What some cynics will have you believe is that everyone is a little quirky, and that you should just accept that. Personally, I think that's a laugh. It's true ignorance shining through. The unwillingness to have an open mind and truly accept that there just might be biological reasons for behavior.

I began reading about anxiety disorders years ago, because my wife was having true panic attacks. When my son was born 7 years ago, we knew we would have to keep an eye on him. Now, as a first grader, we're seeing signs of behavior that don't make sense. They aren't just as simple to brush off as saying "he's just being a boy". So I've been reading more about bipolar, ADHD, ADD, and other conditions.

In reading about some of the mental disorders, I was intrigued by the recent acknowledgement of adult ADD. I read the symptoms, and had to face the cold reality that they really fit me. I'm 41 years old with a BA, MS and I'm halfway through my MBA. I've done well in my career and I've been married for 13 years to the same person. By all rights, I'm pretty normal. But I have always been a terrible procrastinator. I've read books on the subject and tried...REALLY tried...to help myself get organized and on track. Nothing I've ever done has helped. As an example, I had a report to write for work last fall. The CEO wanted me to do this. I knew what needed to be done. I knew how to get the research. I knew what the final presentation should look like. I had 5 weeks to prepare. I would sit at my desk, tell myself I wasn't going to get up until I had a good chunk of it done...and then surf the internet. Or work on another project. Or enter addresses in my Palm Pilot. I was distracted by every noise, every conversation in the hallway...even though I had a financial stake in the outcome (my job!).

These things happen all the time, and they have for over 25 years. I've always said they're just part of my personality. A reviewer below wants you to believe that this book is worthless. I can tell you from first hand experience, this book has helped me understand that there may be a biological answer to what I thought was "just my personality". I believe, as one of the authors states, that it is my duty as a husband and father to explore the possibility that I have ADD in a mild form, and seek treatment. If that means I take a pill, so be it. I take a pill for my cholesterol, wear contacts for my eyes, so why wouldn't I treat this as I treat those other bio-conditions?

If you think, just maybe, that you have a hint of one of these conditions, spend the bucks and the hours and read this book. Those of us with "shadow symptoms" are less likely to get diagnosed, because we're not as obvious. We need to help ourselves a little. Ignore the skeptics and cynics...make the decision yourself.

I heard John Ratey speak at a conference on ADD, and had to read this book. He provides fascinating insight into the brain and the origins of mental health disorders. When you read this book you may recognize yourself or other people in your life. Little quirks in personality will suddenly make sense to you. Addictions may be better understood as self-medicating as he explains the effects drugs have on different areas of the brain.
If you are at all interested in mental health issues, you have to read this book. It could change your perception of mental illness.

Especially if you live with engineers or computer nerds. Find out what makes them tick--or tock! They are different, for good reasons.

Try: a little bit of Autism?

We ALL are different, for good reasons!

Find YOUR reason!

A little depression, a little obsessive-compulsive disorder, a little hypomania (which sounds like a lot of fun!)

And what to do about it--if anything.

Extremely interesting, eye-opening!

Could save many foundering friendships and marriages.

This book gives a good introduction to argumentation theory and its twists and turns over the course of its existence. I found it helpful to get started, especially coming from a completely different field. It gives the essence of Toulmin and Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca but I would have liked to see a bit more on Austin and Searle.But then again the references mentioned are very extensive and can be followed up. All in all a good book if a bit pricey for students (whatever happened to the paperback cover?)

I found this to be an excellent book for those with a physics phobia. All theories are explained using simple mathematics thus making it easier to understand. There are several questions worked out with thorough explinations in every chapter and the text explains how each new idea is related to other concepts learned earlier in the book and/or chapter.

There are couple of weaknesses in this text that stand out in my mind. First, there is a section in each chapter that quizes you on conceptual questions but there are no answers in the back of the book making it difficult to be certian about your work. Second, the web page associated with this book is riddled with errors and is not much of a tool. In spite of these problems I would recomend it to someone just starting physics.

While struggling with Giancoli's terrible book, I looked for a better textbook online, and found three other candidates. After buying them all and reviewing them, I returned all of them except for this one.

This is a great physics textbook for those preparing for the MCAT on their own, or for those in an algebra-based physics class. Compared to Giancoli's text, it is fantastic. Why?

1. Plenty of example problems while reading, fully explained in an intelligent and careful manner. Not two or three per chapter, but sometimes ten or more. Again, with exhaustive descriptions.

2. Clear, concise text that truly educates you as you read. Not a rehashed summary of familiar concepts, with important "givens" left out. Some text book authors are simply capable of writing text that teaches (Ege is a great example, for Organic Chemistry). Some should not be writing at all. To be good at physics problems, you first have to understand the concepts. Really understand them. This book explains them the way they need to be explained.

