In this very readable book, John Randolph Price discusses the secret school, the master teacher and the inner classroom where you can win your wings. He shares insights received from within on issues like self-realization, wholeness, the ego and the raising of consciousness individually and worldwide, also proposing ways in which the reader may write their own textbook through similar dialogues with the divine within. Uplifting and inspiring reading and contains a variety of useful meditations.

I think that this book is very good for the people wno likes to be in suspense. It gets you inside of the story and surprises you each chapter. One of the things I most liked about this book is that James Bond gets personally involved. What surprised me about me about James Bond was how much he cares about inocent people diying. I think that this book is different from the other books about James Bond because the other books have more action and I think this change is because it wasn't written by Ian Fleming.I liked this book because when you read the first two chapters you can't stop reading it because you want to know what is going to happen next.It gives you information about the characters chapter by chapter and I like that because you can imagine everything that is happening.This book makes you think alot because you have to remember what happened in last chapter in order to know what is happening and you also start to imagine what is going to happen next.The first couple of chapters were my favorites because you start thinking about all possible resolutions and you start liking the book. I didn't like Sukie Tempesta's character because she was kind of predictible.One of my favorite parts of this book is the end and the phrase were it says "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.But it is,perhaps, the end of the beginning" because it makes you think.Finally,I think that every James Bond's fan should read this book, and even if this is the first book about James Bond that you will read I am sure you will find it very interesting.

I believe that this is a very good book for people who like suspense, because this edge of your seat thriller keeps you involved every chapter. In this sotry James Bond gets involved sentimentaly because he thiks that his girl friend was killed, later he found that she wasn not dead. She betrays him. One of the things I liked the most about this book, is that each of the caracters are described in detail. I think this bood is different from the other James Bond's books, because it was written by John Gardener. I think that James Bond's boss shouldn't assign this mission to him because he knew that James Bond will get personally involved. This book was good, but some ot the parts were a little confusing because you had to remember perfectly what happend in the last chapter's to understand what was going on. I didn't like that character of Sukie Tempesta, it was very predictible since chapter 2 and in chapter 23 you realize that she wasn't as good as she seemed to be. I think that the other stories I have read have more action than this one, and James Bond cares more about inocent people dying. James Bond continues to be very smart like in the other stories.

Slam bang action. This adventure hits the USA and Washington DC! Bond is sent to take charge! And that is what he does in this great Bond adventure! Great reading! Loved the ending!

This is a very simple, canned presentation. The book is primarily boilerplate that may be read free on any exchange website. There may be value for the novice here, but anyone with experience will put the book down 15 minutes after picking it up.

This book is really no different from the many other books about options and why it is better to be a seller of option premium rather than a buyer. ... The only real difference from most other options books is that this book focuses on futures options instead of stock and index options. The only chapter that addresses any slightly new material is the chapter about the margin requirements of trading futures options. And even that chapter is lacking. In order to fully be able to employ the material abouts margins, you have to buy a ...computer program. I can't really recommend this book to anyone with even slight experience trading options. For beginners only!

I really enjoyed this book. Lubow is a genius. I started investing with just $5,000 in my name, and with a handicap of 25. Now, I live on Pebble Beach, I play 36 holes a day, and my handicap is 2. I cannot thank Jon Lubow enough.

After reading this book I'm not sure why it's listed as a college guide. It only lists 100 colleges and I had never heard of most of them. Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools lists 195, and that's just graduate schools. Peterson's includes satellite and cable and lists many more accredited undergraduate colleges than this guide. I got the feeling that Bear just lists schools that he personally likes or that he maybe forgot to update the book in the last 5 years or so.

Good grief! I cannot believe the reviews that are complaining because a book subtitled "100 Accredited Schools that Offer Bachelor's, Master's, Doctorates, and Law Degrees by Home Study" does not list thousands of degrees!

Okay, so maybe they should change the title to "The Top 100 degrees by Home Study." Maybe Amazon.com should include the blurb on the back cover that makes it very clear that this is a selected nonexhaustive listing.

It is true that the entries do not carry a lot of information. In fact, it looks as if the publishers simply took the quarter-page entries from Bear's other book and changed the type face so it would take up a whole page. But none of the directories are exhaustive treatments. I know: I've read them all. An exhaustive directory would be a thousand pages long and cost hundreds of dollars.

Bear's entries do carry enough information for you to know if you have any interest in following up on the ample contact information. (Unlike many other references in the field, Bear's contact information is very accurate.)

If you want a listing of thousands of schools, look into Bear's Guide to Earning Degrees Nontraditionally.

