Brian Books

I am working with one of my sons using this book and it is excellent. There is a video series that goes along with the book that is great too. I would recommend this for anyone who wants to learn algebra or work with their kids - using the videos, it can be a self paced course that was well thought out and very detailed.

Being a mathophobe, I was terrified when I registered for the class. But since I had to buy this book for my math class, then math all of a sudden was really easy! I actually understood the WORD problems with ease and what not!! The only thing that keeps me from giving it a 5 star rating is that there are many typos in the book, especially in chapter 6.2: there are at least three typos in this specific area if and when you are assigned the odd problems; and what's more, if you want a good laugh, check out pages 455-456. You'll see what I mean!

I am a 34 year old student that has struggled with math my entire life. I have failed many math classes in college because I just did not clearly understand how to do the math problems. I enrolled at Harbor College in Willmington, CA this fall 2003 and purchased this required book. To my amazement, this book is written in a way that a dummie like me can easily learn all the lessons. I now have a class grade of 95 and FINALLY because of this book, I can do algebra word problems, and I understand how to check them. I am even tutoring some of my classmates, WOW! thats not too bad for a dummie! I thank the author for creating the best prealgebra book I have ever seen. It is written STEP-BY-STEP and in the most basic format that can be explained. Please only purchase this book. You will not be dissapointed and you will pass prealgebra. All thanks to K. Elayn Martin-Gay, what a job you did putting the book together!

This workbook is packed with a lot of examples and rich exercises; which are presented in incremental development fashion. My two children, 10 and 11 year old, have high math aptitude; two grades beyond their average level. I bought this workbook to help them in the transition to algebra and trigonometry. They are able to go thru most of these execises in one summer. I must admit the quality of the lessons and exercises have this quite enjoyable and intuitive for my children to absorb.

Being that I am 28 years of age and a freshman in college, I was placed in the remedial math class for which this text was required. I was terrified due to the fact I failed math in high school and even the WORD Algebra scared me. This book has great examples and it really helped me understand the concepts of Algebra. I have a 97% average in my class and when I go onto Algebra I next term, I won't be so terrified! :)

I'm a professional clown/entertainer and have been playing with fire for some time. This book is a must have for anyone in the fire business. Good information for beginner and professional alike.

While you should seek a mentor to learn the fire arts; it simply isn't possible to do all the time. This book has alot of information. Well worth the price paid.

This book is the ultimate on the current way to work with fire eating SAFELY.
If your going to try this dangerous activity, you would be absolutely foolish not to read this first! (As opposed to being just foolish to try messing with fire.)
A great book for the beginner or experienced entertainer.I highly recommended it. Brian also has a partner video to complment this book.

This "THE" book on fire eating.
It doesn't get any better than this.
But as a fire eater, I do not recommend eating fire.

Well, you won't get burned in the figurative sense. This is a fantastic book that covers a wide spectrum of fire eating. Brian has been at this for a long time and is easily able to convey his expertise to the reader. I reccomend this book for anyone interested in learning the craft or as a supplementary resource for those already eating the stuff.

Brian Brushwood has mastered the art of book-writing as powerfully as his art of fire eating. This book teaches you everything you need to know about how to SAFELY eat fire and perform dozens of other tricks. It even tells you things you didn't know you didn't know. I bought the book to learn to eat fire for a part in a play and now it has become a hobby. People are always asking me to demonstrate because they just can't believe it's real. Well it is. The book shows step-by-step how to build torches, get used to the flames, and how to put it in your mouth without getting burned. It took me less than two weeks to be comfortable enough to show off my new skill. The author has included some very powerful safety information including MSDSs for the various fuels you can use.

Very good book for a beginner or experienced show-off! Highly recommended. Also, if you MUST learn to eat fire without personal instruction, you should consider purchasing the video also.

