My group of friends, who had all travelled Greece in our backpacking days, benefited greatly from this book. As our trip in July 2002 progressed, we relied more and more heavily on the book. The recommendations from sites to food to hotels proved to be excellent every time. I particularly liked that the lodging and restaurant recommendations had inexpensive through expensive listings, which we used as our budget-mindedness changed during the trip. For anyone beyond backpacking and Lonely Planet, this book is a must.

I found this book very useful. I used it mostly as a guide on a walking tour of Athens. I only had three days in Athens and wanted to see as much as possible. I spent a few hours browsing through the pertinent section and made my plan of action. Everything was as described. I also referred to it when making my hotel reservation and when looking for good restaurants. I stayed at the Hotel Philippos near the Acropolis - a great little place. Eating I went through great troubles one night to find the Taverna Sigalas in the Monasteraki area (because of subway construction,) but it was well worth the effort. I still drool at the thought of the wonderful Greek salad I had and the very best moussaka I've ever eaten. Going to Rome this year and I plan to buy a Frommer's for Rome because I only have three days there and I know I can depend on this book.

It is amazing how someone can write so clearly about such and an obscure book. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit has unfortunatly been dismissed by many as simple foolishness. Forster's book, however, is excellent at destroying this view. Put Hegel's Phenomenology on one knee and this book on the other. When you read Hegel you forehead will crinkle up and you will stare blankley at pages. "Huh" Then reading Forster, your forehead will relax "Oh, I see" The combination of the two makes for a great journey into the realm of new and exciting ideas. Forster has allowed me to appreciate the great mind of Hegel that otherwise would have remained unknown to me. Outstanding book.

Eight years ago, I began a daily exercise of copying one page of Hegel's Phenomenology into a word processor and then rewriting and distilling it until I could go no further. One hundred and fifty pages later, I gave up. Michael Forster has provided a perspicuous view of the Hegelian landscape I was (often blindly) crawling over. I'm grateful.

In this book ,as you read, you can't help but keep looking at your watch. A minute by minute account of the famous charge.You feel as if you are in the ranks on both sides in that bloody attack and stalwart defense on Cemetery Ridge. THIS BOOK IS A CLASSIC TO COMPARE WITH GEORGE STEWART'S BOOK ON PICKETT'S CHARGE. Amust read for all GETTYSBURG BUFFS.

John Michael Priest has once again displayed the literary art to which he seems born. This book is so utterly enthralling, it is almost like reading a novel. Even the veteran of many Gettysburg book readings will hinge on the story of Pickett's charge as told by Priest. His use of numerous primary sources lends to his telling of the story by the participants themselves. Each individual story then coalesces into a coherent and understandable analysis of how the charge developed and died. Priest gives both Confederate and Union impressions an equal treatment, creating a full veiw of the action. His writing brings out the horror, sadness, terror, pride, honor and exhultation felt by those actually present on that fateful day. Previous knowledge of the battle or Pickett's action is not needed to enjoy this work. Priest follows the action closely, developing it enough for the beginner or simply curious to understand. For those with a background in Civil War history, even Pickett's charge, the personal accounts still make the account a worthwhile read.

Milkovich and Newman's text is sets the standard for Compensation and Human Resources texts,period. From its strategic decisions framework it clearly illustrates that compensation policy can be a key to unlocking an organization's capabilities (and the ever elusive sustainable competitive advantage).

The strength of the book is that it extracts and builds on key research findings in a way that advances the body of compensation knowledge (in a way pleasing to academics) and is relevant to practitioners. Chapter 2 on Strategic Perspectives and Chapters 9 & 10 on Pay for Performance best exemplify the confluence of research relevance and tactical usefulness.

It is absolutely a must read for anyone who is a student of organizations or who attempts to manage one (not just compensation managers).

A 5++ - the best BUSINESS text i've read. This is the first book i've read where i both grew intellectually and in tactical/application skills. This compensation text is quite unusual in that it effectively reduces huge bodies of research in business strategy, economics, organizational behavior and compensation to provide a holistic business model to analyze compensation decisions - all in the first three chapters. The Milkovich/Newman approach creatively blends a conceptual underpining (the why) with tactical details (the what and how). This blending allows them to supply enormous value by reducing the myriad of compensation decisions to 4 major pieces. The utility of this elegance is that long after reading the book or taking a course using this book, you'll still remember the framework and steps to both build from scratch and to adjust a compensation system - not just the what, but the why. i personally felt quite empowered and ready to take on compensation work after reading this text.

This text is really designed for those compensation practioners that want to understand how compensation might be used to supply a sustainable competitive advantage. The authors' deep reading and involvement in both research and consulting with business shows here. They worked very hard to allow us to absorb the research implication and to use the tools, without our having to read the full body of research or to invent the tools.

