Most of the information in this book is useful. It gives simple and common sense ways to go about improving your short game. Tom Watson is one of the greatest short game players of all time, and his advice is obviously comming from much experience. My only real problem with this book is the abundance of photographs that didn't really need to be there. There are many photographs that show positioning during set-up, placement for your hands for the grip, etc. which are very useful and well drawn. But there are also many drawings (practically every other page) that have no educational value. I don't mean to sound insulting, because the book does teach many useful techniques, but lets just say this book could have been written in 1/3 of the pages. This book is saved by Mr. Watson's discussion of practice drills which are fantastic and definately worth while! So if you are looking for a few tips to help you on the course, pick this book up. But if you are a true student of the short game, I recommend Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible. If you are like me, you'll buy both and compare for yourself. But if you can only grab one, I'd have to go with the Short Game Bible. It's just too useful to pass up.

This book is a must read by golfers at any level. Tom Watson teaches you how to visualize success in all aspects of the short game, how to know how to play each shot with the proper club to maximize your outcome, how to reduce risk, how to SCORE! The book is full of drills that really will help you. Over the past decade I've given this book to literally dozens of friends, any one of whom would agree with my high opinion of it. Buy it, read it, practice it, and watch your scores get much, much lower!

Tom Watson really puts his heart and soul into this book. He gives the reader many examples and drills to improve your game. I used to have a high handicap, but not anymore. I really dropped about 5-10 strokes off my handicap. Not bad.

I have read several books on the mental side of the game, but it was not until Michael Anthony's Mental Keys that my game has started to improve considerably. It really has widened my horizon of what I now know I am capable of and has shown me a whole new level of possibilities in my own game. The Four Step Routine he describes helps me stay in the frame of mind that will allow for optimum performance. Not only have I taken off 10 strokes in a very short time period, I am also enjoying myself much more. By applying the "tools" from the book I know I will achieve my goals. I highly recommend The Mental Keys to anyone who is looking beyond the mechanical aspects of golf to lower his or her handicap.

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This will be the BEST [price] you will spend on your Golf game.

I forget how I met Michael Anthony but I will not forget how his book changed my golf game. It was about 3 years ago that we met. I was so impressed with his book I helped him with his web site for NO money up front. I said when you get your book in front of people they will read it and they will start buying it and you will pay me. That is how much I believe in him and his book.

This is not your average book on Golf. It teaches you the things that no Golf pro does or can in my opinion. This book has the ability to cut your score down even if you are not a great athlete but don't think the pro's can't use this book because they can and they do. A bunch of pro's on tour use Michael Anthony teachings.

This book teaches you how to think your way around the course. Every time my score goes up a few strokes I read the book and it goes back down.

I had the ability to play Golf and shot good scores (mid 70's) but most of the time I was in the mid 80's. This book has kept my average game over the last few years under 80! And I have not seen a Golf pro to work on my swing in that time.

Golf is a game for life and so is this book.

If you do not find this book helpful Golf is not for you!

Great book!!

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This will be the BEST [money] you will spend on your Golf game.

I forget how I met Michael Anthony but I will not forget how his book changed my golf game. It was about 3 years ago that we met. I was so impressed with his book I helped him with his web site for NO money up front. I said when you get your book in front of people they will read it and they will start buying it and you will pay me. That is how much I believe in him and his book.

This is not your average book on Golf. It teaches you the things that no Golf pro does or can in my opinion. This book has the ability to cut your score down even if you are not a great athlete but don't think the pro's can't use this book because they can and they do. A bunch of pro's on tour use Michael Anthony teachings.

This book teaches you how to think your way around the course. Every time my score goes up a few strokes I read the book and it goes back down.

I had the ability to play Golf and shot good scores (mid 70's) but most of the time I was in the mid 80's. This book has kept my average game over the last few years under 80! And I have not seen a Golf pro to work on my swing in that time.

Golf is a game for life and so is this book.

If you do not find this book helpful Golf is not for you!

Great book!!

This book is excellent and I agree with most of the reviews here and I can't imagine anyone thinking the first half of the book being boring, it totally sparked my interest from the beginning to the end and still has my interest sparked and I want to buy my own copy of this book and suggest it to family and friends who like to read books about people who have had to struggle with difficulties in their lives so I definitely think they should like this book. This book made me realize that any tough times I had in my life were never as bad as Laura's and it's truly an inspiration how she overcame her tramatic childhood. I recommend this book to everyone and as I don't own this book because I borrowed it I'm going to buy it suggest it to some friends and family to read and I will let them borrow it and when I get it back it is going on my bookcase and is going to be a keeper! PS: I am also thinking of maybe buying everyone their own No Language but a Cry book instead of just passing the one book around because this book is so good and such an inspiration that it would be so worth buying it for them.