Brian Walker, Program Director Resilience Alliance and a scientist with the CSIRO. Canberra Australia, has, with the assistance of science writer David Salt, written the best and most straightforward work on ecological resilience entirely suitable for a wide audience of readers; activists, teachers, scientists from any number of disciplines, interested in gaining a familiarity with a study area that is of critical importance in this present world of catastrophe, forever changing with the calamitous onset of climate change and where stategies of adaptation are quite indequate mechanisms for survival in the white-water world we will have to navigate.

It is not a scientific treatise but a work from which all interested readers will benefit substantially no matter what their background or credentials. This is a twentyfirst century production coauthored with a skilled science writer and a model for any NGO or scientific group who wish to influence and inform policy makers with something they can readiliy understand.. Resilience capability and building such capacity is perhaps the best, but still uncertain, way to buffer social-ecological systems--your everyday environment--from unpredictable, disastrous events and accompanying change. Adaptation and models based on orthodox science are unfortunately inadequate to meet such crises. I recommend this book to any concerned person no matter their level of understanding. They will find something new and enlightening here.

This is a gem of an educational book. Mixing case studies with elaborating chapters on key concepts, it's as a good a volume as I have found for teaching undergraduates, graduates, and practitioners (farmers, factory managers, investors) the core ideas needed to restore a sustainable social-ecological system.

Highlights for me:

+ Optemization is a false premise, simplifies complex systems we do not understand, with the result that we end up causing long-term damage.

+ Resilience thinking is systems thinking. I cannot help but think back to all of the excellent work in the 1970's and 1980's--the authors were simply a quarter century ahead of their time.

+ In a nut-shell, resilient system can absorb severe disturbance.

+ System resilience is affected by context, connections across scales of time and space, and current system state in relations to threshholds.

+ Fresh water, fisheries, and topsoil depletion are major failures.

+ Drivers of environmental degradation are poverty, willful excessive consumption, and lack of knowledge (from another book, I recall that changes to the Earth that used to take 10,000 years now take three, one reason we need real-time science).

+ Key concepts are threshholds and adaptive cycles. Adaptive cycles have four phases: Rapid Growth; Conservation; Release; and Reorganization.

+ Redundancy is NOT a dirty word (just as intelligence--decision support--should not be a dirty word within the United Nations)

+ Ecological networks cannot be understood nor nurtured with a tight linking and understanding of the social networks that interact with the ecological networks.

+ Subsidies are a form of social denial, as they subsidize unsustainable practices and prevent adaptation and change.

+ Lovely--absolutely lovely--chart on page 89 about time-scales of climate and natural disasters like major fires.

+ One size does not fit all--solutions for one social-ecological network, e.g. in the USA, will not be the same as for another, e.g. in Norway.

+ Diversity is the key to regeneration.

+ Governances must be able to see and act upon key intervention points.

+ A Resilient world would be characterized by:

1. Diversity
2. Ecological variables
3. Modularity
4. Acknowledgement of slow variables
5. Tight feedbacks
6. Social capital
7. Innovation
8. Overlap in governance
9. Ecosystem services

Within this small and very easy to absorb book one finds a great annotated bibliography of recommended readings, a fine reference section, and a very solid index.

Other books that come to mind as complements to this one (limited to ten links by Amazon):
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy
The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink

A MUST read for environmentalists. And for business, community and anyone willing to adapt the thinking to their situation. Brian and David have done a superb job in translating resilience theory and its close ties to complex adaptive systems. I have been looking for a book to recommend to my clients and students and this is it. I would also strongly recommend that the 'old guard' sustainability brigade have a look at this. The strategies that sustainability largely pursues are unsustainable. Resilience thinking is a more accurate path for us to head toward something that resembles sustainability. Well done.

This book is Latour's actor network theory in another guise, with the physicalization of Kuhn's paradigm shift thrown in for good measure. It is a very interesting book on an emerging way to look at environmental crises (note, not the environmental crisis. We seriously need local knowledge and local experience to manage each individual ecosystem).