The authors balance the research perspective by developing a working model and applying it to real world cases where they have consulted. The reader is then challenged to apply the model to case situations presented in the book and to their work practice.

Lastly, some things i've learned from this book:

1. you get what you pay for ... -- the research clearly shows that pay is a key motivator and that people will behave as they're incentivized by their pay systems. -- the implication is that EVERY compensation system, no matter whether it's planned or evolves, supplies a network of incentives that in part direct employee behavior and business outcomes.

2. compensation systems can be designed to support a sustainable competitive advantage. -- through understanding the motivational incentives and how they tie into business strategy. -- a "universalistic" compensation approach that says there's one right answer supplies some good practices, but doesn't fully explain observed motivational differences.

3. Compensation must tie tightly to the work process (work flow) or it will surely fail in it's objectives. -- how many companies talk about changing their cultures while they don't change or even understand the motivational impacts of their pay plans?

4. There's no right answer, only a good model to help. -- is a tournament pay system (tied to an individual / hierachical workflow) better than an egalitarian system (tied to a team workflow)? it depends ... and that's where Milkovich/Newman fill in the blanks.

A M-U-S-T read for anyone participating in making compensation decisions - whether you're in school or already a compensation vice president.

This is undoubtedly the best analysis of the High Court of Australia ever compiled. It is easy to use, being fully indexed, and it covers every aspect of the court from biographical details of Judges to analysis of important decisions. It is a great mixture of history and information.

The individual entries have been written by eminent judges, jurists and lawyers in Australia. It was edited by 3 of the most well regarded legal academics in Australian history and is a terrific reference source. I can recommend it to anyone with an interest or need to look in detail at the Australian legal system. There is no other work with such detail and information in one volume.

This volume represents the most comprehensive bank of information on the High Court to date. With no less than 800 pages dedicated to the various aspects of the Court's history, personalities and institutional structures, it is a must-own for the students of the High Court.

The book is organized encyclopedia-style, with entries arranged alphabetically from the AAP Case (1975) to Ziems v. Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of NSW (1957). The entries are contributed by various Australian legal scholars, and cover a very wide range of interests. My personal favorite entry is the one on 'Jurimetrics' by Tony Blackshield.

Despite the hefty price tag (to match such a hefty book), this is one book that is well worth owning. Toting it around may give me permanent back problems, but I'm willing to risk it.

Michael Green's 'George Patton and the Battle of the Bulge' is one creative piece that explains the details of the Battle of the Bulge. Michael Green has been one of the most profound authors on military issues and World War II related books. The book provided in depth information on what Patton and his third army did when the Germans launched a desperate counter-offensive called 'Wacht am Rhein', translated to be Watch the Rhine where the Nazi defenders charged through the Ardennes. Combat maps, quotes from the soldiers, Patton himself and even from accounts of German soldiers gave highlight to strength and weaknesses of both sides of the war. Real photographs and comments from soldiers interviewed at the time, including the American third army, the German Volksgrenadier divisions making Michael Green's 'George Patton and the Battle of the Bulge' a great book for me to read.
Micheal Green is technically one of the most best authors on Patton and World War II related material, with his array of books already published like Patton's Tank Drive: D-Day to Victory and Patton: Operation Cobra and Beyond. All those experience gained from writing these previous books about Patton helped to make 'George Patton and the Battle of the Bulge' better and more comprehensive. Michael's Wife, Gladys also contributed to his works as his co-author and assistant. As we all know, two brains is always better than one.
'George Patton and the Battle of the Bulge' is one meticulously crafted book with details to many fine elements of the war many books overlooked. One hundred sixty pages in font 10 San Serif and pictures describing the war that even tells what weapons the soldiers depicted are using.
'The most important favor that influenced Hitler's decision to attack the Ardennes was the Allied advance across France to the German boarder, between August and September 1944. Hitler Considered this a more pressing danger to Germany than the Soviet advance in the east. The American crew of a .30-calibre (air cooled) machine gun, fires at German positions somewhere in France. National Archives'
Details like this make this book an easy reading for the short time that I am pressed.
The book is divided into 4 large chapters/sections, Opening moves, The German attack and American reaction, The road to Bastogne, Clearing the Bastogne area. This concept of simplicity helps the reader to be not confused with useless details that ruin many great books and chapter titles with known settings (i.e. The road to Bastogne) help the reader to feel easy with what they already knew. A great book about the war has always been awarded for its simplicity and this one is no other. The first chapter, Opening moves starts out like this:
'Many historians and writers have suspected that the idea for the German Ardennes counteroffensive of December 16, 1944. (Know to Americans as the Battle of the Bulge) was first conceived in Adolf Hitler's mind sometime during the last two weeks of July 1944.'
Simplicity and word choice made the book a breeze and without much pain to read. Its like one of the shows from the History channel, the book gives its information in descriptive narratives. 'Despite this lack of confidence, Hitler still retained the respect and admiration of the Army's rank and file in late 1944 till the end of the war.' This kind of writing in my opinion is much easier to read than writing with much high frequency words and have to dig through the dictionary to fully understand what the book is about.
Overall reading this book is a success and I enjoyed reading this book very much. Now I have purchased this book and that is one of the signs of my approval of its '1337ness'. Counted over 190 pictures to help out my reading and that averages out more than one picture per page. Almost a picture book and still provide enough information for me to take the information from the text and process it with efficiency. This book should definitely be published in hardcover and should be a collector's must have for Patton enthusiasts.

