News and Media Books

(My review is on Thoreau's Cape Cod rather than this specific edition).

While some literary critics seem to slight this work by Thoreau, saying that it is not as "powerful" as his other works, etc., I personally find this one very enjoyable. Sure, it does not have as much "philosophizing" as other books by him, but it is full of humor and very fun to read. The part where he describes the old man spitting into the hearth is particularly hilarious. The part about him sleeping in a lighthouse is also very funny. It lets us experience the more jovial side of Thoreau. This is probably one of the easiest to read among Thoreau's books.

Published posthumously, this volume is surprisingly consistent and complete (unlike "The Maine Woods" which is chopped into three different parts), it gives one the feel of walking along the entire cape, although the materials are quarried from several different trips. One only wish Thoreau had lived longer and had seen the West, imagine him taking a trip in the Sierra! Oh, well, meanwhile, we still have this one to enjoy.

Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850, and 1853. These trips formed the basis for a series of essays, several of which Thoreau published in magazines. After Thoreau's death, the essays were gathered together and published as "Cape Cod" in 1865.

Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is different in tone in theme from his earlier books. The tone is leisurely and light. Instead of solitude or the wild woods, the picture that remains with me from this book is that of a long walk, or, as Thoreau puts it, a "ramble" through the sand and dunes of Cape Cod. The book is picturesque, full of humor and wry observation. Thoreau unforgettably describes the ocean, in its storms, vicissitudes, and moments of peace, the fish and the fishermen, the sands, birds, plants and lighthouses of Cape Cod, and the people. I have visited portions of the Masachusetts coast, but I have never been to Cape Cod. Thoreau took me there in his book.

The book is arranged into ten chapters. It opens with a description of the shipwreck of the St John on a rock off the Cape. Thoreau then describes a ride by coach across the Cape. But the heart of the book lies in the following chapters in which Thoreau with a companion walks the 30 mile beach from Nauset Harbor to Provincetown with many stops and diversions along the way. I felt the salt air and saw the fishermen and the sandy beach as I walked with Thoreau.

The most vivid characterization in the book is in the chapter "The Wellfleet Oysterman", as Thoreau describes a grizzled, taciturn, and ancient native of Cape Cod and his family who offer him hospitality for the night. Another memorable chapter involves the description of the Highland Lighthouse, no longer standing, and its keeper. The stops with the Oysterman and the Lighthouse punctuate Thoreau's long walks through the day over the beach and his meditiations about and descriptions of what he finds there.

Thoreaus walk ended at Provincetown, on the northernmost portion of Cape Cod, with its wood walkway, shanty houses, and ever-present scenes of fishermen, boats, and drying fish. Thoreau offers what I found an affectionate portrait of these hardy fishermen and their families. Following a description of what he found at Provincetown, Thoreau offers a great deal of historical background on the exploration of the Cape, from the Pilgrims reaching back to earlier French, Icelandic, and English explorers.

Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a worthy companion to his books describing his experiences inland, on Walden Pond and on the rivers and woods of New England and Maine. It is beautifuly written with unforgettable descriptive passages. It made me want to get up and go from my life in the city, and over 150 years after Thoreau wrote, wander and walk for myself along the dunes and sands of Cape Cod.

This hardcover edition from Peninsula Press is unquestionably the best available edition of Thoreau's Cape Cod, for these reasons:

1) While all other editions are based on Thoreau's journal entries from only his first three visits to the Cape, this edition includes an epilogue compiling Thoreau's notes from his fourth and final visit, in which he traveled south to Chatham and Monomoy.

2) This is the only edition to translate the many, many Greek and Latin phrases Thoreau includes throughout the work, and it is also the only edition to provide illustrations, maps, and sidenotes in-text.

3) This is the only indexed edition ever created.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of both Cape literature and Thoreau in general.

This book details the flora, fauna and people that Thoreau found in Cape Cod in the 1850s. Thoreau organizes the book around a single trip to Provincetown, although much of the material that he uses in the book came from various visits to the Cape, and to the ocean in general. He starts with a description of a shipwreck at Cohasset, then a stagecoach ride from Plymouth, then a walking trip with a companion along the outer shore to Provincetown. Along the way, he describes not only the plants and animals he encountered, but also the people who he met. The book finishes with a lengthy academic historical account of the discovery and mapping of the Cape.

I found this to be the most humorous of all Thoreau's work. The character sketches he provides in this book, sharpened with his trained eye for observation of natural phenomena, are legendary. The cultural description of the Cape and its environment is quite fascinating for those interested in the history of daily life in 19th century Massachusetts. As Thoreau describes the desolate, treeless desert that made up the far reaches of the Cape, one begins to comprehend what it meant for an economy to be based on wood and whale oil for fuels. Thoreau stresses how valued driftwood was for residents of the Cape, as one of their main sources of heating and cooking fuel. Doubtless, he would not recognize the Cape today with its lush new forests. Or its Wal-Marts--switching to an oil economy has brought mixed blessings for the Cape. For those who think Thoreau to be a humorless didactic philosopher, this book shows a very different aspect of Thoreau as a writer.

