The book has a lot of text and a lot of humor. It's entertaining to read but I didn't find it very helpful for report writing. When you look at the highlighted portions of the text you have to do extensive reading to find out if you are doing it the right way or the wrong way. It felt more like an episode of the world's worst police reports. The book could have been organized better with major points highlighted. The commonly confused word section was very helpful.

I recently read this book in conjunction with the seminar put on by the authors Nicholas Meier and R.J. Adams. The book is a must read for all future police officers as well as a must have for current officers and supervisors. This is the first report writing book that I was actually able to read and enjoy. I was able to pick up several tips that have made my job much easier. You will learn so much from this book you'll wonder how you worked without it.

If you have the chance sign up for the seminar!

G. Ladwig

I feel this book is a great resource for police report writers. It teaches the basics of english usage and reporting as it relates to police writing without putting you to sleep. A valuable book for everyone who "pulls paper."

This is definitely a difficult book, and understanding certain critical passages may require several readings. In short, this is NOT a good book for an introduction to presidential politics and leadership. For a more readable and still highly regarded account, Neustadt's seminal work is a good choice. However, none of this is to say that Skowronek's book is not brilliant--it is, and reading it carefully is a very profitable experience and will enhance anyone's understanding of the presidency, agree with Professor Skowronek or not. Through all the technical references, Skowronek proposes a paradigm for assessing presidential leadership: Reconstruction, Disjunction, Articulation, and Pre-emption, all of which are based on the nature of the government and its commitments (vulnerable or resilient) and on the president's relationship to that regime (opposed or affiliated). Reconstruction results when presidents are opposed to a vulnerable regime--here are the "great" presidents: Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan, for example. Affiliation with a vulnerable regime produces Disjunction. Articulation results from affiliation with a resilient regime. And Pre-emption is the product of opposition to a resilient regime. Of course, this merely scratches the surface of Skowronek's argument, for which he argues quite well and which he approaches from a fairly historical perspective. I highly recommend this for anyone wishing to gain a deeper, fuller understanding of presidential leadership, especially in considering how much a president's skills affect what type of leader he is and how much circumstances shape his presidency.

I read this as part of a course (taught by the author himself) in my sophomore year of college. Skowronek is I think to be applauded for his historical approach to presidential politics, and for his style of writing: it seems more as if youre reading a story than a political science book. Time and time again, Skowronek comes back to his thesis and main themes (legitimacy and presidents ability to correctly understand and manipulate their historical moment. The book never loses focus as Skrownek discusses different presidents or as he tells stories about a particular president. And hes done his research really really well. In particular his use of presidential quotes is very very impressive. Numerous times he gives examples of Presidents who attempt to build political legitimacy using words that fit very well into Skowronek's conceptual framework ("preserving foundations", recovering old sacred truths, continuing work that has already begun). The problem with Skowronek's book is that I think, given the sort of analysis hes doing here, its not very naunced. Im sure for example, articulation presidents often distanced themselves from their predecesors in some form or another. Some may not have a problem with this: after all S. is trying to prove his point and prove it well. However I thought at times that the book could have been more nauanced. Just my thoughts....OHH BUY THE BOOK!

In "The Politics Presidents Make,"Stephen Skowronek presents a sweeping indictment of the Neustadtian view on presidential leadership made famous in Richard Neustadt's classic text, "Presidential Power." Skowronek challenges Neustadt's assertion that presidents after FDR represent a distinct group of incumbents, who, because of the constant challenges of modernity, cannot make due with the formal powers of the president--which is a mere "clerkship"-- and must instead utilize informal authority to "get things done," something "pre-modern" presidents did not have to do consistently. Skowronek views such a notion as a conceit of modern times, and he incorporates "pre-modern" presidents into his analytical framework, which gives the reader a better understanding of the presidency as it is weighed against the emergent structures of power and in relation to the recurrent structures of authority. Skowronek also disputes the idea that each president is at liberty to "be as big as he can be." The differences in "great" presidents and "incompetent" presidents arises not out of differences in skills-- i.e. bargaining ability-- but instead out of differing political identities vis-a-vis the current political order. Because the presidency is, in constitutional terms, an order shattering, order-affirming, and order-creating political institution, successful presidents are those-- like Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan-- who are able to reconcile the order-shattering and order-affirming impulses by creating new standards for constitutional governance. This type of leadership stance-- reconstructive leadership-- is the most potent form of leadership because it allows for a reconciling of the order-shattering and order-affirming aspects of the presidency, which enables such incumbents to legitmate their actions, the key to successful leadership. Skowronek has written a superb book-- one of the best books on the presidency ever written-- and it is valuable because it correctly identifies legitimacy as the most important aspect of leadership and not skills.

