Illustrated Sourcebook of Mechanical Components has lots and lots and lots of line drawings of machinery components. The drawings are clear and simple. Each is accompanied by a well written description, usually a few lines but longer if needed. An interesting book for anyone mechanically inclined. For engineers there are tables and formulas where needed. A great book.

I am an ME for a company which builds CNC's, and like the book very much. The illustrations show each idea without exraneous parts, and the accompanying explanations are very clear. It also has tables and equations to lay out some of the mechanisms. It is an excellent idea jogger and has good entertainment value for people who are mechanically inclined.

I can't thank the author enough for the Illustrated Sourcebook of Mechanical Components. It is as interesting to study as any book I've seen in a long, long time. It is as engrossing as a crossword puzzle can sometimes be. My observation is that the sourcebook presents an almost limitless smorgasbord of engineering examples and principles seasoned with a unique sauce of tinkerer's ingenuity and common sense. Thanks again for the Illustrated Sourcebook of Mechanical Components. It will be the jewel of my professional library.

This outstanding, informative, and well written Karate/Kumite manual will serve anyone who want to be a champion very well. This book covers all aspects of the sport: History, Psychological, Fitness, Technique, Strategy, and Tactics in knowledgeable detail. In addition, it outlines (in painful detail) the training schedule and program necessary to be the best. Everyone will find the first parts of this book applicable to almost every aspect of life, Karate and otherwise. The long detailed training procedures will be for those who would be Champions only.

A must read for anyone who strives to be the best they can in martial arts...or life in general. The guideposts and tools in this book are applicable to people of all ages and provide a handbook for expanding your capabilities in all aspects of life. Read this and learn what it takes to be a champion and what separates the best from the rest.

Awesome! This is a most comprehensive overview of kumite. Excellent layout and useful guidebook for karate enthusiasts of all ages and all skill levels. A must own for anyone who loves karate and wants to hone their skills , improve their results, and expand their knowledge-base of this martial art.

The approach that Mr. Joseph Zbukvic uses in his book is fascinating. For me, he takes the mystery out of painting watercolor and breaks it down into a more understandable approach. What I like about it is that he explains the different consistencies that paint should be when applied to the paper. His consistency of paint is described as: tea, coffee, milk, cream and butter. The dampness of paper is described as: dry, damp, moist, and wet. He ties these ideas together by using a concept of a clock. The concept of a clock is used to explain when and how paper and paint should be used together. An example of one of his demonstrations: laying in the first background wash to paper, the paper is dry and the paint is in the consistency of tea. His demonstrations in the book are clear and easy to understand especially with this "clock" method. He also writes very well and it is an enjoyable read. I love the way he paints and the price of the book alone is worth just looking at his paintings.

The example paintings in Joseph Zbukvic's "Mastering Atmosphere and Mood" are stunning. By manipulating the amount of moisture ON the paper and IN the wash of paint, Zbuvic creates strong contrast between ethereal washes and densely painting architectural or landscape elements.

Zbuvic uses a device he calls a clock, which consists of a circle divided into wedges; the left side gauging the amount of water on the paper (from shiny wet to bone dry) and the right side gauging the amount of water mixed into the paint, from weak "tea" to "butter" or thick paint. This is rather original, but it does communicate an awareness of the moisture levels in both paint and paper to the artist. One example painting that really stands out is a rainy scene of downtown Melbourne, Australia. The street is lightly washed to allow the paper beneath to create the white shine of a wet street; the buildings and headlight reflections are painted more densely to provide either solidity (the building) or glow (the headlights.)

Most books on watercolor demonstrate a layered method of washes followed by glazes (paint over paint.) The end result can often be muddy for beginners in watercolor. This method is quite different in how it describes laying down washes and glazes, and can help the watercolorist achieve transparent atmosphere effects by paying attention to the water. If you've run into a brick wall with your current method of painting, this might be a great book to give a boost to your technique.

I think this book is essential for one trying get a handle on this sometimes frustrating medium. One of the critical parts in watercolor painting is judging the amount of water in the paper and on the brush to get the effect one seeks. It's a tricky process but one which this friendly book makes understandable and attainable. I've been painting for 25 years and have bought scores of books on the subject, finding something useful to nearly all of them. But this book, along with two others, I consider to be MUSTS. The others are Robert Lovett's "The Art of Designing Watercolors" and Tony Couch's "Watercolor: You Can Do It."

It does not matter if you all ready are a "fort-geek" or some one, who just want a book on the topic: This book will for sure please you.

