definitely not the best intro to newton mechanics but if you already know it and need the info in a new prespective this book will do you.NOT A SELF STUDY GUIDE.Is best when used as a review.

This is how founding fathers thought and wrote about the Matter and Motion. It is a nostalgic reading. Maxwell himself wrote about Matter and Motion of course based on Newtonian Physics. You do not learn any new Physics unless you are doing study in the History of Science. Maxwell basically starts with definition of concepts in Newtonian Mechanics and explains Newton's laws of Motion. Force, Energy, Momentum all the good staff. Short book and interesting piece of history. Definitely worth reading of it for leisure or for study.

This book is a strange blend of the quintessial James Patterson in format and pace with an entirely new type of story for him (as was the moving and enjoyable SUZANNE'S DIARY FOR NICHOLAS). This is an historical novel based in medieval times, with the Crusades and French serfdom as the backdrop. It appears to accurately capture the nature of the times, with townspeople barely scratching out an existence while dependent for protection on the whims of the local nobles and their knights.

The central character is Hugh De Luc, an innkeeper in a small French village who leaves his wife Sophie to join the First Crusade to fight the infidels and free Jerusalem. The first section of the book graphically describes the hardships which he and his companions endured during their journey, and his lifechanging experience in Antioch which convinced him to end his journey and return home. Upon his eventual return he finds his village plundered and destroyed, the infant son previously unknown to him murdered and his wife kidnapped and believed dead. The remainder of the book involves Hugh's attempts to locate his wife (he believes that she is still alive) and mete out vengenance on those who are responsible for his son's death.

While near death after an encounter with a wild boar, Hugh is befriended by Emilie and her mistress Anne from neighboring Boree, which Anne rules while her husband Stephen is away fighting in the Crusade. Hugh attempts to develop a strategy for infiltrating neighboring Treille, a walled city ruled by the evil Baldwin, who is apparently responsible for Sophie's kidnapping. Emilie has the idea that Hugh can use his intelligence and natural talent for comedy to pose as a JESTER, and thus disguised Hugh resumes his search for Sophie. As you might assume since this is a James Patterson book, at this point the plot complications and misdirection begin. Hugh soon discovers that in fact one of the souvenirs that he brought home to France is perceived to be of great historical value and the prize sought by the Black Knights still wrecking havoc on the countryside and its inhabitants in their search for it. The latter parts of the book turn out to be not only an historical action/adventure but a philosophical examination of the role of individual freedom and private property that eventually transformed the nature of arrangements between nobles and the monarchy and their subjects and led to the adoption of the rule of law versus the rule of force. Hugh assembles an army of his friends and neighbors to first confront Baldwin of Treille and later Stephen of Boree (upon his return from the Crusade), and combines his insights with the knowledge and skills that he learned during the battles in which he participated to overcome superior odds and eventually prevail. Yet the style of Patterson and his co-author Andrew Gross keep the pace very rapid and the story interesting and fast moving.

There is an incredible amount of bloodshed, violence, vulgarity, and gore. These are obviously typical of the period and true to the experience of the Crusades, although much of the dialog seems much more attuned to our current patterns of speech than to the Middle Ages. The difference between the violence in this and some of Patterson's especially gory books is that it seemed essential to the plot and not carried to mindnumbing and gratuitous extremes. There is also the usual misdirection, although more obvious clues in some cases (such as Emilie's identity) than is usual for a Patterson story. In summary, Patterson's style and the short chapters and rapid pace of action actually hide the much more ambitious effort that this book represents. As an affirmation of the power of love and laughter, its overriding tone despite the violence is quite different from many of his other stories. And the fairy tale ending is very different from his usual conclusion, perhaps to offset this essentially accurate portrayal of the depressing nature of the history of the that time.

So, if you are a James Patterson fan, be prepared for something very different but just as engaging as his best work. And I certainly agree with the comments of other reviewers that this appears to be a prime candidate for an epic movie, I just hope that they manage to make it more that an historical adventure, as the authors have done. It is a fast paced easy read, but somewhat longer and with a lot more to think about and enjoy than most of his books. So, if you want a detective story, look elsewhere; and if you want a serious historical novel with carefully drawn characters and slow paced action examining the time in great detail, you will also certainly be disappointed. But if you want a story to read on the train or plane, during a vacation, or while relaxing before bed, this is well worth your time.

I believe that the mark of a truly great storyteller is one who can captivate and enthrall outside of his "genre;" and James Patterson has done that and more in The Jester.

Set in medieval times during the Crusades, this is the story of a poor innkeeper named Hugh De Luc--whose life consists of simple pleasures...his village, his friends, his inn, and the great love that he has for his wife Sophie. All is well until Hugh decides to join the fight for Christianity and freedom--and finds only death, carnage and evil. He returns to his village several years later to discover that everything that he held dear had been stripped away from him; his inn burned to the ground, and his beloved Sophie abducted by the evil knights of his liege.

This is truly an epic love story--of love lost, found, and lost again; only to be rediscovered in another. All I could think of while reading this story was what a wonderful movie it could make if done right!

I've yet to read a book by this author that I did not enjoy. True Patterson fans will not be disappointed!!

If you picked up this book thinking you were going to get an engrossing mystery, you didn't read the front cover. This "historical novel" from Patterson was just what I expected. Brutally graphic, a plausible plot, characters that you want to remember, and a great way to spend a few hours of escape from current events. Patterson has a way with keeping the reader involved. While I will agree with another reviewer that the chapters were sometimes too short to maintain a good pace, it didn't keep me from being entertained. The desciptions of the difficulties facing the average person in that time period were perfect for this read. If you want to spend all your time with Alex Cross or the girls in the Murder Club, so be it. But if you want to take a welcome respite from the usual serial murderer that tends to permeate a Patterson novel, then pick this book up. You may just learn something about history while enjoying a good story.

