Jarecki interviews a variety of directors about their backgrounds and their first feature films. He has selected a good range of (English-speaking) directors, from John Schlesinger, who was part of the British New Wave of the 1960s, to Kimberly Pierce, whose first film was Boys Don't Cry (1999). Some of the interviews are very funny and enlightening. Most of the directors are articulate and have some good "breaking in" stories to share. Only James Toback comes across as a big bore: he blames critics and marketing people for the box-office failure of his films, and seems very impressed by the fact that he has associated with a lot of celebrities. The real problem with this book is that it doesn't seem to have had an editor. There are so many errors that it seems incredible that the publisher, Broadway Books, is a division of a major publisher (Random House). Among the dozens of names misspelled (in both the text and the index) are: Stan Brackhage; Nicolas Cage; Nina Foch; Aaron Eckhart (spelled Erin Eckhard); Tom Milne; and Mary Woronov (her surname is spelled Waranoff). But the funniest mistake is the name created for the director of the Soviet film A Slave of Love: Michael Cove. The director's name is actually Nikita Mikhalkov.

Like the author, Nicholas Jarecki, I am a film student and am interested in getting a showbiz job. I've read several books about how films are made, but little information is available about how some directors got the position. Well, this book answered any and all questions I have.

Jarecki has interviewed twenty directors and they all reveal the struggles they went through in order to reach the position. Most say the easiest way to become a director is to write a screenplay, but that's not how all of the directors in the book gained their jobs.

In the end, the book paints both a cynical and optimistic portrait of how one comes to be a director. It both scared me and enlightened me, and now I feel a little more comfortable about my career opportunities post-college. (I'm a sophomore now, by the way.)

All of the directors interviewed are all very frank about how their careers came to be. One of the highlights of the book is the chapter devoted to Abel Farrara; some of the stories he tells are hysterical. Brett Ratner comes off as a completely self-absorbed putz, and the amount of arrogance he displays has to be seen to be believed. Other highlights were on how Kris Isacsson's "Down To You" (a mediocre film, I think) came to be, and how nepotism didn't really get Jake Kasdan (son of Lawrence "I Wrote The Empire Strikes Back" Kasdan) his job.

However, there are problems. For one, in some passages the directors seem to drone on and on and on, so I skipped over some parts. At about the halfway mark finishing the book became almost a chore. Jarecki should have trimmed the fat on some of these parts. Roger Ebert's introduction isn't bad, but he doesn't say a whole lot. Thus, it's a four star book.

Overall, I'd recommend it to any film student. The book's only been out since December 2001, but I can easily see it becoming on par with "Required Hollywood Reading" books like Scorcese on Scorcese.

BREAKING IN by Nicholas Jarecki is a must-read for aspiring filmmakers, screenwriters and film students. The author has chosen a diverse and interesting group of filmmakers as interview subjects. The interviews give the reader a unique insight into the motivations and personalities of these creative and incredibly motivated individuals. The book illustrates their passion for film and how they were able (many with great financial and personal difficulty) to turn their love of the medium and their drive and ability into a meaningful and lucrative profession.

With his adept interviewing style (the majority of the interviews were conducted in person) the author allows the directors to tell their own life "stories" of how they grew up and became interested in film. The responses to the questions Jarecki asks are very personal and nostalgic and the reader can only assume that, for many of the subjects, the interviews bring them back to their beginnings when they were struggling and just trying to find a way to get into the business of making a feature film. The interviewer keeps the focus of the interviews on the directors' first films and with relative ease seems to elicit candid and thought-provoking insights into their early inspirations and motivations.

This book reveals that the twenty directors were all somehow "moved" and compelled to make films and to share their experiences and vision of life with its triumphs and its tragedies; they have each, in their own unique way, used film as the outlet of their creativity.

The interviews not only offer insights into the process of filmmaking from a personal perspective but also serve as a metaphor for life. The fact that one can be "lucky" or talented is only part of the story here. As a writer and aspiring screenwriter I found each interview to be quite insightful and inspirational in this regard. There is not one clear path to success in this business (or in life) but these filmmakers forged their own paths and found that if you are passionate about something and believe in yourself and your abilities you will eventually find your way in this uncharted territory.

