After going through the first three lessons diligently I was confused as to why I found this book so hard to learn from. Then I re-read the Foreward and figured out why:

"...It was designed with hypertext in mind - that is, an electronic version which would enbale the reader to access from the screen explanations of characters or of grammar points in the displayed text."

In other words, it was created for a MBA course at Kings College and was meant to be used on computers. However, hypertext obviously doesn't work in the book and no CD is included. This means that the lessons start out with a majorly difficult story in Kanji and then you get explanations later on of what the Kanji mean and how they are formed. I personally learn better from flash cards (or just from reading the subway signs). I have lived in Japan for 3+ years, and I personally would not recommend this book.

The only reason I gave it more than 1 star is because the few Kanji explanations I saw (after struggling through the text) were somewhat informative.

Most textbooks designed for English-speaking students of the Japanese language either give their exercises and readings in Rooma-ji (the western alphabet) or else in hiragana and katakana (the syllabaries used in Japan, each with about 50 characters). If someone is aiming at being able to READ as well as speak Japanese, both strategies are less than ideal, since rooma-ji is normally not used in Japan at all, save for occasional street signs or store names, and hiragana and katakana are used only for those words not normally written in kanji (kanji being the 1800 or so characters imported from China -- each of which often has multiple meanings and/or pronunciations). Kanji, as difficult as they are to master, are a fact of life in Japan, and in my opinion there are only two strategies that make sense in regard to them: 1. Dive in all the way, memorize all the common ones and become literate in Japanese; 2. Totally ignore the damn things and get by on the spoken language and the aid of English speaking Japanese (the route I seem to be on). For students of the first path, this is an EXCELLENT book --the readings are well organized, the kanji are thoroughly explained, and there's plenty of supplemental grammar and so forth, so that even a beginning student, with work, can profit from the text. I wouldn't "start" studying Japanese with this book, though -- you should have some basic familiarity with the language, both as a spoken phenomenon and as a grammatical system, before you dig into this book. If you're there, though, and want to commit to the "kanji adventure," this is an excellent text for you, and will serve you, in the long run, much better than studying in either Rooma-ji or the syllaberies will. By the way, it's designed more for self-study than classroom use, and is nicely formatted -- an attractive book, well worth the money.

This book is very well writen. Writes a story first in Kanji (characters) next in romanji (japanese words in english letters) and then finnally in English. A very practical and effective guide.

I thought this book was very outdated and hard to read because of the English accent Willis uses. The research was OK but a little bias against working class ( poor and broke)kids.

I use Willis' work every semester in my graduate level educational research methods class. It is one of first and
most influential efforts to bring together a marxist focus on macro-social dynamics, a symbolic interactionist focus on micro-social interactions, and a phenomenological focus on individual consicousness into a single study of class reproduction. It is a classic in every sense.

I came to Dr. Willis's Learning To Labor as a Ph.D. student at York University, Toronto. I was profoundly moved both theoretically and personally. Willis gives us a theoretical way of articulating macro and micro perspectives which shows how the two arise in dialectical fashion, e.g. class determines the working class lives of the lads through the very choices of the lads themselves! It was, and still is, a brilliant insight and contribution in relation to ongoing discussions of structure/agency and the whole question of determinism. Dr. Willis's work also touched base with my own life. I grew up in a cotton mill town in South Carolina. The local school was closely tied to the local manufacturing plants and the surrounding working-class, both in the fields and the mills. I saw the life of the lads as nearly identical with the life of the white, working class kids that I went to school with. Most of my high school friends saw going to college as a "waste of time" and for "sissies". Real work required real men! Most ended up in the local cotton mills. Many of these young men had promising lives that could have been realized, but at those structural moments choices were made that reproduced the local working-class. I have since written my own ethnographic work (Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000) and I have to say that Dr. Willis's work was always a big help and resource for thinking through the relationship between reproduction and resistance. A must read for anyone on the verge of ethnographic research and for the general reader as well.

This is the only one of its kind.

How often, on your morning commute in to work, do you see someone on the train reading a bright pink book? It doesn't happen very often, especially if the reader is over the age of, say, eight. Thanks to "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", you too can witness the impossible, if you happen to share your commute with a "Doctor Who" fan. I have to admit that one of the reasons I read this book in a ridiculously fast three days was so I could minimize the amount of time people would see me, an attorney at law, reading a bright pink novel with a pink, cigarette-smoking and pistol-packing poodle, on the cover.

For all that, is it any good?