You will forget about the outside world when you read this; nothing but sand, wind, and water. Plus some natural history, local folklore, a few shipwreck tales. Typical Thoreau; he finds beauty, interest, detail in the wilderness. The desolate landscape will help to clear your mind. Highly recommended.

It matters not your station in life. Whether you are a business professional, working journalist, high school or college student or simply a concerned citizen we are all looking for ways to better inform ourselves about the pressing issues of our time. There is so much information available on the internet but I suspect that most of us rely on just a handful of websites to keep us abreast of just what is going on.
This is why I found James F. Broderick and Darren W. Miller's new book "Consider The Source" to be so exciting. What we have here are critical reviews of 100 of the most important and influential news and information sites on the web. In my view there is hardly a person out there who would not benefit from perusing this book.
What Broderick and Miller offer in "Consider The Source" is a treasure trove of useful material about how to best access information on the web. Just to give you an idea, the authors review websites covering news, sports, entertainment, science, medicine and more. They critique each website for design, content and accessabilty and are careful note any bias they might discover. Obviously, many of these sites have a point of view and the authors deem it important that their readers understand this.
Happily, Broderick and Miller do not limit themselves to sites that originate in the United States only. "Consider The Source" offers reviews on news and information sites from Britain, India, France, Australia,Ireland and even Asia and Africa. In addition, you will see reviews of various U.S. government websites such as the Library of Congress, CIA, FBI and NASA. Some absolutely fascinating stuff there! In the list of 100 websites, the reader will find the familiar as well as a number of hidden gems they have probably never even heard of. Of this group I might recommend to you a site called The Onion. Hilarious!
As I read "Consider The Source" I jotted down the sites I would be interested in bookmarking. Not surprisingly, I came up with a list of more than two dozen. The fact is that I had never even heard of many of these sites. Still others were websites I had never even accessed before.
"Consider The Source" is written in clear, concise language that just about everyone can understand. Not a lot of jargon here! Reading this book is absolutely time well spent! I would not be surprised that if the authors chose to issue updated versions of the book from time to time. I highly recommend "Consider The Source" to everyone!

Consider the Source provides clarity among the internet chaos for readers like myself who depend on the Web for news. This book provides a "yellow brick road" leading to an honest evaluation of news and information sites on the web. Miller and Broderick have given readers an invaluable guide to the most accurate internet news sites.

Where can you get the news you need, and how can you keep up with it? A professor of journalism and a working reporter combine forces to produce a critical A-Z guide to the best - and worse - news information sites on the web, offering 100 critical reviews paired with a 5-star rating system. From learning the motives and bias behind different sites to considering alternative sites and news press and how they operate differently from mainstream media, CONSIDER THE SOURCE: A CRITICAL GUIDE TO 100 PROMINENT NEWS AND INFORMATION SITES ON THE WEB is a pick for both college-level collections strong in media studies and general-interest lending libraries alike.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is the first book I have ever seen that gives the public direction on which news sites to visit. The Web has created content overload, but who to trust and who to devote limited time too? That is what this book has done. And it is not a boring look at Web sites, but instead brings each site to life and goes in depth on how they operate. I love the ranking system and especially was interested to see that many sites I never considered before were ranked so highly.

I can see why this book is promoted to students, journalists, PR professionals, and news hounds - but I'm none of the above and still found this book a great find! I, like most people, find myself going to the same sites over and over and was looking for something to expand my Internet reading list. There were dozens of sites that I had never heard of and have now been placed on my Favs list. Definitely got my money's worth on this one!

Chad Arment, with Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation, has formalized the study of "cryptids" (defined as "an ethnoknown animal for which concrete evidence does not yet exist," p. 20). Arment really works to pull form and function together in studying cryptids, discussing the scientific method, the basis of proof, and other philosophical issues related to studying the "known but unknown" (my phrasing).

Here are a few of the gems in this book:

"All cryptids are folkloric. ...Cryptids are folkloric because they are ethnoknown - they occupy a place in an ethnozoological scheme even through they are still unverified by science" (p. 56).

"There are too many stretches of uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land for anyone to be adamant about the non-existence of large unknown species in North America" (p. 86).

"The overall process of cryptozoology is straightforward: 1) recognize cryptid, 2) Gather information on cryptid along with pertinent environmental and ecological characteristics, 3) Determine a means of obtaining sufficient physical evidence to confirm or refute the existence of a previously unknown biological species" (p. 94).

"Before we can determine whether an account is cryptozoological, we first investigate the possibility that the sighting is a hoax, misidentification, or social fabrication" (p. 94).

