Brandon Books

Straight forward, easy to read book. After reading this book I got my first painting contract for $2500. A+ Nice book. Excellent for anyone who wants to get started in the business right away.

I knew how many pages the book was when I got it, but I didn't know that its only about four and a half inches tall and the print is really large and spaced out. The other thing about this book is that it doesn't provide nearly enough details. This is a book designed for someone who has no painting experience and next to no experience in construction. I guess for the absolute beginner this is okay, but not for me.

I give this four stars only because Ms. Brandon is a superb wordsmith. It isn't really fair to rate this book in today's marketplace. It was written twenty years ago. That's when I first read it. But I recently reread it and was struck by how much richer Ms. Brandon's writing is than the romances of today. I miss that. The detraction in this book is the relationship between the hero and heroine. Ward's characterization is a big no-no in modern romance--the forced seductions a bit too gritty and even borderline cruel. Twenty years ago, it was the usual fare. I wish the publishers would bring back excellence in "writing." That's why I occasionally revisit my old books. Today's romances are poorly edited and seem to be dashed off in haste. For that reason, Ms. Brandon's "Lady and the Outlaw" will remain on my keeper shelf.

This is a really good love story about a couple in Arizona during the late 1800's. It has authentic descriptions of the area and includes a good amount of historical places and facts. The author describes in scenes and personalities in such a manner that makes the reader become a part of situations. She has the reader on edge constantly and makes this book hard to put down. I rate it a 3+.

You train your sidekicks very well. Almost gave it five but a sidekick shouldn't be in the same league as a superhero like Batman but ... Robin is coming dangerously close.

I have to admit, I am very new to comics, and I am even newer to the Robin series, but I must say, this graphic novel impressed me greatly.

A more kid-friendly environement than his mentor's current comic book iteration, Robin's world is alive with much more comic book-ish elements, such as other super heroes and villains actually having super powers. The few joke attempts that are thrown in here along the way are a bit on the chesy side, but it's all in good fun, and the main plot (which takes place between two unrelated chapters that serve as goos openers and finishers) is very bloody and intense, with no real sense of where it is going.

Dodge, a teenager with the ability to teleport, has a bone to pick with Robin, and he decides to make a point by leading a group of ruthless villans in an attack agains the boy wonder. While Dodge only wants to put a scare into our feathered friend, the rest of the evil team have other plans, and before long, the original plan is subsituted with a bloody attempt on Robin's life.

Meanwhile, on Tim Drake's side of things, he longs to get back together with his beautiful ex-girlfriend while trying to balance out his hero life with team tryouts at his school as well as his life with newly adopted father, Bruce Wayne. The whole thing feels very uplifting and at the same time puts you on the edge of your seat as you watch Robin make narrow escapes from Dodge's out-of-control team.

Anyone of teenage years or older can enjoy this story, as it isn't nearly as dark and adult as Batman's own comics tend to be these days. Ideal for parents who aren't sure as to what comics to allow their children to read or not.

Ultimate Vision is a solid follow up to Ultimate Galactus.
**SPOILERS THROUGHOUT**
Vision's history is an itinerant messenger, giving warning to world after world of the coming of Galactus. All the worlds die anyway despite the warning (until, of course, Earth). A mad Earth scientist preserves a piece of Galactus, and seeks to use it for his own power. Predictably, the Galactus piece promptly goes out of control and nearly destroys Earth.

The minor nits I had with the story were: 1) the life form created by the mad scientist shaped like a little girl (evoking Alien's Newt). The comic is just too short to make you care what happens to her/it. 2) Since when was Sam Wilson / Falcon a brilliant scientist on the level of Reed Richards? Once a lame Captain America sidekick, always a lame Captain America sidekick. (And come on, he gets the hots for a robot chick?)

I've followed Mike Carey's stuff since the excellent Lucifer. This isn't as good as Lucifer, but neither was Ultimate Galactus. If you liked Warren Ellis's Ultimate Galactus, you will like Mike Carey's Ultimate Vision. Prior review was way too harsh.

