The recipes alone deserve 5 out of 5 stars. However, since I own both HTCE and the two Minimalist volumes, I was chagrined to find overlap between HTCE and each of the Minimalist books. The Minimalist books do not overlap.

Save your money-- I recommend only buying HTCE. If you are interested in the other non-overlapping recipes, borrow the book from friends or libraries.

The Minimalist cooks dinner has a much more user-friendly layout, organization than HTCE and the first Minimalist book. An ideal Bittman cookbook would be all of the recipes from his books together, with the layout and organization of this volume. That would be a truly incredible cookbook, but alas, I keep on dreaming...

Before I had a baby 19 months ago, I was interested in recipes with maximum ingredients and complicated preparations. There was usually a 50/50 chance that it would taste good enough to cook again. After the baby, I stopped cooking altogether. I have started again with this book. The recipes are uncomplicated, and the results are sublime. I am eternally grateful to Mark Bittman for bringing joy back to my cooking.

I have three of Bittman's cookbooks: This one, The Minimalist Cooks at Home, and How to Cook Everything. The two Minimalist books are GREAT. (How to Cook Everything is good, especially if you don't have a basic cookbook.)

I have professional culinary training and cook a lot, but even beginners can use Bittman's recipes because they are simple, and he gives very good instructions. Plus, each recipe has an introduction where the author often gives tips, such as why the dish calls for chicken thighs instead of breasts. And at the end, he gives easy suggestions on how to vary the recipe -- like using different flavorings, or substituting shrimp for chicken.

I love the recipes because they pare things to their essentials without making them boring -- even though all the recipes are quick and easy, they include hints of Thailand, India, China, Italy, etc. I had not made much Thai food before because it seemed to require so many unusual ingredients, but a Minimalist recipe demonstrated that only a few key items are needed to create "Thai-type" flavors. With that foundation, I can now explore Thai food on my own.

One review of The Minimalist Cooks at Home complained that the recipes require things you can only buy in NYC. That's not literally true, but Bittman does use ingredients like fish sauce, balsamic vinegar, and sesame oil (not in the same recipe!). If you've never used such things before, the Minimalist recipes show you how without spending hours on a complicated dish.

The difference between this book and Minimalist at Home? at Home focuses mostly on entrees, with a few vegetable and dessert recipes. Cooks Dinner also focuses on entrees, but then has a back section of starters and side dishes. For each Cooks Dinner entree, Bittman suggests which side dishes would go well with it and recommends a wine. The recipes in the two books don't overlap.

I enjoyed this book for its description of the times and of New York City, and the contentious relationshiop between Sarah Brandt and Frank Malloy. But I was extremely disappointed by the "mystery". I'm one who never figures out whodunits, but this one was painfully obvious.

The suspect list was anemic, and I couldn't believe that the protagonist hadn't a clue. I figured out one guilty party and waited 134 painful pages for her to get her first clue, and then was relieved to see that there were only 66 pages left for her to get the second clue. As I stated, I'm lousy at figuring out whodunits, but if memory serves, even Carolyn Keene was better at disguising the bad guys. Perhaps Thompson could learn a thing or two reading Nancy Drew.

I hope Thompson doesn't continue to ruin an interesting series with such a skimpy plot. She was obnoxiously heavy-handed with her clues, which made Sarah Brandt seem all the more incompetent. Also, Thompson has fallen into the trap of placing the protagonist in violent struggles with the bad guy(s), which is neither exciting nor surprising. Just cliche.

I hope the next installment won't be as frustrating as this one.

Victoria Thompson has done it again in this follow up to her Murder on Astor Place. Set in the turn of the century New York city, her heroine, Sarah Brandt is an upper class young woman that has turned her back on her priviledged upbringing and has chosen instead to work as a midwife. Although it's not necessary to read Murder on Astor Place first, it's a great way to understand how Sarah has also become a detective and how she and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy teamed up initially. Thompson's ability to bring her characters and that particular period in American history to life is wonderful. She manages to capture sights, sounds, smells and the mores of the era. My only disappointment--(I had it with the first book also) is that the villains in each book were way too obvious for a true mystery novel. In spite of this, I recommend this book without reservation and am looking forward to Brandt and Malloy's next adventure.