This book will change the way you preach and communicate. It is clear, well written, and effective. I read it once a year to brush up on some of the principles. At the same time, the novel story format leave a little to be desired. It doesn't detract anything from the principles but it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I first read this book in Seminary which was almost 5 years ago. The truths presented in this book, if followed, will raise up a new generation of preachers that God will use powerfully. In a story format the author writes almost humorously the story of one defeated pastor's journey in discovering the importance of early preparation for sermon writing. I am still trying to follow the guidelines from this book. I haven't completely succeeded but am on my way!

This is a great book! It reinforces the disciplines of study and organization! I have recommended this book to many people and have given it to fellow preachers as a gift.

If I were pastoring a church, I would definitely use the principles found in this book to improve my pulpit ministry!

I thoroughly enjoyed the format in which it was written, any one of us in full-time ministry can identify with any one portion of the emotions and experiences that the lead character went through during the "dry spell" in his life!

10/10/02 Flew inverness-gatwick-antigua by BA and spent 10 days following the Rough Guide. As this isle has few road signs to speak of the Guide kept us on track and to places we would never have found or been aware of.The gorgeous secluded bay 400m back from Devil"s Bridge was indeed perfect and empty! Eating and drnking could also be relided upon ,Turner"s on Jonson"s point haveing a great view of Montserrat volcano(take bonocs),as well as ex food and svc. Having the guide made this holiday one i will remember, simple as that! Bon voyage.

My fiancee and I are going to Antigua for our honeymoon. We are staying at an all-inclusive resort, but want to take a day to tour the island. This book was very informative on popular attractions, places to visit, transportation and prices. I was only dissapointed with the fact that there weren't that many photos of the island...but the few that were in there were very pretty! Definitly worth buying if you want a quick, informative overview of the island!

I examined numerous Antigua / Barbuda books in various stores and found this to be the best. It's physical size is tiny at 4" x 5.5" but it contained better information than any of the other books I saw. If you are looking for a book exclusively about Antigua and barbuda I would recommend buying this book. It will prove most useful if you review it before you start planning your vacation.

Brief but good. The author comtemplates the so-called "smith problem", which is much less of a problem to those who have actually read and understood Smith. The problem being: in 1759 Smith wrote Theory of Moral Sentiments, charging that reason is not at the core of human action. Rather, one's own moral sense is what one intially turns to to provide moral judgement. In 1776 Smith wrote Wealth of Nations, which is ignorantly considered by some to be a libertarian apology for greedy businessman and their market economy. This 'problem' rests on those assumptions: some of which are false. Smith maintains throughout his work that commercial society is the best way to allocate the most amount of prosperity and liberty to the most amount of people, its (as he admits) many dark sides notwithstanding. The author's thesis, nonetheless, is interesting: that instead of trying to defend the market economy, Smith was actually defending the Old Whigs. Hmm, food for thought. One thing's for sure: regardless of Smith's motives, capitalism and the market have given man opulence and liberty beyond that which any other system could deliver.

Susan Gallagher's very brief work on Adam Smith provides fresh insight into the moral anxieties inspired by the rise of capitalism. The book is clearly written, thoughtfully argued, and surprisingly entertaining. While some readers might be upset by Gallagher's somewhat lighthearted tone, The Rule of the Rich? provides a welcome contrast to the dull perspectives one usually encounters in books on the history of social and political thought.

Of all of the thousands of books that it has been my unabashed plewasure to read, peruse, study, adjudicate, commit to memory, and just plain read for the pure single-minded pleasure of self-edification...there has been no equal to this incredibly piquant, pleasant, and informative little tome. Ms. Gallagher's lets you know right off the bat that you are in the prescence of the almost phosphorescent desidera of sheer heart-breaking genius. Not "MENSA" genius, not "Phi Beta Kappa" genius, not "Bohemian Grove" genius, but the genius of "the Apostles," of the High Tables of Oxbridge, or "Le Ecole Normale Superieur." Ms. Gallagher is a super-nova streaking across the intellectual firmament at the moment. Her career can only end up in Stockholm with a Nobel, which Sartresque I am sure she will turn her back on. There is a kind of Wittgensteinian conciseness and sheer didactic flair to her understanding of Adam Smith and the inter-related greats of his era which stymies the limited imagination and intellect of this reader and vexes him whole. Kudos, Ms. Gallagher, absolute kudos for you have walked the camel through the eye of the needle and I can only envy the trajectory of your intellectual future. Thank you so much for your fundamental work. I am a fan forever and will follow your career until that inevitable day. Thank you.