This book is one of the most depressing, uplifting, satisfying, and fascinating books ever. I read it many years ago and it has always stayed with me. I would recommend this to anyone.

I read this book many years ago and have been trying to get my hands on a copy for my daughter. This is the most remarkable story I have ready. The courage of Laura and the dedication of the doctor and the nuns made me feel so humble. I have no hesitation in recommending this book.

Anthony Doerr's The Shell Collector is a collection of wonderful stories, each with characters that have a mystical connection to the earth. The world these characters inhabit has an additional dimension, has a bit more depth than the mundane world, yet there is nothing outlandish about these stories. These stories make me very curious to see what Doerr will produce next, particularly what he would do with a novel. Enjoy these wonderful stories.

Anthony Doerr's collection of short stories, The Shell Collector, touches the heart in complicated, moving ways. Thes stories span the world and are told from a multiplicity of viewpoints ranging in age, sex and ethnicity while always feeling true and honest in their varied characterizations. "The Hunter's Wife" is the best example of the way most of these stories connect people with nature and through nature with each other in a circle that while often causing pain is also a means of healing. The charm of these stories is how they are seemingly simple but are actually rich and emotionally complex. "For a Long Time This Was Griselda's Story" does not intertwine the characters with nature as do the others but it is my favourite. It reverberates with a quietly building strength. A fantastic collection of stories.

Doerr's excellent collection of short stories transports us from the coast of Kenya to the Montana winter, from Liberia in West Africa to Oregon, from Tanzania to Ohio. Three of the best for this reader are the title story "The Shell Collector", "The Hunter's Wife" and "Mkondo" where the characters Doerr creates exist in natural worlds suffused with a power that is palpable. Add "The Caretaker" and you have four mesmerising stories from a very powerful imagination.

In "The Shell Collector", Doerr draws inspiration from the world of science. The blind collector trawls the beaches and coral reefs of Kenya, his retreat from the world, spending his time sifting through the sand granules in search of rare shell specimens, his life long study - but his private world is overturned when he happens on a cure for malaria, strangely enough from the lethal poison of a cone snail. Soon, he is overrun by relatives of the sick and other outsiders when word quickly spreads about the miracle cure. "The Hunter's Wife" has the gift of psychic commune with the spirits of earth's creatures and this poses a challenge to their life together in the harsh Montana winterscape. In "Mkondo", Doerr explores the theme of people caught between different cultures: a newly married couple from the rainforests of Tanzania and the suburbs of Oregon respectively, discover how love can first blossom - and then wither, depending on where they are: "She was learning that in her life everything - health, happiness, even love - was subject to the landscape"."The Caretaker", a refugee from civil war in Liberia, now in Oregon, struggles to recover from the trauma of witnessing atrocities and being forced to carry out an execution.

In contrast, "4th July", recounts the comical misfortunes and escapades of American anglers involved in a fishing contest with Brits. In "For A Long Time This Was Griselda's Story", two sisters take divergent roads in life, one seeking her fortune assisting a metal eater in a travelling sideshow, the other remaining at home with their mother. "A Tangle By The Rapid River" is reminiscent of some hunting stories in Annie Proulx's "Heartsong's and other stories", an excellent collection of gritty stories set in rugged country.

Lady Glencora McCloskie is "cumbered" by great wealth, Mr. Palliser though wealthy enough can use more for his political ambitions. A marriage is arranged between these two, though Lady Glencora loves a charming ne'er do well. So far it might be a Harlequin romance, but Trollope, whose generosity of spirit is matched only by the clarity of his eye, makes these stock figures and those around them real, odd as all humans are, and yet familiar. Thus Mr. Palliser at a climactic moment, "You are wrong about one thing. I do love you. If you do not love me, that is a misfortune, but we need not therefore be disgrace. Will you try to love me?" Then he is called from the room."He did not kiss her. It was not that he was not minded to kiss her. He would have kissed her readily enough had he thought the occasion required it. "He says he loves me," she thought, "but he does not know what love is." How they learn is a process that extends thru the six "Palliser novels." worth reading for students of life, writing, or love

