I read this book in about 5 hours. It's pretty hard for me to do that...but it was just impossible for me to put down this book. Nicholas Sparks is a genius, he truly knows how to write. He is the William Shakespeare of our time. Any book this man writes is truly a work of art.

this book is just...really good. no words. just good.

Es la historia de amor, que mucha gente sueña para su vida... y solamente unos pocos podemos vivirla y difrutarla de esa manera y con esa intensidad.

Son de esas historia donde la piel, el corazon y el alma se extremecen de tal manera que lo unico que queda es agradecer a Dios, por amar y ser amado de tal manera.

Es una verdadera historia de amor, desde el principio hasta los "80 años"... tal cual como deseamos vivirla nosotros.

Felicitaciones Nicholas Sparks, sos todo un maestro

I wish he had written all of my text books. Everything is clearly laid out with examples that are broken down into small steps to make understanding even clearer.

I would really like to thank Mr. Angel for putting together a great book. I have to admit that I was afraid of Algebra until I started studying from this book.

Thanks !

The book was laid out well and establishes a good flow with the reader. Contains helpful drawings and diagrams. This book is well suited for visual learners.

I have purchased other books in this series that have been rather skimpy and--the truth be told--boring. But the COLLECTIBLES edition is anything but. I picked up a healthy helping of tips and techniques on collecting (and have visted some of the super recommended Web sites). But I also learned a great deal about history through the collectible items featured in the book--like stamps and coins. The political items chapter was fabulous. And I love the cool collectible pictures throughout the book. The variety was neat. This is just a fun and informative book!!!

This is a great starter book for collectors of all kinds. Just the Web site recommendations alone are worth the purchase price. I found a super wholesale distributor for flea market sellers (like me) that I didn't know existed!!! I've since placed an order for dolls, collector knives, etc. at rock bottom prices!!! Another thing I really like about this book is its breezy and witty approach to things. The author gives us histories of so many collectible items. I'm not a postcard collector, for instance, but I found reading about them fascinating. This book is just plain fun!!!

This book is worth getting for all the cool websites it lists, but as a bonus you get gobs more good stuff. It's an interesting intro to collectibles of all kinds. There's practical information and fun historical tidbits about collecting and collectibles. I learned a lot of things I didn't know. I'll be an educated consumer when I visit the flea markets and garage sales in my town. This book totally rocks! As they say on ebay: A+++++

This is the sort of autobiography you would expect from The Brigadier. Solid, dependable, traditional...but Nicholas Courtney isn't the Brigadier, and this also tells the story of his off-screen life, and life before Doctor Who stardom.

The first part of the book tells the story of the actor's early life, his parent's separation. Then follows the customary section on National Service, weekly rep, meeting Donald Wolfit and John Geilgud. It's good to hear Nick tell the familiar "actor's autobiography", because his style is friendly, humorous, and honest. This makes the book so enjoyable that the pages zoom by. We learn about the author's successes with the ladies, and, to his credit, his failures, and the breakdown of his marriage is dealt with in what seems to be a very honest manner.

The section on his Doctor Who work is well-written, and leaves out a lot of familiar material. This could be due to the work of Courtney's editor, John Nathan-Turner. For whatever reason, this remains fresh and exciting even thirty years after the fact.

The last part of the book details the post-Doctor Who work, and it is remarkable to see that since Courtney stopped being a Doctor Who regular in 1974 he has played the Brig no fewer than seven times. His work continues of course on the Doctor Who audio adventures, but this book was written before they had been established.

The large format suits his story well, allowing space for many rare and well-researched photographs. There are a few too many blank spaces for my liking, and some unnecessary tributes from those who have worked with him. He could also have cut down the number of references to Equity, the actors' union. Other than that, this is a first class read, and tells a more interesting story than the well-worn convention anecdotes, or sections in general Doctor Who books.

