Bernstein Books

This would have been a great book (4 stars) with elements we were all looking forward to integrating into our campaign. Unfortunately, it reads more like a second grade English test, with volumes of errors waiting to be corrected. Not small errors, but missing images, mis-labeled pictures, charts missing data and obviously incorrect information.

The book is passably usable, but only barely. Having to struggle with these errors drops it down to 2 stars at best. If there were editors, they need to be fired. Anyone having purchased this book should be offered a free (corrected) replacement. It's literally as if they accidentally went to publishing with an alpha document instead of the final version.

Wizards of the Coast seems to be doing a lot of dragon based supliments lately. This one, is not the best of the batch, but nor is it the worst. It is mostly a collection of Dragon NPC's, with suggested story/adventure hooks, an assorted handful of maps. As usuall, a few prest classes, some spells, but it's mostly "crunchy bits".

There's probably no debating that Dragons are the most popular monster in Dungeons & Dragons. Heck, it's part of the name! But for a long time there was a problem with dragons, dating back to the first Monster Manual for AD&D. Instead of striking fear into the hearts of adventurers the way they should, the appearance of a dragon was usually cause for celebration by players. There was never any doubt that they were going to defeat the dragon, and haul away a truckload full of loot and magic items. There were two reasons for this: One, dragons originally were vastly under-powered, and two, DM's were often not skilled enough to take advantage of all the dragon's abilities.

Thankfully these days we don't have the former problem, and really shouldn't have the latter problem either. Dragons have been upgraded to the terrors they should be, and are no longer as generic as the average Orc. When it comes right down to it, no two dragons are alike. They are unique in their personalities and their motivations. Afterall, these are extremely intelligent creatures.

Wizards of the Coast's latest supplement is Dragons of Faerun, a compendium of unique dragons, new dragons, new dragon spells, new magic items, ready-to-play adventures, and much more. These unique dragons run the gamut from the young adult Mercury dragon named Tostyn Alaerthmaugh with a CR of 8, to the great wyrm red dragon who is Tiamat's Chosen champion, Tchazzar with a CR of 40! But before we get to the unique dragons, the book provides a very detailed history of Dragons and the unending war between Tiamat and Bahamut.

The book goes into great detail on each of the unique dragons featured, with details on all of their abilities/feats and powers, history, treasure hoard, lair, known allies and enemies, and tactics. In addition, each entry provides various knowledge checks for players to locate the dragon's lairs and other information, and adventure hooks for players and DMs to encounter the various dragons. One caveat is that a few of the unique dragons do not have their stats listed but instead your directed to use the stats of a typical specimen as described in the "Draconomicon" and abilities from various other supplements. These notes even give the page number to these other books but it would still have been nice for them to be included all in one spot. In addition, 25 more dragons are each given a capsule notation. These dragons originally appeared in Ed Greenwood's long running series "Wyrms of the North" in Dragon Magazine and the original articles are available on the Wizards of the Coast website for free.

But the book isn't just 160 page of dragons, there's lots more here. The Cult of the Dragon, the Church of Tiamat, and other dragon orders are featured which include short, but in-depth complete adventures. One of my favorite chapters is on dragon lairs and provides new, and devious traps, tactics, and monsters, all to help protect a dragon's lair. Your PC's won't think they're on the way to a tea party after encountering the Exhaustion Trap or new monsters like the Redspawn Birther. The Birthers were abnormal Red Dragon spawn but are now being bred by the Church of Tiamat.

Some two dozen new spells and a like number of new magic items, including both minor and major artifacts are also included. Finally three new dragon types are described: The Mercury Dragon, Steel Dragon, and Mist Dragon, although if memory serves there were earlier incarnations of these many years ago in Dragon magazine. The book concludes with a 10 page appendix of every known dragon on Faerun.

The Dragons of Faerun is a perfect complement to 2003's Draconomicon. Even if you don't want to use the Dragons in the book, it will help players to devise unique dragons of their own. This may be my favorite supplement of 2006 so far!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

The editing on this book is terrible. There's a laundry list of typos, and even more mistakes in monster statistics. Stat blocks in the book that are not screwed up would be easier to list than those that are. This would be useful material, but to make use of the actual game material, I'll have to do the editors' jobs for them. At this price, I might as well just make up my own dragons.

That said, if you're into the fluff of Forgotten Realms and haven't read the novels, this book has an excellent summation of the events of the Year of Rogue Dragons. But the novels would be more entertaining (presuming they weren't written by some hack, like some FR novels are).

