I purchased the Power Reading book with the CD (I found this package under "all editions") and saw that not only did my reading speed increase, but more importantly, my comprehension increased too!

This course makes so much sense and makes learning to speed read enjoyable. The author has put a lot of research into the course including really useful study techniques that I have already put into use in my homework and classes.

I think the investment in the combination course book and CD package is well worth it as the CD made taking the course easy and straighforward. I advise anyone who has lots to read to get this course. It's great!

Power Reading really works! I didn't think it was possible but after taking the "Power Reading" course, I raised my speed by 150% and increased my comprehension too. The course is very well written and constructed in a way that makes absolute sense to the reader.

I found the CD very helpful in that I didn't have to "distract" myself from the reading drills (which are throughout the book) by stopping my reading and looking up at a clock or wristwatch. In fact, I even tried looking at a clock at first but found I lost momentum in my reading so I immediately started to use the CD which made all the difference. I simply put on the appropriate timing track and concentrated on my reading while the voice on the CD counted down and let me know how much time was remaining. It was just like being in a live class (without the high cost usually accompanying live seminars) and nothing could have been easier! I highly recommend the Power Reading course book and CD!

I had gone through umpteen books on speed reading before laying my hands on this one. Recently, i completed the "Norman Lewis reading and comprehension course" 'n boy...was i disappointed. I began at 250 wpm and finished at 260.

I completely lost hope that i could ever push my reading speed beyond 260 words pm. I always wondered how could people read at 800 or 1000 wpm. Was it really possible for a book or course to make a person read at this level or was it just a gimmick to sell stuff??

This book has changed my whole preception of speed reading and comprehension.

This book is basically a 4 week course. I've already completed 2 weeks and am cruising around 500 to 550 words per minute with super comprehension and guess what?? the best part is yet to come!

Maybury cuts to the heart of what all well-intentioned religions and philosophies have in common with his 17 words: "Do all that you agree to do, and do not encroach upon other persons or their property." I have taught this as a mini-ethics course at my high school- one made up of over 60 ethnicities and nationalities- and all students understand it. Given the recent Florida election law war ,this book serves as a timely reminder that ultimately law must be found not in overly detailed law books, but in people's hearts. This book was recommended to me by author Harold Klemp (Autobiography of a Modern Prophet) who finds these 2 principles useful as an aid to spiritual living. So do I!

This is one of the very best books I have ever read,one of those that have actually shaped my thinking and that of many others! A book to be put in the not to be missed category! It deals with common law and politics and economy, all unavoidable aspects of our daily life, but most of all it deals with the hidden aspects of two laws, the ramifications of which politicians do not want us to know so we stay under their power. His thinking is so razor edged, one can only be thankful for having been woken from ones slumber.

I cannot recommend Maybury's books highly enough. I once convinced a lawyer to read his books; he told me he learned things not taught in law school. Maybury is clear, concise and to the point. He writes not only for adults and teenagers, but also children. I explained the concepts in this book to two children less than ten years old and found later than they understood! "Do all that you have agreed to do" (the basis of contract law) and "Do not encroach on persons or their property" (the basis of tort and some criminal law). These laws have existed in every society that has been. Societies that have ceased to obey these laws have invariably failed.

. . . in or out of AD&D. I say that because, although I don't DM anymore, I still use this book. The title is a bit deceiving-- although it's useful for creating villains, it can be used equally well for creating any sort of NPC, and almost as well for creating characters in any other role-playing system or none at all! This book takes characters off the paper and into flesh with a helpful system and ideas for creating backgrounds, motives, resources available, organizations, and abilities. One of the most useful guides for a DM.

Have a good story plot but want to throw some extra spice and give an older villan new spice or need one right a way this book is good for all dms who want to go beyond the Monster Manuals

This book is useful for a GM in ANY system. Like the "Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide," it provides methods useful in any campaign, in any RPG. It focuses on designing villains who are memorable, engaging, and realistic. And it does a *very* good job of teaching you how to do so.

If you want a campaign with villains that just suck your players right in and get them seriously wanting to take on the villain for his own evil rather than the rewards they can get, you should buy this book.

He went by alias of Danny Bridges.