My major issues with this book are twofold. One is that it is not well written, though not altogether poorly written, you can simply tell when the science writer came in to jazz things up. Secondly, the authors spend a little too much time trying to convince the reader that resilience thinking is NEW, DIFFERENT, SUBVERSIVE, and the like. We get, on page 29, something that I just cannot stand: a little briefer than brief history of challenge to dogma. Galileo spoke out about the Copernican model (which was still perfect circles, Kepler had it right but Galileo ignored him) and the church shot him down. Darwin dared to say species change and the world exploded! Now, we, the humble new scientists bring you a new challenge to the dogma of ecology today. Give me a break! I would have thought a science writer on the team would have had the experience to leave out this trite nonsense. Just tell me about your idea and spare me the drama! Sorry, but poor history of science is a real pet peeve. :-)

But either way, this is still an important book that should be read by ecology students, politicians, resource managers, and anyone interested in new ideas. The case studies are really informative and clear, and the message is properly urgent

This is a great book. I've read several books on this topic, and so far, they have all had a similar issue: They are written by people who are scientists first, writers second. This book has two authors. One is a scientist and the other is a science writer. This made for a well put-together, understandable explanation of complex adaptive systems, which are what ecosystems are currently understood to be.

The authors have done a few things to make the book great. First, they have broken the topic down into a set of subtopics, with one chapter explaining each subtopic. At the end of each chapter is a summary of important points so it's clear what the authors are hoping you get out of the chapter. Each chapter is then followed by a case study that is used to illustrate the ideas just covered.

If you are looking for an introductory book on ecosystems and how humans affect their ability to maintain themselves, this is the book to read. The authors also provide several good resources at the end of the book if you would like to expand your knowledge further.

Eric Voegelin was one of the most profound philosophers of history of the twentieth century. More than any other thinker I know, he was able to articulate a body of thought that recognizes the human need for a grounding in transcendent truth and analyses the vicissitudes of the inevitable search for meaning. His work deserves to be widely read, but perhaps because of its imposing bulk--his masterwork, "Order and History," weighs in at five fat volumes of complex reasoning, vivid exegeses of the symbolic forms of the past five thousand years, and indepth and illuminating readings of philosophers from Parmenides to Heidegger--it is not. "Science, Politics, and Gnosticism" is a perfect hors d'oeuvre of a book, and serves well not as a systematic introduction to the full scope of his vision but as a tasty morsel of his maturing thought at a crucial point in his oeuvre. Voegelin's incisive critique of ideological thinking in this book is lucid and mercifully accessible. I would hope that a reader comes away from this potent little classic inspired to dig deeper into the mine of wisdom that Voegelin's work offers.

Science, Politics & Gnosticism presents two essays, the title piece, "Science, Politics & Gnosticism", and "Ersatz Religion: The Gnostic Mass Movements of Our Time" by Eric Voegelin (1901-85), one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. Voegelin contends that certain modern movements, including positivism, Hegelianism, Marxism, and the "God is dead" school are variants of the gnostic tradition. Striving to settle the confusion that arises from the dominance of gnostic thought, Voegelin further strives to classify distinctions between political gnosticism and the philosophy of politics. A lucid yet in-depth scrutiny of the interplay of complex ideals and their reverbations upon mass political movements, Science, Politics & Gnosticism is especially recommended reading for advanced students of philosophy and political science.

Oh, the visionary has a new system to save the world? Put that in section II B, tray 5, right next to the same idea that sprouted 1000 years ago under a different name.
Voegelin has boiled down the rules for understanding all secular visions of salvation, which invariably play on some human dissatisfaction, the diagnosis of which always omits a key "given" of human nature, which is thus marketed as changeable, but isn't, leading to fanatical attempts to control people, devolving into scaring them into submission with the threat of death.
The opposite of the Christian love ethic which posits a brotherhood in relation to a heavenly Father, according to Voegelin.
Voegelin here achieves a scientific method of explaining how non-christian ideas relate to Christian ideas of social organization. He was very popular in Cold War times, but is also versatile enough here to help with the great conversation we are all having in relation to terrorism. This book is simple, direct and profound.

