Wow, what an awesome book. At first I thought it would be just another Coral ID book, but it is A LOT MORE! It's an easy reading text, while providing some good in depth technical meat. The pictures are top notch, and He actually has corals in there that I feel are common or have seen for sale in stores, yet no other book I have ever seen covers them, until now. Eric's experience and knowlegdge is top notch. He provides some really good information based on radical new discoveries as well as more current accepted practices etc.

My advice: this is a must buy for any reef aquarist, both novice and expert. The information is modern and up-to-date. If you don't have time to read all the current information on reef aquariums and coral husbandry online on the Internet, you might want to get this book, as it will give you a nice summary of current information.

This is one of the most informative publication on the coverage of corals for reef keeping in a single volume. The pictures may be a bit oversaturated but the information it contains is highly informative and is well researched.

In the tradition of Delbeek & Sprung 2 volume series and Fossa and Nilsens MCRA 4 volume series this stands in league with their books for its extensive coverage!

If you like coral reef tanks then this book is for you!!

I highly recommend this book for the reef hobbiest of all levels! It's packed with lots of information on coral lighting, care, and best of all coral diseases and treatment. Unlike my other reference books that are packed with more information about fish than they are with coral care, this book is ALL ABOUT CORALS. You won't be disappointed!

Emotionally Charged Learning, by author Eric Schiffer, helps you discover how the forces of education and entertainment have merged with a vengeance to make today's learning a dynamic and exciting experience. He defines in a pretty highly entertaining and revealing way, a new vision that integrates the emotions needed to maximize the retention of anything we learn, particularly as it applies to the workplace in the second half of the 21st Century. ECL will show you how you or your employees can become knowledge masters, how you can be on the leading edge of the most powerful revolution in history. I loved it!

Given that we are trying to increase Emotional Intelligence within our organization or further our competence as a learning organization, there is a fuel that is necessary to get there. I have read "Emotional Intelligence" and "The Fifth Discipline" and now Emotionally Charged Learning". I consider this book to be one of the best examples of how to achieve the ideals of the former.

I can't recommend this book enough for the organizational learning guru.. One warning: I have to hone in several times to really get the concepts -- they are HUGE. DO the exercizes fully and completely. Senge and Goleman has nothing up on this. I nominate "Emotionally Charged Learning" for the ultimate in enhancing human capital. "I am Charged!"

This is a superbly written collection of biographies. Mr. Bell was obviously a great writer--his ability shows in how he brings each mathematician to life, as well as in his witty sense of sarcasm. Each chapter is dedicated mainly to the life and career of the mathematician in question, and to a lesser extent to the substance of his mathematical work.

I decided to give the book four stars instead of five because I felt that it tackled too much in too little space. Not having any mathematical education beyond high school calculus (which I've completely forgotten), I found it very difficult at times to follow the technical discussions, despite Mr. Bell's assurance to the contrary in the Introduction. This is most likely, however, not something that the author could have remedied with a clearer explanation--let's face it, squeezing a mathematical genius's life work into three pages that a non-mathematician can (almost) comprehend is quite a challenge.

Overall, this book is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in mathematics and/or the sciences in general--keeping in mind, of course, that the focus of the book is the lives of great mathematicians and not an in-depth study of their work.

In this book, Bell provides the reader with an engaging look into the personal lives of many great mathematicians. While most mathematical biographies focus mainly on the individual's work, Men of Mathematics pays special attention to the lifestyles and life stories of some of the math greats. Mathematical contributions of the men are not downplayed, they are just presented in the context of their social and private lives and of the society in which they lived. For these reasons, Men of Mathematics has become one of my favorite pieces of biographical literature.

This book was published in the 1930's and therefore is not up-to-date with contemporary mathematicians.

That's OK though. Most of those who like Mathematics and particularly the writings of Lancelot Hogben and, more recently, Jan Gullberg have probably read later works anyway.

What I liked about this book is that is an easy to read history of the key men and women who developed Mathematics, going as far back as Aristotle and ending in the early part of the 20th century.

It brings out the characters that lived behind these great minds and the book almost reads like a novel, except that we can assume that it was all true. I know many people who find it hard to believe that mathematicians were actually living, breathing human beings, and actually did have other lives when they weren't preoccupied with their abacus.

