I have wasted hours and hours reading these selfworking books and have learned ONE trick which is foolproof and i like greatly. All the other tricks are so easy to figure out or mathematical which is not very impressive. It is in these type books that mathematical tricks that have ruined card magic are learned. I used to think card magic ... until finally I saw some good card tricks. All the goodcard tricks i have ever seen require sleights, such as the glide, double lift, false shuffles, or else need gimmmicks that can be examined like the short card and stripper deck. These self working books have tricks without sleights or gimichs. Good card tricks don't work if there isn't sleights or examinable genius gimmicks. So don't waste your money on these over priced books

This is another really fine book of material for the average magician. Much is from 'Pallbeares Review', a magazine published by the author, and now considered one of the best sources for excellent material.
Many of the effects in this book are mathematical, and will fool most people,including magicians. The nice part is that you don't have to understand the mathematics, or why it works, to be able to do it. All that is required is attention to detail and good audience management. For that reason, the magician-to-be should be at least 12 years old, although some of the tricks could be done by someone who is younger.

If you see a book written by Karl Fulves on magic that has the words Self-Working in the title then buy it. There is a wealth of knowledge in each of these books. -Diamond Jim Tyler

Mr. Hartnagle's book contains a lot of excellent information, but is beset by two flaws that call into question the validity of his advice. First, the author seems to have done little research, relying instead on his obviously extensive knowledge of the Aussie breed. In one example he mentions electronic collars designed to stop a dog from barking, but says "personally I have not had experience with them". While this might be acceptable for a potential client in the office, it is not for the author of a book. The reader expects that research and cross-referencing have been done in all areas pertaining to the subject matter.

Far more serious, however, is the author's blatant promotion of a particular brand of dog chew toys. The entire chapter on "Dental Care" seems to have been included as an advertisement for this one company. The problem goes right down to the little registered trademark "r"'s and glossie product shots, and unfortunately calls into question the validity of everything he has said in the book. Where, exactly, does the paid promotion end and the impartial advice begin?

These two shortcomings unfortunately undermine what might otherwise have been a very useful text on the Australian Shepherd breed. As it stands, the new owner is advised to consider other sources of material on their pup.

I think this book is going to be good because I love I mean love aussies. They are my favrite dog. I have a aussie at my house rigth now. I love reading books to. That is why I think so.

Written by noted breed authority Joseph Hartnagle, A NEW OWNER'S GUIDE TO THE AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD covers all aspects of caring for this purebred animal, including history, characteristics, feeding, grooming, health care, and becoming active in the sport of purebred dogs. Features more than 130 full-color photos.

This is the only one book on Pilates wich has been translated in italian. There's a whole chapter dedicated to exercises with Pilates machinery, that is completely useless for who wants to train at home. The proposed routines apply Pilates priciples, but the exercises are different from the Pilates original ones. This is not necessarily a fault, but they often require the use of a pletora of small and big pillows and towels to place here and there that you may not always have at your disposal. The routines are not optimized for a half hour, early morning, at home workout, that many potential buyer of a Pilates book are seeking for. From this point of view Brooke Siler's book (which I'm following now) is far better.

This is a good book for Pilates beginners who don't have enough time to go through the thoroughness and nitty gritty that other Pilates book (such as Body Control Pilates) offers, because the information are presented succinctly yet completely. The self-assessment portion helps figure out how to align your spine and posture, and the warm up exercises really serve to limber up your body in preparation for the workout. In fact, if performed accurately and correctly, the warm up exercises can constitute a workout in themselves. The book comes with full-color photographs. For each particular step, photos are shown. Arrows help the reader figure out which direction to move their limbs. Alternative exercises for those with injuries are also included. For those who wish to do Pilates in a Pilates gym/studio, a chapter is also devoted on a typical exercises that one can do using Pilates equipment.

It is good to find a Pilates book coming straight from Alan Herdman who has taught so many of the well-known Pilates teachers. He and Anna Selby have put together a book with clear attractive photos to show all the exercises, good instructions and extra boxes of information. I liked the self-assessment section and was fascinated by the pictures of equipment in his studio. Now I've just got to practise.

This book verges on scary in its heavy reality-based content designed to help you decide to have a baby (or not). If you already know you want to get pregnant, and are just looking for guidelines on the healthiest, smartest way to do it, stay away from this book. It will not psych you up or make you feel good.

I have been looking everywhere for a book that covers issues you might want to consider when just thinking about "do I have a baby or not?". Although, like many conception books, this focused heavily on the how to conceive part, almost half of it discussed issues to be aware of when trying to decide "should I have a baby?" and "if so, when is best".

This book is the most informative book that I have ever had. This is a must for any woman planning a pregnancy.

