Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon deserves a more thorough look at its production, cast, and impact on modern cinema. The essays are informative if very short. One in particular is helpful since it lists many worthwhile films from Asia that would be of interest to fans of CTHD.

Reading the screenplay is of little interest, since you can watch the DVD or video.

...The music is wonderful.

the book does not tell you much about the actors, the director, the genre, or other related subjects. its okay to browse through while your at a bookstore but not for purchase.

This is a GREAT book... It includes the screenplay of the film, which, is nice to read once in awhile when not watching the DVD. It's filled w/ wonderful photos from the movie and set, and has many quotes and commentaries from actors and Ang Lee about certain situations while filming... and about the film. It's very entertaining to read, but I just wish there was more information about the actors included in the pages. There are comments about them and their performances here and there... and the quotes are great, but the background info on all of the actors is just not there. But all dedicated crouching tiger fans should get it, b/c it's just so nicely laid out and is such good quality. I mean, who cares if they leave a little out? It's so fun to look at!

Well, why not?
I have to admit that this book on David looks good. However, whilst flipping thru the book, I came across the end section and there was this picture of the author in full frontal nudity, in a heroic pose. I don't see the link between a photo of a naked man and David's biography.
I can only attribute this to the fact that the author is indulging in narcissistic display.

I was thoroughly impressed with this profile of Jacques-Louis David. It was given to me as a gift and I was not sure of quite what to expect. From my experience, David is often given little more than a few pages (or even a few brief paragraphs) in art textbooks and thus if a person wants to know more, it is necessary to do a bit of digging.

From the introduction, my fear was dispelled and I knew I was in for a treat. The author discusses David's personal life, his political ideas and involvement, the relevant historical details, and David's works. The illustrations are wonderful and aside from David's paintings and sketches, the works of artists like Boucher, Vien, Caravaggio, Poussin, Gros and Ingres are included. Lee generally gives a fair amount of analysis on each of David's works. Most students will recognize The Oath of the Horatii, The Death of Socrates, and Marat Breathing his Last but will also see and learn about The Coronation, The Distribution of the Eagle Standards, Brutus, Intervention of the Sabine Women, Belisarius Receiving Alms and Mars Disarmed By Venus, to name a few. Regarding the politics of the French Revolution, Lee discusses David's role, his allies, his enemies, and his skillful use of paintings as propaganda. We see David shift from painter to the monarchy to painter for the Revolution to painter for Napoleon to painter for himself, warts and all. One should not assume that Lee candy-coats the issues in this book. He neither presents David as a flawless genius nor spoils the book with pretentious blather. The text is informative and sophisticated without being cumbersome or haughty.

Other great features of the book include a convenient glossary, short biographies on pertinent figures, a map and a timeline. Whether you are an expert art historian or a student, you will find this book to be a great addition.

Phaidon's new ART & IDEAS series has been consuming since I first purchased their NEOCLASSICISM and definitely will not be last. As expected from Phaidon, the production value is exquisite. Though compact, measuring 8in X 6in, it is lavishly illustrated in full luminous colors. There are two-page spread of David's popular works like THE OATH OF THE HORATII, THE CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR, and THE INTERVENTION OF THE SABINE WOMEN. Lee discusses David's bitter beginnings and his triumphs, the works in French political context, and the artist's inspirations and influences. Mercifully lacking in exceeding hero-worship prose, Lee also discusses David's jealousy and his extreme political views. Pompous, overeducated art scholars may dismiss the text as dry, plain, or written for "kids," but this page-turner is still a terrific overview of David's works. The book is painstakingly designed in such a way that you don't have to flip back and forth for a pictorial reference when reading a particular text; most of the illustrations are conveniently placed not more than three page-flip away from the relevant text. With its uncluttered, elegant cover design, and excellent editorial, Phaidon has another winner. Bring on Bruguel, Klimt, Caravaggio, and Magritte! More!

Incredibly boring book which is way overpriced. I learned absolutely nothing from this book. I found that other books I bought like the "7 habits of highly effective people" and "one minute manager" were far more practical and interesting for executives. The book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" explained how to become a millionair, and was written by a millionair, but this book about how to become a successful executive is by a complete unknown...if she's so brilliant at being an executive why isn't she running General Motors or Maytag or General Electric, etc.?

