As many noted in their reviews of this years Benson's A TO Z GUIDE (including me), Benson is getting sloppy. Once the ultimate authority on fantasy baseball strategy, he seems to be delegating more and more of the work put out under his name to others. His projection techniques don't reflect the new sabermetric tools pioneered by Shandler, Baseball Prospectus, and others, and his books reflect slipshod editing...if they're edited at all.

All this applies to this year's ROTISSERIE BASEBALL ANNUAL. The strategy essays are virtual reprints from previous editions. The position-by-position analysis of each MLB team is somewhat useful, but each is written by a different writer, most of whom don't seem to be using the same yardsticks. In other words, there's little overall consistency. The bottom line recommendations are meager and wishy-washy, and the book doesn't look like it's even been proofread.

I used to swear by Benson, but unless the A TO Z GUIDE reverts to its previous format, this is the last year I'm giving him my money.

While still being the largest and best book of its kind on the market, there is a bit of a dropoff in the quality from previous years. As in previous years, there is the position by position analysis and name dropping but the authors do not really say much (the A To Z Guide is much more useful). There is a tendency for the authors to read off names, say who they like or dislike, but not tell why player A or B will succeed or not in the upcoming year. The essays on up and coming prospects, how to win, and age 26 players were rather brief and uninteresting. I liked previous editions of this book but the 2001 edition appears to be treading water. Future editions will need better essays and better player assessment.

This is one of the best and largest books of its kind. Benson seems to have access to a wealth of information, maybe even more so than some major league franchises seem to have. This is a good book which analyzes how players will perform or work within the context of their respective teams. Each year, this book comes out in a timely manner and is good reading, even if you do not play rotisserie leagues.

This book is the single most thorough anesthesia book available for veterinary medicine. It covers specifics for almost every single species, including exotics and zoo species. It is quite wordy and not a brief reference if you just want a "quick fix" answer, but the explanations are excellent and this is THE resource to reach for with anesthesia questions...

Too detailed for the lay reader or the clinician looking for quick recommendations.

Excellent review coverage of pain, analgesia, monitoring, and anesthesia in general.

Detailed coverage of agent classes and anesthetic considerations by species.

I have many anesthesia books (both veterinary and human) on my shelf - but none better.

This book is not exactly about the Top 100 seasons of all time. With each player only being represented *once*, it is more the Top 100 Players' best seasons. Of course, with Barry Bonds 73 home run season in the books, this book is already out of date! Nonetheless, it is a great look at some of the biggest stars of all time. The book excels when it covers a great season by a player who is a little more obscure than the rest (Arky Vaughn, Al Rosen, Norm Cash, for example). When it covers a great such as Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, or Willie Mays, the player gets only one entry covering his singular best year and a bit of a career overview. I would be more interested in a book that covers the 100 best seasons of all time, and why they are considered the best. For example, Babe Ruth had about 10 of these top seasons but is only represented here once. It would be interesting to read about each of those seasons.

The Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination is one of the best resources I've found for access to many obscure and rarely mentioned minor characters in this historical mystery. This book avoids any breathless disclosures in favor of excellent detail on many of the blind alleys and unknown people who are a part of the historical record, but are rarely mentioned. Open at any page, and you will be intrigued by at least one entry, and will find yourself following the cross references to other entries throughout the book. I find that I often bookmark pages to come back to later, even after having read virtually everything credible done on the subject. Highly recommended for your bookshelf.

For those interested in getting good, solid information on tomorrow's future major leaguers, this book provides capsules on 20+ players per organization with rankings of each team's top 10 minor leaguers. There are also lots of statistical analysis, charts and lists. Tony Blegnino's statwork is particularly noteworthy, but what really makes this book shine is the in-depth information you can get here that you can't get elsewhere. Go ahead, try and find as much about Marlon Anderson as you do here. You can't. If you want to have a good idea of who will be the impact players of 2002, this is a great place to start

Based on the new James Bond film, Raymond Benson takes up on Bond once again. This time, the story really stays pretty straight with the movie, only providing a bit more than the film. It contains some background information of Elektra/Renard, and what happens in the past, etc., but it isn't too much. Unlike Tomorrow Never Dies:A Novel, TWINE is not adding much to the film. Basically, if you saw the film and you are a little wishy-washy on reading a Bond book or having to read the what you saw on film, you probably don't need to buy this. However, if you're an avid Bond fan or would still want to take up on a Bond book, it's still a good read. If you see the movie first, it becomes easier to imagine the scenes. Raymond Benson has written better Bond novels than this, however, so make your choice more warily.

