If you are looking for a practical guide to improve your schools, you have found the right book! The author has given us a wonderful primer, showing how to raise student achievement using simple yet powerful ideas that have proven so successful in the world's best schools and school districts (as well as in the fields of business and government). School administrators, business partners, teachers, and teacher trainers will find this book worth its weight in gold. (The author was a classroom teacher, and it's obvious that he knows a lot about this subject.)

Half of this book's pages are beautiful 4-color photos of boats (mosly sail, but some power), underway, at anchor. For each, Hughes (a sailor and a pastor) has penned a reflective poem focusing on the Lord and his goodness. Wonderful. I had a copy years ago, lost it, and yesterday my wife found a used copy for me - what a joy. This is a treasure you will use frequently.

Everyone should get the repair manual for their car from Haynes or Chilton. These are great books that provide very detailed information for you to make most repairs.

I firmly believe it's a good idea to use this as a reference to at least learn to do basic maintenance. This book will end up saving you a lot of money and it will ensure that your car lasts for a long time. For the more experienced do-it-yourselfer, you already know what a great book this is for auto repair, so there's no need to convince you.

If not to do your own repair work, consider this to help you understand your car and better communicate with your mechanic.

If John Jay Chapman is remembered at all these days, it is as an eccentric who once thrust his left hand into a coal fire in penance for mistakenly beating up a friend. This is as if Vincent Van Gogh were to be remembered only for cutting off one of his ears.Chapman was, in fact a brilliant and passionate writer in many genres, an unrelenting foe of social injustice,and a penetrating critic of American philstinism and materialism.The last anthology of Chapmans writings appeared in the late nineteen fifties , and was edited by Jacques Barzun, who has supplied a fine ,judicious introduction to the present collection.A welcome feature of the present volume is a selection of Chapmans unpublished letters--some of the finest everwritten. One of them includes one of the most brilliant and succinct analyses of Lincolns life and character that I have ever read. One can only hope that a Chapman revival will take place, and that someone will eventually get around to doiing similar anthologies for Sydney Smith or Albert Jay Nock.

I read John Ridley's first novel, 'Stray Dogs' and was pleased. Beyond that, however, it didn't blow me away. It was nasty, compact and smartly written, but in the end I deemed it merely servicable. Thank God I picked up his sophmore effort to show me exactly how much Ridley has grown as a writer. Love is a Racket is smarter, funnier, edgier, more densely plotted and filled with a cast of deeply written characters. Plus, the ending was brilliant; both unexpected, and, if you think about it, the only way the whole thing could have ended up. All great writers get better with age; it's part of the evolution of their craft. With a second book this good, I can't wait for the release of Mr. Ridley's next book, 'We All Smoke in Hell.'

John Ridley's new novel put's him right up there in the company of America's greatest crime writers. His first novel, "Stray Dogs", was a smart, nasty little noir, all full of twists and turns that kept Ridley and his book at least one step ahead of the reader, but in "Love is a Racket" he tells a great story and he creates some of the most memorable characters you'll meet in any recent fiction. He's also got a wonderfully sly sense of humor . This is a novel where someone's always the brunt of a con or a good joke, the reader included. (Yep, and when you've been fooled by a master -- and Ridley is a master -- it's surprising how good it feels.) Read "Love is a Racket" and you'll be reminded that Elmore Leonard's just a pit stop on the way to better stuff.

John Ridley gets better with every book I read. I look forward to his novels with baited breath. I read Stray dogs (it became the movie Uturn, I believe) anyway The book was soo much better than the movie and then Love is a racket blew me away with the action and the things that can happen when you least expect it and then Everyone smokes in hell came out and I liked that even more, if he keeps it up he will be the only author I like enough to buy hardcover! if you like Quentin Tarantino movies you will like John Ridley's books even more. He is one of the best thriller/action fiction writers of his time.

If you are going to read "The Federalist Papers," you must also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers" in order to get the complete picture. Both books cross-reference each other and both are instrumental in understanding how our government was designed and how it was intended to work. In addition to the Papers, this edition also contains the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and an excellent introduction by Charles Kesler.

In a time when each colony had its own "constitution," the Federalists believed in creating one strong centralized government (with one Constitution) that could effectively represent the people. The authors and supporters of the Constitution knew that they could not afford to lose the vote in the state ratifying conventions. In an effort to win over his home state (New York), Alexander Hamilton, with the assistance of James Madison and John Jay, began a collection of 85 essays and published them under the pseudonym of "Publius" (named after one of the founders and heroes of the Roman republic, Publius Valerius Publicola). The Papers, published in 1787 and 1788, analyze and defend the proposed Constitution of the United States.