Murder on St. Mark's Place is the second mystery in the Gaslight Mystery Series. I have read and enjoyed both, but if I were to be honest, I would have to say this one reaches deep into the heart of the series' characters. Having read the first mystery where Sara the midwife and Malloy the detective are introduced, I am familiar with them and their families. I was already impressed and pleased with the new series, but in this mystery, I am doubly pleased by how well Ms. Thompson pulls the best and worst out of the main characters. This isn't an easy read, nor is it a cozy. The author delves deep in to the turn-of-the-century way of live, and it's not all pretty. There are some light moments, and the main character, Sara, does her best to lift others up during moments of hopelessness, but the better part of the story is pretty serious. The twist and turns used to keep readers guessing do just that, but what impressed me the most was the storyline as a whole.

When Sarah heads over to St. Mark's Place in New York, she is expecting to deliver another baby into Little Germany. She arrives to find a policeman and neighbors gathering at Agnes Otto's door, but not for the delivery of a baby. Instead it's bad news. Agnes' sixteen-year-old sister, recently brought over from Germany, was found beaten to death. Sarah tells Agnes that it may take a reward to get the police to work on the case. Unable to pay, Agnes gives up all hope of finding her sister's killer and overcoming the shame it has brought. It seems Gerda found some new friends at her job that introduced her to a dance hall and a way to get things that they as young women in life could not afford. Gerda becomes what is known as a Charity Girl. Sarah, being the kind person that she is, decides to take the case to Malloy in hopes of getting him to join her in investigating it together as they had the last case. Back for a return engagement with Sara and Malloy are Malloy's mother and his son, Sara's neighbor Mrs. Elsworth, and Sara's parents. The story line with Malloy and his handicap son is very touching; I hope the storyline grows as the series does.

The author gets into the mystery right away, and although the main characters lives are ongoing in the series, they don't interfere or take away from the mystery. So, if you like historical mysteries, especially series mysteries, this one is well worth looking into. It's a stirring mystery with characters that will touch you.

This is a must read if you love to play magic but you either A. Cant build good decks, or B. you can't find a deck you like. If I had one of those problems then the book would get a 5, but I dont so it just gives me deck lists to tinker with.

WARNING!!! THE BOOK IS JUJT DECK LISTS AND 1/2 PAGE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PLAY THEM. IT PROVIDES NO DECKBUILDING INSTRUCTION OR PERSONAL HELP FOR CERTAIN DECK IDEAS!!!

The decks include 5th edition, Portal, Type I, Type II, Theme decks (like a deck of cards by 1 artist), Multi-player, Extended, and Classic-Restricted Type 1.5. Each deck is given 1 full page of coverage, with the card list to make it, including sideboard. A helpful touch is that there is a quick info box on top of each page with: Type of deck (beginner deck, tourney deck,..); Colors (green, red, ...); Strategy (...use weenies to crush your opponent); Cost (category of price to buy and make the cards in the deck (very low through very expensive); DCI Tourney Category (Type II ..); and the card count (60 main deck, 15 sideboard). This little info box is handy. If you are looking to make a competitive red/green Type II deck from all common cards, you'll quickly find it. If you want to make a Type I deck that will cost you $1500, that's here too. The remainder of each page is dedicated on the strategy for playing the deck.

If you are into building and testing a variety of decks, you'll love this book. Simple and straight-forward.

I have read almost all the Magic books.

I thought this book was really good. It had several different decks to chose from to build, a brief description of each deck, and would let you know if it was expensive to build. I was pretty impressed.

There's a saying in the economics department of academia that the answers to the test are always the same, only the questions change. Mark Skousen does a masterful job in telling us why this is true.

