This audio cd is very short on substance and only offers a basic overview of hourly recruiting. It is less than 45 minutes long...enough said. For the price, I would look elsewhere.

This book has about three or four useful tips, but you have to read through a lot of blah blah and pointless story telling to get to them. So if you're looking for a short to the point "do this, don't do that" and "buy this plant, not that one" this is not the book for you. It has no information on how to care for specific plants, it's all general. I sent mine back.

If this book is supposed to provide "a context for fairer, fuller, and better-informed debates" on Huckelberry Finn, then the only people the author must think are doing the debating are cloistered academics. The issue frequently under debate is whether to "ban" Huck Finn from classrooms because of the infamous "N-word." This issue therefore begins and ends with secondary and high school parents and teachers. Academics with PHd's have little to nothing to do with this debate in the real world other than to provide sound-bites for the media. The people who need this type of book, the non-academic parents and students who will end up having do live with the results of the debate need not look to Arac's text except as a sleeping pill. What could have been a very lively reading on a stimulating subject is submerged by the author with the usual academic psycho-babble. Weigh this book against Shelly Fisher-Fishkin's popular and highly accessible "Was Huck Black?" and "Lighting Out for the Territory" and you can see why the pro-Twain faction always comes out looking better even if they lose the debate. Arac's book is inaccessible to the average parent (black or white) who must continually resort to a reactionary mode when faced with the prospect that their child will have to see and hear the word "nigger" when Huck Finn is assigned in class. As a result this is hardly a work of "scholarship in the service of citizenship." It is a work of scholarship in the service of exclusive academia only. I'm not saying that the book should have been "dumbed down" for use by the average reader, but that the text reeks of stereotypical academic snobbery. As Huck Finn himself might have said, "This book puts on airs." It's a pity becasue Arac raises some good points, which are unfortunately lost in ten dollar words and page length sentences.

This book takes what many would consider a mid level drug dealer and the search for him across the world - hence the "Marco Polo" tag. Well the villain here is not that bad so it is hard to get excited about the chase. He is no choirboy to be sure, but he is not a Pablo Escobar either. The detail of the police tactics used is interesting. The disappointing thing to me was the detail of how disjointed law enforcement is in the western world, nobody wants to work with any other countries? The book is ok and you can probably guess what happens in the end. If you are interested in this type of story, Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden is far better and more up to date.

For every mathematician working with complex physic tests and a limited budget, this book can be useful. Unfortunately I am just a modeler of simple discrete event simulations, so for me this book was not very useful. Except for the first chapter that tells a little about different simulation methods, the book mainly contains very technical examples of interesting physical experiments. Through the whole of the book, lots of functions are included, which seem generic for any kind of proof with atoms or light differentiation. But in my opinion, the book does not add any value to persons that want to know how they can improve their tests using computer simulation in general.

Steel is a Brit who fancies himself a comedian of the radical proletariat. Alas, he's really just a not-very-funny guy with a chip on his shoulder. He is so in love with his self-image that he cannot see his own failings. Case in point: He declares that Americans think the city they live in is the same as the whole world, proving this by citing Chicagoans who failed to laugh at a joke based on the fact that all the north-south streets in the city's grid system have names and the east-west streets all have numbers. Well, aside from the simple truth that the joke wasn't very funny, perhaps Chicagoans were silent because they were too polite to point out that he was wrong; most east-west streets don't have numbers. Gee, Mark, perhaps if you weren't so parochial and presumed that the few streets you saw represented the whole city... Need more proof? Consider the story in which he pats himself on the back for beginning a gig on the day Margaret Thatcher resigned by shouting "Well, she's f...ing gone." Gosh, Mark, what biting social satire.

Elie Wiesel's new children's book, King Solomon and His Magic Ring, is an unpleasantly surprising work. Wiesel, author of over forty works of fiction and non-fiction, stuns readers with an uninspiring, bland retelling of a famous legend. He attempts to catch our children's attention with a thin spidery plot that is difficult to grasp.

