Bryan Books

Definition of a page-turner, loved it. The authors got so much out of their interview subjects, the personal thoughts and dialog left you feeling like you were a part of these negotiations. They portrayed everyone even-handedly when it was probably tempting to make villains out of Ross Johnson or Henry Kravis. Extremely entertaining, a first class example of literary non-fiction.

The author said it himself, "What does all this have to do with business? ". I bought this book hoping to get an insight into how large companys are run. Unfortunately it was full of details on how companys are sold, not run. I suppose if that is what you are after, then the book does its job. But if you wanted to learn something about real business, this is NOT the book for you.

The mantra "Greed is good" was uttered by that 1980s paragon of Wall Street virtue, Gordon Gekko, yet it could just have easily been any one profiled in this mind-warping 1990 account of the leveraged buyout (LBO) of cigarette-and-cookie conglomerate RJR Nabisco, starting with RJR's chief executive, Ross Johnson.

Johnson was the one who first saw the benefits of taking RJR's undervalued stock private, boosting both his wealth and control. Small economies were not for him.

"I'm telling you, we're not going to start running a pushcart operation here," he tells his LBO partners at the outset. "I don't want a bunch of your guys coming around saying we should have five jets instead of six."

Those jets, used strictly by Johnson and his C-suite buddies for such emergencies as shuttling Johnson's beloved pet dog to safety after it bit someone, were one of many symbols of Johnson excess. Just as odd were his stabs at practicality, like introducing a smokeless cigarette, "Premier", which drew like chalk and tasted worse.

Authors Bryan Burroughs and John Helyar, who covered the story in 1988 for the Wall Street Journal, seem to have been everywhere at once, and show no sign of suffering from lack of access. Whether it's LBO king and Johnson nemesis Henry Kravis, other bidding groups led by First Boston and Forstmann Little, or the RJR management board, everyone seems well represented. One gets the feeling some of these people enjoyed the chance to tell of their small part in one of the biggest stories of the decade.

Yet nothing seemed on the level here, least of all the money put up by the bidders, which had a heavy reliance on junk bonds. Numbers themselves made no sense. At one point in the bidding, Kravis engineers a deal whereby he and his partners are paid their operating expenses by RJR in exchange for hanging around another hour.

"Forty-five million dollars to wait sixty minutes. Incredibly [RJR head legal adviser Peter] Atkins and Company thought it was a good deal."

Burroughs and Helyar's greatest accomplishment is by sending you deep enough behind the looking glass that you understand Atkins' position. The authors do a great job of bringing the rest of the fantasy world to life with welcome doses of color and wit.

At times, especially at the end, they get hung up with the level of detail they present, telling us not only who was at a particular meeting but where they sat, who was eating an apple, who was wearing a puff handkerchief, what color it was, etc.

But the book is solid and well-written, and not nearly as snippy as it could have been. Only Johnson's buddy Ed Horrigan comes off as a complete hardcase. Johnson himself seems fairly amiable even at his greediest.

The well-remembered HBO adaptation softsoaps Johnson further by having him played by the quintessentially smooth James Garner. It's an enjoyable movie that made me want to read this. Now I find the book preferable for the more balanced way it handles other characters like Kravis and Ted Forstmann (a joke character in the movie, but a prescient figure in the book who came up with the expression that makes for the title.) There are a lot of brickbats in evidence here, but no axes.

Greed is still with us, of course, yet "Barbarians" takes us to a time when it managed at once to be more comical and stylish than today.

Many people I know have read this book and rave about how good it is. However it is really just a factual account of the events with no real insight. The writing is ok but you are not transformed into the action. You get no since of the pressure or the egos. The characters are the real deal and the writes don't all you to understand them or even get you to like or hate them. The book left me a bit flat but if you have no idea how companies are bought and offers are made it is still worth the read. If you know how companies are bought it is worth the read just to be scared to death.

