I am so happy I found a book with plentiful Glamour photos. I especially love the Norma Shearer pics and the Rosalind Russell pics (especially the rather gothic cloak pic.) This book is not only insightful about how the pics were done but who Hurrell was. Truly beautiful and a must for any coffee table and/or collector.

Once upon a time, I was reading Empire magazine and suddenly I saw a promotion of The book Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits. The cover picture was very impressive. I didn't know George Hurrell before. As soon as I saw the picture, I decided to buy this book. So, after buying it and see the pictures inside, I just said: Wow! What a photographer he was. He's a genius. His works are magnificent. Great use of light and remarkable composition are the typical of his works. Definitly he's a master in the art of photography. You can find many fabulouse black & white photoes of your beloved actors and actresses in 30s and 40s as well as an interesting and useful biography of Hurrell. If you love cinema you won't regret after buying it. Your library misses this book.

This book is just filled with gorgeous photographs, in a beautifully dramatic and romantic style that is often missing in the photographs taken in more recent times. A wonderful book for photographers looking for a little inspiration, or those who have had a surfeit of the modern, photojournalistic approach to portraiture. Look at the light, the composition, and the drama! As photographers, we've shown these images to prospective bridal clients, who thought they only wanted "candids" taken at their wedding - "very few posed images" - who summarily changed their minds about "stuffy posed photography." Many of our portrait clients, who came to sessions loathing the idea of having to pose for the camera have found themselves having so much fun they don't want to stop when we've introduced some of the more dramatic poses similar to those used by Hurrell in a session. This book is also a bonanza for movie buffs - to see images of a young Joan Crawford, BEFORE retouching, freckles and all, and then to see the results of Hurrell's handiwork, is fun for fans -and his techniques impress those of us who do this for a living.

My wife and I, and our friends, have been using this book as our "European Bible" for many years. It's like having your own personal tour guide with you. You are in the right place at the right time of day. All of the major sights are included, plus many others that are off the beaten path, but well worth while. The phrase "Don't leave home without it!" is certainly applicable here.

A highly readable, engaging series of narrative walks that will inspire you to see things in these cities that you've missed before... and if you haven't been there yet, they will most assuredly whet your appetite. Nearly two dozen locations are covered, from major cities like Paris, London, and Rome to the more intimate sidewalks of Oxford, Bruge, and Segovia. Although the book was first written more than thirty years ago, it has been updated with new information, and additional walks in Eastern European cities have been added. Easily followed maps are included. However, you'll find the writing so good that the book is almost as well enjoyed in an armchair as on the street. (You'll end up doing both.) Highly recommended. -- European Visits

I live in russia, there is no such book in our libraries, but I need to read it!

A great reference book for all those interested in Renaissance Literature. Well researched and complete, a very scholarly work.

I've always wanted to read the Odyssey, but could never get into it...that's the problem with reading books in translation; if you get a bad translation, the book sucks. But Chapman does a wonderful job with Homer...this is about as beautifully poetic as you can get. The other great thing about this is that it's written in iambic pentameter, (although the Illiad is done with the fourteen syllable line,) the meter that Shakespeare used for his plays. If you're into Elizabethan writing at all, this is a great book for you.

My review of the book is just to correct Kent Smith's shockingly ignorant statement. Wouldn't one's confusion over a word's meaning necessitate the turning to the glossary? Why rely on obtrusive footnotes? Why not let your ignorance of Chapman's extraordinary, polyglot, maddeningly-diverse vocabulary be the guide?

My advice is the same I'd give to a child: if you don't know a word LOOK IT UP. Advice you don't need to be "an academic num-num"--although I am an academic--to think of, nor heed. I might also suggest looking in the Oxford English Dictionary--created by academic num nums, but accessible to such enlighteded common readers as Mr. Smith--it has many of Chapman's neologisms--to save Mr. Smith the trouble of looking up this extraordinarily difficult phrase, it means "new words," from Greek NEOS "new" and LOGOS "word" (Isn't erudition, however minor, fun and useful, Mr. Smith?--and is quite exciting in the bargain.

By the way, this edition of Chapman is by far the best I have seen; Chapman's translation is also highly recommended.

My review of the book is just to correct Kent Smith's shockingly ignorant statement. Wouldn't one's confusion over a word's meaning necessitate the turning to the glossary? Why rely on obtrusive footnotes? Why not let your ignorance of Chapman's extraordinary, polyglot, maddeningly-diverse vocabulary be the guide?

My advice is the same I'd give to a child: if you don't know a word LOOK IT UP. Advice you don't need to be "an academic num-num"--although I am an academic--to think of, nor heed. I might also suggest looking in the Oxford English Dictionary--created by academic num nums, but accessible to such enlighteded common readers as Mr. Smith--it has many of Chapman's neologisms--to save Mr. Smith the trouble of looking up this extraordinarily difficult phrase, it means "new words," from Greek NEOS "new" and LOGOS "word" (Isn't erudition, however minor, fun and useful, Mr. Smith?--and is quite exciting in the bargain.

By the way, this edition of Chapman is by far the best I have seen; Chapman's translation is also highly recommended.

