Beck Books

This is your basic text book by a decent German company. However, since 2001, there are at least two other German learning systems you can buy for half the money that are twice as good. The smart money won't be spent on this one. If you force yourself to go over this book time and again with plenty of persistence, you can learn with this. However, overall it is weak and as entertaining as a high school text book.

With English as my first language I was a little nervous about my first German Wank, however, after getting my tongue round the first few chapters, I was pleasantly surprised by how pleasant a teutonic Wank could be. I would recommend this book to anyone that feels that a Wank in their own language is too restrictive and is lloking to try something new.

Although there are a few nifty little tidbits here and there, much of this "trivia" is either obvious such as: what are the two biggest crops? (hint-not plum tomatoes and arugula),is already pretty well known, or is as dry and uninteresting as a winter cornfield. It would take a truly hardcore Iowa buff to know the record average bushel per acre yield for corn and soybeans. The book is divided into different catagories, some far more interesting than others. An editor could have pared this down to about half its size, sparing the reader the chore of searching for the fun stuff.

As a Katie Couric fan, I'm always excited to see new information about her. Purchasing this book was a bit of a disappointment in the sense that all of the information shared was previously disclosed in magazine interviews and press releases. The other major disappointment was the fact that the pictures are in black and white. Also, they are pictures that I have already seen again in magazines and other media sources. It was obvious to me that Katie did not participate in this biography. Despite my somewhat negative review I did enjoy reading the biography even with it's lack of new information. I found the writing style very easy and light. Overall, I don't regret buying this book. However, if you're expecting an exclusive interview with Katie, you don't get it in this biography.

For an ex-Mormon living in Utah, parts of this book will ring so true it's eerie, and this will provide a nice insight into Mormon culture for interested outsiders. Other parts, however, the author is clearly making up, though it's unclear whether she is simply lying or if she actually believes some of the things she says and is simply deluded--or delusional (for instance, her completely credulous account of her "near-death experience").

This creates a certain problem of trust for the reader regarding the parts that are not obviously true or false: one is not sure what to believe, and cannot simply take the author's word for it. This applies, unfortunately, to the central claim of the book: that Beck was sexually abused by her father, a prominent Mormon apologist. While sexual abuse certainly occurs in the Mormon church, and its officials undoubtedly downplay or even help to cover it up, it's impossible to know whether her specific claim is true.

For one thing, her "memory" of what happened is so bizarre that one ought to be skeptical. Secondly, though she tries to dismiss it, there is such a phenomenon as unscrupulous therapists implanting suggestions in the minds of already disturbed patients, and it is as plausible to think this was the case for Beck (her mantra prayers of "please...please...please..." eventually answered--really--by a talking ball of light are one example of how disturbed she is) as that her memories are genuine. For one thing, it is odd that these memories would "surface" after decades when she begins seeing a therapist--although the phenomenon of repression is also very real, especially when coupled with post-traumatic stress. And while she claims that there is actual physical evidence of abuse in the form of supposedly otherwise inexplicable scarring, the reader is simply told this repeatedly with no evidence given.

Her portrait of her father as alternately befuddled and obstinate is amusing, though, but again no evidence is given for his abuse, in turn, at the hands of his mother. His war-time experiences certainly could have messed him up, though.

I hate to belittle Beck's story, but she really gives us very little reason to believe her, and some reason to doubt her; and besides, she occasionally seems to belittle it herself, as when she inexplicably drops inappropriate jokes in the middle of the most serious moments of her narrative, one example of how obnoxious her style can be.

On the whole, her conversion from Mormonism to a New Age brand of Buddhism is almost a step backward. The search for a rational critique of Mormonism continues.

Not as cool as it could have been, full of bad advice and wasn't very creative or in depth. Perhaps ok for the most dim beginner.

A small book with little space for notes yet she says "plenty of space is also included for you to write in your own thoughts and ideas. Keep the book handy, and jot information down year in and year out, all year long." I thought...well, maybe this was originally out in a much larger and longer edition. That would also explain having 2-6 pictures on one 51/2 by 81/2 page. But there is really very little info here, and some of it, such as this tip "Remove containers before planting. Plastic and fibre pots restrict root growth and prevent plants from becoming established." kind of boggles the mind. I guess there are instances when you would plant with some, or all, of the plastic pot, but I've never heard of it being a common problem, even with beginning gardeners. Maybe it will help in ways I can't yet see, but at the moment I feel it was a waste of money.

This is great if you're already into gardening and know the terminology. I'm more of a beginner and found it hard to make much practical use of the advice.

I ordered this book in a drunken stupor, and the first thing I did after reading it was check myself into AA.
This is a truly terrible book, full of terrible prose, gagging pretension (the back cover makes a point to say the Kill Your Idol line is 'a series of opinionated biographies'...be forewarned), and very little information. Add this to the fact it was published in 2000, already incredibly outdated considering a third of his career had yet to be, and there should be absolutely no reason to purchase it.

I paid the full $65 price after seeing the infomercial. Believe me, this will be a huge waste of your money. You are not going to learn anything new that you cannot find out on the internet. There are no secret ways of getting rich here. Also, you will find that you cannot even use the links that are listed for tax information in each state. You will get an error message saying the page no longer exists. The best way I recommend is to look in your local newspaper under "classifieds", then "legal notices" or "public notices" and find info on tax sales that way. You can then do search of public records on the properties by going to your local county tax office or usually on online thru your county's webpage. Then definitely drive out to visually inspect the property. You can only see it from the outside, cause 99.9% of the time, it will be vacant. If you're interested in it, just show up to the county courthouse on the date and time specified in your local newspaper. You should go to a couple of these first just to observe how these auctions work and ask the auctioneer questions afterward if you want. Good luck!

First of all, as I write this, this eBook is wrongly listed by Amazon as authored by Nicholas Wilson; that's me, and I didn't write it or list it with Amazon. Because I'm the coordinator of Friends of Judi Bari, this appears to be, at minimum, a bit of malicious mischief. At worst, it may be identity theft, which is a crime. (Google Friends of Judi Bari for more information.)

This eBook is just a reprint of a very short review by Stefan Beck in New Criterion magazine, of which Beck is the editor. New Criterion is published by the Foundation for Cultural Review, Inc., a nonprofit backed by the extreme right-wing Bradley, Scaife and Olin foundations, according to Mediatransparency.org, which lists nearly $9 million in grants to the foundation.

With this linkage in mind, it's no surprise that Beck's review is a snide and sneering critique from the right of Kate Coleman's smear book about Judi Bari. Coleman admitted in a public appearance that she was paid to write the book by Encounter Books, which is essentially the publishing arm of the Bradley Foundation. Beck criticizes Coleman for not being negative enough about Bari, a radical feminist and environmentalist leader who died of cancer in 1997. (Learn more by googling Judi Bari.)

If you're a member of the right-wing choir who feels a need to have your biases reinforced, and you have way too much disposable income, then by all means pay $5.95 for this teeny-tiny eBook of about 600 words in HTML format. Otherwise, don't waste good money by paying to be defrauded. You can read about 80% of the review on the New Criterion website for free anyway.

I never had a book like this, this book uses a model that doesn't make sense and you have to have a Ph.D. to make sense out of something so simple. The whole class of 80 students hated this book. There is gotta be a better book for use!