I love Degas, so don't get me wrong. For a book as big as it is, it's lacking. Way too much text at the expense of Degas wonderful work. It is a big book, why are there so few big reproductions in it. There could be more color images too. This would have been a great book had they made use of the size and done a better layout between text and image, as all books on artist should be. It also seems like they've left out a lot of good stuff the should have had room for. Overall, it just seems like not much thought went into the actual layout of the book.

I don't recommend it as a keeper book on Degas, however if you find a cheap copy, why not, it is Degas afterall and the reproductions do look decent.

This is a great book for any Degas fan, the color plates are absolutely gorgeous!

This book is incredible! I stumbled upon it at a [local] book store and it was marked down to an incredible [price] so you can bet I snatched it right up. This book goes from his drafts up through wonderful color photoplates. It has a total history of Degas, his family etc. Wonderful! Buy this book!

Most of the tales in this volume are in 1st-person; however, the reader would do well to remember that sometimes stories may chronicle a *deceased* narrator. For one thing, the style I refer to as "flashback/present" involves a present-day narrator who, in the midst of the present-day story, recalls a dramatic story of a past life, which (while complete in itself, as a story) fills in background for the present story. Some stories end in tragedy, some in triumph - and others in both.

"The House of Arabu" (a.k.a. "The Witch from Hell's Kitchen") - As in many Howard stories, the protagonist is a northern warrior far from his birthplace: Pyrrhas, an Argive warrior serving as general of mercenaries in Nippur. Since he burned Anu's temple, no priest will help when the night spirit Lilitu marks him for prey. Pyrrhas extracts a name from his mistress, Amytis, of one who might help: Gimil-isbi, an apostate priest turned diabolist. But did pain bring the truth out of Amytis, or did she lay a trap for hate of Pyrrhas?

"The Garden of Fear" - Flashback/present, courtesy of James Allison's remembrance of a past life. (In this life, a riding accident left him with the need to live in the past.) As Hunwulf, the narrator once fell in love with Gudrun, and the pair fled from the vengeance of the Aesir tribe after Hunwulf slew Gudrun's promised mate for her sake. Having fled across terrain that no one less desperate would attempt, they fancied themselves safe when they reached a peaceful little village on the far side of the mountains. They didn't understand the villagers' signs of distress at their intention of travelling further south, not sharing a common language - until the assault of a winged fiend, and its kidnapping of Gudrun, made their fears all too plain...

If this one appeals to you, see also Howard's "Wings in the Night" in _Solomon Kane_, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's _Falcons of Narabedla_.

"The Twilight of the Grey Gods" (a.k.a. "The Grey God Passes") - One of Howard's depictions of the battle of Clontarf, beginning well before the battle. See also "The Cairn on the Headland" in _Beyond the Borders_, in which the aftermath of the battle is remembered (somewhat differently) in a flashback.

"Spear and Fang" - Often Howard depicts humanity as under siege from other species who once owned the Earth - the snake-people fought by Kull, for example. His treatment of this theme is much less supernatural than that of his friend Lovecraft, but if you like one, try the other as well. In this tale, a Cro-Magnon tribe lives in a forest haunted by monstrous Neanderthals, although neither tribe, of course, uses those terms. The maiden A-ea fears far more than rape when she's captured and borne away through the forest.

"Delenda Est" - The Vandal conqueror Ginseric and his people are faced with the same problems the Romans had when they conquer Carthage: a small knot of aliens ruling a huge area, too small a group to really change the fundamental character of the place. When a mysterious Carthaginian stranger comes aboard, though, he seems more concerned with Ginseric's dealings with Rome than the taking of his native city.

"Marchers of Valhalla" - Really cool flashback/present, courtesy of James Allison - another tale of one of the migrating tribes of Aesir, this one (an all-male warband) having crossed the ancient land bridge across the Bering Strait to finally reach an area that would later lie near (possibly under) the Gulf of Mexico. When they reach the city of Khemu, the younger men are happy enough to spare it in exchange for food and women. But are the people of Khemu really as accomodating as they seem?