I've read Peterson's, Thorson's, and Princeton's; and I'm here to tell you: Bear's is best. If you want behind the scenes stuff and honest opinions rather than just listings, if you want a good general education on the distance education scene today, buy College Degrees by Mail & Modem or Bear's Guide.

I am very happy with my piddling ... investment and feel I got way more than my money's worth.

Why do I have to review the book before I can read others' reviews

If you desire to emulate the pastoral ministry of John MacArthur, or you would like to be a student at Master's Seminary, or you dream of building a church modeled after Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, this is the book for you. In "Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry" you will find a condensed version of the pastoral theology curriculum of Master's Seminary. The book looks at the role of the pastor, the qualifications of a pastor, the personal and public sides of the pastors life, and the major areas of church ministry. While the Bible seems to provide principles and guidelines in which individual churches are allowed to express their unique ministries, I found MacArthur and his team to be very opinionated and dogmatic about the way church should be done. Many of his methods and concepts would be both impractical and ineffective for the majority of the church world. The Bible sets the bar high when it comes to qualifying for the pastoral office. I found MacArthur sets the qualifications even higher than that which Scripture requires. Portions of the book provide valuable teaching for all evangelical pastors and churches. The author's high view of Scripture and Biblical authority is refreshing. Despite my cautions about the book, it is a valuable contribution to pastoral literature. If your views are the same as MacArthur or you're willing to wade through his dogma on disputable issues, you'll be enriched by the book.

John MacArthur and company lay down the foundation for the pastoral office covering the biblical requirements and duties the office is to perform. The book offers examples of pastoral theology throughout (many of which made it into my notes) and is written in a non-technical fashion. The book, as with Oden's Pastoral Theology, is geared for those who are looking to enter the teaching office. Of importance is a chapter devoted to scaring off those who are not truly called to fulfill the teaching office. This I truly feel is of great importance and something which another book, Biblical Eldership (Alexander Strauch, 1995), also dwells upon but Oden's Pastoral Theology fails to drive home with enthusiasm. Unfortunately Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry does not dwell long upon the idea that a good pastor can do, or teach, good theology (as contrasted with simple doctrine) which Oden's book spends time upon (pp. 141-152). Rather, MacArthur's work centers more upon practical matters of the pastoral office. This is not to say that the idea of pastors doing good theology isn't presented in this book, but that a chapter isn't devoted to the idea. Of special interest is a chapter on worshipping, which frankly, is the best I've read in a concentrated study.
Although MacArthur holds to Reformed theology, there was only one instance within this work were this came to the forefront and drove his conclusions (p. 92, re: grace extended to children based upon parents beliefs). Overall MacArthur strikes me a sincere and compassionate minister who deeply cares for the direction of the church and those who shall lead it in the future and I would recommend this book to any Christian seeking to learn more about the office of elder/pastor.

Despite the previous review of this book, I recommend it to all. Dr. MacArthur, and The Master's Seminary Faculty has done a great service to pastor's everywhere.

First, the book is comprehensive. It deals with as many issues pertaining to pastoral leadership that you can shake a stick at. It ranges from the pastor and his study, to the pastor and congregational prayer, and everything in between.

Second, just because a book advocates a particular theological position (especially since it is based on Scripture) does not make it wrong. MacArthur and company do an excellent job advocating their position, and this reviewer agrees whole-heartedly. As a pastor myself, I understand the pressure that is put on us to be examples and leaders. Scripture says to not be a teacher if you do not have to be because they will be judged harsher. If that does not illustrate the extremely difficult position of being a pastor then I do not know what does. MacArthur does not advocate perfection in the pastorate. He knows as well as I that that is impossible on this side of heaven. What he does advocate is "above reproach" pastoring, which is clearly seen in 1 Timothy. As for the women issue... there is not room to deal with that issue here. It is more complex than the other reviewer is letting on. As for this reviewer, I accept the complementarian approach and think that MacArthur and company do a good job at advocating it.

There are issues I have with this book. It's more "elder rule" type governing system (especially dividing teaching and ruling elders), has a great deal of Scripture to deal with before one can see it as the biblical approach.

All in all though, this is an excellent book. I recommend it to all who are interested in accomplishing biblical pastoral leadership. It should probably be supplemented by other volumes, including Joseph M. Stowell's "Shepherding the Church" and John Armstrong's "Reforming Pastoral Ministry."