All in all I'm not happy with the designers for making these mistakes, nor with the editors for not correcting them. I intend to write long and angry letters to Wizards of the Coast concerning this matter.

I checked this book out at the local library and found I was renewing it repeatedly. Finally decided, since it really caught my attention (and I was starting to wear the book out) that I would buy it so I could highlight all the good stuff.
No mistake about it, there's stuff in there I either don't get or may not apply to my trading style....but it's the good stuff that keeps me going back and digging in! It's really a decent read!

This book is a good basic starter quide. Like taking a class called Stock Market 101. It is a good place to start. I just happened to read this book first then followed it with the Investors guide to technical analysis. It was a terrific double feature and recommend reading these two together. It was worth the money but not fitting the "hot" title.

I thought this book might give me some breakthrough short term tips, but it is the same old stuff. I have always wanted to be a writer, but when I see how many pages a writer takes to say something that could be said in about ten percent of the time,I realize I am to much of a get to the point guy to be a writer--Another words this like so many other investment books, should be and article instead of a book.

Save your money. Never, never waste your funds on the drivel this author produces!!

A profitable trader would never have time enough to write even one tenth the quantity of words this person produces.

Find traders that actually make money to learn from. There are a few that have written good books.

As starting points:
For equities traders try: Professional Stock Trading
For futures traders try: Trading Day by Day

These are simply starting points, but are written by REAL traders, not worthless-book producers.

I bought this prior to starting my first psychiatry job but never found it particularly useful. It refers to USA management so if you're not working in the USA it will have limited applicability. Some of the management suggested is pretty gung-ho and not very practical. Essentially this book acted as a security blanket for my first few weeks on on call but was never really used in practice. It could be used to study acute management of emergency situation but there are other books around which are better for this.

More platitudes. Needs more time in Comp. 101.

It's 3:00 A.M.and you are called into the E.R. to see a patient with a psychiatric problem. What do you do? This book provides a quick but thorough step by step guide for dealing with psychiatric emergencies. It broken down into all the steps anyone working on a P.E.T. (Psychiatric Emergency Team) or provides basic emergency care needs to know. Smaller than the pocket DSM-IV. It is portable and usable.

This is a good book with the basics of how to deal with psychiatric emergencies. It is great for the psych intern just starting out, and for non-psychiatric professionals. However, at times it is a little simplistic and does not offer enough options in terms of treatments.

I know the pickings are slim for finding a book to learn SQL using Access, but PLEASE can't someone who knows how to teach and cares about getting their information correct write one? First off, this book has many errors including some statements that work OPPOSITE to the statements. Ex: On page 105 the description for "Nested LEFT and RIGHT OUTER JOINs" reads "In Access, A LEFT JOIN or a RIGHT JOIN can be nested inside an INNER JOIN, but an INNER JOIN cannot be nested inside a LEFT JOIN or a RIGHT JOIN." NO. NO. NO. It works in the opposite way.

The tables to be used in the book tutorials often bear no relationship at all to the fields or to the data and some of the naming produces run errors-- creating a frustrating experience for a student. This was obviously no labor of love for the authors, but a slapdash method to pump out a book. It is a crime that there was no quality assurance on this book. That alone would have caught the worst of it. For shame to all associated with its publication.

I generously gave it two stars just because it is probably better than nothing, but not much better. Again, here's a call to all of you SQL trainers out there: your market is wide open.

The pace is very slow for the really basic stuff while more sophisticated techniques, such as correlated sub-queries, are not explained well enough.

There are numerous errors in the book which suggest the authors don't really know Microsoft Access. Clearly, some of the worked problems were only tried on paper and not through Access itself. Significant errors appear in the discussion of data types (pp. 58 - 81), joins (p. 105), calculations with dates (p. 145), null constraints (p. 282) and referential integrity (p. 288). The downloadable example database does not comply with modern database design protocols.

For a much better book, try "SQL Queries for Mere Mortals" by Hernandez & Viescas.

This is an excellent book to use to teach students SQL in a very inexpensive way -- using Access. Although the book may not be in-depth enough for professionals, the authors do a great job of presenting the material in a very user friendly and systematic way for beginner students.

This book is nothing more than a 160 page ad for Stauber's school/store in CakeEater, MN. There is no "How To" advise in this book.