"Let's be honest - there is a lot of misinformation, poor speculation, and outright baloney in many books" (p. 106).

"Cryptozoology is concerned with a very small proportion of those unrecognized species - those which have enough salience to be noticed, distinguished, and described by humans prior to scientific discovery" (p. 128).

"Cryptozoology is discovery science, not research science. This seems to confuse both enthusiasts and critics alike" (p. 136).

Arment takes the reader on a search for a number of species in North America. Some, for example the "great naked bear," he describes as probable misidentifications. Others, including the "long-tailed wildcat," he does not discount so readily.

There are a disproportionate number of "cat-like" and "primate-related" cryptids in North America. There are probably some interesting psychological reasons why this is so.

I first became aware of this literature in reference to the "Maui mystery cat" that had state biologists searching for a "black panther," obviously a potential release. However, the "evidence" was surprisingly slim, and the physical evidence in every case did not corroborate with the "ethnoknown" evidence. Why?

I also enjoyed Appendix I in Arment's book about the techniques for searching for cryptids. This was a reprint of a 1960s brochure ("Suggestions for the Obtaining of Larger Zoological Specimens for Scientific Study") written by an Ivan T. Sanderson. Mr. Sanderson was very serious about detailing these techniques with the tools at hand at the time, and noted "A Submachine gun is very effect [sic] especially if it has a short barrel and a large carbine. With it, you can chop down the biggest target and then administer a decent Coupe de Grace" (p. 353). Today's cryptozoologist would be much better off using the techniques found in the book, Restraint and Handling of Wild and Domestic Animals, by Murray E. Fowler.

This is an important book for the serious cryptozoologist.

Rarely has there been a more critical yet constructive look at cryptozoology, its definition, methodology and direction. Chad Arment has written a most intelligent and noteworthy tome which honestly faces some of the dilemmas that plague cryptozoology and finds means to honestly correct and address them. Comprising two parts, science and speculation, the first part is immensely enlightening.

This book contains sections on building scientific and logical foundations for investigative methodologies, underlays this foundation with an ethnozoological starting point and then discusses the rationale, methodology, feasibility and credibility of cryptozoology.

It is remarkably scientific and yet at the same time eminently readable. Arment's logical and intelligent viewpoints are intellectually stimulating.

The second party focuses on speculation, but what speculation this is. He reviews the prospects for animals as diverse as Long-tailed bobcats, the Pennsylvania "gorilla" and the West Virginia Roc.

Also included is Ivan T. Sanderson's treatise on Suggestions for the Obtaining of Larger Zoological Specimens for Scientific Study.

I thoroughly recommend Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation as an indispensible part of every cryptozoological and orthodox zoological enthusiast's library and as a most valuable reference source.

The writer of this review is the President and Editor of the British Columbia Scientific Crytozoology Club and its Quarterly.

Very professional; highly intellectual and scientifically sound writing. An excellent text for any scientific library collection.

This book sits squarely between Loren Coleman and William R. Corliss on my bookshelf. Crypto and anomalous readers will be impressed with this book and should not hesitate to buy it. The effort Chad put into authoring this book will quickly become apparent. The documentation is flawless. You will find new material covering Snakes, Cats, Hominids and Birds. I found the chapter on "Boss Snakes" fascinating! And if you are a fan of Loren Coleman's lists in many of his books, the appendices and bibliography in Cryptozoology, Science and Speculation will not disappoint! Also, be sure to check out Chad's website http://www.strangeark.com/ , where there is seemingly endless reading material.

Chad breaks down Cryptozoology into the nuts and bolts of science.
All new Bigfoot hunters, (and quite a few present ones) should read this book. It breaks through the barriers of BS and folklore, and explains the scientific method in great detail!
Books like this one will propel Cryptozoology into the mainstream!

After reading The Witch's Daughter, I picked this up. WOAH! This one was really good, It was a very good addition to the series, I still don't understand why they cancelled this series after only 8 books!

Cade Merrill is seventeen years old and the owner of a website, theblairwitchfiles.com. After his cousin Heather disappeared while filming a documentary on the Blair Witch, Cade has used his site as a means of gathering information on the unexplained events that take place in Blair Woods.

When Cade is contacted by photography student Laura Morely he initially dismisses her claim that she feels she has a bond with Heather. However, Cade finds himself drawn to her, and soon he has invited her to Burkittsville. At first, Laura comes across as enthusiastic, intense and determined, but Cade quickly discovers that lurking behind his initial impressions, there is something wrong with Laura. A trip to the ruined house of a serial killer causes her to experience strange visions of the owner's childhood. The photographs she takes prove to Cade that she is telling the truth, but Laura's behaviour rapidly becomes more erratic and out-of-control. As her visions reveal more about the dark secrets in the past of murderer Rustin Parr, Cade must discover the link between Laura and the serial killer before tragedy strikes again.

