Guides Books

This book impacted me on so many levels. Stormie gives great insight into making prayer a part of one's daily ritual and shows the reader how easily prayer weaves an effortless flow into all our experiences. We are made stronger by our ability to pray.

I read this book 5 years ago and it is a wonderful source of inspiration and direction. Just this month, I started a group study of it and everyone loves this powerful book for women. Stormie is an author who writes for others and uses her own experiences to enhance it. Very enlightening. I highly recommend it.Elaine

I am very disappointed in this study. Very little practical application in the daily lessons. I'm so used to Beth Moore "talking to me" every day in her lessons, this has been a bit disappointing. Lots of Bible verses, but tell me what I'm supposed to be getting from this.

If you feel like you have gotten off track with the path God wants you to go I highly recommend this book. I have taken each chapter and really applied it to my prayer life and the results have been amazing. When you turn to God first life doesn't seem so bad.

This is the first Omartian book I have read, and I love it. The breakdown is short easy chapters, so I can read a few minutes and still cover a topic. Great advise and insights are on every page. I also plan to use it as a reference/refresher when I need advice.

This book is by far the best test prep book for the SAT. No one else gives you the tricks and strategies that Adam gives. This book raised my score by over 300 points to over a 2300. You have to buy this book. Seriously. Don't listen to the crazy lady who gave this book one star. Together with the College Board's 10 Real SATs, you'll be set.

This is one of the best book I've ever read. It contains lots of tips and strategies that help your master the SAT. It also points out some quandaries that some people usually got stuck in the SAT and provides the solutions. Because this book focus mainly on strategies and tips, you may need to buy other SAT prep book to practice yourself.

When I began teaching SAT courses I couldn't answer all the multiple choices for the reading or math questions myself so I read 13 books on the SAT to see if I could understand why the right answers were right so I could help my students (and keep from being embarrassed from not being able to answer their questions). After reading his book and doing the exercises I finally understood the basic principles and I was able to teach them to my students. I understood how the math questions were constructed and the best strategies for maximizing a student's score. I understood how the Critical Reading questions were set up and I taught this to my students and the results were amazing! This is definitely the best book on the SAT.

This book is by far the best I have seen. Adam Robinson knows what he is talking about- if you are going buy only one book, no doubt it is this.

I have tried everything--$1000 SAT prep classes (no help, they are only for students who have no idea what the SAT is), doing constant practice from the Official Study guide by College Board (kind of helped but there aren't any explanations for the answers!), funny vocabulary books to help memorize vocab, etc.

None of those really worked.

Until I stumbled upon RocketReview. Everything in this book was SO USEFUL and fun to read too (it reads like a story that the author is narrating, not a boring textbook), with practice problems along the way, crucial tips, and an interactive CD.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK...if you are skeptical, just look for it at the library or something and read a chapter. The study tips are strange at first, but once you read his explanations into why they work--BAM. You understand how to not only take a test, but do math problems the easy way without all those complex calculations, save A LOT OF TIME on those long boring reading passages, etc.

I spent about 8 months trying to raise my SAT and took many practice tests. I had reached a plateau at around 2050-2070, and my parents were disappointed. I googled SAT prep books and bought this book and in just a month of studying over the summer (just reading the book, about an hour each day and doing everything it told me too--not very difficult), I raised my SAT score which I took in October by ***100 points*** which puts me in the range of all the colleges I am applying to as a senior now (Ivy Leage-level, etc). Before, I thought the Critical Reading section was IMPOSSIBLE. After reading this book, I found it to be really straightforward, pretty easy, and sometimes fun.

Get this book--it is a MIRACLE worker

The Library journal review does a huge disservice to this book.

Imagine a beautiful, highly productive, virtually weed-free,

drought-resistant, inexpensive, low-maintenance and ecologically sound

garden bed in your yard. It sounds impossible, but it is very simple

and only requires a few hours to create this fall, no digging required.

You can put to use the bounty of leaves and/or pine needles that are

provided for free to almost every suburbanite in the fall. This

is the ideal time, as the bed is better if it can break down over the

winter.

I have been gardening for about 25 years, and wish had I had heard of

this method sooner. It is perfect, especially for those who are not

physically able to dig, till or do a lot of weeding or simply have very

little time for gardening.

It involves piling up and wetting down 8 -12 inches of layers of

organic matter (we used leaves and some manure) on top of a thin layer

of newspapers or cardboard, with a small amount of amendments such as

greensand, lime and rock phosphate and manure underneath the paper. On

the top is a 1-2 inch layer of mulch (we used white pine needles), to

keep in moisture and suppress weeds. Come spring, you simply push aside

the top mulch and plant seedlings.