Barbarians at the Gate is a classic of the business book genre, and with the private equity boom we have seen in the last couple of years, it is still as relevant as it was when it came twenty years ago. It is the story or some extremely unlikable rich people brought low by equally unsavory, but much smarter rich people, and it gives you an inside feel for the major wall street deal like no other book can.

Barbarians at the Gate is the story of an attempt to take RJR Nabisco private, and then the series of take over attempts that were instigated by the original privatization plan. Johnson, the CEO of RJR, comes off as pompous, full of himself, and not very smart. He's like a frat boy who makes it by glad handing people and buying rounds of drinks. Kravis, of legendary private equity firm KKR, comes off like a financier god. Brilliant, pushy, and beyond your puny human morals. Guess who gets the company in the end.

A must read for anyone interested in modern Wall Street.

I really enjoyed Raising Dragons!
I love dragons and it felt good being able to read a book that had them in it and was also Christian!

I would recommend this book to any fantasy lover!

Lindsay W.

Raising Dragons is the first in a series of Christian fantasy novels. Drawing on the oft interpreted Arthurian legends, Bryan Davis, lends some new twists. The writing style is leisurely and the themes noble.

Billy Banister is a typical teenage boy; trading tall tales with friends, occasionally late to class... and breathing fire. When Billy's breath sets off the fire alarm in the restroom, his dad must tell him the truth about his past. This incident sparks a wild adventure full of unknown dangers. Together with the new girl Bonnie Silver, Billy is caught up in a centuries old danger. But how is his principle involved? And what is Bonnie hiding in her backpack? Read this book, the first installment of the Dragons in Our Midst quartet, and find out!

This book is incredible. So far I have read the first 2 books and I thought that they were just incredible books. They are great for kids that want to find a wonderful Christian book that will capture anybodies attention. They are so good that i once read one for 6 hours without going to the bathroom except for 2 times.

The first book is the one book that started it all. You have to read the books in order otherwise you will get really confused. In the first book, 2 friends join together to fight an evil dragon slay while they are just begging to understand their dragon heritage.

P.S. Bryan Davis is one of the greatest authors that can write such an incredible book for any kind of fantasy book reader. It is also very nice to be able to read a clean Christian book without having to worry about any swears

Hi, I'm ten years old. This is a great book. At some parts you get excited and some parts you get sad. The author really gets you into the book and makes it feel personal. I like how creative it is especially that people have dragon heritage and develop dragon characteristics. I thought it was pretty cool, and I want to read the rest of the books. This book makes me want to read the rest to see what happens next.

The book is full of 'I did this' and 'I did that' with little nitty gritty of 'How I did this' and 'How I did that'.

I am sure that I will extract value from the book but the testosterone charged, 'I'm the best' just gets to me.

Perry and Bryan did a wonderful job on this volume. This is a must-have for anyone running AdWords campaigns. The book opens your eyes to many important things.

The only criticism that I have is about the continuous references to the Overture's Keyword Selector Tool which has been inaccessible for almost a year now. It seems that it is already time for the authors to edit the "Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords" to rely more on Wordtracker or a similar tool.

Overall, excellent job on the book, gentlemen. Quick and extremely informative read. Took me a transatlantic flight to read, and boy, did I find a number of hidden gems in it!

I am still giving it a 5-star rating (regardless of that Overture comment).

Thank you,

Evgenii "Geno" Prussakov
/Author of "A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing" & "Online Shopping Through Consumers' Eyes"/

This book too general. Talks a lot about tips for running your business in general. That's not what I need. I was looking for Google tips exclusively.
If you read the wording of all those 5-star reviews, they are a joke. Not written by actual buyers, most likely the author's friends.

Excellent book, We like it a lot.

Our sales in Google really improved!!

I was driving traffict to my website and measuring returns within 24 hours of reading this book. Great step by step instructions and clear benchmarks for measuring success.

Great classic reference book. Exactly as described, and very useful. Blacks is the expert reference book for all thing legal.

