Independent Books

Regardless of being outdated the books a classic. As soon as I bought the book I could not put it down I read it from top to bottom non-stop. This book is an easy read and very applicable. I highly recommend this book to gain greater insights in the Music business or any business. It was a great buy along with a couple of manuals purchased from Musicbrains.net entitled the Indie label Kit on Amazon, Music business 101, future of music and Guide to releasing an independent record part 2 by Tim Sweeney.

This is the book you should read before you quit your day job and embrace the life of a record label owner. The advice is solid, well written and practical. It's a little old now (not much on-line marketting info) and its kinda rock oriented (not that it matters much). If you haven't put out a succesful release yet you need this book. Its a good guide for those just starting out. I wish I had read it 5 years a go

This book has basically introduced the recording business clearly, but not in depth. It is a very nice book to start the business and get an overall picture of the music industry, although it is a bit outdated.

The language is friendly, simple and descriptive; specially in the first chapters where certain facts and terms are being introduced to novices, which makes it easy to undrestand.

I am aware that a 2nd volume has been added to it which I haven't seen & I hope it has talked about internet sales & new markets more.

As a whole short & easy-to-undrestand guide, it is a very helpful book to indie artists who wish to gain an overall undrestanding of the era.

I've read this book, and as an artist myself, I can see now how to keep more of the money for myself now, and stop worrying about all the industry "rules" for success. Also, as a small business owner of over 10 years, I can see the marketing value here. This is zigging when everyone else is zagging. The industry has created a set of rules that are purely fabricated to make the record companies and consultants more money.

This book is about how to keep more for yourself and stop giving away what you make. Apparently there are independent artists that make far more than most major label artists - and the major labels would love to sign them. However, who in their right mind would give up all that great income, and sign it away to a record company who will give you practically nothing in return, except maybe some fleeting fame at best. Regardless of whether you agree with Tim's approach, he's onto something here. It isn't the music your fans buy, it is what you give them in your music. Writing formula songs, and dressing sexy, may seem to sell records these days, and the industry swears by it, but it is fleeting. True lasting music artists build relationships with their fans, that is all Tim is trying to say. The mechanics covered in the book are necessary, but it is the true artistry that makes it work.

This book gets five stars for challenging the status quo, and moving all that talent wasted by the industry gorillas into action, and in competition.

A side note: Tim has decided not to reprint this book. He has sold all of them, so this book is going to get scarce. I have all of his publications and this one is the only one with specifics of CD manufacturing and other details not covered in subsequent publications.

While Tim Sweeney's Guide to Releasing Independent Records is incrdibly insightful and helpful, at times I think he directs his suggestions more towards bands than singer-songwriters or indie artists. Also, I found that a lot of the expenses or investments he encourages, for example buying t-shirts and GIVING them away for FREE, don't really pay off, & aren't practical for most day-job struggling individuals. Definitely, these suggestions aren't for musicians on a budget. He attempts to suggest how to get the cash(loan or family), but he doesn't take into account that most singer-songwriters never really reap the profit from their expenditures (that or it takes a LONG time)... thus have to be careful.

However, he really knows his stuff, & I got a lot of things out of his book. Good stuff.

A lot more useful information is available on the internet free of charge. Jon Markman is a master when it comes to creating stock screens, alas they are totally useless in the real world.

This guy has cost a lot of people a lot of money in the stock market. Fortunately I wasn't one of them. And yes it was their fault instead of his. But many are seduced by his methods since the implication is that winnning stocks may be selected by purely mechanical methods. The sections that deal specifically with the internet and how to find information are ok but the infomation is easily available elsewhere. The rest is not really up to par but will probably pass most people's inspection. Please just be skeptical and wise and realize that to take advantage of mechanical stock picking schemes requires a great deal of money or a fund of some kind. Statistically one may make money on the pot but buying a highly rated subset is seldom wise.
Also, using a little money to buy the pot almost always results in unacceptable transaction costs.

Markman's "Online Investing" is out of date, the author writes of Available Excell spreadsheets(reason why I bought the book) at some mythical appendix site that are not currently available,(1-1-2006). Markman did not respond to emails concerning same spreadsheets! lynn

Jon Markman's concept seems great, but in real life he (or anyone else) can't seem to get it to work.

Just read the first 2 chapters and you'll realize that this book is all about hindsight and probably would be very dangerous in a downward or sideways market.

He states that in 1998 & 1999 one of his model portfolios returned a 55% annual return from 1986-1999 with a standard deviation of 58%. The risk/reward ratio was too high so he tweaked it and now the results showed a return of 75% with a standard deviation of 72%. But in 2000 this model went down 39%. So he tweaked it again adding a NASDAQ market timing function where the NASDAQ has to be up a certian # to even decide to use the model. He keeps on tweaking a supposedly good model when something fails - which means if you've already used the model,you've probably lost money.