This is jazz writing at its finest? Alive and kicking? If so, we need to kill it. Don't be bamboozled by the mostly silly, misleading "advance praise" on the back of this volume. Mansbach does not riff like Coltrane. He does not flow like B.I.G. In fact, Mansbach is just the kind of writer (or, more precisely, this is just the kind of book) we DON'T need. Shackling Water is a labored, spoken-wordy blend of pseudo-Baraka rhythms that boasts several failed attempts to emulate Paul Beatty's humor. The story itself is trite trite trite, a dull retelling of the old jazz-musician-addicted-to-heroin bit. Can we PLEASE get past this? Most of the characters are uninteresting (The protagonist is said jazz musician. Then there's the older white woman painter girlfriend of said jazz musician. The legendary jazz hero of said jazz musician. The cutely named but paper thin drug dealer. The homophobic piano player whose individual story seems to be a facile riff on Baldwin's classic "Sonny's Blues."), and one wonders if the author truly understands them. The book has an occasional pleasing sentence, but it is mannered beyond belief, the work of one who seems to be feverishly, desperately trying to write himself into a culture that he obviously has a lot of information about; but then again, facts do not constitute truth. Several scenes go beyond the bounds of believability. One post-coital scene finds the inter-racial lovers deconstructing race and the master-slave dialectic. Another ridiculous one has the protagonist playing his horn while the local dealer freestyles (wowing the white painter with a mention of Flannery O'Conner. Wow.). The protagonist and the local dealer (ingeniously named Spliff) also share a dull word or two about jazz and hip hop. Earnest? Forced? Long-winded? Yes. What a coincidence! It seems (based on relatively thin but compelling evidence) that the author himself struggles with these very qualities. On the recommendation of a professor friend, I had the, um, pleasure of attending a recent panel discussion on jazz and hip hop in the hallowed halls of Columbia University in which Mr. Mansbach was one of the participants. Q-Tip (aka Kamaal), Olu Dara, and several other (male) jazz musicians made up the rest of the panel. I say "panel," but, oh, if only it were actually that! The "panel" proper was actually a brief series of promising but ultimately unconnected comments of which Mr. Mansbach, in that spoken word tone and lilt I find so annoying, made many: both lengthy and self-indulgent. The "panel" then became even more of the Adam Mansbach show, with him reading from his work over live jazzy tunes. Ah, but here, perhaps, is a chance to praise Mr. Mansbach's book. You see, read pretentiously over jazzy tunes Shackling Water sounds great - well, better. With sixty percent of the actual prose obscured by jazzy noise, words like "soul" and "cascade" and "Latif" and "horn" sound cool! But outside of that context this book (and here I will now insert, loudly, according to Mansbach's writerly technique, the appropriate hip hop reference) gets the gas face. Is there any wonder that the author is book-touring with his band? In short, being Elvin Jones' roadie and an emcee and living in Fort Greene do not make one attuned to the pulse of a culture. Nor is this the stuff of a good writer. Whatever potential Mr. Mansbach has (and I do believe he has some, along with a fair deal of bravery and hustler's brio) will require him to interrogate more carefully his relationship to (black) cultures and (artistic, novelistic) traditions before it is fully realized.

Adam Mansbach's debut is luminous, this boy can write! So interesting to see that we are finally exploring the connection between jazz and hip-hip, which one can argue, are truly the only pure "American" forms of music.

Mansbach tackles these subjects well, making both of these worlds truly come alive as we follow Latif on his journey into manhood and into the world of NYC.

I wholeheartedly recommend this first-timers work and wholeheartedly disagree with the dissenter below. The problems and the beauties of the jazz and hip-hop world can not be brought to light by one novel alone......those who put that responsibility on one writers shoulders will always be disappointed. One writers view will always be a narrow view and I appreciate that Mansbach has opened the door for further discourse.

Bottom line: buy it, read it and look forward to more from Mr. Mansbach.

Mansbach has his finger on the pulse of so much here: jazz, hip hop, race, urban life. Laitf, the protagonist, is the kind of character who stays with you long after you finish reading. Even the minor characters are memorable, and the writing itself is beyond compare. Mansbach is really defining new territory here: this is writing that truly comes alive, that comments profoundly on the struggle of a young man in language all its own. I read this book in one sitting, without planning to.