These two essays describe the inability of modern political thought to get a grip on the confusion and horror of the 20th century, mainly because that thought itself has not been immune from the very disorders it seeks to study. The roots of modern disorder are found in "Gnosticism," which is usually defined narrowly as a form of Christian heresy, but thought of by Voegelin as a typical response to the universal human problems of uncertainty, meaninglessness and alienation. Thus seemingly disparate movements like communism, fascism and positivism are placed within a Gnostic tradition stretching back to antiquity.

After describing the characteristics of ancient Gnosticism, Voegelin defines his own approach to the "science of politics," derived mainly from Plato and Aristotle. He then proceeds to analyze thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche and Heidegger and to isolate what he feels to be their dominant motives. The one great theme of all Gnosticisms, ancient or modern, is the desire to do away with the notion of a given, "objective" world. If the project of world-transformation is to be made plausible, then nothing can be seen to be outside of human power. Social reality is a constructed thing, not a thing given or found, thereby allowing it to be "deconstructed."

In the second, shorter essay, "Ersatz Religion," Voegelin describes the complex of ideas characteristic of modern Gnosticism such as millenialism, utopianism and positivism. As the title of the essay suggests, the religious impulse does not die after the murder of God; it gets redirected into "political religions." Politics then becomes a matter of belief and fanaticism, instead of rational discourse and debatable opinions. Despite the abstractness of some of its theoretical concerns, this book is very readable and jargon-free. Those with no prior reading in philosophy may need to look up a term now and again such as "ontology." I recommend it as a good, short introduction to the kind of sober and ordered thought that we so desperately need after the century of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.

Voegelin has done the public a great service by tracing a common thread of gnosticism amongst modern political philosophies. He goes to Marx's juwish roots in order to expose the theme of the golem that underlies Marxian thought as laid out in Marx's Political and Economic Manuscripts. The Kabbalistic underpinnings of socialistic philosophy forecasts these philosophies as gnostic philosophies.

Although Voegelin indulges in almost pure abstraction (characterisitic of his German education) it is quite accurate since it exposes the naked truth a la Jack Kerouac of these ideas.

The gnostic character of modern philosophies, such as Hegel, Comte, Marx, feminism and so on comes out in the theme of "alienation." Alienation from the rest of society is the result of some form of discord or disharmony. Recourse to a "secret knowledge" will reveal the solution to this problem of disharmony. Applying this secret knowledge will result in an "immanenitizing of the eschaton."

The last concept comes from Roman Catholic scholarship in defining the heresy of gnosticism. In article 676 of the Catholic catechism, it says that: "The AntiChrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism." Voegelin says that gnosticism tries to bring about a heaven on earth or "immanentize the eschaton." When Kabbalists such as Marx go to the tree of life to get enlightenment to solve problems here and now, zen buddhist like, he tries to be the divine savior of himself.

Thus, Marxism is gnostic since it teaches of alienation of the proletariat whose special knowledge of communism, as embodied in the communist manifesto, assists him in remedying this defect in the socio-economic structure, this disharmony, and the very possibility of this ability to heal his own problem is an immanentizing of the eschaton, of creating heaven on earth without God's help.

The feminist argues that there is discord in the social structure due to patriarchy. The special knowledge of the superiority of matriarchy will remedy this and bring an end to wars, domination and so on. Thus, female chauvanism is to replace male chauvanism (clearly reaching a hypocritical end).

This is just the icing on the cake. Voegelin goes through many ideas, but the aforementioned summary constitutes a common theme uniting all of his discussion in this terse yet dense book.

McNaught has done a brilliant job of bringing to life sex education through creating an engaging story and putting real people with it.

These days with everyone's busy lives most people are not going to read a book on sex education. There is too much on television and too many ways through the internet to get it. Reality shows are appealing to people's voyeurism as to what goes on in people's lives.

McNaught's book is entertaining, educational and also very engaging. Bringing these three elements together is better than any stuffy sex education book or reality show could offer.