In his first chapter he talkes about the advantages of "model portfolios" that perform better because human emotions are not involved. Markman's mentor seems to be James P. O'Shaughnessy, as he mentions him in chapter 1 (author of "What works on Wall Street", "How to Retire Rich" and "Invest like the Best") - I have all three books. James O'Shaughnessy talkes about model portolios and backtesting scenarios that beat the S&P over 20, 30, 40 years.

Too bad "Online Investing" was written in 2001 because if this "model portfolio" thing really worked, why has Mr. O'Shaughnessy's mutual funds (which are supposed to buy stocks on successful back-tested models) performed so poorly? - Just look at any investment site to see his returns. Recently I read that he just sold his poorly performing funds to another financial firm. I guess the king of model portfolio's can't get his funds to follow his "historical performance".

One of the only nice things about "Online Investing" is that for a new investor, Markman narrows the masses of investment sites out there to a quality few. Use your own investment ideas and research them with the sites he point out. You'll probably make a lot more money

After reading the first few chapters and skimming throught the rest of the book, I realized this is a waste of time. I didn't finish the rest.

If you are considering purchasing a book to get you started in online investing, Markham's book is worth a look, but his advice should be taken with a great deal of skepticism. I have used Markham's recommendations to invest in stocks from the middle of 2000 through the middle of 2001 (when I liquidated my portfolio). Unfortunately, I cannot in good faith recommend this system for a novice investor (like myself), as I lost 65% of my beginning investment using this system exactly as specified.

There are several major problems with Markham's investment strategies for the novice investor, but most notably, there is a lack of discussion of risk and return, and an overemphasis on the use of these mechanical systems without what I consider to be proper testing. Markham only uses data that goes back 14 years (to 1986) to test this system. Why? Given the poor performance of these models over the last year, it's probably because these systems perform badly prior to 1986. I am not accusing Markham of being dishonest, but the narrow window of time over which Markham monitored the performance of these systems is suspect.

Using the Supermodel system requires the purchase of a significant stock spread, usually 10-15, to minimize risk. Most beginning investors do not have enough capital to invest in this number of stocks, and will select two or three, which substantially increases market risk. Beginning investors with less than $20,000 to invest are far better served by investing in broad index or even sector mutual funds.

I should mention two additional red flags: (1) Markham used to publish the results of Supermodel picks, but once the models started doing badly, MSN removed these results from the visible public view. They may be on the website somewhere, but I am hard pressed to say where. (2) Many of Markham's own stock picks have largely turned out to be atrocious money losers.

Caveat emptor!

Lou sometimes says goofy things on his CNN show, who resemble blonde-haired, blue-eyed humans.. Now, strangely, But I acredit that to, you know, his being on live.. Now, strangely, This is the message the aliens have given to me.. However, I figured his book would be more calculated uh, and thought-out, and things of this nature. You see, I have greater things to do. It was, the Great Mothership, but, uh, at the same time a lot of the book could've been culled straight from the show.. Even as I speak, Things like this.. Ultimately, Though I often agree with his criticisms, who resemble blonde-haired, blue-eyed humans, I still wish Dobbs would provide more s'far as alternatives go.. Ultimately, Things like this.. Now, strangely, Give us some more details! Still, the Nyptonians, it's an enjoyable read, and things like this.. Now, strangely, And despite what it, the aliens would say, lacks, the Nyptonians, it, the aliens would say, is, so to speak, moving in the right direction as I see it, who resemble blonde-haired, blue-eyed humans.. Now, strangely, It'd be good to, you know, break down excessive government and to, you know, secure our borders.. However, This is the message the aliens have given to me. Chocolate candy! ... oatmeal cookies - oatmeal cookies! Soda pop! Orange soda pop! And we be eatin' like dogs, man. For a while, anyway. But we also need to, you know, restructure the immigration process so that it's more easily within the reach of those would-be-immigrants who choose to, you know, enter the U.S. legally. O Qua Tangin Wan told me he like Dobbs last book better.

Another reviewer said it, and I concur: this book describes the problems we have, but does not offer much in the way of solutions. Yes, illegal immigration and drug abuse are problems. No argument here. But what should we do? Dobbs does not say. I also think--though I generally agree with his positions-- that he is too inclined toward protectionism. This book is good enough to read, but not quite good enough to buy.

CNN's Lou Dobbs, who has exposed such little
charlatans as Morris (gag,swallow) Dees and
other maggots, clears the air on why the Dem-
opublican and the Republicrats really are the
'The Evil of Two Lessors' and should be avoided
like the plague! If only he'd quit beleiving in
the 'hoax of the twentieth century' and stop us-
ing the incorrect word'democracy' (folkes, he re-
ally means 'Constitutional Republic'. But these
are small complaints when he screams on his show
five night a week at that 99-i.q idiot at Penn.
Ave. "You Go Lou"!