Skousen begins this marvelous book with a quote by J.M. Keynes. I'll paraphrase it as follows: "the ideas of economists and political philosophers are more powerful than commonly understood; indeed the world is ruled by little else". A quote on the same page by J.M. Ferguson avers, "Economics concerns itself with the greatest of all human dramas... the struggle of humanity to escape from want". These two quotes suggest that one: the "follow the money" theory of history has credence, particularly over the Hegalian master-slave theory, and its Marxist class oppression version. And, two: that the study of economics has essentially revolved around how to alleviate poverty, and to create a greater surplus for all people.

Skousen begins this tome with a salute to Adam Smith whose "invisible hand" thesis explains the counter intuitive concept that "individual self interest attains for the greatest common good." This idea supports Tom Sowell's assertion that social policy should consist of ways to incentivize industrious, commercially competent, ambitious, self centered men; a push for the idea that greed is good.

Skousen compares Smith's "Harmony of interest" model, which asserts that workers, landlords and capitalists work together to provide goods and services", with Ricardo's "Class conflict" model, one that suggests that the same parties compete with one another for a share of those goods and services." What's good about this book is that Skousen gives both sides an equal hearing, and he tells it as a storyteller might. He makes it readable and engaging.

He wends his way thru the stories of French economists Alex de Tocqueville, Frederic Bastiat, and Jean Baptiste Say as they relate to the study of economics in the period following the printing of Adam Smith's opus, "the Wealth of Nations". This continuing study weaves forward thru Hegal's dialectic and its influence on Marx's "Communist Manifesto."

We're then treated to Skousen's insights into the thinking of Thomas Carlyle, a critic of capitalism; John Stuart Mill; Jeremy Bentham; E.B-Bawerk who wrote a devastating critique of Marx's "labor theory of value", where a mud pie was said to be worth as much as an apple pie; W.S. Jevons who led the revolution in the concept of "marginal utility" along with Leon Walrus, also known for his use of mathematical equations and his work on economic equilibriums; and the brilliant Italian Vilfredo Pareto, the fellow who decided that all human behavior could be classified in 80-20 terms; Pareto's Law.

As we mosey thru the rise of the Fabian Socialists in the 1870's, George Bernard Shaw et al, we're introduced to the greatest economist of the late 19th century; the neo-classicist in the Adam Smith tradition, Alfred Marshall. His chore was to rescue free-market capitalism back from the big-government socialists.

But, Socialist-Leftist-Communist-progressive thinking began to gain traction, J.M. Keynes and his Bloomsbury group helped its furtherance by seizing control of the intellectual ferment of Western civilization in the early 20th century. As England weakened economically after WWI the idea of big government, with its command and control model, began to seem efficacious as a way to run society, at least in the mind of Keynes. After all, government control of the economy seemed to be working just fine in Japan, Italy, Germany and Russia in the early 1930's.

Keynes felt that, much in the image of Plato's Republic, a small group of individuals, gifted with superior intellect and judgment, should make public policy for all of those not their equal. Alas, he like Marx missed having a firm grip on the concept of the "Law of Unintended Consequences." Like Marx, he failed to discern that the most important factor in the means of production was the human initiative of those upon whom he cast his snidest of intellectual aspersions. Keynes, though academically brilliant, got many things wrong in his set of assumptions about the economic workings of the world.

A group of Austrian economists (L. Von Mises, Frederic Von Hayek, and Joseph Schumpeter), known as the "Austrian School", took exception with the Keynesian theories. Hayek engaged Keynes in fierce academic debates in the early 1930's, but Keynes won out and became the most influential economist of the early and mid-20th century. However, with the rise of the microchip and the ability of ever more powerful computers to crunch the numbers, the jury is in and the Austrians, represented by the University of Chicago, have dominated the Nobel Prize in the last 25 years. Hayek, who wrote "the Road to Serfdom" predicting the failure of socialist communism, has been vindicated. To continue the irony, his flag bearer, Milton Friedman, the Monetarist extraordinaire, has been the named the most influential economist of the last 40-50 years.