This book was a pleasure to read! I thoroughly enjoyed attending "Sex Camp" via the written word of Brian McNaught!

I strongly encourage you to add it to your summer reading list. After all, you just never know who's eye the title might catch by the pool, at the beach, or on a plane!

Brian McNaught's book "Sex Camp" is an extraordinary story, one which is not only a great novel but informative and can be challenging to the reader. If you have ever had the great privilege to hear Brian speak in person, you can "hear" him throughout this book. Watching the "campers" go through their own journeys during the week at camp was very real -- so much that although there were 32 participants portrayed, I felt I was the 33rd camper!!

As I read the book, I found myself gaining new information about sexuality and along the way, laughing, smiling and crying with the participants. Excellent character development with tons of information for everyone who picks up this book.

I highly recommend this book -- it's a beauty!!

Way to go Brian!!

Thanks to author Brian McNaught I had a great week at "Sex Camp".
His tale took me to a wonderful place where I laughted, cried,and
learned things I didn't know about sex, life and relationships.
Each of the campers interested me with what they brought to the
experience. Leaving me wanting more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It deals with an annual workshop on sexuality held at a retreat center in upstate New York. The leaders are professional sex educators and the participants are a group of teachers, counselors, medics, ministers and seekers. The author has presented us with a book that drew me into the experience of challenge and change and transformation that affected the real participants. From being a reader, I felt I became a participant too. I liked that.

I liked too the style, which is conversational, with knowledge and information filtered through the different dialogues that take place. The workshop presentations are engaging, and the subsequent group meetings and private conversations that followed caused me to look at my ideas and prejudices, and to question them.

The whole gamut of sexuality in all its diversity came up for review, always treated with sensitivity and respect. And there seemed to be great fun in the formal class settings, and in the informal moments at walks, talks, and swims. I envied the laughing, and I shared the tears. Sexuality and its concerns were treated in a life-accepting and life-enhancing way. I felt that no matter what my gender or orientation or spirituality, I had a respected place in the midst of life. I felt my biases and prejudices tweaked as I opened up to other perspectives and points of view.

You may have seen the movie, "Kinsey," and marveled at the ignorance of the past and the subsequent fears and inhibitions that followed, and then appreciated the freedom and understanding that resulted from real knowledge. I think you'll find yourself on a similar journey as you read "Sex Camp." I did!

I did not particularly like the title, which was the affectionate nickname used by staff and participants. Another tweak for me! Also, while I loved the interactions between the participants, it was an effort at times to keep them apart and remember who was who. But their stories won me over and have remained with me. Their stories are my story. It could be yours too.

I found this book to be very refreshing and uplifting as well as erotic. He uses eroticism just enough to get you to the edge without KNOCKING you over. My favorite by far was Check One, because of its simplicity. Love it!

There is no other way to decribe Mr. Williams except for Da Bomb. He definitely has it goin' on with his book Simple Love. The fact that it's so simple is what makes it so extraordinary. He is so expressive that by the end of the poem you feel every emotion that he was feeling as he was writing it. Keep it up Mr. Williams. I am definitely feelin' you (Especially on that --If I Could Hear Some Saxaphone--) I am awaiting the next release of your great works.

Ondrea Nicole Lewis

Simple Love is a misnomer. According to the brutally honest poetry of David Brian Williams, there is nothing simple about love. Williams has treated us to an unusally candid perspective of the often masked pain felt by men in love. His touches of eroticism reveal his desire to please, and his plea heard in "Check One" begs for an easier approach to dating and mating. There is nothing in "Simple Love" that any of us can not relate to. This man wants to love and be loved. Don't we all?

I found this book of poetry an enjoyable escape from the day to day pressures associated with life. At the same time it was a touch of reality in terms of the things that should be most important to all of us "simple love".

Now, I can't think of a better way to communicate with my own feeling for the people that mean so much to me.

