Tracks Books

This is the first time I have ordered from Amazon.com and also the first time I've ever bought a used book.

So I didn't know quite what to expect.

The book was in pristine condition (despite being used) and Woody's Books sent it to me in a timely manner.

All told, a great experience for me, and I'm enjoying the book immensely.

This book was so informative on every aspect for a female runner. Suzy made the nutrition aspect so easy to understand. Really takes the guesswork out of what to eat and when.

I randomly picked this book up in a book store and was pleasantly surprised as I thumbed through it. It was exactly what I was looking for - something that could advise me thoroughly on necessary changes to my training, nutrition and much more in order to start getting in real shape for running competitively. I was amazed at the level of detail in this book - and it's the kind of detail you need. In no other book about running would you expect a thorough description of the exact differences in protein powders and what time of day you should take each kind, etc...and then a chart of the brands and their ingredients. It's perfect and practical. Not at all repetitive or boring. A very easy, useful read. I started taking notes as I read and had a comprehensive shopping list for the grocery store the next day. Don't miss this one!

I found this book to be very repetitive, and not very helpful. A few of the chapters I find interesting, like the one where she explains that for runners, the USDA food guide pyramid should really be flipped upside down. But she used her backup evidence from this chapter over and over again throughout the book. I really only need to hear "Fish is an essential food" once or twice to get it into my head. Also, towards the end, when Suzy gives sample training plans, I was very upset. Pretty much all of them are only suitable for runners who have way too much time on their hands, and are at a college level of training. I was looking for a way to spice up my training, but all I got were endless lists of two-a-days (who has time for that?) and hour long runs (the average high school girl doesn't have that much endurance). She doesn't seem to understand that we all can't be like her and perfect our diets, allowing only 5 treats per week, and running to what, for most of us, would be almost complete exhaustion. Suzy probably isn't the best person to write a book like this for female runners, because ever since she was in high school, she's been a star, and has never really experienced the long, hard transition from nothing at all to strenuous workouts.

I gave it 3 stars, because she had good intentions, but didn't pull them out the best way possible. I did however get some good nutrition tips, and learned some new strength exercises to add to my normal routine.

While I agree that female distance runners need to eat enough healthy calories to fuel their training, I do not agree with the constant ingestion of protein powders and the elimination of such a large sum of carbohydrates. I would be an extremely unhappy runner if I had to eat a hamburger patty without the bun. Rice cakes, give me a break! That's like eating paper. I wouldn't last one day on this diet. I work almost full-time and run under 3 hours for the marathon (female). I like a little comfort food in the form of carbohydrates in order to keep me sane. I also prefer to get my nutrients from food and not supplements.

At the end of Louise Erdrich's Tracks, the fearsome, fetching, dangerously divine Fleur Pillager--a Chippewa earth mother so idolized by the author as to seem a form of creative self-caricature--finally walks away from her beloved patch of Dakota forest, abandoning it to the whim and destruction of white loggers and tribal sellouts. Erdrich's latest finds the indomitable Fleur trudging all the way to Minneapolis, where she hires on as a laundress in the home of a wealthy timber baron simply in order to take his life in revenge. Fortunately or not, however, Erdrich doesn't like her dishes served cold, and soon a bedroom farce breaks out amid the tragedy. Thus Four Souls juxtaposes the silly and the somber, the ribald and the elegiac. Nuance heeds the DO NOT DISTURB sign and generally stays away.

Louise Erdrich is among my favorite authors. She weaves moving, human plots together with the intricacy of a well-told poem. Her landscapes make one gasp and her characters make one believe. So it is through this biased lens that I picked up Four Souls, read it, and also loved it.

Fleur Pillager walks to Minneapolis to kill John James Mauser. That's the premise, but along the way she devises a punishment worse than death. See Mauser stole her family's land and clear cut the prized trees, leaving her family as poor as destitute as the rest of the Ojibwe in Northern Minnesota. What's her plan? Nurse Mauser back to health from his poison-gas induced illness and get him to fall in love with her.