James Toback points out (p. 171) "There are a lot of untalented people who are quite successful and a lot of incredibly talented people who never get a break. They just don't know how to use their personalities to advance themselves. Talented people are brushed aside and defeated and discouraged all the time and untalented people with relentless determination and a certain shrewdness advance all the time." At the core of this book is the message that one who chooses filmmaking as a profession must seek a delicate balance between talent, personality, and the ability to recognize a situation as an "opportunity" which could ultimately lead to that elusive "lucky break." It also doesn't hurt to be a talented writer as most of those interviewed are and were able to direct scripts they had written.

Ben Younger tells of the time he was a waiter in a Manhattan restaurant and happened to be asked by a customer about a short film he had written. The customer was also a successful writer who worked for HBO. He suggested that Ben send a copy of his film to his agent, and so the story goes....

The author elicits a compelling argument about the importance of following a dream. As director Tom DiCillo states at the end of his interview: "Making films is an utterly exhilarating feeling and that is why I do it. If it were only the agony then nobody would last. Sometimes I wish it were easier but I don't regret it for a second."

In the forward to the book, Jarecki mentions the title of the first chapter of Sidney Lumet's book MAKING MOVIES which is aptly titled, "The Director: The Greatest Job in the World". For this reason, if none other, BREAKING IN should be on the required reading list for film students in the US and abroad now and for years to come.

The author, whose nom de plume suggests an unusual zeal for bathing, was pretty much toasted on some hyperbole-inducing drug with this one. Anyone who thinks it takes a "quarterhorse of a man" to carry around a light antitank weapon can't have done all his research. They made them "light" so they wouldn't have to hire quarterhorses to cart 'em around. And I wasn't quite sure whether the hero was human or some supernatural alien who's omniscient tanjian eye, ki, tau-tau, or origamic whatzit seemed best directed at nasty people's trigger fingers. Throughout the book I kept wanting to say, "Geez, get over yourself." Skip this one and try something else.

He was pretty much toasted on some hyperbole- inducing drug with this one. Anyone who thinks it takes a "quarterhorse of a man" to carry around a light antitank weapon can't have done all his research. They made them "light" so they wouldn't have to hire quarterhorses to cart 'em around. And I wasn't quite sure whether the hero was human or some supernatural alien who's ominsicient tanjian eye, ki, tau-tau, or origamic whatzit seemed best directed at nasty people's fingers. Throughout the book I kept wanting to say, "Geez, get over yourself." Skip this one and try something else.

I love all the authors books due to the simple fact that they can consume hours of time, and after page 50 or so all the characters meld into one to be either honoured, killed or pleasured by our hero - the tanjian Nicholas.

I advise getting this on tape as it is even more fun, to get confused and have a good laugh at - especilly good for long journeys!!!

His other books are good as well esp. Ninja and Miko

With every literary effort, Blincoe is digging himself a new hole. Not only does he not understand the subject he pitifully tries to write about, but he does it in such a yawn inducing way as to warrant an health warning; Do Not Read Blincoe Near Heavy Machinery. As many have said before, Blincoe is a poseur and charlatan and Acid Casuals goes further than any other of his projectile vomits to sustain this belief. God only knows how he manages to get into print. Don't buy it...It's a swindle!

Hip-noir set in Manchester (England, not New-Hampshire) doesn't really live up to expectations. The premise of a transexual hit (wo)man coming back home to off a club owner amongst all the club kids and nutters sounds lively and promising. The devil is in the writing though, and although quick-reading, the prose doesn't quite deliver.

Acid Casuals is an exciting non-stop novel. Blincoe displays his talent for never letting the reader lose interest. The negative reviews that I have read do nothing but encourage me to read more of Blincoe's work. He knows the underground world of Britain, and he masterfully creates a novel to keep your head spinning. Transexuals, drugs, and sex are just some of the things that make this novel amazing. The way Blincoe melts them together is genius. If you want to pass the time, read a book. If you want to experience a world of entertainment, read Acid Casuals.

This is a superficial and forgetable effort at historical writing. Heavily padded because of a very thin plot, all of what passes for action is carried by secondary characters sometimes acting off-stage, as Ramage, the "hero", spends pages ruminating on his navel. The author tries to flaunt his research by inserting unnecessary multi-page historical data which add nothing, while stopping the weak story in its tracks. In the end, the plot works, and the hero is triumphant only by coincidence, resourceful secondary characters, and ignorant villians. This was the first Pope book I have read (and the last) and does not compare in any way with the works of Conrad,O'Brian, Forester or Kent.

