The quality of the speakers in this collection varied. Some, like those by Fred Friendly and Tom Brokaw, were interesting and thought-provoking but the decline in talent from lecture to lecture was obvious - the last one was by conservative ideologue and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, defending sleeze (sp?) on TV. The editors also did a poor job - all they had to do was transcribe some speeches. The fact that they wound up with spelling and grammatical errors just goes to show how quickly this work was thrown together. My advice - read the offerings by Wicker, Chancellor, Friendly and Brokaw and skip the rest.

With a subtle and graceful precision, Jones renders the lives of gay men and boys in Wales and of Welsh heritage. Through varying viewpoints, he explores notions of family, homophobia, coming out, and more in this excellent collection of short stories. Some of the stories tease and beg for more, and there are a few that are just not as compelling as others. All told, this is a remarkable book that will interest anyone curious about other cultures.

I made the mistake of trying to travel in Brazil with this book. The new editions come out every couple of years or so, but really don't get updated much, which becomes obvious if you try to use the book extensively. Hotels are listed which closed years ago. Maps are next to impossible to use as they show only hotels and restuarants, not landmarks. Half a page will get devoted to the Carmen Miranda museum in Rio de Janeiro, which is freqented only by people who have read about it in LP, is next to impossible to find, and contains next to no history about her, and no artifacts apart from a couple of dresses. After a couple weeks of frustration (thankfully rescued with e-mail advice from Brasilian friends) trying to travel round Brasil with this book, a traveller I met gave me the Footprints guide, which is much more helpful.

The conventional wisdom is that you can't go wrong with Lonely Planet guide, but this Brazil guide proves otherwise. The new 5th edition is little changed from the 4th, except for 1) the new Natural Brazil section. Most travelers will find this section too dry and uninteresting, while those really interested in nature will find it too superficial 2) $5.00 higher price tag.
Useful things, such as info on hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and prices are too often inaccurate. The most annoying aspect of this guide is that all prices are out of whack. LP translated prices (some of which were probably 5 years old) into US dollars when the real was 2.2 per dollar. Now it is about 3.5.
All this raises doubts of whether or not the authors actually went to Brazil to update this edition and not just slapped on a new cover and threw in a new useless section. So, if you have the 4th edition, keep using it. If not, look into buying either the Footprints or the Rough guides. The high popularity of LP is another reason to go with something else. When you go to places recommended by LP, you are very likely to run into hordes of other backpackers clutching their LP guides like bibles and afraid to make a step on their own. On a positive note, the LP guide does have useful info about Brazil's history, economy, culture, society, film and literature.

I lost count of the number of errors in this book. They printed the wrong dates for Carnaval Samba Parades, the prices are in USD rather than in local currency - all wrong by an average 30%, as well. Hotels and restaurants are listed that closed long before the January 2002 publication date, and it's obvious that they haven't been to Brasilia in years - citing it as `treeless` - which I`m sure it was twenty years ago, but not today.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend a better Brazil guide because I don't have any experience with any others, but I enjoyed ceremoniously burning this book when I left Brazil.

The most disappointing is that other Lonely Planet Guidebooks (I have used 5 other ones) far exceed the standards that this one set.

I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I'm doing a MSc in materials and manufacturing processes.
I'm from Colombia, South America. You could say it's a "developing country" but may be not, I find here better books than this.
I'm owner of this book, I thought that an Algor publishing work could be great, but it doesn't.
Using this book, you'll not learn so much about finite elements, it's like a description about what ALGOR can do, but doesn't explains in a good manner what finite elements analysis is.
If you want a really good book, the classic, Zienkiewicz and "The finite element method" could be, Bathe too. But Spyrakos, mmmmmmmmm it's for someone who doesn't know anything about FEA and wants to know what FEA means, no more.
Printing also, it's not as I expected.

This book present the prolems concerning FEM in a very pragmatically way. This implies that: 1) you will soon be able to use this tecnique if you have a mentality used to learn and acquire infos very quickly, but not understanding deeply what is phisically implied in these formulas. 2)You won't be able in a second time to review your work and understand it. That's it. I'm a phisician and have some problem with engineer mentality.

I bought this book because I was starting a math club at my son's school. I was hoping that it would have rhymes that would stick in the kids' minds so that they could remember their math facts. Instead, the poems take some interpretation, and after that is done, one finds that the poem was about a circle (for example). But it does not teach anything about the circle. I thought the book would be useless, but we have had some fun with it. The children take turns reading the poems aloud, while the students listening say things such as, "Huh?" or "What?", or they just fall out of their chairs laughing. This book doesn't help with math, but it gives the kids a good laugh.

As a fourth grade teacher in a low-performing school,I have found that many of my students have difficulty with math "word" or "story" problems. Because some of the students struggle with reading comprehension, combining reading with math often creates a high level of anxiety. I have noticed that using literature and poetry as a basis for math problems helps lessen the anxiety and increase the chance for success. The poems in this book are silly and fun, and tell exaggerated stories about topics children enjoy and relate to: candy, animals, costumes, cleaning messy rooms, etc. The students laugh and enjoy the poems, and are less intimidated to tackle the math concepts than they might be with a traditional "word" problem. Each poem is accompanied by teaching suggestions for classroom and home-connection activities, and most of the poems can be extended for higher-achieving students and fourth or even fifth graders (the book labels itself as grades 1-3). There are a lot of different ways to use the poems - it just takes some imagination. I like "Poems to Count On" because it is one of those much needed windows for students who close the door.