An excellent book by the only man who has really seen the series from the very beginning. He is the only actor to have worked with all the actors to have played the Doctor. Thanks to the Big Finish audios he has appeared with the 6th Doctor and will be appearing with the 8th when Paul McGann returns to the roll next year. He rarely does conventions any more and, when he does, refuses to tell some of the stories he's famous for.

All of my life, I have been a no-nonsense man, who knows nothing but work. In 1986, I began to watch Dr. Who, just as a whim in a miltary barracks, on a TV set in the barrack day room that was chained to the floor so no one would steal it. At first it seemed rather cheesy, but then I found that I could not miss a single episode and if I had to miss it, I would record it. Once, I brought a VHS out to a live fire gunnery tank range, where we were to fire all day and all night for two nights.

In one of the tents where the crews were de-briefed and rested, I set up a small TV and the VHS and powered it up by using a military 15kw gas generator. We and the tank crews of my battalion watched Dr. Who.

My first experience with Dr. Who were the Pertwee years and the Brigadier played a large roll. I enjoyed these immensley and bought each one for my collection...and I am still watching them today..(In fact "Planet of Spiders" parts three and four are on tap this weekend).

In short, buy this book. By any book associated with any character who played in this marvelous series.

Thank you Brigadier for your part in allowing an ordinary man,for a few moments anyway,to escape the inescapable life of medocrity.

Alexander Gerschenkron is the type of man many of us would like to be: smart, charming, interested in the world, charismatic, etc. His grandson, Nicholas Dawidoff, seemingly captured his life in a surprisingly honest and thoughtful manner. I say "suprisingly honest" because one could certainly understand if Dawidoff were to give in to hero worship -- given the important role his grandfather played in his upbringing. But Dawidoff saves the hero worship and the highly personal anecdotes for the opening and concluding chapters. The 300 or so pages in between give a very balanced depiction of a complicated man, and that's the stuff of great biography. The first half of the book is a real page-turner, chronicling Gerschenkron's difficult times as a young man in revolutionary Russia and fascist Austria. How could Dawidoff possibly keep up this pace once his grandfather settles down as an educator at Harvard? Well, he doesn't, through no fault of his own. Dawidoff's depiction of Gershenkron's latter life is beautifully written, but the exciting pace of the earlier pages simply can't be sustained. Dawidoff clearly spent a great amount of time interviewing Gerschenkron's colleagues and students, most of whom (although not all) were effusive in their praise. But the book tended to feel slightly repetitious toward the end with the ongoing remembrances and non-related anecdotes. For one so close to the story, Dawidoff managed to expertly review and analyze Gerschenkron's complicated doting relationship with his wife, Erica. Also, a wonderfully telling anecdote at the end of the book reveals not only Gerschenkron's character, but Dawidoff's patient understanding, as well. Although Gerschenkron was an expert chess player, somehow he managed to lose his queen to the 14-year-old Dawidoff. Gerschenkron swept his arm across the board, spilling all the pieces onto the floor. "Num, num," he said. "Let's go eat lunch."

Maybe you had a grandfather who was quite wonderful, but you did not have a grandfather who was wonderful like Nicholas Dawidoff's grandfather was wonderful. Dawidoff's charming biography of his grandfather, _The Fly Swatter: How My Grandfather Made His Way in the World_ (Pantheon) starts with his own memories of Alexander Gerschenkron. For instance, Gerschenkron, known as "Shura" within his family, had an arsenal of fly swatters, each of just the proper color and heft for its particular target. The baby blue flyswatter was just the thing for his particular enemy, the wasps, because they were vicious, and the mild color would make them let down their guard. If he were successful in swatting the wasp (not often), he would give "lengthy disquisitions on swatting technique." He would never allow the insect body to be cleaned up, for he "claimed they were deterrents, that other yellowjackets would encounter their unfortunate colleague and feel inclined to keep away themselves."