The information architecture of this exceptionally useful guide exemplify the publisher's respect of the material. The guide is resourceful and easy to use. This is not, as one reviewer suggests, a poor book to be compared to "7Habits". The Successful Executive;s Handbook will be a welcome resource addition to any person responsible for the culture, health and profitability of their organization. My copy is dog-eared and comfortingly close to my desk.

Susan Gebelein and the contributors at Personnel Decisions have taken the ever-useful Successful Manager's Handbook and raised the bar for executives. This book does a good job of addressing the often vague, nebulous, and "fuzzy" skills and behaviors that make senior executives successful.

The book is truly written for leaders who are responsible for the strategy, health, and market performance of their organizations, and offers specific development suggestions and advice, as well as references to a good selection of supporting material.

I would recommend using this book as 1) a reminder of things that you should not forget to do in an executive role, and 2) a resource for specific advice on how to do better.

It makes a good companion (and word of sensible, research-based advice) to the popular books on executive leadership. I find the research-based recommendations written well and concisely--an advantage for execs who are always pressed for time.

Well..

I wish i had not bought it, but i'm quite a bit over "The average administrator". I guess it can be good for Newbies/MCSE's, but most of it its contence is really in the Help files and the Microsoft NT Manuals. However, this book summs it up for the lazy administrator(s).

A better buy would be the NT Resource kit and maby the ISS security scanner program, Or even my scanner...

Hint: If you wan't Network Security, remove all networking components and be happy.

Whether you're an MCSE or an amateur in Windows NT security, this book is for you! It steps through each aspect of Windows NT Server 4.0 security while explaining how to secure NT for YOUR organazation - be it a small network of computers in your garage or servers in a corporate WAN. Teaching you to take the stand point of a hacker, the Windows NT Server Security Handbook is a MUST for anyone concerned with security.

This book explains, for example, Spotting Security Problems with Event Viewer. It tells you what Event Viewer is, how to activate auditing, and the result. The explainations are in very clear and easy to follow.

Contains no business jets, as the title would imply. Airliners only.

This book is a must have for Airplanes lovers. It has a small footprint (good for travelling) and has very precise info and very good pictures. It has all the basic info regarding commercial airplanes...

To draw the most from this new book, you need to know already quite a bit about occupied France. The authors trace in detail academic perceptions of Vichy since 1945. Regime apologists tried to maintain in the 1950s that Petain had played a clever game in seeming to collaborate whilst plotting to maintain French independence. We now understand this was nonsense: Petain and Laval may have been interested in collaboration, but Hitler's only concern was booty. But equally in error was the Gaullist position that forty million Frenchmen supported the Resistance against a tiny number of traitors. The editors demonstrate that more recent research has shown how fragmented both the pro and anti Vichy groups were. For example, it was possible to be faithful to Petain whilst being anti nazi. Many ordinary French people, both in the cities and in the countryside, adopted an eclectic attitude according to "how the wind was blowing" in their area. The book suggests new lines for research on Vichy, especially a comparative approach with what was happening in other occupied countries such as Bulgaria and Hungary. The book is largely a tribute to Robert Paxton who wrote a ground breaking study of wartime France in the 1970s. This reviewer found the continuous adulation of Paxton, however merited, somewhat repetitive. You will enjoy this new volume if you really want to explore in depth the meaning of Vichy over the past sixty years. Given that France was still prosecuting men for war crimes in the late 1990s, Petain's regime is still a hotly debated topic in that country's academic establishment.

This book is an essential text for anyone interested in the history of of France during the Vichy regime. It offers a superlative compilation of the latest scholarship in the field, contributed by some of its most important writers, people like Michael Marrus, Jean-Pierre Azema, Henri Rousso, Stanley Hoffmann, Philippe Burrin, etc. etc. The introduction by Fishman and Smith is a thorough map of the entire contents of the book which, again, provides a rich collection of articles destined perhaps not for the general reader without any background on the subject, although the book itself is reader friendly....

If you like to grab a book and take a nap shortly after opening it, this is the book for you. It starts out keeping your interest, but will quickly loose it. If you are looking for a book that really lets you meet York (which was what I was looking for), this is not the right book. This book is a wealth of information, but you will get easily dis-interested, lost, and confused as the author goes into great depths to introduce the men that were involved in York's struggles after the war. I was hoping for a book about York and his family, but was disappointed in this one. He gives very little information about York's family life.