This is easily the weakest installment in this series so far. While it is certainly readable, it is seriously flawed. First, there is almost no action at sea, which is the primary reason I read these books. Pope was very good at describing action at sea but, in general, his skills as a writer were only average. The plot is very thin, and the book really drags in the middle. The action picks up some at the end, but not enough to be really satisfying. The main problem with this book is that it just doesn't generate much suspense. Also, Ramage himself does very little in this book; he is just along for the ride as the smugglers and his subordinates do almost all the work. This book is not a total loss, however. I thought the details of the smuggling trade were interesting, and the picture Pope paints of France during the Napoleonic War is very vivid and interesting. Pope portrays France as a country tearing itself apart even as its Grand Army was conquering most of Europe. The government would execute a citizen simply because someone accused him or her of being a Royalist. This, of course, was a good way for a person to get rid of a personal enemy or business rival. It reminded me of what conditions must have been like in Stalinist Russia, where a paranoid government had its agents keeping a close watch on everyone. So, overall, it's not a terrible book, but I look forward to Ramage getting back to sea in the next installment.

In which Lt. Ramage speaks with Lord Nelson and smugglers alike, takes passage for "Boney's" France, is astounded and becomes a shipwright, employs a thief, speaks to a policman of knives and sealing wax, and joins the French army! One suspects that Liberty - Equality - Fraternity meant only the liberty to reduce your brother citizens into equal misery. Of course, the British Navy's blockade also had something to do with the desperate state of the French economy revealed here (and rarely depicted in other seafaring series).

If you like stories of the Napoleonic era you'll enjoy this close up view of the French Terror into which idealists descended, but if your desire is only battle at sea this volume will disappoint. As far as I know this is the only nautical novel that brings its naval hero so far and long into enemy France (perhaps Pope is fulfilling the promise of C.S. Forester's "Hornblower During The Crisis" left unfinished by Forester's death before HH gets ashore).

Nick Cage is much to fine an actor to have such a hack job done. The author mainly pieced together articles from Vanity Fair and American Film Quarterly- with some quotes from Cage. The style is pedestrian-trite and awkward. It also has an incomplete filmography- neglected the film Time To Kill that he made in Italy.

This book reveals a lot about Nicolas Cage but in a pedestrian and clumsy way. There is too much padding with other actors' lives and people around Cage. It's also a very thin volume (176 pages) compared to other actors' bios. I've read better, and I'm sure you can find better.

I like it, there's a lot of information about him, i feel i know him for a long time.

User-level is listed as intermediate-advanced, certainly cannot be used as a beginner's only handbook, will not give the beginner a reliable grounding in the topic. Supposedly can be used as a learner's or a reference book, in my opinion, is neither. Which is the problem with this sort of work. Much valuable information contained, but with so many different authors there is no clear development or common style, rather atomic chapters, at times repeating the same information in a somewhat different fashion. Index is spotty. (Maybe this is an appropriate style for Oracle DBMS?). Is worth a read, does cover 8/8i and does contain Oracle 8i Personal Edition CD.

Granted...I am a junior DBA but this book is very good at presenting the basics with enough detail that I would definitely recommend it over many other general Oracle DBA books (including the Handbook by Oracle Press). It really helped in spelling out the exact steps to creating a database as well as installing Oracle (which for some reason many books neglect). With that said, whether you use this book or another book, it is a good idea to also purchase topic specific books (eg. Backup and Recovery, Tuning, etc.) when more detail is needed.

This is a wonderful book which covers all the aspects of Oracle, including all the interfaces with Oracle. A really excellent book for DBAs and Programmer Analysts. It helped me a lot in understanding DBA part. Am excellent Que publication. I appreciate the structure and contents of the book

To me as bibliophiliac and a cognitive psychologist interested in neurobiology, this is the textbook of choice and an object of desire. It is very up-to-date and well-written. Although some people have detected some lack of coherence in this work, I find it refreshing that the sections recognizably come from different research teams with somewhat different points of emphasis, but without anyone pushing his own scientific interests on the expense of those of the readers. This also guarantees that it is not only an accumulation of facts but has also interesting theoretical discussions by leading researchers. It is optimal for readers having at least some laypeople knowledge about biology, medicine, or neuroscience, and just want to know more (possibly everything), or who require a thorough and citable review of a certain topic. Readers completely new to the field may find it difficult to pick out the information suited for a beginner level - a less voluminous book would be more helpful for them. I would rather not recommend it for undergraduates courses. I would also prefer a somewhat stronger emphasis on cognitive neuroscience - after all, a few hundred pages more would do no harm...!

