This book should have been called, 'Writing Business Plan's', because this is the only useful advice given in this book. Actually, your time will be better-spent reading books on writing a business plan because they can provide greater depth than this book provides. A good plan will help you identify areas that have lacked attention in your business, or detail ideas you for where want your business to go. This book does cover other subjects like firing employees and managing assets, however, it's all obvious information. This book is written for those who do not own a business.

Marc Kramer really rings the bells with this book. He shows you how to map out and implement your strategy. His is clear writing based on solid thinking. Easy reading and free of obtuse language one finds in books like this by pontificating authors. Kramer knows what he is talking about. And you will know what he is talking about. If you want to improve your business or just want to take a fresh look at it, get this book. You'll be delighted.

Norbert Aubuchon

This book is chockful of practical tips if you are trying to rejuvenate your business. The examples are terrific, and Kramer covers a wide range of topics. There is a lot of common sense in this book, and in the heat of the moment, common sense is fairly uncommon. Reading the lists will keep you on track, and may keep you from making a major faux pas. I particularly appreciated sections where describing mistakes the author has seen - there is no better way to learn then by hearing about other people's mistakes. The easy-to-read style is helpful, too - checklists, illustrative stories, forms, etc.

This book was written before Suharto was forced to step down as president in 1998. It predicted that an economic crisis would create an even greater income gap and dissatisfaction among the poorer native indonesians and the minority and richer Indonesians (the Chinese Indos)....and unfortunately , its predictions came true. Suharto was forced to step down and many Indo Chinese were slained for no sane reasons. I read this book during my summer holidays in 1997 out of interest in knowing the financial, social and political structures of my neighboring countries better......if u want to understand indonesia better, this is the book to read.

I started reading A Nation in Waiting while in Jakarta about the week before the Trisakti students were shot by special forces units. As a read the book then the newspapers, it became difficult to tell the difference. The similarities to the Suharto coup in '64 to what Prabowo was trying were incredible. If only more people read this incredible book before last year's bloody catharsis, I'm confident the event would not of been as violent, unpredicted and uncontrolled as it was. The personal insights into Habibi's relationship with Suharto (back to when Habibi was 14), bode well into understanding Habibi's government now and to come. Essential reading on Indonesia

An excellent explanation of Indonesian politics. I lived in Indonesia for 4 years. Indonesian politics are like the shadow puppets--the real actors are behind the curtain. This book explains the relationship of the various factions which Suharto has managed to hold together and the major issues Indonesia must face. A good resource for anyone trying to understand the current crisis.

Now, I know that some things need to be kept secret until the end or it will spoil the story, but this is too much. I feel as though I have been dropped into the middle of the story. There is no background on any of the characters or the Emblem Seeds, or even the reason why people have moved to the moon in the first place! I would like to know how the characters know each other and exactly what is so special about the Emblem Seeds, but neither this volume nor the next contain that information.

Be warned--there is some nudity (not much) and gore (buckets full) so you might want to consider something else if you are not mature enough to handle this kind of stuff.

Five stars for artwork, three for the plot. Actually, the plot isn't quite *that* unfathomable, but the strong point of Seraphic Leather isn't linear narrative. Basically it's an SF story about alien starships crashed on the moon with an awkward but loving telekinetic hero (Sunao), who rescues virginal and adorable Kei from an explosion in Luna City -- although he thought she had been killed in an accident years before. She used to be older than Sunao, too -- and that's only the first episode. After a while we meet the magnificently beautiful Attim M-Zak, a UN Special Investigator who is on the moon to find out what's with even more (!) mysterious doings concerning the Emblem Seeds. Various baddies like Rix Hayward wander in and get their butts kicked by Attim, and then we meet Number Four, an alien robo-thingie, but just wait -- it get's more complicated. If you're like me and enjoy over-the-top sci-fi adventure, you'll love the plot; otherwise, probably not. But the artwork! Utatane is one of the great masters of manga, and his drawings are breathtakingly beautiful -- not merely his women (Kei, Attim, Fawn), but also his page layout and design. Early on there is a marvelous drawing of the wrecked lunar station. If you buy it for the artwork alone, it'll be well worth it.