This book was very enjoyable, but scary. What will happen to our country if our leaders continue in this manner? I agree with Lou Dobbs and he is not afraid to say it like it is.

Lou sometimes says goofy things on his CNN show. But I acredit that to his being on live. I figured his book would be more calculated and thought-out. It was, but at the same time a lot of the book could've been culled straight from the show. Though I often agree with his criticisms, I still wish Dobbs would provide more s'far as alternatives go. Give us some more details!

Still, it's an enjoyable read. And despite what it lacks, it is moving in the right direction as I see it. It'd be good to break down excessive government and to secure our borders. But we also need to restructure the immigration process so that it's more easily within the reach of those would-be-immigrants who choose to enter the U.S. legally.

Personally, I like Dobbs last book better.

This book, while seemingly inappropriate for someone in my position (I'm running as an MP in the UK election) has many, many parallels. Making friends, pressing the flesh, wearing sexy cheerleader outfits. These will be factors, I hope, that my rivals will overlook. Victory is assured.

This is a good book, it gives you a lot of ideas, and ways to make a great campaign. but don't get suckered, this book, and no book will win a election for you! I am the Student Council President, but i didn't win the election because of this book, although it helped. Consider this book as a friend, and not as a GUIDE.
The good thing about this book, is that it has many suggestions, but the bad thing is that if you think about it, there are just 100 suggestions, because each suggestion is written over, and over again, but with different words. But 100 ideas can be really helpful if you have no idea on how to start a high school campaign.

You may be wondering if this book is worth your money. Well last year I bought this book when I was running for Student Council President. I had some really tough competition (on top of being the only girl) but with the great ideas and positive outlook I got from this book I won the presidency! I was so happy I personally contacted the author (Jeff Marx) to thank him! And, on top of that, I have been re-elected as President for the next year! Get the book, it helps, really it does! (Jeff, sorry it took so long to write this! I switched e-mail accounts!)

I'm sure you have that little voice inside your head Right now saying should I buy it? Or shouldnt I? Theres no way im going to win, I'm not even popular.If thats you, you definetly should buy, How To Win a Highschool Election by Jeff Marx.In this book, you get over 1,000 ideas on what and what not to do from students just like you and me who have won thier Highschool elections...

This book tells you what has worked and what has not. Jeff Marx polled student body officers to find how they won their positions. Then he categorized the stories into this helpful guide. This book will not just help you win the election; it will help you win friends. Elections are popularity contests.

Need Jeff's help in a hurry? Amazon ships in 24 hours; specify overnight shipping and you can have it in two days.

As the author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles, I am very impressed with the way Jeff wrote and published this valuable book. END

To many Americans, the CIA and KGB are things of a James Bond movie. Lots of sex and violence with the KGB being at best stupidly evil. In addition,many Americans today think of the CIA as almost more of an enemy to the Republic than Moslem terrorists, the Chinese, or the resurgent Russians. Far too many people today blame the CIA for not having clearer information about Iraq or worse actively plotting with the 'Government' to get us into a war.

This book of Bearden and Risen though, is one that both popular historians and casual reader alike can get into. They show that often intelligence services make educated guesses on fragments of information that may or may not be compromised by the enemy. Concerned with a period of global turmoil that was surprisingly governed by understood rules of intelligence gathering and other activities, this book brings the reader into the world of the CIA. Far from the James Bond style killing and counter killing by the Allies and Soviet Empire, it was one of limited violence between the two principal powers. A busted or captured agent was interrogated briefly and put on a plane for home, no killing and seldom more than a mild roughing up.

The dying days of the Soviet Empire were ironically the period that that the KGB (with help from American traitors like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hannsen)had wiped out most of the CIA operatives in Russia. The Americans had been sent home and the Russian agents of the Americans killed. The US had virtually no human intel assets behind the Iron Curtain. This is some of the most interesting parts of the book, seeing how much damage a couple of American traitors did as we blindly tried to understand what was going on. The bewildered KGB agents simply cannot believe their Empire is collapsing while they have gotten the upper hand over their Western enemies.

Bearden's insider accounts need to be taken with a grain of salt but his recounting of that period and the US efforts in Afghanistan are informing. Many of us who have studied the period or were in the Armed Forces knew in a general manner what was going on, but seeing the CIA somehow keep Congress on their side while turning on the heat on the Russians in Afghanistan is a both a pleasure and source of wonder. One does not have to think hard to wonder what our present Congress would have done in similar circumstances.

This book illustrates a critical period in our history. Depicting intelligence services being blindsided by events is something critics should remember happens far too often. No intel service of any country has a 100% batting average, not even the legendary Mossad of Israel and that is something Congress and the American public too often forget.