There's a lot of cheap and distorted information in this book (probably edited by the clumsy U.S. Navy), but there's no doubt that Mad Admiral King never understood what a submarine was or that German submariners ran up and down our East Coast at will attacking our harbors and sinking our ships. He thought they were spontaneous combustion, of some sort, and made an effort to load ships differently and thus prevent these "untoward events."

Now all this time'early 40's'the Brits had been warning KING about the present position and anticipated arrival of every German submarine sent across the Atlantic to attack our Eastern ports, but the number one SOB on our side (and an American) refused to ever listen to the Brits due to a pathological craziness that negatively focused on the Brits. Instead he did the opposite. The ports were left unguarded. The German wolf packs roamed just a few miles off our Eastern seashore at will and thousands of men died needlessly! Why this one salient point wasn't a large focal point of this book is beyond me.

As bald as King's purposeful negligence seems today I must admit that everyone wants to read about a leader who is also a buffoon. Madness and stupidity offer great areas of comedic relief even in pointless deadly battles. A glimpse at some of the most fatal but stupid and uninspired Anglo-Saxon battle plans'"over the top boys!"'of the 2nd World War will convence anyone of this! That's why this book isn't selling but would be selling 2000 copies a month right now had the authors and the U.S. Navy relentlessly searched for the truth and then after finding it wrote is all down exactly as it happened. But the U.S. Navy was then a boatload of WASPS in search of a great U.S. Naval leader and Mad Admiral King looked just like a leader with his clean face and pretty white hair. In their egoistic ways and means, the writers tried to place King anywhere but where he belongs: in a yellow submarine. Instead, King's long and costly road to victory was too grevious for everyone in the end and so no foolish writer wanted to spend time researching him when his record spoke for itself.

Mad Admiral King's true plan for the Pacific war was to island-hop for another three years, to have the war end in 1948. His dwarf like mind conceived the worst and possibly malignant war plans when he purposefully ordered Iwo Jima to be invaded. This latter plan of death and dying caused even the most cynical American Admiral-to-be to suggest that island hoping was a bad idea. Bypass the remaining islands and bomb Japan back into the stone age with incendiaries. The deaths of the truly great fighting men at Iwo Jima were placed there by King and ordered to take the island at allcosts. This is not insightfully addressed in the book on King because it's just more proof of King's pathological arrogance and conceit.

Ernie J. King was one of the least known and yet most important figures of American 20th century military history. While others, such as Nimitz and Halsey, gained laurels in the press, King actually defined the strategy, determined who would lead American naval forces across the Pacific, and single-handedly ran the Navy Department throughout the war. Yet he remains almost unknown to modern generations [during a recent visit to the US Naval Academy, an official tour guide -- a retired Naval officer -- told me that King was buried in Arlington cemetery, when in fact he is buried at the Academy]. Mr. Buell addresses this gap with this extraordinary book. Buell tries -- by all available means -- to get at who the man was, what he was like, and what he did -- no easy task considering that King distrusted the press for much of the war, and was almost universally regarded as an SOB within the Navy Department. Yet reading this book, I came to understand why it took an SOB to accomplish the defeat of Japan simultaneously with that of Germany -- something that Admiral King seems to have understood as well. I felt that at the end of this book, I understood who King was, what motivated him, and what he was like. The reproduction of King's 2-page memorandum to FDR about Pacific war strategy is an extraordinary document and a classic example of good business writing. It is unfortunate that Buell's biography of Raymond Spruance does not manage to capture equally the character of Spruance -- admittedly an enigma. Buell's bibliography is a marvel of critical assessement of sources -- he uses the same style with his Spruance biography and new Civil War history. For someone interested in sources and original material, Buell's syntheses are unparalleled. My only question is: when will Buell take up the story of another fascinating military figure such as Pershing, Arleigh Burke, or McNair? Barry Miller Bethesda, Maryland

I have read Mr. Train's earlier books The Money Masters and The New Money Masters and found them informative and interesting, gaining insights from some of the worlds most sucessful investors. Mr. Train's research seemed to rely heavily on personal interviews of these Masters often providing the reader with unique investment philosophies not readily available elsewhere. I especially recommend Mr. Train's first book in this series The Money Masters because this book moved me away from the trading of stocks and futures as practiced by Robert Wilson the short seller and Stanly Kroll the great commodity speculator. The techniques they employed seemed too elusive and fraught with risk and if this was the basis of the trading game it was not the game for me. I was instead attracted to the similer philosophies of mentor and student Ben Grahman and Warren Buffett. Looking at a stock as a share of a business not a piece of paper with a number on it. This was the first time I had been exposed to the wisdom of these two investors and I am grateful to Mr. Train for revealing to the public their methods. The problem I have with the current rendition is that it really adds nothing new. In fact Mr. Train seems to have copied parts of the first Money Masters and spliced them into this version. I may be wrong but it doesn't seem that the effort or creativity that went into the original went into this work. Another sort of irritating quality in this instance thankfully not present in the first book is Mr. Train's need to psychoanalyze some of his subjects especially Mr. Buffett. This adds an edge to the book that is not worthy of Mr. Train.

