Adam Books

My two-year-old son has hundreds of books and most of them are a chore to read. Tree Ring Circus is a genuine pleasure. It's not a very long book, so it's a good choice when it's already five minutes past bedtime. The illustrations are lively and the writing is clever. Most of the characters never speak, but they all have their own personalities and you can tell exactly what each one is thinking from the look on his face. The text has its own sense of comic timing. The author fills up the book with all kinds of little jokes. Just reading the copyright page is fun on its own. Buy this book and add it to your collection. You'll be glad you did.

A clever imaginative rhyme, however the most outstanding part of the book are the beautiful illustrations to be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

My 4 and [...] boys absolutely love this book. We read it repeatedly and it never gets old to them. At this point, they finish the lines, particularly the "Whopping Big Bee" part. A fantastic book that parents will be glad to read over and over again.

We discovered Adam Rex after seeing his illustrations in "Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich," a book of amusing rhymes about familiar but disarming movie monsters (and their moster children) in compromising everyday situations. The illustrations of that book were half the fun, and so it is with "Tree-Ring Circus." The story is simple -- a few small animals assemble in a tree; a runaway clown joined by his animal cohorts from the circus, surreptitiously set free, climb up as well until an elephant climbs to the top bringing everything down. No deep meanings or lessons here, just silly fun, and the story moves quickly. Counting the animals in the tree as they're referenced in the story adds to the giggles.

I bought this book for my son and he absolutely loves it. We read it every night and he points and names all the animals and counts them. I think it's a great toddler book.

In *Whiteness of a Different Color,* Matthew Jacobson draws upon congressional legislation and discourse, historical documents and memoirs, and popular culture in an attempt to explain racism's affect on immigration, American domestic and foreign policy, and the self-perceptions of various racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Jacobson mentions in the preface that it is his hope to move into the foremost rank of immigration experts with this book, and I think that he accomplished what he set out to do. Eloquently written and thoroughly researched, Jacobson, who is obviously very liberal, argues his points in such a way that any person with common sense would agree with him, given the evidence and excerpts included in the book. Everyone involved in American Studies or American History would be well advised to pick up a copy of this book.

Matthew Frye Jacobson 's Whiteness of a Different Color tells us all how we got into this mess. The book is subtitled European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. "Alchemy" is correct. It means that the "base metal" of Nordic, Alpine, Mediterranean and even Western Asian "races" were turned into the "gold" of unadulterated white status. Jacobson explains how "whiteness" was created by colonial elites for the purpose of defending the state from Indian invasions and slave insurrections, and continued by the American republic in order to create a sense of unity in its polyglot European immigrant population. In 1790, United States naturalization law granted citizenship to "free white persons" -- which meant, mostly, those of Anglo-Saxon descent. As the U.S. population became more culturally mixed beginning in the 1840s, with an increase in immigration from non-Anglo Europe, the nation experienced "a fracturing of whiteness into a hierarchy of plural and scientifically determined white races."

In other words, people who came from Ireland, Poland, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Jews from Russia and other Slavic nations all became, by virtue of the "melting pot" ethic, "Caucasian" whites. But, the creation of whiteness was - and still is - by no means an easy, continuous process. The Celtic, Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean "races" were abolished in favor of the myth of one homogenous "white" race (with the adoption of the "scientific" term "Caucasian" providing a new legitimacy to the honorific "racial" term "white."

Jacobson contends that traditional historians have deliberately dismissed the "racial" distinctions of the 19th century and before as "misuses" of the word "race." Of course they didn't mean that Irish, Germans, Bohemians, Nordics, etc. were separate races; they just didn't know what they were saying. This is a courtesy not given to mulattoes. Jacobson, however, shows that there was no "misuse." "Patterns in literary, legal, political and graphic evidence" show that the perception of race was very different from the standard rhetoric promoted in today's U.S. I have a sense of deja vu here. As stated in Lawrence R. Tenzer's The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War, mainstream historians' inability to acknowledge the fact that 19th century Northern "whites" saw predominately European slaves as "white," makes them deliberately blind to the role "white slavery" played as a cause of the Civil War. Few historians wish to deal with the fact that, while "white" privilege in various forms has been a constant in American political culture since colonial times, whiteness itself has been subject to all kinds of contests and has gone through a series of historical vicissitudes.