He was just on Connie Chung / CNN speaking about his new book Takedown. "Danny" was instrumental in 'taking down' the last mafia empire...that of garbage collection rings that charged extremely high rates and forced Mom and Pop businesses to use their services. Watch out! If any other garbage collection tried to get the business they were 'made a deal' they 'couldn't refuse' (if you know what I mean...).

This book is full of great detail of the inner workings and is very suspenseful!

Rick Cowan alone worked his way into the mob to 'get the goods' (evidence) on the inner workings of the Mafia. He risks his life and the life's of his family and their families. He found collusion that resulted in the imprisonment of high level "Don's". The Mafia made billions through use of their 'leverage'.

I highly recommend this book and hope that one day Rick will not end up in a garbage dump like Jimmy Hoffa. Buy this book today and read it! I couldn't put it down. Great book, great read. Will win the book Academy Awards in December.

A great book. A nice crisp and fast read that will have you turning the pages in anticipation of what comes next. Detective Rick Cowan infiltrated the New York garbage mafia as a problem fixer for an independent garbage hauler. Five years later his investigation resulted in indictments across the board, which have put an end to mafia involvement in the New York garbage industry and has saved New York customers and businesses millions upon millions of dollars.

The book is more than an entertaining read. It provides you a real life glimpse into how the mafia infiltrates and consolidates and industry. Cowan and Century provide background history in the novel that tell the origins of the garbage empire. I don't know of any other book that gives you such a detailed nuts and bolts picture of day to day mob operations - mafia bosses meeting on a daily bases and hatching out deals and shakedowns over Italian pasteries. It is all done by word of mouth and handshakes. As they give orders to their brutal underlings they literally get fat off of the hog.

I doubt that this is the "Fall of the Last Mafia" empire as the book cover says. I'd like to know what other businesses the mafia have "owned" in New York and how they have adjusted to Cowan's Takedown.

After finishing the book I wondered if it was worth it to Detective Cowan - spending five years of his life immersed in an undercover operation that risked his life and disrupted his family life. I think he hints at an answer with his discussion with his father at the end of the book, but there is still some ambiguity. Like a lot of things in life there is probably no yes or no answer.

Buy this book and read it. Like another reviewer said it gives a much better picture of how the mafia operates than the "exposes" written by Mafia goons and second to third generation accounts that pack the "true crime" sections of the book stores.

An interesting, suspensful and funny book about how one NY detective, almost unwittingly, found him self the central figure in bringing down the "garbage cartel" in New York. Having been a business owner in Manhattan, who had to pay the unbelievable fees to carters, I hughly recommend this book to anyone looking to get insight into how the "Mob" infiltrated both big and small business.
Kudos to Cowan and Sal Benedetto for following through to the end. Let's hope the politicans have as much back bone as Cowan and Benedetto in insuring that their work was not in vain. A great read. Hope they don't screw up the movie.

Literature scholars universally recognize Eliot's "Waste Land" as one of the most influential poems of the 20th century. The poem draws on a wealth of images, everything from classics of Western literature to Tarot cards, from anthropology to Eastern sacred texts. The title refers to the barren land of the Fisher King in Arthurian legend; both the king and the land eventually find redemption through the Holy Grail. Through a masterful use of language and symbols, Eliot brilliantly portrays the problem of meaning in the modern world --- and the way to deeper meaning!

Unfortunately, many of Eliot's references are arcane, and not easy for the lay reader to pursue. For example, few modern readers happen to have a copy of Webster's play "White Devil" or excerpts from Shackleton's account of the Antarctic expedition readily available on their shelves. Hence, the virtue of this particular edition: in addition to Eliot's original poem and original notes, this book includes the relevant passages from every single work Eliot quotes in the "Wasteland", all translated into English. For the first time I have seen in print, this book allows the reader to understand this magnificent poem in light of the full scope of its allusions. A triumphant achievement!

eliot is the greatest poet of the 20th century. His work has done more to usher in the myriad of styles that have come after his than any other writer to date. he is Modern poetry and the wasteland is the benchmark upon which all others should be judged. his blending of style and concept are stunning- his words and word choice amazing- that one man could craft such greatness and still go on to write more great works is simply amazing. this poem requires work- don't know about a guide but at least dedication to intelect and insight. as pound said nothing good comes easily and this poems is the best and should be worked at and understood because with understanding and appreciation of this great work comes an insight into the minds and mindset of many of the 20th centuries great writers and thinkers.