Shura was, to be sure, a character. But he was also brilliant in an obsessively academic way. He mastered some two dozen languages, but his field of expertise was not language. He was able to discourse on (and write academic treatments of) _Hamlet_ and _Dr. Zhivago_, but he did not teach literature. He was an economist, a quintessential Harvard professor who left a lasting mark on economic thought with his theory of "economic backwardness." He had a rather exciting early life, fleeing the Russian Revolution, and then fleeing the Nazis, before he found himself in the economic department of Harvard that was to be his academic home. He was a natural show-off. He could certainly be obnoxious and overbearing, and his students often felt they were not measuring up to his superhuman standards, but none of them forgot him, and he left a strong mark on the next generation of economists. Dawidoff makes the case that his standards were so exacting, and his sense of the overwhelming complexity of history and economics so complete, that he constantly spent time in library stacks gaining more information, but was intimidated about committing himself in print. He did, however, play chess with the artist Marcel Duchamp, disparage Vladimir Nabokov for an inept translation of Pushkin, and charm Marlene Dietrich to give him her phone number.

One of the great strengths of this engaging book is that it makes Shura's wide-ranging academic endeavors almost as exciting as his flights from political oppression. The love of reading and the love of learning just for the sake of exercising one's mind could not have a finer exemplar. And while most people would regard a life in libraries as unexciting and unromantic, Shura was fond of living his life as fully as his capacious mind would allow. After he had recovered from a cardiac arrest in the foyer of the Harvard Faculty Club, he used to bring his students to the very spot where he had temporarily died. "You know, there was nothing. No beautiful colors. No castles. No bright lights. Nothing. So, if there are things you want to say and do, don't wait. Say them and do them. You won't get the opportunity after you're dead." During decades devoted to learning, this comprehensive biography makes plain, Gerschenkron drove himself to a life which for all of its time in an ivory tower was full of exuberance and courage.

Growing up Nicholas Dawidoff had a talkative and demonstrative larger-than-life maternal grandfather who had lived in, to paraphrase the Chinese curse, interesting times: his home town Odessa during the Russian revolution and Vienna (where he had to start over, learning German as a student) during the rise of Nazism. Alexander Gerschenkron (called Shura) had married a fellow student, Erica Matschnigg, in Vienna, whom he would deem "perfect," and who was his lifelong intellectual sparring partner. To save their lives they emigrated to the US. After a time Shura found work at UC Berkeley, The Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, and then at his favorite place ever: Harvard. In addition this brilliant and cultured grandfather was kind and funny, educated, eccentric, and more than willing to act as a sort of a dad for his grandson, whose own father was mentally ill.

The one thing, though that Gerschenkron couldn't, or wouldn't, provide for family, friends, or colleagues - or his beloved and loving grandson - was so much as a shred of concrete information about his childhood, his youth, and anything remotely resembling his feelings. No one got into his inner life, and those who tried (and there were many) learned that it was at all times off-limits. So this book is a memoir but also a work of informed conjecture and detection.

Dawidoff, an insightful man and a compassionate reporter, draws a careful and reasoned portrait, "a biographical memoir, a work of reconstruction" that is a pleasure to read. The "dismal science," economics, has never seemed so vitally important and downright interesting as it does in this book.

Gerschenkron was hyperactive; he gave up reading the newspaper in middle age, citing the number of books he had yet to read and reasoning that the time the papers took from this was objectionable. He loved to argue and to win, but he was courtly, too. He practiced what he called "French manners," combining recognizable rules of European etiquette with extreme chivalry. He could be exasperating, but he was generous and possessed astonishing depth and breadth of knowledge (in many areas, not just economics) which he more than willingly shared with the world. Gerschenkron developed theories of economic behavior that are classics, now, and some which were of great importance to US policymakers' understanding of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and of developing nations' economic behavior. He was a prolific essayist and loved literature. Rather than read translations, he taught himself entire languages. He worked out chess problems without a chessboard. He was a character, and became something of a curmudgeon in later life.

