Becker Books

The ultimate vanity project: the writing is borderline incompetent, some of the photography stunningly bad, and there's no organizing principle whatsoever. It's obviously just a hodgepodge of whomever could be persuaded to participate. An altogether shoddy job prettily and expensively packaged, not unlike the subjects. It is amusing, however, as a relic of its time. For one thing, a lot of these couples are now famously divorced. (Others of them never will be because their marriages have been shams from the start.) Bacanovic went to jail and is now jobless.

By the way, love how that Basquiat painting floats from Bacanovic to the Groos's. And how Broome Street is in NoHo.

Don't waste your money and time on this bore. As someone here mentioned, a surprising number of these apartments are ugly. Don't they have decorators? Flip through it quickly in the bookstore if you must. Then go on with your life that is surely richer and more meaningful than anything portrayed here.

Every time a book like this is printed - a poorly edited mostly worthless homage to a sector of social vampires like the trust fund babies of new york, God sheds a tear.

Every time someone actually pays money for one, he mercilessly strangles a puppy.

I went to Duke with Brooke de Ocampo. Back then she was a nice person (probably still is). She is also clever and bright. She never lacked for friends and basically I found her to be non-offensive in any way. Her book is miserable and certainly does not do justice to her intellect and her depth which, back in college she demonstrated herself to have. I am hoping that she was doing a "piss take," (as the Brits say) on herself and her friends by doing this book. To think that anyone of depth and substance would find this book interesting or have any value is, at the least, a massive venture into narcissism. It is absolutely one of the most vapid, self-aggrandizing, pitiful and crass things I have ever seen. This is sad because I knew her as a classy person. Hopefully, she will extricate herself from the mindless, pitiful "snobissimos" she hangs around with and produce something that is reflective of her talent and taste. I hope that people would be willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and separate the person from the pathetic product(s) - I paged through a friend's copy of her Bright Young Things London in the hopes that she had actually produced something of merit - it was equally as limp. In sum, give both books a miss.

According to the New York Observer, this is an "astoundingly vapid text, which intersperses a comical parade of typographical errors throughout its dull drumbeat of name-dropping."
I agree. A friend just lent me her copy and I can hardly believe how terrible this book is.

This book attests to what paying a publicist can do for book sales. I bought the book because I had heard about it, and was sorely disappointed when I opened the cover. Voila! A bunch of nobodys who've done nothing in their wealthy lives to merit being in a book. Either they were friendly with the author or merely flattered when asked to be photographed for the book. The photographs are fine, in and of themselves, but the subjects leave something to be desired. The text is as light weight as souffle... the book would lose nothing without it. Indeed, this is the priciest non-book I've ever seen. Don't be fooled by the hype. Trust me, the only "Bright" thing about this book is the title which Ms. De Ocampo unfortunately lifted from another author's prior book. Shame on Assouline for publishing such tripe. They should have stopped publishing books after their exquisite David Seidner's Portraits. Now that was book-worthy. And Laurence's Private Dreams of Public People.

This is a useful book for someone ho is researching the possiblity of working at home.

This just wasn't what I expected, it's like something you would get with your newspaper. I'm not very impressed considering the price plus shipping.

Good general overview, but has limited detailed source information. Some contacts suggested were not up-to-date.

I ordered this book hoping for legitimate work ideas. I mailed in for information from 15 companies listed in the directory. Every one of them sent me an unprofessional brochure filled with typos, misspellings, and printing errors and each requested money ($30-$60) in order to get more information. Many were extremely vague about what it was I would receive for this money. A few said the money would get me information on how to find companies that need people to work at home! Isn't that what this directory was supposed to do? This book is a waste of money and utilizing it is a waste of time, stamps and SASE envelopes.

Take a look at the dates of the last reviews done on this title. They are from the early 2000's. There are none that are recent except the one I am writing now. I found no mention of an author Barbara Becker. This is an absolute and total waste of money ($4.95). The ads in this pamphlet, (32 Pp. includes front and back covers) are the same as the ones you would find in the back of grocery store magazines. I am not saying they aren't legit., but almost all require a sase, a small fee or a number of stamps to get their information or samples. I did not get a "safe" feeling about these either. None were remotely near New York, and with all the scams going on in the world today, I would hesitate to believe all these are money makers. All I will tell you is "buyer beware"

I bought this book and I didn't know it was the miniature edition. I'm very disappointed, but if I return it I have to pay to send it back. I'm keeping it in case someone else wants it.

Although most of the Joy of the Cooking books contain strong, solid recipes and useful hints, this tiny book is a joke. Most of the info is so basic that it offends those of us who know how to boil water. There are scant recipes and and the book is so incredibly small that it takes two hands just to open the awkward sized book.

very dissapointed in this minature version of this classis cookbook. I thought I was ordering a regular full sized joy of cooking. I saw nothing when ordering that indicated that this would be a minature (a joke perhaps). I'm concerned about returning it as I may be charged again and then have about 9 dollars wrapped up in shipping charges and no book. You've given me cold feet about ordering from Amazon again. Ken

I thought this would be a miniature version of the Joy of Cooking.
It's not. Not useful at all, and not worth purchasing

I expected a condensed version of the large book. This is a waste of money.

Is what I ordered but not knowing what a mini edition is I was disapointed that it was very small. Granddaughter thought it was a joke. But like I said It's my fault for not being up on that sort of things. Would order other items again from the company if a need arises.