"Can You Forgive Her," the first of the Palliser novels of Anthony Trollope, deals with two romantic triangles, each with a lady who has difficulty making up her mind between an honorable man and a charming rogue. Lady Glencora Palliser is married to a highly respected Member of Parliament who is obviously destined for a top position in the government. However, she is still in love with an extremely handsome ne'er-do-well whom she had earlier barely been dissuaded from eloping with. Alice Vavasor, after an entanglement with her cousin George, has become engaged to John Grey, a perfect man in every respect, perhaps too perfect for the adventuresome Miss Vavasor. The two ladies come perilously close to deserting the worthier men for the scalawags, whom the reader can see becoming worse and worse scoundrels as time passes, especially George Vavasor. Alice even breaks her engagement with the perfect Mr. Grey, whom she really loves, and becomes engaged to her self-centered cousin, to her almost instant regret. A subplot deals with yet another triangle, the rather absurd rivalry of farmer Cheeseacre and self-styled hero Captain Bellfield for the hand of a wealthy fortyish widow. This sometimes distracts from the main plot, and yet the reader is left with the idea that perhaps the flirtatious widow might be the best catch of them all; at least she knows how to have fun. The chief merit of the novel is the brilliant characterizations. No author in fiction can surpass Trollope in creating real people with motivations which can be throroughly understood, no matter how the reader might disagree with the characters' actions. The novel's length is perhaps necessary to permit Trollope to fully develop such a vivid, believable and engrossing cast.

This is a great Victorian novel, and the first by Anthony Trollope that I've read. After reading Can You Forgive Her, I was inspired to buy the entire set of Palliser novels; I plan to read and savor each volume in the series over the years. Can You Forgive Her introduces us to Alice Vavasar, her father, cousins, and fiance. Alice struggles with the question of whom she should marry. George is brandy; John is milk and honey. I love that! What a choice! Trollope has a wonderfully amusing style, evoking with great clarity 19th Century life in Victorian England. It's a time so very different from ours in the U.S., and yet, one can learn a great deal about the roots of some American cultural obsessions with love and politics. A hint: if you don't know British parliamentary history, you may want to review a little. However, don't let this deter you from trying out this splendid, enjoyable novel.

The sharp and bold Grundy the Golem makes an excellent character because of his natural sarcastic personality, and his awesome talent. I recommend this book to anybody of any age who has ever loved fantasy books. It grips your imagination and will take you to heighths you never dreamed possible. Piers Anthony is the best!!!

This was one of the few books in the series I could not put down. You never forget Grundy, and I was pleased he got his own book. The sharp tongue(witted) and bold Grundy the Golem makes an excellent character. You will actually love his sarcastic personality. Grundy finally gets his own quest.

Golem in the Gears, as well as the entire Xanth series, is a great book. I read Golem in 2 days, and all the books (so far) from A Spell For Chameleon to Man from Mundania in an average of 2 1/2 days each, and I'm still going!!I highly recomend the Xanth series to anyone and everyone. If you like books that capture you from the beginning, then Xanth's for you. ********** stars

this novel does a wonderful job of presenting the discursive domination of the west present in japan. the struggle between joji and naomi shows the inability to reconcile cultural identity, which is portrayed in the transition to westernization and a return to tradition. in addition, several other important issues are discussed within the novel, including the empowerment of women and the idea of manufactured definitions (ie the definition of "modernism" within the novel)

its appeal lies in the readers inability to truly relate to either of the main characters: joji with his masochistic self and naomi as a briliant sort of moga ("modern girl".) the most tantalizing aspect of the novel is questioning where the blame lies... is joji responsible for naomi's lack of conscience because he took advantage of a young woman with nowhere to turn and molded her into a westernized play thing or would naomi have turned out like this anyway, due to her scandalous background?

in reading the novel, also keep in mind whether tanizaki is criticizing the west or the way the west appears in japan?

