Greenberg's Price Guides are easy to use and provide current values for all Lionel trains and accessories. A must for anyone that has Lionel trains.

In a lot of the time-split movies I've seen, the present story is never as interesting as the past one, which is the case with "This is My Father." The present story revolves around Kieran Johnson (played by James Caan), a middle-aged Chicago high school teacher, as he travels abroad to Ireland with his teenage nephew, Jack (Jacob Tierney), in search of his unknown paternal roots. Upon arriving, Kieran Jr. learns of his father, Kieran O'Day (Aidan Quinn), via the Irish fortuneteller they're boarding from.

The movie then switches periodically to the summer of 1939, when Kieran Jr.'s young mother, Fiona Flynn (played by Moya Farrelly), returns from Catholic school and resumes her friendship with Kieran Sr., only to have it blossom into a forbidden love affair. Why their relationship is taboo is never fully explained, though the Catholic church, Kieran Sr.'s being a "poorhouse bastard", and their age difference are vaguely touched upon. However, a lot of it's left up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions.

In addition to the lack of any major taboo, I thought the past story between Kieran Sr. and Fiona would have been better at the forefront of this movie. It was certainly more entertaining than watching Kieran Jr. brood or Jack flirt with two local girls (or, rather, they were flirting with him; he just looked lost). But despite the little things, "This is My Father" is a great movie. It has a somewhat predictable demise at the end, but it's still sad enough to interest fans of romantic tragedies.

No matter how many times you see this, It will make you cry. This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. If you wish to seen a movie that goes to the pit of you heart this, and Sophie"s choice are the two. Reminds you want in the end is most impotant.

This is an unforgettable film which deserves a huge audience. It moves back and forth through past and present, weaving both together through a family and its history, and a lonely, burned out teacher's exploration of his roots. Each view and each perspective in this family -- past and present -- is sensitively explored. The most compelling, however, is the grandmother's love story with Kieran (Aidan Quinn) in County Galway in Ireland. This film explores Irish life and the Irish perspective, and the blessings and curses of each. The cast is superb, and Aidan Quinn gives a wonderfully moving performance as Kieran, the Father.

There are other Fathers in this film. Exploring these and musing about their meanings and their meddlings, past and present, is something best done by each individual viewer. Beautifully photographed, superbly acted, and wonderfully conceived, this is a must-see film for everyone, but especially for anyone with an interest in Ireland. This wonderful country and its history, its people, its music, its curses, its blessings, and its magic are all captured in loving detail onscreen. Highly, Highly recommended!!!

This book, like its predecessors, is written in a story format. The basic storyline is Dan Brockway's series of visits with the One Minute Manager, in which he learns about team building and the "situational leadership" that team building requires. The One Minute Manager has him visit a team in each of four stages: Orientation, Dissatisfaction, Production, and Integration. The visits provide information about the unique characteristics of each stage, and the book provides discussion of these characteristics by a series of dialogues between Dan and the One Minute Manager. After the visits have concluded, some discussion of how to lead a team depending on its stage occurs.

This book reinforces the important concepts and major characteristics of each stage by including charts and outlines for each stage of team development, as well as reiterating key points throughout the book. The section on situational leadership is valuable also, and the book seeks to answer potential questions from real readers by having the characters ask them during the course of the sessions with the One Minute Manager.

Overall, this book is very insightful, and its tenets are presented in a very creative, though occasionally corny, manner. (It contains frequent subliminal messages: "Let's make an appointment for next week to talk this over" said Dan. "No," said the One Minute Manager, "let's do it right now.") The charts and diagrams are the real treasures in the book, and in spite of its brevity, the book manages to be a fairly good primer on the subject.

The "One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams" delivers key concepts and strategies regarding group dynamics and team building in a quick-to-read, clear and concise form. In this respect the book is a cleverly crafted publication. If this was the aim of the authors (and I suspect it was) then it should be awarded 5 points. From my own point of view I'm left feeling that the analysis oversimplifies the processes of group dynamics and team building, and that in applying the analysis and strategies suggested my resulting awareness would leave me asking more questions that this text could answer. Of course in doing this, it would have made a great start!

Group dynamics, teamwork and leadership styles are complex interacting areas; but this book, purposely and successfully written as a quick-reader for all team members conveys the current thinking of these best-selling authors in an easily understandable and applicable form. Blanchard et al. mange to reduce the complexities to key points and make them relevant most directly, to business contexts. The conversational style of the book is written with regard to business projects and the key points and informative charts (though drawn from right to left, which seems rather odd for a mainly Western audience) convey the message well for such contexts.

The success of the book rests a good deal on its simplification of the subject matter, and omission of relevant concerns. The most notable to me was the exclusion of issues concerning influences of other 'roles' in group situations, aside from group leader. This topic was only briefly touched upon in relation to the stage of 'dissatisfaction' and the negative roles that are often developed. It would have been interesting to acknowledge the effect of various group-member roles at each of the four stages of group dynamics, and consider the position of group leader in relation to these.

Another area of further interest again reflects on the mainly Western audience. The issue of how people who have been taught to value individualism, self achievement, and personal self esteem, often to a greater extent than team-work, adapt to the values of working as a key member of a high performing team, is of much interest here. The skills and values developed in individualism are not necessarily the antithesis of those required for team building, as this text indicates; but the utilization and adaptation of such skills is certainly of relevance to building high performance teams.

In summary, this book is a great read if you need a quick overview of current thinking regarding the practicalities of teamwork and groups. If you want to understand more about such processes and practices, you'll only be starting here.

This book has come to my aid at the most appropriate time. I am in the midst of an exercise, as a leader of an internal task force entrusted with the responsibility of recommending a solution in a short time. This group is heterogeneous, drawn from different departments with a common problem on hand.

The four stages of group behavior (orientation, dissatisfaction, integration, and production) as described in this book, and the different styles of leadership appropriate at each stage is very essential understanding for any manager. More than this it is important to diagnose the stage at which the group is in and what action the leader needs to take to lead the team quickly to the Production stage.

This is a must read for all managers who wish to understand group behavior - for achieving optimal output.

I bought this book with the hope that it would help me figure out a slightly more complex than average home wireless setup. The book is extremely thin, with most of the content being a walkthrough of various screens in windows to configure the client portion of a wireless network.

Very little attention is given to how to configure a house with a DSL connection and wireless networking internally. There was no useful information at all on the setup I would like to create, which would have one DSL line but multiple wireless zones in the house.

This book may be useful for those who have absolutely no knowledge of wireless networks, but for anyone beyond that level I would not waste the time or money on it.

(No relation to the author) It is true that dynamite sometimes comes in small packages and this book proves it. If you are in need of a starting point with Wi-Fi/802.11 based technology, this book will help you. If you or someone else you work with needs a high level overview of the technology and the benefits it provides, then this book is for you. It is not designed to go in depth or into all of the technical issues that revolve around this topic. But it does a fantastic job of giving you the basics in a very easy to read and understand manner. The only reason that I did not five this book five (5) stars is because it spends a large number of pages showing how to install and configure various clients. It really was not needed. I own 7 different WLAN adapters and they are all different. Other than give an idea as to what you might face or see, I don't think it really adds much and gets a little more technical than the general audience is going to want. Other than that, you can go wrong with this book.

If you are looking for a book to help you with the pragmatics of setting up a 802.11b (wi-fi) wireless network in your home or office, this book is filled with information. The installation tips saved me alot of time, and the chapter on Security was very helpful. I also liked the big picture material included by the authors, such as case studies and interviews with people who are wireless gurus.