Byrne Books

This is a charming walking tour/guidebook that really enhanced my recent trip to Singapore. The layout of the book is easily accessible and the line drawings throughout are a beautiful touch. The walks themselves are well thought out and obviously meticulously researched and planned by the author himself. I especially liked the Did You Know? sections dotted throughout which contain little tidbits of unusual facts and information not often found in other guidebooks. This is definitely a must for any visitor who wants to see more than just the tourist side of the city. I highly recommend it. Also worth checking out are the other guidebooks in this series that do walking tours of Bangkok and Hong Kong.

What a nice idea! Easy-to-follow walks through the different parts of the city, plenty of advice on what to see and do, as well as a wealth of architectureal and historical information, and all accompanied by delightfully hand drawn sketches by the author. A lovely, useful guide, and very pretty too. Highly recommended!

I bought this book in 1969, just as it had been reprinted, I think, for the first time since 1886. Its the great big hard bound version, with the slip-over photograph cover. I still have it and read it every so often. It you are a real Historian and/or a lover of crime stories, you will want to add this book to your collection. It was written by the New York Chief of Police, Thomas Byrnes, and he writes each description like he's writing a novel. The photographs really help to make the book great too. Most photographs of 19th Century people all look pretty much the same. These are old-time mug shots,and a lot of the men and women are expressing their attitudes in their pictures. Once again, This book is a great addition to anyone's Historical crime book collection.

Margaret Byrne Heimbold's poetry triggers the emotional roller coaster we all experience in our journey through life. As she writes... "tears do not wash away, all the memories of yesterday" we finally discover why and who we are today!

The fun of her book is that each re-read gives us an understanding to our own lives. I can't wait to sit in my favorite chair, randomly pick a page and get ready for another insight to me!

Thank you Margaret for being my tour guide!

There are way too many nursing books out there where the author is more interested in bloating their own ego than actually making a readable text. Linda Eby takes psych and makes it understandable. I used this book in nursing school and I actually started using it for concepts my other text books made way too hard. You won't be sorry you bought this book. Buy it.

The first time I read this book was 30 years ago. It belonged to my pal's father who was an old republican. (He died several weeks ago.) It is not an Irish republican book. It is, however, definitely written from a nationalist perspective. It is not a travel book nor a novel. It was originally written as a series of articles for the Irish News in the early forties. It is simultaneously enlightening and frustrating in that it provides countless insights into historical events in the north of Ireland without quoting the source of the information provided. Nevertheless one quickly learns to trust the veracity of the author's assertions and it is clear that he himself believed he was relaying reliable accounts and information. He describes fascinating personalities, events, and curiosities such as the marvellous and enigmatic Rev Porter from Greyabbey, a Protestant United Irishman who survived '98 but did not eschew his principles; a notorious woodkerne, McNaughton, who turned highwayman; the description of Henry Joy McCracken's death and his sister's fate; the priceless painting of The O'Neill discovered in a cottage in Antrim. Certainly the author's prejudice's are in evidence, but this does not detract from what was obviously a labour of love. Do not expect a logical sequence to the various articles. Nevertheless there is a flow to the book which is irresistible. It is the 1940's equivalent of surfing the Net. You can dip in anywhere at anytime and find something to catch your interest. If you have an interest in Irish history take this one on your holidays - if you can get it!

the book was new with no damage at all, just like the seller informed me, and the shipping of this product was super fast! great purchase!

Batman. Byrne. 3-D glasses. That's enough for me. Fine it if you can

As a new father myself I found Pat Byrnes new book to be hilariously insightful and a thoroughly entertaining romp through the foibles of parenting. A must read for any parent or parent to be. God Speed Pat Byrnes.

I have formally reviewed this book for ASIS and Security Management. I gave it five stars for practical content in the way of useful solutions to the number one social problem today, and its easy reading style. This book should be required reading for any person concerned about the mounting epidemic of aggression/violence and who wants to move from being part of the problem by lack of awareness to becoming part of the solution with early intervention. Great book! The Glossary is loaded with interesting strategies you can apply right now.