When we were looking for a good book for a 6-year-old whose name is Agamemnon, to give him some context for his name outside of our family, we found this book at the library. He really enjoyed having us read it to him, then later for him to read himself. A great book!

In our house this is more a 5-8 year old book, my son asks for it as he climbs into bed many a night. It's a great way for him to have fun and get the basic storyline of a classic...

I would just like to say to the earlier review this book is not meant to be a school textbook. It is not supposed to be a wonderful introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Marcia Williams books are just for fun, it is just a bonus that you children can get the basic story line of a classic. I would highly recommend any of Marcia Williams books.

I've read many books about the great aviatrix, Amelia Earhart. This one tells of Amelia's role in an already failed marriage, much like our country has given us the personal failures of our own President. Although the connection to Amelia is the lure of the book, the story is based more on the author's free-will interpretations of her grandmother's diaries -- what she must have thought, reacted, felt. The entries, in Dorothy's voice, seem distorted with many episodes, imagined. Should everyone's diary be at the mercy of their relative's own interpretations after their death? If the grandmother had written from memory, exactly how it was, would the story change? Dorothy's diary held the details of a troubled life (for a woman of privilege), still (without her input) and the author's self-promoting connection as a the distant "step-great-granddaughter" is hardly the stuff of interesting literature. I would recommend readers acquire actual biographical books to satisfy real curiosity about the lives of deceased heroes.

This is the story of the Putnam family and Amelia Earhart. George Putnam eventually married Amelia, but prior to that was her publicity director and writer of her adventures. Also interesting to learn is the Putnam family was huge in the publishing industry back then but also have a part in the invention of Crayola crayons. Much of the book is Dorothy's diary, which makes it kindof a slow read.

The time and research it must have taken to write this book is commendable. We have a read so much about Amelia but to hear about Dorothy and the incredible life that she lead was truley facinating. I would highly reccomend reading this book.

In this book, one can learn that: The internet started as a Defense Department project in the 80's p. 120 The proper way to search for pager manufacturing in internet web search engines is just to mention "pager", and not worry at all about other key words or symbols. p. 124 That, according to an intelligence project, pager repair could be a great business. p.139 I was lead to believe by a book review that this book would give me a great deal of information about passive intelligence gathering. It does not live up to its promise, and lacks credibility for so many factual (1,1969 2, +pager +manufacture + industry +trends ) and analytical (3 I threw my cell phone away, and got another for free)errors. What a shame.

I work as a professional performing due diligence for VC firms and client companies in Seattle and Silicon Valley. I have been using many of the techniques for several years that enable me to rapidly assess business opportunities and develop turnaround strategies. I am also a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals.

What this book did was enable me to enhance my business process and better articulate this extremely difficult line of work. For example, the business process outlined on page 58 is crucial in that it identifies several "Stop" or check points with clients. Key in this type of consulting, especially where steps you take as a consultant may directly add risk to your client, it is important to know where to draw the line and involve them for a decision. The authors clarify where the key decision points are when it comes to going from passive to semi-active, to active intelligence gathering. Critical, as time is money to you. But! to the client, information - or exposure thereof also means risk that could become your liability.

Consultants in this field are in the knowledge business, and one of the most difficult things to do is get the client to place a value on knowledge or intelligence. The authors, through wit and excellent real-world examples, spell out some of the keys to getting paid!! (pp 67). Naturally, this would go over the head of the casual reader who has never practiced and is looking for a "cook book" approach to due diligence of new business opportunities (i.e. see above commentary from Bogota).

This book is a "how to" book in that the authors have taken the time to clarify and rank several research tools and locations that one might not normally be aware of. This comparison alone is worth the money, as anyone who has used the web for performing research would agree.

The real brilliance in this book is subtle. By connecting the examples, you learn how to ask questions and iden! tify with what is important in doing intelligence research.! Again, for anyone who has gone in circles with clients who "don't know what they don't know", or worse yet, don't know how to value knowledge - this is critical to delivering fast, and minimizing your exposure.

Frankly, the Bogota guy didn't get it and has probably never performed true business intelligence. I agree that the coverage of the Internet web search engines, which used the example of finding information on pagers, is old news. The chapter's purpose was to show how more advanced tools outside of the Internet, such as Nexis, are preferred substitutes. That point was clearly made. However, this example was only used among 10 pages of chapter 5 (which was taken up with images of why the web doesn't work). The other 257 pp of this book are the meat.

My hats off to the authors for delivering a humorous text based on real-world wisdom that cuts through a very gray area that is as difficult to perform, as it is to explain.

As an investment banking anaylst, one of my primary jobs is build financial models of the companies we evaluate. One of the most underrated and (in my view) more important element of my work comes when we perform due diligence and understand the soundness of the assumptions we build into our models. Most analysts (in my experience) are too infatuated with their sophisticated spreadsheets and believe the sheer complexity of their models can compensate for a lack of understanding of the fundamental business they are set to evaluate.

The book does an outstanding job of articulating, at every step, the importance of challenging one's assumptions and systematically gathering, synthesizing, and =analyzing= information that helps to dig through the colored lenses of wishful thinking or purely numerical analysis. The occasional injection of humor is quite welcome - in a world of stuffy self-important books on business, here's a piece of work that was written by people who love what they do, and are adept at making you better at what you do as well.