The Federalists succeeded in winning the colonists' support. But, even though the anti-federalists lost, their ideas were also brilliant and made an important contribution to the history of our government, which is why you should also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers."

This book is a must-read for all Americans. After reading this book, you will have a renewed appreciation and admiration for the wisdom and vision of our founding fathers.

If you are going to read "The Federalist Papers," you must also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers" in order to get the complete picture. Both books cross-reference each other, and both are instrumental in understanding how our government was designed and how it was intended to work. In addition to the Papers, this edition also contains the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and an excellent introduction by Charles Kesler.

In a time when each colony had its own "constitution," the Federalists believed in creating one strong centralized government (with one Constitution) that could effectively represent the people. The authors and supporters of the Constitution knew that they could not afford to lose the vote in the state ratifying conventions. In an effort to win over his home state (New York), Alexander Hamilton, with the assistance of James Madison and John Jay, began a collection of 85 essays and published them under the pseudonym of "Publius" (named after one of the founders and heroes of the Roman republic, Publius Valerius Publicola). The Papers, published in 1787 and 1788, analyze and defend the proposed Constitution of the United States.

Obviously, the Federalists succeeded in winning the colonists' support. But even though the anti-federalists lost, their ideas were also brilliant and made an important contribution to the history of our government, which is why you should also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers."

This book is a must-read for all Americans. After reading this book, you will have a renewed appreciation and admiration for the wisdom and vision of our founding fathers.

I found this book to be one of the best books I ever read. Instead of giving a lay understanding of some of the arguments, I would like to note what I found exceptional about this book: the footnotes. The footnotes of this book gave detailed accounts of historical references made that shed much light on where the arguments were coming from. There is so much to be had from this book that I know I will read it at least five more times. Should be required reading by all Americans.

Dolan's Phoenix is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years. I could not put it down. It reveals the complicated, fascinating dynamics of his family before and after his brother suffers from a fatal tragedy. Yet it never feels maudlin or self-pitying in any way. In fact, the book has such a sharp sense of humor even in its darker passages. Reading this book made me think a lot about my own family: issues of silence, jealousy between siblings, and the need to redeem oneself. I was sad when the book was over. I really cared about these character and their dramatic, interesting lives. I hope Dolan writes a sequel. He creates characters that I want to spend even more time with.

This is, by far, one of the best memoirs I've read in years--a brutally honest exploration of family dysfunction coupled with the heartbreakingly tragic death of a big brother. Phoenix is a gripping, absorbing, and illuminating read. It's a book you'll read and re-read for years.

Maybe it's because I'm living in Phoenix that I felt so close to this story, that I felt the heat. But then again maybe not.

Resonating from his current focus, be it Vuarnet sunglasses or a pretty nurse tending to his brother, we discover what's happened in these lives, how this family came to such a state.

For Dolan, he was a weed fiend. He was the road manager for Cher. He was the background in the portrait of a famous desert motorcycle racer.

With the glut of memoir in the publishing market these days, this is one that deserved to be written and has to be read.

I bought this as research material for codes of conduct. The feel of the book shows the writers background in the clergy, the book focuses more on the traditional courting behavior than on love itself. Its wonderful as a complex example of a code of conduct, but sheds little light in the direction of true relationships. Very interesting as a period piece, its seems to be more reflective of the romantic visions of the middle ages than the reality.

This is a must read if you are at all interested in medieval life. Aside from being the premiere treatise on "courtly love," there are interesting historical issues raised by this book.

For example, in the section "What persons are fit for love," Capellanus says that "Age is a bar, because after the sixtieth year in a man and the fiftieth in a woman...passion cannot develop into love..." The conventional wisdom holds that most people did not live much past 40 in those days. Evidently Capellanus ran across a few people in their 50s and 60s, in addition to his encounters with nuns. (You will have to read the book to find out more)

Andreas Capellanus, chaplain at the court of Countess Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wrote this treatise on courtly love in the 12th century--ostensibly to educate a friend--and thus set a new standard for lovers. Capellanus' work may have been intended as a satirical reworking of Ovid's Ars Amatoria, or it might have been influenced by the Arabic views of love in The Dove's Neck-Ring by Ibn Hazm a Mozarabic writer of the 11th century. Whatever his intent, his work, The Art of Courtly Love, influenced the aristocracy's ideas of social relationships, and the portrayal of male-female roles in romantic literature, well into the Renaissance. In a series of conversational examples between men and women of various classes together with a list of rules of love, Capellanus draws distinctions between the relationship of marriage and the relations between true lovers. Within the context of courtly love the true lover is required to pay homage to and do the bidding of his ladylove above all else. True love according to Capellanus does not exist between husband and wife, but is a state sought by all outside of the marriage bed. He states, attributing the sentiment to "M., Countess of Champagne", that "Love cannot acknowledge any rights of his between husband and wife". This attitude is understandable in a society where marriages were contracted for position and fortune.