There are many who believe that Marvel's Ultimate line has hit rock bottom of late. While I won't be one to agree with that for now, what I will say is that there has been a serious dip in quality in nearly every title to bear "Ultimate: in its heading other than Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man. Case in point, here's Ultimate Vision, which picks up not long after Warren Ellis' very good Ultimate Galactus trilogy left off. Hellblazer, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and current X-Men scribe Mike Carey gets the writing duties here, although the story seems as if he's asleep at the wheel. What Ultimate Vision really does is attempt to give this Ultimate, and female, version of the Vision a bit of backstory, but it falls flat because Vision just isn't that interesting. Not to mention that the story as a whole is just plain boring to boot. The artwork from Brandon Peterson is pretty good though, so Ultimate Vision isn't a total loss (and it is certainly better than Ultimate Power and Ultimates 3; but then again, that isn't saying a whole lot is it?), but it is sadly another instantly forgettable Ultimate story that once again pales in comparison to the original, and can't find its own legs in the process.

For better or worse, comics in the 1990's were influenced by one event more than any other - the founding of Image Comics. In an unprecedented move, the industry's hottest artists all left powerhouse publisher Marvel to launch a new company and their own creator-owned titles. One of the more popular of the bunch was Jim Lee's Wildcats. The first four issues of that title are collected in the Wildcats Compendium.

Wildcats was a pretty standard superhero team book, and the characters weren't that far removed from the X-Men or Avengers. Still, there was something that made them stand out in a way that Silvestri's Cyberforce and Liefeld's Youngblood characters never did. That's why, more than a decade later, most comics fans can identify characters like Grifter and Zealot. The plot was pretty straightforward - covert superhero team battles the forces of evil to prevent a catastrophic event (in this case, head baddie Helspont's acquisition and abuse of the magical Orb of power). It was definitely a story designed to introduce the main players and not much else.

The story may be weak, but it did lay the foundation for what would be known as the WildStorm Universe. Most importantly, we get our first glimpse of Jack Lynch and International Operations, the secret government agency that played such a huge role in later WildStorm titles.

If the story was less than impressive, the artwork was nothing short of amazing. Jim Lee was one of the most dynamic and influential artists in the late 80's and early 90's, and this is arguably his best work. It helped that Image's approach to coloring was pretty revolutionary and made most of Marvel and DC's titles seem dull and lifeless by comparison.

On it's own, the initial Wildcats run wasn't very memorable, but given what authors like James Robinson and Alan Moore would build from this title, as well as the larger success of the WildStorm Universe, it is an important book that any Jim Lee and/or WildStorm fan should own.

NOTE: Early editions of this trade paperback came polybagged with a limited edition Wildcats issue #0, drawn by Brett Boothe. This little stunt compelled a lot of us who had already bought the individual Wildcats issues to buy the trade paperback.

WildCats: Covert Action Teams was Jim Lee's first Creator owned projected published by Image Comics in 1993. The story centers on the formation of a new superhero team to doing covert missions against an evil alien race called the Demonites. Void is the spiritual, cosmic, time, lady of the lake Russian entity who finds the chosen one, Lord Emp. He is a short, homeless, drunk, White male who wines off the streets of New York city. Void tells him he is the chosen who will defend human life against the Demonites. At first he thought he was dreaming but then Viod takes him to his future and learns the Lord Emp will become a billionare and will have his own covert superhero team called "The WildCats". This introduces the whole bunch of new characters that started Wildstorm productions which is now at DC Comics. This introduces Spartan, the combat leader of the team, Maul, the big purple guy with muscles, Warblade, warrior that can longgate his figures and hands, Zealot, the barbarian female take no prisoners type warrior, and Grifter, the mystery man with the guns. This book started Wildstorm productions for Jim Lee and his publishing company , So if your fan of DC comics an never heard of Wildstorm, I recommend that you read this book! Buy it! Great Jim Lee artwork!