This 'sheet mulching' method came from this wonderful book by Toby

Hemenway. We have several sheet mulch beds this

year, and they are outrageously productive. For example, one 4' x 9'

bed in a very sunny spot, contains 6 large tomato plants, 3 sweet

pepper plants, 3 cucumber vines on a trellis, a short row of

sunflowers, one summer squash plant, and 7 winter squash plants. I

find this amazing considering that the ground underneath is very poor,

sandy and barely supported grass.


With apologies to Mae West, I have learned a big lesson, it's not the soil

in your life, it's the life in your soil!

I bought this book in January and have many times over saved the price in
time, mulch and bought amendments using ONLY the sheet mulch idea.

An excellent book and resource. At the time I purchased this book, I also purchased Bill Mollison's seminal work on permaculture. I intended to read Mollison's book first and Gaia's Garden second. After reading the first few pages of Mollison's book, I set it aside to "look through" Gaia's Garden just to familiarize myself with its contents. I discovered that I could not put it down because it is so well written and informative. I recommend this book to all persons interested in the subject of permaculture.

This was recommended by someone when I started asking questions about permaculture. I am glad he did! It is a great introduction without being too simplistic. It is showing me how to start small and gradually increase the use of permaculture.

I have shown it to friends who are all waiting to borrow it from me!

This book is excellent for establishing new concepts of applying time tested old technology. I use these principles everyday and I look forward to the days when we need to rely on our local resources and skills in order to make a living. This book teaches you how to make a start with permaculture.

I have totally enjoyed this book. The principles are a little murky because apparently this is a pretty new field and not very well developed for the eastern seabord which I live but it does provide enough guidance to begin setting up your own permaculture areas and start developing areas to be more ecologically sound food producing and living environments. I would HIGHLY recommend it as a first book on permaculture and the resources section alone has been a joy.

Love this! For wine there is no better tome to make you feel like you know what you're talking about. Mark Oldman is brilliant, very funny and entertaining...and iconoclastic and ironic. The book is SO WELL PACED. Before starting it, I would say I was about a 2 in knowing about wine...now I feel like I'm at 7 or 8.

If you're serious about learning about wine, Oldman's Guide is "the" book. The author's writing style is so attractive and laugh out loud funny that you'll feel you're with a super knowledgeable friend with the rare ability to make wine simple and clear.

This is a perfect gift for a young man who wants to get into wine. Tips are sorted into bite sized chunks, making this a good bedside read or something to keep in the briefcase on a business trip to take up that 15 minutes of dead time in your schedule.

It is really accessible for all newcomers in the world of wine, but is quite annoying for those who already have a basic knowledge of the subject. In addition, I think that the book is not addressing the issue of wine tasting with the proper detail, and this is a great flaw for a book that is expected to guide casual drinkers into the secrets and the pleasures of wine.

If you are buying your first book on wine, let it be this one. I have previously bought some other books that were advertised as aimed towards non professionals, but I found many parts of them very hard to read. Oldman's guide is worth reading, and it can awaken the love for wine in you. It is made as one or two page shortcuts which you can easily read, grab off the shelf when you feel like it or when you want to know more. This is the ultimate guide for beginners!

the book has extensive info on each fish species; great photos and a graphical representation for the distinguishing markings.
I needed to learn a lot of the species from the book in a short time and the book was really helpfull

It is an amazing book. When I get money I will buy the other book from this collection.

As book reader and Diver, I just love this book, It gives me all the pictures and characteristics for an accurate evaluation of the creatures I found under water. Great pictures, and outstanding charcterization of fishes.

At one time I was the head of a volunteer organization in WPB, Florida that assisted Palm Beach County with their artifical reef program. Part of the qualification was to get training in a variety of related subjects (like fish identification) sponsored by the Florida Oceanographic Society. This book served as our fish identification "bible." I no longer live in FL, but when I go diving in the Caribbean I stil take this book with me. If you need to (or just want to) know the fish of the Caribbean, buy this book.

This is a reef fish identification book. This sounds obvious, but that really is the focus here. It's not a book to teach you about fish behavior, biogeography, community ecology, or population trends. Author, diver, captain, photographer, and attorney (!) Paul Humann took most of the 670 photographs in this book, a real accomplishment for any diver, since the result of a blurred or indistinct photograph of a fish is to... go get another.

The organization of this ID book is by fish shape. He's got 12 "identification groups":

- disks and ovals (colorful)
- silvery
- sloping head and tapered body
- small ovals
- heavy body and large lips
- swim with pectoral fins, and with obvious scales
- reddish and big eyes
- small, elongated bottom-dwellers
- old-shaped bottom dwellers
- odd-shaped swimmers
- eels
- sharks and rays

Any fish watcher would see the "logic" of this organization, although it could make some ichthyologists squirm with these sets of artificial groupings.