While I have tremendous respect for Dr. Larry Crabb and his work, I was disappointed by this book. It does highlight important issues related to men, but I believe it goes too far in making the Creation account fit into the male-female relationship model for the book. Although effort is given to demonstrate Crabb's point by appealing to the original biblical languages, the overall tone is more isogetical than I am comfortable with. The fall of man is not about the failure of man to speak order into chaos. It is about the first Adam breaking the covenant of works God establshed and setting the stage for the coming of the second Adam, Christ, who establshed the covenant of grace. What Crabb describes is one among a number of symptoms of the Fall. Having said that, the book accurately describes the problems men often endure because of their failure to communicate, to speak out, and to establish biiblical order in themselves and their world. I just think the point could have been made equally well without forcing Scripture into a model that doesn't appear to match its original intent. Having been so warned, it has valuable points to make.

I read this book at a critical point in my life, and it has had a profound effect on how I view myself and my role as a husband. I recommend this for any man about to be married or enter another phase of their life. The authors describe how men have fallen, and throw a new (for me) twist into the old Adam and Eve story. Instead of depicting Eve as being deceived and then subsequently deceiving Adam, the book describes that Adam was there the whole time, yet said and did nothing. (Hence the book title: Silence of Adam.) The book goes on to describe many different ways men compensate for their weaknesses and inability to have all the answers by often acting in ways which harm themselves and others. What struck a deep chord with me is the way the book describes how to react or act in those times when there are no answers. The chapter "Men Who Fight Darkness" was especially powerful in that it depicts the harm in trying to fix something, or act, when the only way out is to trust and be still. Typically, my response to situations which I cannot resolve is to try something, anything. I resist being patient and waiting for situations I cannot control to unfold naturally. The book illustrates some excellent examples of the damage this causes, and the healing and success a different approach may bring. I liked the way he described how "We begin to face the loneliness of choice, the terror of trust". In the chapter titled "Recipe Theology" the author describes common responses like being a recovery addict ("How can I FEEL better"?) or a grim legalist ("How can I DO better"?), and how we "either become pre-occupied with feeling good or we feel pressured to do good. Neither lifts us up into God's larger story or invites us to participate in it". Very challenging words. I really enjoyed this book (though not always as at times I saw too much of myself in it) and would recommend it highly if read with an open mind and some self honesty.

Great book that addresses the problem that men face everyday. Final conclusion is that we must be men who above everything else pursue a passionate relationship with our creator. No God doesn't usually give specific directions for a problem but when we pursue Him we are being conformed to the image of Christ. Having that relationship with our savior allows us to make godly decisions at all times. This book is a must read.

From start to finish, this story made no sense. The characters were annoying, the "surprise plot twist" in the garden made no sense to the rest of the story. There were several errors found throughout the book. The characters were unrealistic as was the plot. I realize this was a first time author, but this was really poorly developed.

The Adams book is a great first effort for this author. I purchased it for myself, but loaned it to my 80 year old mother first. She finished it in a day, and I also found it hard to put down. The story moved easily; described Hawaii beautifully; and kept you turning pages quickly to see what would happen next. The author skillfully created an ending for this story which allows the reader to hope for another book soon.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is very fast paced, suspenseful, and easy to read. This author's descriptions of Hawaii make you feel as though you are right there with Mr.Grant throughout his journey. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading a good mystery.

Even the biggest Paul Thomas Anderson fan will admit that his scripts don't read that well. He makes basic spelling mistakes and tends to run on with his incoherent, "realistic" monologues. His movies are salvaged by good actors, and his sense of sound and visual storytelling. In any event, this book is a big disappointment. If you're expecting something comparable to Newmarket's Magnolia script book or even Faber and Faber's Boogie Nights script book, think again. The gimmick here is that the multi-colored script revision pages are published, instead of a single draft. The result is only 90 pages and, since many of the pages are script revisions, some of the pages are half empty. Also, unlike the previously published PTA scripts, there's no introduction. Unlike the Magnolia script, there are no stills. Hell, there isn't even text on the back cover of the book. This is as bare-bones as script books come. As far as I can tell, PTA doesn't really care about his fans anymore. He's stopped recording commentaries, writing introductions, or soundtrack liner notes. At least he still makes good movies.

I love being able to read P.T. Anderson's shooting scripts. His films are fabulous. I believe one of the negative reviewers partially misses the point when harping on the misspellings, the rambling monologues and how PTA's scripts are saved by the actors. The whole point of a script is that it is the first rough draft -- the framework -- upon which a movie is built. Of course there are going to be improvements between the script and the final product. The reason to buy this, or any, shooting script is to see how the project evolved from script to screen. In the case of Punch-Drunk Love -- much more so than Boogie Nights or Magnolia -- it's fascinating to find that almost every important scene was tweaked, sometimes in a major way, before this wonderful film reached the screen. ... It's a great chance to get some insight into the stages of the creative process of one of America's finest directors. ... BOTTOM LINE: Does this book have all the bells and whistles of the Boogie Nights and Magnolia shooting scripts? NOPE. Is it essential for the PTA fan? YUP.