The fact that I haven't seen the movie itself didn't stop me from enjoying this book. The story is faced-paced and suspenseful. I recommend it as a great horror story for teens, but it probably wouldn't be suitable for any kids under twelve years old. ....

i dont usualy read books but as soon as i read the blurb i couldnt put the book doun!it was amazing and it had wonderful diskriptions i felt like i was almost ther since i read the witches daughter i carnt get enouf of the files in fact it only took me 4 houers of one night to read!i hope there will be more books from cade merril because he is a wonderful writer and im shur many feel the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Blair Witch Project leaves you wondering what really happened. This book does the same. What do you see, or is it all your imagination. The story is about a girl who does not understand why an old, recurring dream draws her to Burkittsville to go on a hike to Rustin Parr's house. A few good twists and an awesome look into the past events of Parr's life, if all of it is not just crazy hallucinations. Pick it up...!

I was unsure whether I was going to like The Blair Witch Files 2: The Dark Room because I hadn't read any previous books by author Cade Merill. But, as it turned out, I found this book to be simple to follow, its not like a sequel, just really one great book by itself. The writing is at times repetitive, but all elements of the story lead up to a well thought-out climax. All the characters have numerous sides to them, it gives you something to think about after reading a few chapters. And not to mention the freak factor! The Blair Witch Files 2: The Dark is probably the scariest book I have read in a long amount of time. You can see all the terror in your head after some chapters, but, like the characters, you're forced to keep going because it's the only way to find out the mystery.

Harlan Coben's short story "Entrapped" is about a woman whose husband goes missing. When she arrives home from the police station, she finds an imposter husband waiting for her and the charade begins.

All of the stories are filled with common elements that make for a great mystery; secrets, deceit, love, lust, drama and of course the most important ingredient, murder. Readers will find at least one of their favorite writer's works and be able to sample several new writers as well.

R. L. Stine tells a tale of a murdering best friend who's left with his victim's "talking" dog. The dog witnessed the whole murder. That, combined with paranoia and guilt, makes for a well written and very imaginative story.

A few of the writers that readers will look forward to include Lee Childs, Ridley Pearson, R.L Stine, Laura Lippman and P.J Parrish.

To sum the book up in one word that would be it, Fantastic!! This is such a wonderful collections of stories. Each story different from the other but all keeping the same themes. My favorites were Safe Enough, Home Front, Till Death Do Us Part and Entrapped. However all were fantastic. I recommend that you get this book, you will not be disappointed.

Anthologies of short stories by different authors are usually a collection of a few gems, a few all right stories and a few fillers. Death Do Us Part is a collection where all but two are great reads, they are not all masterpieces granted, but there are more than the usual number of those as well. I was interested in this book just to read Coben's story Entrapped as I had not read it before when it was first published in 1997, and its pretty hard to come across Mary Higgins Clark's Mystery Magazine let alone that edition to read it anyway. Coben is not the only great author here, so many others have written great tales and the other authors are all freshly published as well. Like all great short story collections, Death Do Us Part gives the reader a chance to sample authors they've heard of but never read before as well as introduces to them lesser known authors to add to their lists of future reads to track down. There's also a brief and very helpful summary of each author at the end of the collection, so those looking know where to begin.

In reviewing what the stories within are about I'll start first with my favourite ones (undoubtedly your list would start differently). My list starts with the editor and Coben's story Entrapped. A wife reports her husband missing to police only to discover he is at home. Only the person at home does not look or sound like her husband but he is the same guy the police show her that is in the photograph she gave them. Is she going insane? Could he really be her husband after all?

Wifey a story by normally child and young adult author R. L. Stine proves to the world that he can write sensational stories for any market. Wifey is the nickname Jake a neighbour of Frank the owner has given Frank's dog Ruby since they behave like a married couple and are never apart. Jake hates dogs, but is ecstatic that his neighbour entrusted him to inherit the beast as it showed to the world what Frank thought of their friendship. Ruby though makes Lassie look like Forrest Gump and will stop at nothing to avenge her master's murder.

Till Death Do Us Part, Tim Maleeny. The title story of this collection is the great tale about the sixtieth anniversary of a feud between an old couple who do not believe in divorce. They are both extremely intelligent and every year play the "fair play", dinner game of trying to poison the other through each others dishes.

Lee Child's Safe Enough has a guy from the city taking up work on houses in the country where notices a beautiful women. He stalks her and discovers she has a violent husband When the husband disappears he is the only one who can prove the wife was not around the murder scene when it happened but obviously he can't supply this news to the police to prove her innocence as they will want to know why he was stalking her.