Michael Green is hands-down the best author I have ever read on this subject. With his array of military books, I just can't seem to get enough of his well-informed and enlightening books. The pictures in this particular book are just astonishing and greatly complement the articulate and intelligent text. Green has once again taken my breath away with this book! I recommend it highly, as I do all of his books. My wife and I both know that they are at the top of my shelf!

It's eighty-seven degrees, just after noon and Danny and his father are sharing a cigarette in the heat on their way to the track.

This is the way of Michael DeCapite. How he moves through the telling of what he sees. Life as it is, with no embellishment. Slow mostly. Mostly time passing...

DeCapite is to writing what baseball is to sports-deceptively simple, slow, quiet, an expanse of green spread out under sun or lights, a few players...waiting...most of them. Men returning to the field daily, doing it again, waiting it out. A field so perfectly laid out that the deeper into you get, the more you realize the perfection of the game-from the precise incline of the pitcher's mound, adjusted over the years to most evenly match pitcher and batter-to the distance to dead center-it all matters...quietly...it's all headed somewhere. And there is so much going on in any given moment that you can scarcely take it in. This is DeCapite on the page.

Sitting Pretty is a quiet story. Seven men spending an afternoon together, old friends, one of them dying, his grown son too 'slow,' too 'troubled' to realize. "Those doctors know what they're doing. They're scientists. My dad was sick but he went to see the doctor. They can do anything. The doctor gave him some pills, he's better now. Aren't you, Dad? Hey Dad, you're my sunshine, right?"

Gambling, drinking, cancer, oppressive heat, loss, the horses barreling down the stretch for home...all this hanging from the afternoon sky, while downstage, seven lives move tenderly through another couple of hours. So quietly you might miss it if you didn't know where to look. A father's hand on the back of his son's neck. The whole world is in it.

DeCapite traffics gracefully in the realm of the overlooked - here in Sitting Pretty and in his novel Through the Windshield. I hope America doesn't overlook Michael DeCapite.

I had to read it twice, and will probably read it several times more to get all the little nuances that Decapite has filled this story with. My favorite line on first reading..."It's so bright my soul squints..." The story is very male socially and very human relationally. It offers an insight into something that most of us take for granted, a father's love. Decapite's writing captures the essence of the human relationships in a microcosm that is so full, it is like glimpsing the angels on the head of a pin.

This is a wonderful story of a young man who, in order to raise enough money to return to University, takes a job as a tutor at a wealthy estate. He soon finds love and nurturing, however, from a simple pious Scotch family nearby. Though his travels take him off to England and eventually to London he never completely forgets the valuable lessons that his spiritual father instilled in him. This story has ghosts, haunted mansions, secret passages, hypnotism, magic rings, songs, poems, beautiful ladies and sinister villans. The individual characters are expertly developed and extremely complex in their behaviors. I also recomend that you get the full length version from Sunrise Publishers or Johannesen Printing & Publishing entitled "David Elginbrod". The first 80 pages are a little difficult because of the Scotch dialect, but can be easily figured out.

This is an updated, easier-to-read version of George MacDonald's novel _David_Elginbrod_. With his bits of poetic theology, he leads the characters and the reader to ultimate freedom from paralyzing fear. It tooks months for me to realize how much _The_Tutor's_First_Love_ affected my life because the truths in this book are not gaudy or sensational but they slowly replace fear with faith. The revival of the works of George MacDonald is truly a Godsend.

Horn Book's review speaks for itself--if the standard is craftily turned sentences and plot, and amoral treatment of subject, this book is a failure. But for the reader who is able to be touched by the most tender family feelings and deep religious devotion; who believes that innocence and trust is the natural and desirable state for children; and who prefers words and ideas of plainspoken kindness and high hope, this book will satisfy, inspire, and confirm the best in us.

"Discusses the causes of air pollution all over the world, the 'domino effect' that can occur when people make wholesale changes to the environment, and the urgency of stopping the poisoning of the air."

From jacket flap: "Every day we hear more about pollution and its negative effects on our environment. Our world is made up of a fragile eco-system that could be destroyed by mankind's carelessness. Pollution, however, is not a new problem. It has been around since the mid-1800s, when the industrial revolution began. But only recently has mankind recognized the many problems that acid rain, the greenhouse effect, and increases in methane gas in the atmosphere can cause."