Byrne Books

While the essays are a little overly verbose and unapproachable, the subjects they speak to are difficult to find elsewhere. In my personal research of Disney, I have not been able to find a more useful critique of the cinematics and plot of Disney movies

I thought this book would be more all encompassing, but it analyzes only the specifics of the animated features from 1989 to 1999 and ignores the rest of the company and the parks. Not a topic I care about.

It is also laughably pretensions and academic. The word 'oeuvre' is used 16 times before page 25. Here's just a piece of an actual run-on sentence from page 15..."one a Heideggerian-by-way-of-de-Man-Bennington-and-a-tradition-of-idnigenous-socialism, the other a post-colonialist-Bhabbha-Spivakc-Young-turning-left-at-feminism". I couldn't make this stuff up. About as fun as drinking bleach.

You would think that such a clinical dissection would at least be accurate, but the introduction alone has four glaring factual errors that instantly made me distrust any of the subsequent information. Some of the errors: Disney died in 1967, they're building a park in Beijing, Tokyo Disneyland isn't open yet, and calling Animal Kingdom 'Safari World'. This was written in 1999, so thereÃ*s no excuse for not checking these facts.

All in all a tedious read.

This is a very insightful book. If you like depth on a subject, this book is for you. Essential reading for Disney fans. I never was able to locate a copy of my own.

I know there are alot of things that could be complained about if you want to get picky, there's bound to be SOMEONE who doesn't have a full entry, or their own entry, and it's true, there ARE a few...but SERIOUSLY! The most comprehensive encyclopedia of the Marvel character universe ever undertaken! No longer is your favorite hero or villian reduced to a maximum of one page, now whatever it takes to flesh out the bio, the more that's in there. Rich, imaginative diagrams and spec sheets of just about everything non-living that has an importance in Marvel. Iron Man's armor, the Avengers Mansion, too many to list. Read the whole first edition in a sit down, I remember my brother buying the original series, simply overwhelming, and a MUST OWN for any more than casual Marvel fan. Just got notified that Edition2 is on it's way, I can't wait!!!

It's great that editions 1-7 are collected here but it would have been MUCH better if the illustrations were in color.

...in three installments. I did not have the privilege of owning the original run of the Deluxe Edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, but I do have the trade paperback of ten volumes, which unfortunately when read by volume will fall apart on the spine (the 1st 4 volumes were carelessly bound). For the first time I read the entries for such obscure Marvel characters as Cloud, Arnim Zola, Blackout (which has another entry of the Deluxe Edition's Book(s) of the Dead), and for the first time I see the original feature illustrations for Angel, Cyclops, and Hawkeye which were replaced in the trade paperback edition. For a Marvel fan who has lived throughout the seventies and eighties this is the book for u, the era before the so-called "Dark Ages" of comicbook. Here are the Marvel characters who ante-dates the overexposure of the X-Men and the antihero and the big gun types. This is the expansion of the original run of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1983-1984), which explains why most feature illustrations of characters are exactly the same as in the first run. The only handicap of this series was that it failed to materialize its own Appendix, unlike in the first series, which published them on the back of the backcover.

As commented by other reviews this book is rather dated in its wildness athough at the time of its initial release was a a mild shocker. The Boyfriend was in fact Spike Hawkins. "Who had a wife and three children in Edgware". His middle son ended up in the Rock Group 'Big Audio Dynamite' with Mick Jones from The Clash.

This is hardly the best book written by a groupie (those honors, in my opinion, go to Pamela Des Barres' classic "I'm With The Band") but it's not a terrible read either.

"Groupie" may have raised eyebrows in 1969 when it was first published, but there's nothing too shocking in here by today's standards.

The book is based on Jenny Fabian's real experiences as part of London's music scene, and the bands are given aliases to "protect" their identities. (But you can figure out some of the identities based on Jenny's descriptions.)