I am on record as trashing High Time to Kill (see reviews for that book) along with vowing to wait for the Benson novels in paperback (if not used papaerback). Well, I bought this paperback new and would have paid for a hard cover of this story's quality. Benson is terrific on this novelization. I'm sure there is a lot of extra info that will clarify parts of the movie when I see it. The rumored "airhead" personality of Christmas Jones does not come through in the book and I was afraid that the return to "sexpot" Bond girls would send the modernized Bond into a tailspin. One especially bright point is the meatier role for M. I think Benson likes writing her and it shows. For fans who haven't followed every plot point posted on the web, I'm sure there will be more than a few surprises. The plot-Bond is assigned to bodyguard Elektra King, the daughter of a recently-assassinated oil magnate. Elektra has already been the target of kidnappers led by the villainous Renard, a terrorist who has no pain center. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a "painless" killer was written into the Tomorrow Never Dies plot, but was scrapped after the novelizatioon had already been written) Great gadgets, great plot, great girls,a surprise development with M, and an atomic bomb stolen from a foremer Soviet Republic make for an exciting and riveting thriller.

I read the novelization of "Tomorrow Never Dies" before reading this. The thing I noticed with Benson is that in his novelizations he writes in third-person omniscent, allowing the reader to not only visualize everything, but know what the characters are thinking, which can obviously not be done in the movies. I had some of the movie before reading the book. After I read the book, however, I saw the movie and it made a lot more sense.

I recently completed a 19 day trip to Kyoto and Tokyo. If there is a perfect comprehensive guide to Japan I have yet to find it, despite buying 6 of them. I did find this guide very helpful for locating sights in two specific ways. First, they are numbered and the numbers are clearly shown on maps (at least for major cities). It is surprising how few guidebooks successfully accomplish this seemingly elementary and essential task. Second, the pictures were very helpful in spotting sights on the ground. I found that getting oriented in Japan was more difficult than in European countries I've visited and pictures really helped. Plus, it makes a great souvenir. I primarily used this book and "Gateway to Japan" for sightseeing. They made a good combination.

Having travelled to Japan on two occassions (once as an exchange student and once travelling throughout the country alone), I was have mixed feelings about this book.

Although the book is very well designed and has beautiful pictures (it is nice to show to guests who don't know about Japan), some of the most interesting things are skimmed over (for example Arashiyama in Kyoto has only a short description). I was also very disappointed when I visited Osaka-Castle, as the inside was very much like a museum, and I had expected the reconstruction to have replicas of the original interior decoration. The travel guide did not explain that the interior is completely modernized.

The other problem is that some of the rural areas - Toyama and Akita for example weren't really covered.

Nonetheless, there is no better travel guide of Japan on the market (at least designed for English speakers.) There is also coverage of the Ken-rokuen and the various temples.

Although I think the book is well worth the money, I would also recommend that anyone with Japanese language skills check out the area specific guidebooks designed for Japanese travellers to supplement the information in the book (there are many excellent magazine style ones on large cities such as Kyoto), and ask friends and acquantiances before travelling to spots far from where you are staying.

I do hope DK will publish individual Eyewitness guides to Kyoto and Tokyo. To fit all of Japan into one guide is an unreasonable task, so I considered this book to be an overview at best. Even so they managed to include a great deal of detail and I found it extermely useful throughout my recent trip to Japan. There were many instances where Eyewitness Japan gave more detailed information on a particular sight than the Lonely Planet city guides for Kyoto and Tokyo.

I love the way the Eyewitness guides organise the information in a way that is similar to how you will actually tackle it when traveling; first by region than neighborhood. It is all very visual and user friendly, but also quite meaty when you dig into the information. One word about the maps, which I found excellent; very few streets in Japan are labeled, only the major ones, and many streets don't have names at all, so street names are not really relevant. I often found myself orienting myself by the last shrine I passed.

Like many people I find the Eyewitness guides to be an excellent resource in planning and navigating my travels, as well as a nice keepsake for my bookshelf when I return. I find their strength to be in guiding you around and explaining the major sights, I look elsewhere for information on dining, lodging and the off-beat. No single guide is good for everything. In fact if it were up to me I would eliminate the hotel and restaurant sections of the Eyewitness guides all together because they are so weak. I loved this guide for what it is, an excellent overall view of Japan.