It's such an accomplished story told beautifully that I really can't add to it in a longer review without giving away more of its magic. Please, read this one, and Tracks the novel about Fleur Pillager that precedes it.

- CV Rick, February 2008

I've read most of the author's works and while I would not say this is my favorite, I have to say that she has matured so much as an author over the years that this is a must read book. I particularly like how she shares imagery and concepts in this book without feeling the need to explain them to the non-Anishinaabe audience, and potentially interrupting the poetry of the work itself. - It was amazing how she brought back to mind things I knew and had forgotten, simply through the force of her writing. The greatest impact for me was the effect the book had even 4 days later - the themes of this book are both universal and incredible. Thank you for such an outstanding book!

From Fleur's amazing journey into and out of the whiteman's world, to the creation of a dress solely from nature's materials contrasted with the building of a house with materials obtained through greed, destruction and death, to the quest to find a name for a son's spirit: this book is radiant.
It is a relatively short book, but it is full of the range of human emotions including the humor of love.

Nanapush, the tribal leader yet also foolish husband,carefully painstakingly carves a star out of an old bean can in an attempt to hide from his wife, Margaret, a trail of errors. He tells her the star fell from the skies, through the roof and floor.

"From outside, the sun, striking sudden from behind a cloud, then threw a fierce shaft of light in our direction. It slanted through the window and picked out the star in Margaret's hands. Marveling at it, she bent to examine it with a close eye. I smiled to see her, but the smile dropped off my face when with a huge gasp she squinted even closer and then slowly, slowly, with a dangerously changed expression held her miraculous find out to me.

"Put on your spectacles, old liar",she said in a sofly changed voice.

Immediately, I hooked them around my ears and in the burst of radiance I saw the raised letters I had missed in the tin, now the center of the star, which had marked the bottom of the can. Red Jacket Beans.............................
I saw something building in her, something gathering, a storm , and my heart sank down into my feet. But when it came, it was not the bitter scorching, not the fire I feared. It was not the horror of sarcasm. Not the scrape of reproach. Margaret did something she had never done before in response to one of my idiot transgressions. Margaret laughed."

Through the years I've read several books by Louise Erdrich. She's a good writer although sometimes I find her narrative to be a bit confusing. This is the case in her 2004 "Four Souls" in which she uses a character she's used in books before, an American Indian woman named Fleur Pillager.

The book had a good beginning. It's set in the Midwest in the 1920s. Fleur is out for revenge against the wealthy white man who had stolen the Indian's land. Her plans are to make him suffer, but she soon discovers that he is very ill. She becomes a laundress in his household and manages to cure him with the intent of making him suffer later. Things don't work out exactly as she planned though and, as the story unfolds, she becomes hard to understand.

There are several narrators. One is Polly Gheen, the gently-raised spinster sister-in-law of the wealthy man. I loved her voice and the way she tells her story. Another narrator is Nanapush, an aging Indian man who is still on the reservation. I suspect he had appeared in other books about Fleur and one of the problems of "Four Souls" is that the back-story isn't clear. But Nanapush sure is clear. He's both comical and wise and managed to make me laugh out loud. He and his wife Margaret are always fighting but he loves her tremendously with a passion not usually aspired to elderly people. He commits some very foolhardy acts to show that love and this is where the book seems to turn into a farce. Margaret is a narrator too and it's nice to get her point of view as the story unfolds.

The book is short, a mere 201 pages and an easy read. I enjoyed being thrust into the contrasting worlds of the both the rich people and the American Indians. Some of the central characters needed more development though, especially Fleur. After the first chapter, she appears in the story but always through someone else's eyes. And, after I finished the book, I was left to wonder about some of the details. I suspect this is because this novel is actually a sequel. Therefore I always felt I was missing something.

In spite of its faults though, I did enjoy Four Souls. But I would suggest you read some of her earlier books in order to enjoy it more.