This is an excellent book about Robert Fischer's Candidates Matches and World Championship match. In 1972, Fischer won the World Chess Championship due to his superb play in these matches.

Robert Byrne's descriptions and analyses of these games tend to be extremely good. And for the games against Boris Spassky for the Championship, we see additional analysis from Ivo Nei, a member of Spassky's team.

The book starts with Fischer's 6-0 win against Mark Taimanov. I have always been very impressed by Taimanov's play at the piano keyboard. But I admit I was astonished by some of Taimanov's blunders in this chess match. In Game Two, Taimanov threw away an endgame that even I would have drawn easily against anyone. I've seen grandmasters make some crazy errors, and this was one of the most amazing. In Game Five, Taimanov made another incredible mistake, soon after adjournment no less, to throw away an obvious draw. Still, these errors merely shortened the match by a game. I liked all of Byrne's notes to these games.

Next is Fischer's 6-0 win against Bent Larsen. Game One was truly exciting, and I wish Byrne had given a better analysis of the position at move 25. Game Four was a shock to me: down 3-0, I expected Larsen to play something safe for White against Fischer's King's Indian Defence, maybe 6 Be3 (which Larsen had done very well with in the previous few years). But Larsen proved in his games with White that he had no intention of drawing any games against Fischer. And he sure didn't, even though he certainly could have drawn at least two of them had he been willing to.

After that, we see Fischer's slaughter of ex-World Champion Tigran Petrosian. Petrosian prepared very well for this match, but that meant having to get into some wild positions. Petrosian got big advantages in the openings of the first three games, but he still had only one win, one draw, and one loss from them, which is not surprising considering that Fischer was simply a better overall player and that Petrosian was a little out of his element in a couple of the good positions he got into. After two more draws, Fischer won the next four games and the match. Byrne once again does a fine job of describing everything.

The match with Spassky was one of the best chess matches ever (although I may be more than a little biased, given that I attended some of the games). And this is the book to get to read all about it. That includes descriptions of some truly strange moments, such as Fischer's forfeit of Game 2. Game 15 was absolutely fantastic and unforgettable, but several other games were almost as exciting.

There are a number of changes that one might want to make in the analyses, given the knowledge of some of the positions that the past three decades have brought. But not as many as one might expect: that is a great testament to Byrne's expertise and hard work in writing this book.

Still, I'll give a couple of examples of very minor things I would have said differently. In Game 10, Spassky could not save the endgame after adjournment because Fischer could not be stopped from winning Spassky's Bishop. Not only that, Spassky's Bishop could be taken at any point, so Fischer could improve his position as much as he wanted to before taking it. Rather than simply say this, Byrne merely praises Fischer's play before winning the Bishop. That is reasonable, but it fails to explain what really made Spassky's position so bad. When Fischer finally wins the Bishop, Byrne comments "Another little added touch - the Bishop is won by force." That misleading comment is, in my opinion, Byrne's worst error in this entire book. Nei, of course, confirms that he and Spassky realized the position at adjournment was hopeless, but he also fails to explain all this.

Another comment I dislike is Byrne's description of the end of Game 17. The game reached adjournment, but as Ivo Nei explains in this book, he and Spassky realized that it could not be won. Since there is nothing to be gained by trying to avoid a draw in an unwinnable position (Taimanov and Larsen had already shown that), they clearly decided to take the draw. When Spassky showed up to play out the adjournment, he did something unique in the match (I was there so I saw it). He played his moves as fast as he could, taking something like a second per move! It was obvious to me that he was settling for a draw; there was no other possible explanation. Byrne does not mention this, merely saying "Spassky's falling into a threefold repetition of the position right at the start of the second playing session seemed strange." And he says that Spassky looked unhappy when the referee confirmed the repetition! I think that's misleading; it looked to me that Spassky was actually trying to repeat the position a fourth time when the referee stopped the game.

Anyway, these are extremely tiny problems with the best book I've seen on this glorious chess match. I highly recommend this book.