Black's Law Dictionary is worth it's weight in gold. I used it in my research in learning about investment opportunities and basic common law terms. It is very easy to used and the price is right. I am glad that it is part of my personal library.I purchased this book in 2005 and I have been very pleased with it.

I bought this book for a class I took while I was an undergrad, and I used this book almost as much as I used the text for the class. I was able to find almost everything I needed, and in the end, it was worth having. I would recommend this for anyone taking law classes, however, I would buy a used copy because new copies can be a little pricy.

In my opinion blacks online (through west) is too cumbersome to use. too many redirects and long paragraphs. But this book is not essential either. You'll know the phrases you need after your first month or so, and all the legal libraries have a bunch of these all over the place. Bringing it to class is almost impossible because it's so big. But it is nice to have also. I would recommend this over the 8th edition because it's so much cheaper. I don't see much difference between the two. This will sit in my office throughout my career. However it's use will continue to be limited more and more.

This dictionary will be well worn! It is indespensible and sits at my desk. Clear, concise easy reading print. It is one that you can't do without. With a tremendous amount of reading to be done as a student, this dictionary was printed with that in mind making a lot less a chore to use.

You already know if you're going to like this book. It was written in the 15th century. That fact alone should tell you that if you want a modernized version, look elsewhere. You should probably read T. H. White's The Once and Future King or Steinbeck's unfinished The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. Both are retellings of this book, written for the modern reader, the former being the better, in my opinion, but the latter retains the same feel as Malory's work. If you're still not sure if you'd like this book, there are other reviews to explain in better detail why you should or should not try it.

I have always received the best service when I have placed an order from you. Outstanding!!!!!

I bought this Signet translation by Keith Baines after a frustrating attempt to read the Modern Library translation by William Caxton. Caxton's dry, stilted rendition left me hungry for a cleaner, more modern version.

Here's a prime example from page 1:

Caxton: "It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England, and so reigned, that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time. And the duke was called the Duke of Tintagil. And so by means King Uther sent for this duke, charging him to bring his wife with him, for she was called a fair lady, and a passing wise, and her name was called Igraine."

Baines: "King Uther Pendragon, ruler of all Britain, had been at war for many years with the Duke of Tintagil in Cornwall when he was told of the beauty of Lady Igraine, the duke's wife."

If Caxton was my high school English teacher demanding that I diagram his sentences, I might forthwith set myself through with mine dagger most deadly.

Anyway, if you just want to enjoy the Arthurian tales in their cleanest English version, buy Signet's paperback. It's also half the price of other translations.

Happy reading!

First of all,let me start by saying that Malory is the most essential and best of all the Arthurian works.
Secondly,I'm seriously considering teaching an informal class for local folks who would like to learn more about the Arthur cycle. I don't know everything, but I've studied the 17 books I have on the subject intensely.
With respect, does anyone out there have any advice for me? Thanks!

Very handy and well done edition of the classic Arthurian legends. This book is not for the feint at heart as it is written in old english, but once you get through that roadblock there is a power to the tales that starts to shine through.

The book was nicely packaged in bubble wrap to prevent damages. The book itself was presented in a used, but very good condition for such a cheap price. In the end, I highly recommend!

This book is way more informative than my professor. Also, since introductory biology doesn't change within a couple of years, I'm really glad I saved money and purchased the seventh edition rather than the eighth.

The textbook was in very good condition, just as described by the seller. It arrived very quickly and saved me money by not having to purchase new.

Sometimes text books can be so fascinating that you can't wait to read the next paragraph and learn something new. This is not one of those text books. It is filled with lots of junk that only makes the book thicker and heavier but contributes nothing to your understanding. So you must actively read and take notes on the important stuff or you will fall asleep a lot. This book contains some very nice images and helpful diagrams so know them and use them as a guide when you take notes. This is just a general introductory text, so it's a shame that it's so large. Future editions should be released in cheaper smaller volumes that deal only with certain topics, or they could just cut out all of the junk. You might consider buying an earlier edition or a cheaper international paperback edition because they aren't much different from this edition. I haven't seen the latest edition, but I'm sure the only changes were the pointless interviews and some new and more expensive pictures.