Former artist for COUNTDOWN tones down his ecchi for a whole lot of cheesecake in this smooth new manga. In a slight mixing between TOTAL RECALL and the anime BOUNTY DOG, this story takes place in the future where humanity has colonized the moon. There, they have discovered the remains of an ancient living alien starship that has some connection to three mysterious stones recently found on Earth named Emblem Seeds. The young Sunao goes to the moon to visit the grave of his deceased childhood friend, but ends up being stuck there after running out of money. So now he does odd jobs to try to earn enough to get home. While at the same time Sunao realizes he has gained what is called "meta-talents" which give him slightly psychic abilities. This ties into the group who has found the alien craft, and their leader Apep has harnessed its powers and wishes to use them to gain ultimate knowledge. He has requested that the Emblem Seeds from Earth be brought to the moon for study. The Seeds are being delivered by a girl who bares a strong resemblence to Sunao's departed friend who also has psychic powers. SERAPHIC FEATHER has alot going for it with a compelling plot and fine character development. Read it!

I too, was looking for a book with a wider variety of ideas. I found the shower ideas to be nice, but the food was not something I would prepare, least especially for a larger shower. However, I will say that the checklist is fantastic for those of us who may be a bit unorganized or inexperienced in party plamning of any kind!

I was looking for something more substantive - more of an overall book with a lot of ideas. If you want something to have it all, I would recommend another book.

Great recipes and fun ideas for a unique baby shower. The photos are beautiful and the recipes are delicious. Not your everyday baby shower book!

Hemingway's short stories have always been hit & miss with me. Some of them don't really do anything for me, none are among my very favorite short stories, but most of them are well-written and thought provoking. Such is the case with this set.

Hemingway offers us an assortment of masculine characters, mostly picked from his favorite types of male personas: soldiers, bullfighters, mobsters and prizefighters. Despite the title of the book, there are a smattering of female characters in some of the tales. They rank with the standard fare of impetuous women that Hemingway likes to write about.

The scope of the stories is quite broad, featuring painful topics such as abortion, breakup, heartbreak and being past ones prime. The latter theme is taken up in THE UNDEFEATED, THE KILLERS and FIFTY GRAND and later on re-appears in Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. FIFTY GRAND, which details the demise of a washed-up boxer, is my favorite short story in this collection.

Stories such as IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, and NOW I LAY ME introduce motifs that are echoed in A FAREWELL TO ARMS, which was published just a few years after MWW.

Tho I've never been enamoured with the short story genre, Hemingway does rank as one of the best in the business - particularly in the American literary canon. Hence, followers of Hemingway as well as people who greatly enjoy short stories would likely appreciate this book.

"Men Without Women" by Ernest Hemingway features a glimpse into the genius that is Hemingway. I found it to be a great read during a summer weekend. I especially enjoyed the Nick Adams stories and the story about the matador fighting one last glorious bullfight (one of Hemingway's favoright subjects). "Men Without Women" deals with subjects both everyday and serious such as love and abortion. This short read by Hemingway makes a great introduction for anyone wanting to begin reading Hemingway. I highly recomend it.

These are some the best stories I have ever read. When I was in high school, my class was asked to read In Another Country for discussion. It was my first Hemingway short story, and an introduction to the novels we would be reading. I almost cried. His writing is just so gut-wrenchingly honest and raw. No overwrought explanations of emotion. You know how these characters are feeling simply because of how the speak and act. Hemingway is the master of context. The Killers is almost like a mystery story that never gets solved. Why doesn't he run out of town? What's going to happen to the big guy? I love this stuff and can't get enough of it.

This is a truly viscious little book, filled with dispair, greed, sex, violence. I liked it, but it's not for everyone.

If you're into Jim Thompson or David Goodis, give it a try. It's depravity is magnified by 10. Nastier than James Ellroy.