This book is a great read for children who are beginning readers. The illustrations fill up the entire page an are vibrant and expressive. The clever rhyme of the words make it fun for students to read and listen to. All the characters have interesting personalities that shine with the illustrations of their clothing and accessories. The surprise ending will have the children roaring with laughter and surprise.

One of Karma Wilson's better books, on a par with Sakes Alive, A Cattle Drive! Illustrations are fun, too.

Such a cute story--I love the surprise ending and so will the kids!

We found this book at the library recently and my 3 year old LOVES it! He wanted me to read it over and over. Mom enjoyed it too - wonderful illustrations and the poetic lines were fun to read. I would highly recommend it. We've also read a few of the Bear books and Never, EVER Shout in a Zoo (which is another favorite of my 3 year old).

This is one of my faves for preschool storytime.

The pictures are fun, the rhymes are natural and the surprise ending is a hoot.

Karma Wilson is a great author for those squirmy 3 year olds, but her books appeal to older preschool and primary grade children, too.

This is a small, well produced book with a lot of techniques that work if you practice them with a non-compliant partner. The author is well schooled and experienced.

It's primarily designed for mixed martial arts environments, but has application to self defense environments as well.

Dealing with real fighting is, according to the literature, difficult.

And real fights generally don't start with opponents in uniforms twenty feet from each other, with referees, on mats or polished wood floors.

They generally start at very close range when somebody says "Howdy!" and somebody else says "I know what you meant by that, you bleep of a bleep!"

And then a lot of stuff happens very quickly at very close range.

This small volume provides a huge amount of information about close range grappling.

Obviously, grappling absolutely requires practice with an opponent. If you are practicing striking techniques, you can at least make some progress by hitting a bag or a makiwara.

But this is a useful and extensive laundry list of ways to take somebody off their feet starting real close.

Including several things you really don't want to do in a grappling environment.

These techniques are an eclectic grouping, and people who grapple a lot would be well advised to study them. Whether you study bjj, judo, or wrestling, there'll be a trick or two in here that may give your opponent a surprise.

And that's the primary use of this sort of survey book.

With just a little more detail given to the explanations of the techniques, I would have easily given this book a well deserved 5 stars. As it stands now, I have to give it only 4 stars and I really wish I could have given it more, and this is the reasons why.

Even though the photographs were small, they did show, for the most part, the techniques and nuances that they were supposed to convey to the reader. However, there were many of them that did not. I also wish that the author would provide a bit more detailed explanation on a lot of the techniques he is demonstrating as that would be helpful in learning the particular technique. Just a suggestion, but if he had broken this book down into two volumes and expanded upon the explanations of each technique, he would have had two 5 star book and I don't believe anyone would have complained.

The author demonstrates a wide variety of ways that you can take your opponent down to the ground while your yourself remain standing and in control, or going down to the ground as well, but retaining control over your opponent. If you have a Judo or wrestling background, you will see a lot of familiar techniques.

I highly recommend this book for those of you who are primarily stand-up fighters (strikers), as this book would really be of benefit to you. I have a bit of experience in Judo along with some basic wrestling skills and I have used them both numerous times to take people down. Another couple of good books that I would also recommend are:

Wrestling for Fighting: The Natural Way

Judo For Mixed Martial Arts

Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.

mark hatmaker did it again. another very good book on NHB. mark is a credible author who can share his knowledge easily and practical. a 5 star rating was given for a very good author and NHB practitioner. hoping for more books to come