Gerschenkron was also fiercely loyal to certain things - countries, colleagues, ideas, people, and the most ordinary stuff of his life. Dawidoff takes pleasure in this information, and I did, too Of Shura he writes. "[He] had a party (the Democrats); a team (the Red Sox); a player (Ted Williams); a board game (chess); a breed of dog (Labrador retriever); a flower (pink rose); a lower body haberdasher (he sent to a Vienna tennis shop for white linen trousers); an upper body haberdasher (he ordered his wool plaid lumber jackets and matching caps from a hunting supply outfit in Maine); a brandy; a chocolate bar; an aspirin; a bullet; a pencil; a shaving soap; a foreign bookstore; a domestic bookstore; a barber; a newsstand (he would go miles out of his way to buy his periodicals from Sheldon Cohen at Out of Town News); and a weekly news magazine (L'Espresso)." And of course he had a school, Harvard, which he loved beyond all measure. Gerschenkron's calculus was simple: the US was the best nation on earth, and Harvard its best school. He thrived there. Dawidoff claims that Harvard "made his personality possible."

Gerschenkron dominated people and gatherings and enjoyed contact, but also required and demanded great blocks of solitude. Sometimes he hurt those he loved. He insisted that his young daughter practice her flute when he wasn't at home, because the sound annoyed him. He disappointed his daughters often and had some stormy relations with friends and colleagues.

There's hardly a dull moment in this account of a life and the many lives that Gerschenkron touched, and Dawidoff has provided enough interesting tangential information to serve as jumping-off points for a lot more reading and inquiry.

There are Source Notes and Acknowledgements. The books lacks an index, which is a real shortcoming. There are hundreds of interesting and important people, places, and works of art and scholarship in this book and its publisher ought to have splurged on something so essential as a good index. Gerschenkron (a lover of notes, acknowledgements, appendices, and indices) would agree.

Garden ornaments are one of the hot decorating themes today. You see them in stores and catalogs all over. This book will inspire you to make your own unique and sophisticated items that will beautify and enhance your outdoor space for years to come.

The 30 projects include something for every taste and skill level. Some of my favorites are a stenciled sunflower tray, mosaic table, hammock, horse weather vane, garden awing, bat box, fish box planter, bird table, shell textured pot, evergreen topiary bird, window pane clock and a slate fountain. All have excellent step-by-step instructions accompanied by demonstrating photos. A number of the projects require basic woodworking skills and tools.

Following the projects are advice sections on using color, buying paints and stains, and choosing and preserving lumber. Instructions are included for creating five different simple finishes and for aging metal and terra cotta. A nice list of suppliers is in the back.

If you're looking to create some great summer projects to spruce up your garden this is the book for you.

Garden Ornaments, 128 pages, over-size ppb.: This book was a real problem for me to review . . . because I want to, and don't have room to describe about 20 of the 30 projects within its pages that are so:

1. Cool looking 2. Inexpensive 3. Comparatively easy 4. Unique 5. Creative

and because they use things like old clay pots, polystyrene fish boxes, rope, paint, orange boxes, old garden tool heads, new and old lumber, simple tools, etc. Some projects are quick and easy; some, like the mosaic table top and the garden awning, are more involved. All come with detailed instructions and photographs.

There are bird houses and feeders, fountains, planters, and boxes. I love the boxes. The trug, garden tray, farrier's or herb box, and orange box planter are elegant in a plain and primitive way. Filled with fresh produce, dried herbs and flowers, pots of seedlings or flowers, etc., etc., etc., they would make beautiful gifts. A sundial, weather vane, wind chime, wonderful garden markers, and planters . . . did you ever think of gluing rope to a clay pot? or screwing a clay pot to a clay tile to hang on a wall? These folks did, and more, and the results are beautiful.

The authors finish the book with several pages of instruction or ideas for using color, choosing and using paints and stains, creating simple finishes to protect and age wood, metal, and clay surfaces.