Skousen tells this story in a page turning fashion that makes me wish he had been my econ prof back in the early 60's at Michigan State. It's odd that even today, freshly minted MBA's everywhere know little about Alfred Marshall and Frederic Von Hayek. It's a stain on academia that they have failed so in their mission to compare and contrast the great thinking done about "the business of life", which is what economics is all about. Read this book and give it to your children. Discuss it with them; you'll be a better man because of it.

Economist Mark Skousen has written an exceptional history of economic theory. He traces the development of economic thought from Adam Smith to the present from a free market perspective. One of the features of his book I liked the most are the ample biographical anecdotes and pictures of economists. One gains a greater understanding of the economists and their thought through these pedagogical devices. There is much here of value to students at all levels of the history of economic thought. I thoroughly enjoyed The Making of Modern Economics and am confident this will be the response of other readers.

Mark Skousen has done a great service not only in putting the development of economic theory in perspective but doing so in such an entertaining way. The author contrasts Adam Smith's system of natural liberty and free markets with that of Marxist detractors along with everyone in between.

Better than any work I know of, Skousen brings the Austrian contributions to economic theory to light. It seems the Austrian, marginalist, subjective view saves the day again and again.

Integrated throughout the narrative are the personal curiosities of the major economists. One murdered, another interested in palm reading, the economist with the most investing success, an enthusiast of astrology, one involved in a sibling rivalry, the economist with a fascination for handwriting analysis, etc., etc.

Not only has Skousen made an interesting read of the history of economic theory he has presented a new paridigm of the circular flow model as well. And his "What Could Have Been" section near the end is very thought provoking.

Skousen's book was such a pleasure to read that I'm tempted to immediately return to page one and do it again!

I was browsing the new releases section of my local library when I happened to see this book. It had an interesting premise, and looked to be unlike any book I'd read before. I've read histories of people and places, but never of ingredients. I checked it out skeptically, and was pleasantly surprised.
Kurlansky is a very talented writer, he manages to make salt suspenseful. The book's purpose is to examine how salt affected the history of the world. He succeeds in this. However, the history is not really coherent, it doesn't really flow. Salt is essentially a collection of vignettes. These vignettes are grouped in chronological order. The first part of the book deals with salt in China and Rome. Part 2 concerns salt's effect in the Middle Ages and the wars of independence. Part 3 concludes the history by examining salt in modern times.
The main failing of this extensively researched account is Kurlansky attempts to link salt to every major world event. According to him, dissatisfaction with the salt tax led to the American and French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution came to be because of salt, and salted foods allowed the world to be explored. Nonetheless, the history is accessible and a fun to read, even if some of the author's conclusions are a bit off base.