I was expecting to read about more famous bands in this book, but the only "big names" are Pink Floyd (aka Satin Odyssey), the Jimi Hendrix Experience (aka Jacklin H. Event), and the Animals (aka the Savage). The rest of the bands mentioned in the book had moderate success in England and never really crossed over in a big way in the U.S. or much of the rest of the world.

The '60s counterculture lingo in the book is somewhat hilarious ("groovy" and "scene" are two favorite words), but much of Jenny's story goes downhill after she describes "pulling" (having sex with) a musician she calls "Ben," who's obviously Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd.

After telling that story, the reader has to wade through too many chapters describing Jenny's slide into an emotionally abusive relationship with the manager of a local band. Jenny also dates other men from the local music scene, but the relationships ultimately end up nowhere.

The book ends on a disappointing note, leaving the reader wondering if the '60s really were as much fun as Jenny would like us to believe.

"Having a scene", getting high on "tincture" and "plating", it's all there in the story of Katie, a groovy 19 year old, living in swinging London in 1969. It's based on true facts and you can play a guessing game with who Katie's conquests really are from all the happening English bands of these times. It's fun, risque for having been written in the late 1960's, but always serious, as Katie searches for the ultimate scene... Read it! As they say "the only place for chicks in rock and roll is in the back of the van"!!

A thoroughly entertaining account of a Hudson River city with a truly fascinating history. I recommend it to anyone interested in nineteenth-century America, American architecture, especially the vernacular architecture of the northeast, and America as it once was. The vintage photographs are wonderful!

This is/was a great book and it is beautifully written I have spent many weekends and summers in this area of the hudson valley. This book brought to life, the colorful past of this wonderful city.

The old photos are the best part, but everything else, especially the quality of the printing & the total lameness of the writing is inexcusable. A very sad exercise in vanity publishing.

This book has to lie on the shelf of all Janis fans, who are interested both in her music and personality - although the texts are not really informative, so you won`t learn much about the details of her life. But this book is not intended to be a biography~it`s more a TRIBUTE. And she deserved it. A beautiful collection of pictures and letters ~some in her own handwriting~ a cronological list of her performances and the summary of the main steps in her carreer. A VERY NICE piece of HIGH LEVEL!

This book contains any number of beautiful photographs, it has beautifully written reflections on Janis from friends and lovers. In short it has it all. A good read.

Most Joplin fans will want this book for the many marvelous,unpublished photos. The diary of live performances is very interesting, but the calander format is annoying. Another book that compliments "A Performance Diary" is "Janis Garden Party", a collection of photos taken at Madison Square Garden in Dec. 1969 by photographer Steve Banks. The book is published by Bugiganga Press, 1998.

Not for the faint of heart...I must say. This is a tell all tale of a great musician brought down by an insatiable lust for herion. Phillip was an extraordinary talent, always pushing the limits. Always the "Hero". Always striving for the best. But he lost it all to the allure of hard drugs.
The story behind Brian Robertson's departure is finally revealed and leaves one wondering why Phillip never asked him to return. I still see this incident as the beginning of the end, regardless of what anyone else thinks. Brian Robertson could never be replaced and Thin Lizzy became know as the revolving door for guitarists.
Ultimately Phillip's demise was of his own accord and that is a hard pill to swallow. He lost everything he set out to achieve. Everything except his loving loyal family and fans. His achievements were many, I only wish he saw it that way.

As a die hard Thin Lizzy fan, I felt that this material was only scratching the surface. The author would introduce an idea, give a quote, and that would be it. I kept hoping for more detail. There was quite a bit of information here I didn't know, but it seemed to leave more questions than answers. It would be nice if the author would go back and fill in all the gaps for the 2nd edition.

Also, I didn't like the way he put the information. Too many quotes. it reminded me of a "Behind the Music" episode where the narrator, Jim Forbes, would say something and then they would show a clip of the guys giving a quote. Fine for a documentary, but a book should not be written in this way. I kept wishing I had interviewed the band and written a book as I think i could have put it together better than this.