"Mad Dogs and Englishmen", even though it's the next book in the series after the intense, moody, arc-changing "Adventuress of Henrietta Street", is lighter than air and less serious than a Leslie Nielsen movie. At one point I tried to keep track of notable lines, but quickly ran out of room. The whole thing's a broad satire of the sci-fi fandom culture -- broad riffs on J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and Ray Harryhausen dominate the book. Noel Coward's also in it. Several times. The book jumps breezily from 1942 London to 1960 Las Vegas to 1978 Los Angeles to Outer Space, and more than gets away with it.

Now, this book is by Paul Magrs, one of the more divisive "Doctor Who" novel writers. Most of his books are parodies, not satires (there's a fine line) of "Doctor Who", and revolve around his own pet character Iris Wildthyme. Not so this book -- in fact, the word "Wildthyme" doesn't appear anywhere within its four corners. Yes, there are the broad pokes at DW stories (the Doctor's descriptions of some of his 1970s TV adventures are drop-dead funny), but this time, Magrs doesn't seem to be trying to show off his Immense Literary Cleverness to the audience. Like I said, it's the broadest and lightest of his books to date and I think even those readers dead set against him, will at the worst be only slightly amused.

And, even though it's light on the arc (the Doctor does still have his goatee), it's the second "fake history" novel in a row -- referring to all sorts of Earth events that, well, never happened. Something very odd is happening with time -- if not necessarily with Wildthyme -- in the 8th Doctor's universe...

Pity the eyes of the Doctor Who fan. In November of 2001, the BBC published THE ADVENTURESS OF HENRIETTA STREET - a book written in such a small font that it's currently being used as a calibration device for electron microscopes. After numerous readers were spotted literally bleeding from the eyes due to excess squinting, reports of blindness spread throughout fandom faster than casting rumors about Ken Dodd. "The BBC," up-in-arms fans demanded, "will have to do something about this state of affairs! No more janus thorns! No more tiny print! No more making our eyeballs bleed! Have pity on our orbs of sight! Give us something soothing to look at!" And in their wisdom the BBC, upon hearing these pleas of mercy from our optically challenged fans friends (of which this humble reviewer counts himself as a fully paid up member), decided to follow ADVENTURESS with a new book from Paul Magrs. A new book about poodles. A new book with a bright pink cover, featuring a bright pink poodle reclining on a yellow sofa, holding a cigarette and a yellow water pistol. In case there were any optic nerves that hadn't spontaneously combusted upon initial viewing of this cover, there is also a giant reflective Doctor Who logo on the front, that screams to anyone who will listen about how there are now one hundred BBC Doctor Who Novels in existence (I can only assume that a cover claiming that this is the one hundredth book since the BBC took the license away from Virgin didn't go over terribly well in the board meetings). So, in case you missed anything, there's a bright, shiny, reflective gold logo glowing on top of a screamingly bright pink cover published right after November's Hold-The-Book-Very-Close-To-Your-Head fest. Why does BBC range editor Justin Richards hate my eyes so?

Personally, I think the cover is one of the most killingly funny things I've even seen on the front of the book in a very long time. On the other hand, I have absolutely no wish to persuade that of anyone who happens to think that it is the most garish and ugly work that they've ever seen in their life (I would probably only mention the fact that they seem to be completely missing the point). The extreme pinkness of the cover is something that someone is going to either love or abhor and there's absolutely no reason to try to dissuade a person from their opinion on that. While fans will forever be divided on that subject, the book itself is quite a lot of fun. It is the epitome of romp. It is the embodiment of camp. It is the quintessence of silliness. It's great.

For those readers who thought that all books following THE ADVENTURESS OF HENRIETTA STREET would end up being massively heavy books, have no fear. MAD DOGS is possibly one of the lightest books that the Doctor Who range has ever produced. The novel is so light that while I put the book aside during breaks in reading, if it was not for the weight of the bookmark that I shoved into its pages, I would be in eternal fear of the novel being caught on a stray current of air and floating away to some unknown destination. (For any overly sensitive review-reader who is worried about the fate of my copy now that the bookmark has been removed from MAD DOGS' innards need fret no more. My copy is now resting comfortably on my bookshelf next to a copy of ADVENTURESS, and the gravitational pull of that tome will keep MAD DOGS securely anchored to the Earth for many many years to come.)