Salt is a multidisciplinary historical look at salt, a material closely tied to civilization. As its title claims, it is a history of the world from the perspective of salt. The book is hard to put down with attention grabbing chapters such as 'Salt's Salad Days,' 'The Leaving of Liverpool,' 'The Odium of Sodium,' 'Big salt, Little Salt' and 'The War Between the Salts.' Since the author has received an award for excellence in food writing, it should come as no surprise that the text contains its share of historical recipes.
In the course of the book we are introduced to an astonishing range of cultures and visit many areas where salt has been found and harvested. From Egypt to China, Rome and the Celts, India, Africa and America, the story moves back and forth, skipping between time periods and cultures. The reader is assisted in the journey by well-drawn maps. I especially enjoyed learning about the many ways salt has been harvested, from the sea, evaporating brines or mining rock salt. I also was intrigued by the influence of salt on fields diverse as economics, taxes, politics and technology. For example, we learn about how Gandhi and Indian independence got its start in rebellion against oppressive salt taxes leveled on the Indians so that British salt makers would have a market for their surplus salt.
In the book we meet salt-connected people like Li Bing, governor of what is now Sichuan in 250 B.C.E. and a hydraulic engineering genius. Besides building the world's first large scale dam for flood control and irrigation, and opening up central China for widespread agriculture, Li Bing was the first to drill for salt brine. The author shows how this naturally led to our geologic understanding of salt domes and eventually how to drill for oil in such domes. At this time the Chinese became the first to tax salt and attempt to fix its price, something hard to do with such a cheap and readily available material.
It is in his slant towards food that the author is most comfortable, talking about the many ways salt and food intersect. We and introduced to salt and food preservation, spices and flavorings, sour kraut and salted meat, fish and fishing, even the harvesting and production of caviar. There are two chapters on Avery Island in Louisiana, the first on salt mining by the Avery family which supplied much of the Confederacy's salt, the second on Edmund McIlhenny combining two products of the island ' hot chili peppers and salt ' to make Tabasco sauce.
The book appears to randomly skip around between cultures and time periods, visiting China and America several times. It also ignores any time period later than mid twentieth century and does little with modern, nonfood uses of salt. The author gives no citations or footnotes for his many quotes or facts, relying instead on a fairly extensive bibliography including books and a few articles. While he talks about the science of salt in parts of a few chapters, I would have liked to learn more. He does fairly well with the changes in technology involved with salt. While I enjoyed reading the book it left me with many historical and scientific questions unanswered. Its real strength is in describing the historical relationship between salt and food. I found it pleasant to read.

Salt" takes the reader through thousands of years of human cultural and scientific development, all-the-while making it interesting and accessible. The common character throughout is ordinary table salt, which up until 100 years ago, played a far more important role in human society and economics. Through the use of this everyday material, Kurlansky takes us on a tour that from ancient China and Rome, to Britain's rule of India, into the slave operated salt mines of Europe, down to Avery Island during the American Civil War (and the creation of Tabasco Sauce); all with a focus on the cuisines of those places and times. A long book that I was sorry to finish.

Macy's book focuses mainly on the personality conflicts that undermined an attempt at high-tech communications with the spirit world. His style is readable and brisk, his tone sincere and unaffected, but he provides little or no evidence that the phenomena he describes are authentic. The main researchers he depicts come off more as enthusiastic dilettantes than serious scientists. For me, Macy forfeits nearly all credibility when he casually declares that the history of the human race can be understood by integrating some of the spirit communications with the writings of Erich von Daniken (p.140)! Von Daniken, of CHARIOTS OF THE GODS fame, is an entirely discredited huckster. If Macy can be persuaded by von Daniken's pop-culture writings, he will probably believe just about anything. There is an unfortunate messianic tone pervading the book - the message that a new dawn of humanity is coming, courtesy of the spirit communicators and the mortals who spread their message. You'll probably find MIRACLES IN THE STORM enjoyable and easy to read (hence three stars), but it will convince no one who isn't already a believer.

In Mark Macy's books, the author encourages us to stretch the "mental model" which we use to view the world(s) --- both our physical world and the spiritual world as well.

His previous book, Conversations Beyond The Light, documents the early miracles of Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) ---contact between the two worlds made possible by using technical equipment.

Macy's latest release, Miracles In The Storm, provides further examples of spiritual contacts from the afterlife ("the other side".) Macy also details the frustrating inability to maintain a harmonic group of ITC researchers on THIS side.

I was fascinated by both books. Macy's insights into human nature combine with historical reporting of significant breakthroughs to provide a most enlightening experience.

If you are not familiar with the miracles of ITC, I recommend strongly that you read both Conversations Beyond The Light and Miracles in the Storm, and suggest you first read Conversations, to introduce you to ITC. The latest release, Miracles, deals more with the human failure to work harmoniously toward the common goal of ITC, despite good intentions, tireless efforts, and Macy's positive attitude.

If you spend any time thinking about what comes after death, you owe it to yourself to learn about ITC. These books have totally changed my outlook on what happens after the physical body dies.