The Home Front by Charles Ardai is set in America while World War II rages on in Europe. Too old to go to war Ray Harper is a government agent who catches petrol retailers selling rationed fuel on the black market. One such arrest is Rick Kelly who is killed in Harper's car as Harper was giving Kelly a lecture about how his actions are helping Hitler and why isn't he over there anyway etc instead of watching the road. Sacked by the government and with injuries Harper is down on his luck and one the streets. Luckily he comes across a kind woman who offers him food and board if he helps her run her garage.

The Last Flight by Bredan DuBois has a man booking a joy flight in the type of plane he flew in the war over the ocean to scatter his wife's ashes and obtain closure.

A Few Small Repairs by Jeff Abbott has a hospital ridden father who is dying a slow painful death asking a son he had disowned to help him end his life.

Blarney by Steve Hockensmith is the tale of a few drinks at the pub by a group of writers after a conference where they run into one of the only non boring speakers. This old Irishman offers to teach them what it is to be a writer if they buy him a pint.

The Masseuse by Tim Wohlforth is the story of a man whose dream comes true when his masseuse offers to cook and pleasure him in exchange for food and board and a bit of spending money while she studies for a new career.

Homecoming by the mother and son team pseudonym Charles Todd, has a wife of a guy fighting in Europe during World War I discovering an intruder in her house, however even though she knows he's there can never seem to find him so wonders if stress is making her go insane.

Part Light, Part Memory is an African slave girl's story of her thirst for vengeance when her father was hung for looking at the American master's wife.

Queeny by Ridley Pearson is the tale of a guy whose wife attracts the attention of a man while running in the park which she tells him about. The wife soon disappears.

One True Love by Laura Lippman is the story of a high class prostitute who is recognised and blackmailed by a parent her son runs into while playing sport.

The Cold, Hard Truth by Rick McMahon is the tale of a rural police office recounting the story of how he first met death row prisoner Jesse Brashear and the cold hard truth that good people can do bad things.

Cyberdatedotcom (note Amazon ridiculously keeps replacing the actual title with [...] so that's as close as I can put) by Tom Savage is the chat room transcript from a dating website where two under aged kids take a liking to each other.

Pushed or Was Fell by Jay Brandon has Walt a loner, meeting a girl, quickly marrying and setting out on cruise ship honeymoon then realising he doesn't love with devastating consequences.

One Shot by P.J. Parrish has Stuart returning to visit his old home which is now for sale and reliving the traumatic changing event of his life.

Heat Lightning, William Krueger although readable is one of the lesser quality contributions to this collection. A story of a guy who is having an affair while his wife lies in a coma in the bedroom upstairs.

Chellini's Solution was the only story I don't really think is worth reading, it's about an Italian guy whose enemies gloat as they tell him his wife is cheating on him and of course the actions he takes afterwards.

This is a great collection of short stories and one you'll want to keep forever. Not as good as this but still a good recent collection of similar stories to these I've read is Dangerous Women, edited by Otto Penzler.

This anthology of 19 truly great mystery stories is presented by the Mystery Writers of America (a fine association of not only authors, but readers too!) is edited by Harlan Coben. It is as perfect as an anthology can be.

Each of the nineteen stories is from an established writer. Most have won or been repeatedly nominated for various awards. No warmed-over, previously published material here: all nineteen stories are original. Nor are there excerpts of the writer's novels: this stuff is fresh and new. Coben wisely doesn't present the author bios until after all the stories and much to credit of editor and authors alike, the bios aren't pure puffery and hyperbole.

I can't tell you what my favorite was, because all nineteen stories are terrific. Jeff Abbott, author of "Panic" and "Fear", two fine thrillers, sets up a tense father-son-wife story. R. L. Stine provides something of a "shaggy dog" story that involves love in a strange way. Harlen Coben presents a story of a very crafty wife. Tim Wohlforth contributes a gem about a man's ideal relationship that leads to an unfortunate bit of snooping. All nineteen stories are simply great reads.

Oh - and if you didn't guess already, all nineteen stories are true to the cover blurb: they involve love, lust and murder.

Good stuff. Not to be missed.

Jerry

Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (09/06)

"Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust and Murder" is a must read for anyone who loves stories about mystery, misery and murder. Harlan Coben, the editor, brought together some of today's best mystery writers to create this book of 19 short stories, including one of his own "Entrapped". As Coben tells us in the introduction, most of these stories are going to end badly for at least one person, maybe more. The commonalities of the stories end there.

"Queeny", written by Ridley Pearson, is a story about a famous mystery writer whose wife is brutally murdered and he is mistakenly forced to stand trial for it. After what has happened, no matter what the outcome, and I won't tell you what it is, no one can win. Then there is the City electrician in "Safe Enough" by Lee Child, who moves to the country to be with a woman who is suspected of killing her husband, but did she really?
A few war stories come into play, the most poignant one being "Home Coming" by Charles Todd, a story about an English woman who becomes frightened of her home because it feels like someone has invaded it while her husband is away fighting in the war. AND, the most chilling story of all is Cyberdate.com by Tom Savage, which is about two teenage kids (are they really who they say they are?) who meet on the internet and the boy finally convinces the girl to meet in person. How many of us live with that worry about our children doing exactly the same thing? Revenge is even thrown into the mix with stories like "The Last Flight" by Brendan DuBois.

