage towards the end of the second part of the book which takes a savage poke at Heidegger and German love for abstraction. A gem of a book.

I am not going to attempt to describe Dog Years other than to say it is a stunning work by a brilliant writer at the top of his game. It should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the German psyche in the 20th century. Some may find the style challenging, but there's a method to Grass's madness, and if you give it time, Dog Years will reward you like no other book you've ever read. Personally, I was hooked right away, but even allowing for taste, Grass will win you over sooner or later. The Tin Drum is a masterpiece, but Dog Years is even better.

First: If you decide to tackle the Danzig Trilogy, Reddick's critical analysis is indispensable. I suggest tackling it the same way I did: read The Tin Drum, start Reddick's book at the same time you start Cat and Mouse (Reddick reads faster than Grass, and you'll get through a lot of Reddick while tackling Grass), and when you've caught up, read Reddick's section on Dog Years and the actual novel concurrently.

Those of you who feel the revelation of anything having to do with a book before you get to that part in the book is a spoiler should probably avoid this technique; Reddick revelas the major "mystery" in Dog Years towards the end of his section on Cat and Mouse. However, one cannot really consider Dog Years a mystery, despite the various things that happen within it; while there are some elements to it that keep the reader guessing, Dog Years is, more than anything, a savage satire on Germany during the WW2 years. And as such, finding out the main mystery-that's-not-a-mystery should not detract at all from one's appreciation of the book itself.

Dog Years can also stand on its own, without being read as a part of the Danzig Trilogy, but the reader's appreciation of many facets of this novel-- most notably Edouard Amsel's character and the satire itself-- are more easily appreciated when you have The Tin Drum and Cat and Mouse under your belt as comparisons. Amsel, the main protagonist of Dog Years, stands as a direct comparison to both Oskar and Mahlke, and his character is more easily understood when those two have already been assimilated by the reader.

The plot of Dog Years is a simple enough one; it charts, through the use of three narrators, the frindship of Edouard Amsel and Walter Matern from grade school through their early thirties. Amsel, the intellectual one, is picked on constantly by his classmates (including Matern) until one day, for no apparent reason, Matern befriends Amsel and chases away the others. It's a typical buddy-relationship in that Amsel is the brains and Matern is the brawn, but we don't get the bonding we've come to expect from seeing too many Hollywood buddy films. The relationship between Matern and Amsel is far more complex than that, and Reddick has done a passable job of interpreting it, one which I won't attempt to recreate here (it would be ludicrous to attempt something that complex in such a forum as a review). In an odd lapse, though-- especially given how much emphasis Reddick has put on Grass' enmity and stire of the Roman Catholic Church in the previous two books-- Reddick seems to have overlooked one of the most obvious interpretations of Amsel's character (and also that of the more minor protagonist Jenny Brunies), as a christ figure. In the novel's central scene, both Amsel and Brunies (who are both made out, in the first half of the novel, to be almost comically fat) undergo a transformation that transforms Brunies into a ballet sensation and Amsel into another character entirely, the omnipotent Goldmouth; while there is no physical crucifixion here, the path taken by Amsel's character through the rest of the novel certainly implies the path of christ after the resurrection, until his assumption into, in this case, Berlin. For the next hundred or so pages, Goldmouth is never actually seen, only referred to in the good deeds he does for others, and he achieves an almost legendary status among the rank and file for his goodness, his power (in postwar germany, his power is in his connections; who he knows), and the fact that no one really sees him much, but everyone is aware of his presence and his acts. However, Reddick, in his attempt to (successfully) parallel Amsel's character with that of Grass himself, never examines this aspect of Amsel.

This lack also leads to Reddick drawing the conclusion that Dog Years is the weakest of the three books, while still proclaiming that as a whole they rank as the finest piece of modern German literature extant today. I feel Reddick is giving Dog Years short shrift here; while the book does, in fact, have its faults, they are faults shared by the other two novels as well, and I came away from Dog Years thinking that, to the contrary, it was the strongest and most absorbing of the three. While it was more difficult than the other two, it was also more rewarding and more absorbing; it's not often I'll put in three months on one novel, but at no time did I feel that it ever stopped moving me along, and at no time did I ever feel that it was time to put the book down for good.