I read this regular book, here in Brazil.This book was writen by two CIA's men.This book is about the last years of Cold War.The years between 1985 and 1991 are the focus of this regular book.
The failures of this are:
1-Has too much space dedicated to Afghanisthan.
2-This book is very biased.
3-Even having some little paragraphs about years, before 1985, this book almost talks about 1985 and 1991.
War in Afghanisthan wasn't so important, in Soviet Union's defeat.The real thing was that socialism was defeated in Afghanisthan, years before Soviet Union invasion of Afghanisthan.As a source of lives, Afghanisthan killed (in almost ten years) just about 15,000 soviets, against more than 23,000,000 just between 1941 and 1945.The authors were in afghanisthan and they use this experience as a big part of this book.
As a external way to broke Soviet Union the fall of oil's price, between 1985 and 1986 was a sucess.Soviet Union paid its food, from oil's money and money from weapons selled to oil's exporters.When the oil's prices fell between 1985 and 1986, Soviet Union became a crippled country.And this fact has too little space in this book.
This book is too much biased.Aldrich Ames made so much calamities, not just because of himself, but because of CIA's failures.Before of CIA's men, the CIA's agents are americans, having the american failures.To search for confort and happiness are americans, but they can be a calamity, because spies are to be looking for duty, not confort.

Good book. Gives unique insights. Shows to what degree the heroes in the CIA go to protect this great country.

There's lot of spy vs. spy folklore here but it's presented in a format that really jumps around, making it unnecessarily confusing. The story of the CIA's operations in Afghanistan could have made a separate book and doesn't fit with the rest of the more familiar spy games. In fact, that book has already been written- Ghost Wars, the Pulitzer-Prize winner by Steve Coll. It seems like Bearden wasn't sure whether he wanted to write an autobiography or a history of CIA operations.

This reads like a Tom Clancy novel only cheep. We have seen this story before in many spy movies. There is little substance and a lot of editorializing (which I thought was a bit heavy on the US side). At one point the author tells us the CIA boss was so wonderful even the KGB studied him for his professionalism. PLEASE!!!

What can I say? I've read all the Mankell books I can get and find them superb and Wallender, the protagonist, a man I'd like to know. Thank you, Henning Mankell.

My first Mankell book was a good experience. Now I'll head for others that appeared earlier in the series. The details about small town Sweden were interesting, and the introspection of Wallander readable and pertinent to the story. The plot, unfortunately, is also believable in this day and age of computer geniuses (genii?). Who knows what will happen? The interaction between Wallander and his co-workers helped bring the plot along, though the final relationship between him and Martinsson was not worked out well. A question about the English version: does Mankell really write in such short, choppy sentences, or is this the work of the translator? Not exactly Hemingwayesque, but leans in that direction. And I never got the answer to why one of the victim's two fingers were cut off. Anybody know? But a good read for a long vacation time.

The cases that Kurt Wallander has to solve are becoming more and more complicated: a dead man is found at an ATM and at the same time a taxidriver is molested by two teenage girls. What is the connection? At first glance nothing, until one of the girls escapes from prison and is found dead and the corpse of the ATM man disappears from the morgue and is found back at the location where he was originally found. The dead man is an IT-expert and Wallander, who hardly knows how to turn his computer on and off, hires a young hacker to find out what the IT-expert was doing. And meanwhile Internal Affairs threatens to start a case against Wallander because he hit a suspect, his colleague Martinson tries to take over his position and he gets a reaction on an ad that he has put in the paper to find a wife. In the end the cases are solved, but Wallander and his team can barely prevent a worldwide disaster.


A wonderful book, but it is understandable that after this book Mankell stooped writing about Wallander: Wallander is deadly tired and constantly wondering whether he can still do his job. Say goodbye to a hero...

I love the Kurt Wallander mystery series. No, serioulsy, I LOVE the books.

But this book rehashed everything previous WAY too much. Also, there were just glib references to things that could have been real life changers for our protagonist (e.g., diabetes) that were never fleshed out. Then there's the whole aspect of KW becoming a grumpy old man.... but again, since these are largely procedural novels, showing the process would be good... And then the end didn't wrap things up the way Mankell usually does. I'm hoping the next one is as good as all the previous ones...

If you like police detective novels that have a dose of realism in plot and setting, the obsessions of Mankell's Inspector Wallander provide a fine antidote to the usual run of serial/maniacals. The mystery is composed of subplots that come together slowly until they quicken as the end nears. What drives the plot is a larger-than-life, computer-enhanced doomsday clock, but Wallander's family in and outside the office give a strong sense of the man who makes it all come together. The brooding and well-realized town where the story takes place seems like the home you always wanted to run away from.

Undoubtedly, the best work on the Masonic, Jewish conspiracy there is. Hoffman's work is original, unique, hard-hitting, and something one can read repeatedly, and always find something new.