My two personal favorite stories were "Till Death Do Us Part" by Tim Maleeny and "Wifey" by R.L. Shine. "Till Death Do Us Part" is a about a chemist and botanist celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary by each preparing a meal for the other. What is on the menu turns out to be the surprise. "Wifey" is a dog who witnesses the brutal murder of her master and is forced to live with the murderer afterwards. Wifey does not take this lying down.

Other contributors to this collection of great stories are Charles Ardai, Bonnie Hearn Hill, Steve Hockensmith, William Kent Krueger, Rick McMahan, P.J. Parrish, Tim Wohlforth, Jeff Abbott, Jim Fusilli, Laura Lippman and Jay Brandon. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it highly. The short stories make it great for reading before bed, taking to the beach, or if you have small children and frequent small slots of time to read.

Kent & Wertime's 'DigiMarketing' provides a great overview of the marketing landscape, which has been continously disrupted & reconfigured by innovative technologies, creativity, & business models. The authors not merely present the current trends of digital marketing along with great supporting references, but also concisely articulate the business implications of these trends & how digital marketing elements can be effectively integrated to traditional marketing initiatives. Such holistic views & insight would enable readers to unearth hidden business opportunities that can be capitalized thru digital marketing initiatives.

Excelent book. Authors seems to realy understand the subject well and have put them into an easy to understand book.

Highly recommended for anyone who is in the field, and wanting to understand a lot more about the subject.

This book provides an excellent overview of the emerging trends in the digital marketing age. It's a must read for marketing professionals looking to capitalize on advances in technologies. The authors did a great job explaining the marketing relevance of a myriad of new digital technologies without getting into all the technical details.

I hope the authors continue to update this publication as the industry is moving at warp speed. One area I'd like to see discussed in more detail is the role of Mashups in Digimarketing.

I found the discussion of consumer mashups both interesting and informative but how about enterprise mashups that mashup data from sources other than publicly available web sources? A good description of the difference between consumer and enterprise mashups can be found at: [...]

DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing

Great book. Highly recommended. Really captures many of the most important trends and technologies that are shaping electronic commerce. I have seen many of these same issues, trends and cases in other publications and books but DigiMarketing brings them all together in a highly educational manner. This is a MUST READ book for anyone who wants to stay ahead of these crucial trends

I have been looking for this kind of book for years. The term "digimarketing" immediately caught my attention. I have to thank the authors for taking the courage to write this easy-to-be-obsolete book. Wertime and Fenwick did a very good job in making all the techincal stuff become so easy to understand to most marketing managers who don't have deep technical savvy. I also love the beauty of how this book is organized. Yet what I like most is the last part of the book where you are guided to bring everything to a step-by-step implementing plan.

It is no doubt that "digimarketing" is increasingly important versus traditional marketing. It is now already "mainstream" as emphasized by the authors. Those marketing professionals who do not pay enough attention to digimarketing will soon find left far behind. And for small business owner like me, this book is extremely helpful. It captures in a very friendly manner everything that I had to read and consolidate from a dozen of other books on the similar topic. I will start implementing what I read right now! Strongly recommended!

Perfect book for a Dora lover. Pictures are inserted wtihin the sentences so your child can read along and particpate with you!

My daughter and I love to read this book together. It is nice and short. My daughter is also learning to spell because of the simple and repetitive words in the book.

My two daughters (ages 2 and 4) request this book be read--at least once a day (along with all the other "Ready-to-Read" books we bought for them). They especially get excited when it's time to go under the sea with Dora. I think this book is probably geared toward the preschool/beginning grade school set. It has big words and colorful pictures. The stories are simple and not too long.
Certain words have little "pictographs" with the word that it's for directly underneath it in smaller print. I suppose this is to help the child learn to read these certain words. Since my daughters are still pretty young (the oldest is now just learning the sounds different letters make; she already can recognize all the letters), we haven't really tried to use these little pictures in that way. Although, we've read this story so many times to them that they "read along" by reciting from memory certain parts of the story. All Dora the Explorer books are great fun for the kids because it involves them in the story much like the TV show does.
I highly recommend it.

My son absolutely loves this book and so does his 2-year old cousin. He enjoys looking at the pictures to "guess" the word and it makes him feel like he's really reading the book. This is his favorite book and wants to read it every day.

We like "Dora in the Deep Sea". My children like it because it has a pretty good story and because it is about Dora, Boots and Pirate Piggy. I like it because it is a good read-aloud, has lots to point out and talk about, and because it allows for a different sorts of interactivity depending on age.