I like Hatmaker and enjoy his easy writing style and ability to simplify fighting concepts. This book is a nice catalog of takedowns for someone who is used to stand up fights and wants to learn how to take his opponent to the mat. Boxer, kick boxers and karate grounded guys can see a wide range of techniques.
Wrestlers and soft martial arts guys, judo and jujitsu, may pick up a technique here and there, but most of the book really misses this group. The philosophy for a lot of the set ups for the takedown techniques seemed based on a sparring or jabbing model. The opponent's balance is disturbed by a sudden jab like push, pull or grab of some kind which is then abandoned so you can follow up with usually a double leg takedown -- though many other takedowns are considered later in the book. The problem I have with this model is that it won't work with "sticky" opponents.
Unlike boxers who spar, soft martial arts guys often welcome an opponent's push, pull or grab as an opportunity. They hold on to attacking hand/limb while they they yield to momentum of the attacker and then redirect his attack to their advantage. It feels like your hand hit glue on a swinging door. These set ups calling for a jabbing attack can end up being used to off balance the attacker. Of course, if you limit yourself to inexperienced opponents or boxer type opponents, this shouldn't be a problem.
This book would benefit from something like a strategy section. While the subject is briefly addressed in choosing a stance, vertical versus bent over and wide base versus normal base, it is not discussed in how to deal with varied opponents. The author states such a book is in the planning, and I look forward to reading it. But with this book, clearly one shoe does not fit all feet. Most soft martial arts guys are going to be more vertical than lean in boxers and wrestlers. In the same vein, different takedowns will work for wide based stances than normal shoulder width apart stances -- square versus staggered foot stances. Tailoring the takedowns to different opponents seems just as important as selecting your own stance.
Two specific weaknesses: Nothing was said about learning how to fall safely. A few pages would have gone a long way to insure guys without any background in landing on their backs from a standing position not get hurt. Most guys do something stupid like reaching back while falling and risk injuring the joints of their arms or cracking their necks (chin to chest when going down.) Second, some of the less used takedowns shown in the book are clearly not neck friendly and inexperienced guys should be very careful with them if they are going directly from the book to their backyad with a hapless buddy.
Good book for non grapplers who want to see what takedowns look like. But expect that quite a bit of fine tuning will be necessary for the techniques to actually work.

Good writing style, good wit, good demonstration and explanation of technique. You can tell there is a ton of research and experience behind every book. The author has consistently given a solid quality product. Good for him!

The topic is interesting and at points the author manages to write in an engaging style. However, the narrative often drags. Too often. Word choice is also distracting at points. For some reason, the author decides to refer to horses as "steeds" pretty frequently. This might not seem annoying, until you read the book. You may find yourself wincing every time you read the phrase "star steed" or the word "ouchy" (a word often used when "sore" or "painful" would get across the same point and sound far less juvenile).

One big issue: The book was published several years AFTER most of the events in it take place. It loses any sense of immediacy. Much of it feels far too much like old news. The few plots that grow throughout the book are not resolved to any real satisfaction, either. What happened to the injured horse? Presumably, he's put down, but we get NO details.

The bit that made my jaw drop in disbelief came when the author wrote that he overheard two jockeys planning to illegally "fix" a race. Rather than tell the stewards (he assumed they wouldn't believe him), he RAN TO THE BETTING WINDOW to try to take financial advantage of the information he had heard. What kind of person does that and then basically brags about it in a book that he gets nationally published? It makes him look like a total jerk! I was very pleased when his bet didn't pan out. I don't recall if he said how much money he bet, but I hope it was a lot.

Good parts of the book: I enjoyed the descriptions of the MassCap and the efforts to get top horses to enter. The depictions of actual races and behind-the-scenes issues were insightful, as well. More of that; less of the rambling blather that went nowhere.

With a serious editing and chopping out of the dead weight, this book could have been great.

Excellent read for anyone who has ever been interested in the goin's on of the pari-mutual world.
I'm a greyhound racer, but all the problems of the horse industry apply to the dogs. You could substitute the name "Suffolk Downs" in the book with any greyhound track in the country and everything would apply.
I couldn't put it down.

T.D. Thornton's revealing book should do for horse racing what Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" did for meat packing. But -- please -- hold the "reform" legislation. Government already has enough of its clumsy tentacles holding racing's head under water. "Not By A Long Shot" should be taken by racing industry participants as a call to the post of a higher consciousness characterized by self-examination, self-correction, and inspiration.