I got this book for my step-mom for Christmas thinking she would get a lot out of it. She is a deeply spiritual woman and loves the original book, The Five People You Meet In Heaven.

This book isn't extremely long, so I Figured she would have it completed in only a few days. I asked her what she thought of it and said she only got a few pages into it. She says the book is extremely dry and hard to get into.

Once she was a little further into the book, she said the concepts described went way over her head and she didn't really understand how it related to the original book.

I guess this is more of a textbook type reading and not a novel. Not for someone who wants a quick read while learning something.

Heaven is a very personal place. The visions of heaven from various religious traditions tap into hopes (and fears) of people past and present, but ultimately, just as the world is different for each of us, so too must heaven be. Throughout this difference, however, is a question that is perhaps one of the more universal longings in the history of humanity - the quest to find the meaning of life, and the meaning of our lives in particular. It is this longing that Mitch Albom, best known prior to this book for his wonderful writing in `Tuesdays with Morrie'.

This book, `Wisdom from The Five People You Meet In Heaven', by Brandon Gilvin and Heather Godsey, draws upon Albom's book, elaborating in brief form some of the primary lessons Eddie, the main character, learns in his journey from earth to heaven.

The tale begins at the end, not the beginning. Of course, in life, every ending is a beginning of some sort. The end here is the end of Eddie's life - Eddie, a veteran who has gone through times of trouble and tragedy as well as times of joy and optimism, didn't have the life he wanted. Like most people, what Eddie wanted shifted over time, and even when he got what he wanted, it was somehow lacking, or disappointing; on the other hand, there were unexpected things.

Eddie got married, but as with most marriages, it didn't always live up to the dream of the initial love. However, his wife Marguerite remained the love of Eddie's life, and she was one of the five people he met in heaven. This was his closest relationship, but not the only important relationship in his life.

Perhaps drawing on the idea of six degrees of separation, there are people connected to Eddie who are companion guides in heaven that Eddie didn't even realise he was connected to. There is the Blue Man, the side-show freak at the amusement park where Eddie worked; there was the captain from his military days; there was Ruby, for whom Ruby Pier, the amusement park's location, was named; and then there is final person, one that Eddie only knew as a shadow on earth, but who has the biggest impact, and is the one whose hands offer a very touching form of salvation.

Each person has insights and lessons to share with Eddie. Sometimes they reinterpret the events of Eddie's life; sometimes they simply share their sides of the story, that give a fullness to the narrative of life. This is no easy glossing over of reality - none of the characters attempt to explain how, at the heart of it, life really is fair. Indeed, the Blue Man explains in no uncertain terms that life is not fair, stating that if it were, `no good person would ever die young.'

Gilvin and Godsey draw a lot of wisdom from Albom's work and relate it to the Wisdom tradition of biblical literature. Gilvin and Godsey found this relationship to be very appropriate, given the kinds of wisdom being imparted by the five people to Eddie in Albom's book, and the kind of practical and philosophical wisdom in combination being imparted by books such as Proverbs, Ecclesiates, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) and Job.

As Gilvin and Godsey state, Albom's primary task in this book is not to present a description of heaven, either in a physical sense (`streets paved with gold' sort of thing) or even in a spiritual habitation sense; Albom's work is more along the lines of `The Heavenly Village' by Cynthia Rylant, in that it is more of a place or part of the journey where things on earth get put into new perspective and context. `It lies with answering ultimate questions as to why we live and what we live for,' according to the authors, which is also what the Wisdom literature tradition in the biblical texts also strive to do.

Gilvin and Godsey relate the five individuals to specific textual passages in the Wisdom literature, and develop the different themes well. This is a book good for personal enrichment and meditation, as well as for those of us who are called upon to deliver a homily now and again. For example, Eddie's relationship and encounter with his wife Marguerite relates to the Song of Solomon, both in terms of physical passion and love as well as spiritual connectedness; Eddie's relationship with his past actions are likened to Job in effective manner - the current that finally carries Eddie away is like a whirlwind, but the voice that comes is both realistic and redeeming.