A great read for math lovers and a great source of inspiration too.

Eric Frank Russell is absolutely the master of showing the possibilities of humanity at its best. Using a metaphor whereby a wasp in a car causes the driver to have an accident, killing four grown men, a man is convinced to go in alone and take down the government of a hostile alien planet. It's truly inspring to see this man, using nothing more than his brain and some supplies sent with him, torment and annoy the government, thereby aiding Terran forces.

I read this book when I was eleven or so and have spent the rest of my reading life in search of something that fascinated me more. Tolkien's was the only fiction that may have done so, but it is, of course, nothing like Wasp.

WASP is a short, simply written book, but it has some quality that makes people mad for it. I think it is the sardonic omniscient voice that adds so much to the flavor of WASP: the voice of the Author himself.

A new edition was published not long ago that was completely unabridged. I felt the slightly abridged version read better (It's always good to cut out the fancy talk.). But I may just be used to the same slightly shorter edition most people have read.

If you want a guaranteed fascinating read (and be swept away on wings of reading enjoyment!), buy this book now. Be forewarned, however, that some might say it kind of glorifies terrorism.

I first read this book in early 60s and have reread it a few times since. It is a timeless story of how one man, with some essential supplies, can disrupt a whole world. More importantly to me was that soon after reading it for the first time, I read a review of it in Astoundin magazine. There the reviewer mentioned THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK and THE REVOLT OF GUNNER ASCH. I found Scweik heavy going but the Revolt of Gunner Asch introduced me to Hans helmuth Kirst. I have been reading Kirst ever since. Apparently, somebody in Germany has recently come out with a trilogy of videos "08/15 Trilogy" which comprises the first three (of four total) Gunner Asch novels: The Revolt of Gunner Asch Forward Gunner Asch The Return Of Gunner Asch. and all this became available to me because Eric Frank Russell wrote the WASP.

In "American Colonies," historian Alan Taylor has created an easily accessible yet highly informative overview of the crucial first era of the history of North America. Taylor does an admirable job of elaborating on the simple framework of names and dates that bore so many contemporary students; he discusses geography, agriculture, trade, as well as the cultures and religions of the myriad groups (both native and European) that created colonial America.

Rather than attempting to cover the entire continent in a continuous chronology, Taylor breaks the book into 19 chapters, each describing one geographic area during a given time period (e.g. "Virginia 1570-1650," "New England 1600-1700"). I found this organizational choice to be very effective; it makes the scope of the topic manageable and also allows one to easily research a specific area. The chapter setup is all the better due to the content choices Taylor has made. Rather than focus solely on the 13 British colonies, the book also spends time on the Spanish and French settlements. I fear that many people think Columbus discovered North America in 1492 and then nothing happened until the Pilgrims landed in 1620. Taylor corrects that misperception by including two chapters on the Spanish settlements in Mexico, New Mexico, and Florida before even touching on the British colonies. There are also two chapters on New France and Canada that give greater meaning to the Seven Years War. I was most pleased, however, with the chapter discussing the British West Indies, a geographic area completely ignored by many US History courses. Yet as Taylor explains, the West Indies at that time were FAR more valuable to the Crown than the mainland colonies! These chapters are a much needed corrective, but they are not given disproportionate coverage: a large majority of the book focuses on what was to become the continental United States.

The story of the early United States is largely a story of European-Indian interactions, another topic Taylor handles well. Rather than taking Native Americans for granted, he spends the first chapter explaining their origins, the migrations across the Bering Strait, and their lives before European contact. But the eventual clash of cultures is the dominant story and Taylor states the case bluntly: beginning with the Taino on Hispaniola (p. 38-39), Europeans conquered, murdered, and enslaved native peoples on an unthinkable scale. But Taylor lets the evidence speak for itself and does not lecture the reader or take the opportunity to moralize. Furthermore, he dispels several myths about Indians that seem to be creeping into popular belief. Indians were not inherently peaceful peoples: the Five Nation Iroquois had gruesome rituals of torture ("The seventeenth century was a merciless time for the defeated on either side of the Atlantic" [p. 103]) and raided the Huron to near extinction. Nor were they pre-modern environmentalists: "Natives usually showed restraint, not because they were ecologically minded in the twentieth century sense, but because spirits, who could harm people, lurked in the animals and plants" (p. 19). All in all, I thought the book presented a very balanced and detailed account of the Native Americans.