Jacobson divides the history of whiteness in the United States into three great epochs:

The nation's first naturalization law in 1790 (limited naturalized citizenship to "free white persons") demonstrates the republican convergence of race and "fitness for self-government"; the law's wording denotes an unconflicted view of the presumed character and unambiguous boundaries of whiteness.

Fifty years later, however, beginning with the massive influx of highly undesirable but nonetheless "white" persons from Ireland, whiteness was subject to new interpretations. The period of mass European immigration, from the 1840s to the restrictive legislation of 1924, witnessed a fracturing of whiteness into a hierarchy of plural and scientifically determined white races. Vigorous debate ensued over which of these was truly "fit for self-government" in the old Anglo- Saxon sense.

Finally, in the 1920s and after, partly because the crisis of over-inclusive whiteness had been solved by restrictive legislation and partly in response to a new racial alchemy generated by African-American migrations to the North and West, whiteness was reconsolidated: the late nineteenth century's probationary white groups were now remade and granted the scientific stamp of authenticity as the unitary Caucasian race - an earlier era's Celts, Slavs, Hebrews, Iberics, and Saracens, among others, had become Caucasians so familiar to our own visual economy and racial lexicon.Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise And Triumph of the One-drop Rule

"Whiteness of a Different Color" is a marvelous work of modern scholarship. In this excellent work of historiography/history, Jacobson explores the American conception of racial "whiteness" and how it has changed over time. This book won virtually every major scholarly award in 1999, most notably the American Studies Association's Award for the best book dealing with American istory and culture.

In the 19th century, "whitness" was reserved for Anglo-Saxons, and descendants of immigrants from the British Isles. Slowly, the concept of whiteness evolved to include Northern Europeans and Scandanavians, then other white gentiles, then Jews. Jacobson traces two major influences for this change -- assimilation into the American mainstream and the need to rectuit other "whites" to help polarize the nation between white and black. The previous was common in northern industrial centers and large cities, while the latter was especially prevalent in the Jim Crowe south.

This is a modern study because it takes unconventional themes such as the arbitrary construction of "whiteness" and explores it, as opposed to the more traditional form of research, which would include choosing an historical event and studying the facts. "Whiteness of a Different Color" is about people's conceptions, and misconceptions, rather than specific facts. Reflecting on that subject, I wonder if that isn't what's most important.

WHITE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR by Matthew Frye Jacobson is an excellent historical summary and deconstruction of the social construct called "the white race." Anthropologists, sociologists, demographers, and historians like Jacobson who study race and ethnicity have suggested over and over that even if race differences exist they are not fixed (the definition of white has changed over time and no consensus has been formed concerning it's constiuent parts). The biological sciences provide no evidence that race exists. Humans with different hair color, skin color, eye color, eye shape, and/or other "race" characteristics straddle all the "race" groups.

Jacobson uses a variety of written sources to make his case --that "non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants and their children were perhaps the first beneficiaries of the modern civil rights movement." He has compiled evidence from many historical legal cases involving various individuals who attempted to establish evidence of "whiteness" in order to obtain U.S. citizenship or some other perq reserved for the "native white race." He points out that the legal evidence is conflicted. Are Armenians white or aren't they? How can Japanese with a white skin be nonwhite and Italians with a dark skin be white in one set of court proceedings and the reverse found in different courts on different days?

Jacobson includes information from literature, news journals, and other written sources to illustrate that authors as diverse as Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad and Mr. Hearst of newspaper fame all offered an opinion about race at one time or another, and that while everyone started out assuming they knew what it meant to be white, most soon discovered the operational definition was another matter. There is not now nor ever has been a consensus on what it means to be white.

