I bought this because I got a weight set and bench cheap and wanted to learn how to use it so I could increase my strength and resistance to osteoporosis without killing or injuring myself. The book is very straight forward and has good pictures. The descriptions of some of the moves (or variations on lifts) are, for the most part, simple and easy to understand. This book gave me the confidence to start a short exercise-with-weights program and firm up my muscles. Advanced lifters will probably be disappointed, but for a total beginner like myself, it was a great starting point -- one I return to often. And the authors make sure to include women in the photos, which helped me (as a woman) feel like it wasn't just a "man thing" -- that I could do it too.

If you're too intimidated to do this stuff in the gyms, the gym staff aren't very helpful with it, or if the weights/benches are always hogged by jock types, get yourself a good used weight set and bench and buy this book. You'll do just fine. Note: having a mirror nearby can help you be sure you're doing the exercises right and with the proper positions and posture.

This is a great book for beginning weight lifters and especially fellow women who'd like to begin to lift and might feel uncomfortable asking gym staff for assistance. It has pictures of exercises and the proper way to lift weights as well as specific exercises for shaping certain muscle groups. Small book, but informative and easy to read. Good reference.

This book is the grand daddy of the clinical vignettes series. Try to grab a copy for it's cases. Useful for both USMLE Steps 2 & 3. You need to commit time to finish the book.

This is a very sympathetic record of Keats' letters and poems, and anyone interested in his thoughts/personality is likely to find themselves pleased.

If you're unfamiliar with this naturalist's writings, then you're in luck. This sampler contains essays from nine of his books, from _The Run_ (1959) to _In the Company of Light_ (1998), as well as several of Hay's poems and his John Burroughs Medal acceptance address. Here you will follow and see along with him as if on the same trail, gleaning tidbits of natural science in the process. Shorelines and wetlands are the main areas featured -- mostly in New England, and often in Cape Cod -- though a few forays take us to Florida and to the rainforest of Costa Rica. Read Hay's insights into the intricacies of salt-water habitats, and you're apt to see more the next time you go beach-combing yourself -- from the smallest creatures in the water to the larger ones winging above you. Here you will also run across Hay's astute environmental observations and admonishments:


"Every life that touches on another, or becomes a part of another, keeps the earth's fluidity in being." ("Homing," from _The Undiscovered Country_)

"We ought to be tuning up to what is around us, but our own static is too loud." ("Listening," from _The Undiscovered Country_)

"At times I think that all the plants, birds, fish, and every other living organism are waiting for our departure so that they can resume timeless engagement with the earth." ("Fire in the Plants," from _A Beginner's Faith in Things Unseen_)

This smorgasbord is a nice addition to any nature-lover's bookshelf and could inspire the reader to search out one or more of the featured titles to delve deeper into John Hay's work.

What can you say about a guide that doesn't give 5 Stars to Wire, The Replacements, Husker Du, The Pixies, New Order, Joy Division, David Bowie, or The Smiths. But they love Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Bob Seger, and Jackson Browne. The book also blindly gives 5 Stars to the most popular artists, even on albums that overlap each other with the same songs. So if you followed RS advice, you would have several albums with very similar programming from the same artists.

This book has been very informative to me, but I've found some mistakes which makes me not sure if I should trust a lot of things from this book. I'm sure most of it is true, but still a book like this shouldn't have mistakes. One mistake being for Triumvirat saying that they were from Finland when they're really from Germany. Another mistake is under the discography for Spirit. It says the album, 12 Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, was released in 1967 when it was really released in 1971. I also do not agree with a lot of reviews in this book. I mean how could they give EVERY Black Sabbath album the same rating which was 1 star? This book also doesn't have complete discographies if the album wasn't released in the US which is annoying. It's also missing a lot of great bands such as Amon Düül II who deserve to be in the book.

I did enjoy the pictures from the first guide, but the unacceptable Rush bashing on the part of the 1979 reviewer annoys me tremendously. In any event, John Swenson does an excellent job of righting the wrong that Alan Niester once perpetuated. Other than that, I am not particularly fond of the denigration of Yes, esp. with respect to TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS, however this book was very informative and I enjoyed it overall. IMHO, the only record guide that is comparable to this 1983 version is the ALL MUSIC GUIDE TO ROCK. As far as I am concerned, the 1992 guide was a waste of paper.

"The Newhall Incident" interested me because the crime occurred in my hometown and I personally witnessed the police action in attempting to capture one of the perpetrators. But the book read too much like fiction in that the author constantly expressed thoughts and ideas on behalf of the people involved in the incident. Since those people lost their lives that day, we can never know what they were really thinking. The book would have been more valuable if the author had stuck to the facts. He also went way overboard on the use of profanity which made for difficult reading and detracted from his attempt to draw a psychological profile of the perpetrators.

I read this book while I was an explorer with the CHP. It has good background information and the stories of both sides of this conflict prior to the incident. It seems that it focuses more on the criminals, and what drove them to do it, but it lacks many of the officer safety innovations that the CHP developed after this incident. Everything from basic PMA to felony stops were revised because of this. While I was at the explorer academy, they stressed this incident to us over and over, and why we needed to be alert, in shape, and knowledgeable in out tactics as an individual, and as a team. Now I know why, after reading about the darkest day in the history of the California Highway Patrol. But the book is lacking, and could have been a bit better. A CHP PT instructor could probably give you an as good or better account of what happened.

This was a very interesting book that looks at the deaths of four California Highway Patrol officers in 1970. The story is told in an engaging fashion that draws the reader in, in the style of The Onion Field. The background information is good, and paints a strong image. When describing the actual event and its aftermath, I was left wanting more detail. While I realize that it was not designed to be a true after-action report, I was still left wanting for some of the details. I would like to have seen a large section on the lessons learned from the event. All in all a good book, but there is more to be told.

Even though the layout of this book is good with well-detailed instructions and clear charts,the patterns and designs are way too simple and much too basic. They are very uninteresting and lack depth and shading. If there had been a picture of the book on Amazon I most probably would not have ordered it.