If you're a Lizzy fan, sure it will fill in some info (assuming it is correct) but the definitive biography has not been done!! (Maybe I SHOULD interview the fellas and put this together!) However, read Phyllis Lynott's (Phil's Mom) book "My Boy", which is just fantastic! Now if we had a book like that about the entire band.....

Having just become extremely interested in the band a few years ago, I was interested just in being able to get my hands on any book concerning them. It was difficult being that they were never that big in America. The book seems well researched & focuses on Phil Lynott's incessant touring & recording throughout his whole career. Philo has always been the main object of any Lizzy-related material, but I would think that Gorham or Downey might figure in a bit more. Call it morbid curiosity if you will, but I was hoping it would go a bit more into "the dirt" behind Phil's drug use and the reason & introduction behind it. Yet another horrible waste of talent & youth on drugs & alcohol. It seemed purposefully vague on this count & towards Gorham as well. Perhaps it was out of respect for Phil's mum? I guess since I just got through reading the Stephen Davis account of Jim Morrison "Life, Death, Legend" that I hoped it would be as interesting as that was; it isn't. Not quite as interesting to read, but I'm glad I got to because it gave a decent overview of Lizzy's career. Hope this review helps anyone who might be curious about the book.

I thoroughly enjoy this book. I have since acquired volumes 2, 3, and 4 and am going to pick up 5 when I'm able. I have also given "The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said" (a compendium of volumes 1 though 4) as gifts to a number of people, including my pastor and some of my childrens' teachers.

Many of the quotes require a deep wit, and often the quotes that are the best are completely lame until one understands the context (for example, Amy Carter's quote of "No", which was given when she was asked if she had a message for America's youth.) Robert Byrne also will string quotes together to make "virtual conversations" between historical figures (such as Plato and Hemmingway).

An awesome companion to this is "Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words" (by Josefa Heifitz Byrne, I believe) which shares a similar style of insightful humor, but is applied to a dictionary of words one would be hard-pressed to fit into any conversation.

Of course, the title tells one that this book is not long on quantity, but implies that it's very high on quality. Not true IMHO. I found only 2 or 3 really good ones and a few marginal ones. The best included:
#322: I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Bill Cosby
#498: Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf. Lewis Mumford

The only other review for this book has it rated at two stars so I felt there was a bit of balance needed here. The Many Deaths of Batman was a three issue mini-series of Batman published in the late eighties. Written by John Byrne and drawn by Jim Aparo, clearly this is no average Batman story. And it is certainly deserving of more than two stars - in fact it is a five star affair. The story will suck you in immediately and seem entirely too short, which you'd expect from Byrne. As for the art, it's Jim Aparo, the definitive Batman artist of the eighties.

Much of the story follows Jim Gordon which is not a bad thing. Many times you'll read reviews where people will complain that Batman was not the main character, there was too much Gordon, too much Alfred, too much whoever. That's all nonsense. When you've got characters as rich as Commissioner Gordon there is no reason at all to not allow them to drive the occasional story.

What this book really amounts to is a small taste of what was to be found during this era of Batman comics, so it's really hard to be satisfied with the mere three issues offered here. After reading this story you'll probably be overwhelmed by the urge to plunder your local comic store's Batman bins.

The Many Deaths of Batman = Five stars all the way.

This book is a compilation of 3 comics. The story is clever in its concept, but not that well executed in my opinion. Several bodies are discovered all dressed as Batman. Commisioner Gordon leads the investigation, aided by the assistant coroner who is pretty much there just out of curiosity and the chance to play detective.

These men are actually being murdered and Bruce Wayne was also a targeted assasination that didn't go down as planned so Gordon orders 24 hour protection at Wayne Manor. There is a connection between all these men, but only Bruce knows why and revealing it would uncover his dual identity.

The best part about this short is the first issue being nearly completely silent with all the story told through the artwork illustrated by Jim Aparo. Only two words are spoken. It's a great way to start it off and is quite intriguing but from that point on it loses steam and left me unsatisfied.