I enjoyed Jacobson's book very much and I think it is an excellent qualitative analysis. However, I have a few concerns: 1) Race is a contentious topic, but mixed race is even more troublesome. In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau identified more than 60 race groups in the U.S.; While Jacobson alludes to this issue, he might have discussed it a bit more as it supports his idea that race is a nebulous notion; 2) In discussing the acquisition of civil rights, Jacobson makes the mistake many men make--Black men had the vote and basic rights many years before women of any color; 3) Jacobson begins his history with 1790 and assumes (as did many) that the so-called Anglo-Saxons were a monolithic group--they were not. The early settlers were a diverse lot from many nations and included landed gentry, endentured servents, and prisoners who worked side by side with slaves in Georgia and other colonial penal colonies until the Revolution. I have read that Jews funded the Revolotion, Poles and French trained the military (a highway in VA is named for general Pulaski); and that the first person to die in the Revolution was a free Black man named Crispus Attucks. 4) Jacobson starts the civil rights movement with the acceptance of "non-white" immigrants to "white" privilege, but evidence suggests that the U.S. Revolution was about the rights of the property owners or Aristocracy. Not until Andrew Jackson did the "common" man get the vote. Black men got the vote 30 years later and women got the vote in the 1920s although many rights were not accorded them until recently. The history of the U.S. is the history of the Civil Rights Movement for all human beings and as Americans we should be grateful for our rights.

Jacobson provides a great deal of the formation of whiteness and how it has changed through time. It shows how the construction of a white race came about in America from Anglo Saxons to all Euroepans. It shows how legislation and attitudes about white ethnic groups and Jews have changed through time. It also takes a good look at how whiteness has been transformed by contacts with other races through non-European immigratin, civil rights and America's colonies such as the Phillipeans.

Taken by itself, this book is a masterpiece of sophisticated humor *and* political relevance masked as a "Super Friends"-like cartoon book knock off. There are obscure references to famous utterances associated with each of the ex-Presidents that I hadn't thought of in 25 years or more. To see Jimmy Carter taking on a villian with the line "I have lust in my heart...to kick your ass." Man, that's funny stuff.

But now, after the terrorist attacks on NYC and the Pentagon, there it is right on Page 1 of the New York Times: "Bush Appeals to Ex-Presidents for Coalition-Building Efforts." Life imitates art to a 'T'. Absolutely amazing.

X-Presidents is a strange, screwy parody which mixes bad 1970s Saturday-morning cartoons, Marvel comic books, and politics into a pastiche of weirdness like none other published to date.

There's a fine line between parody and parroting the liberal party line; unfortunately, while X-Presidents hits the mark most of the time, the authors can't help but devolve into Bush- and Reagan-bashing from time to time. For example, the "From the X-Presidents' Mailbag" section consists of nothing but cheap shots against the three Republican X-es -- and in predictable ways, too: Reagan, Iran-Contra and firing the air-traffic controllers; Bush, Iran-Contra and son W.; and Ford, stupidity.

Also, there are multiple gratuitous sexual references that are simply nonsensical. True, the whole book is gratuitous, but seeing Bush having sex with Babs on every page, or Carter having a threesome with Imelda Marcos and a mystery mullet-dude, lends little to the plot except to make it strangely embarrassing.

These aside, X-Presidents did contain the most hilarious bits of humor I've read in this dark post-September 11 world. Best of all were the peculiar "Archies"-style interludes wherein the X-es play and sing various tunes (yes, they even play the same instruments that the animated Archies did) summarizing the plot action.

This is a bizarre little book, no doubt.

A very clever and extremely fun read. This graphic-novel is a MUST-HAVE for all SNL's 'TV FUN-HOUSE' fans. It has all the elements that we have come to love and expect from 'TV FUN-HOUSE' plus more great stuff that SNL cannot broadcast over network television!

When I first saw the cartoon on Saturday night live I laughed until I fell out of the chair. The same thing happened when I read this book. From the giant tornado hitting an axe factory to our former presidents smoking crack and then singing an American Bandstand-syle song about it (9 out of 10 times it's just plain wrong) this book rocks. Even the little legal disclaimers (a direct parody of real comic book legalese) on the first page are twistedly funny. Buy this Book!

Based on a popular Saturday Night Live skit, this book (for those few who have not seen the segments) chronicles the adventures of what might happen if our former presidents had superpowers and an international mandate to save the world from a vaugley identified evil.

Granted, the animation style screams cheap 70's cartoon, but this is precisely the point of the animated sketches. The humor is subtle enough for adults and others to grasp it, and the undeniably cheesy and fun sketches will keep you rolling on the floor with laughter and guffaws.