The bookshelves are full of books containing descriptions of ways to invest based on historical data and models that have not been very fully tested in practice. However, in most areas of human endeavor, a great deal is learned by studying those who are and have been the best for a long time. Money manager John Train has been playing this role for some time with his outstanding books, The Money Masters and The New Money Masters. For about two years, I have been wondering what John Train thinks about the current financial markets. I was delighted to see that he had created an updated and revised sequel to his earlier works.

One of the strengths of John Train's work in this area is that he knows the people he writes about, and the chapters contain discussions he has had with them in most cases. So you get new information that you have not read before in the financial press. He also does a good job of picking a variety of styles and personality types, so you get A to Z with some letters skipped in between in these 17 profiles. These include (in order of presentation): T. Rowe Price; Warren Buffett; John Templeton; Richard Rainwater; Paul Cabot; Philip Fisher; Benjamin Graham; Mark Lightbown; John Neff; Julian Robertson; Jim Rogers; George Soros; Philip Carret; Michael Steinhardt; Ralph Wanger; Robert Wilson; and Peter Lynch. Amongst these men, you will find a variety of growth investors, value investors, those who look to undiscovered markets, intense analysts of trends and individual companies, hedge fund operators, shorts, small cap specialists, and those who focus on emerging foreign markets. It's quite a ride. Naturally, if any of them interest you, you can go further in other sources and learn more.

Warren Buffett, John Templeton, Paul Cabot, Benjamin Grapham, Jim Rogers, George Soros, Robert Wilson, and Peter Lynch have always been people I have learned from, and I was glad they were included. I did not know much about Mark Lightbown and was glad to learn more.

A major strength of the book is that Mr. Train goes on the sum up what it all seems to mean. He says these people validate four styles that work:

"1. Buy into well-managed companies that will grow . . . . When they slow down, sell them and buy new ones.

2. . . . buy stocks that are priced . . . at less than their underlying assets and sell them when they are reasonably priced.

3. Discover a new investment area or one that is . . . neglected . . . .

4. Identify a really good specialist to do the job for you . . . ."

He has a good list of common practices that almost each of the 17 do, that you should find very helpful, as well.

Finally, he talks about what you can expect for the future. He sees the reasonable returns from growth stocks to be 13-14 percent in the future (down from 20 percent in his last book). He still thinks that is a good way to go, but also counsels on when and how to use mutual funds (when they are cheap and give you access to a category you cannot buy efficiently on your own).

He constantly reminds the reader that most investors will earn less than the market average. Rather than sending you to index funds, as many authors do, he feels that by using the lessons here that he outlines, you can hope to do somewhere near or above the average. But you have to be very careful. His philosophy is a variation on the buy and hold growth stock advice that many advocate, but his reasoning and support for the conclusions are more sound.

It would be interesting to see what the stock portfolios do of those who read this book and follow its advice over the next 20 years.

Personally, I am not convinced that the average reader can take even this excellent book and outperform the market. But if you decide to do so, I sincerely hope you succeed.

In any event, you can certainly avoid many costly errors by paying attention to Mr. Train's list of things to avoid doing!

After you have read the book, ask yourself in what other areas of your life outstanding expert case histories could help you improve by overcoming bad habits and developing better ones. Then go find and apply those case histories!

I've had an ongoing Ravenloft Campaign now for over 10 years. We started with the old Realm of Terror boxed set for AD&D when it came out in 1990. When 3rd edition came out, we decided to look at the Ravenloft twist and what they had done with it. The core book was decent, yet it left out the darklords. Upon reading through the book, we found out that we would need to purchase this book to get information on those darklords.

We never did buy the book. After all the reviews we read it doesn't appear to be money well spent, more like money wasted. To hear that not all the darklords are even described is disheartening, as that was the only reason we looked to buy this book.

For those of you that are simply looking for information on the darklords, this product wouldn't be worth it. Not enough of them are described. In the transformation from 2nd ed. to 3rd ed., the basic lands all but stayed the same. Only one or two from the Realm of Terror failed to reappear in 3rd edition. And those that did make the transformation still have the same basic lords. There are a few new ones that "took over", and if they're depicted then it might be worth it. But on the whole, I'd advise something more.