"Sea Curse" - When John Kulrek raped Moll Farrell's young niece, he and his crony Lie-Lip Canool feared no retribution - as the roughest sailing men in Faring Town, they knew no man dared bring them to account, even when the girl's drowned body came ashore, a suicide. Even when Moll, as the local witch, cursed them to their faces, that each would be the other's death, and that the sea that took her girl would not have them, they only laughed and boarded ship for a long voyage. How can she bring the curse home to them, now that Lie-Lip has returned alone and Kulrek jumped ship at Sumatra, a world away?

"Out of the Deep" - Another Faring Town story. Adam Falcon sailed at dawn, only to be washed ashore at dusk, drowned. But rather than kiss him one last time in farewell, his promised bride Margaret shrieks that this is not Adam. Is this merely the horror of a woman at her lover's death, or has she seen what others have not?

"In the Forest of Villefere" - The swordsman de Montour, bearing news of a treaty to the duke of Burgundy, travels both by day and night, even through the forest, despite villagers' tales of bandits - and worse. Meeting a masked stranger, Charles le Loup, after taking a wrong turn, de Montour learns not only the track to Villefere, but something that will change his life forever after.

"Wolfshead" - Dom Vincente da Lusto was an unusual man, who founded his trading empire not in his native Portugal, but on an estate (complete with castle and warehouses) hacked out of the African coast. Once a year, he invited companions from Europe to make merry, once including the narrator as well as his own mink-faced cousin Carlos, and a swordsman of Normandy, de Montour. Something strange was in the air: de Montour, one of the few guests to remain sober, asked certain revellers to bar and bolt their doors in the night. What would attempt to force not only the doors of young women but tough swordsmen?

For those who cannot find or afford "The Ultimate Triumph" this volume is a good sampling of REH's non-Hyborian tales.

"Marchers of Valhalla", "The Garden of Fear", "Spear and Fang", "The House of Arabu" and "Delenda Est" all revolve around Indo-European barbarians (or pre-IE barbarians) in their battles with races (and their gods) whom the barbarians are dispossessing.

"The Twilight of the Grey Gods" (better known as "The Grey God Passes") is a recreation of Brian Boru's ouster of the Vikings from Eire. Its depiction of the god Odin and attendant rites is creepy.

"Sea Curse" and "Out of the Deep" are 2 early Howard efforts at the horror story and have a definite Celtic aura about them. "In the Forest of Villefere" and "Wolfshead" are excursions into the werewolf theme that were well received at the time of their writing.

The back cover blurb promises Lovecraftian horror but that really doesn't show up in this volume of Howard. What is here is an effective presentation of lesser known yarns by the Master displaying his fondness for Nordic, Gaelic and more traditional horror themes.

Robert Howard, author of the short stories collected in "Eons of the Night," is best known for creating the Conan stories. Howard was so successful with Conan that countless authors are writing new stories using the ideas Howard left behind after committing suicide decades ago. But Howard also wrote lots of short stories that are as memorable as anything he ever wrote using Conan as a character. If the collection of stories in "Eons of the Night" is any indication, Howard's suicide robbed fantasy fans of a truly brilliant writer on par with Lovecraft and others in the genre.

In "The House of Arabu," a pre-Nordic warrior wanders into ancient Sumeria and confronts a horror beyond time and space. A curse laid against him for killing a priest leads him to the Sumerian underworld, a rather unpleasant place filled with the spirits of the deceased and other strange beings.

"The Garden of Fear" is set in some unknown time millennia ago. Again, a pre-Aryan warrior and his woman confront a flying beast hiding out in a tower in the midst of a field of flesh eating flowers. This is one of the better stories in the collection. Hunwulf, the warrior, figures out a clever way to get to the tower to save his woman. This is an entertaining story that should have been expanded into a bigger tale.

