It's hard to overstate the beauty of the photography in this book. Peter Lee demonstrates remarkable skill in giving each image the respect it deserves. Potters, pottery fans, and photographers alike will delight in the richness of "Warren MacKenzie: An American Potter."

David Lee has created for himself a solid niche in the literary scene: who else writes narrative poetry set in failure, ugly children, failed pig farms, greasy spoon restaurants .... and makes of it a wise observation of the universal human story? David Lee succeeds in this again and again.

In the case of Wayburne Pig we follow the fortunes of a small town cafe owner as he tries his hand at fancy-dancy pig farming ... while he neighbors raise sick sorry specimens of porcine ugly. Not the pretty side of small town ... but funny and informative about human nature.

David Lee may not appeal to everyone but his sense of oral language and of narrative give him a large audience.

If you need a good solid reference for the world of weather, you want this book. The pictures are excellent. The review questions and sections on applying your knowledge are relevant to the chapter material and are thought provoking.

The writing is not your typical dry, stuffy textbook lecture. The writing is light, easy to read and interesting. The authors use real life experiences to illustrate their discussions.

Anyone can relate to the illustrations and examples used in this book as nearly every individual has some experience with these weather phenomena.

Zoonauts: The Secret of Animalville is the freshest children's novel I've read in decades! It begins with a gangbuster science fiction "school report" by Jen, the teen youth of the Stroud Family - the "keepers" of Animalville. Through an incredible story by a talking parrot we learn the secret of this top-secret research facility for very smart animals.
It was only September, but Jen could see it was already turning into a bad school year. Perhaps it was fun for her younger brother, Cody, but having animals cooking, cleaning and doing taxes made it so hard to have any friends. Plus the whole place was top secret! How could she NOT tell even her best friend Sara anything about her family?
Truth is, no children had ever grown up in the kind of family as the Strouds. While their non-human nursemaids took care of them and taught them things no human children had learned, Jen was getting tired of telling other girls that they couldn't visit her at home. Oh, sure, she went to their places, but usually with some animal, watching everything she did. She felt like she was being spied on. It was too much to bear. Jen was deep in gloom as she left school that day. But you are certain to have a smile on your face as you read this amazing tale. The text, by renowned Hollywood scriptwriter Richard Mueller, is illustrated by Dal Chele - known for Scooby Doo, Spiderman, Robocop, The Real Ghostbusters, Fat Albert and The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, to name just a few!

This book is a very nice compliation of photographs but it unfortunately feeds the more stereotypical view of a primitive and backwards Africa. From reading this book, one would be totally unaware of the development present in major cities like Abidjan, Accra, Nairobi and Dakar. One would never expect to see skyscrapers, traffic jams (with real cars), nice homes, factories and schools. One would still be unaware of the cathedral at Yamasoukro, Ivory Coast which is the largest in the world and clearly one of the most beautiful.

While this book is a step up from images of the animals of the East African plains it sorely lacks in the "complete picture" department. It is as if a "Day in the Life of America" was depicted as downtown New York, Los Angeles and Chicago but neglected to show ANY pictures of the farms of Iowa, the ranches of Montana or national parks like Yellowstone.

Because images of Africans seen by many Americans are limited to those already contained in this book, I think the editors missed a major opportunity to increase the knowledge base of their readers. We need to fight ignorance. Most Americans will never travel to Africa. How else will they ever advance from their mental images being limited to animals, native dancers, Tarzan, poverty and starvation?

I enjoyed A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AFRICA because it focuses on the people, the individuals, who live in this great continent. The African landscape is so awesome that the citizens are often given a backseat to the natural wonders they live among. Where photo essays do depict the people of Africa, they often fall into one of two categories: 1) the beautiful peoples of the ethnic groups that are still holding on to their ancient traditions, 2) those suffering from starvation or AIDS. These two groups are certain represented in A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AFRICA, but they share the pages with men in business suits walking down modern streets, school children playing during recess, actors on the set of a television production, and ladies having tea in a fashionable restaurant.

I would recommend this book to any fan of the "A Day In The Life Of ..." series, or to anyone interested in Africa.

