It is nothing short of astonishing that the man who wrote the excellent "What Went Wrong with Vatican II" has also written "The Defamation of Pius XII" -- one of the worst books I've ever had the misfortune to read. Amateurishly written -- e.g., "Pius's intervention at this crucial juncture was crucial." (page 129) -- edited, and presented, Ralph McInerny has rendered a disservice to Pope Pius. McInerny is correct: The former Holy Father was NOT Hitler's handmaiden -- quite the contrary. But saying so in a book that appears to have taken less than a week to complete doesn't exactly help the cause.

When Ralph McInerny takes off the gloves and pounds away at Garry Wills and other apostates and dissidents; calumniators of Pius XII; haters and enemies of the Papacy and of the Church and of the absolute moral law and immutable truths she represents...when he does this, he's unbeatable. Unfortunately, only a few pages are devoted to this bulldog attack. The rest of the book reads like the first draft of a college freshman's essay -- very badly written and the editing is pretty much non-existent. McInerny is right, of course -- Pope Pius XII has been outrageously defamed by Wills and others of his ilk. The mystery is why such an intelligent, informed and able writer (do read his work on Vatican II) has written such a terribly clumsy book -- and on such an important topic. Ah, well.

Dr. McInerny starts out slow, but builds to a nice rollicking finish. As an ex-Catholic I have little sympathy for his support of dogma, but I don't appreciate seeing th Church get bashed for things it didn't do either.

It had a lot of good information, but hardly ANY pictures to help identify the bottles. The good pictures were of bottles most of us will never see or find. What about the bottles we find at auctions, garage sales etc. Lots of us are NOVICE collectors, and we need more pictures to help us identify what we have. As far as I'm concerned, I've wasted my money. It isn't much help to this new novice. If your a professional bottle collector, this is the book for you.

This was one of the first bottle books I got to start categorizing my extensive collection. I am far from being a novice, however, my end-goal was to price some of my rarer bottles, and this book did that pretty well. What I found disappointing was the total LACK of photos (hardly any), and large gaping holes in sections such as "cures", "medicines", and "bitters". Hardly any of us will ever see a $4000 bottle in our lifetime other than online - but Kovels' persists in only showing photographs of the rarest of bottles. Not to mention, many of their prices are extremely inflated estimates obviously made by someone of Sotheby's blood, not us plain ol' diggers. To be honest, this book helped ID about 20% of my bottles in my bottle collection - so I found it useful, and since it was a gift, even more so - I doubt if I'd buy it myself. More pictures, better categorization, and breaking the book into smaller books with more detailed pictures is what I would do. This book could easily be broken into 10 better books with some effort. Novice bottle collectors would be better off trying Antique Glass and Bottle Collectors magazine if you want better information and pictures.

Organized by bottle type (medicine, beer, etc.), this comprehensive book quickly enables the reader to track down a wide variety of bottles from by-gone days. The authors have wisely included descriptions of various bottle types and their intended uses. This will help novice bottle collectors to better research their bottles as the purpose of many bottled products no longer holds any signficance to modern folks (this is especially true for medicines and elixirs that existed before the dawn of the Food & Drug Administration). Readers would be better served if more pictures could be found as well as timelines regarding a bottler's production dates. But the omission of these items is understandable regarding the overall convenience and ease of using this book.

I could not agree more with the previous two reviewers. We are probably talking about the worst mechanics book in the market. There are big gaps in the logic, no clear motivations for the steps taken toward any result. To understand this book, the student basically has to write the other half of it: the mathematics and the explanations. Avoid this book by all means.

I think that this book provides an attractive answer to the question what purpose should an intermediate level course on Classical Mechanics serve? Introduce the reader to the ''Art of the Physicist''. A course on Classical Mechanics (where students are already familiar with most of the basic physical concepts) is an appropriate choice of vehicle to this end.

Baierlein's book does as good a job of instructing one in the ''Art of the Physicist'' as can be expected of any text. He tackles systems of genuine physical interest (in which attention to orders of magnitude is important), makes extensive use of (generally applicable) approximate methods of solution and does not shy away from discussing qualitative lines of argumentation (such as dimensional analysis). He has also developed an essential adjunct to a text of this kind, namely a fairly extensive collection (unusual in books on Classical Mechanics at this level) of original and sometimes challenging problems. Not content with his efforts in the body of the book, the author even takes the brave step of attempting to delineate the ''Art of the Physicist'' in an appendix. Despite the unconventional character of his book, Baierlein is careful to cover all the topics usually found in intermediate level texts on Classical Mechanics.

Those who want to be guided in detail through every step of a calculation will not enjoy this book and those who want more than a passing introduction to the Langrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of Classical Mechanics will have to look elsewhere (the book ''Introduction to Dynamics'' by I. Percival and D. Richards, although not designed for physicists, is a wonderfully succint, clear and pragmatic presentation). However, even for those ultimately more interested in such formal developments, Baierlein's book is a good place to start if only to whet the appetite. (As the title suggests, those interested in Special Relativity will also have to look elsewhere.)

