Sam Appleby doesn't appreciate the fact that his father won't let him have guns and swords like his friends, so when a thief comes to town, the two of them use a wide array of items from a sunflower to a chocolate cake to successfully stop him. This book is very funny and will be enjoyed by every child that ever waved a stick as a weapon, and by every parent that tried to explain why this isn't always the best of ideas.

Bland, Quirk, and Sheldon - brilliant theorists and practictioners - have written the indispensable guide for combating abuses of mandatory arbitration.
They show why arbitration agreements hidden inside boxes or stuffed inside bills - alongside ads for kitty litter deodorizers and twenty-seven blade camp knives - are enforced by courts. They also offer the best available guide to keeping a case in court and before a jury.
The practicing lawyer can use the exhaustive case citations to shape a case. The consumer advocate can plumb the text and cited materials to fashion policy arguments to limit abuse of the Federal Arbitration Act, a statute which was never meant to apply to consumer disputes at all.
The book is set out in an easy to read format, and an extensive index makes it easy to pinpoint topics.
Someone should buy 535 copies and ship one to each member of Congress.

Full of useful information, however, the description neglects to let the reader know that the book was written on the Criminal Justice System for England and Wales, not the United States.

I read this book shortly after being transferred from my job at a state psychiatric hospital, that was being "downsized", to a state prison psychiatric service where I found myself working with the same men with whom I had worked at the aforementioned hospital. Not the same kinds of men .... the same, exact men. Everything in this book rings true. Anyone working in mental health systems everywhere needs to read it. In the nine years since it was published, the plight of mentally ill people on the streets and in the prisons has only gotten worse. I wish that Dr. Torrey and NAMI would update this book and make it more widely available.

The book Epperson vs. Arkansas: The Second Monkey Trial is a wonderfully insightful and factually correct book. But above that, Thorndike adds his own style, one above all else. I urge all to buy this book as it is concise, direct, research-oriented and poignant. Run, don't walk, to get this one!

Groner's book is a painstakingly detailed, but highly readable account of the history of the custody dispute which riveted America in the late eighties and early nineties. The principals were a successful DC area plastic surgeon--Elizabeth Morgan--and an almost equally successful dental surgeon--Eric Foretich. Almost as important as the principals in the case were the army of lawyers and experts each enlisted to support their cause.

Groner does not conceal his conclusions about where the truth lay in the dispute. I think if one had to rely on what the parents or their experts said it would be nearly impossible to decide what was true. Both sets of grandparents were actively involved with Hilary and with the dispute, however. The contrast between the role, character and testimony of Eric's parents and Elizabeth's was persuasive for me.

I'm sorry to see this book is now remaindered or available only used. I think it would be worth reprinting.

Book Review: Insider Trading

Insider Trading by Jonathan R. Macey is a special analysis on insider trading. It presents different perspectives that explain the prohibition of insider trading, and the way it affects various aspects of life on the stock market. In particular this book analyzes insider trading as a whole from the view of Economics, Politics, and Policy.

In the first part of the book the author reviews briefly the early history of the regulation of insider trading. He tells the reader various anecdotes involving the congress, the supreme court, and the investors. He also explains various laws which have regulated insider trading. He also lays out the problem of conflicts of interest between the shareholders and managers as it relates to insider trading. Finally the author underscores the importance of understanding insider trading from an economic viewpoint for the investors, from the political viewpoint for Congress, and from the Policy viewpoint for the Securities Exchange Commission which regulates trading on the stock market.

In chapter two, the author presents us with the important principles of economics that are relevant to insider trading. The investors who trade securities should have the ability to dispose their securities at short notice and at the least cost. Such an ability makes the stock market economically efficient for all investors. Specifically the author defines Insider Trading as based on private information which is like property.

In chapter three, the author makes fine distinctions between small investors and large institutional investors as they relate to insider trading. Insider information can give an undue advantage to insiders and other bigger investors who can purchase information. This puts the small investors at a considerable risk and disadvantage. The author presents the trade off between higher salaries and the benefits from insider trading for senior managers. Such a trade off results in an overall enhancement of shareholder wealth.

In chapter four, the author focuses on redressing the problem of disadvantage for the small investors who do not possess insider information. Since this is not fair, Congress protects the small investors by promulgating laws that ban insider trading. The author details the case of Chiarella that clarifies the law. The author describes the political conflicts between the executive arm of the government, namely the Securities Exchange Commission, and the judicial arm of the government, namely the Supreme Court. Chapter five is the theoretical core of the book with extensive discussion of insider trading and its relationship to other concepts such as fairness, welfare and equality of information. In fact, insider trading cannot be labeled either unfair or inefficient unless it harms investors. Nor does insider trading undermine investor confidence in the stock market if such trading maximizes the value of a firm. The author presents a balanced view on both the positive benefits and inimical consequences of insider trading.

Chapter six provides an overview of the Policy framework that the Securities Exchange Commission has to implement to prohibit insider trading. The author describes various rules, for example Rule 10b-5, of the Securities Exchange Act with succinct explanations of the underlying rationale for each rule. The author uses the cases of Chiarella and Dirks to describe the Supreme Court interpretations of the Policy framework for the Securities Exchange Commission. This chapter is an excellent summary of the prevailing law of insider trading in the US.

If there is one lesson to be learned from this book, it is that insider trading constitutes the theft of company property (though the property is information). However, such inside trading cannot constitute the theft of company property if such trading is conducted with the consent of the firm that owns the information and such trading occurs under the Policy framework of the Securities Exchange Commission.

This book is an excellent analysis on insider trading from the viewpoints of Economics, Politics and Policy. It helps the reader not only know what insider trading is, but understand the ways in which it affects life in the stock market. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an analytical overview of insider trading.

* This book review was done as part of a class project under the tutelage of my 8th Grade English teacher, Mr. Chad Reynolds. The review benefited from his comments.

This is a wonderful review of the legal and legislative matters facing the computer industry. It concisely follows recent developments without editorializing a position. A tremendous amount of research obviously went into this book. It is well organized, creating a flow from one idea to the next. While being very thorough, it is written for both the layman and those with a background in the field. It achieves a seeming impossibility: an entertaining book about complex legal issues. I can only hope to see future books by the authors, Jonathan Band and Masanobu Katoh.

if your using the farnsworth contracts book, this is a must. it is the most important purchase that i have made all semester. it goes through all of the cases in the book, as well as the black letter of the law. it is an excellent resource material to use when finals roll around. purchase this book at the begining of the semester and use it as a review periodically.

Legalines does a great job of giving you the blackletter outline + the applicable case brief. Their format is like a gilbert's & casenotes rolled into one.