Rockwell's life story is a fascinating read, and this book features numerous beautiful, full-color reproductions of his work. The author makes a persuasive case for Rockwell as a genius whose work endures throught the decades, and it's an inspiring story for readers of all ages.

A series of interesting interviews with successful screenwriters. All of them have written popular,
successful films you've heard of. Each writer gets 10-15 pages to answer a variety of questions.

What I like best about this is seeing each person's approach
to and perceptions about screenwriting. Some resonated a
lot with me, some not so much, but I see how many ways there
are to be successful. I was surprised, actually, by how
many of them just start writing with minimal idea of where
they're headed, and let the characters and story overtake them.

This is a collection, by various writers. Something for everyone. Might not like them all, but style and method are consistent.

screenwriters on screenwriting is an informative book that enables the screenwriter,often the forgotten contributor in the filmmaking business,to talk about his craft and the lonely world of screenwriting.after all the screenwriting process is done alone,and the hardest of the making of a film.the interviews are well done and the author,joe engel, asks the questions that we ispiring screenwriters wanna hear.like how do you get out of certain situations in your screenplay and how to beat writers block.screenwriters interviewed include,robert towne,michael mann,ernest lehman and others.a good book on the industries best.

I was able to learn "Piano Man" in about 2 weeks, most of the other songs are easier to use, but I tell you, "We didn't start the fire" doesn't sound right sans guitar.

If you think Billy's music is pleasing to the ear, you'll entertain yourself for hours learning and performing.

I am very pleased with this purchase. Re-learning the piano after a 20 year gap I has been a real pleasure to be able to play recognisable favorites within minutes of sitting down. Some of the arrangements are a little strange, but this is the book I keep coming back to.

Most rock and pop music is written for guitar, so pianists will appreciate lower intermediate level versions of Billy Joel's favorites. Publisher Hal Leonard offers a variety of Billy Joel's unforgettable melodies for all levels of playing ability. And Mr. Joel writes his own lyrics, making him a true master of the twentieth century.

If you are an early intermediate or better pianist who likes Billy Joel's music this may be a great book for you. It contains complete arrangements of the following songs:

And So It Goes, Baby Grand, Honesty, An Innocent Man, Just The Way You Are, Movin' Out (Anthony's Song), My Life, New York State Of Mind, Piano Man, The River Of Dreams, Shameless, She's Always A Woman, She's Got A Way, This Is The Time, Uptown Girl, We Didn't Start The Fire

The songs are arranged as piano solos with no lyrics. So if you are a singer, get something like "Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2" which has many of the same songs.

This is not a transcription book. The emphasis here is on an acceptable solo piano arrangement. While not copying Joel licks etc. they do approximate his style and spirit for each piece as best can be done while supporting the melody and chords in an intermediate arrangement. They are intermediate, but on the easier side. They sound fine played as is. The ones I've played are in the same key as the recording. So what's nice is they provide a good foundation for further embellishment, arranging and/or improvising or even some play along. It would have been handy if chord symbols were included.

I enjoyed what I've played so far, however, if you are really looking to play like Billy get his "Billy Joel - The Keyboard Book". It has actual transcriptions. "The Keyboard Book" is a great book but harder to play as piano solo, which the book reviewed here does a good job of.

There are 2 versions of this book one for easy piano, one for intermediate. This review is for the intermediate version.

Billy Joel is one of the greatest singer/songwriters to ever contribute to the musical world. This is a pretty good cross-section of his music. One wish that I have is to find the music Mr. Joel plays while he is singing; sadly, this isn't it. However, the transcriptions are good. So, if you like to play piano, and want to play Billy Joel Music, this is a great book for you.

The "Satanism Scare" is a modest and serious approach to satanism. I live in Norway and during the 90`s there has been a series of church burnings, linked to "satanists" or Black-metallers. During that period the press become in a state of moral panic. So much for the history. Even in Norway where satanism has been a big issue, there is hard to get a good book about the phenomena. But The Satanism scare is exactly that. And maybe if people read this book, the newspapers didn`t have to use this stupied headlines containing "child offering" and so on. All in all an enligthening book about something that scears people, with a modest approch, from sociologists, folklorists antrophlogists and other academics.

This book lists some great campgrounds. I would have given it a five-star rating, but unfortunately the book's locational tools are so poor that it's hard to find the campgrounds you want. Here are some examples:

We stayed at a recommended campground, Clear Lake State Park in California. The book's review was 100% on target, and it was a great place to camp.

But don't bother looking it up in the book's index because it's not there. Other state parks are in the index, so don't ask me why this one isn't.

Of course you can always use the book's map to locate all the campgrounds in a given area, right? Maybe not.

The book's map shows two black dots indicating campgrounds in the Clear Lake area at Kelseyville and Nice, towns near the campgrounds. I try to look up Kelseyville, but it's not listed. Eventually I find what I'm looking for under the nearby town of Lakeport (even though the address given in the listing is Kelseyville).

But that's just for starters. I was perusing the book after returning from our trip, and I noticed there was a campground listed under Middletown, a town we drove through on our way home. I missed this campground in my pre-trip research because the campground, Beaver Creek RV Park & Campground (p. 137), is omitted from the book's map. I know I'm not mistaken, because I looked it up and found it just south of Clear Lake using Tom Stienstra's book California Camping.

If I could find so many screw-ups in such a short period of time, I'm sure the book is loaded with them. On the other hand, the recommended site was excellent, and the information provided about it was accurate. I'm going to buy this book anyway, knowing that its poor campground-finding tools will make a lot more work for me and increase the risk of missing a campground within a given area.