I was mainly drawn to Bulletproof Monk because John Woo, one of my all-time favorite action-movie directors, is helming an adaptation starring Chow Yun-Fat. Woo also wrote the introduction. Along with Mike Avon Oeming's art, that's about all that's worth a look.

The story seems to be patterned after kung-fu movies, but the creators seem to forget that the fun of a kung-fu flick is NOT the dopey plot, or the deep meditations of the tortured characters, but the KUNG-FU. Seeing 2 VERY short action sequences in print is not a thrill....

The characters are all forgettable, and I didn't feel for any of them in the slightest. My sole enjoyment in this waste of money came from the numerous self-congratulatory essays from the various people involved with the book. They practically break their arms patting themselves on the back..
You'd think you were reading about Catcher in the Rye, instead of an overrated amateur-hour piece of junk. Pass at all costs!

I thought the movie increased Jades role and that perhaps she belongs in a jupiter video what with all the sanskrit/tibetan writing on her at the end.

Iloved this bok. Oeming is a GOD. The editorial is incorrect. The movie is being PRODUCED by John Woo. Not directed by. It is directed by Paul Hunter.

The on going tale of the phony horrors the Lutz family suffered at the hands of a 'demonic force' lacks any feeling of credibility. It's just one melodramatic 'evil event' after another. The most ludicrous sequence being a moment where Father Mancuso does spiritual battle with a satanist in a San Francisco head shop (a scene that reads like something cribbed from a Graham Masterton novel). Only passing references are made to the creation of the first bestselling book, the hit movie adaptation, and, in the most revealing moment of the novel, aiding Ronald DeFeo's defense attorney with the story of their unfortunate experiences (for which all this nonsense was created in the first place, to give the insanity plea supernatural credence - it failed). Of interest only to those brave souls wanting to examine how low some people will go to exploit tragic events to make money. Not recommended AT ALL!

Amityville II: The Possession explains in detail the tragedy of the DeFeo Murders. The author caught and kept my eye by using real facts, court transcripts and actual research about the events. He also has a background in psychology which helps him understand and explain what happened. I would recommend the first half of the book. From that point, it talks about the weird happenings of the Lutz family. Instead of the author speaking, it jumps to another woman explaining what she thinks. The book lost my interest then. Even though the book lost the excitment towards the middle of the story, it was still worth reading if you are interested in this type of happenings.

WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS HOW SOME REVIEWS I HAVE READ,PEOPLE PUT THIS BOOK DOWN AND DEPLICTS THE WRONG INFORMATION ON ITS STORY. HERE IS WHAT IT IS ABOUT! IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT THE LUTZES HAUNTED ATTACKS. YES THERE IS ENOUGH HERE TO PLEASE YOU. BUT MORE ABOUT THE AFTERMATH TO THE STORY OF THEY'RE UNBILIEVABLE 28 DAYS IN 112 OCEAN AVE. THIS BOOK COVERS WHY GEORGE SOLD THE FAMILY BUISNES,HOW THE ATTACKS CONTINUED,WHY THEY MOVED AROUND SO MUCH,ALL THE HOWS AND WHYS CONCERNING THE BOOK BEING WRITTEN.HOW THEY FELT ABOUT THE NEGATIVE PRESS SURROUNDING THEM,THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF THEM TRYING TO ENSURE PEOPLE THE STORY IS TRUE! SO IT ABOUT HOW THEY HAVE HANDLED EVRYTHING AFTER THEY FLED 112 OCEAN AVE. TO CLEARIFY THEY'RE STORY BETTER! WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO DETERMIN IF THE STORY IS TRUE OR NOT, WE WE WERE NOT THERE. BESIDE IT DOES MAKE A GREAT HORROR STORY ANYHOW!

For an individual who was as interesting as John Paul Jones, this book does the person an injustice. The vast majority of the book contains copies of letters sent and received by JPJ with little or no analysis or summary comment added by the author. By far its the most boring book on an 18th century patriot that I've ever read. Its actually more a book on the topic of ship building in early New England times and less on the individual and his military accomplishments. I'm sure the time spent for the necessary research to garner the materials is laudable, but I purchased the book to understand the man and his character in confronting the enemy at home and abroad. Although the book is relatively inexpensive, there are numerous books on others such as Daniel Morgan, etc which are worth reading more than once. Sorry if this review offends anyone.

This book is about a group of kids who discover that their substitute teacher is not only a football player for the town team but the bogeyman. While there real teacher {who they think is a vampire} is sick they, they have a very strange sub teacher.
He is tall with large muscle and always wears dark clothes. When a certain kid doesn't do his homework the teacher says he will get him and that night the boy couldn't sleep because there was a strange noise under his bed. His friends thought nothing of it until kids all over the school were scared to sleep. They went to a football game and snuck into the locker room to snoop through the teacher's locker. When they discover his secret he disappears and the regular teacher comes back to school.
Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton wrote this book

I have purchased several chemistry software over the years, and this program is by far the worst. A lot of the videos do not work, and my computer (IBM) frequently freezes up when I run this software. On top of all that, the paranoid distributors of this software make you enter an authentication code each time you want to use the program, so be prepared to constantly have your 70-page manual right next to your pc. This chemistry software is truly frustrating to work with.