A valuable look at York the man, the times he lived in, and the process of creating a national legend. Distinguishes the myths of York's life from the simple facts of his famous exploits. I especially enjoyed the look back at York's rural background and how those values shaped him as a man as well as an American heroic ideal. WEll-researched and documented, but also simply a good read!

If you're a =VH= fan, you should have already known over 90 percents of the facts/trivia in this book. Dave's nickname? Eddie's married to whom? Producer's name? The author also made dozens of useless questions & answers from each of Van Halen CD inserts. If you really want to know more about Van Halen, buy The Van Halen Encyclopedia (C. J. Chilvers) and Crazy From the Heat (David Lee Roth). Dave's book (highly recommended!) is out of print, but you'll definitely find one from auction/Amazon marketplace seller.

This book would make a perfect gift for the Van Halen-obsessed. It contains a mind-boggling amount of research, and if you care about little details like what the Edge, U2's guitarist, said about the US presidency in relation to Van Halen, or how much guacomoli was made available backstage after a VH concert, this is the book for you. It's certainly more thorough than most trivia books. Even major VH fans will find that the book stops just short of telling them more than they ever wanted to know. If you add it to your VH collection, you'll probably find that it's the single greatest source of facts on VH out there.

If your a real VH fan you will buy this book!

All of the Batman movies had the weakest screenplays ever written for them. Batman Forever was no exception. The screenplay as written by Lee and Janet Batcher, was not the best that they could have done and Aliva Goldsman did a lot of rewrites to it, as a result the movie novel's author, Peter David was constantly frustrated that he was writing a novel with a lot of rewrites going into it, and the experience was not the most satisfying one for him. Not surprisingly the finished book is very difficult to read, and not very good.
The movie itself however is a bit easier to watch and better then many give credit for, because of it's colorful production and mostly solid performances of the cast.

Well, the movie was not up to par with the two first classic Tim Burton Bat-flicks, but the book is good. The film was hardly a serious approach. Fluffy, with Carrey extremelly silly and unfunny and with Tommy Lee Jones simply One-Dimensional. However, in this book, as absurd it may sound, Edward Nygma (Carrey's character) is presented as a sad person, who is frustrated by his ruthless boss and wants to payback as the Riddler. As for Tommy Lee Jones' character (Two-Face), he is presented as a tragic figure who is not a true villain but a victim of the circumstances. All in all, the book although follows the script of the film, it is a lot better, and makes me think that the reason that this film sucked was not its scriptwriter but its director.

This book blows away the movie. I could not put this book down. I'm serious; read it.

Please, if you have a choice of textbooks, do NOT buy this one. I have a feeling the author knows nothing of eCommerce, yet was given 80 references, told to mash them together as non-sensically as possible and fire the result off to the publisher.
I've worked in eCommerce for a number of years and this book is a total waste of time and money. Many "industry terms" used do not exist. The author contradicts himself on a number of occasions. Many of the charts and illustrations are good for a laugh. I truly feel sorry for people who have this book as their introduction to eCommerce. You're going to come away with a lot of mangled/antiquated theories, and a bunch of "facts" that are just plain wrong. I'm sorry to say I had to memorize all of this junk in order to get an A in my course. As soon as I handed that exam in, I made a concerted effort to forget everything I read in this text.

The new edition is very current (the title even has "2002" in it). It covers practically every imaginable topic concerning Electronic Commerce. The general organization of the book is also good. For example, each chapter states objectives up front, covers them, ends with a summary, and then provides a list of key terms, questions for review & discussion, internet exercises, and team assignments. The glossary in the back is especially useful. So, for classroom use, it's a good text.

However, there is way too much detail, case studies, etc..., that makes it a very monotonous book to wade through. It would be much easier to read and more effective if it was condensed down (a "Reader's Digest version"). It has countless references to web site examples and "see more" sources, but to a fault, as it slows down reading. There are also graphics, diagrams, and tables throughout the book, but many are too detailed and others just add "more material" and not more value.

If you want a lot of information, this book has it -- but unfortunately with all the excitement of reading an encyclopedia.

I am a big fan of the tech books of E. Turban. His Decision Support Systems & Intelligent Systems was my first intro to his spin on tech topics. He and his co-authors have put together a really nice guide for management still in the "chin stroking" mode on what to do with E-Commerce. It is also a great textbook for undergrads/grads in a business school. Check out his table of contents--it hits all the bases to help management avoid the black holes and pot holes to make a smooth transition into the new economy.This book is a great place to start.