Simply put, THE WASTE LAND is one of the strangest, most complicated, and interesting poems ever written. Try reading an unannotated version of the poem and you will see why even TS Eliot scholars need a little help with some of the images and literary references Eliot uses. This NORTON CRITICAL EDITION of THE WASTE LAND is an essential book for any Eliot fan, new or old. It provides you with practically every single piece of literature, history, and music that inspired Eliot to write his manifesto of the Lost Generation. If you have any questions concerning THE WASTE LAND, this is the book you need...this is the book you want. Buy it and realize how well-read you are not.

As a story, this is cute and enjoyable. As a potty-training helper, not very effective.

The princess won't use any of the special royal potties until she is tempted by a pair of pantalettes. Maybe that's a good reminder to us parents to be patient, but it doesn't encourage potty usage for my child.

The book discusses using the potty in very generic terms, nothing specific. No potty words (like pee or poop) are used. I view it as another book in the bookcase, which is OK.

My daughter likes for me to read this book to her, and enjoys calling her diaper "the royal diaper". Sometimes she likes to discuss pantalettes, but she has not expressed any interest in using the "royal potty".

I prefer "The Potty Book For Girls" as a potty-learning tool.

This book is not instructional in any way, and it doesn't need to be. It is fun and lighthearted, which is exactly the attitude you must try to maintain while potty training a child. Our daughter loved it. We read it several times a day (along with "The Potty Book For Girls" by A.S. Capucilli --- another book I highly recommend), and I think it helped in a very subliminal way. I can honestly say I didn't get tired of reading it, and I can't say that about many children's books.

As I began reading this book about a little girl whose royal parents buy her every color and pattern potty imaginable to get her to potty train, I was a bit worried my child would begin demanding her own 'pink potty'. However, as you read you discover none of these bribes work with the little girl-she simply doesn't want to (sound familiar? It did for me). Anyway, only the thought of soiling the princess' pretty, new undies gives her the desire to run to the potty in the end. And it is then that she discovers she doesn't need any of those fancy potties, the closest potty will do(which is the plain, old potty)! Now, my daughter couldn't care less about pretty panties when we began to suggest potty training. ... This was her favorite book and it is so cute she actually continued choosing it in her nightly read selections for some time after potty training. ... Anyway, would reccomend this Princess and the Potty to keep the task at hand foremost in their little minds and then one other for more specific step-by-step instructional which can tend to be not as attractive for them to want to read. Good luck! If you stick to it and let them feel the few messes and help clean up, you'll succeed!

The author does a good job writing this book. If you are interested in the Vietnam era, it gives a West Point graduate's perspective. As an ordinary drafted vet, myself, I was left back then with the impression that most West Point officers who came through during Vietnam never seriously thought they would ever get caught in a real war when they went after getting that free education at West Point. Maybe that is why this book tends to be very negative and discouraging. It is discouraging enough to tend to make you feel sorry for the people in the book. It is so negative and discouraging that, if I work for the admissions dept at West Point, no way do I encourage applicants to read this book ----- in fact, just the opposite.

Atkinson did a wonderful job with this book. Atkinson wrote about the West Point Class of 1966, following the lives of the men during their years at West Point, through Vietnam, and beyond. As he told a fascinating tale of the cultural changes in our country from the 1960's to the 1980's, he attacked a few Hollywood myths about the Vietnam experience. For one example, the army was not full of unhappy druggies at the time.

Atkinson shared anecdotes about many people, but he followed most closely the story of three. One was George Crocker, an army career man; then there was Tom Carhart, whose attitude towards the Vietnam War and the army went through peaks and valleys; and finally there was Jack Wheeler, who liked the army, but did not want to fight. To further flesh out our understanding of life in the army for the West Point graduate of 1966, Atkinson went into great detail on the lives of a couple of people who never served in the army. The two were a minister who worked at the West Point Chapel even though he was a civilian and a widow of an officer who survived Vietnam only to be killed in a border incident between North and South Korea.