I was rather lucky to take my chances and go-for-a-buy for this title instead of the much more cited "Kandel-Fourth Edition"... The book is really awesome, well-written and edited, with many good first-time-seen illustrations. It spans the whole field of contemporary Neuroscience (from biochemical to cognitive and clinical) with extreme efficacy and reference. The authors did a great job integrating the contents of each section with clarifying examples and extensive references, making it ideal even for new-comers. As a medical student with research interests in this vast field, I was very pleased with my decision to buy this textbook.

This book is a veritable tour de force from leading researchers in the area of neuroscience. It is comprehensive in scope going from modern molecular and cellular neuroscience to cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. Includes strong sections on developmental neuroscience, sensory and motor neuroscience, and regulatory systems. The book is extremely well and attractively produced; the graphics are superb. Exceptional value for money. It has been written by leading scholars involved in teaching neuroscience at the graduate level (although it may be suited to advanced undergraduates and academic medical students). Definitely the leading book in the area; required reading for professional neuroscientists and academic clinicians.

This book has disappointed me greatly.To all the negative reviews displayed here I can only add more... Its apparently well researched subject is just a cover-up for making yet another buck, using an artist who is lesser known, often misunderstood and provocative. Any biography of Balthus would have been appreciated at the time of the artist's old age and the obviously quick aproach of death, and people like Mr. Weber, unfortunately, quite often are the first to write in such moments. This is not a book about Balthus or his life or his art, it is about quickly making a name for himself and some money off Balthus, in the name of his art, when it was still possible. Inaccessability of Balthus the person has allowed only a small circle of friends, family members, and patrons to benefit financially, and socially from Balthus's name and Art, however Mr.Weber, a parvenue as he is, craved for some of it too. The result - is this book, a book about infiltrating oneself ( or trying to) into a privileged society of artists, aristocrats, wealthy collectors, celebs etc. and then - just " telling all" about who they really are: pretenders, liers, perverts and above all - anti-Semites... I only regret three thing about this book: That I have spent money to buy it ( so contributing to the cause of Mr.Weber); that I have read this book ; that we have all here read this book. PS: To my knowledge, there is not a single Novgorod near Pinsk, or anywhere in Belarus, and Mr.Weber was probably alluding to Novogrudok ( Nowogrodek, Navahrudak) about 125km from Minsk. (Weber might have thought that throwing in some obscure town names from Eastern Europe and ambelishing that book with them would make his "research" look more professional)

Well written biography is hard to find. Often than not, you see more of the author's psychology and his hangups than the subject itself. This book has great photos of the Balthus paintings and has excellent in-depth discussions regarding the paintings. However, the author's irritation/contempt/sometimes anger towards Balthus (regarding his dishonesty about his Jewish heritage, the meaning of his art, his past, etc) shows throughout the book. I have no doubt that the artist's lies regarding these matters have importance in understanding his art. However, Mr. Weber should have a little more detachment to the subject, for I cannot help feeling that his near obsessiveness on the matters somehow prevented him from gaining deeper perspective into Balthus' psyche. This is truly dissapointing because this mars the otherwise wonderfully researched and much needed biography of the artist. I only wish that the author used more control and restrain in writing. Highly recommend for anyone interested in Balthus art.

This is a superb biography in which the author willingly submits to a cat and mouse game with the husband and wife team of Balthus and Setusko, both of whom seem supremely confident that they can seduce and manipulate the biographer into telling only the tale they feel the world deserves. Like a good psychoanalyst, Weber allows himself to be taken in and then slowly works his way back out, transformed, but intact. There are so many layers to this story that it makes sense for Weber to include his own narrative as a way to contain and to bind. Balthus comes across as a wonderful paradox as Weber experiences him as both tender and sadistic, real and unreal. Perhaps Weber's own propensity for sharing unflattering details of many of the people he meets along the way (a woman fondling her breast during an interview; the outrageously tasteless home of a California collector, are examples) is a natural response to the sadism that Balthus, himself, disowns time and time again. Weber engages in many acts of bravado during the writing of this book and toward the end describes an amazing meeting between Balthus and the author's own two young daughters -- they seem to have been raised with a hearty, self-assurance. At no time does one feel that the author's intrusions are gratuitous. He does a wonderful job of illuminating aspects of Balthus' life, thought,and art, and his psychoanalytic riffs on the paintings ring true and are expressed in a down-to-earth manner. Of course, how could one ever get to the heart of the matter when it comes to Balthus? But in the end, Balthus, the trickster, gets respectfully what he deserves. Certainly it might make him wince, but then for the artist who early on loved to shock, turnabout is fair play. Bravo to Nicholas Fox Weber who allows himself to feel toward his subject a complex set of emotions that when examined helps to capture some truths about this complicated artist.