Garden Ornaments, 128 pages, over-size ppb... This book was a real problem for me to review . . . because I want to, and don't have room to describe about 20 of the 30 projects within its pages that are so:

1. Cool looking 2. Inexpensive 3. Comparatively easy 4. Unique 5. Creative

and because they use things like old clay pots, polystyrene fish boxes, rope, paint, orange boxes, old garden tool heads, new and old lumber, simple tools, etc. Some projects are quick and easy; some, like the mosaic table top and the garden awning, are more involved. All come with detailed instructions and photographs.

There are bird houses and feeders, fountains, planters, and boxes. I love the boxes. The trug, garden tray, farrier's or herb box, and orange box planter are elegant in a plain and primitive way. Filled with fresh produce, dried herbs and flowers, pots of seedlings or flowers, etc., etc., etc., they would make beautiful gifts. A sundial, weather vane, wind chime, wonderful garden markers, and planters . . . did you ever think of gluing rope to a clay pot? or screwing a clay pot to a clay tile to hang on a wall? These folks did, and more, and the results are beautiful.

The authors finish the book with several pages of instruction or ideas for using color, choosing and using paints and stains, creating simple finishes to protect and age wood, metal, and clay surfaces.

Gondar is a pleasant suprise that I found while roaming my father's bookshelves. You won't be let down. A great storyteller, Luard glues your eyes to the pages, using words as his only adhesive. A must read.

From the very first page Luard captivates the reader with his vivid and passionate portrayal of royal intrigue and sheer adventure. The tale begins in ancient Abyssinia where the queen of the nile is impregnated via sinister and mysterious means. She lives in affluent splendour among lust and savagery. In a neighbouring kingdom, the author invites us to witness the kidnapping of the royal twins Toomi and Mamkinga. As Luard's intricate tapestry unfolds, we follow the twins' separation and painfully unjust descent into slavery. Their journeys are wrought with countless horrific events embedded in the constant longing each twin feels for being reunited with the other half of their being. Powerful and viscious figures forever loom in the shadows of this richly depicited tale, including the brutal arab Acab Saat, who is to be the dagger that attempts to shred the very fabric of Africa's kingdoms. Throughout Luard's epic we also delve into the faraway shores of Ireland, where Jamie Oran surpasses his devastating past to venture into Africa, and finds his destiny at the source of the nile.

Luard has a talent for relentlessly drawing the reader into the story until they gasp for breath, eyes bulging in wonderment at the brutality humankind is capable of in the context of this historical and cultural landscape. At times i was convinced that Luard must have lived in Africa to write with such vision and complexity about this exotic realm. Although the journey extends from Africa to the United Kingdom, Luard is consistent in the integrity and resilience that is found in our heroes, and the same demonic cruelty in our villains. His statements about human nature are constant: insecurity and lust make for a dangerous combination. The characters' heartwrenching struggles are upsetting in their realism, yet are essential components of Luard's image of an epic battle for freedom and love.

the ingredients of this epic adventure novel: two royal african twins sold into slavery,a beautiful princess fleeing from a evil priest who takes over her land and daring young scottish adventurer who aids her.This novel has all the ingredients of classic epic adventure story with raiders of the lost ark style action,old-fashioned heroes and ravishing romance!I hope the author writes again because he has alot of talent!

This book is even good reading... its humorous little anecdotes, sprinkled among the recipes and photos, reveal little-known facts and add even more vibrancy to the tone of the book. All of the recipes that I have tried (about 15) have turned out beautifully, with my guests begging to know from what restaurant I bought the take-out! Greek with Gusto has de-mystified what was to me formerly a very foreign cuisine.

These recipes are very usable and the flavors are wonderful. I love Greek food and now I can make it at home. I really appreciate the lower-fat focus that these recipes have. Greek friends rave about this cookbook -- they're the true experts and it has passed their taste tests. The food photos are clear and very appealing. The illustrations and commentaries also make it terrific to read.

I have made several recipes in this book and have had complete success with all of them. I love the illustrations and the step-by-step instructions. Anyone can make delicious Greek food with this book!