One of my new favorites, "Punch-Drunk Love" is a unique and spectacular story about a man who doesn't know how the face the world around him. That man is Barry Egan. He has seven sisters who have verbally abused him since he was little, causing him to, now all grown up, get into violent outbursts. Barry's a quiet and shy guy, but if his button is pushed things can get out of control. He meets Lena, a very strange and peculiar girl herself. Love falls upon these two, but Barry's even facing more problems after being blackmailed by a phone-sex operator. But when all else fails, he knows that he has a love in his life in this very oddball and dark comedy.

I'm glad they came out with a script version of the film that you can buy. Paul Thomas Anderson has written a magnificent picture that's so easy to relate to , it's scary. The stuff that occurs you can see happening in real life. It's realistic and surreal at the same time.

This is the shooting script, on blue, pink, and yellow colored pages that symbolize when the revisions were made. Technical terms such as camera angels are included as well since it is a shooting script. Even little changes are mentioned as well. I love the dialogue that was written and you can tell that P.T. had Sandler in mind for the part, because nobody else would've been able to pull it off. While it's not your typical comedy, I thought it was hilarious. It pretty much follows the movie, although some things aren't there or changed due to changes that occurred during the shooting. It's pretty much all there for the most part.

"Punch-Drunk Love: The Shooting Script" is a great purchase for anyone who loved the film. It may not had been the most popular movie to come out of 2002, but it's #2 on my list. The pages fly by with ease, and when you're done with it you want to read it again. I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD. I'm counting the days. A spectacular script for a spectacular film.

The premise is absurd, yet Adams tries to mix genuine scientific texts (like Tipler's and Penrose's)with his pseudo-scientific, New Age dream of the "afterlife." Trying to distance himself from religion--as if by renaming traditional religious premises will make them otherwise--Adams desperatly seeks a theory that will prove the "self" can outlive the body. But, no matter how romantic this idea may sound, and how much we would all 'like' to beleive in it, there is significant evidence that the "self," or counsciousnes from which the idea of "self" derives, is intimidly married to the functions of the biological brain; that once the brain stops functioning, so does counsciousness and therefore the "self." There IS no evidence for ANY mechanism that can explain how counsciousness can exist without a brain despite Adam's twisting of Physics and Chemistry to form his mishappened philosophy. This book only adds more fuel to the dumbing down of society and demenstrates that lay-folk aren't the only ones who lack critical thinking skills.

The book is an incisive analysis and speculation on the possibilities for all manner of life by the author, Dr. J. Robert Adams, that personality and memory can survive biological mortality. The mechanism for this conjecture is based largely, on physics as the scientists of the 20th century have developed it. Adams work, in order to do this has defined mind and soul from a purely materialist point of view yet results in something that closely approaches the belief structures of many of the world's faiths. The work has quite a bit in commom with the writings of Hammeroff and Penrose, and the books Robot by Professor Hans Moravec, and Physics of Immortality, by Physicist Frank Tipler. Interestingly enough, the work echos some of the philosphy by Philosopher Peter Forrest, in Australia. Adams goes beyond Forrest and provides a susincint possibility for post mortem existence. I like way Dr. Adams focuses on some comparative religions and how his theory compares. Really worth a purchase. Seems like a robust hypothesis.

Dr. Adams does a superb job of discussing a difficult, although tantalizing, subject, i.e., existence after death. His basic hyptothesis is that our memory is saved. Memory, he proposes, is transferred continuously to a point outside of our physical body where it is preserved. He suggests that this memory receptacal is an unseen world governed by quantum mehancial principles (he spares us the respective equations). His hypotheseis concerns itself not only with memory but with that essential ingredient, consciousness, which is or can be available at the new site of transplanted memory.

Dr. Adams is non-dogmatic. He leads his reader along a path that is based on scientific principles and he doesn't seem to violate religious concepts. He speculates a bit, but in a conservative, scientifc way. The reader is encouraged to help solve the riddle. He then goes on with more concepts and suggestions that might prove to be clues.

I enjoyed reading Dr. Adams' "Surviing Death". The book is easy to read and once started is difficult to set aside. Dr. Adams' style of writing is clear and crisp with an appropriate touch of humor here and there. I enthusiastically recommend it.