Good Condition, no scratches, pages perfect, slightly bent corner of the cover but nothhing big. Fast shipping

This book has a lot of details and is very good. Don't expect this book to tell you lots and lots about the gangsters of the era... it's more of a detailed account of the FBI and how they got organized. Again, lots of details, making it slow reading, but very good material!

This is a great book. Author infers in his introduction that this was a labor of love and it shows in his writing. At over 500 pages, it shows the relationship of the five major criminal gangs of the 1933-34 time period. Those were the Barker Gang, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, and Dillenger. With the exception of Bonnie and Clyde (who were strictly small time), all knew each other and helped in raids. None of these people were glamourous since they all murdered people. Dillenger killed three policemen. Bonnie, Clyde, and Baby Face Nelson were psychopaths. Why people had admiration for them is beyond me, but the times were hard and many felt banks were as crooked as those who robbed them.

This book also details the rise of the FBI and how Hoover interferred with the progress of investigations. Purvis was mildly incompetent. Why some of these gangsters roomed the streets was due to FBI leads not being followed up. In the end, the FBI became more professional due to this crime wave. Hoover went on to become the Crime Dictator for forty years.

This is a great book and is very readable. For those interested in the Great Depression and the fall of the bank robbers, this is a treasure trove of information. Highly recommended.

A very interesting book. Let's you know exactly what happens back in the old days. Good reading.

For history buffs, this is a find! I could not put this book down! WoW, loaded, just packed with information on the PUBLIC ENEMIES! With all the fuss now, with Johnny Depp starring in Public Enemies, based on this book, I am sure this will be THE book everyone will have to read. The movie is coming out in 2009. Filmed in the Midwest; Wisconsin, Indiana, etc, and even at Little Bohemia, in Northern Wisconsin, where the Feds goofed up bigtime and J.Edgar Hoover covered, or at least tried to cover up their blunder, when innocent citizens were gunned down, instead of the "gangstas". You will love this, you won't want the book to end, it covers all of them, Johhny Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Ma Barker and her gang, Machine Gun Kelly. It's all here, and of course, Bonnie and Clyde. You will be right at the scenes, even when they met their bloody early demise, and most of them went out shooting their tommy guns. The author did a magnificent job of researching his subjects. You won't be disappointed spending a weekend reading this one!

This is what good history books should be all about. Mr. Burrough's engaging retelling of the overly romanticized, Depression-era criminals and exposing Hoover's public relations spin for personal gain was very effect. Historians that capably dissect events from the past help us to understand how today's events are also manipulated for political and philosophical gain. As trite as it may sound, history does repeat itself. Mr. Burrough's book is well written and kept me entertained and informed throughout. Thoroughly enjoyable.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a very fast paced page turner. It keeps you interested waiting to see what happens next. As the story unveils you learn more about what is taking place and become increasingly intriqued. I found the whole premise of the book really interesting. If you like fantasy with a modern day twist and a christian prespective you'll really enjoy this book. But be warned..it's the first in a trilogy :)

With this being a book of teen fiction, I had a spare teen around the house read and review it:
This book was both scary and filled with action. I didn't like the end part, when Nathan has to choose between his parents and Kelly, but I liked the eventual outcome. With the unsolved parent ordeal, I believe a book after this one would sell well. I found the names of the three earths', Red, Blue, and Yellow, confusing, and I would change the names some-how. Maybe Nathan can some-how save the plane, and maybe there is a third Mictar's brother, one who is neutral.