The book is spiral-bound so that the pages, when opened, stay open. And the clay content in the paper makes it more resistant to water dripping from your wetsuit or your hair. Just make sure you wipe it off, pronto.

Now the photos... They are very high quality, and Humann is to be commended for taking, or selecting from other photographers, pictures that really pull out the details of the various fish . For example, the Sergeant Major has the delicate yellow along the base of its dorsal fin, and those frogfish must be viewed in both a camouflaged condition and in a setting where they are contrasted with the background.

Any amateur photographer will soon discover the difficulty in getting a full, close-up and lateral view of a fish. They tend to swim away from you as you get close, giving you a great view of the tail sweeping away. These photos are the result of a truly amazing amount of patience.

In an appendix, he throws in some sea turtles and dolphins or good measure, as well as a checklist for keeping track of the reader's sightings.

My ocean diving has all been in the Pacific, and it was interesting seeing species related to my own "friends." If I get the opportunity to dive in Florida, the Caribbean, or the Bahamas, this will be the book I throw in my dive bag... in a zip-lock bag, of course.

I love my Sew Fast Sew Easy book. It was so easy to follow and helped me out a lot. The illustrations are done really well and have a lot of detail. This book does a good job covering basics that you wouldn't normally think about like making sure the straight grain is parrallel to the selvage when cutting out and that your fabric doesn't move and how to measure that. It's great, the information in this book. Plus the sewing patterns that it comes with are basic beginner patterns. Great for learning with. One anoying thing though, Amazon has this book listed under a BARGIN PRICE but it's not a bargin price at $19. I had to search "Sew Fast Sew Easy" to get the new book from Amazon at $16. Really weird. I wish Amazon didn't offer books like that, it's really deceiving. Enjoy your book, happy sewing!

I learned to sew with this book and have had great sucess. I just bought the new book "Sew On" to progress my sewing and the patterns and projects are amazing! I have learned even more techniques with the new book and I still use my Sew Fast Sew Easy book for reference. I'm really happy with these books from Amazon.

The book is probably best for true novices. I was never much of a sewer and it has been 30 years since I've sewn anything more than a button or hem. I thought I'd need to review the basics, but this book was too basic for me. i was hoping that it would refresh the basics, but lead me a few steps beyond. I can see where it would be helpful for those who are just starting out, so I can't find much fault with the book itself. It was just not what I need.

I am completely new to sewing, so new that I had no idea how to cut out a pattern. I found a few videos on YouTube that explained how to pin the pattern to the fabric and then start cutting. Anyway, the good things about the book are that it's a very quick read because it's so small, and it does cover most of the basics like getting to know your sewing machine. However, I would recommend Sewing 101 in addition to or instead of this book, as it explains how to lay out the fabric and how to cut, etc. Sewing 101 and Home Decor Sewing 101 have better photos and illustrations of the different steps in making an item, i.e. a pillow or a shower curtain or whatever, and I appreciate the detailed step-by-step illustrations that these books provide.

This is a great learn how to sew book for first time sewers, very easy to understand.

Very hard to read - boring and not very concise. I had to purchase this for my class. Would not recommend this to anyone

If you are an enterpreneur and you want to know how to price your product, don't look any further this is the book you are looking for. The chapter about costs has an MBA level and it will give you a lot of good ideas of how to improve your busines operation.

I updated from the 2nd edition I bought years ago. I'm glad to see the focus on value-based pricing. I was a little disappointed that it gets a bit repetitive on calculating price changes and it would be useful to see more examples on calculating the initial price when you really don't have much data to go on.

This book is one of the best in pricing. It is used as a textbook in business schools and highly recommended by consultants.
Unfortunately, it took 10 days to arrive using standard shipping.

I have spent over 30 years in computer software sales, pricing, and terms and conditions. This book resonates with me, specifically with it's emphasis on sustained company profitability rather than get rich quick pricing. It's comprehensive, not specialized to any specific product set or industry, and nothing I read failed to make sense to me, based on my experience.

If you are interested in this topic, there is no better work I know of to give you both practical and good theoretical advice.

I am suggesting to use more serious images.
Take off the dwarf from the images.

Easy and fun to read with a good-size text.
The information presented is very useful and more detail can be found on the author's detailed website.
The book also lays very flat for easy reading while walking on my treadmill.