The book was very well done, but it was not without flaw. Of course this problem might not have been possible to solve, given the scope of the work. As the lives of the graduates unfolded over the years, and Atkinson switched from one person's story to update another, it was sometimes hard to keep all the names straight. It was occasionally difficult to remember all the back story of someone and fit the new developments within the appropriate context. Again, this probably could not have been helped, since Atkinson wanted to cast his net as wide as possible to show us what life was really like for these people. He obviously could not narrow his focus without losing a part of the big picture.

This book was great for pleasure reading, but it was informative enough to serve as a wonderful resource for students of military history, Vietnam, and/or life in AMerica in the 1960's and 1970's.

My friend, whom graduated from West Point in 1991, recommended "The Long Gray Line" to me. My object for reading this book was that I wanted to learn more about the Vietnam War, what happened and why. I also wanted to understand more about the problems and turmoil that followed when the War was over. Further, I realised the book would be a great source of information about the West Point Academy, something I wanted to learn more about since my friend had attended the Academy. (A discussion with the same mentioned friend about the Vietnam War had left no doubt that I had considerable gaps in my knowledge of both West Point and the Vietnam War).

I was completely fascinated with the story, and it soon became impossible for me to put the book down. I even wished for longer commute to work, so I could read more (I already have 1 hrs 20 min of commuting each way to work!). After I had finished the book I asked my friend "Was is really like that at West Point?" and he answered "The book gives a 'pretty accurate' description of what it was like"..

The first part of this book is about the Academic life at West Point, and at times this part of the book is absolutely hilarious! It left me smiling and laughing for myself.. I love the way the author, Rick Atkinson, describes the different characters. I had no problems picturing the different events in my head and I finished the book feeling like I practically knew all these cadets. The latter part of the book is about the war and it's aftermath. This part of the book is incredibly moving. The author describes these young men's (and their families) trial and suffering so well that you almost feel it as if the pain was your own. This part of the book left me in tears more than one time.

I finished this book with a deeper comprehension of the pain and distress which Vietnam Veterans has experienced both while fighting for their country, and later returning home. Anyone interested in history, reading about the events and ideas that strongly influenced America in the latter part of the 20th century, should read this book. The words "Duty, Honour, and Country" will never mean the same to you after reading this book. It is not often that I read a book, which so deeply touches my heart as this one did!

I found this book to be a quick read (took me a weekend to read 250+ pages) and very enjoyable. I give it four stars on account of the people that Reilly interviewed while he walked the loop with them. My personal favorite was just how much of a redneck John Daly was. I cannot begin to explain some of this man's humor in life unless you read this book. After reading this book, you also realize just how nice Tom Lehman and Casey Martin are, and just how full of themselves Jack Nickalus and Donald Trump are. I found most the humor to be very good, but it just lacked the hook to really pull me in. There were some good moments though, including Reilly's constant problems with the golf bag and how easily he pisses golfers off. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick laugh and one who wants to get an insight on walking with some of the pros on the PGA, but I also found that this book wouldn't win the "Most Humorous Book of the Year" award. A good read for most, especially fans of SI and Reilly's work.

Rick Reilly says that he wanted to do a Plimpton and see what it is like to be inside the ropes as a caddy for pro and celebrity golfers. He talked various big names (e.g. Nicklaus, Daly, Lehman, Trump)into a short-term caddy hitch. Unlike Plimpton, Reilly does not spend much time recording his own struggles and observations, which in his case is probably a good thing. Essentially this book is a collection of interviews and anecdotes collected with a bag on his shoulder.

Apparently Reilly is a big shot sportswriter at Sports Illustrated (I switched to a better barber shop and haven't seen SI in 10 years) and has received a number of awards for his writing. I wouldn't have thought it. In the current volume he sprays pseudo-Southern similies like a drunken Dan Rather and plain wore out this pore old reader by the middle of the book.

Is it all bad? No,not at all. A fascinating chapter on high stakes golf gamblers covered new territory and the John Daly chapter was a more gentle and revealing account than usual. The translations of caddy-jabber are fun.