In one of the sets of rules for lovers set forth by Capellanus he states that "No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons". This would justify romantic relationships of which women were otherwise deprived. Before modern times, love was rarely a factor in choosing a spouse, and yet it is perhaps the strongest force that drives mankind. Capellanus both acknowledges and rationalizes the power love holds over men and women alike. The path to true love is never easy, and the rules of courtly love would have it that where there is love there, too, is suffering. It is by his great distress that the beloved can see how greatly the lover loves. Although love that suffers chastely and from afar is held in esteem, Capellanus also says that kisses and embraces are "indications that love is to follow" and should not be overdone if the lover is not sincere. This seems to acknowledge the human need for sexual action to follow seduction. Appropriate action with gifts and flattery is described by Capellanus in his dialogs for seducing the beloved. Care must be taken in the choice of gifts, since by the rules of courtly love exchange of valuable objects debases the relationship and lovers may only accept those "little gifts" "useful for the care of the person" or "pleasing to look at" as long as there is no "avarice" involved. This rule led to the carrying by knights of tokens or "favors"--gifts of their ladies--in tournaments throughout the Middle Ages. Seduction has four steps according to Capellanus: first should come the offer of service (or if by a lady the giving of hope to the suitor), followed by the granting of kisses and the embrace--in which a couple may even lie down together nude, having no actual sexual congress, with no blame attached. If the final fourth step is taken, yielding to sexual relations, the lover is committed and can not withdraw from the relationship with honor for any less reason than a seriously dishonorable action on the part of his or her partner. These elements of courtly love appear again and again in literature of the Middle Ages from Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" to Malory's Morte D'Arthur.

Perhaps the most interesting influence in Capellanus' life is that of Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of England and wife to King Henry II. Eleanor was already instrumental in the production of early courtly romances, especially the Arthurian tales. Wace dedicated his "Brut" to her, Thomas of Britian wrote his "Tristram" at her instigation and Chretien de Troyes wrote his Lancelot romances from material given him by her daughter Marie. Eleanor's life reads much like one of these romances. Duchess of Aquitaine, she married Louis, the king of France, at a young age, and produced two daughters Marie and Alix. She met Henry II, six years her junior, before he became king of England and then divorced Louis, on a consanguinarity technicality, to marry him. The rumor was that she and Henry, like Lancelot and Guinevere, met secretly while she was still legally married to Louis. When Henry later tired of her she again took up regency of the Aquitaine for her son Richard, and with her daughter Marie held liberal and literary courts where troubadours sang and courtiers waited upon ladies. Together Eleanor and Marie set a standard of chivalrous manners that changed the behavior of all knighthood. As a pastime these highborn ladies held "courts of love" wherein they tested the behavior of lovers, by the standards set in Capellanus' treatise, vindicating those they found to be "true lovers" and pronouncing penances for those found lacking. If not for the influence of the strong minded Marie de Champagne and the formidable Eleanor--women who wanted more of love than the usual marriage of convenience--Capellanus might have been relegated to the obscurity of the Church's proscribed text list, and our standards of romance might be very different today.

The GoLive 6 Magic book from New Riders looks like a miniature coffee table art book. It contains 244 pages and a CD. I was struck by the beautiful black & white photos of nature at the beginning of each chapter and the multitude of screen shots. The introduction states that Adobe® GoLive 6 is an extremely powerful and easy to use visual web authoring tool popular with high level designers and graphic artists while also empowering web novices and advanced users alike. The author assumes that the reader of this book probably already knows the basics of GoLive but wants to go on to the next level. You want to know about multimedia, creating actions and extensions, building dynamic web sites and coding for hand held devices and more. There are also many time saving tips, tricks, and real-world solutions in the book. More and more people are using hand held devices to access the web and so you have to take into consideration that particular i-Mode. You can test your site on different i-Mode devices (via emulation software) to render the graphical and text content.

GoLive 6 Magic was especially timely for me because our User Group web site is being remodeled. Two of the new features we want to incorporate are included in the book: collapsible DHTML menus using ID actions and creating an action to display random images. Collapsible menus afford you to display many items in a limited space. When you roll over a main menu item, it displays a sub-menu of more items with links.