This is the first Tanizaki novel I've read, and I enjoyed it a greay deal, but I hate both of the main characters. The story starts off with Joji a 28 year old bachelor who falls for a pretty, quiet 15 year old girl named Naomi. Many things attact Joji to Naomi: her beauty, her Eurasian features, but the main thing is her name: Naomi. The name is written with three Chinese characters and it could also be a western name. Joji finds this very attractive. He starts to hang out with the girl going to Western restaurants and going to see Western movies. He eventually takes the girl in, wanting to make her a prop lady. He pays for her to take English and music lessons. This is when things start to go downhill. Naomi's english is very poor, and Joji makes her work very hard calling her an idiot when she doesn'yt understand passive voice. Naomi gets angry and very obstinate. As time goes on Joji marries Naomi, but keepos it secret from everyone else. He enjoys washing her body and playing horse with her, treating her like a play thing. They eventually go out and study dancing together, but this leads to more problems because of some of the men Naomi meets. I'm not going any further. Read the book and experience how a weak-willed man acts when the woman he loves cheats on him constantly, but can't get enough of her. See how a respectful business man is reduced to a submissive husband to his teenage wife. Very disturbing, but a good read nonetheless.

it's hard to imagine this book being written over 75 years ago. tanizaki writes with great clarity and precision, and like many japanese novels the use of language is wonderful.

but the subject! naomi is the most vile, cruel, manipulative, evil creature he could have imagined. joji, her hapless benafactor and husband, starts of being somewhat sympathetic, but in the end it's tempting to strangle him just to put him out of his misery.

this is all done with great style. at turns creepily erotic, hilarious and pathetic, it's difficult to come away from this novel feeling anything less than defiled.

a scathing indictment of the 1920's japanese obsession with things western, i've trouble understanding why government censors briefly terminated newspaper serialization in 1924; it shows nothing even remotely appealing about western culture or lifestyle.

a good tonic for this was peter mccarthy's "little bunny on the move".

Not only the best poker book that I have ever read but one of my favorite books regardless of the topic. Mr. Holden is a professional biographer of the British Royal family that loves poker enough to devote a year of his life to experience what it is like to be a professional player. This is not an instrucional book but an enjoyable account of a year of poker written by an excellent author.

An excellent insight into the mind of a serious poker player. I bought this book on impulse at a second-hand store, and read it in two sittings because my wife forced me to stop to sleep. A riveting look at the world of professional poker and poker tournaments by an inside outsider: Anthony Holden is a very erudite and urbane journalist who also wrote hugely successful biographies of Mr Charles Windsor and Ms Diana Spencer. He is also a passionate poker player, and spent one year as a professional. Considering that he broke even, you can take what he says reasonably seriously!

As good as it gets! Anthony Holden takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey, allowing us to peer in and see what it would be like to just leave your job for a year to become a professional poker player. After reading it the first time you will be calling your travel agent for the next available flight to Las Vegas. I have found that re-reading it about a week prior to taking any subsequent trips to Las Vegas will put you in such a festive mood, that by the time your plane is descending to McCarron airport your excitement has reached a fever pitch. The only thing to do at that point is to head right over to Binion's Horseshoe and make your own story come to life along the green baize. It is marvelously entertaining, and very informative. Reading this book is the second best thing to actually playing in the World Series of Poker!

I read most of Mooch on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York. I finished it with great interest the following morning. The Bruno character is a devil of a fellow--I oscillated between hating Bruno and having real compassion for Bruno, all the while wondering how much of the tale is true to the author's life. The "love affair" between Bruno and Jimmi was unconvincing at first, mainly because I thought Bruno was such a total sucker despite his hardass Hemingway exterior. Mooch draws the reader into a flickering film noir'ish portrait of crippling addiction, reckless sexual obsession, and corporate America. Written with an emotional, showy honesty, Mooch is the second book in a planned trilogy. Chump Change was the first. It will be interesting to see what Dan Fante comes up with for the finale. I'll be reading.

I first came upon Dan Fante's work three years ago while picking up a copy of his father's (John Fante) Ask The Dust for a friend. It was then that I reluctantly bought and read his first novel, CHUMP CHANGE. I say reluctantly because I was sure that the son could not come close to the skill of his brilliant father? Then I opened the book and began my awakening. Reading Dan Fante was like discovering matches and gasoline at the same moment. Dan is every inch the equal of his great father. What I read was page after page of passion, rage, and unrestrained power. Now comes Dan fante's new novel, MOOCH. Plainly, the book is a stunner! The most powerful American novel I have read in the last ten years. MOOCH traces a year in the life of an alcoholic telemarketer, Bruno Dante, through the steaming intestines of southern California - and spares the reader nothing. Fante's hero (?) Bruno Dante has a gift; he can seemingly sell anything to anyone over the telephone. But his love for the beautiful and destructive lap dancer Jimmi Valiente and his obcession for alcohol outweigh all else. The resultant mix is a flaming and unrestrained human train wreck. Dan Fante's gift for black humor and his passion for his characters stain and exhault every page. Here Los Angeles is a major character too, as is the American Dream. I cannot recommend MOOCH enough. I could not put it down.

