First published in French in 1980 as 'Le Grand Fosse', this album was first published in English in 1981.

Chief Cleverdix sends his son Histrionix to the village by the sea, to call on the aid of Chief Vitalstatistix, to settle a dispute with his rival , Chief Majestix..
Asterix, Obelix and Getafix are as a result sent to the divided village.
This was the first book written by Uderzo alone, and is not one of the best. Much of the humour is recycled from earlier Astérix books, and the attempts at political satire are weak, unlike the superb political satire of 'Asterix and Caesar's Gift' for example. Uderzo would later prove that he could however, write, good Asterix comics, with such gems as 'Asterix and the Black Gold' and 'Asterix and The Magic Carpet'.

I love Asterix, I love French and Belgian comics. I grew up reading Tintin and Asterix and Lucky Luke and Spirou and the rest. But this adventure is terrible! Sorry M. Uderzo, I wish it was not so. Everytime I re-read this, I feel like I have read a horror story. Everything is so dark, Codfix is yucky, he is the worst character created. Of course, the death of a genius like Goscinny probably made his old friend very bitter. I give it a two because of the state of the art drawings. I put this one behind all others though. Who said Belgium was bad?

This is one of the best Asterix books. In it, Asterix, Obelix, Getafix, and Dogmatix set off to help out another village troubled by a terrible internal division and threatened by the Romans. The reader will be delighted as the heroes of the story work to drive off the Romans, bring the village together, make a romance come true, and teach the villain of the story a good lesson, by Toutatis!

I was told to read this book for a business class on what not to do and I think that Al Dunlap is in no place to be dishing out any advice. If you study the companies that Dunlap took over you realize that all of his improvements were nothing more then accounting wizardry. Besides he destroys the company's employees just to give him self and his wife first class plane tickets to Philadelphia. Just think before you buy a book about management style that you pick a manager that you want to be like.

I read this book when it first came out in hardcover, and was very impressed by Dunlap's beliefs and methods. Now that the smoke has cleared with Dunlap's fiasco at Sunbeam and the recent biography "Chainsaw", I find this book to be fairly shabby. For one thing, Dunlap only seemed to be concerned with the price of the stock, rather than the rate of return on the investment. He says that one should not cut jobs just to increase the share price, yet he boasted about improving the share price (which at Sunbeam, crashed after he was sacked). A share price should reflect the profit which a company makes, not by what type of actions the chairman makes. He sold Scott to Kimberly Clark for a fairly hefty sum, but now that buyout seems to have less value than originally anticipated. Rather than building up what's best in a corporation, he seems to cut them down to size (which speculatively increases their value) and sell them off while the going's good. Good value for him, provded that he sells off his shares, but for the long term shareholders, it's a rip off. Second, I admire the idea of corporations streamlining the management process, and thowing away the corporate toys. He feels that executives should not be excessively paid, and i admire the idea of executives being paid in stock, having to buy stock out of their own pocket, and accepting term limits and conflict of interest rules. However, according to "Chainsaw" he seemed to have many of the perks (like a bodyguard and room for his dogs at a hotel) which he claims an executive should be denied. He feels that executives should not be excessively paid, and I admire the idea of executives being paid in stock, having to buy stock out of their own pocket, and accepting term limits and conflict of interest rules. Yet, his infatuation with the value of the share (rather than the rate of return) forces the executives to focus more and more on the short term, rather than the long term. This seems to be in contradiction to his marketing idea of a high margin, rather than an high volume of sales. Third, his autobiography seems to be a fraud. According to Chainsaw, his father was not a dock worker/union steward, but a boiler maker. The family had a nice middle class lifestyle, not the poverty which Dunlap has described. Dunlap makes no reference to his sister, his first wife, to whom he seemed abusive, or to his son Troy, to whom he refused to help with his college tuition and whom he wrote out of his will. Finally, Dunlap claims to have admiration for his parents, yet he did not even attend their funerals. Mean Business really hints at what type of ego Dunlap has, through his continual boasting about his accomplishments in creating shareholder value. Chainsaw, on the other hand, expands on this, showing what type of a tyrant this man is, ruthlessly screaming at employees for hours on end (and even sexually harassing one of them) and expecting them to at his beck and call. In theory, his ideas seem fairly sound, but in practice, I feel that focusing exclusively on the value of a share price will have extremely dire long term consequences.

Having read many reviews of the book, I began it thinking it would be everything that I do not believe in. I was wrong. Al Dunlop's style is not one I admire, approve of or emulate. However, as a straight cost cutter there is probably no one better. The problem is that after cuttiing costs, most businesses want to stay alive and grow. When Mr. Dunlop is finished, there is only a business to sell. Through Share Price Growth 100, we now know that there are ways to significantly grow stock price, have very happy shareholders and manage costs as a core competency. We can now have very happy shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers and the communities in which our businesses operate. There are now real 2,000 percent solutions to most business stalls.

This book I read, Albert Einstein, was a very interesting book. It showed little known facts about his life that were very interesting to know. The book told how Einstein got to be smart. It also showed his life accomplishments and famous things he did. I reccomend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the life of Albert Einstein.

First of all, I've read other "Great Voices" biographies and they do not
pretend to be very scholarly, or delve very deeply into the personal lives
of the singers. They are less 'biographies' than 'loving tributes'. There
are some great pictures, loving reminisces, glowing accounts of illustrius
careers, and only the briefest sketches of personal life. Pesky things like
vocal decline, feuds, scandals, and other unpleasantries are for the most part
ignored and mentioned only obliquely. Simionato's biography is on its own
terms rather charming. There are great reminisces and tributes by lots and
lots of colleagues, wonderful pictures (i was shocked by just how large her
repertoire was), and some good reviews. There's a full chronology of her
career. Predictably, her bitter rival Fedora Barbieri is never mentioned,
and nothing is mentioned of her vocal decline. We are led to believe the
only reason she retired was because of her marriage. Listening to
Simionato's recordings at that time I hear a large hole developing in the
middle of her voice, and she often sounded raspy and colorless. Her top was
as brilliant as ever. The author also gives us the impression that every man
who ever met Giulietta fell madly in love with her -- her three marriages
are mentioned in a sort of vague, sentimental way. One of the more
interesting aspects of Giulietta's life is never delved into very deeply:
her childhood. Seems she had an abusive mom. But maybe the diva simply did
not wish for such things to be mentioned in great detail.
Overall this is a nice sentimental tribute to one of my favorite singers.
But it often felt like a cupcake, with the slightly hollow aftertaste --
there's very little sense of who Giulietta really is.

I was so looking forward to reading this book about a brilliant man who did more for the British Royal Family than many British Royals did, he was of course, German(I am British by the way).
Bennett states at the beginning of the book that she was not overkeen to write it and that she was asked to rather than wanted to (words to that effect) and frankly it shows. This book is far too long. The first 200 pages are about protocol and gossip and should have concentrated more on this man's greatness not a load of old twaddle. Don't waste your money, unless you like soap operas in which case you will love it!!!