It is entirely possible that ITC research can bridge the divide that Macy refers to as "the centuries-old chasm between science and spirit, between doubt and faith." Contacts with the spirit world are now recorded on tape, film, and in computer files. The gap is narrowing, thanks to the work of Mark Macy and his colleagues.

It takes a lot to boggle my mind, but this book did. I have read hundreds of accounts of paranormal activity, but the activity summarized in this book is really amazing.

I was aware of EVP (electronic voice phenomena) and assumed that ITC (Instrumental Transcommunication) was just another name for it. It isn't, however. ITC involves much more detailed, more direct, and more profound information coming from the spirit world. We're talking spirit messages via computer (not attached to the internet), by phone calls (which the phone company has no record of), and by faxes from nowhere.

As I read the book, I constantly viewed it with a skeptical eye. However, author Macy comes across as very sincere, dedicated,discerning, and credible in his observations and reporting of them. I find it difficult to believe that he and the number of reputable scientists involved in ITC research could have been duped over and over again for years on end.

Over many years of reading and personal research, I am convinced of the reality of a spirit world. I believe in spirit materialization and spirit communication. If all of the other things I have encountered, e.g., materializations, apports, levitations, direct-voice mediumship, trance mediumship, etc., are real, I see no reason to draw the line and say that ITC is beyond belief.

The pseudo-skeptics will certainly smirk, scoff, and snicker in their usual closed-minded,arrogant, vainglorious, and pompous manner, but that is their problem. For the open-minded person who believes that there is more to this world than the material, this book has much to offer.

No More Water In The Tub takes place in an apartment building. First, William's mom told him to not put much water in the tub. Second, the tub got filled with water and it overflowed. Then, William and Walter went sailing through the whole apartment building into other apartments. Finally, William was a hero because he made a fire go out in the bottom floor apartment with the water from the tub. This is a very funny book. I was laughing so hard.

No More Water in the Tub is a bathtub story. William and Walter accidentally screwed the knob off their tub and the tub broke loose because there was too much water. They went through apartments. William put out a fire and got a medal. This book is good for all ages. It's a funny story with amazing illustrations. I would give it five stars.

No More Water In The Tub takes place in a bathroom. First, in the bathroom on the top floor of a tall apartment building, William was getting ready for his bath. Second, Walter, his brother, reached for the tub faucet and it broke off. William went out the door floating through the halls of the apartment building. If you want to hear the end of the story get the book. I think No More Water In The Tub is so funny.

Thirty years ago I read a pamphlet written by a fundamentalist author (who inundated the Christian market with such pamphlets back in those days) who asserted that the UFOs that weren't out-and-out hoaxes to be the work of the demonic realm. When I discovered this book, co-written by an evangelical scientist that I highly respect (Hugh Ross), I was interested to see what conclusion would be reached by these highly educated authors. Guess what? Same conclusion! However, painstaking scientific knowledge and logic are brought to bear on this issue, to the point where it's impossible (for me, at least) to doubt that this really is the case.

The sections of the book written by Ross were the most compelling for me. He lays out the utter impossibility of travelers from other galaxies making the trek from earth. In fact, he makes a strong case for the view that earth is the only planet in the universe capable of sustaining intelligent life. After he fully convinces the reader that UFOs are not carrying interstellar visitors, he uses the interdimensional model, accepted by many non-religious researchers, to explain the small percentage of UFOs that are actually legitimate. He ties in the fact that most alien abductees have a background in the occult (not necessarily ALL of them, with due respect to a previous reviewer) to conclude that demons are behind the UFO phenomenon.

This is a fascinating book, and I'm sure some people will shake their heads, but the authors make what seems to be an air-tight case. So enjoy watching Star Trek, but keep in mind that it's just a fantasy, and those Klingons could not possibly be from another planet.

Most UFOs are just naturally occurring events, hoaxes, or military aircraft as we all know but what about those few that really cannot be explained? What about the claims that people make that have encountered alien life forms visiting Earth?

You can find a lot of UFO book on the market that claim they hold the answers to this puzzling phenomenon but they usually only leave you with more questions then answers.