Simple Love by David Brian Williams ISBN: 0-9674294-0-4

"There is more to being black than meets the eye." This is a line from a David Brian Williams Poem. His work symbolizes this notion. His new book, Simple Love also informs us that there is more to being in love than meets the eye. In a time of so much animosity reared against love poetry because of the production of so much poorly constructed love poetry, Williams' book attempts to set the record straight. His poems are not just love poems in a vacuum. His poems are love poems that exist within the context of daily living. Poems such as "Simple Love," "I Believe in You and Me," and "Check One" resonate with the daily struggles of black folk just trying to get by, hoping on hope that this tonight will help me make it to tomorrow. Yet it is not just about the "tonight" love. It is about how love has been the sustaining force in the lives of African Americans. Williams' work shows that love, romantic love, is the nucleus of the Black Movement and the shield against white oppression. Buy this book, not because it is love poetry, but because it is well crafted love poetry.

This book that is great to give to new families starting out their library. The rythm of this story makes it so fun to read and for the kids to listen to- over and over and over again. Its simple enough for the youngest child to have fun with and fill in the fun sounds, or a life lesson in getting, or not getting, your work done for older kids.

My 7 month old loves this book. His face lights up when he hears the rain "plinka, plinka" and the wind "Wooya, Wooya". He also loves the pictures. I know this will always be one of his favorites.

The talents of the prolific Nancy Van Laan ("In a Circle Long Ago," and many others) and illustrator Yumi Heo ("Sometimes I'm Bombaloo") combine in this cheery retelling of a Brazilian folktale about blackmouth monkeys. The monkeys frolic through the Brazilian rainforest, swinging from vine to vine, and, most importantly, climbing the thorny tall trees:

Still they climb, UP-UP!
And they slide, Down-Down!
They sing, "Jibba-jibba-jabba."
swinging round and round

JUMP, JABBA JABBA,
RUN, JABBA JABBA,
SLIDE, JABBA JABBA,
Tiny monkeys having fun!

But these same trees keep them from having a comfortable home, unlike their neighbors the armadillo and the toucan. The monkeys SAY they're going to build a house, but fun and delicious things (e.g., bananas!) keep them from doing it!

The short rhymes and wonderful animal and nature sounds make this a very fun book to read out loud. The rhythms are musical, and the capitalized sounds (e.g., PLINKA PLINKA, WOOYA WOOYA, GURR-YUH GURR-YUH) are your cue to turn up the narrative volume for your little one. They'll eat it up. Slightly older toddlers may also enjoy the monkeys' priorities of fun and food over practicality. Yumi Heo has an unusual palette: I love the blues in her bubbling river and stormy sky. Her repetition of the playing monkeys nicely complements the repeated sounds of the text, and her flat, "folkish" drawings, filled with repeated designs and iconic imagery, evoke the teeming rainforest. The book was included in "The 3rd Edition of The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children." A simple but superb performance by van Laan and Heo.

Both my three year old daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's rhyming verse is fun to read and the pictures are captivating. The actual story of how the carefree monkeys avoid making their night-time nests is light-hearted and amusing. My daughter and I borrowed this entertaining book from our local library. We liked it so well that I intend to buy it for her collection of favorites.

Never mind the review that says this for age 3+. My 14 month old won't go to bed until we've read this at least three times. He's barely talking but he picks up the books and says "Whee!" And his older brother (age 4) chimes in with the "Jibba Jibba Jabba" every time!

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (12/06)

Every now and then one discovers a guidebook that is not just useful and comprehensive, but also beautifully written and truly insightful. Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls have written such a guidebook to Spain, a wonderful country wonderfully introduced and presented to a reader who would like to discover more than just the couple of most well known sights and places to visit.