Although I read this book on my own time, I could not help but appreciate what a great book it would be for students, either high school or college. (It is the first volume of The Penguin History of the United States, edited by Eric Foner.) First, Taylor does not assume a great deal of prior knowledge and goes out of his way to clearly explain concepts that other books might not. For example, Taylor explains the English Parliament in a way that would be very helpful to those not familiar with British history while not boring those of us who know more (p. 120). The Glorious Revolution (p. 278) and the advent of Quakers (p. 264) are both handled in a similarly informative way. The book also includes the relevant maps for each chapter, a great boon to students familiarizing themselves with geography. Finally, the book is based almost exclusively on secondary sources. This point concerned me at first, but I came to love the fact that for any topic I could look in the extensive bibliography and find an entire book on that particular subject.

Given this praise, why only four stars? Basically, I'm stingy with the five star reviews. While I found this book extremely informative and easy to read, it was never thrilling. This lack of excitement is no fault of the author, the topic is just too broad to be gripping: colonial America covers too much time, too much space, and too many figures (none of whom can be adequately fleshed out in such a broad survey). Ultimately I found "American Colonies" to be a consistently good book (perhaps the best on the subject as a whole) but not an excellent book. I do, however, very much look forward to reading Professor Taylor's other book, "William Cooper's Town," for which he won the Pulitzer Prize.

Alan Taylor has painted for the reader, in his book American Colonies, a fantastic picture of the early years of the entire North American continent. His book provides the reader with a structure not always seen in history books; the chapters focus on a geographic region within a specific time frame.

For those people that have learned that American history started only with the original 13 British colonies (as is so frequently taught in American schools today), this book will dispel that myth by introducing the reader to such areas as Spanish New Mexico and Florida, early Hawaii, and Russian Alaska.

The author has provided us with a spectacular view of these different aspects of the North American colonial history, and should be read by anyone interested in the formation of America as it exists today or any aspect of its early creation.

Readers should be aware that since Taylor is looking at such an expansive area and time frames, the book is not a comprehensive study of early America, but is more like a detailed introduction, with many avenues worthy of further exploration in more detailed studies.

Alan Taylor has written a magnificent, fresh overview of the history of American colonies--the plural is intentional because he treats not just the thirteen colonies, but the Spanish, French, Russian, and other English colonies like Nova Scotia and Barbados. The author achieves a balance from the anti-colonial bashing of some current historical writing--while giving an accurate picture of the terrible effects of colonization on native peoples and African slaves, he gives the colonists their due as tamers of demanding environments and founders of a New World. For anyone looking for a broader picture of the colonization process, this is the book to read. The first in a series of Penguin histories of the U.S., this excellent book bodes well for the volumes to come!

I've been using MS-Project for a few years now, starting with Project 98, and now 2000. I've always looked at it as a quirky tool that I use to create task lists, rough schedules, and charts to use in project plans. I've never considered it a serious tool for planning, let alone controlling a project. "Too many inconsistencies," I thought, considering myself an intermediate user. I've taken CBT's, and read MS-Project for Dummies - what more should I need?

This book has changed how I look at the tool, and how I schedule projects. MS-Project really does work - you just need to know what is going on behind the scenes to make it work for you! The author clearly walks you through how to perform tasks from a project manager' perspective (I' not a PM, but happen to do some of it, so don't think you need to know all about PM to benefit from this book), and examines common pitfalls and best practices gathered from obvious extensive practical experience using the tool. The title is accurate - the book revolves around creating a "dynamic schedule," i.e. one that easily updates as variables in your project update. The chapter on optimizing the schedule was especially helpful, and immediately applicable.

MS-Project is not a quirky tool for high-level plans and pretty pictures - it is a powerful project planning and controlling tool that will cut hours and frustration out of your project. Impressive text - do yourself a favor and read it cover to cover. You'll be happy that you did.

This book provides project management best practices integrated into the framework of Microsoft Project 2000. Not only does it tell me how to do things in MS Project, but it also tells me why!! I've met hundreds of people who use Microsoft Project, but only a handful who know how to use it properly. If you're ready to move beyond building a pretty picture of last year's project, and start building dynamic schedules that accurately reflect the status of your project, you need this book.