As a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Wiesel could have done much better for himself. Instead, he has written one more book that we are able to add to the growing pile of poorly written children's books lacking in stimuli. Surely, "Not only was Solomon the wisest of all rulers, he was also the mightiest." (12). Well, not only is that line cliché, it's also not something that would excite a young mind.

Speaking of exciting, the paintings featured in this piece are of very high quality and talent. However, they are not suitable for children. The art is too dark and depicts demons, giants, lions, and other things that might frighten younger readers. In addition to boring or perhaps scaring today's youth, Wiesel has also managed to impress upon them a couple of incorrect teachings, including one about women. "Solomon's worst mistake? His marriage to the daughter of the Pharaoh." (36) The daughter of the Pharaoh gives a poor example of women. The book describes her as an enthralling dancer who later tricks Solomon whilst he is under her spell. Not all women are evil temptresses out to control men through manipulative ways; the author should make that clear.

Now, what about this magic ring? "From the moment he slipped the ring on his finger, Solomon's authority extended over everything from spirits and animals to the wind." (14) That sounds a bit like mind control. Add that to the way Wiesel portrays King Solomon; a reader might think Wiesel was advocating ruling with an iron fist. Children's books are meant to be entertaining, yes, but not to cause the youngster to reach for incorrect ideals.

Our media claims '90's youth is desensitized to television murders and sex in the movies. However, since children are taught that books are the alleys towards truth, they tend to try to learn from them, rather than media. Let Wiesel not inadvertently poison the minds of tomorrow with works such as this.

This book was OK. But, I read another one that was way better. It mostly told about life about basketball, not about his real life. And I think it didn't tell very much about him. I guess you could say the book is OK for just reading to get to know more about his basketball life.

I found this book dull. It's a series of vignettes of daily life, providing a limited amount of general background about the families and houses but typically focusing on a particular generation. You can see how this had the potential to be extremely interesting, but I really can't make sense of the author's choice of stories and the writing style is unengaging to say the least.

Since the official description provided above does not tell you which houses are described, I will. They are:

Adare Manor, County Limerick; Ardfert Abbey, County Kerry; Ardfry, County Galway; Ballyfin, County Leix; Barmeath Castle, County Louth; Carton, County Kildare; Castle Forbes, County Longford; Castle Leslie (or Glaslough), County Monaghan; Coole Park, County Galway; Curragh Chase, County Limerick; Drishane, County Cork; Edgeworthstown, County Longford; Grey Abbey, County Down; Gurteen Le Poer, County Waterford; Kilfane, County Kilkenny; Lismore Castle, County Waterford; Lissadell, County Sligo; Mitchelstown Castle, County Cork; Mount Stewart, County Down; Newtown Anner, County Tipperary; Rockingham, County Roscommon; Springhill, County Derry; and Tullynally Castle (formerly Pakenham Hall), County Westmeath.

The new Sacramentary is coming out soon and I am eager to learn more about it. Since this book is a collection of 11 essays, subtitled "A commentary on the Revised Sacramentary" I thought it might be an exciting introduction to an integral part of our lives, the way we pray at Mass and the words we use to pray publicly. No. Barely. Two of the essays are about Anscar Chupungco. (?!) Even after reading the book, I couldn't figure out why I should want to know so much about him, although every essay mentioned him and there was full page photo of him. "Incultration, then, is a basic premise of liturgical translation. Anscar Chupungco, rightly noted for his work in this area..."(p.33) Even so, I am interested in the liturgy and not in him. Many of the details were fascinating, including examples of the many drafts the Sacramentary went through, but these essays seem to be all about the minute details around the edges and not about the core - how and what is about to happen.

It seems to be a scholar's text; there were terms I didn't understand and for which there were no explanation. The text seemed remote. Too bad. We lay folk are so hungry.