I read this book, thinking it would add some kind of meaningful information about the US and their current position in world politics. I had read the previous negative comment on amazon but I thought I would buy it anyhow and give the book a chance. However, I now regret making that decision. Who is Nicholas Guyatt anyways? I've never heard of him before even though I've been involved in political science for a couple of years now. He acts like he's some kind of "expert" on the US, but his knowledge of US politics seems to be very limited and his explanations are clearly biased (to say the least!). For example, all the stuff he writes about why the US helped Mexico and Russia; His view is completely biased on those issues... He provides the reader with loads of references, however these are, for the most part, books and magazines that are not considered scholarly and are not read by political scientists (e.g. National inquirer (!), Time, etc...). Why doesn't he use journals such as Foreign Policy? Is it because they clearly don't support his political theories and political models? That is what I suspect in any case. I give this book 2 stars just because of the effort he took to write it. But I don't recommend anyone to waste money on that book. There are clearly loads of other, much better books out there.

Unlike the other reviewers, I found this book balanced and well-researched.

I didn't find it "unamerican"(whatever that means, if someone would call me unswedish I would probably laugh myself to death)...

The book gives a good account of the history of the contemporary economic order and the third-world debt crisis and how it has been handled to ram open new markets for western investors. It also examines the policies of the United States government to the different economic crashes of the nineties(Mexico/Asia/Russia) and how they have behaved to "socialize the cost, privatise the profits" of exposed mainly Wall-Street firms. The most interesting part of the book examines the basic assumptions and values of policymakers and foreign policy experts that shapes their perception of the world.

A must-read for anyone interested in global politics.

'A powerful analysis [that] raises fresh, fundamental questions about an entire range of US foreign policies that have deep roots in the American economic and cultural experience.' - Walter LaFeber, Department of History, Cornell University, author of Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism.

'Nicholas Guyatt has done us a great service. With this book he has given us a succinct, bold and penetrating critique of the triumphalist ideology which insists on American domination of this and the next century. Another American Century? is both sweeping in its argument and rich in the evidence it produces to show the dangers to us all in the idea that our country has the right to impose its will on the rest of the world.' - Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

'A cogent and incisive history of the present. Guyatt situates major debates about American foreign relations (the consequences of globalization, Washington and the United Nations, the role of the Pentagon after the Cold War, humanitarian interventions) in a concise but sweeping interpretive history going back to the Depression and World War II. In so doing he skewers a number of shallow and insubstantial foreign affairs pundits who may get a lot of media attention, but get few things right about the problems and perils of American foreign policy in a new century.'
- Bruce Cumings, Department of History, University of Chicago

It is unfortunate that the errors in the hardback edition were not corrected in the paperback edition. There are errors in many of the patterns that may not be obvious to a beginning knitter or even a knitter trying new things. This is very unfortunate, because the sweaters themselves are quite lovely.

The sweaters are okay--but there is better stuff out there. I was very disappointed when I wrote to the author/publisher to get a pattern for the hat that was shown with some aran sweaters. What do you mean there's no pattern available--get real.

This one is okay if you can get it used, but it is obviously (see the book title) a book written to sell yarn, not a great pattern book.

I certainly didn't like all of the sweaters in this book, but enough to make it worth buying. The best feature of this book is that there are patterns suitable for different skill levels as well as different tastes--mohair, instarsia, stranded colorwork, arans. The worst feature of this book is that that patterns do not appear to be have been proofread very carefully. I have noticed mistakes in many of them--most of the mistakes are in the stitch counts, so it's usually possible to figure out what should be happening, or to fudge something that will work. My other complaint is more personal--most of the sweaters are way too oversized for my taste and size (and current fashion).