"The Medieval Fortress" is a nice big (app. 11" x 8.5" or 28,5 x 22 cm), 319p. book, which covers the development of fortified places through out Europe and North-Africa from the early to the late middle ages - when the forts had their glory.
The book is built up of five main chapters. The First deals with the elements of a fortification; the Second deals in general with the different kind of fortifications in different parts of Europe (Islamic, Byzantine, Frankish, British, Norse, Slavic and Magyar (Hungarian)); the Third does the same, but with emphasis on the emerging castle; the Fourth chapter introduces gunpowder and the decline of the high castle walls through the description of several sieges (Constantinople, Rhodes, and siege of fortifications during the Reconquista); Chapter Five goes in depth with some selected fortifications in Europe: Some of the more famous ones and some more obscure. The reader is guided through fortifications/castles in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Low Countries, Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia, Central Europe (present day Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovenia) Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain&Portugal, and North Africa. The appendixes gives the names of some more important builders and architects and their titles in different languages (French, Portugese, Spanish, Duch, Sweedish, and Russian), a chronology of important sieges from 623 (Constantinople) to 1529 (Vienna), a history of medival artillery and a glossary.
There are endless amounts of B/W pictures alongside with even more B/W line drawings and plans of forts, just like on the front cover of the book.

This book is a very good buy!

(Review based on First DaCapo Edition, 2001)

If you liked Sydney Toy's book on Castles, you will love this one. Covering the earliest origins of castles to their decline at about the time of the Rennaisance, this book is a must-have for anyone fond of castles or interested in the middle ages. Although it has only black & white pictures and other books may contain a larger number of castles, this book is incredible in its scope of the subject and covers much history of the important castles and towns of Europe in the middle ages. Reading about this history and seeing pictures of the fortresses & towns gives me a feeling of how it was like to be there. I now have a wish-list of ancient towns & strongholds I would like to visit. The book has many 'basic' floorplans of castles & towns as well as rough maps of the regions talked about. Enough info for many book reports; great for design ideas since the coverage spans hundreds of years & styles of construction from All over Europe.

The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts And Walled Cities Of The Middle Ages is a superbly researched and presented historical survey of the castles and other walled defenses of medieval Europe. Fortification specialists J.E. Kaufmann and H.W. Kaufmann explain the origins and evolutions, compositions and components of these structures, along with their offensive and defensive strategies, weapons, and modifications. The informative, photographically illustrated and engaging text is enhanced throughout with technical artist Robert M. Jurga's illustrations, detailed technical drawings. The Medieval Fortress is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any personal, academic, or public library medieval studies reference collection or reading list.

A lot of the material in this book shows up in many of Groucho's other books, but the new material is very entertaining. Not quite as funny as the Groucho Letters, but a must for any Groucho fan...

Though best known as a performer, Groucho Marx always cherished the opportunity to express himself in writing. Robert S. Bader has collected a large number of his short works -- some of them autobiographical, others comic essays and letters -- most of which have never been published before in book form. Unlike the recent collection "The Essential Groucho," by Stefan Kanfer, which contained excerpts from Marx Brothers plays, films, and television shows, all the pieces collected here were written by Groucho himself (or were they? Bader's long, well-written introduction discusses the contributions of Groucho's silent collaborator, Arthur Sheekman). Not every one is a gem, but on the whole the collection is delightful. A "must" addition to any Marx collection.

One of the greatest books I've ever read on Groucho's written humor! Very complete! New info for old fans! I loved it! ....

While Robert Weinberg's prose may be somewhat informative, it rarely aspires to be anything more than wooden in its delivery, and it doesn't give you any further information that a diehard horror fan wouldn't already know. The problem, and the only problem, with this book is that it is not very well written. However, the full-page, full-color photographs from movies, magazine and book covers, and comic books are gloriously printed. This book is huge, too, and well worth the $60 cover price. If only the writing didn't make you feel like you'd just taken a handful of valium!

"Horror of the 20th Century" is a superb literary history of the horror fantasy genre in every media format the 20th century had to offer, including pulp magazine, paperbacks, hardcover novels, comics, radio, television, and the movies (from the early, primitive silent films to the modern, special-effects-laden, big-screen epics of today). The entire spectrum is represented for the short story, the novelette, and the novel. Robert Weinberg's informative, fascinating text is profusely illustrated on every page with full color photographs of wonderful magazine, book, and movie poster art. All of the major authors are represented along with a wealth of biographical information on them and their particular contributions. "Horror of the 20th Century" is a "must" for all horror fantasy buffs, pulp magazine and book collectors, and is a very highly recommended addition to academic and community library collections.

This is a top quality hardcover book. The information in it is priceless; it is like rediscovering an old friend with whom you have lost touch over the years. The history is recounted at a leisurely and always enjoyable pace, with the narrative caressing the illustrations encouragingly. And it is the lavish illustrations that make this the book that it is. They are superb. The reader, serious or casual browser - both are treated courteously - is treated to page after page of covers and artwork - from books, magazines and periodicals through the ages, from early in the century to the present day. The publishers have done a marvellous job and they and the authors are to be commended highly.

Earlier works by Robert Clark have suffered from the 'dark photograph' syndrome found in many martial arts books.

This publication shows the improvement that can be achieved with first-class camera work and proper use of placing Tori and Uke in light and dark Gi (clothing for practise).

Anyone who is making a serious attempt to improve their range of techniques for grading purposes etc. would do well to purchase this book as it is an easy reference to throws, ground techniques and finishes.