Offering practical advice on all the "when - how - where - how much - why" questions, with over 1200 suggestions for places to stay, over 1100 suggestions for places to eat and drink, 59 maps, fantastic color photographs and great suggestions on what to see and do, this truly informative book offers so much more. The short section in the "Introduction" gives you a glimpse into what to expect: "Keep your eyes open. Spain is a subtler country than many people think, and reveals itself in surprising ways. You may catch it in the moon reflected in the pool of the Alhambra, in the face of the Velázquez infanta, in a fond medieval jest such as the cats and the rats chiseled into the cloister in Tarragona, or in a lone eagle coasting over a fortified castle in Extremadura. Travel on a train through a sparse Andalucían district in the spring, and all at once your glance may take in more colour than you've ever seen: pink and almond blossoms, oranges on the trees, red poppies and yellow daffodils along the track bed. In a second it will be gone, but you will have seen Spain." If you follow the advice of the authors, I am certain that you will truly see Spain.

It does not matter which part of Spain you intend to visit, but in any case make sure to read the first six sections in the book - the "Introduction, History, Art and Architecture, Sketches of Spain, Food and Drink, Travel and Practical A - Z." Each of them offer invaluable information and tips to make your stay easier, more pleasant and richer. The "Sketches of Spain" deals with such diverse topics as the bullfights, churros, Templars, flamenco, the Inquisition and more. Reading those pages will make Spain much easier to understand. The Food and Drink sections explains how Spaniards eat, how to order and what to order. It also includes a very useful "menu decoder," which will make it much easier to order duck and get duck and not a turkey (pato - duck, pavo - turkey).

We used this guidebook during our brief visit to Barcelona and found it accurate, well organized and informative. The provided maps were extremely helpful and the numerous tips on different subjects even more so. We wanted to use the public transportation and thanks to this guidebook we found out that the ten single rides pass can be shared between several people, which saved us enough money to have some excellent coffee and cookies for the difference in price that we would have paid using single tickets.

I would highly recommend "Spain" to anybody who is willing to keep his or her eyes open, as the authors suggested in the introductory section. A book this well written will delight anybody who loves to travel, wishes to travel or is just dreaming of traveling.

I started looking at this guide because the Blue Guide, bastion of all things cultural it is, was sold out. However, Cadogan Guides proved that not only can it match Blue Guides step for cultured step, but does it with a wry humor and wit that is lacking from that venerable series. The format is plain but navigable, and the maps sufficient. But the strength of this guide does not lie in those areas.

Cadogan's writers are extremely knowledgable about Spain, and it shows on every page. If you don't want a guide book geared exclusively towards Ibiza-bound high schoolers, this guide will be much more in line with what you are looking for. That's not to say it's classist or for the rich! The deals and tips in here will appease the budget-minded traveler as well as expand the mind.

A person reading this book will not only understand the history and tradition behind what he or she is visiting, but will digest it in a manner that won't put them to sleep. Elegantly written, it shows that a person can be highbrow and have a sense of humor as well. Whether touring a museum or trying to find some great paella, Cadogan will help you appreciate and understand another part of our world. And I think, at one point, that used to be one of the reasons why people toured Europe.

All of the major tour companies serving Europe are British owned (Trafalgar, Insight, Globus, etc). The Brits know international travel, and when they do, they use Cadogan. This recently updated edition is a must have if you are going to Spain. Cadogan also publishes regional guides if you want even more detailed information. It is filled with more cultural and historical discussion than you will find in the "mass market" type guides like Fodors or Frommers. Clearly, the intelligent traveller's choice. The site, hotel, and restaurant recommendations are spot on, heed them. Five stars with no reservations whatsoever.

I believed the only other reviewer, bought the 6th edition, and am glad I did. My wife and I recently spent 3 weeks in the Northern half of Spain, much of it in regions that aren't covered in the standard guides. This book provided accurate, practical information and much more. With a lovely British sense of humor, it gave an insightful history and background to Spain that added a lot to our enjoyment of the sights we were seeing. I will take it with me the next time I go to Spain.

These two are the world's finest writers when it comes to travel guides. This book is not your average "Visit this site when you are in this city" kind of travel guide. Rather it is a guide filled with history and an understanding of each of Spain's regions that you would never expect to find in a travel guide. I read it before I visited Spain and have read it over and over since I returned.