Get this book for your next flight across the country. Its perfect at 35,000ft.

First, a disclaimer. I think Rick Reilly is one of the most creative and entertaining sportswriters out there. I thought it before picking up this book, and my impression has been confirmed.

I've read interviews about dozens of "golfers." Reilly's genius is his ability to turn those "golfers" into "people." In these short vignettes, Reilly not only gives you some insight into what makes people like John Daly and David Duval tick, but he does it an entertaining, mapcap manner.

There are sometimes when Reilly gets a bit over the top, such as when he uses expression like "eat hot titanium," but I can overlook these exaggerations when they serve to move the stories along. I know that I'll pick this book up time and again for light, fun reading.

This is the recounting of a trip Rick Ridgeway made with Asia Wright through the Himalayas enroute to searching for her father's grave. Her father was Jonathon Wright, who was killed in an avalanche on Minya Konka when she was an infant. Throughout the journey he tells her of her father's life as well as of his own past as a mountaineer and adventurer. This was a difficult book for me to get through, and it was some time before I could pick it up without my hands shaking. I didn't think it would have such an emotional impact on me, and I'm bemused to think that Jonathon can still affect people when he's been dead for twenty years. We knew Jonathon, and I remember vividly the shock of returning from a trip and receiving a telegram saying he'd been killed. Certainly we were familiar with death's capaciousness, but it was a classic case of, "Why him, of all people? Where's the meaning in this?" It's a curious experience to read a book twenty years later where someone asks those questions about the same person, but we've all known someone who died too soon.

They're difficult questions and Ridgeway does as credible a job of the philosophical answers as anyone can, with his acceptance of life and death, and change. However, his denouement at the end, that we should live each day as if it were our only one, felt flat. We've heard it before and it's been boiled done to a kitchen plaque cliché that I've always found irritating when it's not further explained. I don't think I'd plan on spending my only day on earth wondering if the roof should be redone this year or next and booking dental cleanings, as I'm doing today. My grudge with the cliché is that it seems to imply that we should regret whatever it is we've been doing up to now, rather than accepting that some days are simply going to be filled with the mundane details of living. It also holds an inherent suggestion that we should seek pleasure. But the kind of pleasure that makes life worth living is an elusive phantom and comes only after we've sought experience. Pain or regret may also result, regardless of our intentions. We have to embrace the experience regardless of outcome; if it's pleasurable, it's a bonus and we've earned it. Jonathon tried to focus on the experience rather than the goal or glory at the end, and I think that's what was meant in the book, but perhaps each of us sees it differently.

But Jonathon's effect on people was the result of more than what he did, it was the result of his personality, and Jonathon simply being Jonathon. We all affect the people we contact each day. Whether it's for good or ill is up to us. Partly because of his own innate goodness and partly because of his efforts, Jonathon had a positive effect on the people who know him. The lesson I would take from his life is that we could all have a similar impact if we made the effort to be nice - and I apologize for the lackluster word, but there it is - nice. The circumstances in which I first met him was one where egos could become inflated, inflamed, or deflated in an instant, and the silly posturing and puffy tempers certainly were a contrast to Jonathon's calmness. It's an odd thing, given that I didn't know him that well and it's been a long time, but I am still influenced by him and try (not always successfully!) to behave in difficult situations as he would have. Our lives do indeed affect others.

The book focuses on personalities, and that gives it a heart and poignancy which are often lacking in adventure stories. As for his journey with Asia Wright, it begins in Nepal, continues on to Mount Kailas, across the Chang Tang Plateau in Tibet, and ends at Asia's father's grave. The book is nicely-written and over-all the description is strong enough, although there were places where it lacked the vitality that would really bring an area to life for me. I will say (and this truly is surprising, since he recounts a fair number of disasters, not to mention numerous other assorted miseries) that Rick Ridgeway managed the impossible - he made mountain-climbing sound appealing even to me.