If you can get your hands on the old Realm of Terror boxed set, do so. It has the description and personalities of the darklords. Of course, Realm of Terror is 2nd ed, so you'd have to do a little of your own work to transfer the darklords stats into 3rd edition playability.

And if you can get your hands on the 2nd ed module, "When Black Roses Bloom", you'd also find stats for Azreal in that adventure packet.

Just some alternatives, else you'd have to get this thin product.

I really liked the d20 Ravenloft book, but this one fell short. It only covers about half of the lords and includes a prestige class that should have been in the first book. Here, the class just takes up space that could have been better used with more darklords. Or, better yet, they could have made the book bigger to include more of the lords. I would have gladly paid more for a more complete work.

On a positive note, the updated stats for the lords are useful and necessary for a Ravenloft game. And we do get new artwork for Azalin and Azrael . . .

In all honesty I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, because the book bills it as "nasty tricks to use on your players" when it really should have been... "The semi-complete list of darklords." I have no idea why the witch-hunter prestige class was in this book, as it was completely out of place, but the rest of the book was actually very well done, with a map (albeit small) showing which domains were controlled by which darklord and then a listing of the darklords.

These listings make up the meat of the book and are definitely worth the price of admission for those who do not have the older 2nd edition info. They tell you the history, personality, looks, powers, current position, and weaknesses of the darklords. Every single entry was done to my satisfaction and merited 5 stars for that information alone. The reason the last star dropped off is that the information wasn't complete. They show you the list of all the darklords in Ravenloft and then give you info on only half of them. I would have paid for another hardcover overpriced S&S book if it had just listed them all.

The only other issue I have with the book is the stats on the darklords themselves. As a DM I have been running Forgotten Realms campaigns for many years now and have become accustomed to incredibly powerful NPC characters that the PCs are in mortal fear of. No player is going to bum rush Elminster, even if he is wielding a +5 sword. Forgotten realms contains epic level characters using the WotC Epic Level handbook to full effect. The Secrets of the Dread Realms lists Azalin as an 18th level lich necromancer. Perhaps I am just jaded from my other campaigns, but isn't that a tad weak? Why didn't they bump up the power level of the darklords to reflect the new source material from WotC?

In any case, it was well worth the money I spent, but it could have been much better. The DM shield was actually quite handy as well, and definitely more appropriate for a Ravenloft campaign.

I havent read any of gardner's books. but from what i hear leming rules all bond novels. I say stick with fleming forget gardner. Benson's allright.

This was the first John Gardner 007 book that I read. I really enjoy James Bond stories and movies as well. However, in the books and movies that I have seen, James Bond was more of a ladies man and was free from commitment. In this book, James is pretty much tied down and very much in love with one woman. This was something that I did not particuarly agree with, coming to know James Bond as a bachelor is how I would much rather keep it. Neverheless, I did enjoy reading this book and getting into the story.

I thought this was one of the best Bond books I have read in a while! It is a little boring at the beginning for about two chapters, but it gets a lot better after that. I could not stop reading it at the end, because it is so EXCITING! Other people say John Gardner doesn't write very good books, but a disagree. This book is very good, and I recommend it to people that like action packed James Bond novels!

If you've never read a Ford bio, this is a decent introduction. But the book has three problems. It has very little interpretation and evaluation of the films. Much of the book is about Ford's flaws as a human being, especially his cruelty to the people he worked with. Film by film, he piles up examples of Ford's bad behavior without explaining what all this nastiness has to do with Ford's achievement as an artist. Finally, much of the book's material comes from interviews. In a bibliographical essay, Davis lists all this material. In the text, however, he never makes it clear where he got a particular quote. Davis did quite a few interviews for the book. Those don't need further citation. If you want to track down quotations from other interviews, however, forget it. There's no way of finding out when an interview was given or what the context for the quote is.

Although this book does a reasonable job of delivering the essential information about one of Hollywood's great directors, it spends too much effort attempting to analyze the dark side of John Ford, and too little time dealing with the art he created. The author speculates on Ford's drinking, his sexuality, and his family problems. If you want to know Ford's work, don't buy this book...buy one or two of his movies, instead....or buy Harry Carry Jr's book, or Peter Bogdanovich's book.

I recently read the John Ford biography by Ronald Davis, PhD, and found the book to be well written and very informative. After reading this book, it became quite obvious that Ford had an unhappy personal life. While Ford was in control of his professional life, his personal life was out of control. Ford was a represed man who lived a lie...