Keeping this seeming oversight of Reddick's in mind, I still have to recommend his book as a perfect accompaniment to Grass' most famous three novels, and all four of them deserve the attention of every serious student of literature.

Grass uses wonderful, dense, invented words and peppers his novel with wonderful, dense, twisted imagery. Which is why I admire the work and why I was determined to finish the book although it was as intellectually heavy as a brick and occassionally tried my patience. This is not a book for an MTV-hyperactive attention span. More than a reflection of German mentality, it is a journey into the German mind, because so many times it follows a stream-of-consciousness approach. Sometimes it feels as if you're on a rollercoaster ride through the tunnels of a character's mind. Which is why I hated it too. I felt that many times the book became self-indulgent... that is, Grass wasn't writing for the reader but for himself or as a catharsis for his characters.

I only realized Dog Years was part of a trilogy after I bought it, and I enjoyed The Tin Drum much more because I read it after seeing the movie (it relieved the mind from loads of exertion). Although I am immensely relieved to have finally finished Dog Years, I still can't wait to read the other book of the trilogy, Cat and Mouse. Love to hate Grass.

You maybe tired of reading and hearing of war but that is no excuse to miss out on Martha Gellhorn's insightful reporting on the wars of our century. Courageous and fascinating in her own right. Philosophically, I see her as independent, liberal and a pragmatic. She is against the horror of war but that said she is for the people on the ground. Her take on the soldiers in Vietnam runs counter to what we were told. She sees the war as a war of lies. First the propaganda we were told that started us in war, then the lies from the communist the fed into our media releases and the hysteria of the late 1960's.

Highly readable book of her war coorespondence, worth reading in pieces, and I will keep re-reading. ...less...more

Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) is one of a small number of female war correspondents. A couragous writer and trailblazer for a womans right to be in the thick of it. Her stories really tell you about the people and how war affects them personally. It's a joy to read with an easy flowing style. She went off to cover the Spanish civil war all on her own with a knapsack and $50 cash in her pocket. She talked to the common people in every major conflict until just before her death. She was fearless both in her honesty and her courage. She also wrote a companion non-fiction book called "The View from the Ground."

I've never read any of her fiction but these two books take all the honors in my mind. She clearly loved the excitement and relivance of war and once said, "Yes, war is horrible but you meet the nicest most honorable people." Her articles are pure gold. Both books are compilations of stories written for publications like "The Guardian", "Colliers", "The New Republic" and the "Saturday Evening Post". So each story has a contemporary feel to it, it seems like you are right there with her. If I lost these copies (I loan out good books to share the joy) I'd buy them again just to have them I my bookcase. &

One of the best war correspondents ever. Although an unapologetic leftist, her writing is simple and is more about telling the story than teaching any lessons.

Martha Gellhorn has two books of journalism out, one called The View From the Ground,and this book, The Face of War. She has covered everything from the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s through to the American invasion of Panama in the eighties. She refused to believe in "that objectivity crap" and wrote what she saw. She was that curious product that only America produces: the unaligned radical liberal. She thought that nations should be judged on the same ethical grounds as people, and this was how she approached her journalism. An example of this view is shown in her piece covering the Israeli trial of Adolf Eichmann: "Adolf Eichmann is the most dire warning to us all. He is a warning to guard our souls; to refuse utterly and forever to allegiance without question, to obey orders silently, to scream slogans. He is a warning that the private conscience is the last and only protection of the civilized world."

Gellhorn cut through the crap and got to the core of the issue. She had a cold eye, a tough spirit, and a compasionate heart. She was unflinching in what she said. She reported back what she saw.She thought that the American invasion of Vietnam was wrong, and said so. She was banned by America from entering Vietnam as a result. Gellhorn was a compelling writer, who wrote in a beautiful clear prose. We dont see her type any more, which is a great shame. She was, above all, a great chronicler of the 20th century.