Used in conjunction with Stienstra's California Camping, this book should help the reader pick the best campgrounds. For those looking for campgrounds located in the other covered states (Arizona, Nevada, Utah), this is still a worthy book worth your consideration. Or wait until the second edition comes out -- perhaps by then they'll have made the necessary improvements.

This is a book telling how to be the worst salesperson ever - funny, funny, funny - it is an entertaining and refreshing check-in on your sales habits, and it does give some good tips and real-life "do" examples - this is a great book for any level of sales - beginners can learn from it, and seasoned salespeople can use it to identify if they have fallen into bad habits. Great to have around the sales office, in the lunchroom, bathroom, etc.

This is a short book which could be shorter without compromising its message. The author explains in very easily understandable terms the perils of misinterpreting public presentations of statistical data. Perhaps he was trying to keep it simple, but I felt that he repeated himself too often. I would have appreciated more examples of actual cases of flawed statistical reporting. It would have helped his case to provide some examples of good uses of statistics. With the author, I wish the media, as the willing or unwitting conveyors of misleading statistics, were more mindful of the flawed information they present to the public.

If you have no backround in statistics and you tend to believe the numbers you see in the newspapers or on TV, then this book is a must for you. It offers a wealth of examples and explanations. (I would give it 5 stars for such readers.) On the other hand if you are already skeptical and have some knowledge of statistical methods you may find this book slow reading. Still it may have some value for you because it tells the story behind some of the frequently cited statistics that is interesting to read even if you know the statistics cannot be right. (3 stars.)

Joel Best writes a book about statistics for everyman. He does it without using confusing bell curves, without charts of T1 -T2 - T3 standard distributions, and without the i.e. "greater than-lesser than" hieroglyphics one finds in statistical textbooks. This is a book that should accompany a short course given every year of schooling from 7th grade through the end of high school. Think of how difficult this would make it for manipulators of every kind i.e. social researchers, social activists, big corporations e.g. tobacco companies, government agencies, the major media, charities, big labor unions, congress, the White house, who all share something in common; an agenda with which they seek to manipulate the common man.

A democracy only works if it has an educated citizenry, and the understanding of the manipulation of statistics, in a society such as ours, probably the most complex in the history of mankind, is essential. The author doesn't try to overwhelm the reader with the many nuances of statistical research and evaluation, he instead implores him or her to rise above being awestruck, naive or cynical about the numbers. He implores us all to engage in critical analysis, in critical thinking. He uses many examples of statistics that are obviously incorrect and tells us how to look behind their numbers and their subsequent conclusions.

It doesn't take long to read, and it should be required reading for all of us who vote in our myriad elections. "If it were to be the case the world would be a better place", and from a practical standpoint the Florida post election fiasco would have been resolved sooner. And, social security would be reformed to the benefit of the bottom half of income tax payers.

Learning how statistics are compiled, manipulated, and used is crucial to keeping any society on an even keel. Let's hear it for Joel Best and let's hope he writes his next work as a metaphor. Maybe Disney will pick it up so the message will reach, and reinforce the children

While the book is useful on a superficial level, the presentation is weak, and the first-person narrtive offered by the screenwriters sounds edited and forced. Much of the material offered here sounds gleened from published interviews, rather than directly from "the horse's mouth." As a chronic collector of books on, by, and for screewriters, I was very disappointed, both in the quality of the book (cheaply produced; poor quality paper, blurred printing) and by the lack of insight promised. There are many better books out there!

The conversations with Alan Ball & Stephen Gaghan are especially nice, since these guys are fresh off the award show parade. I really appreciated their candor.

I'm sure that Ms. Gruzen has the best of intentions behind this book but I'm afraid that is will not be helpful to interfaith couples. First I must object to the term 'Jewish/Christian' as it's inaccurate for the majority of children. Most of us are, and just prefer to be called the religion we practice i.e. Jewish, Cathloic, Mormon, etc. as is our right. Each has a definition that includes those of mixed backgrounds and that can be a definition itself for those who don't have a set faith.

She shys away from the really sticky issues like the questions if grandma believes you're going to Heaven like she is, even if you don't believe in Christ or that the other grandma wont accept you as being Jewish even if you're practicing. Just 'talking about G-d' wont cut it with kids. She also has really young children so she hasn't faced any of their hard questions they'll be sure to ask in the future.

I wont claim that I have any answers either but it is more than just what decorations to use in December. There are better books on the subject out there for couples that tackle these issues with a little more insight.

I found this book to be one of the first I discovered that truly examined the option of raising a child to know and respect BOTH religions of the parents. Up until I read this book I was saddened that all advice I'd read said, "Pick one religion and stick with it..."

This seemed too simplistic It would necessarily exclude one parent from sharing their own childhood faith with their kids in a meaningful way. We intend to raise our own children as Jews, but I also want them to have a sense of respect and knowledge of my own religion.

Now in a completely revised, expanded and updated second edition, Lee Gruzen's Raising Your Jewish/Christian Child: How Interfaith Parents Can Give Children The Best Of Both Their Heritages continues to be an invaluable compendium of keen observation and sound advice for interfaith parenting. All of the problems and challenges confronting a Jewish/Christian family are drawn from hundreds of interviews as well as Gruzen's extensive professional research and personal experience. The issues covered wide range from beginning talking with children about God, and moving on to planning ceremonies, celebrating holidays, relationships with grandparents, developing and sense of self, and more. Raising Your Jewish/Christian Child is enthusiastically recommended and invaluable reading for anyone in an interfaith marriage and seeking to instill values and an appreciation of heritage within the character of their children.