"The Twilight of the Grey Gods" is the story of how the Irish threw out the Scandinavian invaders at the battle of Clontarf. The "Grey God" refers to the Norse deity Odin, who makes an appearance or two during the course of the story. The battle sequences in this one are phenomenal.

"Spear and Fang" is arguably the least interesting story of the lot. In this short tale, Howard takes us all the way back to the age of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal man. The Cro-Magnons are winning the battle of evolution, but the Neanderthals are still hanging on by hiding out in the forest and attacking the Cro-Magnons whenever they get the chance. Surprisingly, this is a love story, albeit one of the strangest ones ever written. Romance authors have nothing on Robert Howard!

"Delenda Est" is a quick story set in the later days of the Roman Empire. The barbarians are running amok and Rome is in a precarious position. A delegation of Goths is on their way to Rome when a ghost out of the past pays a visit. It seems this ghost is a famous Carthaginian with an old grudge against Rome, and he is determined to see Rome punished for its sins.

"The Marchers of Valhalla" is fantastic. This story alone is worth the price of the book. Texas is the unlikely setting of this story, although it is a Texas none of us would recognize. Delving far back into prehistory, Howard introduces a band of pre-Nordic warriors who travel the world in search of battle and plunder. When they reach the city of Khemu, they discover a city that needs help fighting off an invading army and find a goddess locked in a local temple. The action scenes are again excellent in this tale.

"Sea Curse" and "Out of the Deep" are two stories about a fishing village that experiences scenes of supernatural horror, as a curse finds its mark and a resurrected corpse wreaks havoc on the town.

"In the Forest of Villefere" and "Wolfshead" are werewolf stories involving the same character. In "Wolfshead," an estate on the coast of Africa is the scene of unbridled carnage as a werewolf stalks the halls of the mansion. The natives get restless and go on the warpath against the European settlers. Considering the shortness of the stories, these two really pack a punch.

Robert Howard is sometimes compared with H.P. Lovecraft, an author with whom Howard sometimes corresponded. There are a lot of differences between the two writers, however. Lovecraft's stories employed intricate prose to convey deep terror, while Howard's prose is quite simple. Lovecraft relied heavily on the Cthulhu mythos as sources of evil (Howard did write some Cthulhu stories, but he wrote outside that area more often), while Howard seems to focus more on human characters. While there are a few differences, the similarities are striking. Both writers are able to fill their stories with a pervasive sense of doom, and both resort to the equation "ancient times = horror."

Howard deserves a place on any fantasy or science fiction fan's bookshelf. Be warned that some of Howard's musings seem to have a supremacist tint to them, probably due to the time frame in which Howard wrote them (1930's) and the place in which he wrote them (the American South). Still, Howard is as worthy of adoration as Lovecraft is, and to avoid Howard is to miss out on some great, entertaining stories.

this is a good collection, consisting of many of howard's stories (some don't belong here). howard is always great at combat descriptions and describing man's instinct. the stories here are mostly inspired by things Howard has read. howard can't manage to create the stories as well as usually, also being very uninventive and unoriginal at times. some of the stories were only vaguely interesting. beyond the borders was a better collection

These REH Lovecraftian tales are very good. The collabs with toehrs are average, but REH tales liek HOOVED THING or BLACK STONE are classics. THe atmosphere, the prose etc, all tight and true to his great style.

For all of you loyal Robert E. Howard fans out there this is the ultimate Howardian collection. It gives you an excellent reference point for all of his fiction and how it all ties together. From Kull to Conan to James Allison and all the other beloved characters inbetween. For me it answered a lot of questions and opened up new vistas of REH's brillance. I highly recommend this collection. For all of you loyal H.P. Lovecraft fans out there this adds lots of spice to the mythos. I don't have enough good things to say about this book.

If you love either Lovecraft or Robert E. Howard or even if you are a fantasy adventure or science fiction fan you cannot afford to miss this collection. READ IT!!!!!