In that regards, Amazon suggests this book for the 4 to 8 age range, but I think it is much more versatile than that. For example, for babies you can read the story and talk about what animals are in the picture and what color they are. [There are seagulls, a variety of silly fish, octopuses, sea anemones, eels, crab, starfish, clams, stingrays, turtles, lobsters, whale, squid, frog, snail, fox (Swiper) and sea horses. There are a great many colors to discuss as well.]

For older toddlers and preschoolers you can `enhance' the story experience by moving your finger over the text, stopping at the `icons' with the intent of letting them fill in the blanks. My children get excited by this because it gives them the sense that they are beginning to feel apart of the `reading'. And if our experience is any indication, they learn that text flows from left to right and top to bottom.

Advanced preschoolers and kindergarteners on up can then begin to use the book for its stated purpose. They can begin to read it themselves. Most words are small: I, am, this, sad, will, the, and help. Although there are harder words for sure: Hooray, swipe, friend, something, clownfish, pirate, and pinch.

Four stars. A pretty good story (see previous reviewers fine summary) about the popular characters from the "Dora the Explorer" TV show. It can be used for babies to beginning readers. It engages children in the flow and process of reading, i.e. how it is done.

Although Eating the Plates focuses on the Pilgrims' eating habits, it is about a lot more than that: this intriguing text gives the reader an intimate portrait of the Pilgrims and how they survived, beginning with their crossing on the Mayflower and highlighting their struggle against starvation in a harsh new land.

It makes a lot of sense to focus on food - as one of the Pilgrims' primary concerns, their entire existence depended upon successfully raising and preparing food. Penner makes it crystal clear that the Pilgrims would have never survived without Squanto's help - but her book is thankfully devoid of the overly apologetic, sappy treatments so often found in contemporary discussions about the Pilgrim-Indian relationship. Penner deftly loads her concise text with interesting-sounding "Pilgrim" terms (i.e., burgoo & plum duff) and sensory information that awakens (and sometimes assaults) the reader's senses - food, mixed (metaphorically) with all those stinks and smells and bugs are just the thing to grab a young reader's attention.

There is, additionally, a complete Pilgrim Menu at the end of the book - although, like Thanksgiving today, this menu is probably quite a lot more involved and diverse than an average day's meal; nevertheless, it provides a glance into what the "real Pilgrims" were eating, and offers a number of simple, kid-friendly recipes (written for modern-day cooks).

There are not a lot of illustrations, but enough to support the text adequately, and the Pilgrim portraits are particularly interesting, giving the reader a few faces to imagine around the table.

I bought this book for homeschooling my 7 year old. Read half of it to her last night and didn't want to stop reading! (our eyes said otherwise.) I could read this to her in the same style as a fiction adventure book - the author did such a smooth wonderful job with her prose! I wish all history books were like this! This book is full of history and fun facts. It starts with why the Pilgrims wanted to go to the US, the hardships they faced, how they dealt with things (like bugs on food - eat in the dark), what they used, etc. The child is introduced to all the key terms (Pilgrims, Religion, Dutch, Mayflower, Mayflower Compact, Plymouth, etc.) and key people (Carver, Bradford, Squanto, Massasoit, (sp?) etc.) and is filled with ink drawings that supplement the child's own images. Although my daughter is a good listener, I did not expect her to be entralled with this book but she loved it! The book results in a lot of "cool" "ewwwww" and "i didn't know that" comments and easily leads to conversations comparing then and now....

Funny, I bought the book for fun to add to a cookbook collection and books on manners, restaurants, etc. (yes, there some cute recipes in the back) thinking I would only pick out some cute facts to share...very pleased and very surprised at the wealth of information in this book that is easily translated into a youngster's understanding in such a lively manner!

Excellent and highly recommended for homeschoolers!!!!!!!!

I bought this from our public library this summer at one of their book fairs per a friends
recommendation. I have not been dissapointed. My first grade daughter read a chapter
every night and we brought "Pilgrim food" to her school when it was her turn for snack.There
are recipes in the back of the book for you to try.
You haven't lived until you have seen 1st graders try "Swizler- a drink the Pilgrims
called "refreshing". Water, ginger, molassesa and vinegar. And yes, it tasted
as vile as it sounds. However, the kids talked about it all week. My daughter's
favorite chapter was one of the early ones which talked about the Pilgrims Mayflower
voyage where they would sometimes eat in the dark so as not to see the bugs in
their food! Captivating and a great information for all grade levels. And by the way
the book got it's title because some of the Pilgrims would make their dinner plates
out of bread (remember, they only had so much room to take things onto the Mayflower)
and then eat them. Then they didn't have to do the dishes. Of course sometimes they
would re-use them (no, they didn't wash bread plates, ugh!!!) and when they became
too hard, would feed them to the pigs. BUY THIS ONE!!!