In addition to be a delightfully quick book to read, it's also a terribly funny one. MAD DOGS is one of the few Doctor Who stories where virtually every joke or bad pun creates a laugh. Not a book to be taken seriously, it succeeds largely because it's written in such a fun and quick style. Paul Magrs' prose style is incredibly engaging; it's Terrance Dicks with a real sense of poetry. While some books get humor all wrong by dwelling too much on the outrageousness of the situational comedy, MAD DOG quickly moves from one insane setup to another. There are some wonderfully described passages that will have you chuckling to yourself for weeks. It's fluffy, but it's not insultingly so. It's vaguely clever enough that I certainly didn't feel that I had wasted my time on something inconsequential. It's amazingly entertaining, and while I wouldn't want to read an entire series of books like this, as a one-off it succeeds magnificently.

MAD DOGS works as a great standalone romp through the weird and wacky world of Who. If you're someone who doesn't like your Who to be horribly serious at all times, then in all likelihood you'll adore this one. But then, you probably realized the lack of inherent seriousness present in the text when you threw your hands over your face to protect yourself from the intense radioactive blast of a cover.

First of all, let me describe the cover, since it doesn't appear on the site. It is bright pink, with a pink poodle lounging on a divan. The poodle has human-like hands, and is holding a ray-gun out of a 50's sci-fi movie in one hand, and a cigarette holder with a smoking cigarette in the other. If that doesn't indicate the tone of the book to follow, I'll eat a horse.

Yes, camp is the word of the day to describe this one. Reginald Tyler (J.R.R. Tolkein, very obviously) has devoted his life to the writing of his master work, The True History of Planets. It is a large story about elves, trolls, goblins, etc. At least, that's the book that the Doctor has always known. However, after arriving at a science-fiction convention in the early 21st century, he discovers that the book is no longer about such fantastical creatures, but instead it's a book about the true events on Dogworld, where the Queen is overthrown and a new Emperor has taken over. A movie has been made of the book, which will make the situation on Dogworld even worse. Thus, the Doctor, Anji and Fitz have to figure out what's going on and how to stop it. They pick up some friends along the way and separate into the time stream in order to do this. The Doctor and one poodle go to the 1940's and infiltrate the Smudgelings, Tyler's elite Cambridge writing group. Fitz and Flossie (another acquisition) go to the 1960's and fall in with the flamboyant torch singer, Brenda Soobie, who's also more than what she seems. Finally, Anji and another poodle go to the 1970's, where work on the film is beginning. What follows is truly, truly...well, bizarre is probably the best way to describe it.

However, this is bizarre in a good way, rather than the weird events of Henrietta Street, the previous book. Paul Magrs has written a very broad comedy, with wonderful parodies of Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, and even George Lucas in a very over the top manner (he acts out his scenes by playing with his toys). There's even a comment on the decline of stop-motion animation and the rise of computer graphics in movies. In fact, that's a major plot point. And you'll never look at Noel Coward the same way again after reading this book.

But is it any good? Oh yeah, it's good. The plot is a bit too thin for this to be a 5-star book and the characters are fairly two-dimensional, but it is definitely up there. The Eighth Doctor series really needed this break in tone after Henrietta Street. It's funny, makes a couple of interesting points and fulfills the promise of the cover. The comedy is so broad that the characters can't help but be two-dimensional. There are no deep thoughts, the regulars don't develop at all, and the plot is flimsy. But that's hardly the point in this book. This is Dr. Who that doesn't take itself seriously, and where's the problem with that once in awhile?

Paul Magrs has written three other Dr. Who books, and each one has been infested (yes, that's the right word) with his character, Iris Wildthyme. This one has her too, but she's not that intrusive or annoying in this book. Thus, it's Magrs' best book of the lot. She's very subdued, or at least she is once you find out who she is. Magrs has also avoided doing some of his literary tricks that he did with his previous books that annoyed me. This book has an ending, for one thing. He has played with the English language, how it's used, and how literature is written in his previous ones, and they've left me cold in the process. However, this time he plays with tone instead, and he's much better for it.

You will laugh at this book. You will laugh *with* this book. You will glory in the wonders of Dogworld, sympathize with some of the poodles, while cursing at the other poodles. You will laugh at an aphid named Professor Alid Jag, who is involved in a wonderful gag right at the beginning of the book. I hope you won't be embarrassed by the cover as you read it on the bus to work. I wasn't. But I'm not easily embarrassed. It is, shall we say, garish. But that's ok. It's well worth it.