Hoffman takes the reader from the dark cauldrons of John Dee to the occult trail of Route 66, to JFK to Son of Sam. This work is a refreshing, fascinating look at the modern world from a traditionalist perspective. The author is obviously extremely well-read, and understands the current state of affairs better than anyone else I've seen. This is not your typical Alex Jones, David Duke, Pat Buchanan look at Zionism and the new world order slave state. This book thoroughly covers the occult ritual all of us have been taken on, by OTO Satanists to Judaic Kabbalists, to an American people that have been repeatedly psychologically raped by the inner sanctum of political witchcraft. This is a look at the inner workings, the darkest objectives, the most psychotic, mind-boggling demonic events that are "out of style" for discussion amongst the latest wave of 9-11 neophyte truth-seekers.

The reader can only leave this book with a completely new world-view, even if you already thought you had it all figured out. Even if you are not a Christian, this book will make believe in the supernatural, because only someone completely possessed could be responsible for the hell described in what I consider to be Hoffman's best work, "Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare" -the number one book on the Cryptocracy.

Because I study collegiate history and mystical orders, secret societies and such, I thought this book and "revisionist history" would be interesting. However, this book is poorly researched, and the terminology is inconsistent. Having previously studied many of the subjects and organizations mentioned in this book, it is easy for me to see that the author either only skims or deliberately obfuscates both the terms he uses and the connections he professes to exist between various organizations and agencies.

The author must have only skimmed the surface of the organization known as "The OTO," because he makes no differentiation between the legitimate, legally recognized OTO (see book: "The Equinox: The Review of Scientific Illuminism : The Official Organ of the O.T.O. Number 10") and the "Typhonian OTO" of Kenneth Grant. There are several supposed "OTO" organizations, several of which are very misleading.

The author of this book attempts to obfuscate the fact that he refers to several "OTO" organizations as one organization; this is absolutely false, therefore he either needs to do much more research or he is deliberately making stuff up.

I also found that his usage of the term "Twilight Language" makes no sense, because he obviously has not studied the various aspects of what he attributes this term to; in other words, he attempts to apply the term to several different incompatible scenarios. He stretches shaky concepts and fills empty research with gleaned fodder from conspiracy theories.

There is no question that he neglected to properly research the OTO, yet he does mention some interesting people who actually were connected with the legitimate OTO (such as John/Jack Parsons).

This entire book can only be taken with a grain of Salt, however it is interesting, and could be a decent book if it were properly researched instead of thrown-together in such a sloppy manner. The photo copies are so blurry that they add nothing of value to the book. Mimeograph copies would be easier to decipher--the pictures mostly look like ink blots.

Over all, this is a very poorly written book, minimally researched, and the photos are abysmal; however, those with more knowledge may be interested in acquiring this book as a good laugh, and a collector's item. The author's conclusions and theories are highly dubious, silly in many cases, but entertaining.

If you purchase the book as part of a Truth Quest, you will be highly disappointed, because it is mostly bunk; however, if you purchase the book as entertainment, and for the subcultural context, this can be a fun read.

The author cannot be taken seriously, yet the book could lead to personal research, by branching off his work, following names and organization names the author uses. The overall impression I had was that the author was trying too hard, and adding too many layers of justification for his theories (because they are weak); the more he adds on to the original premise, the shakier his foundation becomes. More than anything, however, he completely undercuts any validity by blatantly mixing up facts; this can easily be verified by doing a few Internet searches. He simply lumps various groups together as a whole, thus undermining his own attempts to convince the reader. Clearly defined organizations are thrown into a blender by the author, thus resulting in mush and nonsense. Also, a trend that I am seeing in this genre is that authors will make a statement about Charles Manson, then tack-on a completely unconnected statement about the OTO, in order to trick Lazy readers into thinking the two statements are connected. This is an old trick, and follows the tradition of using outdated (proven false) nonsense such as The Leo Taxil Hoax which permeates Anti-Mason and Anti-Occult writings.

Much like authors who attempt to use false premises such as the Baphomet Taxil Hoax to promote Anti-Masonry and Anti-Occult rhetoric, this author uses false techniques to attempt to trick the reader into mentally connecting two independent statements about different groups into one visually constructed (misleading and false) statement, through word construction tricks.

This is a light read to be taken lightly, and with a grain of Salt.

Interesting book. As above, Vigoda got it right. Read this book on a dark windy night and wonder what tomorrow brings.