Out of all the things Saturday Night Live has transformed into a skit post Wayne's World, the X Presidents is surely most deserving of this tribute, as well as an entire movie of their very own. You don't have to be a political freak or even like the particular presidents featured to know that sometimes something this silly is needed.

I purchased this book for my Kindermusik class of 3 year olds. They thought it was so funny. The dad is the one encouraging the son to try the roller coaster, but by the end it is reversed. It's cute, no hidden agenda, just fun.

What a fantastic portrayal of youth partnered with the fear of the first roller coaster ride! I found this book true to the natural feelings a child feels, as the line get closer and closer to the ride! I bought this for my brother & his son, and they both loved it!

If your looking for a Great childrens book this is the one. Zoom is a delightful story that children and adults can relate to. The illustrations are wonderful and kids are sure to love the story. Everyone should be on the look out for this authors next book.

This is a simply marvelous book! It tells of the exciting adventure of a son and father taking a roller coaster ride together. It's lots of fun! Young children will enjoy the great rhymes, the descriptive verbs, and the colorful pictures. My son loves to have it read to him and requests it again and again and again. We've given it as a gift to a few of his friends and they enjoy it as much as he does. We hope that Diane Adams will write many more books!

This book is sooooo cute! I can relate to being afraid of rollercoasters as an adult and a child. The ending has a fun twist. This is an amusement park experience all kids and adults can identify with. You can tell that this story came from the authors very own experience.

A terrific book, what a way to experience the silver age Adam Strange. These are the three stories from Showcase # 17,18 & 19. And also the Mystery in Space stories from issues 53 - 65. Just great stories that would otherwise be very expensive to read.

While I think that everyone who reads comics is familiar with Adam Strange, speaking for myself, I was never that interested in him. That's because that the editorial offices of DC never seemed to interested in him after the 1970s. Yeah, he popped up on occasion in "Justice League of America" or any series or story that featured aliens (e.g., the 1980s crossover series "Invasion!") where Adam Strange would be useful.

Then in 2004, DC began publishing a nifty mini-series about their space hero. And to tie in, they released an archive edition. And both are great.

As the other reviews pointed out, Adam Strange is an Earthman who is periodically transported to the planet of Rann, and to his lady-love, Alanna. Naturally, Adam frequently battles menaces to Rann's safety, usually in the form of bizarre aliens attempting to conquer Rann, or the occasional menace grown on Rann. Of course, Adam is far better equipped to handle these evils than your average Rannian.

That sounds derisive, although it's not meant to be. Like most comics of the Silver Age, Adam Strange followed a formula, and it worked for the strip. The stories are clever actioners by DC stalwart Garnder Fox with nice art by first Mike Sekowsky, and brilliant art by Carmine Infantino. Plus, Adam is an empathetic character. He's never able to stay on Rann for very long, and spends much of his time on Earth waiting for the next zeta-beam to take him to Rann and Alanna. And when he does arrive, he's only there long enough to save the day and vanish again.

Again, DC has done an excellent job of diversifying its Archive line. I hope, given renewed interest in Adam Strange by both the editors and the readers alike, that more volumes of this archive series come out sooner rather than later.

Wow.
i was waiting and hoping that someday DC would do right for this character and these stories and they have.
i first ran into Infantino stories from reprints in late 60s/early seventies Strange Adventures.
i used to buy beat up copies at the local flea market on the cheap purely for reading material and became hooked by Infantino's slick, fine lined, modernistic style- which for once perfectly complements the characters and milieu, as well as for the tight, fast paced, and very creative scripting.
i quickly realized that Adam Strange stories were just plain fun to read with oodles of wit and a refreshing lack of the usual cheese found in DCs pre-Denny O'Neil/"relevant" work.
While a good chunk of the book (the first 87 pages) features the first stories illustrated by Mike Sekowsky, the Sekowsky on display here looks a little more refined than the Sekowsky that i know from Justice League.
he seems to be operating in a Ross Andru/Al Toth mode, and his page breakdowns look a tad more sophisticated, and his anatomy less clunky.
not bad, but once the Infantino work kicks in the book really soars.
i've purchased about 10 of the archives so far- there is a ton of great work reprinted in these from Jack Cole to Joe Kubert, CC Beck to Gil Kane, Reed Crandell, Jack Burnley, etc but the work here- both story and art, puts this book at the top of the heap for me.
i agree- Vol 2 can't come soon enough!!!!!

just one request, if anyone from DC is listening- how about collecting the Gil Kane Batgirl back-ups form the late 60s/early 70s Detective Comics?
great work in there, would be a shame to let them gather dust in the vaults.