Baker's vision of a slightly exaggerated New York comes more from the lurid pulp tradition than from noir, with it's night photographer protagonist and his lowlife pals. This New York is infested by rats, roaches, corporations, rich perverts, culture jammers, and a mad bomber. Virgil is a photographer who trawls the night with his police scanner, searching for bizarre and ironic tragedies to snap-hoping to get a job with the city's lead tabloid, the New York Graphic. There's not a whole lot of plot-as the book progresses Virgil participates in a few small heists with some friends, helps an AIDS-stricken porn pinup exact revenge, and is sought out by the mad bomber. The choppy episodic narrative makes it hard to get too engrossed in the book's events, and the prevailing theme of rotting and corruption isn't treated with any particular originality. Similarly, Baker's sad-sack characters don't bring a whole lot to the table other than a kind of hangdog pathos. However, the lurid subject matter is enough to keep the pages turning rapidly enough.

I have to note that the book suffers from a minor but annoying flaw I've come across before when English authors write US characters. Certain words and idioms are not transatlantic, and while this can be more or less forgiven in description, it really intrudes when they pop up in dialogue. A few Anglicisms I came across in this work include: answerphone, trainers, perspex, rota, wank-which in American English would be answering machine, sneakers, plexiglass, schedule, masturbate. Another funny example of why publishers of such titles should have an American read the manuscript occurs on page 251, where in a faux ad, US phone numbers are rendered UK phone numbers (ie. what should have been 212-267-3264 appears as 212-26-73264).

This book is fantastic. From the shock beginning to the bitter ending this book carries you along twisting and turning through the dirty streets of a hyper-real New York. I feel this was not meant to represent the real New York but to give a phantasmagorical view of the worst side of human nature.

This book manages to be dark and funny at the same time. It compels the reader to turn the pages and delve deeper into the life of its central character.

I can't wait to read more by the same author.

Read this book NOW!!

Maybe 3 years ago it would have been a good choice, but now - don't bother.

This is the best 3d overview book I've seen yet. The examples reference C4D, Lightwave, and Strata but most of the material would be relevant to almost any 3d application. I really enjoyed the lighting chapter (turns out ideas from stage lighting apply to 3D). There's a lot of good stuff in this book.

3D Animation: From Models To Movies is a complete introduction to the creation of professional quality computer generated animation imaging. Key features included comprehensive coverage of fundamental 3D graphics required for animation; exercises to develop and hone computer animation skills; detailed tutorials for cover modeling, texturing, rendering, lighting, animation, and special effects; a color gallery displaying the work of talented students and artists; and an informative survey of cross-platform issues with explanations of how to apply animation techniques to a variety of software applications. 3D Animation is a complete course under one cover, and it's accompanying CD runs on either Windows or Mac, features a demo version of Maxon's Cinema 4D XLv6, a complete version of Strata 3D; all book images in full color, and tutorial support files.

This book is an uninspiring analysis of Smith's work. Nobody who has even a cursory knowledge of Smith's writings would be surprised by what Muller has to say. The basic point that Smith was not a philosopher of unbridled greed is unsurprising. It is not that the thesis of the book is wrong, but it is simply something that could have been said in an article or less. Obviously a lot of hard work went into the book, but it is the product of a mediocre mind.

a very good description of everything

I couldn't disagree more with the review of Max Hayes. It would and does shock people to learn that Adam Smith wasn't primarily an economist as we think of the term. The fact that his work was centered around moral philosophy and making people "decent" is widely unknown and most people have never even heard of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Robert Heilbroner said it best when he called Smith "the most quoted and least read of the worldly philophers."

This book is not a biography of Smith, which would probably be pretty boring. It is an examination of his ideas. Muller starts by placing the book in its intellectual context of earlier traditions. Than he turns to an examination of Smith's work as a whole. This is important because to often Smith is limited to The Wealth of Nations, which is only one element of his thought. Muller examines The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Lectures on Jurisprudence to form a more complete picture of Smith as a moral philisopher.