The other reviewers pretty much summed it up already: This book is THE classic. Read in combination with the other classics: Rule By Secrecy by Jim Marrs, Behold a Pale Horse by William Cooper, The Carnivals of Life and Death by James Shelby Downard, Programmed to Kill by David McGowan, Lucifer Dethroned by William Schnoebelen, etc. And find out, for one thing, what everyone is talking about, and also, who is controlling the world, how they operate, and how they communicate to people in the know that they are there operating. Hard to explan, go ahead and read to find out. Becoming fleunt in translating the cryptocracy's twilight language definetely adds another dimension to perspective, and to existence. If you think that Skull & Bones members like George Wanker Bush are good Christians simply because they said so in front of a Fix Noose Fox News camera, then maybe you should start thinking for yourself a bit. I thought the Bible said not to kill, let alone by the thousands of boatloads. Many people seem to think of the few elitists controlling and demolishing the rest of the world as saints, strange opinion on your part. How about you find out how they are nomadic pedophocratic satanists with no national obligations whatsoever? Pop yourself out of the matrix, through the rabbit hole, reclaim your own mind and keep in mind, billionaires with nothing but time on their hands communicate occassionally to us lowly commonfolk, albeit in a sick and psychotic way. Start here. For uninitiates and Inititates alike, the real deal, 10 stars.

Was so excited at the premise of this book, but could not stomach it after a couple of chapters (VERY rare for me). A pro-life, Christian agenda slithers beneath the surface. Very irresponsible, opinionated "journalism".

This is an excellent book for anyone working toward raising a child to be an effective, responsible person. Not only does it put manipulation into a cultural context, but it also speaks to the need to develop values and personal responsibility in children and adolescents. The authors do a great job of analyzing motives and weaknesses and they also offer practical advice on how to accomplish the goal of raising your children to be effective adults.

You can analyze and criticize this book but proof is in the pudding. I followed the principles taught in this book and with some follow through and commitment, it worked! This is not a light weight "how to" book. It is about principles, honesty and self responsibility and how to pass those values on to your child. The title of the book doesn't do it justice. As one of the previous reviewers suggested, it could be titled "Guide to Non-Manipulative Parenting".

A better title for this book might be "The Anxious, Overly Reactive and Overly Involved Parent: How to Regain Control of Yourself and Raise Resilient, Resourceful, and Independent Kids," but that title is probably even more off-putting than the real one. The advice and methods are straight forward, uncomplicated, and just common sense. Most of the best teachers and parents I know use something very like stop/pause/redirect to teach their students and children to manage themselves.

To those reviewers who complain that the book is padded with too many examples, I think most readers want examples in parenting books because they provide a framework for applying the parenting advice. The most difficult thing about stop/pause/redirect is that it requires time and patience, and the authors do caution parents not to try it unless they can commit themselves to making the time (and managing their own behavior well enough) to be consistent.

Where to begin?! My head is spinning with the amount of information and introspection this book provides. If you enjoy the payoffs of getting to the root of issues, this book is for you. The payoffs are sometimes right there and simple to achieve and some may require more persistence. If you prefer a life with little growth, confrontation and self awareness then keep watching tv, eating drive-thru fast food and most of all, forget this book.

Nothing worth while is ever easy, but the work done to get great results shows you that you're strong enough to stick it through. When you crack this book open, its a bit like opening Pandora's Box. You will find that each member of the family plays into the behavior we're trying to stop (avoid). If you can't take a bit of self-criticism, you'll miss valuable clues into the drama at hand. The book is not direct in the sense that it openly says 'parents are idiots and do everything wrong', but speaks to us in a gentler way by describing how our being manipulated serves something within ourselves as well.

So, as much as we would like to focus on the child (which this book does), we also need to run a parallel thought process on the hand -we- play.

There are 'assignments' provided which invite you to delve deeper and become better at identifying what you've just learned. It also provides clear information to resolving manipulation behavior and its fallout.

Its refreshing to read a book with such emphasis on self responsibility and integrity. I'm so happy I ordered this book, I think lessons learned will bleed over into other aspects of my life and allow me to improve at parenting and myself! Time to stand up and be the parents our children need us to be!

Another reviewer commented that this isn't for every kid because some kids aren't the same "The book does not addresss children who do not fit into the box". I think he's wrong- I have one of those impossible kids that tests EVERY thing you say and has skillfully found every weak point in our parenting styles and is so energetic that he doesn't stop ALL day long. The authors are dead-on- and the solution is easy but takes lots of consistent effort and time (and cooperative parents). This book has been an eye-opener for how much manipulation takes place on the part of us as parents and how my child learned to out-manipulate us to get out of doing things, for example: "I'm too scare to walk upstairs by myself to brush my teeth", etc. We basically train our kids to get what they want because we often are at a loss (and afraid/tired of dealing with their outbursts) of how to consistently set limits (do we send our kids to time-out, spank, or make reward charts, etc). These authors point out these are all methods of manipulation that just teach our kids to out-manipulate us, the behavior returning once the "reward/punishment" is gone. In three days I have been at "war" with my son- constantly on him to do what I ask- using the stop, pause, redirect method. By day 2 I asked him to please go upstairs and brush his teeth- inside I was weary and afraid he would say no- but you know what happened? He says, ok mommy- and walked right up the stairs without a word of how scared he is. My job was to acknowledge his accomplishment as if it was expected of him "good job, you did it"...
whewww, I am so happy to finally feel like I can do something about his behavior that has really affected the happiness of our family - and child!
good luck, and please try this out! I recommend this book because it works!