We used this haggadah a couple years ago when our kids were five and three years old. It was much too complicated and wordy for children this age. All the younger children were bouncing off the walls only half way through the seder. However, it was beautifully illustrated!

Our children are 4, 6, and 10. This Haggadah is terrific for all of them. It is beautifully illustrated. It has all of the traditional elements of a seder presented in a way that kids can understand, and also will enable you to get through the seder on a brief enough timeline to get the point across within a child's attention span. The book is entirely in English, but also shows Hebrew words for things in the seder and Hebrew blessings.

We fell in love with this Haggadah. Our three year old was very interested in hearing the story in terms she could understand, the text refers to slavery in terms of not being able to go to movies, school, etc. We added playgroups, no treats, and so on. She loved the illustrations and was able to stay interested throughout the book. We look forward to using it this year for our seder. I beleive young children will be able to stay interested in this haggadah much longer than a traditional one. I don't think it is realistic to expect children three to five to be able to sit for an hour of anything. This book should make our evening flow nicely and fun for everyone. The text is not so simplistic that Parents would not enjoy it as much as the children.

This collection offers the reader a very mixed bag. Pulling off an anthology like this is extremely difficult because the stories threaten to be repetitious, tedious, or both. Robert Price has only moderate success here.

The stories are remarkably varied; Price has taken a good cross-section of stories about the Necronomicon and has avoided the repetition problem for the most part. Despite this, some of the stories are quite predictable.

The strength of this collection indeed lies in its variety. When was the last time you read a Mythos story by John Brunner? His story is one of the best of the book. For that matter, Silverberg and Pohl are not well known for Mythos contributions, but they make contributions to this volume.

The real tedium in the collection comes in the versions of the Necronomicon. There's only so much archaically-written gobbledygook a reader can stand. After a page of it, the rest looks like more of the same. Thus, "The Sussex Manuscript" and Lin Carter's contribution are of little interest to the reader. Carter's repeats the same themes again and again, showing some creativity but soon losing the reader's interest.

The value of this collection, then, is limited. Some of Price's other collections present a much more interesting read. This book is one for the dedicated Cthulhu Mythos fan.

If you're a die-hard fan of H.P. Lovecraft's work, and the Cthulhu Mythos that grew from it , then you MUST add this book to your collection!

The book is composed of essentially two sections. The first is a collection of stories, by various authors, concerning the Necronomicon, that blasphemous occult tome invented by HPL. The second part of the book has several versions of sections of the Necronomicon, and commentaries about the tome. Even if you do not find the stories of interest, this book is well worth having for the latter material alone! Most notably included are Fred L. Pelton's "The Sussex Manuscript," Lin Carter's "The Necronomicon: The Dee Translation," Robert M. Price's "A Critical Commentary Upon The Necronomicon," and H.P. Lovecraft's "History of The Necronomicon."

Fear not the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods! Get this book!

For those of us who came early into our addiction to H. P. Lovecraft, the Necronomicon assumes a singular place as the most famous book never written. Lovecraft's non-existent volume, a treatise on magic that unlocks the dimensional barriers that seperate us from Earth's powerful and horrific former rulers, has assumed a life all its own.
The Necronomicon: Selected Stories and Essays Concerning the Blasphemous Tome of the Mad Arab is a wonderful compendium of lore and imagination compiled by editor Robert M. Price. The various stories, prefaced by an informative and insightful introduction by Price,
are all excellent in their own way, but rather uneven in tone. From genuinely creepy tales like "Settler's Wall" and "The Howler In the Dark" to more tongue-in-cheek offerings like Robert Silverberg's " Demons of Cthulhu," The Necronomicon offers a little bit of everything for the hardcore Lovecraft junkie.
For me, the book's real spine lies in the pseudo-scholarly articles that deal with the Necronomicon and its author, the "Mad" arab Abdul Alhazrad, as if they genuinely existed. Included here are such choice items as a biography of Alhazred, a history of the Necronomicon as written by Lovecraft himself, the John Dee Translation of the Necronomicon (an over-the-top parody so hilarious it reads like Shakespeare on acid), and a refreshingly serious , A Critical Commentary on the Necronomicon written by Robert M. Price.
If the idea of ancient tomes of forbidden magic, exotic lands, distant times and unutterably terrifying monsters appeals to you, then this book is a welcome addition to the growing body of Lovecraft studies.