Media relations director of struggling Suffolk Downs in Year Y2K (enough went wrong at the East Boston track to make one suspect the move into the new century was somehow at fault), Thornton uses a deft hand and sharp mind in peeling the onion that it is thoroughbred racing. As with any onion's exploration, tears flow.

The author succeeds in giving a realistic picture brimming with tough love thanks to his training as a newspaper reporter mixed with an attraction to what Thornton calls the "cruel radiance" of the race course. Thornton's family connection (His father, Paul, is a Suffolk Downs trainer whose stable has included 2006 New England Horse of the Year Bodgiteer) gives his vision added range. Our author must be a pretty good diplomat as well since he manages to maintain part-time employment at "Sufferin' Downs" after publication of such a frank book.

With a sensibility in the tradition of Damon Runyon and Grantland Rice, Thornton manages to re-create the lovable roguishness racing enjoyed in its heyday. But, unlike many in today's establishment racing press, Thornton is no cheerleader lazily waiting around for the next press release or racing commission meeting. He charges at shabby thinking and practices like a horse coming down the home stretch. And that is the chief reason "Not By A Long Shot" should become a reference book for those who really love horse racing and want it to have a future.

To go along with his gritty look at racetrack life, Thornton scores a nice daily double by relating interesting bits from New England racing history. Among them --

--The story of Massachusetts thoroughbred owner Peter Fuller, Coretta Scott King, the tumult of 1968, and Dancer's Image (the Fuller-owned steed and only horse ever disqualified from winning the Kentucky Derby).

--The 1970s race-fixing scandal run by Boston native Fat Tony Ciulla that ensnared 39 tracks and dozens of jockeys including the great Angel Cordero Jr.

Thornton does an admirable job summing up the economic challenges facing horse racing. He quotes liberally from Bill Veeck's "Thirty Tons A Day" (a memoir of the maverick promoter's two years running Suffolk Downs) yet Thornton doesn't seem to consider that racing could solve many of its problems with the government by following Veeck's example. Veeck sued the Massachusetts state government to allow children to attend races -- and won. Shouldn't racing leaders stop playing games with elected officials and go to court to have the sport's economic rights upheld?

Also curiously missing from our astute author's observations is an examination of thoroughbred racing's inaccessible post times. Races at Suffolk Downs start at 12:45 p.m. and usually end at about 4:30 p.m. Three of its four cards per week are held on weekdays. Is it any wonder attendance has fallen when most races are conducted at times when most people are stuck at their jobs? Why not try night racing? It should be said that the mostly mid-level tracks that have gone to night cards haven't found the practice to be especially lucrative.

Thornton writes colorfully about Suffolk Downs "winter grind." Yet any person with a modicum of common sense would ask "Why the heck are they racing horses when it's 20 degrees outside? Doesn't track management realize that very few fans/bettors are going to show up? Isn't this just a waste of time and purse money?" The author lets it pass without criticism.

Another lapse of reason -- Chief Operating Officer Robert O'Malley speaks to Beacon Hill legislators after 19 other groups have testified and it's close to lunch time (p. 213). Didn't O'Malley realize his message was unlikely to be heard under such conditions?

These lapses begin to add up. This combined with a longtime industry inclination to seek monopoly privileges and subsidies (in recent years it's taken the form of pleas for "slot machines") conjures an image of a moribund industry cravenly trying to use government to stay on past its time. Thornton condemns this proclivity but that does nothing to erase the negative public image.

Besides byzantine systems brought about mostly because of government overregulation, horse racing today is suffering from its failure to embrace television 50 years ago (racing's fan base has grayed andthinned asa result). The Sport of Kings (or "king of sports" as Thornton cheekily calls it) is also suffering from a revolution that failed -- simulcasting. The growth of imported televised simulcasting has drained crowds and money away from live racing to the point where simulcasting now accounts for more than 80 percent of revenue at most tracks. Like "slot machines" today, simulcasting was touted as easy money by some track owners. In reality what it amounted to was a gamble involving an exchange of revenue streams. Not surprisingly, it came with a cost. Tracks don't get to keep as much of the simulcasting dollar as they do for live racing although overall handle has increased. Now on-track casino-style gaming is doing to racing handle (simulcast and live) what simulcasting did to live racing. Thornton recognizes this "potential" (it's more than potential) for "erosion" but offers no strategies for avoiding it.