Just do qbank or qbook. Don't buy, don't borrow, don't waste your time.

Hopefully you have more time than that. I took my step 3 in 2005, used both NMS and Qbook for questions and review, given this edition of NMS was published in 2002 and Qbook 2004, and I was paranoid. But if I only had time for one question book, I'd prefer NMS, as Qbook tends to go into too much detail that I probably would not need to pass my exam, and NMS really did a very good job in the explanations.

Do you need Qbank? I didn't get it because, 1. it is very expensive; 2. it lacks the flexibility in studying as it requires you to sit in front of the computer; 3. it can be very tiring, as if I no longer feel bad enough that I had to dish out $600+ for the test and sit through 2 days of exam; 4. after step 1 and 2, I really do not need to familiarize myself any more with the computer interface (NMS also comes with a computer question format along with the hardcopy); 5. Qbank is pretty up to date if that's a concern. And I have always wondered if the questions overlapped between Qbook and Qbank. I wrote to Kaplan, they never wrote me back.

Now, hopefully NMS will come up with a newer edition soon, otherwise if you are taking your step 3 in 2006 or later, you may want to think twice. However, I will still give this a 4 star in 2005.

Regardless of what one prefers to believe, physicians tend to be, on average, of only slightly higher intelligence than the standard person. As such, most of their learning is obtained via the same methods as the general population: repetition and forced, timely recall. I invoke this bit of information in order to provide an appropriate frame for the flavor of my review.

"Review for Usmle Step 3" is essentially a question bank--and it is a colossal one at that, with 750 questions available spanning five examinations. The questions are of the "single best answer" variety, with a few negative (i.e., which of the following is NOT...) inquiries thrown in the selection. Following every examination, there is a question-review section, within which evidence is outlined for why one answer is right and the others are incorrect.

There is also a CD-ROM included with this book--encoded within it is a software program with which one may practice the same questions present in the book on their computer.

I found this book to be an excellent resource for self-assessment prior to sitting for the USMLE step 3. The five written tests were a great way for me to home in on my weak areas, as every question explanation includes a mini-legend which demarcates the question's medical discipline focus (i.e., OB/GYN, internal medicine, pediatrics, etc., or some combination).

This medical-discipline-area information enabled me to do some rough calculations as to my knowledge deficit in each area. Before I challenged the next practice exam, I would "bone up" in the discipline in which I calculated myself weakest. It was in this way that I was able to review weak areas systematically, instead to just "reading everything". There are several online question bank services which perform this same evaluation automatically, but none can claim that they provide this information for $40!

There are several caveats:

1. The book is somewhat dated.
2. Some questions drift from the case-format seen in a majority of USMLE Step 3 items.
3. There are too many questions per case (up to 5 or 6, while the USMLE contains a maximum of 2 or 3).
4. A few questions require remarkably specific knowledge regarding numerical parameters which designate disease (i.e., fasting glucose tolerance test disease cut-off values)--in modern exams, laboratory min-max tables eliminate nearly all "number-knowledge" requirements.
5. Presence of several "negative-answer" format questions (NOT, EXCEPT, etc.)

There is a CD-ROM included with the book. The CD-ROM is essentially a rehash of all questions covered in the book--if you really need your questions to be available to you at all times, then perhaps the CD-ROM will benefit you.

To the medical student/resident with a limited budget: great book for diagnosing your weak spots.
To the medical student/resident with an unlimited budget: subscribe to Qbank or another, equivalent, online question bank; by the way, the rest of us hate you. Kidding.
To all: this book alone is not enough; questions are important, but you need to create an "information scaffold" in your mind--pick up an adjunct review textbook as well.

Good luck on your exam.

I'll admit, I made a mistake. I decided to hold off taking Step 3 until two months before my pediatric residency was finished. Back then, it wasn't required to maintain your residency in this state. So you can imagine, after nearly 3 years of pediatric medicine, how far removed I was from a lot of adult medical issues. I used two books, this one and "Crush step 3." Both were definitely helpful, but I felt this one by far helped me the most. Sure the question formats are not exactly like the real test. But Q and A style studying tends to make me retain the information much better than just passive reading. The explanations are quite thorough and the difficulty of the questions were just about the same for the real test. NMS has always been good to me when taking the previous two steps of the USMLE, and they didn't let me down with step 3.