Though I think that Lonely Planet does lovely travel guides for many places (in particular, I like their Thailand guide), they dropped the ball for the book on Japan. Their information was average, and overly disparaging of some places. Details were sorely lacking for the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, which are truly off the beaten path for most visitors to Japan and have many interesting sites/activities. The maps were also very poor, as well as the directions on how to get to places. Quite a few of us who were in Japan at the same time agreed that the Lonely Planet guide was definitely NOT the best for finding those hidden gems that Japan has within its shores. If you want a completely average and traditional tour of Japan, the Silver temple and Gold temple in Kyoto, the mania of Tokyo, and the Big Buddha in Nara, Lonely Planet suffices. But if you want any insight at all into anything off the main path, I would advise you to look elsewhere.

This Lonely Planet book is a big help when travelling in Japan. The book provides a lot of useful information (such as bus/hotel/tourist center info and general history of each tourist attraction). The best of all is that the authors put Japanese characters next to all the locations. Many Japanese tourist spots do not have names spelt in English. Therefore, the reference in Japanese characters that the authors put out is a huge plus. Also, the book is extremely helpful for people who plan to backpack and stay in the Youth Hostels in Japan. Before leaving for Japan, I read though many tourist books and found this one the best among all. The book is a bit weak in providing detailed maps but this can be overcome by visiting the tourist centers (usually next to the train stations).

I absolutely loved this book. I took the shinkansen (bullet train) all over Japan and so it was good guidance to visit all the cities I traveled to : Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Oita. I was able to find all the cheap places to stay and met cool people along the way. The folks who criticized the city maps do have a point. For example, I was trying to find a dumpling place in Kyoto recommended by LP but it was so hard to make out where it was in the map. I finally found it half hour later but it was worth it. You have to realize that most streets in Japan are not numbered like it is in the US so finding the exact store can be trying at times. In finding maps for a particular city, i would go to the local tourist office which gave detailed info. This is my first LP book and overall, i found it to be a very good reference.

This book told me nothing I didn't already know. Wow, they wore CORSETS in the 19th century! Gosh, what a revelation! Actually, there was a good deal of information packed into the 72 pages, except most of it was information I already knew from my experience as a seamstress and historical connesieur. The pictures, while interesting, were uninspiring and singularly unhelpful, although that was a function of layout more than visual choice: all of the pictures are grouped at the ends of the chapters instead of scattered throughout the text (preferably next to their descriptions). In other cases, there aren't even appropriate pictures for visualization purposes. For instance, Benson talks about various undergarments such as farthingales and bustles and paniers, but there are no pictures of even the full outfit to give you an idea of what might be worn underneath. Benson talks fancy and seems to be excellent at telling you that she doesn't know a heck of a lot more than you do -- except that she's the expert.

fabulous overview of the history of undergarments, both male and female. delightful photographs and artwork, as well as readability. i am happy to have purchased this book

There is not much to this book-it is just delightful fluff-but I enjoyed it immensely!

A to Z Thumbnail Sketches of all MLB players is a more appropriate title. This book falls well short of the other John Benson books and frankly I'm surprised he has his name on it. The comments written regarding each player could have easily come from a casual observer and surely there were no scouts involved in the making of this book. Its great for the beginner fan just getting involved but most of the bios and forecast seem like something right out of the team's annual player guide. A far better guide of all players is Sheehan's annual Baseball Prospectus and sells for less. It's published about a month later than Benson's book and includes comments regarding most of the off season trades and free agent signings. For the advanced fan my advice is wait for Sheehan's book.

This book has promise: bios on a wide variety of players, from the Majors to even a few guys in college or indy ball. But, the assessments occasionally contain inaccuracies or outdated information that makes this book a secondary source, at best. The Baseball Prospectus offers a better (albeit more sabremetrically oriented - which isn't everyone's cup of tea) look at a player's talent level - the STATS books are better at describing their tools. Still, worthwhile if you buy multiple books of this nature per year (as I do).

I buy this book every year, not because I play rotisserie baseball but as a baseball fan. This book lists thousands of players, every player that has a chance of playing in the major leagues at some point during the season. It is a good way to evaluate trades, keep track of your favorite teams, or even look up older players who are still hanging around the minors. This book always come out in a timely manner, and provides good thumbnail sketches of almost any player you can think of. As far as forecast accuracy, they are correct more often than not and given the volatility of these predictions, as much as you can ask for in a book published just a month after the season ended.