The CD contains all the necessary files to perform the various customizable exercises as well as demo versions of related software. The CD opens by double-clicking. I tried the exercise to create collapsible DHTML menus with sub-menus using ID actions. Wow! It was so easy. The book walks you step by step through each project and also displays an accompanying screen shot. I set up the CSS files (Cascading Style Sheets) once and customized my font display. This is better than doing each link one at a time. I used a font family such as: Arial, Helvetica, Geneva and SunSans Regular. Although you can assign any font on your computer to a CSS style, your page's viewers can only see the fonts installed on their computers. You tailor your web page so that all the fonts look good on the page. If the viewer does not have Arial on his computer, it will default to Helvetica if installed and so on. A web designer stays with the fonts that most everyone has installed on both platforms. Well, the project turned out just as it was supposed to and it was easy besides. Besides tips there also were explanations for why you do a certain thing. I'm sold, this book is a definite winner!

Great book for Golive users who want to go to the next level.

Golive is a very powerful web authoring program and Golive 6 Magic is very good in showing some of the features that I might have never duscovered on my own.

Text macros, Quicktime and Flash sniffer techniques, creating Quicktime sprites and skins, cool DHTML projects (I like the online calender), authoring your own javascript actions, getting into the SDK, setting up your own Dynamic database content management system with PHP and MySQL are some of the 14 projects included.

There is a companion CD that has all the data for Golive 6 to use when you follow along with the book.

Some of the projects seemed a bit intimidating to an intermediate user like myself, but the book is layed out so clearly that it was fun to delve into the projects.

I have set up my own MySQL,PHP database for the first time thanks to Golive 6 magic ( a sample database is included).

This is a needed addition to the Golive library.

I confess that I'm a fellow author of an Adobe GoLive book, and I love this title. Why? Because it offers long, detailed, masterful tutorials on some of the most complex and underdocumented features in GoLive that can also be incredibly powerful, especially for increasing efficiency and flexibility. GoLive 6 Magic lets your creativity get further unleashed by removing the restriction of relying on your own smarts to learn the most advanced features in the program.

I was relieved to read GoLive 6 Magic because it's the graduation present for our readers: many topics on which we can touch briefly or offer a simple overview are presented across several pages with illustrations and accompanying examples on CD-ROM.

You learn not only how to use advanced graphics tools, but how to modify GoLive Actions (plug-in JavaScripts) and build rich dynamic content.

Far be it from me to suggest you buy both this book and my book, but they're a nice complement to each other. If you've sucked the marrow dry of beginner and intermediate sources, buy this book: it'll help you master the rest of the program.

I love great literature, and once-upon-a-time, I tried to focus on the National Book Award winners, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other international authors who could tell a good story in an interesting way. For variety, I read the earlier Stephen King books, and some "hard" science fiction, like Bob Forward. In a funk, and bored with several wonderful books I was plodding through, I heard an advertisement for "Mind Prey" (the previous "Lucas Davenport" novel) by 'John Sandford.' In a moment of -- for me -- consumer frenzy, I saw it at a local drugstore and bought it. Wow! I researched the author, and began to get his "Prey" books and read them from first (Rules of Prey) to last (Sudden Prey). 'Sandford' really knows how to tell a story; his characters are interesting and believable, and while there's plenty of "blood and guts," its all in the context of solid, you-are-there plotting. Sudden Prey, as usual, made me stop in the middle of a chapter, and say aloud, "no, no: that can't happen!" Sometimes I was right, sometimes I was wrong, and I give all the credit in the world to 'John Sandford' for getting me involved enough to care about the characters he creates. And, I still enjoy the National Book Award-type "good" literature I once thought was the only thing "intelligent" people should read. I'll read everything this guy puts out. If Sudden Prey is your first Sandford book, you'll go back and read the rest -- and I recommend them all. Jack Flynn

I've read them all in order. It's great watching the Lucas Davenport character evolve. Sudden Prey was definitely the best Prey book. Non stop action, you can't put it down. Dick LaChaise is an animal, a great villain. I loved his character.

Read 'em in order to fully appreciate the Prey series. John Sandford delivers as usual with this one!

Lucas Davenport is the detective in charge of the investigation. Davenport's ability to unfold the plot is extraordinary. This time he finds murder is hitting close to home. The action is non-stop and I could not put it down. Davenport finds the motive for the killings are revenge. I loved reading this book, once you start to read you are hooked!