It doesn't matter whether you are new to trading or have been at it for years. The Subtle Trap of Trading is a must read. Author Brian McAboy goes to the very root of trading in terms of both its appeal and the pitfalls that lure creates.

Many people in the markets are essentially self-taught to a great degree. That means they were never told about certain stumbling blocks in a personal way - things which can seriously trip up one's trading performance. In this book, McAboy outlines why you can easily find yourself doing things as a trader you would never have thought you'd do - things seemingly completely out of character. This is the stuff that can doom you to failure.

Importantly, though, the author doesn't just tell you what the trap is. He explains in clear terms how you can avoid it and provides exercises to help you along the way. For that reason, The Subtle Trap of Trading should be near the top of your trading reading list.

After buying the subtle trap I realized I was falling in two key areas.
One was the inability to know where my emotions were costing me money.

It helped me to set up a process where by I can not escape those bad habits from being exposed should I fall into them again. For example, after every trade I go through a check list which tells me if any of the bad habits are re-occuring, and I can tell you in less than 1 month this method eliminated a habit that cost me tens of thousands of dollars over several years.

Two, was not understanding the power of setting objectives.

An example was when I entered in a two week trading competition where instead of setting a goal to win, I just set a goal to achieve a certain ROI. In order to do this though, I had to know my win to loss ratio of my system, and the number of opportunities I would get in the two weeks.

Armed with this I knew what I had to do to reach my objective, and I did reach my objectives. The issue here is that unless there's some sort of plan and way to implement this plan, your method is flawed. The subtle trap is great for making all of that so easy to understand.

I will say this, if you've been trading for a while now with no success, and then you read the subtle trap and it makes no difference what so ever to your trading - you need to find another profession.

The Subtle Trap of Trading by Brian McAboy should be required reading for any trader at any experience level. It is not only well written, its message is important and targeted to assist traders of any market at any stage in their trading journey. It is tailored to the individual trader so that the honing of the trader's point of view and style is the area that gets the needed attention. Terrific Value! Great Job Brian!

Sara Peterson
Individual Trader with 5 years experience in Futures Trading.

I've spent the last year just working on my trading psychology, the true "Holy Grail" of trading, and I've heard pieces of the wisdom in this book echoed in many places. What Brian has achieved in this easy-to-read guide is a distillation of how to identify, and focus on correcting, the chinks in one's emotional armor.
The concise nature of his approach makes it much easier to really 'get it' with regard to how, as trader's, our emotions can cause us to stack the deck against ourselves. The exercises help to zero in on those issues that throw up blocks to effective trading.
Don't just read it and put it on the shelf. This book is great for a regular 'tune-up' to improve trading performance and consistency in one tight package.

Brian's book is an ingenious work. It illuminates the path one needs to achieve success in the world of financial trading and it is sorely needed. The staggering amount of money and time I spent becoming a successful trader could have been easily reduced by 2/3 had I followed the outline Brian presents. Its a gift. Dan K, Kerry, Ireland

a Caribbean Cinderella story, well told and intriguingly illustrated. My daughter (9) requested the book after we had read the Public Library copy.

I probably read this to my daughter for the first time when she was about 7 and it has been a favorite of hers and mine ever since. I am at a loss to explain exactly what is so captivating about it, but it just seems more real and a notch above other mermaid stories.

My children sat spellbound as we read this book. We loved this story for the original plot, the strange dialect (not too heavily used), and the unusual art work.

I am a fifth grade student at North Hills Traditional Academy. And,yes, I like this book. I like this book because the pictures are pretty. I like this book because the words are beautiful. I like this book because it tells a sweet story. This book is for people who are caring.

This book has become a mainstay in my children's library. I read this book to them over and over again. My 3 daughters never tire of it. The way the tale is written allows the reader to inflect his/her own creativity in delivering the story to an entranced child's ears. You can choose to sing parts of the tale, you can inflect tonality and create the dialect as you see fit, as well. Along with the wonderful, unique artwork, this book will become a classic children's tale for generations to come!