Perhaps conscious that the best physicists can make physics seem effortless, Baierlein's touch throughout the book is deliberately light. This makes the book eminently readable, but does have its drawbacks. There are no messy comparisons between the predictions of models and experimental data. Surely much of the ''Art of the Physicist'' is necessitated by the fact that tractable models are invariably imperfect descriptions of reality? The reader should be given a chance to develop an appreciation of when a model is adequate or should be improved upon (if at all possible). Also, although Baierlein introduces Lagrangian formalism early (in chapter 4), he does not make any reference to it in subsequent chapters. Admittedly he has entitled his book ''Newtonian Dynamics'', but a brief if somewhat technical comparison between Newtonian and Lagrangian treatments of, for example, Central Forces and Non-Inertial Frames (dealt with in chapter 5 and 6, respectively) would serve to bring out the elegance of the Lagrangian approach. Choosing the technique best suited to the task at hand and cross-checking results obtained by one method by rederiving them with another are among the arts of a physicist.

Good texts on physics are few and far between. This is one of them. I hope that one day Professor Baierlein returns to this book to embellish it further. I would be interested to see how he treats the topic of deterministic chaos.

Hello,

I must agree with the first review. This book was wonderful, and really started me on my way in physics (as I write this I am in the process of finishing up my thesis, and thus my Ph.D in physics). The presentation of material was quite clear, and the appendicies on various approximation methods was quite useful. This was the first book I used that really drove home the methodology of physics, namely, not being afraid to make approximations when appropriate. There are very few exactly solvable problems, and even fewer of much interest, and "the art of physics" is to tackle the messy, seemingly intractable ones. This book does much in preparing the student for such an endevor. Thank you Ralph Baielein for writing such a useful book.

As a final year medical student (at Queen's University Belfast) I would strongly recommend against the use of this text. The attempts at humour interfere with the already sketchy descriptions of human anatomy which the diagrams do little to help clarify. This text was universally slated by the students in my year. I cannot overemphasise how deeply I regret wasting my money on it.

I am a Final Year student at Queen's University Belfast and I'd just like to correct the horrific error my colleague has made.

This is a poorly written, hard to understand Anatomy text, which lacks sufficient detail to actually be understandable, and which contains attempts at "humour" which are, at best, weak. The book is an appalling waste of money, and provides no useful grounding in Anatomy. The diagrams are poor, the explanations vague and the whole book simply not useful for the purpose which it is meant to serve. Do not under any circumstances buy this travesty.

This book is excellent, maybe you can't get the jokes if your from Belfast but as a medical student in NY I found the jokes, as well as the clinical insights to be excellent. This is an excellent [supplementary] text for a first year medical student. Way more clinically relevant than Baby Moore's essential clinical anatomy, and way more fun to read.

I felt the book greatly lacked depth into topics. It seemed to only cover some of the remedial basics. It is not a very good choice for someone who really wants to leearn how to effectively use this program. It also does not serve too well as a refence manual.

Well below the manufacturer's manual. Not worth spending time or money

Autocad LT 97 was the second book I tried to use to learn Autocad. My goal was to learn AutoCad LT by myself. The first book (bought last year) that I tried was AutoCad LT by Omura. It was very difficult to follow for two reasons. First, I needed a book for the extreme novice. Second, Mr. Omura's book is about Autcad release 3.0, which differs greatly from release 14. Mr. Grabowski's book is clearly written, informative, and knowingly focuses on the challenge faced by the beginning CAD student. He starts each section by explaining the goals, and he also shares the perspective enjoyed by the high end CAD person, one who is in it every day. This book is excellent for the beginner and intermediate student. It includes a CD with all the drawings you have to make already done. After making each one of these at least 6 times, I learned even more by opening up the same drawing from the CD, one that was done by an expert. I think you will need at least two books to learn AutoCad LT97 well enough to make money at it.

Sullivan's "College Algebra" is a mish-mash of material, very little of which has any relevance to the questions at the end of each section. I am extremely upset that my university changed to this text, as it is vastly inferior to our previous book. There are no examples of key points that are needed to complete homework. What explanations that are available are hard to decipher, much less understand. This text should not be allowed to be used in any classroom, college or high school.

This book covers algebra very well. It is a simple, easy to understand text that most students seem to be able to grasp. It's main attribute is that it treats college algebra simply and does not scare students away. This book is also a good place to start if you are attempting to self teach.

order was not shipped the same day, so seller gave me a discount and I still received the book pretty quick. Great customer service. The book is in mint condition.

I ordered this book thinking it would help me to clarify job decisions and what I found instead was an irritatingly religious, moralizing, Christian work on finding your "mission"/ job. That is fine if that is what you are looking for; otherwise stay far away.

It was an unpleasant surprise for me to open this book and find an irritatingly religious, moralizing, Christian guide to clarifying one's mission/best job fit. If that is what you're looking for, fine. Otherwise, I would stay away . . .far away.