Amazing! D.C., thanks for for bringing back an authentic comic book hero and a sentimental favorite. Gardner Fox, Adam Strange's creator, was an icon for those of us who came of age in the late 50's and early 60's.
Other reviewers feel the same way about the Fox-Infantino collaboration that I do: A first rate comic with incredible and tantalizing covers, imaginative drawing, and entertaining stories.
Indiana Jones meets Buck Rogers meets Casablanca. Adam Strange, an earthman and archeologist, used no superweapons to defeat his superior foes. All he used were his brains (Wow! This guy rivaled, or surpassed, Batman in the sheer use of brainpower without the benefit of a utility belt!), a rocket pack, and an semi-useless ray-gun (considering the impregnable quality of the aliens.). His alien girlfriend and equal, Alanna, seldom left his side. At the very least she inspired Adam Strange to persevere in the face of hopeless odds, so she shares the glory.
On an aside, I agree that this was formula-writing; so was the original "Star Trek" for the matter(which in my opinion cribbed the Adam Strange "endings" quite a bit), but I also second the reviewer who said that Adam Strange was an inspiration and role model for the rest of us. Brains counted! Gardner Fox, an attorney and prolific writer, projected a lot of his ideals and values unto Strange. This character made a difference in my life. Too bad Fox is no longer around to receive my praise and gratitude.
Adam Strange managed, issue after issue, to save an entire civilization/planet using his powers of observation and quick wits. Sadly, Strange--after risking his life--then remained on Rann just long enough to reap a grateful half-kiss from the excellently drawn Alanna before the teleportation zeta-beam effects wore off and sent him back to earth. Why and how writer Fox and his formula tormented Adam Strange (and us) with heartache remains a mystery to this day. But we couldn't wait for the next issue...hoping Strange would remain with Alanna for good (which he finally did).
In this respect, Gardner Fox anticipated the pain of Marvel's superheroes, especially Spiderman.
By the way, before there was "Playboy" my friends and I would gab and speculate hours on end about Strange's female equal, side-kick, and lady-love. What a babe!
The melancholy, if not heart-wrenching, endings certainly prepared a generation emotionally for Sophoclean tragedy, or so it seemed to me when I was in junior high. If you recall the haunting, Adam Strange-like ending from "Shakespeare in Love," you know what I mean. But don't kid yourself, these were love stories in an "acceptable" format for pre-teen and young teen males.
And yes, Adam Strange patented the, "I'll be back" trope long before Arnie ever did...and gave it a tender significance. I am glad Adam Strange is back.
If you enjoyed the Silver Age, Adam Strange is an Archive to treasure. I can't wait for Archive #2.

If, as I was, you were born when everyone "liked Ike", and Captain Kangaroo was the nation's babysitter, if you read comic books, you knew Adam Strange! An adventurous archeologist long before Indiana Jones made the profession fashionable, he would experience a kid's ultimate fantasy, at the dawn of the Space Age...transporting to a distant planet, fighting incredible enemies armed with only a 'ray gun', a rocket pack, and a keen intellect, and winning the heart of an exotically beautiful alien girl. It was Edgar Rice Burroughs, updated, and it was IRRESISTABLE!

While his uniform was straight out of pulp SF magazines of the '30s and '40s (sort of 'Flash Gordon Meets the Rocketeer'), he never looked ridiculous, particularly when illustrated by the legendary Carmine Infantino (who, with his pioneering work on the Flash, proved that superheroes didn't have to look like overweight wrestlers). While Mike Sekowsky's earlier work lacks the simplistic grace of Infantino, there is no doubt that Adam Strange was cut from a different cloth than Superman and Batman. He was a thinking man's hero, lean and graceful, and willing to rely on his wits rather than on unbelievable powers, or an overstocked utility belt. That his intellectual exploits would earn him the title of the planet Rann's 'Champion' became an inspiration to me to study harder, and to understand that nearly any problem could be solved if you simply "used your head".

