The new 16th edition of Odysseus International Gay Travel Guide is filled with great vacation ideas for gay travelers in the USA and some 120 countries worldwide. The guide is up-to-date, reliable with accurate descriptions, photo and contact information. It is very easy to make international travel plans with Odysseus. I cannot imagine getting my travel plans right without it.

Odysseus is a wonderful guide for gay men who plan to travel abroad. The book lists select accommodations, bars, restaurants, saunas, sex shops, and other businesses and places of interest (including some public cruising areas), and there are handy maps for many major cities (like Amsterdam, Florence, and Sydney) and gay resort areas (like South Beach and Provincetown). Additionally, Odysseus is an excellent source to find "facts in brief" about foreign destinations, including each country's official language, population, unit of currency and exchange rate, telephone codes, and laws and attitudes regarding homosexuality. There are several useful indexes, including a listing of gay travel agents and of local gay publications from around the world. The book features a good amount of advertising for gay hotels and other businesses, and there is a smattering of hunk photos interspersed among the listings. Odysseus Enterprises, the publisher, also operates a worldwide reservations systems and can handle travel arrangements to many of the places in the book.

"...The Odysseus guide is easy to read, maps are simply drawn giving access to the data, and country descriptions are concise and informative. In fact the whole construction of Odysseus is a well packaged and manageable guide book..." Our World Magazine NOV.'98

My grandfather has a first edition 1938 copy of this in his collection, I have have a 1960 much used and rebound twice version. It's one I use at the first "go to" anytime I need a fast run down on a Clan or a Tartan, this is what I pick up. Nifty wee book with punch! Give the Clan Name in English and Gaelic, Motto's Old and Altered, Clan Badge with description, Origin on Clan Name, Plant Badge, War Cry and Pipe Music, with full plate colour of their tartan(s) and a surprisingly in-depth mini history for each Clan.

But that is not all! It has a short history of Scotland from Origins, moving into the development of the Clans, the ranks within a Clan and various Customs. Has the Dress of the Tartan with several different examples. There is a Family and Clan name, so you can see what Septs belong to what Clan(s) A Scots History Time Line and even a mini Scot-Gaelic Glossary of Place Names and one of Heraldic Terms.

For a wee book its size, you cannot believe all the information in it. A must for anyone wanting to know more about the tartans and the histories of the Highland Clans.

Although it was field-tested with elementary, middle school, and high school students, this book is not just for younger students. I'm an adult just beginning to study tactics and I found this workbook format engaging. There are two problems per page, and each problem has a couple of kinds of hints -- a direction line and fill-in-the blank move listings that indicate checks and variants. You can cover up these hints if you want more of a challenge.

The sequencing of this book is well thought out. Each chapter focuses on a different kind of tactic (such as discovered check, double attacks, zugzwang, removing the defender, and so on), and the problems often are paired so that once you've solved one problem in 2 moves, the next one is a related problem in 3 moves that might have seemed insoluble before. A final chapter combines all the tactics and asks students to figure out what approach is the best for a given position.

It only took me about a week to pass through this book, but I enjoyed filling it in. The enclosed Answer Key was easy to use, as it reproduces the move sequences in their entirety, rather than just providing the answers to the blanks. Worth the money for beginners of any age.

After finishing this book, I immediately played a game where I was able to move a knight into a royal fork that was simultaneously a discovered check. I don't think I would have "seen" this possibility before reading this book.

Just about any chess teacher will tell you that beginners (rating lower than 1600) need to learn three things: tactics, tactics, tactics. Positional knowledge, opening books, and endgame theory won't help you much if you blunder into letting your opponent fork you or if you miss opportunities to do the same.

Having said that, this book is a great way to start to practice seeing tactical motiffs (mostly forms of a double attack: pins, forks, skewers, and so on). It is divided into chapters with each chapter focused on a different kind of tactic. After a very brief explanation about what the tactic is, there are a number of exercises in which you have to find the tactic for yourself. There are also hints if you are stuck. I found it helpful to make a little cut-out from some paper to cover the hints and only show the board instead. It is too easy to inadvertently see the hints and ruin the challenge.