As noted I love anything Dr. Oz has to say. As a doctor's daughter, I relay on these books and find them a great read. He and his partner have truly made me look forward to a healthy long life ahead. I only wish my dad could have benefitted from their wisdom and his heart disease could have been curred.

There is so much information about our body, diseases & fitness on the internet that most of us would think that we do not need to read another book on our bodies, hmm, well think of it again - do you really understand what and how does our arteries get clogged, what might cause cancer, or did you know that exercising more could actually do more harm ...

I used to think that I am well read about my body, not until I read this book - some of the most common ailments and body functions are so well explained with diagrams that you will never get this information on the internet - not on wikipedia, not on webmd - you may find lots of information, but not in a way in which we can understand.

The book may seem silly at times, grouse at times, but a very informative and helpful book if you are planning to be live a healthy life on this planet for a couple of years/decades to come.

How did this book help me:
- Understood more about heart diseases & cancer
- Importance of flavinoids in our diet
- Importance of drinking good amount of water for many common ailments
- Controlling stress is a more important than anything else and cannot be stressed enough
- Exercising more can be bad (limit to 30 mins per day) - alternate between cardio, stretches & weights
- Importance of deep breathing
- Free weights are better than machines

& lots more

I'm having a very hard time with this book. I've started and stopped reading it about dozen times already in the past 2 weeks. My problem? There is a lot of good information in here (really!) but it gets lost in the constant barrage of sarcasm and jokes inserted by the authors to (apparently) make it "entertaining". For me, the sheer number of jokes starts out as annoying, and finally becomes so distracting that I usually have to put the book down after about 20 minutes.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about from page 176 under a heading of "Mouth":

"The food-consumption process starts right here--in your body's food processor. Though opera singers, politicians, and courtside fans are known mostly for what comes out of their mouths, what makes our mouths so special is how we handle what goes into them. For starters, consider you mouth to be like the guy who buckles you in on a Ferris wheel--it's there simply to prepare the food for the journey."

The paragraph then goes on to describe crocodile teeth and elephant teeth, but I'm so distracted with thoughts of "what do opera singers and Ferris wheels have to do with MY mouth?" that I'm no longer learning, I'm ruminating on low ratio of information-to-jokes in the text. (Out of the 7 sentences in that paragraph, I felt the relevant information could have been boiled down to 2.)

Like I said, the book has a LOT of good information. If you are someone who can filter out all of the "noise", you'll get a lot out of it. However, if you're like me, and find all the sidebars distracting, it's a grind.

This is an absolutely wonderful book to help both the child with Asperger's and his friends and relatives. Not only does it explain in easy to understand language what may happen under stressful situations but how difficult situations may be successfully addressed. As Grandparent's of a 12 year old grandson with Asperger Syndrome we highly recommend this book to teachers, family, and friends.

This book is a fantastic tool to use with family, friends, school personnel and your child's classmates to help explain in very easy terms what asperger syndrome is and how others can help the person with aspergers have a happy and fulfilling life. I have read this book to my son's last three classes since he was in 2nd grade, and it has really helped the students in each class better understand him. He is well liked, much better understood when his behavior might seem "different" or "odd" to the neurotypicals in his class, and one of his classmates even told her mom she was sure Jack would never be bullied because I have read this book to his classes and everyone loves Jack. I really can't say enough about this book. I have given copies to my son's case managers, teachers, one on one aides, school library, special ed department and countless friends who also have children with aspergers. I highly recommend this book!!

This is a good book. Short and very discriptive. With good helpful tips. I have a 7 yr old but, I didn't have him read this yet. I don't think he would get it yet. But, later it will be good for him to read. It is a great tool to let teachers read to help them understand your child with Asperger Syndrome. We are new to this and it was helpful to me.

This is another excellent book for children and adults to read to better understand this growing problem for children, especially boys. It is another book that should be at least on the shelves of upper elementary and middle school libraries.

It is important to remember with any book you purchase regarding Aspergers and Autism that people on the Autism spectrum are not "cookie-cutter-cases". Each person is an individual and no book will cover ALL aspects. This book is written in a childs voice and is very easy to understand. Are you going to walk away from reading it profoundly enlightened? No. Are you going to have a more simplistic understanding of the day to day situations and life of a child with Asp? Yes. I purchased this book for my son's grandparents, his older brother and for him. It gives him a voice and something to relate too (not on all issues, but most). The book is extremely easy to read and fast. I read through the entire book in under an hour while helping my son with his homework. A great addition to your personal and lending library.