And oh, the bittersweet irony, when, after saving Rann, Strange would always be returned to Earth, before he could get more than a kiss from his beloved Alanna! Hokey, maybe, but what a hook for the next issue of "Strange Adventures"!

I never forgave DC Comics for yanking Gardner Fox and Infantino away from Adam Strange and using their talents to 'juice up' the "new" Batman of the mid-sixties. Perhaps the 'Adam Strange Formula' was a limited one, but even the lesser efforts of the creative 'dynamic duo' were a cut above anything else of the period. Certainly, under new hands, the Strange stories quickly lost their magic, and the series died. Subsequent 'limited' reappearances have only served to reduce Adam Strange's stature even further, as if DC, in turning the hero into a tragic figure, hoped to justify earlier abandoning him. Certainly, the 'Adam Strange' of recent years is NOT the hero I grew up admiring!

So treasure this first volume, when Adam Strange was pure of heart, and a whole planet believed in him...You have a treat in store for you!

Dr. Greenberg's first novel is very exciting. I was eager to finish one page to get to the next but had to savor each page of well written characters, scenes and emotion. If you like a good thriller with complexity and depth, you will enjoy Adam's Will.

Adam's Will by Steve Greenberg is a thriller as well as beautifully written prose. It is not often that you find these two qualities blended so expertly in one novel. The author keeps your attention with the plot while fascinating you with his outstanding ability to put words together. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story that is well written. I am looking forward to the author's next book.

This exciting mystery keeps your interest from the first page. The characters are well-developed . The plot has interesting twist and turns. But what will keep your interest is the author's descriptive passages. His love of language makes paragraghs read like poetry. You will get lost in his words. I hope this is just the first of many novels from this new author. I look forward to reading more and more. I have shared this "first novel" with many of my friends and they also loved it!

I was looking for a good thriller/mystery and I found it in Steven Greenburg's first novel Adam's Will. I was captivated from the first to the last page and I contribute this to the author's passion for the written word. Mr. Greenburg developed and excellent and exciting plot with several unexpected and startling twists that will keep you guessing at one of America's most puzzling mysteries. If you haven't read Adam's Will, go get it and enjoy a fresh and electrifying experience!

Very intriguing novel. I'm looking forward to Greenberg's next book. However, being a Catholic, I found Mr Greenberg's use of Jesus Christ as an expletive on just about every other page, very offensive. In case he decides to write another novel, I wish he'd take my review into consideration and refrain from using the Lord's name in vain.

The author has a gift for drawing you into his main character. You love with him, and feel the hurt of rejection. You root for him throughout the book and the ending is completely unexpected and poignant. With the book set in the emotionally awkward stage of the transition from high school to college, it is easy to relate to the uncertainty and joys that accompany those early romances in life. There are many humorous moments and witty observances that will make you laugh out loud. After starting the book, I was unable to put it down. A must read for anyone who endured the roller coaster of teenage love.

When I started to read this book I couldn't put it down. It kept my interest in wanting to know what was going to happen next. It made me laugh, cry and curious for what was to come.

It makes you think about everything you go through to seek for that one true love in your life. This book will help other teenagers and older people to know that they aren't the only one that is going through a hard time to find that love.

I would recomment this book to anyone!!

Michael J's book is spellbinding. With each adventure you want to know what is going to happen next. I read it in one sitting and later read it again. It is insiteful to the teenage years and the love life of our high school years. Anxiously awaiting the next book out. Enjoyed/enjoyed/enjoyed.

I really enjoyed this book. It made me feel good when I was reading it. There were sections that made laugh, and sections that brought a tear to my eye because they made me remember a time in my life where I had gone through similiar events. Very good reading. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants an enjoyable reading experience.

Reading this book took me back to my post high school years and allowed me to reflect upon my own adventures. It made me think "Geez, do we all really act like fools, wear our hearts on our sleeves, and go to extremes over love at that age?" And I've come to the conclusion that the answer for most of us is yes. Some people never lose that, but I can't decide if that is a blessing or a curse.