A fun volume to have in your library if you are a Marvel fan, or just grew up with the Fantastic Four (as I did, in the sixties!). I wouldn't necessarily say these are the best stories, but they are certainly fun stories. It's interesting to see the very earliest adventures at the front of the book and compare them to the latest. Quite a change in style...but the characters stay true to form (better dialogue, better art work, obviously in the most recent incarnations). Stories from how the Four became Fantastic to their bankruptcy and personal difficulties. A few stories about the angst of the Thing being the Thing and funny moments between Ben and the Torch. Perhaps not REALLY the very best of FF...but a lot of fun at least.

"The Best of the Fantastic Four Vol. 1" is a good primer to bring readers up to speed on what the Fantastic Four is all about. As with any collection that attempts to select 360 pages from 46 years of publishing history, the final choices are subjective and exclude a lot of great material.

Of course, the collection leads with the 1961 first issue, where writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby introduce readers to the Thing (a carryover concept from Marvel's then-successful monster mags), Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch (a revamp of the Golden Age character) and the Invisible Girl.

The next story is the origin of Doctor Doom from FF Annual #2, included presumably because the book coincided with the Fantastic Four movie, which featured Doom. It's a fun story, but not Stan and Jack's best.

Doom is present in the next story, along with guest-star Daredevil, from FF #39-40, an enjoyable two-parter. What follows is a bona fide FF classic from issue #51, "This Man...This Monster!"

Next comes a more problematic choice. FF #100 is included presumably because it's an anniversary issue that guest-stars (sort of) almost all the FF villains. Kirby worked miracles on a regular basis, but not even he could pull off dozens upon dozens of baddies in only 20 pages. A rare misfire by the book's original team.

Next comes a sampling of creative teams from different eras. FF #116, by Archie Goodwin, John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, is a quick read, but one feels it's only here because, again, Doom is the villain. George Perez of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" fame is represented by FF #176, written by Roy Thomas, which features the super-annoying Impossible Man.

John Byrne, whose run on the title is second in quality (and quantity) to only Lee and Kirby, is well represented by the collection. We have his classic Thing time-travel story, "Remembrance of Things Past," and my personal favorite Fantastic Four story of all time, "Terror in a Tiny Town" from the FF's 20th anniversary issue. Byrne is also on hand to chronicle one of the group's most tragic moments in "A Small Loss" (FF 267).

Some of the more modern stories in this collection (2002 and up) are OK, but seem to be included only to represent all eras of the book's lengthy run. In some cases, like 2004's "Wolf at the Door - Part 4," not enough time has past to judge if a particular story is worthy of "Best of" inclusion.

And, of course, the stories that are excluded! Where are representative stories of the Inhumans, Galactus, and the Silver Surfer? For that matter, where is ANY story from the 90s? How about Reed and Sue's wedding? The attack upon New York by the Sub-Mariner? The editors left lots of options open for future volumes!

The good news is the FF's adventures are available elsewhere -- in Marvel's budget-priced, black-and-white Essentials volumes, the more expensive Masterworks hardcovers, or on DVD-Rom with ads and letters pages included.

This book, handsomely organized and bound, is still a great addition to any bookshelf and serves to whet the appetite for all the great FF adventures!

First of all, i am sure that this book is really comprehensive as they say
But it is not easy to use, and not that "friendly".

I bought this one a while ago and i hardly use it, although i really want to learn more of the French tenses and all the French grammar.
can point exactly why i hardly use it, perhaps because this book is a reference, and i hoped something for "beginners",

I won't recommend this book for beginners or people that want a book in which they can easily learn French grammar in a nice and easy way.
and this book isn't cheap also, so think if you really need it, my guess
most of us probably wont.

Most of the times i don't really bother to look for something in the
book, if i have some grammar questions i just use the internet, instead of
trying to find something in that book

i bought several book, to try to learn the French grammar with a lot of examples,in a nice easy and friendly way, still haven't found one.

will be happy to find one though :) if someone can recommend one for me.