Useful as a study guide for those who will devote reading group or Bible study time to the work `The Five People We Meet In Heaven', this volume offers conversation questions and suggestions for further readings. Useful for individual study as well, this is a great companion text to use for reading and meditating upon Albom's work.

DAY OF THE DEAD was my first Brandon Walker and sad to say the last one J.A. Jance has written in this cold case series. We know how it is to be bored with retirement when one's spouse has entered a new and challenging career. Golf holds no interest for Mr. Walker and he is given a second chance when an invitation arrives to join The Last Chance group of former law enforcement officers who study unsolved murder cases.
Thirty years have passed since the body of a young girl was discovered baking in the Arizona sun, which reminds one of the child who was ashore on the Texas coast. There have been no answers for her family. Brandon Walker steps into a world of evil that still exists after 30 years.
A good read from the annals of cold-cases.
Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelUnder the Liberty Oak

The book starts off quickly & holds it's suspense throughout, with a very good ending. I enjoyed the Brandon Walker character, though not as much as JP Beaumont. The fact that the wearisome, shallow & played out character of Joanna Brady is absent here is a God send. Take a long marriage which is rooted in hell & you have your 2 villains which are so sick they keep your attention. The mystery plays itself out & comes together very nicely toward the end. I felt the book to be a little long in the tooth with the time spent on the characters living on the reservation. The characters are good, but they depart too much from the storyline. I think you'll enjoy it. I gave it an extra star for not having Joanna Brady in it

I've been a fairly loyal reader of Jance's Brady and Beaumont books. I don't think I will be in the future. In buying this one I feel was trapped by my past loyality. I struggled with this to page 175 and then quit. Now I'll probably use it for fireplace kindling as I'll NOT give this book to anyone I know. The subject's Ugly, many of the people are Ugly and the writting is contrived and predictably Ugly.

Why in the world would Ms Jance impose this uglyness on her readers.

Nice cover though.

Day of the dead was an entertaining crime novel. I didn't care for any of the characters very much. It is a B mystery.

I am a huge fan of the Joanna Brady and J. P. Beaumont series, so I was looking forward to curling up with this book. I never read the first two of the Walker series but I was sure I was going to like this one. My goodness! What a horror! The description of the torture perpetrated on the orphan was so disgusting that I had to leave the book alone. I never went back to it. I like to read for pleasure and this was no pleasure. I will only read the Brady and Beaumont series from now on unless they get very gory.

I bought this book and read it in order to prep for the MCSE TCP/IP NT 4.0 and by using this book and Trancenders practice test I passed the exam with a very good score. Not only did the book help me to pass the exam it made me understand the concepts as well. The only reason I did not give the book a 5 star rating was because I used the softwars it came with for practice test and I never found it that helpful. If you want to pass the exam and understand the concepts read this book and use trancender practice test software.

In the beginning i doubt about this book ...then i need a reference due to short period of preparation so it leaves me no choice but to get this book.. I solely used this book for about 1 & 1/2 months plus the trancender and pass the MCSE test on my first try "with flying colours"....it makes understanding the TCP/IP easier and applicable. DONT JUDGE THE BOOK BY IT"S COVER

my next move is to get the Exchange Server 5.5 ...of course by DUMMIES...

DUMMIES is my first choice...why did'nt i thought of that before..

There are quite a few errors in this book and the content really only touches the surface of TCP/IP. However, it does contain enough info to pass the exam and it does make learning IP relatively easy. This is a good book for people that are new to TCP/IP. If you know a little about subnetting etc. then I would look to something a little more in depth. SAMS TCP/IP in 24 hours is good, but the definitive technical reference is TCP/IP Illustrated by W. Richard Stevens. That said I give this book 3 stars as a entry reference to TCP/IP.