I have also purchased the White to Green Belt and the Black belt publications in the same series, which are equally high quality publications.

Buy these books, they are worth every penny in saving your practise time and improving your rate of progress.

This book, like the others in this series comes highly recommended.

Robert Clark is one of the biggest names in British ju-jitsu. This book illustrates the moves required to pass his "World Ju-jitsu Federation" grading scheme.

Since he was one of the first on the scene in the UK it has had a great influence.

This book provides a solid foundation for any jitsuka.It is clearly illustrated (with the author performing the moves) and well presented.

A "must have" book.

A great book. I would recommend to anyone. Step by Step instructions. Great for beginners.

I needed to get this book for a Deaf Perspectives class at my college, but now that I have read it I am glad. The book gives a good idea of what it like to grow-up as a Deaf person and how to deal with it. I think this book is good for anyone who has just become deaf or has just learned that their child is deaf. It will help them understand what life is going to be like and also that it is not the end of the world.

I am a Sign Language interpreter and my boyfriend of two years is Deaf. I read this book for a Deaf culture class and was fascinated by it. Written from a very Deaf perspective, this book is full of things that hearing people never think of but which I see nearly every day in both my personal and professional life.

This book should be read by anyone who has a Deaf child. It's a real eye-opener. Parents of Deaf children seldom get the kind of help they need at an early enough stage.

I have a Bachelor of Science in Deaf Studies from Boston University, and I think that this book is readable, informative and accurate in a way that sets it apart from the many books appearing now about Deafness and Deaf culture. It's for everyone: Deaf people, students, parents who have a Deaf child, and people wishing to learn more about the subject. I enjoyed it because the facts weren't hidden behind jargon and the personal experiences of the authors came through strongly. This should be the first book a person picks up when wanting to learn about Deafness.

This book is a long overdue explanation of the "Logical Effort" approach to MOS circuit design invented by two of the authors, Sutherland and Sproull, in the late 80's. The technique presented is complete and powerful, and this book should be required reading for all persons involved in high-performance or low-power MOS digital design. Nevertheless, I would not recommend it for beginners without some of what the authors call "instruction from veteran designers." The main shortcoming of the book is a lack of organization---important points are sometimes made in seemingly unrelated sections, and the sections themselves do not always appear to follow the most logical arrangement---and it could stand a more thorough editing job to clean up some of the presentation. Sometimes, I felt that information that was presented in charts would have been much more powerful in graph form. A few of the graphs in the book are misleading (arbitrary scales and unmarked breaks in scales), and some of the mathematical terminology is imprecise. The fact that the authors picked, somewhat arbitrarily, a new definition of the technology delay parameter tau (instead of sticking to the definition established by Mead & Conway in their 1980 book) is annoying. Aspiring asynchronous designers should be cautioned that the two designs for an n-input Muller C-element contrasted in Section 11.2 are logically different. A section contrasting the uses of the logical effort method in synchronous and asynchronous designs would also be welcome. All in all, however, the book is very readable, and it is easy to follow. It would be effective as a textbook, and it is a most welcome addition to my library because it treats a difficult and important topic better and in more detail than any other published work.

This is without a doubt a must-have for CMOS logic and circuit designers. No doubt this will be on my desk for the forseeable future. The first two chapters present a basic introduction to the approach that is sufficient to gain a working knowledge. The remaining chapters delve into details such as applying the method to domino circuits, passgate logic, cells with unequal rise/fall times, and a complete derivation of the method. The authors are well known experts in the field of high speed circuit design, and David Harris' presentation of the material is far from bland and boring. This is one of the few technical books I had a hard time putting down. Highly recommended!

A welcome addition to the field of VLSI with pratical and not ridiculous constraints to establish fast and efficient logic designs. The book could use some introduction topics in VLSI to make the book more broad and probably more appealing as a textbook.

When I first recieved it, I was rather suprised about the size of the book, about 4x6 inches. However, I found many beautiful images inside. I have heard that there is a larger edition of the book if you would want to look into that. This bokk provides images that were taken before the Pieta was to be crated *for what reason I'm not really certain*. It shows all different views, closeups, and details that you wouldn't even imagine. It also has a few pictures of the restorations and some of the damaged areas after the 1970s attack. Very wonderful book for meditation and for aiding reports and such.

I expected a small book when I received it thanks to the reviews.As an artist/sculptor this book was fantastic. It shows my favorite Michelangelo statue in 150 different camera angles and zooms in on detailed areas that you wont see in any other book.It's an excellent study of drapery,composition, and the human form and flesh in marble.I only wish more outstanding sculptures of the world were given this much visual coverage . Artists who want to see true mastery of material will love this as a study reference.It also does give a short history of it's creation and subsequent damage(by a crazed lunatic)and its restoration.The book is entirely in black and white and must be seen to be believed.

Meditating on the pictures helped me to experience one of the most beautiful moments of the history of the Earth. The images stay with me throughout the day. The book was dissapointing only in being too small, about 6 inches by 8 inches.