This book had a profound impact on my professional and personal life. It helped me to identify those inherent gifts (talents) which I possess and gave me specific insights into how best to apply them. In fact, after reading the book, I contacted Rallph Mattson and went through his Motif process (based upon the book). From this report they prepared a "best use" analysis which I regularly share with my management in discussions of next assignments and promotions. It has helped me and them to jointly make career decisions that benefit me and the company. The book's philosophical basis is supported by a new book (1999) by Gallup "First Break all the Rules". After interviewing 40,000 people in 800 companies, they found that the one thing that most negatively impacts an organization's ability to reach its full potential is its inability to tap into and utilize the unique, inherent talents of each person in the organization. The one thing Gallup does not offer is a means of identifying those talents and putting them to use. Ralph Mattson (who published his book well in advance of Gallup's) has a proven, effective means of doing that. I strongly urge anyone who is or has ever wondered if there was something else that would make them feel fulfilled or give them a sense of peace and contentment, to read this book.

This book is so useless that I felt compel to write a review to warn others to stay away from this book. A good tutorial should inspire the user on what he/she can do with the product. This book leads you to believe that the only thing you can do with Microsoft Visio is to endlessly change settings. The book is a disservice to both the reader and to Microsoft Visio.

I read this book in a few hours and returned it afterwards. It covers many of the topics that are standard throughout the Office Suite of products. It may be a great book for somebody who is unfamiluar with new applications but I figured out most of this stuff before I even bought a book. Otherwise I have no complaints. I just knew this stuff already. This author has an advanced book that may be helpful for many advanced users who need to interact with the shapes.

I've just started reading this, so my comments are preliminary. The good parts about this book is that there is a lot of visual aids and a lot of logical steps for doing things. Plus, the author does a very good job of setting up hands-on activities for for the user to do. However, my complaint is that too much time spent explaining very basic functions that most Windows or Office users would already know. How to save? how to change the font? While not a bad book, potential buyers might consider looking at the advanced book first or buying both books in combination. Otherwise, this book is for people who really are starting fresh and might not well experienced in Office either. Perhaps one of the problems is that visio is extremely user-friendly (unlike other bloatware products! ), and a writer is left with explaining the obvious. That is why it might be good to find a book that explains the more advanced functions.

I agree with the above reviews. These are the basics of the book:
Magic=aerobic training combined with weigth training & diet!
Duration:
Minimum: 30 min (first after 20 min fat burn)
Suggested: 45 min
Ideal: more than 60 min, e.g. 90 min (after 60 min supercharged fat burning). "Research has shown that when the exercise lasts longer than one hour the metabolism stays high and hot for quite some time after the exercise is over, burning off fat long after you have stopped working."

Intensity:
65-70% of maximum heartbeat rate:
220
-age
*65 or 70%
Frequency:
At least 3 times a week.
Exercises:
 Power walking
 Treadmill
 Stairway
 Cycling
 Aerobics.
Mix the exercises or stay with one.
Move whenever you can: walk, shop, clean house, climb the stairs...

The book has a great cover and the Pictures are wonderful. The book cover states " The Magic of Fat Loss tackles your overweight problems and solves them by showing you how to get Mother Nature on your side." But what the book does not tell you is what a correct diet is. In fact the Diet section says " For more information on diet checkout the nutrition section in your bookstore." I feel that there should be something more on Diet other than check your book store.

I only wish this book offered the magic to "achieving rapid loss of unsightly fat" as it states on the back cover. The inside contents reveal that good ole' exercise is the key! The book does offer some good info. on exercise. It includes information about different forms of exercise and how to achieve goals utilizing these forms. However it could have gone into greater depth. On the chapter on weight training for example, it suggests different sets but does not give any information on form, technique etc. The other element missing from this book is information on diet. The book states "For information on diet check out the nutrition section at your local bookstore." Since diet is at least 75% of the fat loss game and this book is about fat loss.. something is missing here. The 62 page book includes lots of the usual "muscle mag" type poses in black and white, which are inspirational. I do feel there was some valuable information in the book but it needed to be beefed up alot.

As a big fan of the Father Dowling series, I was very disappointed in this first book of a new series. For me, the story was dull. I didn't care who committed the murder, and I cared less about Phil and Roger who were investigating. I couldn't recommend this novel.

A good yarn, good plot, some interesting characters, but so badly written that I wonder if the author bothered to go back over what appears to be a first draft. Has he ever heard of a transition? Where were his editors? It did though drive to Amazon to look for an up-to-date Rockne bio (one due out this month) and found to my amazement a listing for a novel written by Rockne that figures in this murder mystery.

I must commend McInerny for putting himself at risk by attempting to intermingle a modern fictional work with the time-honored tradition that is Notre Dame. As an alum, myself, it was amusing to read about my old stomping grounds, but I found the references to the Notre Dame campus, buildings, tradition and environs to be distracting at times. McInerny seems to be forcing discussion of Notre Dame history through his characters, incorporating wording and phraseology that few would use in daily conversation. The plot seemed rushed, and I believe that those who have never seen the beauty of the campus would be hard pressed to understand where and why certain actions take place. Notre Dame tradition is deeply rooted and anyone writing about it can be assured to receive criticism or praise from fans and alumni alike. McInerny's brave attempt at bringing this tradition into a fictitional realm is only mediocre, and I hope that in future books of this series, his results are more entertaining and intriguin