To say it politely, approximately 90% of Dark Valley Destiny is pure, subjective opinion. In fact, this book is not a biography at all (regardless of the author's claims), but is a pseudo-Freudian interpretation of Robert E. Howard's psychological state or mental "life" based on assorted, incomplete, and (in some cases) erroneous facts. De Camp's credentials as a psychologist, or even an amateur psychologist, are not only in question, but non-existent. Dr. Jane Whittington Griffin, whose name is presented as co-author and whose association seems to lend the book an air of respectability and authority, in fact had little to do with the writing of this book due to her untimely death while the book was in the process of being researched and written. Further, Dr. Griffin's credentials as a legitimately licensed psychologist have recently come into question as well.

In his own autobiography, de Camp refers to this book as a "psycho biography," and elsewhere de Camp admits that he had tried to sell the idea of writing a biography on Robert E. Howard to the publisher who considered the subject too dry and suggested that instead de Camp should spice it up a bit by writing a psychological examination and evaluation of Howard's work and life. This de Camp did, and the result is the eminently sensationalistic and yellow-journalistic commentary known as Dark Valley Destiny.

To top it all off, we find that de Camp is not remotely sympathetic toward his subject matter, and he takes pains to use his own moral and intellectual values and positions to criticize and condemn Howard at every step, while at the same time offering appeasing praise. The reader ought to be warned that de Camp's writing style is quite skilled and is meant to be persuasive. Meaning, de Camp will pull the wool over your eyes with statements of "opinion as fact" and unsupported leaps of logic unless you carefully read the book with a detached, critical eye. As a book that presents itself as a factual and authoritative biography, it is a farce and all but worthless. If you read this book, read it with a HUGE grain of salt, and be skeptical.

Although Dark Valley Destiny is not a definitive biography (or even a good one), it is unfortunately the only book yet published which claims to be a biography of Robert E. Howard. The memoir ONE WHO WALKED ALONE, by one of Howard's girlfriends, Novalyne Price-Ellis, is far more reliable and informative, but even this must be read with the understanding that the writer is drawing conclusions based on her own views and biases, which were sometimes made without complete information. Mrs. Ellis, however, had the good fortune of actually knowing Robert E. Howard and the information in her book is first hand knowledge, unlike that in Dark Valley Destiny. It therefore carries much more weight.

The suggestion below that all is opinion and the truth shall never be known is, in part, true. As de Camp mentioned, but quickly ignored, posthumous biography is a somewhat foolish endeavor. There are many points about Howard's life which will simply never be known. Yet, to state that all is opinion and therefore equal is specious and misleading. There are conclusions and opinions which hold up to and are supported by the known facts, and then there are conclusions and opinions which are not. There are conclusions which adhere to standards of validity, and there are conclusions that do not. The task of scholars, and a definitive biography, is to achieve the highest level of factual reliability possible - not to present one's own views or opinions. Where a conclusion is uncertain, its uncertainty must be noted and alternatives offered and explored. In all this, Dark Valley Destiny fails miserably.

If you're interested in reading one author's distorted and biased OPINION of another author, then this book is for you. If, on the other hand, you want to read about the life of Robert E. Howard, look elsewhere. To start, I'd recommend the "Short Biography" of Howard on the REHupa web site, ... and then I'd recommend reading Howard's "Selected Letters" (which are unfortunately out of print but can be found in used book stores). For additional biographical sources on Howard, try The Barbarian Keep web page. ...

