Dear Dr. Ted: Just a brief note to tell you how very much I enjoyed your publication; I'm very impressed! You've produced a very thoughtful and complete guide to the small claims forum that is an extremely useful tool to both the layman and practitioner alike. You've provided a clear concise roadmap for claimants who might not have otherwise availed themselves of the small claims part to recover on meritorious claims. In my experience as a small claims court arbitrator, I've found a sore lack of understanding on the part of claimants and defendants as to what is required to pursue a claim in this part and what to expect from the process. Your Step By Step guide is an invaluable "hands-on", "how to" publication that provides the understanding necessary to take advantage of the "People's Court". Since I keep your book in a prominent area of my office conference room, it has been the subject of frequent perusal by clients and visiting colleagues. I've only had your book for a little over a month and it's already become a bit "dog-eared from use. I believe that says it all. Nice Job!

The book Barron's Legal-Ease Small Claims Court Step by Step, appealed to me because I could understand it....it was written in layman's language. It took all the mystery out of the process. The bottom line is Dr. Rothstein's book made me a winner as I received the 2,800 dollars due. A wonderful book for every business person. Babette Cohen Appraisals

It is simply the best one volume openings book ever published.

This book is broken down by opening variation, and sub-variation. What is unique is that the book illustrates many of the elementary traps that many of the other books omit. It also very clearly explains the ideas behind each of the openings (much more verbage in this respect than MCO or NCO, for example).

It also provides what are called "idea variations". Roughly put, these are variations that may not actually occur in actual practice, but are what you would play if given the chance. (Normally they are either prevented or avoided due to strategic or tactical problems. Nevertheless, knowing them gives you a much fuller understanding of the aims of the opening.)

Finally, at the conclusion of each sub-section, there is typically a small number of complete master level games illustrating the variation being discussed. Many of these are all-time classics. In this way, you get to see immediate application of the ideas without having to dig through other sources to find games featuring the opening you are studying.

If you can find a copy of this book anywhere, grab it immediately! It will be a long time before you run accross another one.

As to the downsides of this book, there are three significant ones;
1. It is out of print - very difficult to find. Even if you do find one, you may end up paying a lot, or ending up with a book that is in not too good condition.

2. It is current up to around 1963. In terms of the Double King Pawn openings this is probably less of a problem than some of the Queen Pawn openings such as King's Indian, Leningrad Dutch, Benoni, etc. or the Sicilian Defense, etc.

Some of these openings have undergone some radical new developments since that time period. (For example, don't try out the Sicilian Dragon Defense armed with only the variations covered in this book - you will get hosed quickly!)

3. The book is written in the older descriptive notation. For those of us who are over 40, this is probably no big deal. For those younger players, this may put them off as everything written today is in algebraic notation.

I heartily recommend this book - I guarantee that you will not be sorry for choosing to add it to your library. I ONLY WISH THAT SOMEONE WOULD UNDERTAKE THE TASK OF UPDATING THIS BOOK INTO ALGEBRAIC NOTATION WITH MORE CURRENT VARIATIONS. NOTHING OUT THERE RIGHT NOW IS EVEN CLOSE!!

Most of the stories are great, and like many of the reviewers here I think that for "The Final Question" you should by it, but it has some weak ones too, fortunately they are short and quickly forgotten.
I do not plan to read, at the near future, any other Asimov stories, since the style is a bit out-dated, but this book was an exception and I would recommend it for all of you.
A bunch of great stories on various sci-fi themes, that make you laugh, think and be amazed...

Let me elucidate. Starting with the seemingly innocuous question, "Can entropy be reversed?", Asimov proceeds, in a style all his own, to turn the reader's world upside down. When you've finished this story, you can do nothing but close the cover and sit and think for a while. In a piece that is a textbook example of the way a short story should be written, Mr. Asimov somehow manages to address that most basic of all questions, "What is the nature of our Universe, and by extension, what is the nature of ourselves?"

As an avid reader on all subjects, I enjoy being challenged by what I read but, speaking politely, the climax of this story, barely more than 15 pages in length, knocked me flat on my behind. No story I have read, before or since, has managed to turn life's basics quite so much on their ear as did this one.

I read somewhere that Mr. Asimov always felt that this was his favourite piece of writing, and I have no problem understanding why.

Read it...If you thought your world was dark before, I guarantee that "The Final Question", indeed, all of "Robot Dreams", will shed some light on the subject.

Sincerely,

Tony Hoffmann

This is easily one of the best books I have ever read. I read it in between his robot novels and Foundation novels, and it holds its own quite well against those.