It is amazing that even though the book is set in a different time frame as when I was fresh out of high school, I was still able to identify with the characters. It was interesting to discover that other decades have their own issues, but as people, we all sort of go through very similar experiences. I am looking forward to reading the prequel and sequel(s) someday to find out how Michael J's love life turns out.

People say design cannot be taught. However, drawing tools and drawing types & techniques can be learned. In fact, they are essential for designers to understand and apply them so that they can visually communicate their ideas effectively. This book includes introduction to drawing tools and comprehensive drawing methods & techniques, like sketching, shadowing, perspective drawing, and rendering, etc.. I think students and beginners will find this book extremely helpful in transforming their design thoughts into visual drawing formats. As a young architectural professional and intern, I find the abundant and creative presentation formats and rich graphics in this book being good references for projects. I also gain insight into the differences and diversity of the book's architectural illustrations from students, professors, and architectural professionals from around the world. In addition, with globally renowned architects' drawings as examples, this book is also an incredible source of inspiration to architects of all levels.

This book is fantastic. I use it as my architectual Bible. It is not only good for educating Architects, drafters, and artists, but it is also a great book to use as a reference.

Easy to understand, thorough examination of a range of methods used for architectural drawings. Clear, concise descriptions as well as clear graphics depicting methods and processes. Extremely detailed reading while avoiding the mash-up of other technical manuals.

This is one of the best recent books on architectural graphics. Rendow Yee's book is replete with illustrations from successfull architects as well as students which turned out to be an excellent way of presenting design work of various levels and generations. I would recommend this book as a reference for both professionals and students.

An excellent process driven guide to architectural graphic presentation; supported by great examples from students as well as practicing professionals. I use this book constantly as a reference on all projects.

I've read this book from cover to cover. I've read many books on software development, software processes, best practices, qualitative approaches, and quantitative approaches, many from SEI. This book has to be one of the top two. For software professionals in leadership positions facing today's pressures of delivering quality software that meets customer expectations according to plan, this book is a must-read. You will be able to implement techniques directly into your organizational processes and deliverables with considerable ease. Kolawa and Huizinga have forged a grimoire that should be on every software leaders' desk, be they Project Managers, Software Architects, PMO Directors, of Vice Presidents of Development. Here are the key take-aways from this book:

1. Clarity: All concepts, practices, and examples were extraordinarily clear. There was never a question as to what was meant, or confusion in the information conveyed.

2. Readability: The text is very user-friendly. Coming from a very technical background, I tend to read challenging and complicated material. In this book, you were able to frame both technical and complex material in a readable way. In other words, I never had to re-read anything in the book. All of the material was very easy to understand. I feel the ability to effectively reduce complexity to simplicity is the hallmark of good authorship.

3. Implementable: I found the practice-side of the book to be what I call `out-of-the-box.' This means I was able to take material directly from the text and apply that into my process(es) or deliverables with very little work or trouble. (I actually did this multiple times.) This is a testament to the subtitle of the book, Best Practices in Software Management.

4. Usefulness: The book is actually aimed at being useful within for-profit businesses. Theoretical books are good for concepts, but it's up to the readers to find ways to translate the theory into executable practices (which often is beyond the role and responsibility of the readers). Your book actually bridges this gap, and provides mechanisms to help readers implement valuable techniques into their organizations, independent of their infrastructure.

These four points make a huge difference for readers looking to improve their software development processes to ensure profitability, cost savings, and customer satisfaction. Producing quality software while building defect prevention into your processes is key in today's competitive software marketplace. With these techniques, your organization will continue to become better, managing, reducing, and even eliminating the traditional sources of defects in software deliverables. You won't be disappointed in buying this book, as you'll refer to over and over again as you build process improvement into your organization.

This book offers a straight-forward, realistic approach to solving challenges of day-to-day projects that the software industry faces. Not only does it address the necessity of technology businesses to increase efficiency and productivity, but it also takes into account the psychological need for individual software professionals to be challenged and intellectually fulfilled on a daily basis. The powerful gains of software automation are amplified by the strategic best practices described in this software management book.