After seeing Africa endlessly portrayed in the media either as a giant game park or a perpetual disaster area, I was pleased that A Day in the Life of Africa continues to do what this photo-book series has been doing... quite excellently... for 20 years. It employs the world's top photogs to shoot extraordinary pictures of everyday events all across Africa and all on one day. There are some amazing shots in this book. Highly recommended... and the profits fund AIDS programs in Africa. Also, one of my friends was a photographer on this project and word is, that this book was printed in very limited quantities and will be out of stock long before Christmas. Buy now.

A serious book that covers the entire scope of good management practices. No cutesy language, and definitely neither for dummies nor idiots. The first few pages on goal setting and the model they provide alone are worth the price of the book. I actually started reading the book backwards. The chapters are self contained and well written.

That said, the book suffers a certain dryness in delivery. What would enliven it and make the content easy to remember is well placed diagrams. I do not mean the kind of useless icons one finds in Dummies books, but serious business oriented diagrams that visualize the concepts.

You buy yourself a great education in managing when you buy this book. You will not become a manager by reading the book; but if you are already a manager you can be a great one.

With a thorough examination of the issues a business faces, this book is as close as it comes to distilling a complete MBA degree into a single useful book.

The book breaks the critical areas of business into four basic areas: Thought Leadership, Results Leadership, People Leadership, and Self Leadership. In addition it breaks down those four areas into nine core factors that determine business success. These core factors include Strategy, Judgment, Business Knowledge, Planning and Execution, Motivation and Courage, Leadership, Interpersonal, Communication, and Self-Management.

The organization of the information was logical and useful. Some of the subjects covered include Strategic Advantage, Customer Loyalty, Sound Judgment, Thinking Strategically, Applying Expertise, Managing Technology, Planning, Managing Change, Influence, Coaching and Developing Others, Building Relationships, Managing Conflict and many, many others.

This is by far the most thorough and useful single reference book on managing that I have ever come across. For ease of use it can't be beat with each section having it's own introduction and a list of the most valuable tips in that section. Then to make it even more useful, at the end of the book is a listing of resources by chapter. These resources include available books and seminars that relate directly to the items in that chapter.

If you are involved in business management pick up a copy of this book and keep it close at hand you will find yourself referring to it often.

I enjoyed every part of this book and I highly recommend it. It's easy to read and covers all the relevant areas of management. Very impressed with the breadth of topics.

Also recommend a companion book for this, which focuses on leadership and management as an ensemble: "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."

Well written and easy to read book describing Joe's unique trading patterns and methods. I liked his straight forward, no BS choice of words and his methods of fibonacci confluence does have some merit, but it isn't for everyone. This is best intended for a swing trader, as daytrading is likely to be too quick paced in order to figure out confluence areas.

There were some vague rules regarding his entry and exit methods with the Fibonacci numbers and when you actually start to apply his methods to your own trading, you will likely be left with more questions than answers. Not necessarily a bad thing, as all you can really ask from a book is a few new things to try out and see if it applies to your trading.

This is a well researched book by an experienced successful trader. I particularly liked the fact that he provides specific rules around his methodology.

This is the best book on trading I have ever read.The author shares his many years of trading experience with the readers.
His simple but POWERFUL trading tools in the book if followed, will put you in position to win at trading.
The book taught me money management, entry and exit placement , profit objectives and gave me a trading planto follow.
I have read a lot of trading books over the years, but since reading this book I have not had a need to read any others.
I'm a profitable trader now because of the information made
available in this book.

For comic book nerds like me (or for literate Trekkies) then the name Peter David puts an instant smile on your face. I've only read one Peter David Star Trek novel, but it was the most entertaining Star Trek story I had ever read. His run on the Incredible Hulk was the best ever written. But I digress.

Die hards who even have interest in this novel already know the story behind Spider-man. So are there any real spoilers? Not really. We all know about his relationship with Uncle Ben and Aunt (ug) May. We all know about his pining for Mary Jane Watson (sorry, no Gwen Stacy this time around). We all know about Norman Osbourne and son Harry and their developement into Green Goblins.