Only one of the stories is in any other collection I know of. "Jokester," "The Billiard Ball," and "The Last Answer" are some excellent ones, but I agree that "The Last Question" (as it is named in my book; not "Final Question") is the best story I have ever read. Anybody remotely interested in science fiction at all should definitely buy this book. Before long you will be an Asimov fan for life.

Mention Jules Verne, and books that spring to mind are 20,000 Leagues, Around the World in 80 days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Mysterious Island is one of his lesser known works, which is something of a mystery itself.

The book surpasses one's imagination and never fails to surprise. From the initial pages when Capt. Cyrus Harding and his friends decide to escape from a prison camp, the story seizes the complete attention of the reader, and unfolds at a pace and in a direction excelling Jules Verne's characteristic stories. The spirit and ingenuity of man is demonstrated in almost every page, as Cyrus and Co. find themselves marooned on a deserted island, and armed with only their wits, transform their desperate situation into a wonder world of science and technology. The reader is drawn into the adventure and finds himself trying to find solutions to the problems and obstacles that lie in plenty for the castaways, as Cyrus and his indomitable friends surmount myriad problems in their fight for survival. They are aided in their ventures by an uncanny and eerie source that remains a mystery until the very end.

This book cannot fail to fascinate and inspire awe in the mind of any reader. One begins to grasp the marvels and inventive genius behind the simple daily conveniences and devices that are normally taken for granted. The line between reality and fantasy is incredibly thin, and for sheer reading pleasure and boundless adventure, this book will never cease to please.

PS: The book has been adapted into a movie, which is one of the worst adaptations of any novel that I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. It is criminal to even mention the movie and the original work in the same breath.

He kept coming to mind as I was reading this incredible book, as the characters, stranded on an island with absolutely nothing, accomplished such amazing feats as draining a lake, making a home, building a ship, making an elevator, and a great many other things. There is excitement, suspense (what IS going on on this mysterious island??), and wonderful, likeable characters. Not a real well-known Verne book, but fortunately still in print, and one of his best and most entertaining.

(Incidentally, if you want a children's version of the same story, try to find "A Long Vacation" by Jules Verne, which is extremely similar in plot, but with younger characters and for a younger audience - very charming!)

By the way, please do read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea first, if you have not already done so. Evidently, Verne assumed that everyone had when he wrote this novel.

Great reading!

The story is divided into two parts beginning with the ghetto and the work camp and ending with the last months of the war when the Russians and Americans are in the process of liberating Poland. The second part (nine chapters) lasts a time period of 6 months, which adds to the reader's experience of the prisoners waiting for their freedom. All the while, the prisoners could hear the guns of the Russians and the Americans in the distance. Throughout, the sense of fear and deprivation is quite explicit but not so much that children of 10 and above would be frightened by it. There is an epilogue and an afterward with some history to let reader's know what happened to the characters. All readers will marvel at Eva's resolve and at the courage of all of the prisoners in impossible circumstances.

I want to note that there are several editions of this great work and in deciding which to buy, be aware that each has a different translator. I feel Heffner's translation is slightly stilted but, he did such a wonderful job in editing this abridgement that it, nontheless, deserves 5 stars.

De Tocqueville also saw the insidious damage that the institution of slavery was causing the country and predicted some 30 years before the Civil War that slavery would probable cause the states to fragment from the union. He also the emergence of stronger states rights over the power of the federal government. He held fast to his belief that the greatest danger to democracy was the trend toward the concentration of power by the federal government. He predicted wrongly that the union would probably break up into 2 or 3 countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, De Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater than most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today.

De Tocqueville realizes at the very beginning of the "industrial revolution" how industry, centralization and democracy strengthened each other and moved forward together. I am convinced that De Tocqueville is still the preeminent observer of America but is also the father of social science. As a retired Army officer and political philosopher, I found this book to be a must read for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy or the social sciences.

This book is a jewel. Just like the original works of Einstein, Maxwell, Heisenberg, Schroedinger and all those giants. Many of the ideas presented in the book were written for the first time in history and probably they are not organized in a didactic form. The person buying this book should not expect to find a clear textbook when originally it was not written for the layman, but for the expert scientific community of its time. Buy this book, sit back, scan through it, and enjoy a true piece of history.

This edition, sponsored by I.B. Cohen (the Latin editor) gives us a fresh, modern English translation of the text, and -almost as thick- a guide to using and reading this all-important book, which is not -as everybody is aware- an easy reader. One word of caution: Newton was, of course, (pace Leibnitz) the discoverer of calculus, but he doesn't use it here, but "more geometrico"
rigorous proofs, much in the style of that other genius of all ages, Archimedes. If you need help grasping the contents and impact of this work, then you must get some book like DENSMORE, D., Newton's Principia: The Central Argument (other auxiliary books are commented in the Guide potion of the book I'm reviewing).