The quality of racing is something Suffolk Downs and other struggling tracks need to confront. Horse racing has got to put its best product before the public as often as possible. Running 200-plus days a year mostly so struggling horsemen can make a living is a recipe for continuing mediocrity. What would happen if the New England Patriots played their second string for most of the game and only put in Tom Brady, Randy Moss and co. in the last five minutes? The fans would boo and then, after a while, they'd stop being fans. If the best way to get paying customers back to the racetrack to bet on racing is to shorten meets and boost purses then racing leaders should waste no time in doing this. The racetrack needs to cease being a welfare agency.

The Laffer Curve works in racing. Suffolk's original 1935 meet was only 28 days and crowds flocked to it. These days short meets at Saratoga, Keeneland, Del Mar, and Pimlico do bang-up business. A shortened time scale brings urgency and pagentry back to the races, something Thornton points out have slipped away from most tracks, replaced by numbing repetition of low-level races aimed at low-brow clientele whose mindset is summed up in (Thornton's phrase) "What the f... can I bet on next?"

Thornton speaks up for smaller stables and mid-level racing. To be sure not every race can or should be the Massachusetts Handicap (Suffolk's annual major stakes event) but the fact is that casual fans, bettors, and current and potential horse owners are losing interest in the lower end of the market. At the risk of sounding elitist, some folks in the maiden claimer colonies ought to consider finding something else to do.

Suffolk Downs is not leafy Saratoga or seaside Del Mar (as a training class incident related by Thornton well makes the point) but that doesn't mean Suffolk and other urban tracks are helpless. They can create new traditions (how about an opening day "Welcoming Back The Horses" parade from Revere Beach onto the Suffolk grounds?). Suffolk may have found its sweet spot for race dates -- 2007's reduced 100 days (May to November) produced impressive gains in handle and attendance for new owner Richard Fields. Yet Suffolk racing is now menaced by slow-death-by-casino as proposed by Fields.

Thornton's book pleasingly breaks down jargon. It offers insights aplenty. Example: Year-round racing destroyed handicap racing (that's not the only thing it ruined). What's most missing from "Not By A Long Shot" (hopefully, Thornton will tackle this in a future book) is a prescription for repositioning horse racing in American culture. Let me try:

Gambling is what used to be unique about horse racing but that is no longer true. The climate has shifted and racetracks need to focus on the uniqueness of the horses. Track managers and horsemen have to create a horse culture via new business combinations that treats gambling as subsidiary.

Las Vegas and Atlantic City are moving away from a gambling-centered culture in favor of a luxury-centered culture (fine dining, high-end shops). Horse racing needs to move to a rustic-centered culture emphasizing animals and the great outdoors. Racetracks should host horse auctions, dressage competitions, polo matches etc. to get people who already like horses interested in racing. Public sadness over the loss of open space and agriculture would fuel interest in horse racing's new rustic culture.

This will help blunt horse racing's big psychological problem with the public that Thornton gets close to when he writes about animal cruelty. Injuries to animals is a major liability to horse as well as dog racing. People don't fret about injuries to people in sports because it's acknowledged that people have free choice to participate or not. Animals don't have free choice. They're trained to race. Thus people are especially bothered by animal injuries, using phrases like "Why dothey (the royal "they") make them (the animals) do that?" People further reckon..."Since horse racing is mostly about raising money for government programs and we've got all this new fangled gambling now why not keep the animals safe by letting horse racing go into the dustbin of history?" It's a good argument. Flawless logic. And G-d help horse racing if it continues to wear the image of gambling-centered government cash cow.