L. Sprague de Camp's biography of REH is a very credible (if admittedly somewhat opinionated) account. Frankly, I don't understand the nonsense that some reviewers spout about this book. It is plainly evident that de Camp conducted a good deal of research, being especially diligent to seek out and interview virtually everyone that had known REH. All in all, de Camp based his research on oral and literary sources as well as visiting and studying the places where REH had lived. The value of such was recognized long ago. One need only read Herodotus, Thucydides, or the greatest historian of antiquity, Polybius, to appreciate this. Ultimately, de camp's bio reaches tenable conclusions based upon his research.

At this point in time, a more definitive bio seems somewhat questionable. There are probably very (if any) acquaintances of REH still living. This of course doesn't mean that future bios cannot be written, only that they will find it incredibly difficult to obtain any new material. Very few can ever approach an understanding of REH as de Camp did. After all, he spent a large part of his career as a fiction writer in editing and expanding the Conan series. Instead, future biographers will be sifting among the stones that de Camp has already quarried for them.

Finally, while de Camp was not a professional pyschologist, that in itself does not necessarily disqualify him in analyzing REH's state of mind. The fallacy of expert opinion comes to mind here. Most biographers hold an area of expertise in only one or two fields, and often their subjects will carry them into sundry fields of exploration. That's one reason why professionals published their work, so that others can benefit from the fruits of their research. Geez, excuse my getting off track here a bit, but some people have the lamest, sorriest reasons for not enjoying de Camp's work and appreciating it for the fine work of scholarship that it is. (Accusing de Camp of writing articulate prose with the intention to deceive, as one reviewer suggested, only demonstrates that they are unfamiliar with his prose style.)

Is D.V.D. perfect and without the occassional error found in most bios? By no means, but de Camp isn't trying to hoodwink anyone, and anyone with any critical faculties can disagree with some of his conclusions. That in itself is a sign of scholarship as de Camp has provided enough material to allow the reader to independently verify whether or not s/he agrees.

DeCamp describes Howard in his "Dark Valley Destiny" book, and Novalyne Price describes him in her "One Who Walked Alone" book.

Both are probably right and probably wrong. Read both.

If you want to understand REH, read his writings (and those of his biographers) and make up your own mind.

His was a tortured soul.

I could defend or criticize Howard on many different levels. The truth is (and I hope you agree)is that we've all lost something because his potential had never been fully realized.

To be honest, I borrowed this book from a public library because the bad experience from its precedessor The Innergame of Trading had deterred me from wasting my hard earned money on this.

For detailed review please see my review of the Innergame of Trading because the two books are so similar, of very low value and repeating the same basic trading psychology stuff like a successful trader got to have discipline, focus, bravery to cut loss short and let profit ride ba ba ba,. except that the interview part in Outer is about 100 page longer than that in Inner. (160 vs60) However, the quality of the interview content is even lower.

I really cannot appreciate what the authors claimed on the book cover that their book helped the readers to model the trading strategies of Today's Market Wizards. How? Just by going through the lines of the interview. I am afraid that's more diffcult than achieving a 12 month winning streak.

There are many ideas and examples in this book that i found to be very useful to my trading.

This book is one of the best that I have read on trading. Its a definite keeper. I have read it several times. The book really helped me overcome some serioius problems in my trading -- and I am an experienced trader. The book gave me a fresh, "ah-ha" perspective to trading. Afterwards, my approach to trading improved dramatically.

While some may think the title is misleading, it really isn't. Once you complete the book, you will be able to better appreciate the circle of trading life the authors take the reader on. The middle section, on "modelling excellence" is a little tedious. But in retrospect, I found this section to be really quite valuable, especially the NLP tools. (In recent years, NLP has been credited for improving peak performers, in many highly competitive areas, e.g., sports, sales, management & military training).

If you find the beginnng a bit slow, then I would recommend you begin by reading the last 2 sections first and then proceed to the beginning and read the book all the way through to the end.

Again, I rate this book a strong buy, if not a market outperform!