The book has some very useful advice about how to study: do the first few exercises of each chapter to get an overview of all the tactical motiffs. This will help you start to use and see them in your games. Later, go back and do each chapter thoroughly. Also, chapters are arranged in order of importance; motiffs that occur most frequently are handled first.

This book has a couple of limitations. Although it helps you see a tactic, the very nature of an exercise book is that you know one is there. How do you find them in a real game? You have to know when to look for them. There are certain board factors where you are likely to find tactics (an exposed enemy king often means there are great tactical opportunities). This book does nothing to help you realize this. Look at Silman's "Reassess Your Chess" for a very short, but extremely useful discussion of this issue.

Also, most of the exercises fall under one of the categories, so you know what kind of tactic to look for, making it easier than a real game situation. The last chapter helps because it is a mix of all tactical motiffs, but there are relatively few of these. Reinfeld's book of 1001 problems is probably a nice supplement in this regard.

These are limitations of the book, but not really criticisms. The book does a very good job doing what it is meant to do. The reader should simply realize that there is a bigger picture to look at and supplement accordingly.

I feel like a different player after reading this book. A much better player at that. Dont let the title fool you, this book will benifit players of ALL ages including 30-yr old farts like myself.

Robert Baltovich is now out of jail and working at a somewhat prestigious job in downtown Toronto. I know this from a mutual childhood friend that Rob and I know. Robert is out of jail, long in advance of his seventeen year sentence, in large part, due to the uncovering of Metro Toronto police malfeasance and their outright obstruction of justice. Repentance must be forthcoming from the police, the judiciary. These tax-paid liars that are responsible for such skulduggery should be put away for more than the seventeen years they wished upon poor Robert. (The real murderer has yet to be charged with Bain's murder.) As well, restitution to Robert and his family must be made and that publicly. Read this book to know just what goes on in the name of 'justice'. It is certainly not pretty.

This novel recounted the harrowing tale of young love which ended too soon. The author does a fantastic job in re-telling the tragic events that led to the arrest and conviction of Robert Baltovich. Fortunate enough for the readers, the author also allows for us to see how unfair the legal system is, and how cunning officers can be to find justice. I hope that Mr. Baltovich finds justice, and the Bain family finds the closure that they need.

As a family member of Robert Baltovich, I will say that No Claim to Mercy does an excellent job of recapping the devastating experience during the last almost ten years. It describes in amazingly accurate detail the occurences before the trial, during and after. What has gone on since is also in detail and is assurance for me just reading it that we, very soon, will come to the bottom of this, and an innocent man will have his freedom once again.

I was supremely disappointed with the book, particularly in light of the rave reviews seen on this page. There are no recommendations beyond what could have been provided in a brochure. While the spas are rated, there is no explanation provided on how the rankings were determined. The first section also seemed to indicate spas could get listed simply by sending in material. I was hoping for some indication that someone had actually visited the spa or spoken with someone who has, thereby confirming the information and adding value with meaningful comments about specialities.

This book was useful on my trip!

This 420 page spa guide is EXCELLENT! It includes a huge list of Invigotry, health, and fitness spas, rating each from "tourist guide" to "deluxe". I was most impressed with its well written reviews- especially the one on the Amadeus Spa. Read it and find the spa best for you!

Been a Wrox fan for some time. This is the worst book their team has produced. The material is cursory at best and totally theoretical. Very few practical examples. Never thought I would point to an MSPress Step-by-Step book, however it is far superior to this junk.

I found this book to be helpful in understanding how to utilize multidimensional database design. It was nice to see that Microsoft has some affordable alternatives one can turn to in the data mining and data warehousing market. Once again WROX has produced a helpful product for professionals in the computer industry.

I bought Sakhrs version of this book for SQL Server 7. This is not just an upgrade but a look at the new functionlity found within SQL Server 2000.

This book is a dream if you are involved within Analysis and even looking at the new DTS Analysis functions has helped me.

Comparing this with other books, by far this is the one that is well written and doesnt just come out with the obvious.