I bought this book for my daughter, who is in the 10th grade, to help her prepare for taking teh PSATs. It has many good sample tests and quizes to simulate the type of questions on the PSAT. However, answers are not provided in the book to check your own answers. How are you supposed to learn whats right & wrong without knowing the correct answers.

If the author gets this mesage, please email me (sercolano@home.com) a response. Is there another book that has the answers ? Without the answers the bok is worthless.

I too experienced a problem not having the answers, until I came across the Teacher's Edition. It had all of the practice information in the Student Edition, accompanied with answers. It also has the added bonus of effective strategies and helpful hints. Contains such great things as "Guided Practice," "Independent Practice," and sections entitled "Putting It All Together-" helpful for a cumulative review of a chapter. If the SATs are anytime soon, I'd advise those taking it to get this book and prepare...it is the best out there!

The one I own is the teacher's edition, which contains all the answers. Has excellent vocabulary cards, and th aSAT is mostly vocab.

The book isn't bad...it covers the material pretty well and maintains good readability, which isn't easy on such "dry" subjects.
But apparently the layout of Sample Test #2 was changed, but the publisher neglected to change the answer key and answer explanations accordingly. For example, question 3 mates up with answer 5, and question 5 mates up with answer 3.
And there are a couple of spots where the Practice Questions in one chapter conflict with the text in another chapter. An example there is where the text says all license types can use multiple-floppy distribution, while the question on the same topic in another chapter says ISPs cannot use multiple floppy, and practice exam 1 says ISPs *can* use multiple floppy, but Corporate Admins cannot.
Those errors are not to disparage the work as a whole, but there are some significant quirks that make this difficult to consider a sole source of material.

Comparred with some books are about 700 pages, within 300+ pages, this book covers Exam pretty well and a lot of good practice exams with pretty good explainations as well as ALERT points. If you want a book to pass 70-080 Exam. I think you should consider this one. Personally, I like this book.

This book hits all of the objectives of exam 70-80! The book has several good practice exams that were helpful and thought provoking. Points to good references. I learned a LOT from this book!

Mizlansky/Zilinsky sounds like it would be good. Nathan lane and Paul Sand are 2 well-respected actors who you'd think would create something to look forward to. But instead, the series is crude, rude, and very unfunny. Other then a few funny antics from Nathan Lane, including some lines, the show is very bland and leads to a road of nowhere.

Absolutely hilarious play, with great acting by a terrific cast. The plot is funny, and the dialogue is funnier. What made this very special for me was the format -- a "live" audio theater performance. It was like being on Broadway. A great experience.

The superb cast bringing Jon Baitz' dark comedy of sleazy Hollywood producer Davis Mizlansky and his problems with ex-spouses, colleagues, customers, and the IRS to life includes Nathan Lane, Paul Sand, Julie Kavner, Samantha, Harry Shearer, Richard Masur; Rob Morrow, Grant Shaud, Kurtwood Smith, and Robert Walden. Ably directed by Ron West, this superbly produced, 106 minute, two cassette unabridged comedy was recorded before a live audience and offers a terrific listening experience enhanced with a full course of sound effects. Mizlansky/Zilinsky will prove a popular and entertaining addition to any personal, drama school, or community library audiobook/audioplay collection.

This book is not devoid of any information. A good start for beginners. Although it is really a blank ledger to keep notes on as one gardens. I would not reccomend this book to anyone who has gardened before. There are some hints and ideas within the book, but unfortunately they are obvious. Due to how the book is laid out, one has to wait untill the apropriate month to gain the tip. Not enjoyable reading. As someone who has read his share of garden books I can honestly say that I was really let down by this one. Try Another.

I have lived in New Mexico for many years. I love working out in the yard but it's so tough to garden here. Last July I discovered Month-To-Month Gardening, New Mexico and finally I have a beautiful garden. The author made the book so easy to use, and the plant lists and How-to section gave me all the information I needed. She also provided a list of best and worst plants for New Mexico, so I wasn't wasting my time with plants that wouldn't grow here in New Mexico. I love the format of the book. Kelli Dolecek, the author has really made my gardening easy. Each month I simply follow the planting or maintanence tips that are listed for that month. Thanks so much for writing such a great book on gardening in New Mexico. I've recommended it to all of my friends.

Month-To-Month Gardening New Mexico is the best book I've read yet on successful gardening in New Mexico. The books offers hundreds of tips on things you can be doing to create a beautiful garden. I especially love the journal provided throughout the book. By journaling facts about my own garden, the book has become my own personal gardening guide. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in successful New Mexico gardening.