Timilty is a man of obvious intelligence and ability. He brings his gifts and talents to his experience of incarceration. However, the prison "camp" in which he finds himself is so different from the prisons in which I worked, it was hard to feel compassionate or understanding. Often he mentions the expansive meals as well as the fine equipment available to the inmates. This is truly opposite to the meager, repetitive, unapetizing fare that I've seen served at prison facilities. And exercise yards are functional gyms or walking around the pods, not the tracks and weight rooms Timilty describes. This place was 5-star compared to most facilities. Timilty concludes with some solid points on prison reform although I would wish that he could have included the less well-supplied in his thesis. The best part of the book for me was his description of his fellow inmates as lovable people. That's where I could identify with him.

I could hardly put the book down. Wonderfully written! A story of nobility and courage amidst a justice system that went awry. The journal entries were a lesson on dignity and fortitude. Along with these lessons of moral character the writings were humorous, inspiring and touching. The most exasperating part of this novel were the countless examples of the senseless monies spent year after year to house non violent 1st offenders. A prison system more concerned about their own jobs rather than the welfare of our country. This book changed my original belief of lock 'em up and throw away the key to that of, the punishment must truly fit the crime.

Timilty writes from a career in politics and how he was caught up in an aggressive AG's effort to widen a political dragnet in Beantown. His well written tome (with a fine assist from Boston Globe writer Jack Thomas)moves fast, articulates prison life from the inside and calls for reform in first non-violent sentencing guidelines.

I oppose property politically and found this book completely unhelpful. Its arguments are, without exception, specious, Proudhon's style is verbose and graceless, and his answer to the question of the book's title a verbal wrangling which reduces the work to an attack a highly specific type of ownership in favour of another. Proudhon is no anarchist and no anarchist should look to this book for inspiration. It is of hitorical interest as a stage in the development of radical philosophy, nothing more.

The idea that Proudhon was against property is one of the greatest myths about him and quite a surprising one as such. His famous statement, "Property is Theft," is later accompanied by, "Property is Liberty." In fact, his whole aim seems to be to show that property on the one hand corrupts, but that this corruption is the only possible basis for liberty - which is the ultimate aim. While Proudhon may be considered a radical, he sure was no leftwinged radical. Read for yourself! Overall he is a bit confused and confusing, his ideas of law and justice rather strange and even disturbing (law is what you cannot avoid admitting, and justice the right balance (supply and demand)). This guy took Smith a bit seriously and didn't care much about Marx's critique of society - although he has some surprisingly great critiques of communism.

Proudhon writes with a flair that captivates the reader and thrusts him into the revolutionary spirit. Fans of Michael Bakunin and Rudolf Rocker will love this work. One of the best reads on early anarchist thought. If you are anti-property you will love this book!

Lisa Sumner falls into the same pattern she criticizes in her book. She has not read much beyond 1992 in the field of mind/body medicine. She rightfully points out some of the sloppy thinking of new agers. But her logic is as faulty as theirs and just incorrect. Her lack ofrespect for those devoted to the field actually backfires against her goal. The book neither teaches nor inspires. It is unprofessional and does not reflect well on Music Therapy.

Summer takes on the vacuities and self-serving bombast of the so-called "sound healers." These folk are perpetrating a unique and dreadful double-header: bad science AND bad music. Summer uses their own claims and assertions, and by applying logic, clear thinking and analytical insight, demonstrates the emptiness of this pseudo-discipline and its practitioners. While often funny, her justifiable exasperation at their claims and beliefs leads her into occasional splenetic venting which sometimes mitigates the book's impact; methinks the lady doth protest too much. But then the next page brings a fresh "sound healing" inanity and I'm cheering her on again. Well worth your while -- and if you know a gullible person who's been sucked in by these particular scams, a good way to reintroduce a most valuable virtue: skepticism.

A witty, well-informed and devastating attack on the delusions and frauds of those who have hailed music as everything from a cure for AIDS or cancer to a tonic for petunias. Summer, a music therapist herself, writes out of a tangible commitment to the real therapeutic and insirational value of music, and shows a sophisticated technical knowledge of music (and a grip of elementary logic)which is far beyond that of those she criticizes, notwithstanding their pseudo-scientific pretensions. Those she criticizes ought to blush and hide their heads in shame (but they won't of course: they'll just ignore her and carry on extracting large sums of money from those less well-informed and astute).

Best friends are complex characters. Both sides develop a synergy which goes beyond clear tangibles and virtues. When your best friend is famous, and that person dies, the surviving friend has an obligation to seek perspective. Eugene Kennedy needed more time and distance to adequately honor his friend, the late Cardinal Bernadin. Kennedy's emotions are too raw. He seeks sainthood for his friend. After setting that standard, the book becomes defensive. Kennedy tries to be poetic, but he can not sustain that type of prose for 175 pages. In the end Mr. Kennedy tried to honor his friend with emotions and flowery prose. It would have been better if the author had more confidence in Cardinal Bernadin's own words and deeds. We would have learned more about a great man than the slim concepts gained from this endeavor.