This was given to me as a christmas gift and is my cookbook BIBLE!!!!!!! EVERY recipe I've tried here has made me feel faint with bliss, yes, every single recipe I've tried has been rediculously tasty, this man is genius at combining flavours. Try the poussins with sundried tomatoes and chianti whatever it was called oh my god you won't be sorry, I ate nearly the whole pot whilst my husband barely got a look in, I just couldn't help myself. The fifteen christmas salad is so, so tasty, and the port chops with apple stilton and sage were utterly divine. If I'm entertaining and need really impressive food, this book is ALWAYS my first port of call.

I got this from my brother for my birthday (although at first he refused to get it because he hates when chefs "use their own name in the title of their cookbooks", but I'm so glad he caved.) I've started looking more for cookING books rather than cookbooks, to teach me different techniques around the kitchen and it's really a fun book just to sit down and look through. It includes great "how-tos" from picking out meat to differet kinds of chopping, it gives definitions and uses for different herbs and spices, and it does include a ton of very delicious looking recipes. I haven't tried any yet but soon! I can't wait.
If you're the least bit interested in cooking, I highly recommend this book.

I fell in love with Jamie Oliver during reruns of his show on Food Network. He's the everyday guy who gives back - and seems to really know how to cook casually. So, I probably would have rated this book higher (particularly since the proceeds go to such a good cause), but for two things:

1) I bought Tom Colichio's Think Like a Chef at the same time

2) There is a big difference in how europeans cook - or at least, how Jamie cooks that will probably mske his book less appealing to aspiring American cooks than other book options (not that it doesn't have appealing ideas)


Here's my best example (from a veggie, fish lover): Both Colechio's book and Oliver's have a very similar recipe: Basically - Salmon cooked in sea-salt. Jamie's has a whole fish, eyes and all (and recommends not cutting the fish). Tom's uses a salmon filet. Jamie talks about how to buy the best fish and types of fish, Tom talks about basic techniques you can build upon to create great dishes. I prefer Tom's "no eyes" on my fish and shrimp approach.

Both books are laden with colorful pictures of the finished dish, and step-by-step instructions... Oliver's is filled with dishes that don't look particularly appealing. (Could be all those whole fish - and seemingly over-cooked veggies). Tom's is filled with "starter" recipes you build upon - that look scrumptious. (Pan roasted mushrooms - YUM!)

For REAL cooks (I'm a novice's novice) this may be fine. Some of the basic instructions on herbs, creating a salad, diagrams of meat cuts, what equipment you need for your kitchen and Jamie's unpretentious style - still make Oliver'sa worthy choice for a novice chef. Other, more ambitious illustrated topics, like how to deal with a squid, make other starter books a better choice for true amateurs.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're looking to learn cooking - this has some good insights - but you may be turned off by the European flavor of receipes. Between the two books, for a foodie amateur chef, Colichio's is a better choice. Or --- just grab both for a whole education.

I will always have a soft spot for Jamie because he was the chef that inspired me to become a chef myself. His casual let's make this fun style of cooking got me off the couch watching his show, and into the kitchen with his first book back in 2000. I have every single Jamie Oliver book, including the English version of Jamie at Home that will be released here in October (which I also love). I think Cook with Jamie is the best organized and most broadly informative of Jamie's books. He pretty much covers everything- from great dressings, to cuts of meat, to how to fillet a fish. The explanations of techniques are informative without being overwhelming or daunting. The photography is, as usual, gorgeous. And the recipes I have tried are all great: potato and horseradish salad with bresaola, summertime tagliarini (lemon, olive oil, parmesan, parsley and pine nuts), crab linguini, grilled spatchcocked chicken with new potato, asparagus and herby yogurt, pan fried scallops with lentils, pancetta and lemon crème fraiche, shrimp cocktail with marie rose sauce- you get the picture. You simply cannot miss with this book!!!

I like this book tremendously. I'm somewhat of a collector of cookbooks and this is one of my favorites. It has full color pictures of all the recipes, which work with precision every time. (I've already had three people ask me for the Shortbread recipe and I've only had this book a month or so.) I also enjoyed Jamie's tips, such as shaking salad dressings in a jar to emulsify instead of whisking. The attached ribbon bookmark is handy too. One of the main things that I like is that it doesn't take 30 ingredients to make one of the recipes. It's broken down to the basics and the flavors really exhibit themselves. The sections are broken down well into categories such as Fish, Pasta, Custard, etc. There are a few negatives that I've found with this book however. Firstly, Jamie Oliver seems to promote his devices and other books a bit too much for my taste. Secondly, the pages are thin and seem very fragile when splattered with water. Lastly, and perhaps it's an English thing, but he seems to use terms such as "a pinch", "a slight cup", and "a dash" quite a bit. I'd much rather have precision. Overall a very knowledgeable, refreshing read.