Byrne Books

They need to hire a better editor. I found numerous grammar errors.

The book was in pretty good condition, the only issue I had, was it was the examination copy, meant for teachers and not students.

It was such a dread when I realized that I needed to take Social Psychology this summer in order to finish my graduation requirements in four years. Well, it turned out to not be as bad as I thought it would be. The class was relatively simple and this book is very easy to understand. The authors, Robert Baron and Donn Byrne do a very good job on personalizing stories and studies to their own lives and make ideas clear and presentatble. The reviews at the end of each chapter are very helpful when studying for quizes and exams. I also would advise purchasing the study guide because a lot of the questions appeared in different form on the exams. Good luck.

I had not planned on purchasing SPIDER-MAN VISIONARIES: ROGER STERN VOLUME 1 when it was released; however, when the book I did purchase turned out to be such a turkey, I immediately returned to the store to buy it. The result was a very happy reader. I can't figure out what inspired Marvel to release this book, but I'm glad they did, as I really enjoyed these fun Spidey stories. Although hampered by some art of questionable quality, the writing is very good, and while there are a couple of overarching threads, the tales are kept to one or two issues as opposed to the seemingly never-ending narratives of today. There's a very loose style running through the stories, almost as if Stan Lee were looking over Stern's shoulder. Collecting Amazing S-M #206 and Spectacular S-M #43-52 & 54, this book does contain an issue written by Marv Wolfman, but this is done simply to provide the reader with a complete story, as a two-parter was split between writers.

John Byrne, Mike Zeck, Steve Leialoha, Jim Mooney, and others provide the art, which, as I mentioned earlier, is not the best part of this book. Overall, it just looks uninspired, though Marie Severin's work does tend to hearken back to the style of sturdy Steve Ditko, even including backgrounds and bystanders that look straight out of the '60s (and as these stories are set in the '80s, it's just that much more quirky).

This time around, Spidey is up against Belladonna, the Vulture, the Prowler, the Smuggler, Mysterio, a roomful of aliens, and an abundance of gas. Gas, gas, gas... what's with all the gas? Anyway, as I said, this seemed like an odd choice for a collection, but Marvel seems to know what they were doing.

Published a decade ago, this very good book retains considerable value. The authors concentrate on medical aspects of spinal cord injury and exclude trauma, congenital spinal cord problems,and low back pain from discussion. The books covers spinal cord and spine anatomy, the clinical features of spinal cord injury, the approach to spinal cord problems, and then reviews neoplastic and non-neoplastic spinal cord disorders. All chapters are written well, referenced well, and have good illustrations. Despite the passage of a decade, the discussions of clinical features and approach to the patient retain almost complete value. The major defect is that MRI was just becoming widely available as this book was written and the imaging sections and illustrations are out of date. Still an excellent reference volume.

Barbara Byrne manages to make a very complicated topic seem manageable and understandable. This book is ideal for people familiar with the basics of psychology statistics, but relatively new at structural equation modeling. My only complaints are that the index is a bit sparse, so I found myself thumbing through the book frequently; and sometimes the details of how to apply the concepts directly to EQS commands were left a bit unclear. However, overall this was an excellent starter book for structural equation newbies!

I enjoyed this 6th edition a lot more than I expected to. Byrne just pencils three issues here, the least of the first 6 volumes, but story-wise I found this paperback to be surprisingly entertaining.

Highlights here for me...
* Superman Annual- Titano! Best monkey story I've read in awhile. If you like monkey comics- and really, who doesn't? :)- you might want to give this a try.
*Action 594- Great cover! It's the 1st in an entertaining 2-part story featuring Booster Gold. It's my favorite story in the entire volume. It's also the 1st Byrne pencils we see here- and it begins on page 121(!). The previous editions had Byrne artwork on the 1st page. I love these Booster Gold issues for their clean, cityscape visuals & content. It also briefly guest-stars Batman & Robin.
*Booster Gold 23- Continuing the story from Action 594- Great fun.
*Action 595- Silver Banshee! She looks a lot like some of the girls I went to high school with. Martian Manhunter guest stars!

In all, three annuals are presented, signifying the completion of the 1st great year. I absolutely love what Byrne accomplished with this series- it's amazing to me that he stops after only 2 years! He's gone on record as saying it was largely a negative experience behind-the-scenes; thankfully the 1st year of comics didn't seem to reflect it.

Included in this volume:
*Action Comics Annual #1- John Byrne writes; Art Adams pencils; Dick Giordano inks
*Superman Annual #1- John Byrne writes; Ron Frenz pencils; Brett Breeding inks
*Adv. of Superman Annual #1- Jim Starlin writes; Dan Jurgens & Steve Montano artists
*Action Comics #594- John Byrne writes & pencils; Byrne & Keith Williams inks
*Booster Gold #23- Dan Jurgens writes & pencils; Roy Richardson inks
*Superman #12- John Byrne writes & pencils; Karl Kesel inks
*Action Comics #595- John Byrne writes & pencils; Byrne & Keith Williams inks

Byrne's Talk Poetry is like nothing and everything I've ever read/heard before. Each square page is like a conversation with itself, the book as a whole, and with me. Reading the poems is like chatting with a clever pal. I particularly enjoyed "Degrees," where Byrne reduces the language and pretension of academia down to common-speak, "Can You Die of Eating Pancakes," the stomach-brain stream of consciousness mapped out in a convenient possible accidental suicide note, and "The Russian Week," which promotes the use of inner and outer non-linear 7-day weeks to get our work done in (and hilariously details how the speaker won't go into detail). The commonality of her subjects mixed with sharp and biting language, attitude, and gusto of her tone makes for an entertaining read that keeps you on your toes and dances on the line between poetry, prose, and prose-poetry.

This book is an excellent resource for the politico who follows Tennessee politics or is just interested in the politics of an historically complicated and ever-changing state!

Having grown up around Tennessee politics from birth, I can honestly say that this book hits all the points. I wish the undergraduate university I attended in Tennessee had offered a course on Tennessee Politics and used this book to teach from. If any poly sci professors are reading this, do it! It will be such a great class!

Awesome, in-depth coverage of why Tennesseans vote the way they do is a theme throughout.

- Memphis, Tennessee

I have not yet used this book with my class, but I plan on proposing it be used with the TOEIC class at my university in 2009. The thing I love about this book is that it exactly mimics TOEIC questions, but at a level that will not frighten students or make them lose confidence. The advice given in the book is practical and helpful. The layout and questions are clear and the mini tests and full practice test (which is also presented at a lower level than the real test) provide plenty of test strategy practice.

I plan to use this with very low level students - at a TOEIC level of 230 - 300 or so. I believe it will help them prepare very well for the test. We will use it over one semester - weekly 90-minute classes, and may not be able to finish the book completely. I plan to set the mini-tests as homework.

One thing that I think could be improved (and I have contacted the publishers with this idea) is that the TOEIC test-taking tip section, and the grammar explanation sections, be translated into students' native languages and made available on a website, or to teachers using the book (perhaps in Powerpoint form for use in class), to make it just that little bit more accessible for lower level students.

One more thing I like about the book is its value - for a reasonable price, the student can buy a book with answers and 2 CDs.