This is years of experience in project management and the use of Microsoft Project that's built into one easy to use book. You can either read it end to end or use it as a reference book. Either way, it's great value for money.

As a fellow PMP and trainer of MS Project 2000, I must say that I am impressed with this book. It has finally made available in a textbook, good project management principles, and how to execute them using the MS Project 2000 tool. The book explains why certain options are chosen and gives recommendations for handling various scheduling scenarios. I would highly recommend this as a valuable tool for any project manager using MSP2000.

This book manages to combine military SF, comedy (both slapstick and wordplay), satire, class wars, cloning, and genetic engineering with a little romance and still come out swinging. These collaborators can really, well, collaborate.

The hero is the sole human survivor of his platoon. Chip is trapped behind enemy lines ("way behind enemy lines" as one chapter title puts it). His compatriots are genetically engineered "rats" and bats. Imagine if Shakespeare's comical secondary characters were forced to spend time in close quarters with rebellious Irish poets, and you get the general idea of the chaos.

Mix with the daughter of a wealthy shareholder, her alien tutor, and her fluffy companion. Add the clashes between a military commander who knows what he's doing and lots and lots of "authority" figures who don't. Shake and stir.

I read this in the e-book edition (which you can purchase through Baen's Webscription program), but I enjoyed it enough that I'd like to buy the paperback when it comes out. It will be worth it for the cover alone.

My only real problem is that I kinda sorta figured out a major surprise a little too early. But I didn't figure out all the implications of that right away.

Anne M. Marble Reviewer, All About Romance

This is the best science fiction book I've read in a decade. By combining futuristic DNA manipulation with a rollicking good time, Dave Freer has produced a truly great book. The layers of complexity in this story are exceeded only by the unexpected twists and turns. The setting, a colony planet, is beautifully drawn and so realistic it's almost scary. A cloned slave-grunt soldier, the lone human survivor of his platoon, takes on giant maggot aliens in a series of battles that swing between terrifying and hysterically funny. The grunt's companions are genetically engineered bats and rats, which were designed to help fight the human war and seem to be a cross between Mafia rejects and members of a biker gang. A high-ranking, disgruntled officer takes on the whole inept army beaurocracy. The romance between a naïve rich girl and the cynical army grunt adds extra color and hilarity. Even the bad guys turn out to be even badder than the reader expects, forcing the other characters to deal with betrayal and misinformation. The happy ending is satisfactory without being sugary-sweet or predictable. There are just enough ends left loose that the authors could conceivably write a sequal (hopeful hint!). Very highly recommended.

This is a prime example of what great fun sci-fi can be in the hands of a good author. Genetically engineered bats, rats, and "vats" (human clones serving as indentured servants) combine with the sci-fi staple of vicious bugs who imperil a small human colony in a fast read. There's a recipe for explosives and how to make a brandy flamethrower! Flint is an imaginative writer, there are few others who would make genetically engineered bats Irish anarchists at heart, and a cloned sous chef a hero.

My two and a half year old son loved this book too apart from Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This book speaks volumes for little ones - it is no longer wishful thinking for them to "get at" the moon. Yet another gem from Eric Carle and I am glad that his book did not disappoint. Books like this are rare because it takes a gifted writer to perceive things from a child's view and most of us have grown so up and old to ever remember what it was like and what mattered to us when we were children.

Author Eric Carle (The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider) excels in creating books that offer children more than words on a page -- he consistently incorporates additional elements (lights, holes(!), textures) that make the books even more interesting to thirsty little minds.

In this book, a smaller portable version of the original, a girl asks her father for the moon. Fold-out pages complement Carle's unique illustrative style as we discover a looooooong ladder that reaches to the moon and back, and a magnificent four-page center spread revealing the full moon in all its glory.

This fantastic tale for young children is sure to delight parents and kids.