I read alot of IDG books and swear by them, but, so far this has got to be the most dissapointing one so far! I Passed this exam BUT the book only confused me more on several occasions (conflicts with Microsoft's explanations). There are many mistakes, way too many errors to be acceptable. I will give Mr. Cameron Brandon one thing, his explanation of the subnetting subjuct is worth buying the book. Sorry guys, love your books but you'll need to publish a 3rd edition.

Not bad overall. I passed the test 1 and 1/2 months after picking up the book (passed on the first try). I only used this book. All I knew about TCPIP before I got started was that I needed it to connect to the Internet.

However, you've got to be aggressive in your studying and critical of what you read. Read the whole book once. Then read the entire book again with a highlighter. Then go through the whole book a third time taking typewritten notes (my preferred form of notes - easier to save and read) on what you highlighted. Then take all practice tests (beginning of chapter, end of chapter, and CD). Re-read your notes every day. Review all missed practice test questions immediately after taking each exam.

But beware - there are several mistakes in the book, and I got really hung up on them thinking it was me. The subnetting chapter was very confusing, and I never really did get a good understanding of it. I didn't get some of the IP addressing stuff for a while, but when I did, I said to myself, "well why didn't he just SAY that." I'm convinced the author had nothing to do with the production of the accompanying CD; he clearly stated that certain topics would not be tested on the exam, but I got as many as 5-10 questions on the practice exams on these same topics. Then there were questions on things that weren't even mentioned in the book at all. That was frustrating because again, I spent time in the beginning thinking the problem was with me.

Anyway, like I said, I did pass the first time with no background understanding of TCPIP. So, it was worth the time and money. If you're aggressive about it, you can do it too.

I read this along with Angry Chair, another worthless bio piece on AIC. There is absolutely nothing in this book that held my interest. Let me save you some money: Mike Starr rose to fame in AIC, played a lot of shows, had sex with a lot of women, tried heroin, got hooked, quit AIC, tried to get back in the next day, was denied, spent the next decade trying to kick heroin. The end. The author's writing isnt as bad as the Angry Chair's author, but he definitely should not wait for the Nobel committee to call. He also made lots of historical mistakes about bands like Pearl Jam was Mother Love Bone with a new singer and then Mad Season was Pearl Jam with Layne Staley on vocals. I'm not even a hardcore fan of these bands and I know he's wrong. He also quoted Starr mentioning "Ingve Nomstein." How can you write a book about metal and not know the name of everyone's favorite cheesy metal guitar hero Yngwie Malmsteen?

I love Alice In Chains. But this book was a joke.

Could Mike Starr be favoured any more???

Again, I love AIC, but this book does NOT shed light into anything significant. Poorly written/researched.

I got seriously involved in Alice In Chains when I turned that specific age in my life where nothin matters, I think it's called "Adolescence", but now, having owned almost every type of memorobilia about the band, I anxiously awaited the release of this book. I felt it would be an overview of only Mike, but you can tell from reading that it is so much more than just that. It tells of the other members, including both bassists, and how it has changed the members' lives in the road paved by the band. But what will shock you about this book is the recurring references to the drug called "heroin". Some, in reading, have called it incomplete and disorganized, and in some senses, it is. But if you read the book with an open mind and try to understand what is being said, you will find it is much more than just a story about a classic "time-bomb band". It is a story of a musician's rise and fall in a band, long story short. The book's layout is not "bad", it's just very complicated and often hard to understand. This book can be read in one of those long rainy evenings (seemingly how it is supposed to be read), but it can be one of those books to read a little and think about. The other reviews on amazon help to better judge the purchase of the book, but I recommend getting it. It's not a five-star book in my opinion, but it is a very intimiate and internal view of the band from a member's standpoint.

I always wondered why Mike Starr & AIC parted ways & this book does shed light on the subject along with some intersting details about Mike's past, growing up in Seattle & how he began playing in bands. However, I have read better material from high schoolers. This book was written in a very poor fashion, repeated certain facts/stories over & over & bored us with some really uninteresting details (like interviews with Mike's friends who had nothing to do with AIC) This book is only interesting for the absolute die-hards, but chances are when you're done with this book (after about 45 minutes) you'll have regretted spending money on it.