This book is boring!!!The point of it is at about the end.There are only 8 chapters in this book.The main idea started happening at about chapter 7.the girl hurts her knee at chapter 5.THIS IS A BAD BOOK!!!

The Welford Elementary School decides to put on a play with all of the animals in Welford. Mandy's friend decides to bring her mouse, but when her mouse gets loose things start going haywire. Will Mandy and James be able to find the mouse before it's too late?

This is an excellent Animal Ark Pets book.

I really enjoy Ben Baglio's books about all the animals and their adventures in the Animal Ark series of books. This is the third one I have read, and I really liked the surprise magical ending. I hope that Mr. Baglio continues to write more books in this great children's series.

NIGHTKILL is a novel about a sniper for the Mob, who gets set-up, paralyzed and recovers through a "new" surgery, and enacts revenge against one of the players of the Mob. It is marketed as a medical thriller, but believe me, it's a thriller with an emphasis on some horrible outcomes. Jake Nacht is a sniper for the Mob. After 17 successive kills, he is set-up, shot and paralyzed by a crooked cop, who is in on the set-up. While recovering, Jake meets Angel, a beautiful nurse whos uncle just happens to be on the verge of a successful new surgery to fix paralysis. After the surgery Jake goes on a revenge mission to get who set him up. In the process Jake falls in love with Angel, who is now being held hostage by the bad guy. As you can tell by my synopsis, its kind of a paint-by-numbers scenario. Everything is familiar and done by rote. This is not to say that the book is unenjoyable. Far from it. It's full of action sequences but the main problem is there are no surprises...everything IS as it seems and we are just awaiting the final shoot of so we can move on to the next book on the shelves. Not a very distinguishing book. Not recommended.

A very fast paced book, Jake is a character with whom i expect to see several sequals, I`d rate the character to have the ability to compete with a Dirk Pitt,Lucas Davenport,and a John Becker......Need i say More...

BROS., THIS BOOK IS DEFINITELY WORTH YOUR TIME. JAKE NACHT IS THE BEST HIT MAN IN THE WORLD OF FICTION AND DESERVES TO BE READ. YOU SHOULD ALL SEE THE STRUGGLING FIGHT FOR LIFE AND DEATH BY JAKE NACHT. A REAL FAST-PACED BOOK THAT'S SURE TO KEEP YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEATS. HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS FOLKS THIS IS A BOOK THAT WILL BLOW YOU AWAY.

If you are enthusiast of parapsychology, the paranormal, and the occult, many of the names in this book will be familiar to you. The ideas Chambers presents, like psychometry, bilocation, and spontaneous human combustion, will also be familiar.

The book is divided into different areas of the paranormal, and in each area, Chambers presents us with a figure of history who best exemplifies this area. For instance, when talking of vampirism, he tells us of Arnold Paole, and when talking of cryptozoology, he tells us of Frank Hansen and the Minnesota Iceman. In each area, a brief explanation of the phenomenon leads us into the presentation of each character.

With each character, we are not given a lot of information. Basically, he tells us the story and then explains his thoughts and the thoughts of subsequent studies into the phenomenon. The only problem is that some new characters are mentioned here, but never explained. For instance, Uri Geller is mentioned a couple of times, but the reader is assumed to be already familiar with Uri.

This does not mean the book is without merit. Chambers raises some very good points in the study of the paranormal. The study is filled with extremists on both sides and these extremists prevent serious study from advancing. For instance, if one fraud is found in levitation, the assumption becomes all levitation is fraudulent. Likewise, if levitation is proved false in one instance, true believers claim that there is a conspiracy to keep levitation a secret from the people. Chambers points out several cases where we should revisit the studies.

Although there are more books that go into more detail, I would recommend this book as a beginning study of the paranormal. The bibliography in the back provides further reading.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about parnormal people. THis book contains many topics on several people. It tells about Harry Houdini, Aleister Crowley and many others. I recommend to anyone intrested in sprits and paranormality.

Considering the large volume of material available on the paranormal, I found this book somewhat refreshing. Rather being simply another list of the same old paranormal stories, this author has tried to clear away some of the myth and rumour that has grown up around the paranormal and has had some success. Using good old fashioned research, he has managed to find new and unusual stories about strange happenings and has put a sparkle on some familiar stories which have clearly gathered a good deal of untruth about them over the years. I would recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in understanding the paranormal, rather than those who fancy Agent Scully!