"Beyond the Goalcrease: Wit & Wisdom on Life Between the Pipes with Former NHL Netminder Robb Stauber"

(FOREWORD BY WAYNE GRETZKY)

While Robb Stauber certainly made a name for himself out on the ice as one of professional hockey's most electrifying goaltenders back in the 1990s, today he is making a different name for himself as one of the nation's top goalie instructors. His academy, "The Goalcrease," is widely considered to be the premier learning institute of its kind in the world. The Goalcrease's state-of-the-art facility is located in Edina, Minn., and features a full-time staff of former collegiate and professional goalies who teach kids of all ages the science of what it takes to play between the pipes. What makes the academy so unique is the fact that unlike most Summer camps, it is open all year round and offers the latest and most innovative training and video techniques. Whether it's a peewee trying to make an "A" team or an NHL veteran coming in for an off-season tune-up, this "Goalie Mecca" is truly in a league of its own. "Beyond the Goalcrease" is the story of Robb Stauber's incredible journey from Northern Minnesota to the National Hockey League, and is a must read for both goalies young and old, as well as parents, coaches and hockey fans alike. Learn about the mental side of the game from some of the best goalie coaches in the business and read about how they suggest you deal with everything from parents to politics and from training to travel - it's all in there. Robb recognizes that the toughest position in sports is also the least coached, and offers outstanding advice for parents to help them navigate their sons and daughters through the perils and pleasures of youth hockey.

This is a fun book - full of short tales of inventions which may or may not affect the future. I first read it in 1990 and at a second glance recently I noticed how tame the predictions were. Most were consumer-oriented items or fantasy ideas (floating furniture for easy cleaning) but several have become reality - stitches that fade, food wrappings that one can eat, windows that lighten or darken or allow more or less heat into a room.
The organization is simple - a few chapters with small vignettes about the product accompanied by a drawing of same. Of added interest were two additional items: Predictions of when the product would appear and the percent chance of its development.

This is a fun book - full of short tales of inventions which may or may not affect the future. I first read it in 1990 and at a second glance recently I noticed how tame the predictions were. Most were consumer-oriented items or fantasy ideas (floating furniture for easy cleaning) but several have become reality - stitches that fade, food wrappings that one can eat, windows that lighten or darken or allow more or less heat into a room.

The organization is simple - a few chapters with small vignettes about the product accompanied by a drawing of same. Of added interest were two additional items: Predictions of when the product would appear and the percent chance of its development.

Once again, reading Charles Bernstein is a wasted intellectual exercise. Berbstein's theories about language are old hat, too. Jackson MacLow and many others beat him out for originality long ago. It is a pity to see that people like Marjorie Perloff, coming from the "Gertrude Stein School," so to speak, can be so fooled by Berstein's nonsense. He wastes paper with his over done, old hat experiments. Stein beat him to the things he attempts, too, and in a more interesting whimsical fashion. If one really wants to read about language and its implications, one does better to read Noam Chomsky. The thing is that Chomsky at least never pretends to be a poet, and at best, tops Bernstein for true intellectual power. Charles Bernstein would do well to attempt to really communicate some experience of life on THIS planet, not just his bookish attitudes. His claim to any originality is arrogant. We poets were all doing these sort of experiments all through the 1960's and 1970's before we decided to really write in order to communicate. Gertrude Stein and Jackson MacLow were our leaders, along with the French Dadaists and Symbolists, like Rimbaud. American poetry simply does not need Bernstein's influence or theories at this juncture. He sets things back, not forward. This silly emperor really has not clothes and it doesn't take a child to see it. We grown up poets know it two. And, we must tell the truth from the rooftops to save other younger poets from this foolery with l-a-n-g-u-a-g-e.

look how angry te fool above me got that's why you should read chuck-also he's funny 'nuff said

I was actually a "contributor" on this book, and I am "quoted" in the book. However, much of the information about me and my unit in this book is not accurate. I would recommend not taking anything in this book as "factual" unless verified elsewhere.

This book follows the model of other books in the Osprey series, and while it is full of useful and interesting information it still lacks something.

I am still waiting for the day when we will get a book that fully details the units, markings and history of Army Aviation in Vietnam.

For those who have little to no knowledge of the AH-1 this book would be a great place to start. Overall a good book for what it is.

This is a short biography of Einstein. It is very easy and joyfull to read. It is not very serious biography, it does not go into details, double lined short stories, cover major stages of his life. I recommend to all who wants a brief summary but nice one. I read it in one day, you do not want to drop the book. Very nice.

Aaron Bernstein is a good handicapper and he lays out the basics so that anybody can comprehend it. By today's standards the information is dated but it still serves as a good reference for basic techniques and leaves the reader satisfied after completing this book.