There are no easy answers for horse racing. If the great sport survives it will be largely because of the energy and spirits of people movingly chronicled by Thornton such as injured jockey Rudy Baez; executive Lou Raffetto, whose plan to revive the MassCap "backfired" into appearances by the world's most successful horse -- Cigar -- in two consecutive runnings of Suffolk's big race; and backstretch "lifers" who get up early every day to tend the animals amid bleak circumstances. It will take boldness as well as love and belief in horse racing to revive Suffolk Downs. Hopefully, wise men such as T.D. Thornton will stay around and see it through.

James Mosher is a freelance writer who lives in Ledyard, Connecticut. His work on horse racing has appeared in Daily Racing Form, Blood-Horse magazine, Thoroughbred Times, and other publications.

For someone who knows nothing about the racing industry this is an enlightening glimpse into the mechanics, personalities and stories that come together to create the excitement of the racing industry. The outsider may see this as the "sport of kings," with all the glamour we watch at the Kentucky Derby but this is a window into the toothless, hapless, shrewd, caring varied characters on the lower scale that keep the racing industry alive. Mr Thornton's style of writing is addictive, one gets caught up in his usage of words and his turns of phrase. A picture forms in one's mind and you can begin to watch the movie in your head.

This book is definitely worth your time if you are a horse-racing fan. This is especially true if you are aware of the life of day-to-day racing at a lower-level track like Suffolk Downs, because that is who the author writes about. The people and horses at a place like that are the backbone of racing, and there are plenty of interesting tales to tell. I wouldn't call it a great book, but it's solid, informative, and entertaining.

This book has some good tips but assumes you're working in a pro studio. Some of the material seems a bit dated. They should offer an alternative book for home studios.

This book is full of practical tips for Engineers... Just as one might suspect from the title. If your finding yourself wondering what settings to use for bass compresssion or how to get paid, get this book.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in gaining instant knowledge for high quality sound recordings. Tim's approach is stratight forward, easy to understand, practical set up's which deliver immediate results. A "must have" book for project studio recordings as well as professional engineers.

This book is excellent! I've been recording since 1998 and I have had to stumble my way through learning new techniques through trial and error. I wish I had read this book the first day I started; it would have saved me a lot of time and gained me a lot of understanding and know how. Although, in the author's intro, he says that the book is intended for the guy that knows a little more of what he's doing, and not the beginner, this book is great for both the beginner and the experienced engineer. He offers a lot of recipe's for getting great sounds but also reminds the reader (with "maybe's") that these are all just good starting points and you have to make adjustments as you go, according to the music and the situation. The book is packed with a lot of advice from beginning to end. It is a very fun read; he has a lot of humor in it along with superb advice so you'll be constantly intrigued to continue learning and reading more. A lot about compression, eq, mic placements, studio set up, respecting the instuments, studio courtesy and organization and on, and on, and on- from technical to personal to musical- it's fantastic! Whether you're new at recording, or a seasoned engineer, you'll benefit somehow from this book, and for under $20 don't even think about it, just buy it. You won't regret it. Enjoy!

This book is a very different one. It does not have the technical and geeky feel to it , yet delivers all the required tips and tricks for a better recording experience on apart of the recording engineer, well almost.
From the book I could definitely say that tim is involved mostly on acoustic bands of the rock genre. That is good but what about dance bands, electronic acts and the like...these genres ahave a very different approach to recording, production, arrangements and mastering. For example, he writes that a drum fill should be different in verses and choruses and that different elements of a drum kit should be utilised as much as possible to keep the sound varied. What about a two bar loop of a blistering hip hop track? That would be so minimalistic but still that contributes to the overall feel of the track and the repitition is required. What about an IDM track that has precision breakbeats that vary every bar? That would be an overkill wouldnt it?
The mixing techniques explained are avery basic but definitely eye opening. And he tries to summarize mastering in one page....

Overall a very informative and humourous writing that keeps the readers entertained.

This book was far more useful than I expected. It describe all nutritious needs for a runner from beginner to elite, step by step and with details in a very friendly and understandable language.
It affected my running performance and changed the way I fuel my body to a healthier manner.