Lights in the sky breaks the trend. It proves the answers to the UFO mystery.

It starts by making the case that life on other plants is highly improbable and interstellar space travel is even more improbable and borders on impossible due sheer distance and the dangers of space travel. These claims are backed up with science and it goes into some depth. Meanwhile, the idea of a government cover-up can be chalked up to simple slow moving bureaucratic procedures.

Lights makes the claim that real UFO encounters are of a more super nature occurrence and are usually experienced by people who have a connection with the Occult. That these experiences are of demonic origins. Before you scoff at this idea keep in mind that idea of UFOs as we know them became popularized as the human race pioneered space travel. Pervious to then, people claimed to have seen "air ships" at the turn of the century and "fairies" and other mystical beings before then.

Lights in the Sky is well written and well research and is a must read for anybody interested in UFOs. Its aimed for a Christian audience but its not at all preachy. Its a work that should be taken seriously by both Christian and non-Christians.

Even if you aren't a Christian, don't let the "Christian" in the title scare you away. Three qualified scholars look at the UFO issue and cover a lot of material in this book. Unlike thier unscholarly young-earth brethen, these guys continue to provide scholarship and answers. I think there is a video/DVD companion to this book.

Brothers and sisters, probably 90% of us could have written this book, being as it is another story-by-story, capsule-description-and-review style trawl through the televised series. Think a very heavily condensed version of "The Discontinuity Guide" and that's the format. The author (Mark Campbell) sat down and watched (or listened to) every episode and committed his opinion to paper. That's the book. Full stop. As I say, most of us could do the same.

This is a slim volume (less than 100 pages) and is thankfully correspondingly cheap, but it does mean it doesn't cover everything. The films, recent TV parodies, stage shows, and radio series get a review, the Big Finish stories get a mention, and, er, that's about it. Oh, and a few books and websites get plugged.

So why even bother buying it? Well, Campbell's is a new voice and he's not afraid to be controversial or blunt. No sacred cow is safe, and he even goes so far as to suggest that the show is dead and gone forever. Many of his opinions come straight out of left field, and they'll provoke infuriation and sighs of 'Thank God I'm not the only one who thinks that!' in equal measure. Just a handful of his observations:

"Destiny of the Daleks" is better than "Genesis of the Daleks

"Pyramids of Mars" is 'grossly overrated', and in parts 'rubbish' and 'nonsensical'

"Paradise Towers" is 'wonderful' and by far the best story of its season

"Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD" is much, much better than the TV version

The best story of Troughton's first year is "The Macra Terror" And so on, and so on, and so on - though Campbell agrees with fan orthodoxy a lot of the time too. (I personally agree with at least one of the above opinions, by the way, and think at least one other is utter nonsense - but naturally I'm not saying which is which.)

I get the impression this book wasn't edited terribly rigorously. There's the obligatory 'spot-the-source-material' slot for each story, and things get especially weird here - we learn that 'The Great Escape' influenced "Planet of the Daleks", 'The Wicker Man' inspired "The Stones of Blood", and that apparently the key influence on "Four to Doomsday" was bearded Aussie vet-botherer Rolf Harris. You also have to question his ability to review things like "Curse of the Daleks" with such authority given that he can only have read the script. So is it worth buying? Well, maybe. If you use the Guide you must have an interest in hearing other people's opinions of "Doctor Who", and that's basically all this is. At the very least it'll make you think, if only for the length of time it takes you to retrieve it after you hurl it away in outraged fury. And you will.

Mark Campbell (editor of the definitive Doctor Who fanzine "Skonnos") is the perfect companion in this brief but pithy guide to the series. Always intelligent and never suffering from the fannishness that cripples so much Who-related material. We have an introductory essay, breakdowns of the storylines, an exhaustive reference section and an informed guide to further books, magazines and videos, along with spin-offs and websites. The series is called Pocket Essentials: this one really is.