Just when I thought nothing could top Bryan Davis's "Dragons in Our Midst" and "Oracles of Fire" series', his new "Echoes from the Edge", series comes out of no-where to challenge his previous accomplishments. The first book in this new series is "Beyond the Reflection's Edge". I have to say that the characters seized my attention and my heart immediately and wouldn't let go! With a gripping combination of science-fiction, fantasy, action, love (though not the kind you might think), and suspense, this book takes 16-year-old Nathan Shepard and his newly acquired friend, Kelly Clark plowing through their ever complicating assignment to save the world. Their mission begins with an ambiguous murder and takes them crisscrossing through dimensions via violin, an enigmatic camera, and a cryptic mirror. All the while fleeing a mysterious, yet terrifying villain called Mictar who's malevolent mind is bent on destroying our universe. I could talk about this book forever, so before I do, one question. Does anyone else get the impression that Mr. Davis's overall goal is to keep you from putting this book down?!

Yesterday afternoon, when I decided to get ahead by reading this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. Most of the reviews I had read so far were brief and all stating the wonders of this book and this author in general. The first chapter was a little odd and I was a little confused. But as I read more, more was able to sink in and I was able to understand what was going on.

This is one of those books that I could not get my eyes to travel fast enough to find out what was coming next. There we...more Yesterday afternoon, when I decided to get ahead by reading this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. Most of the reviews I had read so far were brief and all stating the wonders of this book and this author in general. The first chapter was a little odd and I was a little confused. But as I read more, more was able to sink in and I was able to understand what was going on.

This is one of those books that I could not get my eyes to travel fast enough to find out what was coming next. There were times when I had to go back and re-read a passage, just because it was too much. I've never been much of a fiction sci-fi person outside of TV shows and movies, but this was better than any TV show and any movie that I have ever seen.

There was spy action, there was holistic attitudes, and morals! Suspense and thrilling twists... An under lying message, and even just plain good human interaction and relationships of people to each other.

I'm extremely glad that I have now been introduced into the works of Bryan Davis and I must say that I'm excited for more. I especially cannot wait until this fall when book two comes out Eternity's Edge!

I got "Beyond the Reflections Edge" without knowing what to expect, and after reading it, I can highly recommend it! Bryan Davis is an author who is on-par with the likes of Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker!

I have read a few books that are geared for the teens/young adult audience, and while I enjoy them, I have a harder time relating to the characters. Not so with this book. I tended to forget that most of the main characters were my kids' ages, and really got into the story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read suspense novels. You can also be sure that there is nothing inappropriate for your teens (the subject matter may be too much for younger kids), and that they will enjoy it as much as you!


PS - the person who complained about the book leaving more questions than answers must not have realized that this is the first of a SERIES of books. I can't wait to read the next one!

In the 1990s, the pride of Russia's space program was its aging space station, Mir. So much had changed as the Soviet Union broke apart, with nothing more apt to bring the changes home than the launch facilities' being located, now, in a separate and independent country. Yet that space program's culture remained the same, and the American astronauts who volunteered to serve tours of duty aboard Mir found it alien not just to U.S. culture - but, far more tellingly, to that of NASA. Especially to NASA post-Challenger, where every employee was encouraged to speak up about safety concerns.

It wasn't that way aboard Mir. The cosmonauts (two members of each three-person crew), working on a bonus and fines system, knew they had to stay aboard and keep the station operating no matter what. Even when their own rule book said it was time to get aboard the attached Soyuz capsule and abandon ship, after the first decompression of an occupied spacecraft in history, they refused to leave. Leaks of toxic coolant, fires, even complete power losses that shut the station down - leaving it in absolute darkness during the night phase of each Earth orbit - nothing convinced the cosmonauts it was time to go home ahead of schedule. Were they just plain wrong? Was their ground control, which expected this of them and made it absolutely clear this was the case, heartless and out of touch with the reality those aloft were facing? So it often seemed to the series of American astronauts, a varied lot who for the most part "volunteered" for this duty because each knew it was his or her only chance to fly.