This book is wonderful! My daughter received it at age 2 from my favorite Aunt who always did give the best books! This has allowed our family library to grow and become what it is. My daughter was, as so many children are, fascinated with the moon. Every night she would get so excited " boom boom " she would say and point. We were much to tall until I got down on the floor at her level did I realize what it was she pointed to. Then the comprehension that it is the same moon takes about another few months as my daughter had to call her grandfather each night with excitement to what " her Moon " was doing and he should come over and see this. Eric Carle does the most extraordinary job through all his books letting the child see through the wonderful pictures and learning these simple concepts, that children must learn. This is an excellent book for any child and one of my very favorites as that two year old has turned ten, and her younger sister and brother also have gotten a wonder message and many hours from this book! An excellent choice!

So I walk into [a local store] yesterday to find a book to take to my ill friend in the hospital. Something enjoyable, fun, cute, and if possible, hilarious. I thought I'd be searching for hours. However, I found Claire's book in only minutes and was drawn to it. I bought two! This book is everything I was looking for with extra emphasis on the fun factor! I predict it's going to sell a million.

When I first saw this book on a table at a friends house I said out loud, "This looks great what is it?" To my surprise I was treated to the most clever, intelligent, and creative approach to a "cook book" imaginable. Ms. Crespo's book has beautiful photographs, great style and a fun approach to creative food thought and preparation. I highly recommend it for all ages. What a fun way to have a party. Who needs a martini?

Clare Crespo's The Secret Life of Food is a delightful romp through the glorious world of food as art. This is truly a book for the family to live by, laugh by and play by. I can't wait to have a secret life party and put my friends to the test of replicating Crespo's recipes while challenging them to create a few original ones.

Thanks to Crespo for putting us in touch with the comfort and community food provides for all of us. She clearly understands the value of food and its creation as an elixir for all that ail you. This book makes your next meatloaf a magical affair! I can't wait to try these recipes.

Kudos to Clare Crespo for demonstrating what many of us have always felt - food is art and cooking is the best therapy possible.

I think this book is well written and gives you insight into what really goes into the large companies in terms of the marketing strategy that they say is public, while all along having their own private marketing strategy also.

The author does a good job in showing you how to make your own creative marketing strategy along with setting up other necessary strategies for your business endeavors.

With "The Marketing Game: How the World's Best Companies Play to Win", Eric Schulz offers branding strategies "for the rest of us," as Apple Computer's ads used to say. The former Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney and Coca-Cola exec has geared his new book to those in the marketing trenches in need of practical information for going out and implementing programs, in contrast to the more anecdotal or abstract marketing books emanating from CEOs and academics.

The book, recently published by Adams Media, Holbrook, Mass., offers brainstorming and positioning techniques, while warning of "deadly sins" that consistently kill campaigns--say, pride (putting your logo everywhere) or gluttony (using pretty images that have nothing to do with your business).

In the chapter entitled "What Consumer Research Won't Tell You," Schulz draws on his own experience--including a humbling period early in his career working on P&G's doomed Citrus Hill orange juice brand--to chart the ways in which research can lead marketers astray, while suggesting a common-sense alternative from everyday life for establishing the positioning of a brand. "Paying attention in everyday life is nowhere near as exciting as launching a half-million-dollar research project, complete with one-way mirrors and hidden video. But don't be fooled by the trappings of research," he warns. Instead, he offers ways of finding strategic consumer insight outside the disciplines of traditional research.

Schulz, whose corporate marketing activities included a key role in orchestrating Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, currently is a consultant based in Great Falls, Va., outside Washington. His clients include Coke's Minute Maid unit (which he formerly challenged while at P&G), Special Olympics and the new-products think tank Eureka! Ranch, Cincinnati.

The Marketing Game

Whether you're a marketing student, small agency outfit or a corporate executive,The Marketing Game by Eric Schulz (Kogan Page, £19.95) is a comprehensive, practical and entertaining guide to successful strategies and improving your marketing acumen. The book gives sound advice backed by clearly explained know-how.

Many marketing books are big on theory and short on practical application, but The Marketing Game has over 100 examples of real-world success stories. It sheds light on how successful campaigns were done, so you can apply the learning to your own business.

Each chapter focuses on a particular area of product marketing, from brainstorming and positioning techniques to the Six Deadly Sins of Advertising and consumer promotion successes.

A former marketing director of Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Disney, Schulz has a depth of experience from which to draw his examples. He also proves that you don't have to have a big budget for your campaign to succeed and great companies are successful because they are smarter than their competitors. Written in down-to-earth style, The Marketing Game is a useful reference tool.