I've been a big fan of Nicholas Gray ever since I first borrowed 'Overhills to Fabulon'. I think that Grimbold's Other World was one of the most magical books I've read, and this is including Nicholas Gray's other books. I totally agree that this author should be reprinted and considering the popularity of the Harry Potter series, I can't understand why any publishing company doesn't undertake this sensible option.

My Dad has told to sit down and prattle on about Grimbold and Muffler in the hope that the publishers will put Nicholas Stuart Gray books back into print again.

Dad read us Grimbold's Other World,and this is what I think of it:

Muffler,brought up by farmers, meets Grimbold the cat, who takes the boy into the Night World, where cats grow enormous and dogs quiver like mice,and where Sable,the merciless sorcerer, lives in Red Tower, with his mischeivous son, Gareth. Gareth always defys his father,and gets into rather serious trouble, but Muffler and Grimbold help him.

Muffler also meets the Hob,who lives in the barn and is the luck of the farm,and Madam Nettleweb, Sable's scatty sister.

This is a fabulous book,full of magic and mystery. I recommend it for any age from 7 and upwards.

One of my favourite books ever, this humorous and quirky collection of short stories about one boy and his relationship with the world of faery is written with intelligence and wit. Grimbold is a large black cat who guides Muffler, the foundling child raised by farmers, on many midnight adventures through the "night world", where everything becomes, physically, what it is spiritually, or mentally. Cats are huge, fearsome and fast, and dogs are small, cringing things full of fear. (Great for cat people: I felt very vindicated.) I highly recommend it for bedtime reading, as it is harmless and not frightening at all, and each chapter can be read on its own. Grimbold is full of dry, sarcastic humor, and Muffler is an endearing character for children and parents alike.

Nicholas Stuart Gray is a very talented, underappreciated artist who wrote other children's fantasy fiction. Notably, he wrote a story called "Seventh Swan", about the last of the ! "swan prince" brothers from the fairy tale. The premise of the novel is, what happened to the poor prince who was left with one swan's wing at the end of the story?

I am only half way through this book, but in the two days I have had it, I have not been able to put it down! It is incredibly eye opening and I find myself following Boothman's advice already in my everyday interactions. This book is well worth a read.

This book is easy to read, gives exercises that enables you to use what you have read and puts you in a position to get more out of your life. If you want to be more effective in ALL your communication, get this book.

What a wonderful little book that packs a great big wallop! If you are serious about connecting with people in business, and reaping the rewards that come with more and better relationships, then this is an absolute must-read for you.

I had the good fortune of reading Nick Boothman's first book, "How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less," while on a flight to a conference in which I was teaching. I was inspired by the simplicity and practicality of Boothman's approach. I began using his techniques before even leaving the airplane and continued to use them in the cab, the hotel, and at the conference. It was a breakthrough moment for me. My audience paid closer attention, laughed more, and learned more than any other I had previously served. This happened because I connected with them in a much stronger and more meaningful way-Boothman's way. I've been following Nick's direction ever since.

Now, Mr. Boothman releases a pitch-perfect sequel-"How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less." While this volume is grounded in the same principles as his first book, every page is crafted with the businessperson in mind. As I have read and re-read this snappy, entertaining, profound book, I am amazed at how much more Nick Boothman has to teach me about persuasion-the craft of getting people (in this case clients and other business contacts) to want to do what I want them to do. It's all KFC: Know what you want, Find out what you're getting, and, Change what you do until you get what you want. Sounds obvious, right? Wrong. If it were many more of us would be much more successful.

Some of the material in this book is good basic sense that your mother told you but somehow leaked out of your head. Boothman puts that good sense back into your brain with a greater freshness, clarity, and practicality.

"How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less" illustrates the power of connecting with businesspeople quickly and consistently. Don't let your ego get in the way of picking up this book. You'll learn a lot stuff you thought you already knew.