What might not be translated on screen is the motivations and the incredibly well-written and fleshed out thoughts provided by the clever Mr. Peter David in this novel. I found myself once again thoroughly entertained by this man's writing style. Unless Sam Raimi is a genius (okay, so he's close) he won't be able to fully communicate the "radioactive" spider's motivation behind wanting to bite Peter as Mr. David does so well in the novel. Peter David knows comics and Spider-man so well that this movie will most definitely be more entertaining after reading the novel.

After reading this novel, I believe that you'll feel like a well-educated art lover who will get to go to the Louvre for his first time this May. You'll know the ins and outs and thoughts behind scenes...but seeing the real thing will be just that, "the real thing".

There's nothing to spoil essentially although there are a few "surprises". But one real surprise I believe will be seeing if the acting abilities of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, and company can portray these characters faithfully as I've made them out to be in my head over all these years. Sam Raimi's action sequences will be the true star and the films greatest surprise.

Fear not, reading this novel before seeing the movie should not spoil more than you will gain. It's a great read and it'll just get you prepared for appreciating this movie as it should be viewed. I bought the book today and finished it tonight, and darn it all, I wish that opening day were tomorrow.

You read the intro line correctly. This book is so much better than the movie, and the movie is awesome! What makes this book so good is that we get into the head of the characters. We get to know what they are thinking and feeling. This book also has "extra" scenes that add so much to this book. For example, in the movie, MJ doesn't get an acting job. Well, in the book you find out why she doesn't get it. I also liked how Peter wrote t his parents in his journals. The reader will also get to know Peter as a child, and find out what happened to Peter's parents.

If you're a fan of Peter David, then you have to get this book. His style of writing lets the characters come to life and we care about all of them, even they bad guys.

If you liked the movie, then you need to read this book. It adds to much to the Spiderman experience. If you start it, you won't be sorry.

For my most recent birthday (wont dismiss age for privacy reasons, thankyou), I got the Spider-Man novelized version. Now, I had just seen Spider-Man...I was kinda late, mind you. I waited 'til late June to see it, but when I saw it, I loved it! I must have drove my entire family crazy...I even resaw it on my birthday.

Anyway, Peter David did an amazing job. I know that my intense inspiration to read the book so quickly was not only because of the fact that I loved everything about the movie, but because his writing delved me in. I especially loved the scene when Peter Parker was a child, and he thought Uncle Ben made "perverted rice." Such charm...and very funny, too, considering my dad mentioned "He wont be making rice anymore" the second time I dragged him to it.

Peter David, it was a pleasure, and I'm truly glad I got to read it...I only wish more of these scenes in the book were mentioned in the movie.

Thanks, Anna

If you are new to the music business and haven't read any other books, then you might find something useful in this book. For the rest of you, there isn't anything new, and there certainly isn't any in-depth coverage of any topic.

You can read this entire book in just a few hours. Large type font in an already small book, lots of grammatical errors and missing words that weren't caught by a spell checker (no proof reading). It looks like this book was written in probably one weekend.

Some topics have barely one or two pages of information, which is not much at all considering the type size and spacing.

Yes, it's good to give you some basic ideas, but you are not going to find any type of game plan here or any detailed information.

Tim Sweeney's Guide To Releasing An Independent Record is much better as a practical step-by-step guide. Follow that one up with one of the Guerilla PR books. Then get "Confessions Of A Record Producer" to learn about all the stuff that the other books don't tell you about. If you are really ambitious and want to get very detailed about things, get Donald Passman's book as well.

This book is packed with a vast amount of knowledge that will help any serious independent artist, booking agent or manager hit the streets running on a solid foundation. Every chapter has many useful do's and don'ts based on the real world experience of the authors. There's also a bonus articles section with tips from many other music professionals that taught me how to generate over 2,000 song plays (which you now get paid for) at mp3.com within a two month period!