Like my fellow reviewers, I agree that Kennedy is hardly an objective, dispassionate biographer. As he makes clear from the outset of the book, he and Cardinal Bernardin were close, personal friends for many years, and the latter's death in 1995 was a deep personal loss to the author. I certainly would have appreciated a few more words about Bernardin's personal flaws, a subject which Kennedy glosses over. Nonetheless, Eugene Kennedy is one of America's most highly respected Catholic thinkers and, if this book is somewhat lacking in evenhandedness, I remain convinced that what appears within its covers is accurate and reliable. Because of his direct access to Bernardin, Kennedy is able to give us a "behind the scenes look" at some of the most fascinating episodes in recent church history: the 1978 election of Popes John Paul I and II; the scandal involving John Cardinal Cody, Bernardin's predecessor as Archbishop of Chicago and the target of a federal criminal investigation; the politics surrounding the drafting of the bishops' pastoral letter on nuclear arms; the shocking allegations of sexual misconduct by Bernardin (later retracted by the accuser); and the Cardinal's courageous handling of the news that he was dying of cancer. But this book is more than just an ecclesiastical "tell-all"; it's also a loving account of a very special man and priest. What I find so extraordinary about Bernardin -- and EVERYONE who knew him attests to this -- was his humility, gentleness, and total lack of pretension. How, I wondered, does a man who rises so high in both Church and society remain so down-to-earth, so unaffected by the honors and the "hype". Somehow, Joseph Bernardin knew how to do this.

Writing a memoir about friendship is a tricky endeavor. Events and conversations, times of consolation and alienation, moments of intimacy -- all those elements that go into making up the best of relationships -- are suddenly on display. Living through them, you somehow thought they would never catch the light of day. Now they are out there for all to see. Eugene Kennedy's poignant and inspiring tale about his more than thirty years of friendship with Joseph Bernardin, the late archbishop of Chicago, convinces us that it is worth the risk to share the details about these precious relationships. Anyone who has ever had a best friend will cherish this book.

My Brother Joseph, however, is much more than the tale of a friendship between two men. The book also provides us with an understanding about how Bernardin grew into a much-admired and loved churchman who provided energetic and visionary leadership to the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Catholic church in the United ! ! States.

Kennedy helps us appreciate that Bernardin was niether a dealmaker nor a crafter of compromises; he was instead a genuine consensus builder. His genius as a leader lay in his ability to maintain that delicate balance between loyalty to the institution and respect for the person. Bernardin also refused to typecast people. This capacity helped him work effectively with fellow bishops holding different points of view and was one of the gifts he used eventually to produce the US bishops' pastoral letter on war and peace.

Most memorable in Kennedy's book, however, is the very human person who emerges in its pages. We see Bernardin in those unguarded moments that we all have with good friends -- moments when, free of self-censorship, we say exactly what's on our mind. We are also privileged to witness the growth of his ever deepening spirituality.

The friend that Kennedy had in Bernardin was no plaster saint. Yes, he was ambitious. While still Archbishop of Cincinnat! ! i, for example, he confided to Kennedy that he would very m! uch like to head the Chicago archdiocese. While tolerant of others, their idiosyncractic behavior was not lost on him. He cloaked his reactions to these annoyances, however, in subtle humor.

Kennedy has done us an enormous favor in sharing with us his years of friendship with Bernardin. We come away from this book convinced that God did have a dream for Joseph Bernardin and that this exceptional man spent his life discerning just what that dream was about and living it out. Each step along the way helped make him what he was at the end: an extraordinary leader, a compassionate pastor, a dear friend. Simply put, he was the very best of men.

I wanted to like this book, because I've written a UFO humor book myself. This is more a book of lists than anything...certainly not Dave Barry-like. There was one good joke -- something about having crop circles under one's eyes -- and that was it. Actually I should be happy that something this bad could be published; it gives me hope that mine will find a publisher.

Footnote: please oh please let the reviewer below me be just kidding around.

I received this book as a gift, and while I had hoped to glean some useful information out of this. While I have never been abducted by aliens, it does not hurt to be prepared. I hurriedly flipped through the pages, looking for a map of vulnerable points on an alien. Surely, I thought, these 'Grays' must have _some_ weakpoints. Mr. Tripician, however, would have us deal with this threat unarmed. His nazi-like refusal to yield even the smallest morsel of valuable information reviews him for the government shill he is. While Mr. Tripician supports the coming alien abduction through his attempt at making light of the very real threat, those who buy this book are monetarily supporting the enemy. Strieber has warned us of 9.9.99--if we do not take heed, we shall all be exterminated.

A humorous look at being abducted, and how to greet an alien with an anal probe with out offending it.