This question book is an okay review of subjects if you perfer a Q/A format way of learning. However, the question format and style of questions are not similar to the USMLE Step 3. There are few Negative questions (eg. all of the following except) in the USMLE Step 3 and at the most, there are 3 questions following a passage (In NMS, there can be up to 6-7 questions following a passage). I found the NMS review to be too detailed (like questions we see in Step 1 and 2- eg) indirect inguinal hernias are medial to what structure.....)
I found the Kaplan Q book the most similar to the style and content of USMLE Step 3 (However, the passages in Kaplan tend to be very long and detailed). A good review book is Crush Step 3 as well. Good Luck!

I'm a typical space nut, and to me, any space book is a good space book. I read this book all in one day and I was not disappointed. It gave me a lot of information about the Russian's race to the moon, and I learned stuff that I never knew before.
The part about Slayton in Russia is particularly funny. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this book for yourself. You won't be sorry!
The only disadvantage is that there are a lot of cuss words in it, which should have been censored out before the book was published. Oh well!

This book is really great. Read it!

I must agree somewhat with one of the early reviewers that essentially trashed this book...the only real value that I got was the detailed account of the Apollo 14 mission and , to a lesser degree, the Apollo-Soyuez mission in 1975. Shepard's "great friendship" with Deke Slayton that is gone into in almost sickening detail here is re-buked in "Deke!", a book written by Slayton alone and published at almost the same time! Even the video version (titled the same "Moonshot") is weak and you can definetly get better accounts of the program elsewhere.

This review is based on the original (1994) hardback edition. This book is much more than a history of the space program from about 1957 to 1975. It includes the inspirational determination for Shepard to fly again and for Slayton to fly even once. I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Shepard and getting his autograph on this book.

The book captures the intensity of the space race. When Shepard saw Sputnik 1 (or, more probably, the upper-level rocket stage also in orbit), he chagrined at the fact that it didn't have "Made in the USA" written on it. Later, the Soviets were sad that the men circling the moon on Christmas Eve 1968 didn't have Russian names.

Some seldom-discussed information is provided in this book. For instance, the US could have orbited a satellite over a year before Sputnik (p. 45). Were it not for an overcautious NASA, Shepard could have beat Gagarin into space by a month (p. 89, 91). The dog, Laika, is said to have lived for several days in space (p. 44). We now know that she died several hours after launch--from an overheated cabin.

The authors discuss the politics behind the space program. For instance, the grounding of Deke Slayton had been for political and not medical reasons, as there was no evidence that Deke's heart irregularity would interfere with space flight. Rather, the fear was that, were Slayton's flight to end in disaster for any reason, his heart condition would automatically be suspected, and those who cleared him for flight would face automatic recrimination. The authors also allege that politics was behind the choice of Houston as the site for the Space Center. Both astronauts also had to contend with politics in the wake of the Apollo 13 near-disaster, notably the call, by some politicians, to cancel all remaining Apollo moon flights. Shepard also realized that, were his Apollo 14 to fail to land on the moon, there most probably would be no further Apollo flights.

One is thrilled by Alan Shepard finding a surgical treatment for his Meniere's syndrome, and getting restored to flight status. Up to that time, he had considered himself an eagle whose wings had been clipped and who had been forced to be a turkey--in more ways than one.

Then, over ten years after his grounding, Deke Slayton got his chance...in a joint US-Soviet flight that would have been equally unimaginable at the time of his grounding.

I re-visited this book, which I read (and got autographed by Shepard) when it was new, after watching the great "From the Earth to the Moon" series again. The book has its four-star moments, but I settled for three.

The content is not particularly sophisticated, and to be honest, the competition among the Apollo books is strong. For example, books by Lovell and Cernan are both better than this one. Even so, it's worth reading by students of the space program for the additional perspective and occasion detail.

Perhaps a root problem is that the book is a mixture of autobiography and story of the space program, with the perspective of the two astronauts not given very often. When that happened effectively, the book was at its best. I liked stories such as NASA's attempt to keep secret who had gotten the first flight, Deke's grounding, Shepard's return to flight status, Apollo 14, and Deke's reaction to the Apollo 1 fire. There are several scenes like that, enough to make the book worthwhile.

In contrast, some other incidents had superfluous reference to the authors. I didn't really care that Deke and Al sort-of high-fived each other when Apollo 11 landed. Their thoughts on the end of the Apollo program or what the program really meant to them aren't really captured. Few insightful comments about the other astronauts were made (unlike Cernan's book). Many opportunities were lost.

The Apollo-Soyuz mission is presented as a relatively big deal, which it was to Deke, obviously. In reality, it was pretty meaningless, other than as an exercise in international cooperation.

Deke comes across pretty well in other books and in the "From the Earth to the Moon" series. His character shines at times here, too. Maybe some remarks by other people about Deke, besides from Shepard, would have helped convey that image. How did others feel about how Deke ran the astronaut office, which was his core contribution to the space program? You won't find that in this book.