Author Burrough brings out the facts in often exhaustive detail (so exhaustive that even this lifelong space program junkie sometimes had to slog through chapters while wondering, "Is this going somewhere? Really, is it?"). His research is meticulous, his sources impeccable, and his conclusions - when they're finally reached - wind up being the reader's own, because that is exactly what his writing achieves. For that reason, I'm calling this book a winner. Its only faults are being a bore at times (there really are passages I swear only an engineer would find interesting!), and switching tenses in a haphazard manner that's sure to drive readers who notice such things crazy.

This book is an excellent look at life on board an aging space station. The author does an amazing job conveying all the problems on board including the relationship between the cosmonauts as well as the problems with TSUp (the Russian "mission control"). What also makes the book even more exciting are the transcripts of the communication between the cosmonauts and the ground team in Russia. We really get a sense of actually being in the station and going through the chaos along with the cosmonauts. One of the best accounts of life on board a space station. Highly recommended.

This is a very well written and very well researched book. I was very much drawn into the story from the beginning of the book until the last page. Burrough did in depth interviews with about everyone associated with the program and conveys his interviews into a cohesive, interesting and very intriguing story . . . it was hard to put down!

This is a great book, very entertaining! You'll feel like you are really there, floating around in the space station.The book goes into a lot of behind-the-scenes personality clashes between astronauts/cosmonauts. Tells the story of the Mir and International space stations.

NASA these days is nothing like what I expected. I thought an astronaut had to have balls. You know, as in courageous. Apparently that is no longer the case. NASA is now just another bureaucratic monstrosity that is more about paperwork and kissing butt than exploring outer space. I read in despair about how everyone must act like a little girl if they want to fly into space. That is, they must be cute, pretty, obedient little cyphers. They must have a half dozen college degrees and have a clean record that reveals a predictable, risk-adverse character. They must also get on the good side of some fat bureaucrat who is in charge of the place. Yes, Abbey, I'm talking about you, you fat henpecked b*tch.

No wonder NASA is no longer breaking ground with its manned missions. It is now run like a freakin' accounting firm, complete with effeminate sissies who pass for men and plenty of loud-mouthed spoiled brats who enjoy being women.

This is an excellent, informative book, and I ate it up. And it is no wonder that space exploration has stagnated in the past 30 years. Every successful company needs to be initiated by a strong man with balls. But down the road, it is inevitable that the women move in and make everything complicated. Rules are made, rules are made, rules are made, etc. Layer after arbitrary layer. Risk is abhored and chased away. Then you end up with today's NASA, where a character like Abbey must have his butt kissed if a man wishes to ride the space shuttle. What ever happened to daring? Why do we let the soccer moms take charge and mess it all up???

I bought this product a while ago. I get to LV once a year and Atlantic City 4 times a year. Most of the LV coupons are for the downtown casinos which I rarely have time to visit. I did use a few of the Atlantic City coupons, which about paid for the book. I did find some of the articles in the book interesting and informative.

used a bunch of these coupons already, it's a must have for a vegas vacation, probably saved over 100 bucks over the week using the 2 for 1 buffet coupons at places like The Silverton Casino (great place) The Sahara, New Orleans Casino, The Rio, Texas Station and several others. If you buy this book and use just 2 coupons it will have paid for itself in savings! Highly recommended.

Do NOT buy this book used. I did and when it arrived a good portion of the pages had been torn out. I sent it back and NEVER received my refund.
BUYER BEWARE!!!

LOTS OF FOOD COUPONS FOR VEGAS,,, PAYS FOR ITSELF WITH JUST ONE VISIT. LOTS OF 2 FOR 1 HOTEL NITES...

The American Casino Guide is well worth the money to use in Las Vegas. There are a few other out of state casino coupons but this is mainly for Las Vegas. Great buy one get one free buffet, shows and hotel offers. The only problem with this book is the binding. It's coming unglued in the middle, not a big deal though. A lot of info for new table gamers. Highly recommend this book!