The phrases in this book work well and the phoenetic spelling isn't horrible, I just found it difficult to quickly find what I wanted to say. I found the two page "essential phrases" list in the back of my other travel guides more useful because you didn't have to flip a bunch of pages to get what you need. I was on a brief trip to Europe, this book may be more useful for longer trips.

This book is very useful to me because I travel to Europe every year and when I go there, it's difficult to get around the airports or the country itself. This little phrasebook has helped me to communicate with the other people in the countries I go to.

200 is far too few directors, and the selection is weighed towards current film-festival favorites.

The write-ups on each director are by a grab bag of critics and scholars. The occasional gem (i.e. Robin Wood on Anthony Mann) is found among gushing fan notes and dull career overviews. There is little critical perspective such as in the editor's 1968 THE AMERICAN CINEMA.

For the same money one could purchase David Thomson's A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM. In that great work are perceptive critical appraisals of several hundred directors with complete filmographies, with the added bonus of stars, writers, cameramen, etc.

..., this 692 page hardcover book is an outstanding value. Edited by one of America's foremost critics, Andrew Sarris, with contributions by renowned scholars such as Dudley Andrew, David Bordwell, and Douglas Gomery, the content is excellent. Less opinionated and more informative than similar works, it's the best reference work on directors I've seen. With over 200 entries, all major directors are included. I highly recommend it.

This book is a great view of Andrew Jackson and his place in national history.

Great graduate level film theory text book. Tincy bit dated

As a longtime player of Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay (WFRP) I was very happy to see Hogshead pick up the rights to WFRP after Games Workshop abandoned this great product. This is the first new adventure material produced by Hogshead and while welcome, is not neary as good as some of the older adventures in the Enemy Within campaign (Death on the Reik, Power Behind the Throne).

In this adventure, the players are racing against time to forstall an ancient prophecy about the return of a Daemonic entity in and around the city of Marienburg. The problem is in trying to maintain a coherent storyline when each chapter is being plotted by different authors. In the end, the adventure comes across as a mish-mash of interesting ideas but the coherency is lost. It is still a good book, however, just not great. There is a good balance of investigation and action and would suit pretty much any gaming group.

Behind David Lean's directorial masterpiece 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962) lay a series of attempts to film T. E. Lawrence's life, most of them centred around the abridged version of 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom', known as 'Revolt in the Desert.' Chief amongst the filmmakers eager to produce this epic was the great Alexander Korda, who bought the rights to both books and also to several biographies that contained their material. Korda was asked by Lawrence himself not to make the film while he was alive. Five months later, Lawrence was killed in a motorbike accident and Korda began his preparations. Locations were scouted, scripts were drafted, and several actors were tested to play the lead. Walter Hudd (who had played the Lawrence-based character Private Meek in 'Too True to be Good') and Leslie Howard were the favourites, although Cary Grant and Laurence Olivier were also considered. The Foreign Office thwarted Korda at every turn, protesting that it would be ill advised to show the Turks in an unfavourable light with the ongoing political unrest in the East. After a dozen attempts to make the film, Korda let it slide. This book is tripartite: part one sketches a brief history of the attempts to film 'Lawrence of Arabia' and includes pictures of all the key players. The second part is an interview given by Leslie Howard on how he would play Lawrence; and thirdly, the final script (1938) of the Korda epic is reproduced. While it is a laudable piece of work, the book fails to hang together and emerges as two articles and a film script that are linked by the same subject, but have no cohesion. Part One is far too brief for the reader to gain an understanding of the forces arrayed against Korda and his project, and it would benefit from more research and more expansion on the views of the various directors and actors engaged for the film in its different stages. Part Two is simply the Howard interview with no editorial comment offered. Part Three, the script, also has no analysis. This is surprising, as it is rich in allusion and with peculiar sequences that (to modern eyes) detract from the overall pacing of the film. It relies heavily on 'Seven Pillars' for dialogue and description, with little or no modification. To those who are acquainted with the Robert Bolt script of the Lean film, the Korda Lawrence is but a pale shadow: eloquent passivity rather than "nothing is written" man of action; cold detachment rather than anger and angst in crucial scenes (Tafileh, the Turkish hospital); the smug imperialist rather than the tortured anti-imperialist. Korda's Lawrence was intended to be heroic, a ( ) puff-piece with a serious bite, but looking at the script today, he seems shallow, self-important and obnoxious. The real Lawrence evaded any attempt to capture him by constant shifts in personality, presenting a different face to each person he met. It would appear that the celluloid Lawrence of Korda's vision was the same; and, as such, defeated him wholly.

I found the phrase book to be very handy in some languages, but in other languages, it didn't seem to be so thorough. I was in Central and Eastern Europe for four months and mostly used the book when I was eating out. It's a good source for vegetarians. I used t occasionally when asking directions as well and found my way around fairly well using the book. In less "touristy" areas the book didn't include as much information and I was left to my own devices.

You know your dealing with a book that's outdated when you read "Most first loans are made by savings and loans associations." No offense intended to the author but although many of the concepts are good, they are not well-explained or presented for beginners to easily understand. I only understood as much as I did because I am in the real estate industry. Better choices are out there.