3. Excellent diagrams and tables. At first, I thought the ubiquitous graphics were just eye-candy, as they are (as always, refer to the worst example) in Giancoli's book. But every diagram is useful, and clearly explains a concept.

4. Student Solutions Manual. The most frustrating thing about physics seems to be the unavailability of solutions manuals to go with textbooks. Why this is so, for a field of study that relies so heavily on detailed explanations of problems, makes no sense to me. For all of the other sciences I've studied for preparation for medical school (including calculus), I've easily been able to get my hands on manuals detailing all problems and their solutions. In the realm of physics, though, there seems to exist an elitist attitude that only instructors should have these 'magic books', from which they will dole out a solution or two to desperate students. How colossaly stupid. This textbook is somewhat subject to this failing, in that the Student Solutions Manual contains answers to "selected" problems (roughly 21% per chapter). However, the fact that it has a solutions manual at all lifts it above the other offerings, especially -- you guessed it -- Giancoli's horrible book, which offers no manual to speak of (the "Study Guide" is a useless piece of garbage with no solved problems; don't buy it). In addition, though the solutions manual lacks all the answers, the ones it does have are well-explained and well-drawn, similar to what's in the text. Hopefully one day a physics textbook author will decide to stop treating students like monkeys and publish a great book that educates via giving as much information as possible, not rationing it. This is surely an antiquated practice whose time should end now.

For a fuller understanding of some of the concepts, I also recommend buying a calculus-based text to supplement this one. "Fundamentals of Physics" (same publisher -- Wiley) is a good (and popular) book. I like the 5th edition more than the 6th (it seems less cluttered), although the Student Solutions Manual for the 5th is out of print. If your calculus is rusty, there's hardly any in the first half of the book, and what is there is not complicated -- standard derivatives and integrals. It's a good book to have for gaining a very solid understanding of the concepts, although of a level above what's needed for the MCATs.

Finally, the best review book for MCAT physics is called just that: NOVAs "MCAT Physics". Schaum's outline for pre-Med physics is so lousy, it's amazing. What's even more amazing is how uneven the quality of education materials is. You really have to look around, unfortunately.

This is an excellent book for a high school level physics course or a less than rigorous Physics I course at the college level. It contains no math beyond algebra/trig. For a more rigorous treatment, the book to get is the Serway/Beichner text.

I'm a huge fan of Star Trek, and I will be impressed by almost anywork but this one just didn't go over all that well with me. Sure the writer uses extremely descriptive language and draws you in at some points, but the story line gets very redundant at many points. Sometimes you just want to get up and scream "GET TO THE POINT ALREADY" when reading this book. Bottom Line, if you're a speedy reader and can plow through a book in one sitting you should definenlty pick this one up, casual readers might want to look into more of Peter David's work.

Star Trek-The Next Generation: Dragon's Honor written by Kij Johnson and Greg Cox is a who-done-it complete with mystery and intrigue as Captain Jean-Luc and the Enterprise crew battle an alien armada and are at an exotic Dragon Empire ready to join the United Federation of Planets.

What I liked about this book is the mystery as you try to guess who-done-it with the clues furnished by the author as you read on in the book. There is a wedding between to old foes with mistrust running rampid and this "Royal Wedding" is entrusted for its security on Picard and the Enterprise crew. I like how the fleshing out of the characters in this story were written.

This is a well-written book the will keep you on the edge of your seat. Without the wedding there can be no peace and the treaty with the Federation would never happen... but this isn't all... there is some really bad guys that would stop at nothing to see that peace never happends. Thus, this vicious race plans assassination to all out invasion, just to keep the Empire from joining the Federation and this is where you'll read about Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his formidable skill as a negotiater.

There is action and advenure in the book along with the mystery and intrigue that will keep you reading till the end of the book. This is a classic Picard saves the day book.

I have to give this book four stars because : 1) I like alien races. 2) I enjoy books that deal with Asia and this book has the 'Dragon Empire', who seem to have a society based on early China. 3) It also has a mystery and I love trying to figure out things before the characters in the book.

It starts out with action and has enough to keep you going to the end.

McFarland has published many books on science-fiction films, and many of them are excellent, but this isn't one. Virtually the entire book consists of quotes from secondary sources, and because of the book's illogical organization, almost every quote is repeated twice! There is at least one place where a quoted paragraph is immediately followed by a paraphrase of exactly the same material... cut and paste didn't work. The bottom line of the matter is that the author really doesn't know what he is talking about. For example a section (pp. 297- 301) discusses how the models in THIS ISLAND EARTH were hung from trollys and moved past a stationary camera, while the model in FORBIDDEN PLANET was stationary, and the camera panned past on an "endless" screw. But this is illustrated by a photo (p. 300) showing the ISLAND EARTH saucer stationary and the camera panning past on an "endless" screw! I found literally nothing of value or interest in the book and it is totally unreliable as a reference.