Writing a book on nutrition has got to be one of the hardest because everyone has their own opinion. However, this author did a good job of presenting facts and offering up suggestions on how to improve your running while not forcing a particular opinion on you. I found the advice to be sound and definitely recommend.

This is a well put together read that is full of useful info for the beginner to the advanced runner. I have been running for over a year and am in training for my first half marathon. I struggle to maintain a healthy running weight and this book really has helped me with that. I love all the advice on proper carb, fat, and protein intake. The book is easy to read and does not necassarily need to be read in any particular order. I would recommend this to any runner and have already.

I saw the reviews on this book and then checked it out from my library (with intentions to order it very shortly as it's a great reference). I'm only halfway through it, so basically at the fueling for a race and his concepts are fantastic so far. While you can tell where he is leaning, he doesn't seem to try to push his ideas and states that every person is different, but these are ideas to try to get yourself to this level. Also, instead of a focus on weight loss, his focuse points toward restructuring your body composition. A lot of the principals he brings up are carried over from other sources, and he discusses other diets out there and why they are necessarily appropriate for runners. I also love that he breaks down the types of sugars in various sports drinks, gels, and other options out there.

This is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to learn how to best feed their body for running. As a beginning runner who's training for my first marathon, the information included in this book has been priceless.

As is the case with Runner's World, the quality of the writing is unique amongst sports-related publications. Most running books I've encountered so far generally have poor grammar and/or spelling, and tend to read more like grad school papers than informative books. Matt Fitzgerald's writing style manages to make the subject matter interesting and enjoyable.

References to websites and other resources for more information were also very useful. The section regarding supplements and where you can find out which ones are honest about their ingredients is fantastic.

Regardless of where you are in your training, I would highly recommend this book.

Brooke Hillary is fifteen. For as far back as she can remember she and her mother have been a team. Together they work on Brooke's career as a dancer. When Brooke was born she had a slight physical imperfection which the doctor suggested might benefit from dancing. Somewhere along the line this desire for health transformed into a desire to be a 'star'. Brooke even goes to a special 'show business' school in Manhattan which gives a student "great leeway in pursuing a career while studying." This school has students who are "ice skaters, actors, cellists, concert pianists, rock singers" and even the offspring of famous performers go there. But amidst all this hoop-la of costumes, dance lessons and auditions Brooke isn't quite certain what she wants to do with her life. Then one day Brooke learns that her positive, vibrant mother is sick.

This is a novel which asks the reader to consider what is really important in life. Career? Family? Happiness? Love? Expectations? Life is complicated and the answers are not easy or trite. Is it possible to both love a person and hate them? What is the right balance between taking advice and individual expression, between pleasing others and being who we are? Bonnie and Paul Zindel weave their way through these questions creating along the way an interesting novel of some depth, a deal of originality and a lot of emotional integrity.

This book was first published in 1980 and is Paul Zindel's second novel specifically written for girls. The first, published way back in 1969, was My Darling, My Hamburger. This second book shows a lot of improvement over the first, which was a flat and uninteresting story of teenage pregnancy and illegal abortion. The husband and wife team seems to have worked to the advantage, perhaps providing a deeper psychological reality to the mother/daughter relationship. Also , while being fairly old itself, has not dated in the way that did when abortion became legal.

I have just three criticisms. The references to Marilyn Munroe are clichéd and probably trite even to a teenage audience, and could easily been left out of the story. The incident with the movie producer who wants to sleep with Brooke before she gets the part is also clichéd and does not really advance the story much. Also, I wonder whether the whole show business element is a little over developed? Does Brooke really need to go to a school where the children of famous entertainers go? This kind of element seemed to overstretch reality for me, ruining my "suspension of disbelief."

This is not one of Zindel's best books, but is definitely not a bad one either. Its greatest assets are its originality and the psychological reality which Zindel manages to give the characters and their relationships. Also the complexity of life is well represented. This is not a simple wish-fulfillment story as, for example, High School Musical: The Junior Novel (Junior Novelization) is.