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul (Chicken Soup for the Soul (Mini))This is a shame product. The original book is wonderful but this is a poor quality, deceitful imitation product driven by publisher greed!

This is a fairly underwhelming guide. There isn't a lot new here, and what is present is a frequent reprint of much information previously published. It's more a periodical than a book, and I really didn't find anything usefulf for myself in it. The good news is it is cheap, and you're not wasting much if you try it and can't find anything helpful.

Well, they weren't kidding when they said "free stuff" from Uncle Sam. Trouble is, most of it you don't need or qualify for, which I probably should have seen coming when I ordered it. It lists hundreds of completly unrelated programs, such as medical care for children with birth defects resulting from a parent's exposure to chemicals in the Vietnam war. Farmers growing a specific crop, in a certain region, in need of a particular item. Published writers looking to cover their expenses while they write full time for a while. Teachers interested to training abroad, exchange-style. That sort of thing. But hey, you just might be one those people.
The book is hardly a "book" and more a very lengthy brochure (feels like 20 pgs max, it's not in my hand at the moment). Not enough pages to it to justify the $5.00 + $3.00 s/h expense, I say. A good third of the numbers and addresses are to get free information sent to you (see, we said "free" didn't we?) whereas you might have been looking for free assistance, grant money, etc. Again, random topics like veneral disease, homeless programs, military career training, and so on.
In all, this would be worth the time to read through if someone handed it to you for free, and indeed I am interested in a few of these resources, after our family's immediate needs of income, housing, and health care are met. It's clear this book is not going to meet them today, and perhaps it's most redeeming feature is that it won't take up too much space sitting on your shelf waiting for some of this information to become relevant to you later.

ADDITIONAL *** Disabled people and Veterans will probably get more out of this book than anyone else, so for them it's probably worth the $8.00.

This was not what I thought it was. I didn't realize that it was only a pamphlet, and it is seriously dated at that. It does have some fairly good ideas, but nothing that you couldn't find online, more current and relevant. I was not that impressed.

32 Pages, most arranged in 3 columns and largely dedicated to lists.

List of 100 craft ideas, list of trade organisations and associations, list of wholesalers, list of craft magazines etc.

At $4.95 I thought it a bit expensive for what it gives you. I don't live in the USA and little of the content is of use to me.

The 'How to...' is fairly scant. If this booklet was expanded into a trade paperback of 150 pages or so, and included case studies of people who'd done the thing, together with examples of common mistakes people make before they succeed, then it would be worth buying at $6.95 or so.

This booklet represents a starting point for accomplished hobbyists who want to get into business as a private person. There is nothing about legal matters, taxation, incorporation or anything technical.

Some of the claims made on the cover appear overdone. "The Secrets of Your Success. The Tricks of the Trade. It's ALL Here!" No It's not.

Similarly, "SPECIAL. Hundreds of Confidential Address & Contacts". Not hundreds and nothing confidential that I can see, but then, I am not enthusiastic about this publication as you may have seen. Unless you have some specific need for a list of craft ideas or lists of things you can do to sell them I'd look elsewhere.

This book tries to cover everything. Thus each topic is covered only breifly. The orginization and wording is passible at best. This book is not really for beginners but for the times when we forget the simple tasks.

On the plus side, it is one of the few reference books with precompilers in it.

While providing a good overview, this book does not provide the information needed for a developer to be productive in Oracle. This is not the book that a serious developer needs sitting by his left elbow as he is coding. I was disappointed in the lack of detailed information in this book. From other 'Unleashed' books, I have come to expect detailed explanations of language elements, and sample code showing how to accomplish real tasks. Language elements are not sufficiently explained; and, while some knowledge can be gleaned from the sample code, the examples were just way too simple to be useful. This book tries to accomplish too much. The first half tries to be a DBA guide, and the second half, a developers guide - as a result, both are given short shrift. Were this book called 'Oracle 7 Overview', it would have served its purpose.

Brooke de Ocampo has hied herself to London and produced a book that does for the brilliant, educated, and exceptionally wealthy young elite of that city what her earlier title did for their counterparts in New York. The difference this time, unfortunately, is that she decided to let other Bright Young Things do the writing as well as open their homes and pose for photographs. And so while the writing in the original BYT was relatively unobjectionable celebrity journalism, a good deal of the writing in BYT London doesn't even rise to that level. On the other hand, the introduction by Nicholas Coleridge runs rings around its BYT counterpart by William Norwich, if only because it's so much less gushing in its praise for the people being profiled.

Apart from the writing, though, this book is a lot like the first one. Beautiful people, beautiful homes, beautiful children, beautiful photos. The selection of people covered seems, if anything, slightly broader than that in BYT. Whatever your reaction to the first book, I imagine it'll be about the same to this one ... unless, perhaps, you happen to be, or be related to, one of the people featured in it.

I thought this book would have answer outlines for the questions so I could check my answers.

In my opinion, the authors should introduce evidence in The Evidence rather than making bold, uncorroborated statements in Questions to Consider (thus tainting the evidence with bias); however the authors are prone to guiding the reader to a pre-chosen conclusion. This, to me, is unconscionable in a book purported to help students become critical thinkers. The authors apparently use a different definition for "critical thinker" than I am familiar with. In truth, the book intends to be censor morum, teaching the student to become a politically-correct thinker.

I loved reading The Evidence but I can really do without the editorializing in the other sections of each chapter. Allow the student to come to his own conclusions, I say. Unfortunately (or fortunately, rather) not all textbooks are equal.

Caveat Emptor.