There are books made of words and there are books made of the spaces between the words. Mooch is the latter. There is such a paper thin buffer between the reader and the actor that there is a compulsion to read Mooch as if it were happening in real time. I read this is close to one sitting. There is no way to put the book down just as there is no way to put life on hold. The story line is much less chaotic than Chump Change, Fante's first novel in the Bruno Dante trilogy (Mooch is actually the third with the second published only overseas as yet). The elements of the plot are mundane, office supply boiler-room washed-up and dressed-out SALESbeings, for gawds sake. Yet the setting makes sense for the parallels developed between men and their cold calls. Face it, this is the story behind those infomercials you pretend to yourself you're not watching and, face it, infomercials are the mythology of the day. Mooch is a cracked open skull of a book in which the author is fearless in writing about your dirty little secrets. You say you never masturbated into the coffee mug of the woman you love? I don't believe you.

The Enron collapse shows that, as long as we continue to enjoy the benefits of capitalism in the West, Trollope's most famous novel will continue to be timely. This has often been called Trollope's best novel: while it does not contain his best writing (which would be found in individual chapters of PHINEAS FINN and THE LAST CHRONICLER OF BARSET), nor is it his funniest (BARCHESTER TOWERS), it is his most consistently engaging in its details of a railway bubble in mid-Victorian London. The great financier at the center of it, Augustus Melmotte, rises from obscurity to be asked to host a dinner for the visiting emperor of China (which forms a splendid setpiece for the novel) on the eve of his financial ruin. The novel is very exciting and enjoyable, and shows Trollope straining the hardest to meet the standards set by his admitted hero, Thackeray; although this certainly doesn't meet the level of VANITY FAIR, it's still pretty good. There is a bit of a trouble that Trollope has too many subplots going and winds up spending hundreds of pages at the end (long after the work's main action is over) having to resolve them. One of the very best of these ongoing stories, the desperate attempts of the contemptibly snobbish (but still oddly sympathetic) Georgiana Longstaffe to find a husband, is as a result resolved much too suddenly and unsatisfactorily. I would still recommend THE WAY WE LIVE NOW as a fine read--and as a very splendid introduction to Trollope.

This work of literature encompassing life among the upper-crust of society in Victorian England is by far the best fictional representation I have ever read.

Trollope creates fantastic characters from the saintly/virginal society girl who pines for a lover, to a dastardly gentleman who squanders his families small fortune on rather unsavoury habits such as gambling and less than scrupulous women.

Most of this is told through the perspective of the matriarch of one family (Lady Carbury) who's only wish is that her son (a scoundrel at best) marry well and with any luck above his station (which he tries to sabotage at every turn) and for her daughter to marry into wealth at any cost whatsoever. That with the general gossip and the "Newcomer's from Paris" (The Family Melmotte) who left Paris hurriedly it seems under a rather dark cloud of suspicion will keep you glued to this book throughout. It is a very lengthy novel (481 pages) but you will be desperately turning the pages in the Appendix hoping for just a bit more!

Picture a world in which a shadowy entreprenour rubs shoulders with the great and powerful, while hard-driving yuppies stop at nothing to be associated with his schemes. Sounds like Ron Reagan's "Morning in America," doesn't it? Except it is Victorian London. The entreprenour is Auguste Melmotte. The yuppies are the scions of great and small families hurling themselves at his daughter, his phantasmagorical railway (between Salt Lake City and Vera Cruz yet!) company, and the hem of his cloak. And the book is Anthony Trollope's THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.

Like all of Trollope's books, this one is as well crafted as any by Eliot or Thackeray; yet the theme and handling are strikingly modern. I came to this book by way of the Barsetshire novels with their depiction of rural clergy. I should have read THE WAY WE LIVE NOW first.

Especially worth noting are the surprisingly full characterizations of Marie Melmotte, daughter of the financier, who is courted by her emotional inferiors, and Roger Carbury, a rural landowner who holds aloof from the fray and helps several of the others pick up the pieces from their lives.

The only negative is the book's anti-semitism, though it makes several attempts to lift itself from this charge.