I should first point out that I can't critique the content too well, as my French is still firmly in the "Beginner" category, so I don't know if some of the explanations are correct, incorrect, misleading, etc. All I can say to that is that everything I've looked for I've been able to find (I'll get back to that, though) and I haven't yet found myself confused by any explanations.

What I can critique, however, is the somewhat poor layout of the book. The first issue is the numbering of the entries: they're simply numbered from 1 to 715. The reason this is a problem is because it is extremely easy to find yourself stopping briefly at page 115 when the index was actually referring to entry 115. This is made all the more difficult by the lack of putting any of the entry headings in bold, which itself results in often going past an entry because the entry number doesn't stand out from the rest of the text. Further adding to the confusion is that the entry numbers for each page are located on the inner half of the top of the page, with the page number on the outside corner. Of course, that is the normal location for a page number; in this specific case, however, the result is that, when you're flipping through searching for an entry, you have to hold the book open wider so you can see the entry numbers, while also actively ignoring the page numbers.

For example, one left-hand page has across the top "484 Adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions 616" all in that formatting except the "484" is italicized, and the only thing you really need to see is the 616... yet it's pushed in towards the center binding, so you need to have the book open nearly all the way to see it--and not only that, but the only thing that IS formatted to stand out from the rest is the page number, which is irrelevant! At first glance it seems so minor and inconsequential, but after dealing with it for the 30th, 40th, 50th time, it really starts becoming aggravating--all the more so considering that there's really no need for page numbers in a book like this: the index points to entry numbers, not page numbers, so why would you even need to know that you're on page 484?

I think the publishers should've followed a separate numbering system--I'd personally recommend something similar to that used in Hammer's German Grammar: "12.1.3(a)," referring to chapter 12, section 1, subsection 3, letter (a) and so on. Either that, or just not numbered the pages at all. After all, this is in effect a grammatical dictionary--when was the last time you needed to know what page a specific word was on? C comes after B, and entry 18 will come after entry 17--the page number is irrelevant.

The other major issue with the layout is that the index doesn't get specific enough for many of the entries (which ironically makes the page numbers often a more precise method of finding an item, yet the index doesn't offer page numbers, so they remain useless!). I think this can be best illustrated by detailing one of the real cases I found of this problem.

I didn't know how to say, "I was just doing something," and looked in the index for a possible entry. I found "just ('to have just done')." Perfect! Next to it is "538." Okay, entry 538. So I flip back through the book, searching for entry 538. I have to ignore the first "538" my eye focuses on, since I soon realize it's a page number. I flip further back and arrive at entry 538 "Miscellaneous verbs" on page 412. The first verb listed is "approcher," which takes up the whole page; on the facing page is "changer." Since I of course have no clue what verb I'm actually looking for, I start looking through the entry for each verb: approcher, changer, couvenir, decider, devoir, manquer, rester, servir, tarder, traiter... nothing, until I finally arrive at "venir," TEN pages later! If the item in question, "venir de," had simply been labelled 538(k)2 both in the main book and in the index, all of that time spent reading all ten pages of entry 538 would've been saved. The index could've also simply given me the page number, but then why have any entry numbers if the index is just going to give you the page numbers?

As it is, the index sends me ten pages from where what I'm looking for is actually located. How useful can such an index really be?

What you end up with is a book with two separate but visually indistinguishable numbering systems that are not only incredibly easy to confuse--especially when flipping through at high speed, looking for a particular entry--but in fact will send you far off from the specific item you're looking for.

It's a shame that this book is so poorly formatted, especially considering they'd be rather simple fixes, as it does appear extremely detailed, and as I said above, everything that I have looked for I've found and been satisfied with the explanation. If only it were so much less aggravating to actually arrive at this wonderfully detailed information!

I give it 5 stars for detail and content, but the poor layout demands that it be knocked down one star. I sincerely hope that the publishers fix this formatting issue in the next edition, because I would happily buy a book with this content but with better organization.