What a wonderful story this is! Rick Ridgeway writes and reflects with maturity and humility of his initial climb up Minya Konka in China's Sichuan province, the loss of his friend Jonathan in an avalanche during the climb and then his return to the mountain a decade and a half later with Jonathan's now-grown up daughter, China. I read this entire book in two long sittings and as with all great books hated to see it come to an end. The narrative, which weaves together earlier climbs and adventures, growing up and taking risks, along with the trek back to Nepal, Tibet and China is a spiritual as well as a geographical journey. Ridgeway has learned much from his incredible life -- about things that are of consequence and things that are not. His wisdom and common decency, his kindness and his loyalty to friends and to memories, and they way in which he imparts this to his friend's surviving daughter is inspiring and touching. I'll read this book again sometime soon and I'll think about it for a long long time because although it is a story that begins with tragedy and death and concludes with a visit to the site of that tragedy, it is at the same time a superb hymn to a life lived full and well and true.

I bought this book after reading Seven Summits which recounted Rick Ridgeway's involvement with Dick Bass's and Frank Well's attempt to be the first to bag the "seven summits".
This is a moving story of not only the loss of Rick Ridgeway's friend and climbing buddy in an avalanche in the himalayas where he also almost died but an account of his return voyage with the friend's twenty year old daughter to where the avalanche had occurred some 18 years before. It is a travel narrative, mountaineering book, great insights on Nepal and Tibet with interesting sidetrips through his memories, trips to Patagonia, being in a Panamanian jail when he was but twenty and what it taught him...etc. You have got to like this guy! A perfect read for the introspective armchair adventure traveller who loves Asia; which is the name of the twenty year old girl who finds her father's grave and her way in life on this trip.

Rick Bragg is one of my favorite authors; if you read this book, you'll understand why. It's the story of a man he never met, his maternal grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, who died a year before Bragg was born. The story is told through the masterful sewing together of snippets of memories of his relatives, achieving the status of near folk history as Bragg creates a whole quilt from a pile of scraps.
Beautiful writing about a man all of us would have been privileged to know, an illiterate man, a wonderful father, a 'pretty good husband,' a God-fearing man who never set foot in a church, a man some would dismiss as an Alabama hillbilly - but never would they say that, having once read this book.
More than having written just a memoir of a memorable man, Rick Bragg celebrates an entire family, a class of people, a region of our country, and the generations of those whose lives spanned both sides of the Depression.
Read it. You're gonna love it.

Few can evoke an accurate image of the Deep South. Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Bragg (All Over But The Shoutin') does more than evoke it, he paints it in bold Mondrian-like brush strokes and chiaroscuro. The time and place come alive before our delighted eyes.

"Ava's Man" is a very personal history, it's the story of Bragg's mother's childhood in the dirt poor Appalachian foothills during the Depression, and it's a tribute to her father, Charlie Bondrun, the grandfather Bragg knows only through stories and reminiscences.

Of this man the author writes, ".....if he ever was good at one thing on this earth, it was being a daddy." Charlie, the father of seven always hungry children, moved his family 29 times during the depression. He worked wherever he could - sometimes for pay, at other times for a side of bacon or a basket of fruit. The doctor who delivered his fourth daughter, Bragg's mother, was paid with a bottle of whiskey.

Charlie was not an educated man. His wife, Ava, read the paper to him every day so he would be informed. But, he was a clever man - could make a boat out of car hoods, and he played the banjo, and he could dance.

Most importantly, despite the hardships, the deprivation, he knew how to make his family know they were loved.

This is Ava's story, Charlie's story, and the story of a time in our history, magnificently told.

What a beautiful story! Not often does one have the opportunity to read a book that captures the essence of a man and a time and place gone forever.

Even though the lifestyle he describes is foreign to most readers, Rick Bragg has the ability to introduce you to his grandfather, spin stories about his life, and make you cry at his death.

Even though the culture of the Old South as lived by the poor, hard-working and hard-living white folk from Alabama and Georgia of the 20's, 30's, and 40's is lost forever, Bragg has the ability to insert you in the midst of that time and feel the kinship and love of family, the hard-living and hard-dying.

Rick Bragg never personally knew his grandfather. After hearing the stories of his life from the many old friends and relatives he got to know Charlie Bundrum well. Fortunately, through Bragg's talent, he has written a beautiful story and I have had the pleasure to know Charlie too. I would have liked him and I think you will too.