I couldn't put this book down until I was done. Although it was a mere 107 pages long, it was full of fascinating tidbits. My 3 children (ages 3 to 9) begged me to read more from the book as a reward for getting ready for bed in record time! This will be a book that will be in our collection from now on! Never before have I had such a healthy respect for the brave Pilgrims of Plymouth. Eating the Plates will add a special dimension to our study of the Pilgrims.

This puts that first Thanksgiving meal in context: it's a fascinating story of the Pilgrims, their voyage to what would be Plymouth, MA, and the first hard years there. My five and six year olds sat rapt and silent for the whole thing, and it's a long book. Early American Pilgrim life was cold, buggy, stinky, and the kids had to keep wolves away from the precious planted corn hills, using a pile of rocks to defend themselves and the corn. Great, great book. I'm so sick of the usual twaddle: this one earns its stars.

If you're only looking for a 12 animal astrology book, than you might want to look somewhere else for Tri Lam's Encyclopedia of Chinese Astrology surpasses all of those. However, if you want a comprehensive "sky chart", palmisty, face reading, 12 animal astrology, feng shui, and I-Ching book, than this book is just right for you!

With step-by-step instructions, Tri Lam gives you a comprehensive outlook within the realm of tradtional Chinese/Vietnamese techniques of divination (I do not use this word lightly), than this book is your guide. Now, you will not become an astrology reader nor a palm reader after reading this but you will definitely get a sense of the field.

I have almost every single Chinese Astrology book out there but not one can ever come close as this.

I have read numerous books on Chinese astrology and this is the best book. It is simple, straight forward, concise and yet comprehensive. I highly recommend it for anyone who has an interest in any aspects of Chinese astrology.

Chinese sky chart opened my eyes to the real Chinese astrology, this method is widely used by the Chinese and Vietnamese communities, but I have never read any English book about it, because there aren't any on the market until this one. There are so many and many Chinese astrology books talking about the Chinese horoscope of the 12 animal signs, it's time for a real one -- the Chinese sky chart. Bravo! The Chinese way of reading the face is also very special.

Chinese sky chart (Zi wei dou shu) is practiced within Chinese community all over the world but is never mentioned in any Western literature, this is the only book in English which gives a clear and easy-to-understand analysis of this complicated technique. Buy it, if you want to know the authentic Chinese astrology method used by most Chinese people, it's amazing, not like the other methods you have heart of. The palmistry section is very detailed with many graphics to show you the lines of your hand. A very good book.

I noticed that with the Sky Chart, he's missing the "scale/measure of your life" when counting the birthdate and time. It's a number that tells you how your life is whether you will end up a poor, average or rich person. I think he explains that in the Palace of Life section, but in Chinese/Vietnamese culture, there's a number that you come up with when calculating the birthdate/time. The lower the number, the worse off you are, the greater the number, the better.

I was hoping that this "comprehensive" book would tell me about the "scale of life" because I can't read Chinese or Vietnamese text. There is a great website for Vietnamese readers that deals with this. It is quite truthful.

This "scale of life" number is very important and I wonder why he didn't include that?

Overall, it is a good book though, just wish he included that info.

-I should know, I wrote for it.

Trust me, this is the most comprehensive and in-the-know guide to New York City's not-so-underground sexual nightlife. From stupid frat boy thrills and overpriced beer at Coyote Ugly to the dungeons where only the hardcore scary people go, you'll find what you're looking for between these sparkly pink vovers. A few of the places have closed down, and few have moved, and a few new ones have opened up, so maybe we can write a sequel...

I got this book as a gift from my co-workers for my birthday...cover is cheesey, but, the reviews are pretty open-minded (ie, a dork like me can understand it all and the writers don't talk down to you). I learned about a lot of cool/scary stuff that goes on every day in my neighborhood... like the cake store that makes cakes in the shape in penises...

There are lots of books claiming the mantle of sexy style, but this one actually delivers. Unlike some of the imitators, this is the 2nd edition of the original book that uncovered New York's sexiest spots. This one packs even more sultry ideas into a book you can slip in your pocket, or anywhere else your imagination desires. It's a fun read, well-written, and will supply you with ample ideas to heat up your summer in the Big Apple...

If you wanna know what's hot and what's not in the Big Apple, this is the book for you. Whether you're just looking for a night out with the girls (or boys), curious about a sexual subculture, or a committed decadent who's just moved to town, "Erotic New York" is in-depth, insightful, knee-slappingly funny, and supremely helpful.

This latest installment of Erotic New York is large enough to include the exciting skinny on all the sexy places you've always heard about but never gotten up the nerve to check out; and small enough to stick in your back pocket. I like to keep in close by when I go out. My friends and I have been referring to it mid-evening, closing our eyes and randomly selecting our next venue...a fun game when you employ the "no turning back" rule!

This book is fun to read and dare I say educational.