The most important element of this book is the demonstration that Smith was not a defender of unrestrained greed. Smith sought to defend and construct institutions that would channel individual self-interest into benefical results for the whole of society. Nor was he an enemy of government. While it is true that he thought government often proved a danger to the market because of the influence of what we call special interests, Smith did not reject government regulation totally. In fact he argued for regulation of banking and interest rates and advocated using the government to try and correct the negative effects capitalism had on the intellect of the people through public financed education.

Muller writes a compelling book demonstrating that Smith is not the proto-libertarian so many people claim. That in fact Smith would probably be quite dismayed at the uses to which his thoughts have been applied.

Story of a dysfunctional romance, compelling at times, but eventually tiresome.

The beauty of this book is the author's inside the mind of the woman who knows what she's thinking and why, but continues to continue. The ambiguity of loving the wrong man in the right way at the right time. Positing her own development as a personality and a published author against the neediness of the beautiful man who loves me; therefore, I must be beautiful and lovable even if my famous, important father did not think so. Reveals the male character as well as the female character by balancing the power plays of his success vs her success and his neediness and her neediness. The triumph of the strong woman while her friends still search for the male completeness is an ironic ending. You just can not have success and love? The descriptions of place and how they fit the yuppiness of the Bay Area add to the ambience. The characters recreate their environments and themselves. I loved the angst...

I read Almost Perfect right after I read Adams' Superior Women. Almost Perfect is not as good, but still display's Adams' talents: character studies, touching upon the protagonists' motives, describing the ambiance and politics to romance and keeping it all readable and engaging. I walked away from this book still not really knowing the characters and I know that Adams does better at getting inside her characters' heads.

Read it anyway. Then read Superior Women.

Not the best celebrity book I've added to my collection, but not the worst. I'm giving it ***-plus because it appears to be an honest effort. I just wanted more meat and potatoes (read: interesting facts) about making the Batman series than the book offers. We hear about the other actors but it's mostly "Neil Hamilton (Comissioner Gordon) was very serious; Stafford Repp (Chief O'Hara) was a lot of fun..." I wanted some good solid stories about the production of this time capsule of a series, and while they might be dull and boring to Adam, they would have lent a lot of color to the book. I just ordered Burt Ward's book, which I already hear is a complete 180 from West's, and will have to compare the two. Make no mistake, I loved the series and was a Batman-aholic in the 1960s, like most of us, so I was really hoping for some golden chestnuts about Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith and Vincent Price. West does, however, let us know exactly how he feels about Julie Newmar (and who wouldn't share his admiration of such a 'Living Doll'? ... those of you from the 60s will understand that reference). So-so, but I will take the effort to read it again someday, if that's an endorsement.

Back to the Batcave is a definite "must read" for any fan of the classic 60's television series. This work details Adam West's early acting career as well as providing interesting anecdotes and behind the scene looks at what went on during the shooting of Batman. An added bonus is a 41 page annotated episode guide providing the Batfan with air dates, guest stars and plot synopsis'. Grainy photos, sloppy editing and a substandard print job kept this reader from assigning this book a 4 rating. In addition, some fans could probably do without reading the epilogue. West comes off as bitter (almost whining) about not being offered the lead in the 1989 Batman film. I, for one found it mildly embarrassing and depressing. It's my hope that should future editions be printed, this section will be rewritten.

THIS BOOK HAS A LOT OF INFO AND IS WELL WORTH READING. ADAM WEST TELLS SOME INTERESTING, UNIQUE AND HUMOROUS STORIES OF HIS LIFE, CAREER, AND TIME HE WAS ON THE SHOW. I FOUND HIS WRITING VERY WITTY, HUMOROUS AND WELL DONE. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK. THE ONLY NEGATIVE I HAVE IS THAT I HOPED IT WAS LONGER AND MORE DETAILED. ALSO THE PHOTOS ARE GRAINY AND OUT OF FOCUS. BUT FOR A TRIVIA AND NOSTALGIC TV WATCHER THIS IS A GOOD BOOK TO HAVE.
VERY RECOMMENDED.