How I Make $100,000/year in the Music Business (Without a Record Label, Manager, or Booking Agent) by David Hooper, Lee Kennedy made me re-think the way I have been developing the business plan for my next album. It provides me with sound advice from the expert authors along with a plethora of resources to access contained in this 190 page book! It's a reference well worth the small amount of purchase which you will get back if you use the information contained within.

Buy it. This is a very practical book about the reality and truth of making it as an independent musician. Work through this book, apply what you learn from it and see if you don't start earning more money and taking yourself and your career more seriously.

All indie artists should have this book on their bookshelf as an outline of how to earn a living in their music career. There is basic music business knowledge here that is invaluable, opportunities and markets that you may not have thought of, practical tips on how to present yourself and your music to increase your bookings, your CD and merchandise sales, website traffic and publishing deals. Great ideas and advice about promotion, designing your press kit and website, how to make your own video, playing live, getting air play and press, the reality of touring, how to build relationships in the business, using direct mail and fanbase mailing lists and getting corporate sponsorship. Also a great section with A&R staff, music publishing companies and Film/TV supervisors speaking out about what gets their attention and what they are looking for.

This book is a good start to taking your music career to the next level of success. Buy it, read it, apply it and don't look back. You'll be on your way to a good living in this business of music before you know it. I highly recommend it.

I suppose that the only reason that anyone would read an autobiography by David Lee Roth would be to either finally get the scoop on his bitter fighting with his ex-bandmates in Van Halen or to pick up the juicy bits of dressing room sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll from his heyday.

Not only does Diamond Dave shed almost no light on the Van Halen conflict, he only mentions Michael Anthony once or twice in the entire book. The Van Halen brothers rate a few more pages, but only as the reunion "scam" unfolds in the late 90's. I understand that Roth doesn't want to sling any more mud, but that's what makes a rock bio a rock bio. Without it, it's pretty much a lot of chapters about his cars and his house and which comic books he likes.

As far as dressing room stories go, there's a few. No names. And there's more debauchery about Dave in Motley Crue's The Dirt than in his own book, so I'd assume he's leaving a lot of the worse stuff out. To hear him tell it he had a few drinks, tried a drug or two, had a ball, rode his bicycle a lot, did some rock-climbing, and never really had a bad/sad moment or serious relationship in 30 years. Sure.

David Lee's no writer (surprise), and his fragmented sentences and use of words like "ginormous" make many chapters completely unintelligible. He claims that this was weeded down from 1100 pages by his editor...I hope the editor got more money than Dave did. Dave's had quite a life, but a ghost writer is sometimes a good thing. This book manages to make it all sound very bland and a little bit pathetic.

Diamond Dave wrote a book? You bet I wanted to read it... Being a fan of Get in the Van by Henry Rollins (documenting his life on the road with Black Flag), I figured this would be another series of road rash stories from one of the biggest stars of the 80s. Wouldn't you know I was both right and wrong? Right about great road stories, but about the wrong roads. The material about life on the road with Van Halen completely pales in comparison with DLR's experiences and travels while away from the band. Hearing his mountain climbing and Amazon river boat tales, you realize there's FAR more to this man than the music. He does have a brain and shows more insight into life than you might expect from a "rock star." A great and natural read that reminds one of Lenny Bruce and the aforementioned Rollins.

Being a fan of Diamond Dave, I eagerly awaited the arrival of "Crazy from the Heat" from Amazon. The wait was very much worth it. In this whirlwind biography, Dave proves why he is considered the greatest showman in rock and roll. His stories of the road and his dedication to his craft are inspirational. How many other singers would take the time to scrub the floor of the stage before a concert tour? I would recommend "Crazy from the Heat" to anyone who is a rock music fan and especially those of us who admire Mr. Roth because it shows the human side of him that many of us have not seen. There is depth of character revealed in his interactions with ordinary people and in his travels as a "Jungle Stud." I think that it is a reflection of David's maturity that he has not taken the opportunity in his autobiography to make derogatory comments about Van Halen or any other of his business associates. If you want to read about the David Lee Roth band or the mudslinging with Van Halen, I can provide you with copies of articles on those subjects. But if you're wanting to learn more about the greatest front man in rock music, then "Crazy from the Heat" is a must-read.