Great information. But the format needs work. Author credentials and degrees should be included. Author email also. Very lousy format for graphs, which do have useful information. However, the print and keys are literally fuzzy. Perhaps the paper absorbed too much ink, black and white is not sufficient, and the symbols for different concepts are too much alike. So far I have not found mention of NCLEX or applications in nursing.

This book contains most of what you need to understand how computerized adaptive tests (CAT) do what they do. It is a good complement to the seminal book on Item Response Theory (IRT) by Wainer's colleague, Frederic Lord (Applications of Item Response Theory to Practical Testing Problems).

The assumptions that go into item characterizations and test designs are discussed here; these assumptions are frequently glossed over or accepted as "fact" by many in the psychometric field. My own interests are in the type of test called a Mastery test. The test design criteria for a Mastery test are different than those for a general achievement test (e.g., the SAT). The stopping rules, the range of item difficulties, and the next-item selection algorithm should be tailored to the needs of a Mastery test, but this is not always the case. One consequence is that if an examinee misses several items early on in a poorly designed Mastery test, it may be difficult or impossible to recover, because the items at the beginning usually carry the most "weight" toward the final score or grade. Wainer gives a good description of the design criteria for different situations and how to avoid various problems and pitfalls.

Chapter 6, Scaling and Equating, shows the reader how an open-ended logarithmic scoring scale - used by any CAT based on IRT - is converted to a fixed scale such as 0-100 or 0-1000. A variety of methods are available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

This primer is cited by the Microsoft Corporation in their electronic white paper on adaptive testing (along with Lord's book and several other references.) Microsoft also has a sample adaptive test available. This test has at least three incorrect answers in it, and the impact of giving the real correct answer to an item, but having it graded as incorrect, is easily seen. Other items on the Microsoft sample CAT have assigned item difficulties that are out of line with their true difficulties. These types of problems are covered in Wainer's book but not in any of the other references on adaptive testing or IRT that I have perused.

A nice touch in the primer is a chapter-by-chapter "running story" about Cindy and Scott who apply for jobs and go through the adaptive-test-taking experience. The story line is constructed to fit in with the concepts covered in each chapter. Another feature in the book is the inclusion of Exercise/Study Questions at the end of each chapter. Many books on IRT include similar questions and exercises, probably a consequence of being written by educators who write textbooks. Wainer does not include the answers, but they can be deduced if one actually reads the book.

The book does not provide computer algorithms or pseudocode that would allow one to actually create an adaptive test Hopefully, a future edition will provide better guidance in this area. Although almost a decade since its initial publication, Wainer's book is still a good reference book for anyone interested in computer adaptive testing.

If you want to learn more about computer adaptive testing (CAT), this book is the place to start. Chapter four, the best chapter in the book, provides an excellent introduction to item response theory (IRT). If the chapter on IRT seems hard to understand and full of strange mathematical symbols, this reflects the unfortunate fact that ALL the literature on IRT has these shortcomings. This book could contain a lot more information. Outside of chapter four, the information is only marginally useful. Nevertheless, it's the best book on CAT that's currently available. I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn about CAT and IRT. However, if you are weak in math and statistics, you probably won't understand most of the book.

This book, by the editors of the Washington Post, does a good job of describing the events which led to the deadlocked 2000 Presidential election. In addition to detailing the paths which led to the deadlock, the book discusses all the post-election issues in a very readable format. Surprisingly, the books editors seem only slightly tilted towards Gore (especially considering it is the Washington Post, which is noted for its liberal bias), so no matter who you voted for, there is much to be found here for anyone with an interest in contemporary politics.

Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election is a workmanlike and emotionless recollection of the events surrounding the most controversial election of the past 100 years. It is a well organized, easy to follow and not visibly biased view of the relevant events leading up to and following the November 7 Presidential election. Seemingly accurate and double checked to a fault, reading this book left me with the impression that I had just read an excellent 275 page newspaper article and not much more. With almost no humor, lacking any sidebar comments, it is a book Joe Friday would be proud to call his own. While I am a Texan and Bush supporter, I much preferred Jake Tapper's Down & Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency. I guess this means that like most people, when push comes to shove, I'd rather be entertained than informed. I do regret this intellectual weakness and like some of the votes in Florida I may change. But probably not in the next 36 days.

Two things struck me while reading this book, the first is that I doubt there is a book out there that is truly balanced and not somewhat biased. The second thing was that Gore really got the shaft, not so much by the recount wars, but by the election official that came up with the Butterfly Ballot. In the history of the USA this decision ranks up there with new Coke and the XFL, what a mistake. As far as the reporting in the book it was not bad for a review of all the articles they had in the paper, but it did not really dig into the particular issues very deeply. I wanted more detail and behind the scenes with both the candidates. I also wanted more details on the court cases; I felt like the sky-high overview of the issues of the cases did not do such an important issue justice.

In reading the book I think a little bit of a democratic bias comes out, just a little, but enough to notice. I also thought it interesting that they had far more details of the Gore group then the Bush camp, it follows the perception that the Post is somewhat liberal in its views. The book is an overview that came out almost 10 minutes after Gore hung up the phone on the second concession call so there are a few more details out now that they did not get in the book. Overall it is a good effort and a readable book, but not the end all be all on the subject.

If all the books on trading ever written were ranked in numerical order, this book would fall right in the mediocre middle. There is nothing new, insightful or noteworthy in this book, and even though it is short it felt like a chore to read. I rank it in the middle and not near the bottom of the pile simply because there are so many trading books out there that are pure hype and trash. This book at least highlights some worthy points, albeit in a dull and tired fashion.

Melamed aside, the traders interviewed in this book do not seem worthy of interview caliber. I get the feeling that Koppel and Abell were trying to think of a way to cash in on having Leo's number in their rolodex and built this book around it. Another thing that bothered me is that profanity is sprinkled throughout this book in pointless places. I'm no shrinking violet, but what is the point of that? To give the book "street cred?" It just seemed unprofessional and childish.

In Schwager's classic book of interviews "Market Wizards," every trader interviewed had a great track record, and at least one interesting insight into the markets or something unique to say that was worth reading. That book seems to have spawned an innumerable series of poor quality knockoffs, including this one. The traders in "Innergame" have no track records posted, and nothing worthwhile to say. The trader commentary is mostly inane, with many boring side trips into irrelevant or unexplained subjects, and most of the observations are either trite or downright goofy. For example, a cattle trader talks about how even if he is only entering the market with 5 or 10 contracts, he places the trade as if he were doing a 10,000 contract trade. And when he sells, he tries to sell in the same way as if he had 10,000 contracts to unload. Wonderful. These are the kind of insipid observations that neophytes get snowed by, because they just assume there is something there of value that they are missing. There isn't. It's just dumb.

If this is one of the very first books you read on trading, you might think it is ok simply because most of the generalizations made are based on truth. But those points have been beaten to death a million times over and this book does little more than recycle some old lines, then tacks on some lame questions at the end. The self assessment / workbook section of the book has the flavor of a poorly put together motivational / self esteem seminar. Think about yourself. Think about your goals. Visualize cutting your losses and letting your profits run....blah blah blah....

In my opinion books like this are low effort cash generators that prey on the indiscriminate reader attracted to the mystique of the markets. Pick up the original Market Wizards or Reminiscences of a Stock Operater instead- or if you have already read those two, then there is no need to read this one.

I found this book far more useful and informative than any of the many books available on trading psyche.The author's ideas and strategies ring true.If you've read any of the recently popular electronic or day trading books and don't know what is the next step--This book is for you.It is well written,concise,thoughtful and will make you a more profitable trader.

The discussion is highly focused on the psychological requirements for being a top trader. Very succinct writing style that is practical, with no unnecessary pop-psychological meandering. Definitely worth a read.