What sets this book apart from other software quality management books is its focus on real-world solutions. Many quality improvement strategies sound great on paper, but are impractical to implement because they end up slowing project progress and stirring resentment throughout the ranks. Rather than ignore the demands of modern day development, this book embraces them. The result is a refreshingly realistic approach to boosting software quality... while at the same time actually improving team productivity and developer satisfaction.

Automated Defect Prevention delivers a realistic approach to the nagging software quality problem. If you are responsible for developers who deliver business applications, you need to read this book. If you are an software architect or engineer, the book will offer a pragmatic road map to achieve incremental productivity gains within your software development lifecycle.

When I read this book I had a huge realization. Most of the quality initiatives that I had been involved with or observed had introduced (or layered on) additional tasks and responsibilities for either the architect, developer or QA engineer. Over time, these layered tasks ultimately resulted in dragging down productivity. Investing in the *correct* infrastructure to automate the monotonous/repetitive is the key to success. Quality should be the outcome of intelligent investment in productivity.

One issue I have with the software industry is that too many project managers, or stake holders managing software people, lack the understanding of just how important software quality is and how it can benefit the software teams and products. As the people most accountable for what happens with a software initiative, managers should have a solid understanding of what options are available to improve developer skills and the software they release. This book provides that needed information and helps explain who is responsible for what tasks, when they should be considering phasing in a particular practice and the benefits of a given item.

I like the way the information is presented in this book because I feel a project manager would be able to quickly evaluate a practice for phasing in without facing an all-or-nothing approach that some other books take. If, for example, a manager felt that they enjoyed the chapter on testing models, this book provides the information on what is needed, the benefits and the roles people need to take to phase that approach into their teams.

I enjoyed this book and I wish that more development teams used many of the practices in this book. While there were samples at the end of the chapters and a chapter on case studies, I would have liked to have seen a bit more information on difficulty and time constraints presented within some of the sections themselves. Overall this is a great book and definitely worth having on your desk.

Simply the most practical and user friendly book out there. Perfect for the serious bass/general theory student. Clear explanations of modes/chord formations.

This book, as well as the other Grimoires, is great for unlocking little tips and secrets in a clear and logically define way. If you take the time to read each part of the book you will come away with a knowledge of theory in music. I bought this for my children. I am a piano player and I have used the Keyboard Grimoire for years! What a tool to use! You will learn all about scales, runs, progressions, placement. So much easy to use information!

i acquired this book in my second year of playing, and it was an excellent eye-opener to the possibilities of all the different scales. i didn't have much interest in theory at the time, so i used it as inspiration for new arrangements to experiment. in addition, it is a lot of fun (maybe not the right word?) to play different scales for warm-ups and dexterity development.

the bass grimoire is the best way to fully understand the theory behind what you play. the book has EVERY scale and mode you will need to know and shows them in very simple pictures and charts. i practice about an hour a day with this book, and i have become so much better because of it.

I purchased this book about one year after I started playing. About a year into playing, it was vastly in depth and a bit beyond my current experience as a player.

I purchased it cause it had every scale imaginable and the depth it went into on the scales. At the time I tried to learn them I was fretting incorrectly and had'nt quite reached a point in my novice experience to learn them right.

2 years and 2 bands later, I picked the book back up after wanting to progress at my craft. It's full of a wealth of knowledge and the way its laid out and the fact that I can now fret correctly, makes it easy to learn all these scales.

What this book is: a reference manual with every scale on the fretbaord and WHERE to play them.

What this book is not: a book detailing music theory or telling how or teaching you how to play your instrument.

This book seems to be written with the understanding that you may already know how music works. This will make you a better musician, but if you dont know how music theory works or music in genreal, this book wont help you. You can learn all the scales in the world and learn them fast, but creating a musician-this book will not do. Help you be a better one and help you pgoress at your isntrument- for years to come- it will do.

Other books would go into much more detail thats un-needed here. This will be in my possession for a very long time and I feel I might have to get multiple copies as this one is going to wear out.

I would suggest this to any bass player, at any level. This is a reference manual and will progress your playing or push you to progress.

If you find a used copy of this, its probably going to be in bad shape with dog ears and marks on it.

This is a reference manual that I think will stand the test of time. A very good investment that they should sell with every persons first stringed instrument.