Iowa Books

To explain the previous comments, this book doesn't have the instructions and question prompts. You have to buy the companion teacher's book to use it. I bought both and figured out how to use them. Although many pages, my child and I finished them in 3 days easily. We did not learn much other than the test format. Improving basic skills requires daily learning in school and study in home. There is a nice Houston community web site http://www.beestar.org we ended up use every week to assess child's skills step by step. With the fundamentals in place, this book can serve as a pre-test warm-up.

The title and associated information for this book titled "Scoring High on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills - Itbs, Book 1" is misleading. I interpreted it as a test preparatory aid for my child that would include practice questions and excersises to help improve test scores. However, it turns out to be just a test booklet that you would get for an actual test sans the test questions! This information should have been clearly associated with the book. And what would have been really helpful is to include information about the questions' booklet so one can actually be able to take the practice tests!

I ordered this book for my son. It arrived damaged. Then I looked at the first few chapters. I could not make anything out of it. No idea on how to use the book, how the question and answer session should proceed. I am trying to return this book. I have an advanced engineering degree. So do not waste your money.

Eric Schiller provides examples from 55 of his games - each one trying to illustrate an important lesson. However, the lessons are not particularly useful, the games are poor quality, and the analysis is faulty. As an example of one of his lessons ... "Don't play unsound openings in a serious game".

To further reduce the enjoyment of this book, it is full of typos - one piece of analysis states that a piece can't go to the square c9! Many words are miss-spelled. This lack of basic editorial care is a flaw this book shares with others authored by Schilller and published by Cardoza, such as Standard Chess Openings.

is the topic of this book. It sounds cool, however the details were not provided. The author gave a single line where he should have made or hope for, but in moment of excitement he played an incorrect move and his opponent outplayed him in different single-line variation. Some lost games were due to his lack of experience or preparation, he confessed. The analysis was single-minded. As other reviewers wrote: errors, typos, and faulty analysis are many. With word processor and chess program available, the book is not up to standard. 5-6 USD for a used book is a better investment if you want a collection of chess mistakes.

Iowa's a great state but this book doesn't show it. It's a haphazard collection of some truly great photographs unfortunately mingled with very very amateurish stuff. The writing is horrible. Can we rate this book as a quarter-star instead of one? It's that low.

A picture book of Iowa scenes and people. Sixty percent of photos are professional and interesting; the rest are amatuerish, out of focus, and pointless, plus awful "cut out" collages-in my opinion. Book does not "read" well, nor does it hold up to normal handling- a PAPERBACK "coffee table" book?? NOT!! A real contradiction in quality- some images suitable for framing, next to fuzzy snapshots! NOT a true picture OR song of Iowa.

The so-called literary quotations were culled from the same dozen or so writers and includes many duds nobody reads today (Mrs. Humphry Ward, Charles Reade--perhaps the most often quoted of them all). And even that's beside the point, since the quotations are always so short, often a single sentence no more than fifteen words long. As for the so-called recipes, they're just one or two paragraphs, running to no more than fifty, sixty words per entry (for both quotation and recipe), and they're completely superfluous. You get infinitely better recipes at the back of any cereal box. To put it another way, never have I seen such a gigantic waste of paper in so miniscule a book.

The title of this book is somewhat misleading, since it presents a somewhat candy-coated view of building airplanes. It is a read of no more that one hour, if one takes the time to closely examine the poor quality oft repeated photographs of aircraft in various (usually complete) states of construction. The author demonstrates a flair for the obvious, perhaps writing for a target audience of teenagers with little life experience. Topics are glossed over in the most cursory manner, although the book did earn its single star rating from at least mentioning many issues, some of which I had perhaps given insufficient thought.

Unfortunately when one removes the 8 pages of out-dated listings of available aircraft, and the 40 pages of photo-copied FAA forms, one is left with 72 pages sparse with prose and heavy with black and white poor-quality photographs.

I wish this review had been here before I considered my purchase. I also wish I could be kind, but I recommend that ! anyone serious about building an airplane look elsewhere for guidance.

A waste of money. Don't read this for any information on quail habitat.

I am cardiologist and teacher on human auscultation. I bought the CD because I thought I could learn some more on auscultation in general. I was deeply dissappointed and am outright angry because the high price is not justified at all. The content does not supply a minimum level of knowledge for students of clinical examination be it human or veterinary doctors. I would expect also more profound insight for the expert reader. If auscultation in general is just desribed at the beginners level the true value of it may never become clear to the beginner. Apart from auscultation a CD or book on clinical examination of the horse would be more instructive. An expert knows that major clues to the diagnosis of diseases of the cardio-circulatory signs can be derived from peripheral or indirect signs. Focus on auscultation alone is like trying to see three-dimensionally with one eye. There does not apparently exist a didactic concept as presumptions are made which at the low level of readers addressed are not allowed (see grading of mumurs). In the day and age of modern media I would have expected better animations on heart and valvular movements etc. which would make the matter much more descriptive. At least a more detailed bibliography would have been helpful. I would prefer a well written book with good explanations of clinical signs on the basis of current knowledge in physiology and pathophysiology as in J. Constants "Bedide Cardiology". This in depth approach requires time the author obviously did not have. Sometimes new media pretend that they are better than old books. This is not always true, too bad for the money.

Like I said. This poorly received book is written poorly, sold poorly and wouldn't interest you at all.

Readers who call Jean Toomer "black" or "African American" are totally in error. He rejected that racist "one drop" classification and deserves praise and admiration for doing so. Toomer's parents and grandparents were not "black middle class" but looked whiter than many Americans who call themselves "white."Passing for Who You Really Are

Iowa 24/7. Was very very disappointed in this book. They evidently forgot that Western Iowa is a part of the same state. This part of the state has so much to offer....Loess Hills State Forest, DeSoto Bend National Reserve, Lewis & Clark Monument, Dodge House, Iowa Great Lakes. This is just to name a few. This side of the state if very photogenic also. Hope they remember this for the next book. Thanks.