You know, a real artist would have more to talk about than getting laid. Mudslinging is rampant in this book. It seems like stabs from a desperate soul who could no longer play with the bandmates he cherished. I don't think this book is accurate. Even Mike Starr himself pulled out at the last minute on this one. I don't think we'll ever know the realtory on this great band.

This book is overflowing with grammatical errors. If only some of these publishers would hire a real proofreader instead of just running their manuscripts through a spellchecker program! If you aren't distracted by horrible grammar, you will find this book very interesting and useful. Although much of the information is redundant (do we really need a separate category for every type of ghost?), this book covers a lot of material the other books leave out. The sections about interview techniques are very useful. So are the tips for carrying out an investigation. There is also a strong religious slant to the book which comes through in parts, but like all books about ghost hunting, this one is slightly biased by the author's personal beliefs, so it is to be expected. Still, I found it to be an interesting read.

I watch "Ghost Hunters" and have read one other book about ghost hunting (the complete idiot's guide ...). The only new information in this book for me were the links to various websites. I probably could have found those with a search engine.

The book reads like a hastily written high school essay on ghost hunting. Those reviewers who point out conflicting statements in the book are correct. The book presents no cohesive discussion of the various entities and hauntings that ghost hunters usually discuss.

There are not just a few errors in the book. There are numerous errors on every page. The author has no understanding of the proper use of the apostrophe, and is not aware of the concept of the paragraph, or what parts of speech are necessary to form a complete sentence. That aside, the content is not very informative, nor well organized. Only a complete moron could benefit from this book. If you need to be told that you should bring a jacket in case it gets cold, or extra batteries in case yours go dead, then by all means purchase this book. Otherwise, you should look elsewhere for your introduction to ghost hunting.

First of all, as a Wiccan, I didn't find a lot of things to get worked up about. The author is simply another in a long line of people who are uninformed of the facts with regards to the Old Religion. As a book to help people interested in researching ghost phenomenon, it's a very good place to start. One can easily remove the parts that are nothing more than speculation and conjecture on the part of the author and still make very good use of the book. The Q&A segments alone are very well done and offer a good representation of the types of questions any person researching ghosts should ask either themselves or the person making the claims. Spelling and grammatical errors can be as much the fault of the editor as the author. Not all authors are fantastic at spelling and it's the job of the editor to catch these things. The problem here is, the author is also apparantly the editor. Perhaps a revised edition is in order. I cannot say the book is without merit, it's useful and I WOULD recommend it to a person looking for a starting point. With some clarifications though.

I just received my copy, and I can see why past reviewers have loved and hated this work. It contains some good information. However, the Reader can easily become frustrated by the exceptional number of typos, misspellings, and grammatical mistakes. This, to my way of thinking, is the downfall of private/small publishers (ditto for Web sites). I guess my favorite of the typos is in the bottom paragraph of page 106 concerning vampires. It reads, "A wooden, iron or silver stake in the heart will destroy them. Chopping off a vampire's head will destroy it. Crucifixes and holy water can inflict great pain and suffering on these unholy breasts [sic!!]." What make that funnier is the drawing on the opposite page of a female vampire! Magnificent!

I bought this book on recommendations from other ghost hunters on-line. I was truly disappointed. First, the book is full of spelling and grammatical errors. So much so that it distracts from the reading. Second, what appears to be hypocritical content. In one place, the author rips apart the Amityville horror case, basically calling it a fraud. He doesn't even mention that one of the foremost demonologist couples, the Warrens, visited the house and was convinced. But later, he uses the Warrens as they dealt with other cases, treating them with the respect they deserve; but only, apparently, as long as they covered cases the author was comfortable with. Third, he quotes the Bible in several parts of the book, and slams Witchcraft. As a Wiccan, I was offended to read that I was being duped by demons, practicing what I thought was positive magick. I am very disappointed in this book.