After an introduction tracing the history of Doctor Who through all the character's incarnations this book offers a story by story analysis spanning the full 26 years of the TV series plus the 1996 Paul McGann TV movie. Also covered are the excellent new audio adventures from Big Finish and some less "canonical" items such as the Rowan Atkinson "Red Nose Day" skit.

One worthwhile and suggestive feature for each story is a section on "influences". A useful cross-reference to related stories within the series itself is also included. Perhaps the book's greatest interest lies in the overall assessment of the various stories, which are awarded marks out of 5. There is certainly no slavish following of orthodox views here: a number of generally accepted "classic" stories receive something of a hammering while others gain perhaps unexpected boosts in their relative rankings. However much one may dissent from some of the author's verdicts he does state his reasons for them and it is refreshing to see a different perspective on the stories.

A future edition could usefully include a list of Doctor Who's "missing episodes" and inevitably there are one or two minor slips which do not however detract from the value of the book.

Although aimed primarily at relative newcomers to the programme, this little volume contains much that will be enjoyed (if not always agreed with!) by more seasoned fans and deserves to be read by all, whatever their level of knowledge, with an interest in Doctor Who.

This is a very important book. I'm somewhat worried that it's not getting enough attention, and though I'm hardly a conspiracy theorist, I wouldn't be surprised if certain powerful forces were doing their best to keep people from reading it.

Minasi correctly argues that companies could (and should) produce much better software than they do. Quality goes out the window because industry dynamics favor big liars--companies that continually promise new and better features, but instead ship bug-ridden monstrosities.

As Minasi realizes, this pattern will continue unless consumers and/or legislators act to stop it. Companies will only act to improve their software if they are given sufficient motivation to do so. Such "motivation" might include lawsuits, consumer boycotts, or what have you. But for the moment, the odds are stacked very much in the industry's favor.

My only real complaint is with the title. The word "conspiracy" suggests that the book was written by some kind of flake or crank. That is definitely not the case. I hope the title doesn't give Microsoft, Sun, et. al. a good excuse to dismiss the book and its author.

The first computer I programmed was a Sinclair ZX 80; 1 kilobyte of RAM, 1 MHz processor. At that time, i tried to envision what computers would look like in the year 2000, and I believed that computers would be small, extremely fast and user friendly; that they would make our every day's life easier.

Now, almost 20 years later, all I see is that computers became more powerful in terms of Megahertz and Gigabytes, but they are unreliable, unfriendly, technical beasts. Obvisously, the concept of the personal computer doesn't scale well. (Also see Norman's "The Invisible Computer").

Software is becoming an important infrastructure of our society, and still, software defects regularly are the cause of financial damages, or even the loss of human lifes - not to mention the usual annoyances millions of users experience everyday.

Mark Minasi's book is a good introduction into Software Quality. It contains some sad but true stories about defective software, which hopefully open people's (esp. software managers') eyes.

The book's title is a bit inaccurate; I don't believe in nor have I experienced something like a "conspiracy" in the software industry (altough I can imagine that it might look like one to end users).

Despite what other reviewers said before me, I would like to bring a different point of view. Maybe Mr. Minasi is a sunday afternoon programmer who's doesn't live the everyday life of a "real" programmer but he brings to us something precious.

The software industry is sick and needs to be regulated. He expose clearly and honestly why we, customers, should be more concerned about software quality and our rights to use these products with a reasonable set of conditions. Making a product gives a company the right to receive money for its work but that previlege should also come with *responsabilities* towards the customers. So far, software manufacturers get away with it but YOU as an accountant, an architect, an engineer or a doctor are fully responsible for every act you perform. Why should it be different for these companies ?

The issue of the license agreements is even more pathetic where abusive clauses are added as new versions comes out. The customer has no right what so ever against crappy softwares. It's clearly explained in his book...

Finally, the whole point of this book is to provide a good understanding of the industry and also educate the public toward our rights as customers to buy and use good quality products. If we let them make the rules, we will loose big time and that's what this book brings up.